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Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Cool-sounding things to do with Beowulf clusters. 1

Submitted by brentonboy
brentonboy writes: I have been scavenging computers out of trash and recycling bins for a few years, and my roommate and I finally decided to put all our boxes to use in a Beowulf cluster, more to impress visitors than anything else. So we have this stack of computers, and a good answer to the question "what is that?" But now we need a really impressive answer to the next question: "what is it doing?" So what are some neat things to have a small ragtag "conversation starter" Beowulf cluster work on?
Earth

Submission + - First Death from Toxic Seaweed?

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "BBC reports that French investigators are examining whether a driver who died after carrying three truckloads of sea lettuce (Ulva Lactuca) has become the first victim of a toxic seaweed that is clogging parts of the Brittany coast. Sea lettuce is harmless in the sea, but as it decomposes on the beach it releases hydrogen sulphide. Researchers from France's National Institute for Environmental Technology and Hazards (Ineris) who visited the same beach found the deadly gas at such high concentrations that it could be "deadly in few minutes". "When you walk into the crust of such accumulation, you make a hole in a reservoir of hydrogen sulphide, and this gas is very toxic," said Alain Menesguen. Environmentalists say decades of misuse of Brittany's agricultural land is to blame for the explosion of algae, due to the high levels of nitrates used in fertilizers and excreted by the region's high concentration of livestock. The 48-year-old driver who had been part of the annual operation to remove 2,000 tons of rotting sea lettuce from the beaches at Binic had been working without a mask or gloves and died at the wheel of his vehicle when it crashed into a wall. His death was originally recorded as a heart attack but prosecutors now want to know if it was linked to the seaweed. "'We want to know if in future we should take precautions to safeguard workers who collect or transport seaweed," says Christian Urvoy, the mayor of Binic."
Media

Submission + - DRM Take II - Digital Personal Property 1

Submitted by
Diabolus Advocatus
Diabolus Advocatus writes: "Ars Technica has an article on a new form of DRM being considered by the IEEE. It's called Digital Personal Property and although it removes some of the drawbacks of conventional DRM it introduces new drawbacks of its own. From the article:

Digital personal property (DPP) is an attempt to make consumers treat digital media like physical objects. For instance, you might loan your car to a friend, a family member, or a neighbor. You might do so on many different occasions and for different lengths of time. But you are unlikely to leave the car out front of your house with the keys in it and a sign on it saying, "Take me!" If you did, you might never see the vehicle again.

It's that the ability to lose control over property that is central to the DPP system. DPP files are encrypted. They can be freely copied and distributed to anyone, but here's the trick: anyone who can view your content can also "steal" it irrevocably. The simple addition of a way to lose content instantly leads consumers to set up a "circle of trust" that can be as wide as they like but will not extend to total strangers on the Internet."
Mozilla

Submission + - Is Firefox turning into the ultimate nagware? (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "Mozilla has announced plans to remind Firefox users to update third-party plug-ins. Firefox 3.5.3 will prompt users to upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash Player if they haven't got it installed already, and Mozilla plans to extend the scheme to other third-party plugins for Firefox 3.6. Barry Collins from PC Pro wonders if Firefox is turning into the ultimate nagware?. Already pestered on a near-daily basis for upgrades to extensions and the browser itself, Collins wonders if plugin reminders will be a step too far for Firefox?"

Comment Re:The writing's on the wall. (Score 2) 271

by Diabolus Advocatus (#29309715) Attached to: Intel's Braidwood Could Crush SSD Market
Capacity is still an issue though. Although in enterprise storage SSDs offer a lower cost per transaction and provide a real benefit, they still have massive amounts of HDDs for storage on the lower tier. Outside of work where I would be classed as a standard consumer, it would cost me far, far too much to buy enough SSDs to transfer my 4TB of data from my HDDs.
The Internet

Submission + - Not every cloud has a silver lining 1

Submitted by Diabolus Advocatus
Diabolus Advocatus writes: Cory Doctorow has an interesting article on guardian.co.uk addressing what cloud computing really means for the average consumer:

The tech press is full of people who want to tell you how completely awesome life is going to be when everything moves to "the cloud" — that is, when all your important storage, processing and other needs are handled by vast, professionally managed data-centres.

Here's something you won't see mentioned, though: the main attraction of the cloud to investors and entrepreneurs is the idea of making money from you, on a recurring, perpetual basis, for something you currently get for a flat rate or for free without having to give up the money or privacy that cloud companies hope to leverage into fortunes.
Censorship

Submission + - The real reason behind eircom's Pirate Bay block 1

Submitted by Diabolus Advocatus
Diabolus Advocatus writes: As has been discussed before, Ireland's largest ISP — eircom — began blocking thepiratebay.org on Sept 1st 2009. At first it appeared that eircom were trying to appease the record labels and affiliated cronies. Now it appears the censorship has a more sinister background.

For anyone not with eircom I have mirrored the notice page eircom customers see when trying to access thepiratebay.org here. As you will notice in the "Legal Downloading" section near the bottom, it states that eircom are working with the labels to "to develop an innovative new music service for eircom and non-eircom customers".

Comment Re:Religion didn't call for this (Score 1) 1376

by Diabolus Advocatus (#28766963) Attached to: Ireland Criminalizes Blasphemy
No, not socialist. Fianna Fail - the majority ruling party - are centre right and have been shifting further right for years due to the influence of the Progressive Democrats party. While in power they sold off most of the state and semi-state companies, while outsourcing to private companies things that they should be looking after themselves. Letting private companies build hospitals on land of a public hospital is not socialism! Letting private companies charge us tolls to use roads that were built with our tax money is not socialism! I could go on for pages. Jesus fucking christ I hate this country...

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