Slashdot

miller60 writes "Microsoft has announced plans to build a data center in Siberia. The facility near the city of Irkutsk will be able to hold 10,000 servers. Officials in Microsoft's Russian business unit said the region had a stable power supply, and will be able to support a 50 megawatt utility feed. The average winter temperature is below zero in Irkutsk (which is perhaps best known to gamers as a territory in Risk). Microsoft recently announced huge data center projects in Chicago and Dublin, Ireland, and is clearly ramping up its worldwide infrastructure platform as it competes with Google." No doubt this will save a fortune on cooling costs- they can just crack a window.

JM78 writes to tell us The New York Times is reporting that Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation will be dropping support for Blu-ray Disc and going solely with HD-DVD for their next gen DVDs. "Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, said consumers seeking to switch to high-definition DVDs will be enticed by the movies available for HD-DVD players. He added the lower price for the Toshiba devices will appeal to the family market. 'It's a game-changer, what they're doing, and it's why we decided to throw in with them,' Katzenberg said."

Esther Schindler writes "Database decisions are never easy, even — or maybe especially — when one choice is extremely popular. To highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the open-source MySQL DBMS, CIO.com asked two open-source experts to enumerate the reasons to choose MySQL and to pick something else. Tina Gasperson takes the 5 reasons to use MySQL side, and Brent Toderash discusses 8 reasons not to. Note that this isn't an 'open source vs proprietary databases' comparison; it's about MySQL's suitability in enterprise situations."

schweini writes "Space.com is reporting that the Mars Express probe's MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding) experiment has detected and measured an enormous amount of water ice near Mars' south pole, which would be sufficient to submerge the whole planet's surface underneath approximately 10m of water on average."

MCraigW writes "Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes might have a natural — and not a human-induced — cause. Mars, it appears, has also been experiencing milder temperatures in recent years. In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide 'ice caps' near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row. Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun."

DECS writes "After heading off the top ten myths of the iPhone, Daniel Eran of RoughlyDrafted has written a series of articles looking 'Inside the iPhone,' exploring (1) why Apple didn't target faster 3G networks, (2) a substantiated look at how the iPhone is indeed running OS X (contrary to reports that it isn't), and (3) what it means to users and developers, and how ARM is involved, in Mac OS X, ARM, and iPod OS X, and why the supposedly 'closed' system Apple describes for the iPhone won't preclude third party development."

antic writes "The Principality of Sealand is up for sale. The 550 square meter steel platform boasts "uninterrupted sea views", complete privacy and has been mentioned on Slashdot in the past for its offers of hosting outside the jurisdiction of (some) traditional laws."

An anonymous reader writes "The library of congress approved many copyright exemptions today. Among the exemptions were new rules about cell phones, DVDs, and electronic books." From the article: "Cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced Wednesday. Other copyright exemptions approved by the Library of Congress will let film professors copy snippets from DVDs for educational compilations and let blind people use special software to read copy-protected electronic books. All told, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington approved six exemptions, the most his Copyright Office has ever granted. For the first time, the office exempted groups of users. The new rules will take effect Monday and expire in three years. In granting the exemption for cell phone users, the Copyright Office determined that consumers aren't able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks that wireless providers have been placing to control access to phones' underlying programs."

Gamasutra's semi-regular feature taking the pulse of folks in the game industry turns its attention this week to the PS3 and Wii launches. From the comments submitted to the site, it seems that many industry vets are generally more excited about the Wii than with Sony's offering. From the article: "'Definitely a Wii (already pwii-ordered). The price point of the PS3 and the lack of enticing launch titles makes me as interested in a PS3 as I am interested in getting a root canal.' — Ryan Conlon, Gearbox Software. 'I am buying a Wii because Sony is too arrogant, from their dev tools to the price point.' — Ed O'Tey, Electronic Arts. 'Wii — pre-ordered. I applaud the attempt to expand and explore game interaction with the Wii. I will not be purchasing a PS3.' — Jim Perkins, EA Canada"

I am currently attending a technical college in North Dakota working towards my Applied Associates Degree in Computer Science so I can transfer to a four year school. Now I'm not the normal "user" when it comes to computer programming, or just computers in general. But when I find out I know more about Programming logic and design and JAVA then the professor who teaches the subject I get offended. I pay for instructors to actually teach me something, and when I'm told to cut back on my programs because they are to advanced for the class and apparently for the instructor as well, I feel like I'm wasting my hard earned cash. Has anyone else had the problem with inept college professors? And if so, how did you deal with it?

ezratrumpet writes "How many years of therapy are necessary to get over:

• 1. Your father buying a team for you to play on;
• 2. Your father buying a whole bunch of other teams so your team can have a league;
• 3. Your father firing the coaches for changing your playing position, making you a scapegoat when your team misses the playoffs;
• 4. National exposure of the fiasco in the Washington Post; or,
• 5. All of the above?

Some shrink could retire on this one."

University study suggests that the way men and women respond to porn illustrates how men and women differ in how we experience desire. Duh. In Sex Drive Daily.

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/topheadlines/~3/45986721/arousal_desire_.html

Epyllion writes "An infrequent astronomical sight — tiny Mercury inching across the surface of the sun — takes place Wednesday afternoon in North America. But you'll need the right kind of telescope to see it.

Mercury is so tiny — 1/194th the size of the sun — and looking at the sun is so dangerous to the eyes that viewing must be done with a properly outfitted telescope or online telescope cameras, experts say.

Still, for many people, it may be the only chance to see the closest planet to the sun, said Michelle Nichols, a master educator at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, one of many places that will hold special viewings of Mercury's trek. Mercury is usually seen in the early evening, but it's often obscured by buildings, city lights and trees, she said.

Read More"

An anonymous reader writes "I recently recieved an email from a US based publicly traded company that I used for income tax services. The content of the email was a screenshot which prominently displayed my SSN. I expressed concern to the company that they chose to send this information over the web in an unencrypted format. The company's response was to offer a verbal apology, explain that it was a one time violation of company policy, and offer a year of credit monitoring service. I think their mishandling of an SSN probably would result in some legal trouble for the company if reported to the government. What sort of fines/other punishment is the company liable for in this case if pursued in court? I'm trying to decide if it's worthwhile to sue them or take the monitoring service and let it go."