arborlaw - Slashdot User

Submission + - Building A Data Center in 60 Days - Online

Submitted by

miller60

on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @09:27PM

miller60 writes: "The facilities team at Australia's Pipe Networks is down to the wire in its bid to complete a data center in 60 days. And in an era when many major data center projects are shrouded in secrecy, they're putting the entire effort online, with daily updates and photos on the company blog, a live webcam inside the facility, a countdown timer and a punch-list of key tasks left to finish. Their goal is to complete the job by Friday morning."

Submission + - Toshiba slashes HD DVD sales forecast by half

Submitted by thefickler on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @09:18PM

thefickler writes: Toshiba has slashed its 2007 sales forecast for high-definition HD DVD players in the US by almost half, just days after the North American HD DVD Promotional Group (NAHDPG) gloated that HD DVD was thrashing Blu-ray in the format war, with 60% market share.

NAHDPG attributed the "success" of HD DVD, in part, to Toshiba dropping the price of its low-end player from $499 to $399. According to NAHDPG, this move caused HD DVD player sales to double in the month of April and double again the first week of May.

So it's now very interesting that Toshiba has lowered its 2007 calendar-year US sales forecast for HD DVD players from 1.8 million to just 1 million. Toshiba had also previously expected to sell 3 million HD DVD players worldwide.

Submission + - Television's Mr. Wizard dies at 89 (yahoo.com)

Submitted by

RickTheGeek

on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @09:17PM

RickTheGeek writes: "FTA: LOS ANGELES — Don Herbert, who as television's "Mr. Wizard" introduced generations of young viewers to the joys of science, died Tuesday. He was 89. Herbert, who had bone cancer, died at his suburban Bell Canyon home, said his son-in-law, Tom Nikosey.

As a young child in the 80's, I watched Mr. Wizard as often as I can... I wanted to not only try the experiments, I wanted to be one of the kids on the show. Too bad there aren't any shows like that on TV now! Apparently, there are a few DVDs of Mr. Wizard's world available at the web site Mr. Wizard Studios."

Submission + - SPAM: ChoicePoint CIO details data breach lessons

Submitted by alphadogg on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @09:04PM

alphadogg writes: Few companies know as well as ChoicePoint the consequences of failing to secure the personal information of consumers.A provider of information used in background checks, ChoicePoint was involved in a data breach more than two years ago that compromised the records of 163,000 people — but has since transformed itself into what one analyst called a "role model" in data security and privacy. Too often, simple mistakes are the cause of data breaches, said Darryl Lemecha, CIO and senior vice president of shared services at ChoicePoint. Listing a person's Social Security number on a mailing address label, or not securing data on a laptop that is later stolen or lost, are mistakes that have left some companies wishing they had thought more about security, he said. [spam URL stripped]c epoint-data-breach.html

Submission + - SOFIA Flies to California

Submitted by

Penguinshit

on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @08:42PM

Penguinshit writes: "NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy left Texas for Southern California to continue engineering flight tests at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. During its expected 20-year lifetime, SOFIA will be capable of "Great Observatory" class astronomical science, providing astronomers with access to the visible, infrared and sub-millimeter spectrum with optimized performance in the mid-infrared to sub-millimeter range. SOFIA's science and mission operations are managed jointly by the Universities Space Research Association and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut, and are based at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Jose, Calif."

Submission + - No "Puddle" Water on Surface of Mars After

Submitted by Icarus1919 on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @08:40PM

Icarus1919 writes: Images of puddles of water on Mars have been revealed over the weekend to have been misinterpreted. It turns out that pooled water in the images taken is impossible for an entirely different reason: it's located on the side of a crater.

'"I want to retract the claim in the paper that the smooth area we discussed was 'standing liquid water'," Levin acknowledged on Tuesday. "I am sorry that we made such a large mistake."'

Submission + - Closed source on Linux and BSD?

Submitted by on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @08:38PM

An anonymous reader writes: I want to start (very small) software/hardware business.
The code in question will be a closed source.
I won't modify or use any GPL code or any 3-d party sources.
It will be my own handwritten C/C++ code from start to finish.
I am planning to sell embedded-like boxes with an OS (Linux or BSD) and this code.
I am more familiar with Linux but I am scared a little bit of Linux licensing (and quite a bit of Linux fanboism: I personally got "go to hell with your @#$ closed code" slur on ./).

My questions:
1. Can I do it with Linux today (GPL2) and tomorrow (GPL3)?

2. Can I statically link the code with Linux libraries? (My own experience shows that dynamic linking is too much to bear. Your mileage may vary)

3. Can I obfuscate my code (e.g. encode it)?

4. Could I be forced to publish this code by some 3-d party?

5. Am I correct that programming in and selling BSD-based box won't have any above problems?

As you can see, I am not a GPL guru and not a software freedom fighter.
I just want to do my job and make some living.

Submission + - The 10 biggest mistakes people make when using Ad (fixuppix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @08:25PM

An anonymous reader writes: After years of working with Photoshop we have seen (and made) our fair share of mistakes. However, it seems that people are bound to repeat the same simple mistakes over and over, and for that reason, we've assembled a list of 10 common mistakes people make when using Adobe Photoshop.

Submission + - Chase Bank Online forces cookies on customers

Submitted by Alex in SD on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @08:24PM

Alex in SD writes: I like to clear my browser's cache each time I quit the application — it's one of the reasons I love Firefox and now will check out Safari. Unfortunately — Chase Bank utilizes browser cookies as part of their authentication scheme. If you don't enable cookies — you have to go through a tedious re-authentication process each time you login which includes a one-time password sent via SMS, email or voice. It's an inconvenience — but seems like a pretty secure system. I just wonder how cookies actually make your computer safer.

Submission + - Top PC Games Heading to Mac Finally

Submitted by egNuKe on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @08:04PM

egNuKe writes: It has been argued that the main reason preventing most home users from switching to Mac OS and/or Linux is their lack of good games. But this may be changing finally. id's latest 3d engine will run on Mac OS and EA has decided to release its major titles to OSX . Rumors that Steve Ballmer was heard screaming "I'll f*ckin kill Apple" are still yet unconfirmed.

Submission + - Venezuela launches Linux 'Bolivarian Computers' (venezuelanalysis.com)

Submitted by Voline on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @06:56PM

Voline writes: In the pursuit of technological independence Venezuela has begun shipping the first 'Bolivarian Computers'. Named after the hero of the South American independence struggle against Spain, they are made by VIT (Venezuela de Industria Tecnológica), which is a joint venture of the Chinese company Lang Chao and the Venezuelan government. The four desktop and single laptop models all run Gnu/Linux. VIT hopes to eventually begin distributing the inexpensive computers throughout Latin America.

Submission + - General Relativity Experimentally Confirmed!

Submitted by Anonymous Reader on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @06:43PM

Anonymous Reader writes: I have been watching this project for some years now, eagerly anticipating the results to incorporate them into my own theories on gravity being faster than light. I had feared the experiment was critially flawed because it was so delicate. However when I checked the site today it appears that Gravity Probe B is being hailed as a success!

"GP-B SUCCEEDED IN COLLECTING THE DATA TO TEST EINSTEIN'S PREDICTIONS ABOUT GRAVITY
Over four decades of planning, inventing, designing, developing, testing, training and rehearsing paid off handsomely for GP-B. The 17.3-month flight mission succeeded in collecting all the data needed to carry out this unprecedented, direct experimental test of Einstein's general theory of relativity — his theory of gravity.
...
THE EFFECTS OF GENERAL RELATIVITY ARE CLEARLY VISIBLE"

This is big scientific news. I have yet to peruse the detailed results myself and absorb them into my personal view of the universe, but I am curious what readers here make of the results.

Submission + - Personal Search Syndication (pssdir.com)

Submitted by

James Bruni

on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @06:42PM

James Bruni writes: "Hate Google's Custom Search? There's an alternative called Personal Search Syndication (www.pssdir.com) developed by Septet Systems that allows you to build customized search engines and "knowledge collections". PSS! is being revamped in the coming wks in response to customer input, but it still beats Google's Custom Search service by miles."

Submission + - ActiveScaffold Eliminates Ruby on Rails Drudgery

Submitted by LinucksGirl on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @06:33PM

LinucksGirl writes: Save time and headaches, and create a more easily maintainable set of pages, with the Ruby on Rails ActiveScaffold plugin. ActiveScaffold handles all your CRUD (create, read, update, delete) user interface needs, leaving you more time to focus on more challenging (and interesting!) problems.

Submission + - How to build a boombox out of parts from cars... (jalopnik.com)

Submitted by

Ant

on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @06:15PM

Ant writes: "This two-part series Jalopnik story shows how to make a boombox by taking parts from over one dozen cars ranging from 80's BMW's to a 1990 Toyota Tercel. It shows how they created a fully-functional boombox with an 8-track player, FM, AM, aux-in, retractable bunny-ear antenna, a cup holder, plug-in battery and yes, even brake lights. There are also instructions for people can do their own too. Seen on Digg."

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