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Today's xkcd has something painfully true about real programmers for you to peruse. It's funny because it's true: I keep my butterflies in box next to the bowl with all those extra screws I seem to accumulate.

MrCopilot writes "As I noted yesterday (and was joined by many others)... in an offhand observation xkcd has singlehandedly changed a small section of the Internet. Changing the results from a Google search for "Died in a Blogging Accident" from 2 to (at this writing) over 7,170 in a little more than 24 hours." If you aren't reading xkcd, you're missing out.

An anonymous reader writes "I recently got an external hard disk with USB 2.0/Firewire/Firewire 800/eSATA to be used for backup and file exchange — my desktop runs Linux (with a Windows partition for games but no data worth saving), and the laptop is a MacBook Pro. So the question popped up: what kind of filesystem is best for this kind of situation? Is there a filesystem that works well under Linux, MacOS X, and Windows? Linux has HFS+ support but apparently doesn't support journaling and there's also an issue with the case-insensitivity of HFS+. Are we stuck with crummy VFAT forever or are there efforts underway to bring a modern filesystem (I'm thinking something like ZFS, BeFS, or XFS) to all platforms? Or are there other clever solutions like storing ISO images and loop-mounting those?"

K-Disk writes "Just shooting an FYI saying eyeOS 1.0 Codename Dahlia has been released, As many know eyeOS had much sucess with the eyeOS 0.9x series as one of the most complete Open Source Web Operating Systems. They have officially released the 1.0 version which will definately set the De Facto in Web Operating Systems."
http://eyeos.com/

JasonVergo writes "facereviews.com contains numerous thorough reviews and ratings of Facebook apps. With the recent release of the Facebook Platform API and the explosive growth in the number of apps, I have found this site to be invaluable. I have discovered a few great underground apps that are not listed in the official Facebook's directory."
http://facereviews.com/

OriginalArlen writes "The science fiction writer Charlie Stross has written an excellent and comprehensive explanation of why, thousands of SF books, movies, and games notwithstanding, human colonization of other star systems is impossible. Although interstellar colonization seems common-sensical to many, Charlie makes a clear-headed and unarguable case, so far as I can see, that it ain't gonna happen without a 'magic wand' or two. Nevertheless it would be interesting to see reasoned responses from the community who believe that colonization is not merely possible, but inevitable — and even, as Hawking has said, vital for the survival of the species. So, who's right — Hawking or Stross?"

nbauman writes "Saif Abdallah says his inventions have helped kill or maim scores, possibly hundreds, of Americans. For more than four years, he has been developing remote-control devices that Sunni insurgents use to detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the roadside bombs that are the No. 1 killer of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The only time he ever felt a pang of regret was in the spring of 2006, when he heard that the Pentagon, in a bid to fight the growing IED menace, had roped in a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Abdallah, an electronics engineer by training, once dreamed of studying for a Ph.D. there. "I thought to myself, If my life had gone differently, who knows? I might have been on that team," he says, his eyes widening as he imagines that now impossible scenario. Then he shrugs. "God decided I should be on the other side," he says. Abdallah, 28, "fits every geek stereotype," according to Time http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1632 805,00.html, with thick glasses, acne and a flash drive on his key chain. His bedroom workbench in Baghdad has soldering irons, old printed circuit boards, discarded TV remotes, etc. that he uses to build remote control detonators."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1632805,00.html

fieryprophet writes "An astonishing number of stories related to HD-DVD encryption keys have gone missing in action from digg.com, in many cases along with the account of the diggers who submitted them. Diggers are in open revolt against the moderators and are retaliating in clever and inventive ways. At one point, the entire front page comprised only stories that in one way or another were related to the hex number. Digg users quickly pointed to the HD DVD sponsorship of Diggnation, the Digg podcast show. Search digg for HD-DVD song lyrics, coffee mugs, shirts, and more for a small taste of the rebellion." Search Google for a broader picture; at this writing, about 283,000 pages contain the number with hyphens, and just under 10,000 without hyphens. There's a song. Several domain names including variations of the number have been reserved. Update: 05/02 05:44 GMT by J : New blog post from Kevin Rose of Digg to its users: "We hear you."

marsaro writes "A lot of companies have tried for years to develop so called Exchange replacements, none have done well at all. The success of Exchange is not because that product is a great mail server, but because it is codeed to work with Office, more specifically Outlook. Love it or hate it, the client became quickly adopted and very hard to replace. We have seen recently a lot of companies using AJAX in client offerings that are more rich, and fluid, but few have used Flash, until now. Flash has lot's of benefits, security, multi-media, but also wide support for OS and browsers. CommuniGate Pro has always been known to be a rock solid server, but just recently released their new UI called Pronto! which is based on Flash. You can see it here http://www.communigate.com/demoFlash/demo_10.html Best part is the server and Pronto! is free for five users."

The theater at Epidaurus has been known for centuries as an acoustic marvel that allowed spectators to hear in the back row. Georgia Tech researchers have discovered that Epidaurus' limestone seats created a sophisticated acoustic filter that carried instruments and voices all the way to the back row.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070404162237.htm

SlashRating©
70
slashdottit! tm

A blue post on the WoW forums shows that blizzard's official stance on player aversion to the Armory will be addressed by adding a new item, the Tinfoil Hat. "While the Tinfoil Hat provides the wearer with added protection against mind control and other befuddlements, the hat's most interesting and truly unique property is that it completely removes the wearer's character profile from the Armory website and provides enhanced privacy for its wearer!"

UnknowingFool writes "SCO filed a motion to allow it to change its claims against IBM. Again. A brief recap: In December 2005, SCO was supposed to finally list all claims against IBM. This was the Final Disclosure. In May 2006, SCO filed its experts reports to the court which discussed subjects beyond those in the Final Disclosure. Naturally, IBM objected and wanted to remove certain allegations. Judge Wells ruled from the bench and granted IBM's motion: SCO's experts cannot discuss subjects that were not in the Final Disclosure. Now, SCO wants to amend the December 2005 Final Disclosure to include other allegations."

GoogTube writes "yesterday a "story" was submitted to digg.com. But unlike most stories this one didn't intend on providing useful information, Breaking news or a funny video. the intention of this story was to initiate a DDoS attack against the site godhatesfags.com by using the digg community as a botnet.

A user posted a story entitled "Make GodHatesFags pay for their bandwidth" with the description "It's time to stop this shit. Feel free to use as much bandwidth as possible. Try downloading a few podcasts."

The story then rapidly received many diggs, 2139 at the time of this post, And soon found it's way onto the front page, At which point digg users started posting links to audio files in comments and soon knocked godhatesfags.com offline."

simoniker writes "A team at Intel have built a game prototype that works entirely within Google Earth, in which: "Martian robotic spacecraft are invading... Your mission is to decipher the messages, and blast these Martians before they can suck people off the planet." The engineers explain: "Existing games we found all require switching back and forth between a web browser window and Google Earth. Our goal was to develop a game with all the action inside a single window, similar to a traditional video game, leading to a more immersive and responsive experience." The gameplay is fairly simple as of yet — but could this be the start of a host of fully integrated Google Earth games?"

r_accorsi writes "It is certainly true that world's basic infrastructures would collapse in case computers shutdown unexpectedly, thereby putting the whole humanity in danger, at least in certain regions. As computers are to-date responsible for keeping such services (and after all ourselves) alive, code is the ultimative matter. I would like to know which (classes of) lines of code are the key for our survival."