bubblewrapgrl - Slashdot User

Submission + - He's a Mac, he's a PC, but we're Linux! (itwire.com)

Submitted by

davidmwilliams

on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @01:29AM

davidmwilliams writes: "Earlier this year the Linux Foundation launched a competition for budding writers, film makers and just general Linux enthusiasts to make their own grassroots advertisement to compete with Apple's highly-successful "I'm a Mac" series of adverts. The winner has now been announced."

Submission + - Google forgets DST change.

Submitted by

Ghost-in-the-shell

on Sunday March 11, 2007 @09:50PM

Ghost-in-the-shell writes: "Looks like Google forgot to change the time on their calendar servers last night. I guess I'll be showing up to classes an hour later than normal for the next few weeks. The problems documented here is only in effect for the next three weeks until the traditional date of the DST change of early April. Partial (for privacy reasons) screen shots included."

Journal Journal: Why are 1, 2, 3, etc written in the way we write them?

Journal by ksamanta on Sunday March 11, 2007 @09:38PM

Blogger Sam talks about the origin about the origin of symbols for Roman and Arabic numerals: example why one is written as 1, and so on....

Submission + - USPS introduces R2-D2 mailboxes

Submitted by

Parallax Blue

on Sunday March 11, 2007 @09:06PM

Parallax Blue writes: "To help celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, the United States Postal Service will be introducing custom mailboxes wrapped in R2-D2 graphics. It will be interesting to see what measures (or lack thereof) that the USPS takes to prevent these from being stolen the moment they're installed."

Submission + - Sony Learns From MS's Digital Rights Mismanagement

Submitted by

Divalent

on Sunday March 11, 2007 @06:40PM

Divalent writes: "As Sony ramps up their online service with promises of an environment similar to Xbox Live, it's obvious the Japanese giant learned from MS's experience dealing with the difficulties presented to users should they ever need a replacement console. They are allowing up to five consoles the unrestricted rights to access content paid for only once.

For over fourteen months, Microsoft has been aware of the problem that is presented to a user if they attempt to play offline an XBL arcade game or a game with premium paid downloadable content on any machine other than the one onto which the content was originally downloaded. This forum thread on the subject was started on 12/18/ 05

MS has yet to come up with a transparent or even easy solution for the end user. Whether it is concern over their bottom line or previous agreements with content owners, something prevents them from implementing a strategy similar to Sony's...at the expense of customer satisfaction. There has been no public acknowledgement that the problem even exists.

MS representatives on the forums have gone so far as to say, despite it's frank illegality, that those that had consoles stolen or replaced, in or out of warranty, from retailers will not have the workaround solution applied to their accounts unless they have explicit proof of said replacement. So, if your box breaks out of warranty, you cannot simply trash it and head to a store and buy a new one. You must somehow show continuity and PROVE to Microsoft that your old box is broken and has been replaced by the one you currently use.

You can get a synopsis of the problem here along with recommendations of what to do. Included is the suggestion, whether you've personally been effected by the problem or not, to sign a petition that asks Microsoft to change the Digital Rights (Mis)Managment scheme currently in place."

Submission + - Time measuring

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11, 2007 @06:19PM

An anonymous reader writes: We all know computers can measure time in seconds and milliseconds. But how precise can computers be when measuring time? microseconds? nanoseconds? picoseconds? femtoseconds? attoseconds? zeptoseconds? yoctoseconds? How precise can you measure time on a x86 / home PC? How precise can you measure time on a computer? How do scientists measure time when accuracy and precision is very important?

Submission + - What's new in study of human evolution?

Submitted by je ne sais quoi on Sunday March 11, 2007 @04:42PM

je ne sais quoi writes: MSNBC/Newsweek has an informative article summarizing a lot of the recent advancements in tracing the evolution of modern humans. From the article:

Unlike the earlier wave of Homo erectus into Asia a million years ago, the first modern humans, the ancestors of everyone today, departed Africa about 66,000 years ago... These pilgrims were strikingly few. From the amount of variation in Y chromosomes today, population geneticists infer how many individuals were in this "founder" population. The best estimate: 2,000 men. Assuming an equal number of women, only 4,000 brave souls ventured forth from Africa. We are their descendants.
The article emphasizes that evolution is not necessarily linear, in that a given trait might show up multiple times before being used by a successful species. We've come a long way from the old story of humanoid evolution that goes in a more or less linear chain from Australopithicus to Homo Sapiens.

GoDaddy Bobbles DST Changeover? 201

Posted by kdawson on Sunday March 11, 2007 @03:18PM from the time-for-a-change dept.

Several readers alerted us to this piece in PC World reporting on concerns that GoDaddy might not be ready for the DST changeover. Some readers, and others, claimed that GoDaddy's servers are not reachable now and are not serving email or web sites; but others see no evidence of this. The article recounts the rather flip response one GoDaddy customer got from their tech support: "As Daylight Savings [sic] does not apply to our servers, since we are on Arizona Time and our time zone does not change, our servers wouldn't update." When IDG News Service contacted GoDaddy they got an altogether more sensible reply.

Feed Turkey Lifts YouTube Ban (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Sunday March 11, 2007 @03:12PM

An official for Turk Telekom says the court is lifting the block on YouTube, imposed because of videos insulting to the founder of modern Turkey. By the Associated Press.

Submission + - Technical glitch thwarts Skynet launch

Submitted by

linumax

on Sunday March 11, 2007 @02:59PM

linumax writes: "Remember a recent story on Skynet's launch and all the jokes about what could go wrong and when it will become self aware? As reported by BBC "Saturday's attempt at a lift-off from Kourou in French Guiana was thwarted by a technical glitch in ground equipment at the European spaceport. There will be another attempt on Sunday to launch Britain's Skynet 5 satellite.""

Submission + - A more secure OS X before Leopard

Submitted by

Sebastiaan de With

on Sunday March 11, 2007 @02:34PM

Sebastiaan de With writes: "I've made a how-to from tips by Jay Beale on the last DEFCON Security conference and some own security tweaks to improve the overall security of your OS X. Make sure some default settings that can allow for vulnerabilities are set properly, and tune your firewall rules. A more advanced follow-up is coming soon."

Submission + - Bush administration again stifles scientists.

Submitted by niloroth on Sunday March 11, 2007 @02:21PM

niloroth writes: The Independent Online Reports on a leaked memorandum from the US Department of the Interior instructing members of the US Fish and Wildlife Service to refrain from mentioning climate change, sea ice, or polar bears in their trips to countries the arctic region. Following other such attempts by this administration to control either scientists connected with the government, or the results of those scientists, is there any hope for the next few years? Or is this just how it will be in the future no matter who is in power? Is the mix of science and government funding just too volatile?

New Mexico Might Declare Pluto a Planet 328

Posted by kdawson on Sunday March 11, 2007 @02:11PM from the dwarf-schwmarf dept.

pease1 writes "Wired and others are reporting that for New Mexico, the fight for Pluto is not over. Seven months after the International Astronomical Union downgraded the distant heavenly body to a 'dwarf planet,' a state representative in New Mexico aims to give the snubbed world back some of its respect. State lawmakers will vote Tuesday on a bill that proposes that 'as Pluto passes overhead through New Mexico's excellent night skies, it be declared a planet.' The lawmaker who introduced the measure represents the county in which Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto's discoverer, was born. For many of us old timers, and those who had the honor of meeting Clyde, this just causes a belly laugh and is pure fun. Not to mention a bit of poking a stick in the eye."

Submission + - EU To Mandate CFL In Homes

Submitted by

BertieBaggio

on Sunday March 11, 2007 @01:54PM

BertieBaggio writes: "How many EU leaders does it take to change a light bulb? Hot on the heels of similar moves by Australia and California to energy-saving CFL bulbs, EU leaders have told the European Commission to rush through proposals to replace incandescent light bulbs in the homes of all 490 million EU citizens. Sales of incandescent bulbs are likely to be phased out in favour of compact fluorescents, but existing stocks can still be used. This plan is part of the drive to cut CO2 emissions by 20% by the year 2020.

Engadget also has coverage of the story"

Submission + - The 10 Most Expensive Computer Keyboards

Submitted by inst on Sunday March 11, 2007 @01:10PM

inst writes: Why not spend some money on the computer part you probably interact with the most, your keyboard? Check out the world's 10 most expensive keyboards ranging from $250-$4400 US.

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