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Submission + - Working Totally In The Cloud As a Web Developer

tedcarew writes: Lately, with or without realizing, everything is moving to the cloud so fast. I no longer use MS office software or have a 2nd harddrive to backup my data. They are all in the cloud.

After reading an inspiring article: "100% Web-Based Working For Web Designers", realized that it is already so possible to work in the cloud without the need of any software but only an internet connection.

There is an alternative for every desktop application in the web: file management, image editing, storage, etc. Working in the cloud does not only mean portability but also a huge decrease in the licensing costs of softwares used, no need to purchasing stronger computers every year and so. What do you think, is it worth and possible?
PlayStation (Games)

US Air Force Buying Another 2,200 PS3s 144

bleedingpegasus sends word that the US Air Force will be grabbing up 2,200 new PlayStation 3 consoles for research into supercomputing. They already have a cluster made from 336 of the old-style (non-Slim) consoles, which they've used for a variety of purposes, including "processing multiple radar images into higher resolution composite images (known as synthetic aperture radar image formation), high-def video processing, and 'neuromorphic computing.'" According to the Justification Review Document (DOC), "Once the hardware configuration is implemented, software code will be developed in-house for cluster implementation utilizing a Linux-based operating software."

Comment Re:Think second laptop (Score 1) 236

Forgot to mention that there are quadcore laptops on the market.
A CNET NEWS article: "Xtreme Notebooks has released the first quad-core laptop in the U.S. With no mobile quad-core parts in existence, the Xtreme 917V Accelerator turns to desktop CPUs, giving you a choice between the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and the Q6700. Pricing starts at $3,359."

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It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the juice of Arabica that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains, the stains become a warning.

Comment Think second laptop (Score 1) 236

Running a server in a VM is handy and cheap. But like you said it isn't fast and storage becomes constrained. Sounds like your solution is a second laptop. Make it a moderately beefy laptop and you solve your speed and main storage problem. It is its own UPS. Make it a ruggedized laptop and cost go up a bit, but you solve your climate problems. If more hard drive storage or a backup is needed, plug in a USB drive.

So, there you go. Portable, self contained UPS, weather proof, low power, expandable via USB.

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It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the juice of Arabica that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion..

Comment Re:That's not the same. (Score 1) 284

The problem with your method of rejecting during the SMTP transfer is that in most European countries it is illegal to not deliver all mail sent to a user. So European Companies and ISP's "facilitate" sorting suspected spam into a spam folder for you. You can always look there or turn off the sorting altogether. Google being the world spanning provider just uses the same rules for filtering in all countries. However, I agree with some of the other posters, that if it is not in my language, send it to spam.
Biotech

Submission + - SPAM: CSIRO claims revolutionary waste into fuel process

WirePosted writes: "Australia's Commonwealth and Industrial research Organization (CSIRO) and Monash University in Melbourne have developed a chemical process that turns common green waste into a stable bio-crude oil. The reasearchers claim the energy is renewable, greenhouse gas neutral and eliminates the food versus fuel debate."
Link to Original Source
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - Frind Works 10 Hour Week, Makes $10 Million a Year

Reservoir Hill writes: "The New York Times reports that Markus Frind built the Plenty of Fish Web site in 2003 as nothing more than an exercise to help teach himself a new programming language, ASP.NET. The site first became popular among English-speaking Canadians. Popularity among online daters in many United States cities followed more recently, and with minimal spending on advertising the site. According to data from comScore Media Metrix for November 2007, Plenty of Fish had 1.4 million unique visitors in the United States. In December, Mr. Frind said, the site served up 1.2 billion page views, and page views have soared 20 percent since Dec. 26."
The Courts

Submission + - Revote likey because Diebold recount impossible

Aidtopia writes: A judge in Berkeley, California, has ordered a re-vote in a 2004 medical marijuana measure which had lost by fewer than 200 votes. A group supporting the measure requested a recount, which was meaningless since the Diebold electronic voting machines didn't produce physical ballots. The group petitioned for audit logs and other supporting documentation. The Registrar initially gave them the run-around, and, with a lawsuit pending, shipped the machines back to the manufacturer where 96% of the stored votes were erased. The ruling is tentative. The revote, if it happens, will be in the 2008 general election, using different electronic voting machines that produce a paper trail.
Patents

Submission + - IBM frees patents for everyone... (ibm.com)

An anonymous reader writes: From the website: "IBM wants to encourage broad adoption of the Covered Specifications listed below. Therefore, IBM irrevocably covenants to you that it will not assert any Necessary Claims1 against you for your making, using, importing, selling, or offering for sale Covered Implementations2. However, this covenant will become void, and IBM reserves the right to assert its Necessary Claims against you, if you (or anyone acting in concert with you) assert any Necessary Claims against any Covered Implementations of IBM or of any third party. This covenant is available to everyone directly from IBM, and does not flow from you to your suppliers, business partners, distributors, customers or others. So, if your supplier, business partner, distributor, customer or other party independently takes an action that voids the covenant as to itself, IBM reserves the right to assert its Necessary Claims against that party, even though this covenant will remain in effect for you. By making this irrevocable patent covenant with regard to the Specifications listed below, IBM does not represent that it holds any or all Necessary Claims regarding the Open Specifications you choose to implement." Find the specific patent listings here: http://www-03.ibm.com/linux/opensource/isplist.sht ml
Software

Submission + - Open Standards Threatened in Europe (lwn.net)

An anonymous reader writes: From Open Standards: 'On June 29 2007, the European Commission agency IDABC published a document revising the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) and the Architecture Guidelines (AG). This second version wants to 'update' the previous version of the EIF but, contrary to the first version, it threatens explictely the good process of more open standards that had been a long time push of IDABC. "EIF v2.0 should facilitate the most profitable business model(s) of cost versus public value, under proper recognition of intellectual property rights, if any. The support for multiple standards allows a migration towards open standards when appropriate in the long run." There are unacceptable drawbacks from the previous "EIF 2004" that promoted the use of open standards as defined in this European definition, the use of free and open source softwares as well as XML.'

Who also reads 'Microsoft and OOXML out again to find some weak spot' between the lines? Help signing the campaign and sending complaining emails in the request for comments.

The Courts

Submission + - Army Sergeant in Tennessee Sues RIAA

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "A 33-year old Army Sergeant stationed at Fort Campbell, in Tennessee, has counterclaimed against the record company palintiffs, in Warner v. Paternoster. His counterclaim seeks forfeiture of the plaintiffs' copyrights, and other relief, against Warner, BMG, Arista, Virgin,, and UMG, based on his claim (pdf) that they had colluded together in violation of the antitrust laws, had deliberately padded their court filing with embarrassing material in order to "shame" the defendant into paying a settlement for actions he did not commit, and "conspired together on other activities ...including: (1) bringing, without investigation sufficient to establish that the allegations ... have evidentiary support, lawsuits against persons who are not specifically known to have infringed copyrights, including persons who are deceased, disabled or who lack knowledge of how to use computers or download files from the internet; (2) making false and unsupported allegations ... by making the unwarranted and technologically erroneous assumption that an Internet Protocol address is a unique identifier of a computer or an individual; (3) using a corporation as their agent to make extortionate threats to take criminal action and to defame defendants' names and credit, in order to force defendants to pay sums which have no relation to plaintiffs' actual damages, if any, and by delivering releases to settling defendants (few of whom are represented by counsel) which are fraudulent in that they do not constitute true releases of all claims by putative plaintiffs, thereby misleading settling defendants into erroneously believing that they cannot be sued again; (4) jointly agreeing upon exorbitant settlement amounts which are nonnegotiable and are arbitrarily increased at set intervals thereby depriving the defendants in these actions of any reasonable opportunity to negotiate a settlement; (5) commencing ex parte "John Doe" lawsuits which they have no intention of pursuing, but by means of which they are able to communicate with District Judges, Magistrate Judges, and other judicial officials on a daily basis, without providing defendants with notice or opportunity to be heard, in violation of attorneys' ethical obligations as officers of the Courts; (6) invading the privacy of these "John Doe" defendants by then serving subpoenas on Internet Service Providers without notice to the putative defendants; (7)withdrawing such actions upon being challenged and thereby preventing defendants from obtaining relief for having to defend them; and (8) engaging in other unconscionable conduct.....[They] have commenced tens of thousands of actions in the District Courts of the United States in the past five years, the overwhelming majority of which have resulted either in default judgments or extortionate settlements far in excess of any actual damages incurred by Counter-Defendants... Such actions represent an attempt by Counter-Defendants to secure for themselves rights far exceeding those provided by copyright laws....""
Microsoft

Microsoft Excludes GPLv3 From Linspire Deal 342

rs232 writes to tell us that Microsoft is excluding any software licensed under the new GPLv3 from their recent patent protection deal with Linspire. "Microsoft has since been treating GPLv3 software as though it were radioactive. 'Microsoft isn't a party to the GPLv3 license and none of its actions are to be misinterpreted as accepting status as a contracting party of GPLv3 or assuming any legal obligations under such license,' the company said in a statement released shortly after GPLv3 was published on June 29. In addition to excluding GPLv3 software from the Linspire deal, Microsoft recently said that it wouldn't distribute any GPLv3 software under its SUSE Linux alliance with Novell, even as it maintains in public statements that the antilawsuit provisions in the license have no legal weight. "

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