Submission + - Poky Linux 3.0 Released
An anonymous reader writes: Poky is an embedded Linux build system, distribution and developer environment which builds upon OpenEmbedded technologies. Poky's focus is purely on building stable optimised GNOME Embedded type platforms (X11/Matchbox/GTK+) together with a streamlined system layer and cross development environment.
Bookmark SPAM: Windows Vista RAM Limitations
Senate Committee Passes FCC Indecency Bill 507
An anonymous reader writes "US Senate Commerce Committee today passed a bill that would allow the FCC to fine broadcasters for slip of the tongue expletives, negating a ruling by federal appeals court in New York that commission's policy on 'fleeting expletives' is arbitrary and capricious. 'A mandate by Congress that a "fleeting expletive" can now be found indecent will create a vast chilling effect on broadcast speech, the advocacy group Center for Democracy and Technology claims. CDT points out that prior to this bill and the FCC's policy change, the FCC exercised discretion in determining which utterances were indecent, and consistently found that one-time uses of curse words were not indecent.'"
Checkers Solved, Unbeatable Database Created 359
tgeller writes "My story on the Nature site announced that a team of computer scientists at the University of Alberta has solved checkers. From the game's 500 billion billion positions (5 * 10^20), 'Chinook' has determined which 100,000 billion (10^14) are needed for their proof, and run through all relevant decision trees. They've set up a site where you can see the proof, traverse the logic, and play their unbeatable automaton. '[Jonathan] Schaeffer notes that his research has implications beyond the checkers board. The same algorithms his team writes to solve games could be helpful in searching other databases, such as vast lists of biological information because, as he says, "At the core, they both reduce to the same fundamental problem: large, compressed data sets that have to be accessed quickly."'"
openMosix Is Shutting Down 252
jd writes "Despite having one of the largest user-bases of any clustering system for Linux, openMosix is to be shut down. Top developers have left and they lack the means or motivation to continue. Their official claim of multicore CPUs making clustering redundant is somewhere between highly improbable and totally absurd, as has been pointed out elsewhere. Why is this shutdown so important? Well, from a technical standpoint, the open-source bproc (the Beowulf process migration module) is ancient, MOSIX is very hard to obtain unless you're a student, and kerrighd is (as yet) immature. From a user standpoint, openMosix is the mainstay of the Open Source clustering world and has by far the best management tools of any. The ability of this project to continue will likely have a major impact on the future of Open Source in the high-end markets — if the best of the best couldn't survive, people will be more careful about anything less."
iPods Don't Run OS X 164
Redrum writes "Everyone thinks that Apple's iPod runs an OS called Pixo, and that the iPhone ushered in a brand new epoch based on OS X. That myth has been busted: the iPod runs Apple's own Mach/BSD kernel, and Pixo is only used as a graphics layer. Daniel Eran outlines the story behind Pixo and what OS X means for Apple. It's no joke; the story was confirmed by Tim Monroe, a member of Apple's QuickTime engineering team, as is easy to verify yourself." Update: 07/15 19:48 GMT by KD : Turns out to be an April Fools joke.
PC Power Management, ACPI Explained In Detail 133
DK writes "Computer performance has increased steadily in recent years, and unfortunately so has power consumption. An ultimate gaming system equipped with a quad-core processor, two NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra, 4 sticks of DDR2 memory, and a few hard drives can easily consume 500W without doing anything! To reduce power wastage, the industry standards APM and ACPI have been developed to make our computers work more efficiently. ACPI is the successor of APM and is explained in detail in this article."
Intelligent Design Ruled "Not Science" 1497
blane.bramble writes "The Register is reporting that the UK government has stated there is no place in the science curriculum for Intelligent Design and that it can not be taught as science. 'The Government is aware that a number of concerns have been raised in the media and elsewhere as to whether creationism and intelligent design have a place in science lessons. The Government is clear that creationism and intelligent design are not part of the science National Curriculum programs of study and should not be taught as science.'"
Submission + - RIAA Files for Bankruptcy; CEO Commits Suicide
mrs clear plastic writes: "Late Friday afternoon, the Recording Industry Association of America filed for bankrupcy protection at the U.S. Bankruptcy
court in Manhattan. The numerous pending lawsuits by some defendants of the RIAA's previous campaign to bring litigation
against file sharers were just one factor behind Friday's filing, RIAA's attorney, Mitch Wickenden, told reporters outside the bankruptcy courtroom. He did say, however, that a major contribution was the significent
decline in sales of music CDROMs.
Sales have been declining for the past several years. The RIAA had claimed that it was due to the unauthorized copying of music on line. Arthur Rosenburg, president of the Independant Music File Sharing Collective, said that the RIAA was not keeping up with the times and had not adapted to the changing, peer based market for music.
On a personal note, during church services today, we were all asked to pray for the family of Mitch Bainwol, RIAA's prsident. His son, Jaims Bainwol, is a member of the choir in my church. Mitch was found dead Saturday morning, apparently of carbon monoxide poisoning. He was discovered by his son in his car, with the engine running, in the garage with the door closed.
Former president Hilary Rosen, quickly appointed by the board to be interim president, expressed condolences to Bainwol's family on Saturday afternoon."
Sales have been declining for the past several years. The RIAA had claimed that it was due to the unauthorized copying of music on line. Arthur Rosenburg, president of the Independant Music File Sharing Collective, said that the RIAA was not keeping up with the times and had not adapted to the changing, peer based market for music.
On a personal note, during church services today, we were all asked to pray for the family of Mitch Bainwol, RIAA's prsident. His son, Jaims Bainwol, is a member of the choir in my church. Mitch was found dead Saturday morning, apparently of carbon monoxide poisoning. He was discovered by his son in his car, with the engine running, in the garage with the door closed.
Former president Hilary Rosen, quickly appointed by the board to be interim president, expressed condolences to Bainwol's family on Saturday afternoon."
Journal SPAM: The Road Map to Despotism 28
Despite spending an estimated $80 million, the government was unable to prove that Dr. Sami Al-Arian was a terrorist, yet he remains in prison and his sentence will likely be extended. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges warns that the abusive imprisonment of this nonviolent Palestinian dissenter does not bode well for the rest of us.
Hayabusa To Begin Long Journey Back to Earth 92
Sparky writes "Japan is planning to set the Hayabusa spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth next month after a delay of more than a year, but it's far from certain that it will get back safely. It was supposed to retrieve asteroid debris, but it's thought that a computer error prevented that from happening. A fuel leak means that its chemical thrusters are out of action, and the craft is relying on its weaker ion engines. The journey back will take 3 years, and the capsule will be on Earth in June 2010 — even if it is empty."
Submission + - Flawed stem cell data withdrawn
An anonymous reader writes: It is one of the best-known stem cell papers in the past five years, describing adult cells that seemed to hold the same promise as embryonic stem cells. That would sidestep the tricky ethical issues for many. Now, following a New Scientist investigation, some of the data contained within the papers is being questioned. Nice to see some proper nosey journalism.
Feed Clean Cars Elude U.S. Buyers (wired.com)
'Losing For The Win' In Games 159
simoniker writes "Designer Ben Schneider (Empire Earth, EyeToy: AntiGrav, Titan Quest) has written a new article exploring the possibility of enticing your players through the power of defeat. From the piece: 'Some of the most memorable moments in games depend heavily on reversals to kick their dramatic arcs forward, from Planetfall to Fable to Beyond Good & Evil to Deus Ex. And yet, as an industry, we clearly have a lot to learn — and a lot to invent. So, then, how do you draw a clear line between player failure and dramatic reversal? It is a question well worth pondering.' In other words, if the game forces the player to get his ass kicked, can the player ever forgive it, or is it the key to some really interesting moments when used in a positive way?"
