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Comment Re:how is this measured? (Score 5, Informative) 39

by terremoto (#33447090) Attached to: Solving an Earth-Sized Jigsaw Puzzle

Anyone know how the measure this stuff?

Short term (human lifetime) by using GPS, VLBI and measurements of seismic activity.

Long term (earth lifetime) by using magnetic stripe lineations on the seafloor, hot-spot tracks (eg, the Hawaiian volcano chain) and other geologic indicators.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_reconstruction
The Internet

The Puzzle of Japanese Web Design 242

Posted by kdawson from the how-to-pack-five-eggs dept.
I'm Not There (1956) writes "Jeffrey Zeldman brings up the interesting issue of the paradox between Japan's strong cultural preference for simplicity in design, contrasted with the complexity of Japanese websites. The post invites you to study several sites, each more crowded than the last. 'It is odd that in Japan, land of world-leading minimalism in the traditional arts and design, Web users and skilled Web design practitioners believe more is more.'"
Open Source

Open Source Developer Knighted 101

Posted by samzenpus from the knights-who-say-free dept.
unixfan writes "Georg Greve, developer of Open Document Format and active FOSS developer, has received a knighthood in Germany for his work. From the article: 'Some weeks ago I received news that the embassy in Berne had unsuccessfully been trying to contact me under FSFE's old office address in Zurich. This was a bit odd and unexpected. So you can probably understand my surprise to be told by the embassy upon contacting them that on 18 December 2009 I had been awarded the Cross of Merit on ribbon (Verdienstkreuz am Bande) by the Federal Republic of Germany. As you might expect, my first reaction was one of disbelief. I was, in fact, rather shaken. You could also say shocked. Quick Wikipedia research revealed this to be part of the orders of knighthood, making this a Knight's Cross.'"

Comment Re:Related research (Score 1) 27

by terremoto (#29079431) Attached to: New Hope For Predicting Earthquakes

True, I suppose ... although the scale of the problem is somewhat greater. Rock also tends to flow under pressure, so it's not a simple matter of shear force.

... and the places where earthquakes occur are deep in the earth and not amenable to direct observation. Earthquake prediction, in the sense of saying when any specific event will occur, is a very hard problem.

Comment Re:Yet another "modern" FS without undelete... (Score 1) 241

by terremoto (#28914761) Attached to: A Short History of Btrfs

Simply make the filesystem mark deleted files as "hide from directory listing, and really delete only if you need the space". Then add a couple of syscalls to examine these "recyclable" files and restore them to normal status.

Netware has a Salvage utility that relies on a filesystem with those attributes. It used to be called the Netware File System (yes, NFS). More recent versions are now called Novell Storage Services. Ported to SuSe now according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novell_Storage_Services/
Government

Cuba Launches Own Linux Variation 494

Posted by samzenpus from the the-people's-OS dept.
willclem writes "According to Reuters, it seems that Cuba has launched its own variation of Linux in order to fulfill its government's desire to replace Microsoft operating systems. 'Getting greater control over the informatic process is an important issue,' said Communications Minister Ramiro Valdes, who heads a commission pushing Cuba's migration to free software."
Microsoft

Microsoft Bids To Take Over Open Document Format 256

Posted by kdawson from the pinching-the-oxygen-feed dept.
what about sends in a Groklaw alert warning that, by PJ's reading, Microsoft may be trying to take over ODF via a stacked SC 34 committee. The article lists the attendees at an SC 34 meeting in July and gives their affiliations, which the official meeting materials do not. (The attendees of the October 1 meeting, which generated a takeover proposal to OASIS, are not known in full.) "Why do I say Microsoft, when this is SC 34? Look at this ... list of participants in the July meeting in Japan of the SC 34 committee. The committee membership is so tilted by Microsoft employees and such, if it were a boat, it would capsize ... Of the 19 attendees, 8 are outright Microsoft employees or consultants, and 2 of them are Ecma TC45 members. So 10 out of 19 are directly controlled by Microsoft/Ecma ... [I]f the takeover were to succeed, SC 34 would get to maintain ODF as well as Microsoft's competing parody 'standard,' OOXML. How totally smooth and shark-like. Under the guise of 'synchronized maintenance,' without which they claim SC 34 can't fulfill its responsibilities, they get control of everything." A related submission from David Gerard points out that BoycottNovell has leaked the ISO OOXML documents, which ISO has kept behind passwords.

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