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Comment: Re:Not going to happen. Windows is "good enough" (Score 1) 1091

by Hegh (#39429167) Attached to: Why Linux Can't 'Sell' On the Desktop
The Humble Bundles seem to be helping with this, though. They're getting a lot of independent game studios to think about releasing for Linux, and they show that Linux controls nearly 1/4 of the gaming market. I'm hoping that this helps push similar changes up to the bigger studios.

Comment: It's arbitrary (Score 1) 61

by Hegh (#35059680) Attached to: Naming Bi-Directional Streams In an API?

... so just pick one and stick to it.

I'm partial to "input" and "output" myself, from the perspective of the object using them (so a client's output goes to the server's input and vice-versa).

If you need to reference both objects' streams at the same time, you've got "myInput", "myOutput", "hisInput", and "hisOutput" for clarity.

Or just pick something fun; "spinwise" and "widdershins" isn't bad, but may confuse your users.

Comment: Re:Uh, no (Score 1) 815

by Hegh (#34988690) Attached to: Italian Scientists Demonstrate Cold Fusion?

I was basing it on the average atomic weight of each element, in the first periodic table that came up on Google. It's been a while since my last chemistry class (11 years, I think), so I may have gotten it wrong.

But it looked like, since they said there were no radioactive byproducts of the reaction, that they were talking about the most stable (and therefore common) isotopes of each. Therefore, Ni-58 and Cu-63, resulting in an atomic weight difference of 5, which means they need to create 4 neutrons out of thin air.

But, like I said, high-school chemistry was a while ago.

Comment: Re:Uh, no (Score 1) 815

by Hegh (#34984340) Attached to: Italian Scientists Demonstrate Cold Fusion?
I'm curious how they can get more energy out than they put in, at the same time as getting more MASS out than they put in. Copper is more than just a proton heavier than Nickel (63au vs 56au, I think). Conservation of energy/mass, anyone? Hydrogen+hydrogen fusion produces energy because the resulting helium is lighter than the inputs, and E=mc^2.

Comment: Re:do it wrong, do it in VBScript (Score 1) 366

by Hegh (#33835372) Attached to: Simple Virus For Teaching?
If you write your own, you may not want to include propagation beyond any single machine. No risk of getting out that way. Just make it tricky for a user to remove, to show the various techniques that may be needed (hiding in multiple places, being started from registry keys and other locations, running multiple processes that each monitor the others so it's tough to kill them all, ...). Good luck, and ask for permission before doing it!
Programming

Collaborative Software For Pair Programming? 302

Posted by timothy
from the is-your-sister's-name-cynthia? dept.
DavidMatuszek writes "I will be teaching Java again this Fall. Students work in pairs, but unfortunately (after the first hour) typically not physically together. I would like to find collaborative software that is (1) dead simple to use, because that's not what the course is about, and (2) free. Google Docs would do, but students will be sharing code — plain text — not RTF or HTML or Word files. Is there such software for plain text?"
Data Storage

Best Home Backup Strategy Now? 611

Posted by kdawson
from the all-thumbs dept.
jollyreaper writes "Technology moves quickly and what was conventional wisdom last year can be folly this year. But the one thing that's remained constant is hard drives are far too large to backup via conventional means. Tape is expensive and can be unreliable, though it certainly has its proponents. DVDs are just too small. There are prosumer devices like the Drobo, but it's still just a giant box of hard drives, basically RAID. And as we've all had drilled into our heads, 'RAID is not backup.' When last this topic came up on Slashdot, the consensus was that hard drives were the best way to backup hard drives. Backup your internal HDD to an external one, and if your data is really important, have two externals and swap one off-site once a week. Is there any better advice these days?"
Biotech

Robot Invented To Crawl Through Veins 99

Posted by timothy
from the oh-no-not-creepy dept.
Slatterz writes "Scientists from Israel's Technion University have unveiled a tiny robot, made using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, purportedly able to crawl through a person's veins in order to diagnose and potentially treat artery blockage and cancer. The little robot — with a diameter of just one millimeter — has neither engine nor onboard controls, instead being propelled forward by a magnetic field wielded on it from outside the patient's body."
Software

Internal Instant Messaging Client / Server Combo? 360

Posted by kdawson
from the this-message-is-being-recorded dept.
strongmantim writes "I manage an internal help desk (25-30 people) for a medium-large company in the healthcare industry. We're looking for an internal, secure, FOSS (if possible) instant messaging / presence awareness client and server combo. Transmission of Protected Health Information is a sensitive issue, so the server has to be able to log any conversations that occur. It is preferred that the client not support outside protocols such as AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc.; if it does, I will have to promulgate and enforce yet one more policy that my techs not connect to them. All of the computers that will connect run Windows XP. The system should be scalable up to ~100 people (in case we decide to include our entire office in the roll-out). Hardware and OS for the server are not an issue. Oh, and one more thing: It has to be free. Suggestions?"
Privacy

Combining BitTorrent With Darknets For P2P Privacy 325

Posted by kdawson
from the your-move dept.
CSEMike writes "Currently popular peer-to-peer networks suffer from a lack of privacy. For applications like BitTorrent or Gnutella, sharing a file means exposing your behavior to anyone interested in monitoring it. OneSwarm is a new file sharing application developed by researchers at the University of Washington that improves privacy in peer-to-peer networks. Instead of communicating directly, sharing in OneSwarm is friend-to-friend; senders and receivers exchange data using multiple intermediaries in an overlay mesh. OneSwarm is built on (and backwards compatible with) BitTorrent, but includes numerous extensions to improve privacy while providing good performance: point-to-point encryption using SSL, source-address rewriting, and multi-path and multi-source downloading. Clients and source are available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows."
Television

Comcast Apologizes For Super Bowl Porn Glitch 526

Posted by kdawson
from the pay-per-view-malfunction dept.
DrinkDr.Pepper writes "Just after the last touchdown by the Cardinals, with 3 minutes to go in the game, approximately 30 seconds of pornographic material was shown, seen by an unknown number of Comcast customers in Tucson, Arizona who were watching the game in standard definition. Comcast has apologized (they used the word 'mortified') and is issuing a $10 credit to any customer who claims to have been impacted. Various news accounts suggest that the incident was a malicious act, but no one knows how it was done or by whom."

Hackers of the world, unite!