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Comment Who is a Coward? (Score 1) 1695

by CubeRootOf (#33523084) Attached to: Rackspace Shuts Down Quran-Burning Church's Sites

I would like all of you folks who are complaining that X is a coward for 'caving' to Islam:

Please walk up to a coworker

Ask him/her to see his/her latest un-cashed paycheck.

go to the bank with him/her, and get it in cash.

Burn the cash. All of it.

Not going to do it? You are a coward for not intentionally pissing off someone who doesn't have any reason to be pissed off with you.

Going to do it? You are an idiot.

Wouldn't even entertain the thought? kind of strikes you as wrong?

Think there might be an analogy that can be drawn here between Money Loving Capitalist Americans and Quran Loving Islamic Muslims?

No... couldn't be.

Don't insult someone you don't have to.
Don't insult someone you don't have to.
Treat others as you would like them to treat you.

One of those is a golden rule. I don't care which one you pick.
PlayStation (Games)

US Air Force Buying Another 2,200 PS3s 144

Posted by Soulskill from the quick-who-knows-a-good-ps3-flight-sim dept.
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."
Image

Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331

Posted by samzenpus from the snack-is-going-to-be-on-the-floor-today dept.
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Social Networks

Mafia Wars CEO Brags About Scamming Users 251

Posted by Soulskill from the all-about-the-benjamins dept.
jamie writes with a follow-up to our recent discussion of social gaming scams: "Mark Pincus, CEO of the company that brought us Mafia Wars, says: 'I did every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues right away. I mean, we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this Zwinky toolbar, which was like, I don't know... I downloaded it once and couldn't get rid of it.'" TechCrunch also ran a interesting tell-all from the CEO of a company specializing in Facebook advertisements, who provided some details on similarly shady operations at the popular social networking site.

Comment Re:Wow , at 8 cents a page for a PACER document... (Score 1) 445

by CubeRootOf (#29658257) Attached to: FBI Investigates Liberator of Court Records

If the state or country doesn't have enough money to pay for people to work, people stop showing up to work. Just like a private enterprise.

This is why cutting federal taxes has crippled state and local governments which used to depend on that money getting back to them.

That is why you are seeing increasing fees, tuitions at state colleges get jacked up, and taxes state and local going through the roof wherever they can be pushed through. You also don't see people being replaced when they retire, or leave for the private sector.

Now, this in this case, I have no problem with what this kid has done, as he has actually helped the government do their job better, cheaper, and for free. he probably saved us all a lot of money, because I bet it costs a heck of a lot more than the fee that is charged to serve up those pieces of paper.

In general I think folks need to stop thinking that the ... gubmint... has an infinite supply of money, and therefore it is ok to steal from them. It is not. If you don't like what they are doing, get together with some like minded folks and take over your congressional district. Run for office and try to fix the problems instead of complaining about them.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft open source chief joins cloud startup (cio.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Former Microsoft open-source chief Sam Ramji has joined cloud-computing startup Sonoa Systems, taking over product strategy and business development at the California-based company. In his last job at Microsoft, Ramji was responsible for fostering more interoperability and collaboration with the open-source community as head of its Platform Strategy Group. Last month he also took a position as interim president of the CodePlex Foundation, an open-source group formed out of his work at Microsoft. However, when the foundation and Ramji's role in it were unveiled, he said he was leaving Microsoft Sept. 25 to join a cloud-computing startup, though he did not specify which one.
Books

Submission + - Becoming Agile

Submitted by
IraLaefsky
IraLaefsky writes: "The appropriately titled, Becoming Agile: In An Imperfect World, by Greg Smith and Ahmed Sidky offers a realistic path to the family of Agile practices which have become prevalent in software development in the last few years. This family of approaches to software development has been widely adopted in the past decade to replace the traditional Waterfall Model of software development, described in a 1970 article by Winston W. Royce "Managing the Development of Large Software Systems" . The Waterfall Model stressed rigid functional and design specification of the program(s) to be constructed in advance of any code development. While the this methodology and other early formal tools for Software Engineering were infinitely preferable to the chaos and ad-hoc programming-without-design practices of early systems, these first tools ignored the fallibility of initial interviews used to construct initial design and often resulted in massive time and cost overruns. The Agile methodologies which are described in this text stress an iterative approach to software development, with the continuous involvement of users (or user surrogates). These iterations consist of several week periods (to at most two month intervals) where a concise partial design requirement, story, is translated to a complete executable version of the program which can be demonstrated to users, for their immediate and anticipated criticism and controlled feature addition. These practices have undergone various codifications since the Agile Manifesto of 2001. Among the more popular Agile Menthodologies are Extreme Programming (XP), Crystal Clear and Scrum. The underlying philosophy and varieties of Agile Development Methodologies are well summarized in the Wikipedia entry on Agile software development available at Agile Software Development.

In describing these development methodologies this practical handbook takes an approach sorely needed in descriptions of Information Technology (IT), it assumes that the purchaser is considering employing the technologies described within the context of a real corporate environment with existing strengths and limitations, an existing approach to the problems addressed, and cultural biases concerning the adoption of new technologies. This approach enables the book to be used as a virtual consultant, taking the experiences described in a case study based upon the authorsâ(TM) advisory experience, and the test of organizational readiness for adoption and needs for customization of the technology as true guideline for introducing these practices in culturally and technology appropriate fashion. During the mid 1980s I served as an internal consultant at a large insurance firm, at the time we were considering the introduction of Expert Systems methodologies into the IT organization. I purchased several handbooks which were intended to introduce this new from academia technology to companies in the financial industries. Most of these books did an adequate job of describing the nature and basis of this technology to IT and Business Analysts trained in existing technology. But, all of the available books failed to chart a path for an IT organization with traditional development practices to successfully migrate to the new technology and appropriately translate this technology for business management. Becoming Agile, introduces a new effective method for describing the risks, benefits and appropriate adaptation of a radically new technology to organizations with existing successful and unsuccessful software development practices and a particular business culture.

Important features of this guide include the Sidky Agile Measurement Index (SAMI) which provides guidelines in moving your particular organization to Agile practices, the non-religious presentation of multiple Agile methodologies and approaches (specifically XP and SCRUM), appendices on organizational readiness assessment, phased development within the Agile context, an overview of the Agile process (suitable for business presentation), and the author forum. The importance of recognizing that new technology methodologies such as Agile Practices must be introduced and carried out in the context of a specific organization, with its own strengths and foibles, cannot be overemphasized. Step-by-step directions and illustrations are given for choosing an appropriate target application for the initial introduction of these methodologies, and each stage of implementation and their possible stumbling blocks are carefully outlined.

That it provides the tools to introduce and adapt these practices in a variety of corporate cultures, with varying degrees of technical sophistication is an invaluable advantage over other Agile texts and will save the organization many thousands of dollars in consulting fees. My only minor nit with this exceptionally fine introduction to Agile Methodologies is that some of the illustration appear to have been formatted in PC-based tools such as VISIO and PowerPoint and require a bit of squinting to study in the smaller book format. With this trivial exception I would award this excellent guide and virtual consultant, an almost perfect nine out of ten review, and recommend it to any organization seeking to intelligently adopt Agile Practices.

The print edition is available at all retailers, while the ebook can be purchased exclusively through the Manning E-Book Storefront."

Submission + - Court order served over Twitter (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
SpuriousLogic
SpuriousLogic writes: "The High Court has given permission for an injunction to be served via social-networking site Twitter.
The order is to be served against an unknown Twitter user who anonymously posts to the site using the same name as a right-wing political blogger.
The order demands the anonymous Twitter user reveal their identity and stop posing as Donal Blaney, who blogs at a site called Blaney's Blarney.
The order says the Twitter user is breaching the copyright of Mr Blaney.
He told BBC News that the content being posted to Twitter in his name was "mildly objectionable".
Mr Blaney turned to Twitter to serve the injunction rather than go through the potentially lengthy process of contacting Twitter headquarters in California and asking it to deal with the matter.
UK law states that an injunction does not have to be served in person and can be delivered by several different means including fax or e-mail."
Books

Submission + - Open Source... Books? (opensourcenerd.com) 1

Submitted by
fsufitch
fsufitch writes: "On September 30th, the "Open College Textbook Act of 2009" was introduced to the Senate and referred to committee. The bill proposes that all educational materials published or produced using federal funds need to be published under open licenses. The reasoning behind it takes into account the changing way information is distributed because of the Internet, the high price of college and textbooks, and the dangerously low college graduation rates in the US. Will a bill such as this endanger publishing companies in the same way Internet journalism endangers traditional journalism?"

Comment Re:The Difference between a Troll and a real Monst (Score 3, Informative) 421

by CubeRootOf (#29607185) Attached to: Jack Thompson Sues Facebook For $40M

First off... 15 colonies? only 13 founded our country. what are the other two you are talking of?

Secondly, it was far more than one colony that was founded by 'Puritans',

Massachusetts, Puritans
Rhode Island, Religious folks fleeing from Puritans
Pennsylvania, Quakers
New Jersey 'New Lighters'
Maryland Catholics
Virgina Anglicans

6 of 13 colonies are founded out of religious beginnings, and New York city had/has such a high concentration of jewish folk since it was New Amsterdam

6 1/2 out of 13 isn't exactly propaganda. Its half the story.

 

Submission + - New piece of human evolution puzzle unveiled (time.com) 1

Submitted by
smooth wombat
smooth wombat writes: "It's taken 15 years, but in the October 2nd special edition of the magazine Science, 11 papers by 47 authors from 10 countries reveal their findings on the newest addition to the human evolutionary tree. Officially named Ardipithecus ramidus, but nicknamed Ardi, the potential human ancestor lived 1.4 million before the celebrated Lucy skeleton and is also more complete with 125 pieces of its skeleton found.

An interesting aspect of the skeleton is that it bears little resemblance to humans closest living primate ancestor, chimpanzees. As anthropologist C. Owen Lovejoy states in the article:

"It's clear that humans are not merely a slight modification of chimps, despite their genomic similarity.""
Science

Submission + - Ardipithecus ramidus described (finally) (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
Omomyid
Omomyid writes: "I wasn't actually aware that Dr. Tim White of UC Berkeley had been 'sitting' on A. ramidus but apparently he has (I remember the original flurry of interest back in the 90's when it was announced), but now Dr. White and others have assembled a nearly complete skeleton of the 4.4mya specimen and the descriptions being carried by the NY Times and AP are intriguing. Ramidus is clearly differentiated from the other Great Apes and also more primitive than A. afarensis (Lucy) providing a nice linkage backwards to the last shared ancestor between humans and chimpanzees. According to the NY Times, a whole passel of papers will be published in tomorrow's Science magazine describing A. ramidus."

Comment Arbitrary code? (Score 0, Troll) 520

by CubeRootOf (#29603777) Attached to: Wii Update 4.2 Tries (and Fails) To Block Homebrew

Why doesn't nintendo want arbitrary code to run on its console? Its not like it has an internet connection or anything....

Oh wait it does... Well, its not like that internet connection could be abused through running arbitrary code....

Oh no, absolutely not, none of these guys would EVER do that.

Listen... if you want to run 'homebrew', just get a modded wiimote and use it with your computer, heck redirect the output to your tv if you want.

http://www.wiimotemods.com/

I think they LIKE it when you mod the wiimote.

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