Jalfro - Slashdot User

Submission + - Diaspora is dead! Long live diaspora! (joindiaspora.com)

Submitted by Jalfro on Monday October 08, 2012 @10:32AM

Jalfro writes: Following premature rumours of it's demise, the Diaspora core team announce the release of 0.0.1.0. "It’s been a couple of exciting months for us as we’ve shifted over to a model of community governance. After switching over to SemVer for our versioning system, and plugging away at fixing code through our new unstable branch, we’re excited to make our first release beyond the Alpha/Beta labels."

Submission + - Google Virtual Brain - A self learning system (geekyportal.com)

Submitted by geekspy on Monday October 08, 2012 @09:54AM

geekspy writes: Google’s breakthrough with its latest virtual brain technology in the field of AI intends to identify animals, people and other objects by simple watching videos. This self-learning system is surely one of its kinds if implemented and can benefit a lot with its speech recognition facility.

Submission + - Unredacted documents in Apple/Samsung case, no evidence of 'copy' instruction (cnet.com)

Submitted by another random user on Monday October 08, 2012 @09:25AM

another random user writes: Previously redacted documents presented in the Apple-Samsung case seem not to offer actual evidence that Samsung told its designers to copy the iPhone.

Documents that have now been unredacted seem to show that there was never any 'copy apple' instruction. There was a push towards things that would be different, such as what is now seen in the Galaxy S3: "Our biggest asset is our screen. It is very important that we make screen size bigger, and in the future mobile phones will absorb even the function of e-books."

Groklaw suggests, rather shockingly, that Apple's lawyers might have been a little selective in how they presented some of this evidence to the court, by picking little parts of it that offered a different shade of nuance.

Submission + - UK Broadband Plan Set To Clear EU Approval (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by

judgecorp

on Monday October 08, 2012 @08:25AM

judgecorp writes: "The British government's plan to subsidise rural broadband in the UK is about to get approval from the European Union, even though every contract so far has been awarded to BT, according to sources. The Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) project has been examined under EU state aid rules, but apparently has passed despite all the money going to one dominant telecom operator"

Submission + - Will a Chromebook be your next PC? (zdnet.com)

Submitted by dgharmon on Monday October 08, 2012 @01:26AM

dgharmon writes: Sure, you could keep using Windows, although Windows 8 looks worse every time you look at it; or you could buy a Mac for big bucks; or you could buy a Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook starting at $449 and have a great Linux-based desktop that you already know how to use.

Submission + - US congress rules Huawei a 'security threat' (brisbanetimes.com.au)

Submitted by dgharmon on Monday October 08, 2012 @12:47AM

dgharmon writes: Chinese telecom company Huawei poses a security threat to the United States and should be barred from US contracts and acquisitions, a yearlong congressional investigation has concluded.

A draft of a report by the House Intelligence Committee said Huawei and another Chinese telecom, ZTE, "cannot be trusted" to be free of influence from Beijing and could be used to undermine US security.

Submission + - The Case For The Blue Collar Coder 1

Submitted by theodp on Sunday October 07, 2012 @11:36PM

theodp writes: U.S. tech talent shortage discussions tend to focus on getting more young people to go to college to become CS grads. Nothing wrong with that, writes Anil Dash, but let's not forget about education which teaches mid-level programming as a skilled trade, suitable for apprenticeship and advancement in a way that parallels traditional trade skills like HVAC or welding. Dash encourages less of a focus on 'the next Zuckerberg' in favor of encouraging solid middle-class tech jobs that are primarily focused on creating and maintaining tech infrastructure in non-tech companies. Dash also suggests 'changing the conversation about recruiting technologists from the existing narrow priesthood of highly-skilled experts constantly chasing new technologies to productive workers getting the most out of widely-deployed platforms and frameworks.'

Submission + - Where to find a customizable sunrise and sunset calendar? 1

Submitted by wideBlueSkies on Sunday October 07, 2012 @11:26PM

wideBlueSkies writes: I've a little hobby of tracking the sunrise and sunsets and tides in my area (NYC). Basically I've been doing this with a spreadsheet sourced from 2 different places, merged by date.

I'd like to somehow turn this data into a wall calendar, along with the moon phases, and the usual smattering of holidays I can't seem to find any one calendar that has it all. An additional requirement is that I want to add personal meaningful days, (wedding anniversary, my kid's birthday, etc).

Does anyone know where I could find something like this?

Thanks in advance.

Happy Birthday /. . I've had membership for I think 10 years now, and was lurking for 3 or 4 before that. Things have changed a bit, but this is still one of my favorite sites on the intertubes.

Submission + - IBM Microscope Can See 100 Times Smaller Than An Atom (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by

kkleiner

on Sunday October 07, 2012 @11:15PM

kkleiner writes: "Building on their impressive microscopy work over the last few years, a team from IBM has refined their method to precisely measure the structural details of a single molecule. With their technique, they managed to measure very subtle differences in the distribution of electrons within the molecule’s bonds. How subtle? We’re talking 3 picometers or 0.000000000003 meters. That’s one-hundredth the diameter of an atom!"

Submission + - Man arrested for offensive joke posted on Facebook (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 07, 2012 @05:44PM

An anonymous reader writes: Tasteless joke posted on Facebook sees man arrested in the UK under section 127 of the Communications Act for ending a public electronic communication which is 'grossly offensive'.
Matthew Wood, 20, of Eaves Lane, Chorley, UK will appear before Chorley Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Comment Diaspora dead? What will I do... (Score 1) 215

by Jalfro on Thursday October 04, 2012 @12:01PM (#41549905) Attached to: What Happened To Diaspora, the Facebook Killer? It's Complicated

...with my evenings now? And to think I was only on there five minutes ago! https://diasp.eu/

Comment Re:have you seen it? (Score 1) 727

by Jalfro on Sunday September 16, 2012 @12:15PM (#41353203) Attached to: The Implications of Google Restricting Access To Anti-Islam Film

Interesting. I wonder if they actually got paid?

Comment Re:Every ACTUAL conspiracy is a conspiracy theory. (Score 1) 727

by Jalfro on Sunday September 16, 2012 @07:43AM (#41351307) Attached to: The Implications of Google Restricting Access To Anti-Islam Film

I don't think I would want to put a percentage on it. It is of course possible that it was funded from Israel. If you want to get really conspiratorial, it's also possible that it was funded by Islamist militants in order to provoke anti-Western sentiment. I have no doubts about the immediate purpose of the film, which is designed to contain just about every possible insult to Mohammed and thus offend Muslims.

Comment Re:Every ACTUAL conspiracy is a conspiracy theory. (Score 1) 727

by Jalfro on Sunday September 16, 2012 @07:25AM (#41351257) Attached to: The Implications of Google Restricting Access To Anti-Islam Film

See parent. Since the video apparently originated in California, the simplest explanation is that it was funded from there. In the absence of any evidence that it was funded elsewhere, this is the most logical explanation also.

Comment Re:Suprising how? (Score 1) 771

by Jalfro on Sunday September 16, 2012 @06:56AM (#41351183) Attached to: The Motivated Rejection of Science

You are right. I meant of course, not Mann, but the Climate Research Unit, headed by Phil Jones. As I understand it, the accusation still stands that the CRU fostered "a climate of non-disclosure", which is contrary to good scientific practice and has set back public understanding of climate change considerably by delivering ammunition to the deniers.

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