Comment Re:Get rid of the artifact? (Score 1) 538
Instruction manual : take 1 (one) litre of water, done. :)
Bill Gates Enrolls His Kids In Khan Academy 286
theodp writes "At some schools, a teaching load of five courses every academic year is considered excessive. But Sal Khan, as an earlier Slashdot post noted, manages to deliver his mini-lectures an average of 70,000 times a day. BusinessWeek reports that Khan Academy has a new fan in Bill Gates, who's been singing and tweeting the praises of the free-as-in-beer website. 'This guy is amazing,' Gates wrote. 'It is awesome how much he has done with very little in the way of resources.' Gates and his 11-year-old son have been soaking up videos, from algebra to biology. And at the Aspen Ideas Festival in front of 2,000 people, Gates gave Khan a shout-out, touting the 'unbelievable' Khan Academy tutorials that 'I've been using with my kids.'"
Glibc Is Finally Free Software 337
WebMink writes "Despite the fervour of some, the dark secret of every GNU/Linux distribution is that, until August 18 this year, it depended on software that was under a non-Free license — incompatible with the Open Source Definition and non-Free according to Debian and the FSF. A long tale of tenacity and software archeology has finally led to that software appearing under the 3-clause BSD license — ironically, at the behest of an Oracle VP. The result is that glibc, portmap and NFS are no longer tainted."
Happy 17th Birthday, Debian! 225
An anonymous reader writes "Debian turns 17 today. Yes it has really come a long way from being Murdock's pet project back in 1993 to being the distribution on which the most popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu, is now based."
id Software Demos Rage On iPhone, Releases Source Code For Two Games 266
glenkim writes "Kotaku has posted their liveblog of the QuakeCon 2010 keynote, with some big announcements by game developer and Slashdot regular John Carmack. Highlights include a video of the id Tech 5 engine (aka Rage) running on the iPhone 4G at 60fps, with claims that it also runs on the iPhone 3GS. Carmack noted that performance on the iPhone was able to 'kill anything done on the Xbox or PlayStation 2.' He also announced the source code release of two games, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Also, Carmack finally admitted that Doom 3 was too dark!"
Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" Frozen 202
edesio writes with a snippet from debian-news.net, trumpeting an announcement from the ongoing DebConf10 in NYC: "Debian's release managers have announced a major step in the development cycle of the upcoming stable release Debian 6.0 'Squeeze': Debian 'Squeeze' has now been frozen. In consequence this means that no more new features will be added and all work will now be concentrated on polishing Debian 'Squeeze' to achieve the quality Debian stable releases are known for. The upcoming release will use Linux 2.6.32 as its default kernel in the installer and on all Linux architectures.""
Submission + - YouTube revamp imminent? HTML5 dominates top ideas
shadowmage13 writes: "YouTube's latest blog post indicates that some changes are on the way an have opened up a call to submit and vote on ideas. HTML 5 open video with Free formats has dominated the vote with 9 out of the top 10 ideas. You may vote here (Google login required), but perhaps that isn't even necessary since their blog post comes suspiciously soon after their revised merger with On2. Could these upcoming improvements be a completely overhauled YouTube 2.0?"
Nokia Leaks Phone With Full GNU/Linux Distribution 621
An anonymous reader writes "It is now clear why Nokia has been so slow with S60 updates: the upcoming N900 just left everything else in the dust. Unlike Google's Linux platform, Nokia is not intentionally breaking compatibility with real distros, choosing instead to bring you the unmatchable power of GNU/Linux on your phone. This is the most awesome device I have ever seen: MAP3 CPU/GPU, 3,5" 800x480 touchscreen, keyboard, Wi-Fi, HSPA, GPS; 5-MP camera, CZ lens, 32 GB storage, SD slot; X11, VT100 terminal emulator, APT package manager. Estimated price without credit: $780 (N.5800: $390, iPhone 3GS: $750). Developers should note that even though the current desktop is still GTK+, Qt will be standard across all Nokia platforms in the near future (less powerful phones will use Qt on the Symbian kernel). Users can download flashing software from Nokia, and patches can be submitted at the Maemo site."
Submission + - Unusual physics engine game ported to Linux (blogspot.com)
christian.einfeldt writes: "Halloween has come early for Linux-loving gamers in the form of the scary Penumbra game trilogy, which has just recently been ported natively to GNU-Linux by the manufacturer, Frictional Games. The Penumbra games, named Overture, Black Plague, and Requiem, respectively, are first person survival horror and physics puzzle games which challenge the player to survive in a mine in Greenland which has been taken over by a monstrous infection/demon/cthulhu-esque thing. The graphics, sounds, and plot are all admirable in a scary sort of way. The protagonist is an ordinary human with no particular powers at all, who fumbles around in the dark mine fighting zombified dogs or fleeing from infected humans. But the game is remarkable for its physics engine — rather than just bump and acquire, the player must use the mouse to physically turn knobs and open doors; and the player can grab and throw pretty much anything in the environment. The physics engine drives objects to fly and fall exactly as one would expect. The porting of a game with such a deft physics engine natively to Linux might be one of the most noteworthy events for GNU-Linux gamers since the 'World of Goo' Linux port."
Mono Squeezed Into Debian Default Installation 503
pallmall1 writes "OS News reports that Debian developer Josselin Mouette got Tomboy accepted as a dependency for gnome in the next release of Debian (codenamed Squeeze). While that may seem like nothing big (except for the 50 MByte size of the Tomboy package), Tomboy requires Mono — meaning that Mono will now be installed by default. Apparently, Debian doesn't have the same concerns over using specifications patented by Microsoft and licensed under undisclosed terms that Red Hat does. Perhaps Debian doesn't believe that Microsoft might do something like Rambus did."
Submission + - Name Node 3 of the ISS for Ubuntu not Colbert (blogspot.com)
gQuigs writes: "Collectively we can name node 3 of the International Space Station after Ubuntu. Taking on Stephen Colbert might be just what Ubuntu needs to get the attention of a lot more users that may not have heard of it. Also Ubuntu really is a better name that captures the international collaboration that is the space station.
Go Vote For Ubuntu Here!
Read more at my blog, including an attempt at convincing Serenity supporters."
Go Vote For Ubuntu Here!
Read more at my blog, including an attempt at convincing Serenity supporters."
Comment Re:begins? (Score 3, Informative) 65
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/103Mark Shuttleworth says: We are steadily releasing pieces of Launchpad, but the whole thing still has proprietary elements. We offer services to people who make Ubuntu derivatives using it, and that revenue stream is important. You can get all your data out easily (and this will soon get even easier to automate) so you're not locked in. In time, LP will all be published under a free software license, but for now it is not.
Submission + - First look at the Zonbu, a $99 Linux Computer 1
Esther Schindler writes: "The company is positioning this diminutive device (in late beta) as a consumer product. But with its out-of-the-box simplicity, says CIO.com's review, the Zonbu is an excellent choice for enterprise IT departments that want a Gentoo-based desktop Linux distribution, very little fuss and a price that won't raise eyebrows on an expense report."
Submission + - First daughters are pirates
palewook writes: "Mitchell L. Silverman, an attorney, sent a letter to the RIAA's Director of Investigative Services concerning President George Bush's daughters making an illegal mix cd for his father's day present."
