Tatisimo - Slashdot User

Submission + - Torvalds on where Linux is headed in 2008

Submitted by Stony Stevenson on Sunday November 25, 2007 @08:59PM

Stony Stevenson writes: In this new interview, Linus Torvalds is excited about solid-state drives, expects progress in graphics and wireless networking, and says the operating system is strong in virtualisation despite his personal lack of interest in the area.

From the article: "To get some perspective on what lies ahead in 2008, we caught up with Linus Torvalds via email. His responses touched on the Linux development process, upcoming features, and whether he's concerned about potential patent litigation."

Torvalds on Linux biggest strength: "When you buy an OS from Microsoft, not only you can't fix it, but it has had years of being skewed by one single entity's sense of the market. It doesn't matter how competent Microsoft — or any individual company — is, it's going to reflect that fact. In contrast, look at where Linux is used. Everything from cellphones and other small embedded computers that people wouldn't even think of as computers, to the bulk of the biggest machines on the supercomputer Top-500 list. That is flexibility. And it stems directly from the fact that anybody who is interested can participate in the development, and no single entity ends up being in control of where it all goes.

Submission + - Why Choose Ruby or PHP Instead of Java? (web2journal.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 24, 2007 @01:10PM

An anonymous reader writes: Software executive and chief technology officer Coach Wei, whose Java credentials are impeccable, has opened up a can of worms over at Web 2.0 Journal by raising the issue of why Java's not in favor any more for building web sites, even complex ones. Even a latge-scale site like Facebook, Wei notes, is not written in Java. [From the article: 'Why do "cool kids" choose Ruby or PHP to build websites instead of Java? I have to admit that I do not have an answer. ... the power of Java is a perfect fit for the areas where websites may need more than markups or scripting, such as middleware logic.']

Submission + - Ham Radio Operator Finds Cure For Cancer (latimes.com) 5

Submitted by

CirReal

on Tuesday November 13, 2007 @07:31PM

CirReal writes: "John Kanzius, K3TUP, himself suffering from cancer with nine months to live, used nanotechnology and a radio transmitter to kill cancer cells. "Kanzius did not have a medical background, not even a bachelor's degree, but he knew radios. He had built and fixed them since he was a child, collecting transmitters, transceivers, antennas and amplifiers, earning an amateur radio operator license. Kanzius knew how to send radio wave signals around the world. If he could transmit them into cancer cells, he wondered, could he then direct the radio waves to destroy tumors, while leaving healthy cells intact?" Reseachers "recently killed 100% of cancer cells grown in the livers of rabbits, using Kanzius' method.""

Submission + - Cloning: a giant step

Submitted by

mernil

on Tuesday November 13, 2007 @07:30PM

mernil writes: "The Independent reports: "For the first time, scientists have created dozens of cloned embryos from adult primates. /.../ A technical breakthrough has enabled scientists to create for the first time dozens of cloned embryos from adult monkeys, raising the prospect of the same procedure being used to make cloned human embryos."

Submission + - Proprietary Linux Desktop Mimics Windows 2000

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 13, 2007 @06:14PM

An anonymous reader writes: A Brazilian company is selling a Windows 2000 clone based on Linux, called Blanes (English translation). The screenshots are promissing, but the catch is: Blanes is a proprietary software, and requires an activation key. My question is: from an ethical and legal point of view, shouldn't they release the source code?

Submission + - Producer Thanks Pirates for Stealing his Film (rlslog.net)

Submitted by Klatoo55 on Tuesday November 13, 2007 @06:11PM

Klatoo55 writes: Eric Wilkinson, producer of the late Jerome Bixby's "The Man From Earth", wrote an email to Releaselog thanking them for the free publicity spurred by their review of a ripped screener of his film.

Wilkinson writes: "Our independent movie had next to no advertising budget and very little going for it until somebody ripped one of the DVD screeners and put the movie online for all to download. After that happened, people were watching it and started posting mostly all positive reviews... ...People like our movie and are talking about it, all thanks to piracy on the net!"

Wilkinson is, however, asking for people who enjoyed the pirated release to consider contributing via PayPal on his MySpace.

Submission + - Stash: free adult media manager

Submitted by awhite on Tuesday November 13, 2007 @05:56PM

awhite writes: Some things just go together: peanut butter and chocolate, Ballmer and developers, and Slashdotters and internet porn . Now Hedonic Software has released Stash 1.1 for free (as in beer, not speech). Stash helps you download, protect, organize, and playback your adult images and videos. Built with .NET 3.0 and based on a zooming user interface, Stash features virtual and automatic albums, instant search, inline video viewing, full-screen slideshows, a built-in tabbed browser and integrated web crawler, content scrambling, and many additional privacy features. Check out the promotional video for a teaser, the general use video for more in-depth coverage, and the website for the full scoop. Warning: link content rated PG-13.

Submission + - Hydrogen from Biomass 288x energy positive (dealse311.com)

Submitted by

ScrewTivo

on Tuesday November 13, 2007 @05:44PM

ScrewTivo writes: "This article New technique creates cheap, abundant hydrogen explains a bit about converting renewable biomass such as cellulose or glucose into hydrogen using a microbial fuel cell. This process is know as electrohydrogenesis. It does take a bit of electricity to run the process yet it produces 288 times more electricity than consumed. The part I like the best was "The technology is economically viable now""

Submission + - Online Information Security FPS Game (net-security.org)

Submitted by BaCa on Friday November 09, 2007 @03:19PM

BaCa writes: Is it against the company policy to play games while sitting in your comfortable cubicle? What if the game is computer security related? Symantec created an online First Person Shooter where you play a hero that roams around with his Goggles and an anti-infection gun.

Submission + - IEEE Spectrum: The Slashdot Supremacy

Submitted by frdmfghtr on Saturday November 03, 2007 @08:54PM

frdmfghtr writes: Our very own CmdrTaco has made the cover of November's IEEE Spectrum magazine. The article talks about the evolution of Slashdot, the Slashdot Effect, and even takes a light jab at Digg ("People on Digg "have the feeling that they are the ones determining what goes on the main page, and administrators on the site are all too happy to let that delusion persist," he says. "[But] stories randomly disappear. Obviously there are higher powers at work.""). It's a good read, although it makes a somewhat disturbing revelation: " It's midmorning at Slashdot as Malda bounds into his office. There's a doll of Tim the Enchanter from Monty Python and the Holy Grail on his desk and a lamp filled with marbles. Anime posters cover the wall. When his cellphone rings with the presumably ironic ringtone of Britney Spears's "Baby One More Time," Malda taps the mute button. He has work to do."

Submission + - Sorry Ninjas, Pressure Points are Phony

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 24, 2007 @12:48AM

An anonymous reader writes: Weeks after the news that it doesn't matter where you stick acupuncture needles, Wired Science has challenged the timeless ninja skill of pressure point fighting. When martial artists show off their fancy skills, they usually work with compliant subjects. During pressure point demonstrations, they build up to the finale of knocking people out with mind waves and gentle slaps after several hours of conditioning. The underlying principle at work during a pressure point lesson is the power of suggestion rather than causing an overload to the nervous system or using a jedi mind trick. Faith healers do the same thing. Even Borat played along.

Submission + - Poison Phishing sites idea.

Submitted by

Robert Burntwing

on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @11:39AM

Robert Burntwing writes: "Just an idea. If everyone who received a phishing scam email just took the time to fill the scam site out once with some fake details, surely this would poison the database and make it unusable. It takes less than a minute, and I find it quite therapeutic knowing I am wasting some spammer scum's time. Also, an added benefit is that the genuine bank site would quickly become alerted if a large number of failed connection came from an IP/IP range and would hopefully have some way to block any further attempts from that range?"

Submission + - Depression is elevated among women engineers

Submitted by yali on Saturday October 13, 2007 @04:14PM

yali writes: A U.S. government survey of depression rates by job category has revealed some interesting results. The headlines are about food service and healthcare providers, who perhaps unsurprisingly have the highest depression rates. But buried in the official report is an interesting split. When the data are separated by gender, engineering is the least-depressing job for men. But it has one of the higher depression rates for women (fifth-highest among 17 job categories). Although women are generally at greater risk for depression, that does not fully explain the difference. 3.3% of male engineers have a major depressive episode per year (versus 4.7% of men overall). By comparison, the rate is 11.1% for women engineers (versus 10.1% overall). Is the engineering workplace an especially depressing place for women?

Submission + - Bill Gates Denied Visa to Nigeria (gizmodo.com) 1

Submitted by

Xight

on Saturday October 13, 2007 @02:43PM

Xight writes: "Gizmodo recently wrote an article about Nigeria recently denying Bill Gates a visa to travel there on his recent trip to Africa proving that money can't get you everything. Whats even more amusing is that he was at "initially denied the Microsoft kingpin's application on the premise that they required proof he would not reside in Nigeria indefinitely, causing a strain on social services and a general nuisance for immigration.". I guess those Nigerian 419 scams really do pay off for them."

Submission + - Alien birds may be the last hope for Hawaiian plan (nature.com) 1

Submitted by

brajbir

on Saturday September 29, 2007 @07:00PM

brajbir writes: "Alien birds, it seems, may be the last hope for Hawaiian plants. Most of the native birds of Hawaii feed on nectar nectar or invertebrates, contributing little to seed dispersion. Many of the alien birds, introduced by humans, are fruit eating, thereby facilitating seed dispersion. Hawaii is one of the most invaded places in the world, in terms of foreign species. More than 4,600 plant and 140 bird species have been introduced by human activity, with at least 58 types of bird establishing permanent breeding populations there. Most land birds in Hawaii are now exotic. Is it best to have all invasives removed, even if that means severing the link between seeds and their current dispersers? Or is it best to keep invasive birds and all the trouble they cause? Returning Hawaii to her natural state is not attainable, but ironically, exotic birds appear to be helping.""

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