Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Submission Summary: 0 pending, 54 declined, 15 accepted (69 total, 21.74% accepted)

×
Programming

Submission + - Ergonomic mechanical-switch keyboard?

dotancohen writes: As my hands wear I find that I need an ergonomic (split) keyboard. It seems that 98% of the available ergonomics are either crippled with dome-switches or have unusual designs which place many critical keys under the thumbs (I cannot use my right thumb). The one normal-appearing contender, the Northgate Ergonomic Evolution, seems to be noisier than even the Model M, in fact it echoes! Programmers and hobbyists geeky enough to be here today, what do you type on?

Submission + - 2K year old shipwreck to detect double-beta decay (discovery.com)

dotancohen writes: The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events is looking for neutrinoless double-beta decay. However, even the minute amount of radioactivity in the lead used to shield the experiment is enough to introduce error into the experiments. That's why a 2000 year old shipwreck's lead cargo is so valuable to CUORE that they financed the vessel's salvage. With all the radioactive isotope lead-210 depleted, the ancient lead may provide both adequate shielding from external radiation and not introduce it's own.
Businesses

Submission + - Do OS projects have any commitment to their users?

dotancohen writes: Should open source projects have any responsibility or commitment towards their users? Although FOSS projects certainly have no financial or legal responsibility to their users, is there a moral responsibility when users build their businesses and lifestyles around the software? What if the user invests his time filing and triaging bugs? What if the user contributes art, documentation, or helps other users in community forums and mailing lists?

What weight or arguments does a business have that, for instance, may have standardized on a project such as KDE-PIM and must suffer through releases with reduced functionality as the KDE4 growing pains affect that project? Must businesses that demand stable, mature software rely only on proprietary software and support contracts?

Submission + - Iran to switch on first nuclear reactor in March (reuters.com)

dotancohen writes: It appears that an Iranian nuclear power plant will be operational in about two month's time. Just in time for the Iranian New Year. As an Israeli, I am both happy for Iran that they are achieving energy independence (they can hardly refine their own oil), yet frightened by the threat of a nuclear-armed country who has repeatedly stated that we will be "wiped from the pages of time". Does the tinfoil hat go under or over the ABN mask?

Submission + - Where to get spam?

dotancohen writes: I am performing research on email address harvesting patterns, especially from illegitimate websites. My biggest challenge was a surprising lack of places to sign up for spam! Assuming one _wants_ to receive illegal spam, how would one do it? To which websites must I provide an email address to be sent to the harvesters? I am using purpose-registered accounts at major webmail providers for the purpose.
Programming

Submission + - FOSS Licences Wars: trying to write an app

dotancohen writes: "Here's an exercise: Write a GPLed server for solving Freecell that the graphical game would communicate with using TCP/IP or a different IPC mechanism. Easy, right? Except for that pesky licensing bit. Our own Shlomi Fish gives an overview of the various options in picking up a licence for one's FOSS project, and tries to give some guidelines choosing one."
Space

Submission + - Asteroid buzzing Earth below LEO altitude. Twice. (discovery.com)

Dotan Cohen writes: "The Discovery website notes that 1-kilometer asteroid Apophis will narrowly miss the Earth in 2029 and will return in 2036, on an unknown orbit that may (or may not be) a collision course. This looks like a good article for getting people (and funds) interested in astronomy, if only for the potential doomsday scenario."
Quickies

Submission + - Suing God: Does God need notice? (wsj.com)

Gibberish writes: "From TFA: "If God were sued, would one have to serve God with papers? After all, one might argue, an all-knowing God might not exactly need notice." This is what a US senator who sued God two years ago is now asking. He cannot refile, so this is the best that he could come up with. However, Senator Chambers does make a great point that "it was inconsistent for the court to take judicial notice of God in order to administer oaths and to enter an order to dismiss yet simultaneously deny that the all-knowing God has notice of the petition"."

Slashdot Top Deals

A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable. -- Thomas Jefferson

Working...