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Apache

Submission + - Apache support for Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) (osnews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: FreeBSD developer Robert Watson has announced an Apache GCD MPM that uses Apple's Grand Central Dispatch concurrent programming framework, and cites 1/4 the number of lines of code for threaded MPMs to accomplish the same goals. Currently, the MPM is being distributed on Mac OS X Forge, and runs on FreeBSD and Mac OS X. Apache developer Paul Querna has proposed merging it to the Apache trunk. There are also ongoing efforts to port libdispatch to Solaris and Linux, so hopefully it will work there soon as well!
Open Source

Getting Started Contributing Back To Open Source 99

Posted by kdawson from the foot-in-the-door dept.
markfreeman writes "The one burning need I have felt over the last year was to get involved with open source as a contributor. I have wanted to help with documentation, advocacy, and most of all, with programming. Here's the story of how I got started, thanks to openhatch.org (which calls itself 'an open source involvement engine') and how you can too."
Education

Texas Schools Board Rewriting US History 1238

Posted by kdawson from the nation-chosen-by-god dept.
suraj.sun picked up a Guardian (UK) piece on the Texas school board and their quest to remake US education in a pro-American, Christian, free enterprise mode. We've been keeping an eye on this story for some time, as it will have an impact far beyond Texas. From the Guardian: "The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favor of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy. ... Those corrections have prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting right-wing views on religion, economics, and guns while diminishing the science of evolution, the civil rights movement, and the horrors of slavery. ... Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favored separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the 'significant contributions' of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the Civil War. ... Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favor of examining scientific advances through military technology."

Comment Re:Efficiency doesn't matter (Score 1) 326

by jurgemaister (#32180012) Attached to: Possible Breakthrough In Hydrogen Energy
Actually, methane is a really good idea. Normal petrol fueled cars run fine on methane gas if you install a pretty cheap injection kit. Also, burning gas in stead of petrol leaves close to zero particles in the air, and drastically reduces the emission of NOx gasses.
Infrastructure is not very hard to achieve, and is actually already in place in parts of Europa.

Comment I don't use them pieces of metal (Score 1) 594

by jurgemaister (#32124246) Attached to: On Pennies:
I hardly ever use coins or paper money anymore. I pay everything with my bank card/VISA (debit), and most people I know don't use cash either. I live in Norway and this is common practice here (and the rest of Scandinavia I assume), but the rest of Europe seems to be lagging a bit behind. Honestly I can't see the point in paying with coins when you can get a portable bank terminal into pretty much everything these days. And for the big bills (larges one in Norway is 1000NOK ~ $160) only criminals use them anyway. And then there is the production and distribution cost of physical money. Digital money is so much cheaper :)
The Almighty Buck

Activision Hit With $500m Suit From Modern Warfare 2 Devs 77

Posted by Soulskill from the pow-right-in-the-kisser dept.
Dragoniz3r writes "Activision has been served a lawsuit from 38 plaintiffs, including present and former Infinity Ward employees, demanding up to half a billion dollars. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for 'unpaid bonuses, royalties, profit-sharing, and future profits from games such as Modern Warfare 3, and punitive damages.'"
Iphone

Submission + - Apple buys Skype

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: You might remember the problems of eBay/Skype separation. Well, it turns out there was a good reason for that move. Skype founders (Netherlanders) have been seen with Steve Jobs in a coffee shop of Amsterdam enjoying their time with the help of very natural products. It's confirmed that the upcoming iPhone (labelled iPhone High) will support HD videocalls with Skype, with a resolution of 720x480 (new screen size). The new version of the popular device will be the greenest ever built by Apple.
Science

World's Smallest Superconductor Discovered 72

Posted by samzenpus from the none-more-small dept.
arcticstoat writes "One of the barriers to the development of nanoscale electronics has potentially been eliminated, as scientists have discovered the world's smallest superconductor. Made up of four pairs of molecules, and measuring just 0.87nm, the superconductor could potentially be used as a nanoscale interconnect in electronic devices, but without the heat and power dissipation problems associated with standard metal conductors."
Spam

Submission + - Spam Filters Force Magazine Name Change (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by krou
krou writes: After 90 years of publication, a Canadian history journal is being forced to change its name because of spam filters. The Beaver, which chose its name because of Canada's iconic dam-building creatures, has been forced to change its name to Canada's History, because 'attempts to reach a new online audience kept falling foul of spam filters — particularly in schools — because beaver is also a slang term for female genitalia.' They 'also noticed that most of the 30,000 or so visitors to their website per month stayed for less than 10 seconds', and they probably correctly suspected that those visitors were not interested in 'learning about the trade in beaver fur which built Canada's early economic fortunes'.
Microsoft

Submission + - Is Microsoft Bing Trying To Kill Open Office? (katonda.com)

Submitted by hemantm
hemantm writes: If you try to search for OpenOffice on Bing, it will not show you the actual OpenOffice.org website but will show pages from random websites like OpenOffice.com or other non-OpenOffice.org websites. ..........
Censorship

Submission + - Thanks readers for not expressing yourself (newenglishreview.org) 1

Submitted by
santosh maharshi
santosh maharshi writes: "Richard Dawkins has recently learned that he should thank his readers for not expressing themselves.

He ran a website for people of like mind, but noticed that many of the comments that appeared on it were beside the point, either mere gossip or insult. So he announced that he was going to exercise a little control over what appeared on it — as was his right since it was, after all, his site. Censorship is not failing to publish something, it is forbidding something to be published, which is not at all the same thing, though the difference is sometimes ill-appreciated.

The torrent of vile abuse that he received after his announcement took him aback. Its vehemence was shocking; someone called him ‘a suppurating rat’s rectum.’ He replied to this abuse with admirable restraint:

"Surely there has to be something wrong with people who can resort to such over-the-top language, overreacting so spectacularly to something so trivial".

"

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