74558953
submission
jones_supa writes:
Axel Dörfler writes in his blog that he is working on a replacement for Haiku OS's current shell script based boot process. It would be replaced with something more flexible, a solution similar to OS X's launchd and Linux's systemd. While there is still a lot to do, the new project called launch_daemon is now feature complete in terms of being able to completely reproduce the current boot process. Since the switch to their package manager, there was no longer a way to influence the boot process at all. The only file you could change was the UserBootscript which is started only after Tracker and Deskbar — the whole system is already up at this point. The new service manager gives the power back to you, and also allows arbitrary software to be launched on startup. Alternatively, you can prevent system components from being started at all if you so wish. Furthermore, it allows for event based application start, start on demand, a multi-threaded boot process, and even enables you to talk to servers before they actually started.
74551383
submission
jones_supa writes:
A series of unmanned aircrafts have been spotted in the restricted airspace above the residence of Spain's royal family. Staff at the Zarzuela Palace has reported seeing the drones flying over several nights, promoting concerns from the Royal Guard, the security force in charge of protecting Spain’s royal family. The aircrafts have been spotted in restricted airspace over the Palace where King Felipe and Queen Letizia live with their two daughters. The Royal Guard has not yet been able to identify the drones' controllers or their motivation. The timing of these flights consistently occurs after dark.
74536641
submission
jones_supa writes:
Now that Renderman has been available for free for non-commercial use for a while, there has been many requests for integration with Blender. An initiative spearheaded by Pixar now presents the first Blender to Renderman plugin. With the release of PRMan 20, a small group of developers headed by Brian Savery of Pixar have been working on support for using Renderman and Blender together. The plugin is still in early alpha but has had many great developments in the last few weeks. The source code is available in GitHub.
74529163
submission
jones_supa writes:
Nokia – the bit in Finland, not the bit absorbed by Microsoft – isn't making mobile phones anymore, but is still making money from them. The company will license its smartphone intellectual property to LG, the first such deal Nokia has done since selling its phone biz to Microsoft. A lot of deals like this were done in the old days. In a canned statement, Nokia said: "The Korean company is the latest of more than 60 licensees for Nokia's 2G, 3G and 4G mobile communication technologies." Importantly, this is a cash deal. LG will be paying to use the patents rather than engaging in a technology swap. Nokia isn’t prepared to be explicit on which patents are covered by the agreement, saying that the company has over 10,000 patent families – or 30,000 individual patents – and only Microsoft has the rights to use them all.
74457533
submission
jones_supa writes:
The earth is 15 years from a "mini ice age" that will cause bitterly cold winters, scientists have predicted. Solar researchers at the University of Northumbria have created a new model of the sun's activity which they claim produces "unprecedentedly accurate predictions". They said that fluid movements within the sun, which are thought to create 11-year cycles in the weather, will converge in such a way that temperatures will drop dramatically in the 2030s. Solar activity will fall by 60% as two waves of fluid effectively cancel each other out. The result would be similar to freezing conditions of the late 17th century, during which the river Thames froze over for seven weeks, making it passable by foot.
74358793
submission
jones_supa writes:
The Core Infrastructure Initiative, a Linux Foundation effort assembled in the wake of the Heartbleed fiasco to provide development support for key Internet protocols, has opened the doors on its Census Project — an effort to figure out what software projects need support now, instead of waiting for them to break. Census assembles metrics about open source projects found in Debian's package list and on openhub.net, and then scores them based on the amount of risk each presents. Risk scores are an aggregate of multiple factors: how many people are known to have contributed to the project in the last 12 months, how many CVEs have been filed for it, how widely used it is, and how much exposure it has to the network. According to the current iteration of the survey, the programs most in need of attention are not previously cited infrastructure projects, but common core Linux system utilities that have network access and little development activity around them.
74280895
submission
jones_supa writes:
Microsoft is about to announce another round of layoffs. A company press release confirms the plan, saying that it will target up to 7,800 employees and will be aimed mostly at the hardware division. The hardware division includes the lion's share of former Nokia employees, which became part of Microsoft last year. In an e-mail to employees, chief executive officer Satya Nadella reiterated the company's commitment to its phone business, though he also said that some refocusing was necessary and that Microsoft's phone business would reflect the overall Windows strategy: "We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem that includes our first-party device family," the e-mail reads.
74260315
submission
jones_supa writes:
Fans of The Simpsons will find this turn of events nothing short of excellent: seven weeks after telling that he was exiting the Fox's forever-running animated comedy, Harry Shearer has agreed to rejoin the show. Shearer has now signed the same four season contract as the other five primary voice actors. He previously tweeted "I wanted what we've always had: the freedom to do other work." Executive producer Al Jean found that tweet confusing, saying, "Everybody on the show does lots of outside projects. He actually gets to record on the phone and do the [table] reads on the phone. So we've never kept him from doing that stuff."
74244691
submission
jones_supa writes:
A study of people has uncovered a huge gulf in the speed at which their bodies age. The report, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, tracked traits such as weight, kidney function, gum health and brain function. The research group followed 954 people from the same town in New Zealand who were all born in 1972 or 1973. The scientists looked at 18 different ageing-related traits when the group turned 26, 32 and 38 years old. Most people's biological age was within a few years of their chronological age. Some people had almost stopped ageing during the period of the study, while others were gaining nearly three years of biological age for every year that passed. Some of the 38-year-olds were ageing so badly that their biological age was on the cusp of retirement. It is unclear how the pace of biological ageing changes through life with these measures.
74102207
submission
jones_supa writes:
Windows 7 has quickly started increasing its market share of desktop operating systems, nearing 61%. If you are wondering how come this is happening when Windows 10 is almost here, the reason is a simple trick people are using. Windows 10 will be available as a free upgrade for those running Windows 7 and 8, and the new OS will have the exact same hardware requirements as its predecessor, so the majority of PCs should be able to run it flawlessly. Because Windows 7 was launched in 2009, a license is more affordable than for Windows 8, so many users are switching to this version to take advantage of the Windows 10 free upgrade offer.
74081369
submission
jones_supa writes:
There is an indie game port in works which certainly cracks a smile on one's face. Vblank Entertainment is bringing Retro City Rampage — its homage to 8-bit games and Grand Theft Auto — over to one of the influential gaming operating systems of all time: DOS! Retro City Rampage 486 is a port of Retro City Rampage DX, an enhanced version of the game featuring a story mode, arcade challenges, and free roaming. As the name suggests, if one wants to run the game natively, a beefy 486 CPU is required, along with 3.7 MB of disk space and 4 MB of RAM. But of course, DOSBox can be used as well. A release date for the DOS version of the game is not yet known.
74074965
submission
jones_supa writes:
Windows 10 is expected to launch in less than a month, and Microsoft hopes that most Windows 7 and 8 users will use their free upgrade offer. In the coming years, this would help to avoid another "Windows XP moment", with users clinging to a legacy operating system with their teeth and nails. Interestingly, a Gartner analyst still predicts that Windows 7 will continue to be the preferred operating system for the majority of users, and despite the aggressive marketing that tries to push Windows 10 to all devices across the world, many consumers would still prefer to hold on to their existing software rather than upgrade. "We're looking forward to a good replacement cycle around Windows 10. There is still going to be that wide histogram of reactions between people who want to move right now verses those who are still on Windows 95, but it's not going to be the damp squib Windows 8 was," adds John-David Lovelock, head of forecasting at Gartner. Ultimately, the extended support for Windows 7 will end in 2020, and for Windows 8 in 2023.
74043837
submission
jones_supa writes:
Magnus Glantz, IT manager at IKEA, revealed that the Swedish furniture retailer has more than 3,500 Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers. With Shellshock, every single one of those servers needed to be patched to limit the risk of exploitation. So how did IKEA patch all those servers? Glantz showed a simple one-line Linux command and then jokingly walked away from the podium stating "That's it, thanks for coming". On a more serious note, he said that it took approximately two and half hours to upgrade their infrastructure to defend against Shellshock. The key was having a consistent approach to system management, which begins with a well-defined Standard Operating Environment (SOE). Additionally, Glantz has defined a lifecycle management plan that describes the lifecycle of how Linux will be used at Ikea for the next seven years.
73935403
submission
jones_supa writes:
Skyrocketing rents and multiple roommates — these are the kinds of war stories you expect to hear in space-constrained cities such as New York and San Francisco. But the rental crunch has been steadily creeping inland from coastal cities and up the economic ladder. Bloomberg takes a look at the vicious cycle that keeps rents spiraling higher. People paying high rents have a harder time saving for a down payment, preventing tenants from exiting the rental market. Low vacancy rates let landlords raise rents still higher. Developers who know they can command high rents (and sales prices) are spurred to spend more to acquire developable land. Finally, higher land costs can force builders to target the higher end of the market. The interesting question is how long can this last before we reach a level that is not affordable to the majority of the demographic that is being serviced.
73925621
submission
jones_supa writes:
According to a report by German website WinFuture, which cites people close to the matter, Microsoft is planning to launch Windows 10 on USB memory sticks too, in addition to the traditional DVDs, thus offering another install medium for users worldwide. The same stick would bundle x86-32 and x86-64 versions of the operating system. This is a welcome improvement, as many people prefer to not use optical media anymore, and many laptops have dropped optical drives. The installation time will also be shortened due to advantages of solid state medium.
