Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror

Comment: Re:Whats with the weird garbled text on slashdot? (Score 3, Informative) 35

Every year, The Slashdot editors go on vacation at the beginning of April.
In place of news, scripts search the web for bad jokes, theonion articles or random text, and post them as news.

Most readers take the day off, and hope that by the evening, the editors are sacked and the site is returned to normal.

Technology

Radio Shack TRS-80 Vs. Commodore 64: Battle of the Titans 135

Posted by samzenpus
from the winners-and-losers dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes "The one and only Jeff Cogswell is back with a new article comparing the two biggest competitors in the home-computing business: the Commodore 64 and the Radio Shack TRS-80. What does he have to say about these absolutely cutting-edge machines? The TRS-80 simply can't stand up to the awe-inspiring Commodore 64, which features the latest processor from MOS Technology, the 6510. Best of all, the C-64s graphics processor can display up to 16 colors simultaneously, and it can create a full screen made up of 320 x 200 'dots.' But the TRS-80 has some good points, as well, including a whopping 512 K of memory (not that you'll ever use that much, anyway). As Cogswell writes: 'Let's cover these two bad boys and provide a totally unbiased review unencumbered by any alleged kickbacks (including a brand new daisy wheel printer and a case of Schiltz Beer) from Commodore, the maker of the awesome machine known as the Commodore 64.'"
Image

YouTube's Ready To Select a Winner 74

Posted by samzenpus
from the this-is-it dept.
Proudrooster writes "From YouTube. 'Thanks for all your great entries. YouTube finally has enough videos to begin selecting a winner. We've been thrilled with all of the diverse, creative entries we've seen so far, and we can't wait to begin the process of selecting the best video (video). We'll be announcing the winner in 10 years. All videos will be deleted within the next 24 hours. What do you think is the #bestvideo on YouTube?"
The Internet

Fairy Penguins Send First Email 68

Posted by samzenpus
from the talk-to-the-animals dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Australian researchers have successfully connected a Tasmanian colony of fairy penguins to the internet. The research effort was part of the Interspecies Internet initiative, promoted by Google's chief internet evangelist Vint Cerf and former Genesis lead singer Peter Gabriel in a TED talk earlier this year."
Microsoft

Linus Torvalds To Head Windows 9 Project 174

Posted by samzenpus
from the trying-something-new dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, and a champion of free and open source software has finally called it a day and has agreed to join Microsoft as the project head of the upcoming Windows 9 project. According to Bloomberg, Linus will be working on a new Kernel design for Microsoft that will make, usually vulnerable, Windows OS virtually impossible to be infected by viruses and malware."
Google

Google Bumps Up Search a Notch With Google Nose BETA 66

Posted by samzenpus
from the smelling-is-believing dept.
coastin writes "The folks at Google Labs have launched a new way to search with Google Nose BETA. The new condensation in search will have you "Coming to your senses" where you can go beyond type, talk, and touch for a new notation of sensation. Get acquainted with Your internet sommelier, expertly curated Knowledge Panels pair images, descriptions, and aromas. Take a whiff of the Google Aromabase — 15M+ scentibytes. Don't ask, don't smell! For when you're wary of your query — SafeSearch included. What's that smell? Google Nose BETA leverages new and existing technologies to offer the sharpest olfactory experience available with: Street Sense (vehicles have inhaled and indexed millions of atmospheric miles), Android Ambient Odor Detection (collects smells via the world's most sensible mobile operating system), and SMELLCD 1.8+ (high-resolution compatible for precise and controlled odors)"
Open Source

Open Sauce Foundation Created 95

Posted by samzenpus
from the free-as-in-ketchup dept.
First time accepted submitter TekTek writes "In response to the growing proliferation of the use of "secret sauce" as a vehicle for entrepreneurs', venture capitalists', and investment bankers' thinly veiled proprietary machinations, a global consortium of premium condiment manufacturers has launched the Open Sauce Foundation (OSF). Founding members include McIlhenny Company (producer of Tabasco brand pepper sauce), Huy Fong Foods (producer of "Rooster Brand" Sriracha sauce), and Kikkoman (producer of Kikkoman brand Soy Sauce). The new foundation's stated aim is not only to uphold the virtues of buying worthy sauce manufacturers' products, but to demonstrate to the tech, financial, and media communities that "Open" companies, and condiments, can, and do, assume leadership roles in their respective markets."
Encryption

A New Benefit For Logged-In Readers: Meet Slashdot's ROT13 Initiative 261

Posted by timothy
from the is-he-gonna-shift-or-is-he-gonna-kill-us? dept.
We appreciate all the support we've gotten over the years from Slashdot's logged-in users. They take part actively in discussions, and in exchange for their active interest in the site, we like to give a few perks over and above what our beloved anonymous readers get. But we never want to deprive anonymous readers of the actual features of the site — whether you're a logged-in account holder, anonymous, a subscriber, or have a username but are browsing anonymously at any given moment, Slashdot has always been freely available to read for anyone with a browser and an uncensored Internet connection. It's a balance we try to maintain, too, Sure, we'd like you to login, and we think it has some worthwhile benefits (like tracking comment responses, building karma, and using the Zoo system to keep track of your friends and foes), but we'll never force you to. Today, we're building on this approach, by introducing a feature that benefits every logged-in user, but still leaves the page free to read for all. We'll be phasing in over the next few days a button that logged-in users and subscribers can click to decrypt the text of each Slashdot posting with the trivial transform known as Rot13. Read more, below!

Comment: Re:company copying of open source (Score 1) 320

by GodWasAnAlien (#42751763) Attached to: Pushing Back Against Licensing and the Permission Culture

"Are you trying to say that a change has to be made available the SECOND it is added to the code?"

No. There is a subtle line between copying code for development/testing and distribution (yes internally).

"Copying internally to the company is not distributing the code".

This is the general statement that I disagree with.

If you copy Windows internally to the company, is that ok?

If the company uses a modified gcc compiler, and 1000 or 10000 developers use it to compile code, yes the code is being distributed.

But, as you mention, if I have a gcc patch, and I copy the modified code to others internally for testing, perhaps that's not distributed.

Comment: company copying of open source (Score 1) 320

by GodWasAnAlien (#42740587) Attached to: Pushing Back Against Licensing and the Permission Culture

The author mentions that most people think personal use copying is ok.

I would say the same is true of companies, but only for open source, for some reason.

Companies often download open source, modify the software, copy the modified software among hundreds of people, demonstrate the modified software publicly, then say they will release the software when the product is released.

But, there was no copyright or licence that granted the internal copies of the modified software, as the modifications were not published.

If a company used evaluation copies of Windows, internally, copying to hundreds of developers, then demonstrated something publicly obviously on an evaluation copy of windows, what would happen?

Side rant: Often "viral" is mentioned in FUD concerning Open Source, but one should note that regular copyright is also "viral", in the sense that if you make a derivative copy of commercial software (or writing or music ...), you are still bound my the copyright/license of the original work.

Comment: privatization of taxation (Score 5, Interesting) 2416

by GodWasAnAlien (#40481879) Attached to: Supreme Court: Affordable Care Act Is Constitutional

What should concern everyone, and the reason John Roberts supported the mandate, is that it sets a precedent to allow privatization of taxation.

The "Left" supported it because the mandate was attached to health care, but this is a step towards corporatism much bigger than Citizens United.

People who develop the habit of thinking of themselves as world citizens are fulfilling the first requirement of sanity in our time. -- Norman Cousins

Close