Comment: Re:Notes (Score 4, Insightful) 569
Then you've been using shitty fountain pens.
Comment: Re:Notes (Score 4, Interesting) 569
Actually I just picked up the HP TM2 tablet. That with one note is awesome for note taking. Being a CS grad student myself, diagrams and more importantly equations drove me nuts trying to take notes before so I relied on my trusty fountain pen and a tablet of paper, but the hand writing recognition is really there _now_ for tablets, and the hp gets great battery life.
Comment: What do you expect... (Score 5, Funny) 530
What do you expect from a state who uses 128 characters to describe a perspective hire's education.
The Education Property has been increased to 128 characters due to popular demand. Thanks for your patience.
The Education Property has been increased to 128 characters due to popular demand. Thanks for your patience.
Comment: Two books (Score 1) 630
Group theory in the bedroom (sounds dirty, but isn't) it has a lot of interesting essays involving mathematics and some historical stuff.
For something with a little more meat, godel's proof - it's short, and sweeet.
Comment: Re:And they wonder why. . . (Score 1) 1574
Ironically in the New Orleans area (not to be confused with the rest of this state) there is a much larger population of Catholic high schools and elementary schools, none of which teach this ID nonsense in the first place. In point of fact from my own education in Catholic schools here, it was mentioned more than once "It's too bad Darwin didn't pay more attention to Mendel's work with pea plants or it would have solved his blending problem"
+ - Yahoo censors open source suggestions->
Submitted
by
Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Someone else can write this up. I'm too lazy. Just look at the link."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Google threatens to terminate Gmail in Germany
Submitted
by
em8chel
em8chel writes "Back in January Peter Fleischer, Google's Global Privacy Counsel wrote "A German Threat to Anonymous Email Accounts" on his Blog:
"...Governments are particularly nervous about anonymous e-mail accounts that are offered by many online services, since they believe that such accounts are used by terrorists and other criminals. In fact, recently the German justice minister even proposed eliminating or sharply restricting such anonymous e-mail, by requiring that individuals present a passport before they are able to open a webmail account...."
Now heise is reporting (in German) that Google is threatening to terminate its Gmail service in Germany (which was renamed to GoogleMail due to patent issues) should the Parliament presses on to pass the controversial legislative initiative concerning data retention and tele-communication monitoring. The Federal Ministry of Justice plans to prohibit email service providers giving out anonymous accounts. Email service providers will be obligated to collect registrant's personal information so each and every account is identifiable. Fleischer calls the move a severe blow to privacy and says in an interview that in case of need Google will shut down its email service in Germany."
"...Governments are particularly nervous about anonymous e-mail accounts that are offered by many online services, since they believe that such accounts are used by terrorists and other criminals. In fact, recently the German justice minister even proposed eliminating or sharply restricting such anonymous e-mail, by requiring that individuals present a passport before they are able to open a webmail account...."
Now heise is reporting (in German) that Google is threatening to terminate its Gmail service in Germany (which was renamed to GoogleMail due to patent issues) should the Parliament presses on to pass the controversial legislative initiative concerning data retention and tele-communication monitoring. The Federal Ministry of Justice plans to prohibit email service providers giving out anonymous accounts. Email service providers will be obligated to collect registrant's personal information so each and every account is identifiable. Fleischer calls the move a severe blow to privacy and says in an interview that in case of need Google will shut down its email service in Germany."
+ - FCC requests comments on Leased Access channels->
Submitted
by
websta
websta writes "The blog at Davis Wright Tremaine — a broadcast law firm in D.C. — published an article on the FCC's request for comments on "leased access" cable channels here: http://www.dwt.com/practc/communications/bulletins /06-07_LeasedAccess-ProgramCarriage.htm
Background: The FCC requires cable companies with more than 100 channels to open 15% of their channels for "leased access" where independent television programmers (e.g., you, your mini-DV camcorder, and a dream) could have your own commercial-supported television station, "to promote competition in the delivery of diverse sources of video programming and to assure that the widest possible diversity of information sources are available to the public from cable system in a manner consistent with growth and development of cable system."
The problem? Cable company non-compliance and exhorbitant lease fees.
The new 2/3 Commissioners at the FCC have issued statements here: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/ FCC-07-18A2.pdf http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/ FCC-07-18A3.pdf
This is a big issue. A quote: "We must meet these statutory directives [to provide viable access for anyone to start their own TV stations), not only because it's our duty, but because these independent programmers provide the diversity of voices that is so central to the proper functioning of our media and, ultimately, to our democracy itself. If our rules aren't giving independent programmers the carriage opportunities to which they're entitled, we'd better fix them — and fast." — Commissioner Copps, http://tinyurl.com/ysewgf .
Request: Here are the questions the FCC Commissioners are looking to answer:
"It would be helpful to the Commission for commenters to submit comments in response to the following questions:
What rates do the cable operators charge for full-time and part-time leased access? What are the average maximum
leased access rates? How do cable operators justify any variances in rates? Are the rates reasonable in light of the
fact that cable operators have larger channel capacity than they did in 1997, and thus perhaps there is less scarcity?
Has the rate formula decreased anticompetitive practices? Has the rate formula increased use of leased access
channels which promote diversity? Do the current rates established by cable operators under the Commission's
regulations deter non-affiliated programmers who otherwise would seek access? Is the method for calculating the
maximum rate appropriate for digital cable, VOD, and IPTV?"
Versions of the leased access rules, with commentary, may be found http://tinyurl.com/22h7th and http://tinyurl.com/2hws9z . There is also a commentary here: http://tinyurl.com/24o633 .
So, write/email your cable company and ask for a quote for your own leased access channel, and send your experiences/comments to the FCC here: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/ . Note that you are responding to "Leased Commercial Access; Development of Competition and Diversity in Video Programming
Distribution and Carriage (MB Docket No. 07-42).""
Link to Original Source
Background: The FCC requires cable companies with more than 100 channels to open 15% of their channels for "leased access" where independent television programmers (e.g., you, your mini-DV camcorder, and a dream) could have your own commercial-supported television station, "to promote competition in the delivery of diverse sources of video programming and to assure that the widest possible diversity of information sources are available to the public from cable system in a manner consistent with growth and development of cable system."
The problem? Cable company non-compliance and exhorbitant lease fees.
The new 2/3 Commissioners at the FCC have issued statements here: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch
This is a big issue. A quote: "We must meet these statutory directives [to provide viable access for anyone to start their own TV stations), not only because it's our duty, but because these independent programmers provide the diversity of voices that is so central to the proper functioning of our media and, ultimately, to our democracy itself. If our rules aren't giving independent programmers the carriage opportunities to which they're entitled, we'd better fix them — and fast." — Commissioner Copps, http://tinyurl.com/ysewgf .
Request: Here are the questions the FCC Commissioners are looking to answer:
"It would be helpful to the Commission for commenters to submit comments in response to the following questions:
What rates do the cable operators charge for full-time and part-time leased access? What are the average maximum
leased access rates? How do cable operators justify any variances in rates? Are the rates reasonable in light of the
fact that cable operators have larger channel capacity than they did in 1997, and thus perhaps there is less scarcity?
Has the rate formula decreased anticompetitive practices? Has the rate formula increased use of leased access
channels which promote diversity? Do the current rates established by cable operators under the Commission's
regulations deter non-affiliated programmers who otherwise would seek access? Is the method for calculating the
maximum rate appropriate for digital cable, VOD, and IPTV?"
Versions of the leased access rules, with commentary, may be found http://tinyurl.com/22h7th and http://tinyurl.com/2hws9z . There is also a commentary here: http://tinyurl.com/24o633 .
So, write/email your cable company and ask for a quote for your own leased access channel, and send your experiences/comments to the FCC here: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/ . Note that you are responding to "Leased Commercial Access; Development of Competition and Diversity in Video Programming
Distribution and Carriage (MB Docket No. 07-42).""
Link to Original Source
+ - Carbon Nanoscrolls for Hydrogen Storage->
Submitted
by
peacephila
peacephila writes "Researches from Greece demonstrated that hydrogen can be successfully stored in recently synthesized carbon nanoscrolls — the carbon material that shows a spiral form and can be obtained by a twisting of a graphite sheet. When doped with alkali metals, the nanoscrolls can make very promising materials for hydrogen storage application, reaching 3 wt % at ambient temperature and pressure."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Underfunded NSA Suffers Brownouts 198
Posted
by
Zonk
from the war-on-terror-doesn't-include-juice dept.
from the war-on-terror-doesn't-include-juice dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Almost ten years after the an internal report, and a year after a Baltimore sun story warned that the electrical system at the fort Meade NSA HQ couldn't keep up with the growing electricity demand ... the problem has got worse. The 'NSA has had to resort to partial, rolling brownouts at its computer farms and scheduled power outages and some offices are experiencing significant power disruptions'. NSA director Alexander testified to congress about this problem. It is suggested he wanted to add more than $800 million to the 07 budget. A recent public powerpoint presentation suggested 70% of of all intelligence spending goes to contractors. It also included a graph, without numbers, of this spending. It suggests that US intelligence spending is around $60 billion. An internal survey that showed NSA employees have problems trusting each other."
+ - 10 Great Looking Racks
Submitted
by
tr3p0r
tr3p0r writes "Custom installers pride themselves on the clean, tidy wiring of the A/V rack — and they should. But while the back of the A/V rack gets a lot of attention, CE PRo wanted to see what they are doing to make the front of the rack unique. They asked their readers to submit their innovative, unique and just plain cool racks for a Great Looking Racks collection."
+ - NVIDIA Graphics Compared Under Linux & Solaris->
Submitted
by
Monte
Monte writes "In what appears to be the first-ever comparison between Linux and Solaris for the NVIDIA binary GPU drivers, Phoronix has tested and compared Fedora 7 with two versions of Solaris Express. In the Phoronix article they had used SPECViewperf 9.0.3 for the comparison. With all of the results shown, Linux had outperformed Solaris when using the NVIDIA drivers, but the performance results were remarkably close."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Emails Have 4th Amendment Protections
Submitted
by
taoman1
taoman1 writes "It isn't just judges who define the protections of the 4th Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. So do ordinary citizens, with the way they live their lives. A federal appeals court has reaffirmed that principle by ruling that e-mail messages stored by an Internet service provider deserve the same privacy protections as the contents of telephone calls. In both situations, the legal touchstone is the same: whether users of a communications service have a "reasonable expectation of privacy.""
Virtualization May Break Vista DRM 294
Posted
by
Zonk
from the couldn't-they-have-just-said-that dept.
from the couldn't-they-have-just-said-that dept.
Nom du Keyboard writes "An article in Computerworld posits that the reason Microsoft has flip-flopped on allowing all versions of Vista to be run in virtual machines, is that it breaks the Vista DRM beyond detection, or repair. So is every future advance in computer security and/or usability going to be held hostage to the gods of Hollywood and Digital Restrictions Management? 'Will encouraging consumer virtualization result in a major uptick in piracy? Not anytime soon, say analysts. One of the main obstacles is the massive size of VMs. Because they include the operating system, the simulated hardware, as well as the software and/or multimedia files, VMs can easily run in the tens of gigabytes, making them hard to exchange over the Internet. But DeGroot says that problem can be partly overcome with .zip and compression tools -- some, ironically, even supplied by Microsoft itself.'"
+ - Lumines Exploit Allows Homebrew on All PSPs
Submitted
by
YokimaSun
YokimaSun writes "Noobz
have today released a new exploit
in the game Lumines — allowing unsigned code to be ran!, from the article:"
Following research in conjunction with Archaemic, Noobz are proud to present the
first ever all-firmware exploit for the PSP. Based on Lumines, the "Illuminati"
exploit is a user-mode exploit using a buffer overflow in the savedata file — similar to the GTA exploit. That's right — if you've got a legal UMD copy of Lumines,
then you can run homebrew on your PSP — whatever the firmware version. That includes
v3.50! Right now, the only homebrew is the Hello World demo released below — but
in future we intend to release a HEN and downgrader.""