Comment Hmmm... (Score 5, Funny) 130
Sounds sketchy...
Comment A hair-washing robot... (Score 1) 181
...because washing your own hair is just too hard.
GCC Moving To Use C++ Instead of C 546
An anonymous reader writes "CodeSourcery's Mark Mitchell wrote to the GCC mailing list yesterday reporting that 'the GCC Steering Committee and the FSF have approved the use of C++ in GCC itself. Of course, there's no reason for us to use C++ features just because we can. The goal is a better compiler for users, not a C++ code base for its own sake.' Still undecided is what subset of C++ to use, as many contributors are experts in C, but novices in C++; there is a call for a volunteer to develop the C++ coding standards."
Submission + - Will Apple Embrace the Web? No. (osnews.com)
bob5972 writes: Osnews makes a case that Safari will become the next IE6, by creating the next walled garden that will stagnate the web.
http://www.osnews.com/story/23378/Will_Apple_Embrace_the_Web_No_
http://www.osnews.com/story/23378/Will_Apple_Embrace_the_Web_No_
Bookmark Will Apple Embrace the Web? No. (osnews.com)
Submission + - Why Linux will dominate Australia (delimiter.com.au) 1
daria42 writes: It looks like Australia's biggest telco, Telstra, is all set to launch a Linux-based media centre box to millions of Australian consumers. This rollout and the incoming wave of mobile phones based on Google's Android platform, this commentator argues, goes far to demonstrating the fact that Linux will come to be mainstream in Australia — just not in the desktop form factor that many have predicted for more than a decade. Fair point.
Submission + - Rent an iPad for inflight entertainment (theage.com.au)
OzPeter writes: Jetstar will be trialling the renting out of pre-loaded iPads as a form of inflight entertainment instead of the the more typical seat back video system. No word in the article on how or if they will handle wi-fi connections, but interestingly it does mention that they will be usable during takeoff and landings — something that will be sure to spark lots of discussion regarding planes and modern electronics.
Submission + - Quit Facebook Day (quitfacebookday.com) 1
robbievienna writes: The movement to quit Facebook due to privacy concerns has just taken a new turn. Over 2^15 facebookers think so, and have pledged to cancel their accounts. Quitting Facebook isn't easy. Facebook is engaging, enjoyable and quite frankly, addictive. Quitting something like Facebook is like quitting smoking. It's hard to stay on the wagon long enough to actually change your habits. Having peer support helps, but the way to quit Facebook is not to start a group on Facebook about leaving Facebook.
For Automated Testing, Better Alternatives To DOS Batch Files? 426
An anonymous reader writes "I am working on a project that would allow our customers to test out sending different PCL commands to LAN printers. My initial thought was that a DOS batch file will allow users to select some simple options, send the tests to printers, and even generate a small web page which, when launched from the batch file, will provide email feedback on the tool. This all worked. To spice it up I added some ANSI color commands to the menus, though the implementation of that may prove tricky without resorting to .COM files or forcing the load of the ansi.sys via the command.com shortcut. And this implementation goes against my initial idea that I want the entire thing to be contained in a standalone batch file. My questions are: Is there a better option for this? Are DOS Batch files too 1990s to be taken seriously in 2010? The application needs to (1) be simple (2) be easy to update (3) be able to send PCL commands to LAN-attached printers and (4) allow email feedback. I don't know what other programming language would allow this and be as simple. I tend to think that I have found the best tool for the job but if you have another idea let me know. Call me crazy but I love DOS."
Synthetic Genome Drives Bacterial Cell 174
Dr. Eggman writes "Physorg.com brings us news of a synthetic genome, produced by the J. Craig Venter Institute, being used in an existing bacterial cell for the first time. Using a combination of biological hosts, the technique produces short strings of DNA by machine which are then inserted into yeast to be stitched together via DNA-repair enzymes. The medium sequences are passed into E. coli and back into yeast. After three rounds, a genome of three million base pairs was produced." (More below.)
Comment Re:Somebody call the whaaaambulance (Score 1) 202
I dunno, they have trouble keeping 64-bit Linux clients working, (despite the fact that they were working fine 6 months ago). I'm beginning to doubt their technical expertise.
Hollywood Nervous About Kagan's Fair Use Views 239
Of the many commentaries and analyses springing up about Obama's Supreme Court nominee, this community might be most interested in one from the Hollywood Reporter. Reader Hugh Pickens notes that Hollywood may have reason to be nervous about the nomination of Elena Kagan to be the next US Supreme Court justice. "As dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009, Kagan was instrumental in beefing up the school's Berkman Center for Internet & Society by recruiting Lawrence Lessig and others who take a strongly liberal position on fair use in copyright disputes. And Kagan got an opportunity to showcase her feelings on intellectual property when the US Supreme Court asked her, as US Solicitor General, to weigh in on the big Cablevision case. 'After Cablevision announced in 2006 that it would allow subscribers to store TV programs on the cable operator's computer servers instead of on a hard-top box, Hollywood studios went nuts, predicting that the days of licensing on-demand content would be over,' writes Gardner. Kagan's brief compared remote-storage DVRs to VCRs (PDF), brought up the Sony/Betamax case, and lightly slapped Cablevision on the wrist for not making fair use a bigger issue. 'It sounds to us like Kagan would love the Court to determine when customers have a fair-use right to copy, which should cheer those on the copy-left at the EFF, and worry many in the entertainment industry.' On the minus side, Kagan has surrounded herself with entertainment industry advocates in the Justice Department."
Comment The Coming Robot Uprising... (Score 1) 403
Haven't we learned anything from The Matrix?
Darkening our skies will only result in human beings used as power sources....
FCC Allows Blocking of Set-Top Box Outputs 288
bth writes with this excerpt of an AP story as carried by Yahoo: "Federal regulators are endorsing Hollywood's efforts to let cable and satellite TV companies turn off output connections on the back of set-top boxes to prevent illegal copying of movies. ... In its decision Friday, the agency stressed that its waiver includes several important conditions, including limits on how long studios can use the blocking technology. The FCC said the technology cannot be used on a particular movie once it is out on DVD or Blu-ray, or after 90 days from the time it is first used on that movie, whichever comes first."
MATLAB Can't Manipulate 64-Bit Integers 334
An anonymous reader writes "MATLAB, an important package of mathematical software heavily used in industry and academia, has had support for 64-bit machines for several years now. However, the MATLAB developers still haven't gotten around to implementing even basic arithmetic operations for 64-bit integers. Attempting to add, divide, subtract, or multiply two 64-bit integers will result in an error message saying that the corresponding method does not exist. As one commentator put it, 'What is the point of having numerical data types that can't be manipulated?'" The post notes that the free MATLAB clone GNU Octave deals with 64-bit integers just fine.
