Comment Re:Fear of Slashdot grammar shone upon me (Score 1) 221
One of the cases where a semicolon would be beneficial, no?
Comment Re:Bring some liteculture to your cubicle (Score 1) 403
How strange that I figured it was Ulysses before even clicking the link
OP, to bamboozle your colleagues let it display the first chapter of Finnegan's Wake or something. Cue "why is that thing saying random strings of words?"
Comment Re:You need to explain (Score 1) 1589
I would say many Europeans travel outside of Europe. It's quite common to leave for Thailand, Cuba, whatever. At least among young adults. I don't know where you're from but it's certainly the case in Norway -- I don't know of many who has NOT been to one of these places.
Comment Re:You need to explain (Score 1) 1589
So is Norwegian: "Fri" is free as in speech, while "gratis" is for "no monetary cost"
The State of UK Broadband — Not So Fast 279
Barence writes "The deplorable speed of British broadband connections has been revealed in the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics, which show that 42.3% of broadband connections are slower than 2Mb/sec. More worryingly, the ONS statistics are based on the connection's headline speed, not actual throughput, which means that many more British broadband connections are effectively below the 2Mb/sec barrier. Better still, a separate report issued yesterday by Ofcom revealed that the majority of broadband users had no idea about the speed of their connection anyway."
Submission + - eyeOS 1.0 Released - Codenamed Dahlia (eyeos.com)
K-Disk writes: "Just shooting an FYI saying eyeOS 1.0 Codename Dahlia has been released, As many know eyeOS had much sucess with the eyeOS 0.9x series as one of the most complete Open Source Web Operating Systems. They have officially released the 1.0 version which will definately set the De Facto in Web Operating Systems."
Submission + - Comprehensive reviews and ratings of Facebook apps (facereviews.com)
JasonVergo writes: "facereviews.com contains numerous thorough reviews and ratings of Facebook apps. With the recent release of the Facebook Platform API and the explosive growth in the number of apps, I have found this site to be invaluable. I have discovered a few great underground apps that are not listed in the official Facebook's directory."
The Impossibility of Colonizing the Galaxy 979
OriginalArlen writes "The science fiction writer Charlie Stross has written an excellent and comprehensive explanation of why, thousands of SF books, movies, and games notwithstanding, human colonization of other star systems is impossible. Although interstellar colonization seems common-sensical to many, Charlie makes a clear-headed and unarguable case, so far as I can see, that it ain't gonna happen without a 'magic wand' or two. Nevertheless it would be interesting to see reasoned responses from the community who believe that colonization is not merely possible, but inevitable — and even, as Hawking has said, vital for the survival of the species. So, who's right — Hawking or Stross?"
Submission + - Iraqi insurgent engineers designing better IEDs (time.com)
nbauman writes: Saif Abdallah says his inventions have helped kill or maim scores, possibly hundreds, of Americans. For more than four years, he has been developing remote-control devices that Sunni insurgents use to detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the roadside bombs that are the No. 1 killer of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The only time he ever felt a pang of regret was in the spring of 2006, when he heard that the Pentagon, in a bid to fight the growing IED menace, had roped in a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Abdallah, an electronics engineer by training, once dreamed of studying for a Ph.D. there. "I thought to myself, If my life had gone differently, who knows? I might have been on that team," he says, his eyes widening as he imagines that now impossible scenario. Then he shrugs. "God decided I should be on the other side," he says. Abdallah, 28, "fits every geek stereotype," according to Time http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1632 805,00.html, with thick glasses, acne and a flash drive on his key chain. His bedroom workbench in Baghdad has soldering irons, old printed circuit boards, discarded TV remotes, etc. that he uses to build remote control detonators.
Submission + - Flash UI that might be better than Outlook
marsaro writes: "A lot of companies have tried for years to develop so called Exchange replacements, none have done well at all. The success of Exchange is not because that product is a great mail server, but because it is codeed to work with Office, more specifically Outlook. Love it or hate it, the client became quickly adopted and very hard to replace. We have seen recently a lot of companies using AJAX in client offerings that are more rich, and fluid, but few have used Flash, until now. Flash has lot's of benefits, security, multi-media, but also wide support for OS and browsers. CommuniGate Pro has always been known to be a rock solid server, but just recently released their new UI called Pronto! which is based on Flash. You can see it here http://www.communigate.com/demoFlash/demo_10.html Best part is the server and Pronto! is free for five users."
Feed Ancient Greek Amphitheater: Why You Can Hear From Back Row (sciencedaily.com)
The theater at Epidaurus has been known for centuries as an acoustic marvel that allowed spectators to hear in the back row. Georgia Tech researchers have discovered that Epidaurus' limestone seats created a sophisticated acoustic filter that carried instruments and voices all the way to the back row.
Submission + - Digg Used To Facilitate DDoS Attack
GoogTube writes: "yesterday a "story" was submitted to digg.com. But unlike most stories this one didn't intend on providing useful information, Breaking news or a funny video. the intention of this story was to initiate a DDoS attack against the site godhatesfags.com by using the digg community as a botnet.
A user posted a story entitled "Make GodHatesFags pay for their bandwidth" with the description "It's time to stop this shit. Feel free to use as much bandwidth as possible. Try downloading a few podcasts."
The story then rapidly received many diggs, 2139 at the time of this post, And soon found it's way onto the front page, At which point digg users started posting links to audio files in comments and soon knocked godhatesfags.com offline."
A user posted a story entitled "Make GodHatesFags pay for their bandwidth" with the description "It's time to stop this shit. Feel free to use as much bandwidth as possible. Try downloading a few podcasts."
The story then rapidly received many diggs, 2139 at the time of this post, And soon found it's way onto the front page, At which point digg users started posting links to audio files in comments and soon knocked godhatesfags.com offline."
Submission + - Can Games Fly On Google Earth?
simoniker writes: A team at Intel have built a game prototype that works entirely within Google Earth, in which: "Martian robotic spacecraft are invading... Your mission is to decipher the messages, and blast these Martians before they can suck people off the planet." The engineers explain: "Existing games we found all require switching back and forth between a web browser window and Google Earth. Our goal was to develop a game with all the action inside a single window, similar to a traditional video game, leading to a more immersive and responsive experience." The gameplay is fairly simple as of yet — but could this be the start of a host of fully integrated Google Earth games?
Submission + - Most important lines of code
r_accorsi writes: It is certainly true that world's basic infrastructures would collapse in case computers shutdown unexpectedly, thereby putting the whole humanity in danger, at least in certain regions. As computers are to-date responsible for keeping such services (and after all ourselves) alive, code is the ultimative matter. I would like to know which (classes of) lines of code are the key for our survival.
