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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 14 declined, 4 accepted (18 total, 22.22% accepted)

Which is the best UTC for maintaining servers?

Submitted by Kensai7
Kensai7 writes "Almost every other day I have the same problem here in Europe (CET). At about 9 o'clock Foursquare servers won't accept my check-ins, at least for some minutes. I get a message that they have trouble with their servers.

I understand that this is a NY-based company which probably has its best interest in disrupting the American users less than anyone else. I was wondering, when a company has huge global operations (like Foursquare, Facebook, etc), has anyone actually calculated the best time (in UTC) to do server maintenance or updates? Is there a time of the day where it's mathematically proven (according to geographic and population criteria) you will disrupt the less customers in the world possible?"
Displays

E Ink unveils first color e-reader ->

Submitted by Kensai7
Kensai7 writes "E Ink, the firm behind the monochrome displays on the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader, launched its first colour ebook-reader display this week. Unlike LCDs that constantly draw power, electronic ink uses power to change the image – but not to display it – increasing battery life from hours to weeks. Electronic ink works by attracting black or white powders to the front of a clear pixel capsule."
Link to Original Source
Apple

Flash Works On Touch-Based Devices->

Submitted by Kensai7
Kensai7 writes ""Several people have been making assertions that most Flash sites will not work properly on touch-based devices because these sites use rollovers or hovers for things like effects and navigation. Well I put together this little video together showing that Flash sites do indeed work the way you would expect since the Flash Player dispatches rollover events even on a touch screen.", says Lee from The Flash Blog.

The video is instrumental in deconstructing one of Jobs' silly reasons of not supporting a mature technology on the iPhone OS."
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Apple

Is there an iPhone app for Slashdot in the works? 4

Submitted by Kensai7
Kensai7 writes "I'm trying to follow Slashdot on my mobile Safari but it's kind of difficult with all these threaded comments and scrolling around. Slashdot has been clearly thought for desktop browsing, something that makes its mobile equivalent a pain. Some other of my favorite IT sites (Engadget, ReadWriteWeb, etc) have recently launched native iPhone apps to enhance the mobile experience and make navigating easier for a mobile device.

Is there going to be an official Slashdot app anytime soon?"
PHP

Facebook (PHP) is not very Kopenhagen-> 3

Submitted by Kensai7
Kensai7 writes "Recently, Facebook provided us some information on their server park. They use about 30000 servers, and not surprisingly, most of them are running the PHP code to generate pages full of social info for their users. As they only say that "the bulk" is running PHP, let’s assume this to be 25 000 of the 30 000. If C++ would have been used instead of PHP, then 22 500 servers could be powered down (assuming a conservative ratio of 10 for the efficiency of C++ versus PHP code), or a reduction of 49 000 ton. Of course, it is a bit unfair to isolate Facebook here. Their servers are only a tiny fraction of computers deployed world-wide that are interpreting PHP code.

But I think it is fair to say that using PHP, especially for large deployments, is not very Kopenhagen."
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Apple

Adobe Flash comes to the iPhone, err... sort of!->

Submitted by Kensai7
Kensai7 writes "Stephen Shankland from CNET news reports that:

In a surprise announcement, Adobe said Monday that Flash programmers now can bring their applications to Apple's iPhone, a domain of high interest that's been off limits for the programming technology. Because of Apple restrictions, though, Flash isn't coming in the form in which most people experience it, a Web browser plug-in. Instead, programmers will be able to change Flash applications into native iPhone applications using Adobe's Flash Professional CS5 developer tool, currently in beta testing, then offer their programs as an Apple App Store download."
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Cellphones

Widgets is the next big thing on mobile phones! 1

Submitted by
Kensai7
Kensai7 writes "Check out the new Widget contest site Nokia has set up to promote its Symbian/S60 widget technology. The trick behind web widgets is WRT (widget runtime) and different tools have already been rolled out. It's funny cause you can even create Slashdot-powerered Widgets! Try the examples and you'll see. Oh, and here's the kicker: the best proposal will be promoted free on Ovi Store and installed on a Nokia N97 to be awarded to the winner!"
Networking

IPv4 is running out... seriously!-> 2

Submitted by
Kensai7
Kensai7 writes "Thiago Macieira describes at Qt Labs Blogs his personal experience of the upcoming "Great Crash": the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses. Here is what he says in the end:

The DNS server that the hotel network gave me is on the same network as my home VPN (because my home DHCP server is the ADSL router by my Internet provider). So all my DNS queries were timing out, because they were being transmitted over the VPN to an address that isn't active. (I think it's assigned to my N95 when I'm at home, but I'd have to be home to check) This problem I had is probably quite common, I imagine. I mean, the hotel I'm in isn't exactly in a touristic spot. It's probably sought more by business travelers, who, like me, come with a laptop and VPN access to their offices. How many of them reroute 10.0.0.0/24 when the VPN is active? I would bet quite a few. So we're 6 months into the year of the Great Crash because IPv4 runs out. And we're still not using IPv6.

This story is his second warning. He did another one six months ago."
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There are three ways to get something done: (1) Do it yourself. (2) Hire someone to do it for you. (3) Forbid your kids to do it.