Comment Re:They've had these for years (Score 1) 291
Neither was Dr. Sbaitso - it was really just a simple Eliza-style program. The fun part was the text-to-speech.
Two Elements Added To Periodic Table 138
smitty777 writes "Two new elements have been added to the periodic table of the elements. Elements 114 and 116 are the weightiest known, with atomic weights of 289 and 292 respectively. The discoverers are proposing flerovium and moscovium as names for these two new discoveries. There are also arguments being made to add in three more as well: 113, 115 and 118." We've noted element 114 in the past, but this is more official.
Compressed Time at the Australia Telescope Compact Array
34
epaell writes "I've been playing a little bit with time-lapse and video editing over the last week while Duty Astronomer at the CSIRO's Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) near Narrabri in country New South Wales (Australia). Playing with video is all quite a new experience for me but I had fun putting this together and thought others may enjoy it. I've captured a number of videos of and around the telescope and attempted to highlight not only the instrument and the skies but also some of the wildlife we encounter on a daily basis while observing there. It also includes an obligatory video of cockatoos taking a hayride on one of the dishes and the frogs in the control room that are our constant companions during long observing sessions :-) I recommend switching from 360p to 1080p and setting on full-screen mode to get the full effect of the video."
Redistricting 2.0: Cloud Lets Voters Take Part 83
CWmike writes "As the 2010 U.S. census results arrived, Los Angeles County's politicians started ramping up for redistricting — the once-a-decade, computing-intensive, often contentious process of geographically carving up the populace into discrete parcels of voters. In the past, such decisions were made by politicians using expensive computer systems and software. Participation in the process was limited to an elite few who could afford experts who understood redistricting's arcane rules and GIS technology well enough to game them. This year, however, it won't just be the politicians and special interest groups poring over the data and tweaking boundary lines. All 4.5 million registered voters in LA County have access to a cloud-based redistricting application called the Public Access Plan that lets voters view and modify existing maps and boundaries, submit comments, and even create and submit their own plans from scratch. LA County is among the first government entities to consider providing Web-based tools that allow for direct public participation. 'This notion of public access has changed quite dramatically,' says Tim Storey, a senior fellow at the National Conference of State Legislatures. 'Throwing that wide open is a big step.' The big question now is whether the public will use it."
White iPhone 4 Coming Today 195
An anonymous reader writes "Initially, the white iPhone 4 will be available in 28 countries including the US, UK, Australia, China, Japan, and Italy. It will be available for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model with a new two year agreement through the Apple Store, AT&T and Verizon Wireless stores (as rumored earlier) and select Apple Authorized Resellers."
Comment Re:It depends on what you want from your TV (Score 3, Funny) 272
Oh, and don't forget The Big Bang Theory. Classic.
WHEATON!!!!!
Comment Re:Outlook (Score 1) 480
I'm not sure that's a reasonable question. A more reasonable question is, does it replace the features in Outlook that you actually use?
I have had to use Outlook for email in most organisations I've worked for (and out of the Office suite it is the only one I actually use regularly); admittedly I'm a developer and am therefore not a typical Office user, however I probably only used 50% of its functionality - basic email (with formatting), meeting requests, some very basic scheduling and task management. Not every user's usage of Outlook is going to be that simplistic but I would bet that one of the applications above would meet all of the needs of many users.
On the other hand, one massive hole that is still not really filled (although it is still being actively worked on) is Exchange connectivity, and I would imagine this would be a showstopper for adoption in many offices.
Comment Re:Comparing (Score 1) 480
It'll definitely open documents that Office can't; however as for OOo Writer being able to save changes to documents in docx format without corrupting them, that's another story - at least anecdotally in my case. I got bitten just the other night - when I reopened a docx file I had previously edited I discovered that an entire table I had filled with text had vanished, much to my chagrin. As I had a requirement to fill in the document I had no choice but to find a Windows machine and use Word to edit it.
Now, maybe I wasn't using the absolute latest and greatest version of OOo (3.2, Go-OO version - actually, Writer 3.2.0-7ubuntu4.1 to be exact), and it did warn me initially about saving in a non-native format, but still, I was very frustrated by the loss. I hope this is the sort of thing they are working on.
Comment Re:Does it still require you to install a RDBMS? (Score 1) 302
And if you do, why not just use Sqllite?
http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/PIM/Akonadi#Why_not_use_sqlite.3F
Comment Re:Don't be evil? (Score 1) 671
In most situations you'd be right. However, Microsoft has a monopoly and that changes everything. In the current market as an OEM (of PCs at least) you pretty much *are* forced to buy from them or remain a small-time player.
Comment Re:Have a great trip! (Score 1) 1095
Also, don't miss the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall (actually part of the Imperial War Museum).
Comment Re:DO WANT (Score 1) 484
Agreed, the n800 doesn't look like it will fit in your pocket but it fits in my jeans pocket just fine.
Comment Re:That's unclear. (Score 1) 325
I think however that at some point you have to stand back and look at why you are trying to create a standard. The answer *ought* to be "for the good of the consumer, by way of creating a well-known benchmark, and therefore by extension the good of the industry". The second important realisation is that you achieve the most broad adoption of that standard (surely an important thing, if you are really serious about establishing the standard) by making it as easily available and implementable as you can. Imposing extra barriers such as fees and/or patents does the opposite.
Now, I'm willing to accept that standards organisations (or perhaps, their individual member organisations) don't necessarily think this way. I think they should, though.
Beware the Airport Wireless 120
schwit1 writes to tell us that a recent study by a Silicon Valley-based security company shows that black-hats have been ramping up their use of tempting free or unsecured wireless access points in high travel areas like airports and hotels. "According to their study, even the 'secure' networks weren't all too safe. Eighty percent of the private Wi-Fi networks at airports surveyed by Airtight were secured by the aging Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol, which was cracked back in 2001. Almost as many — 77 percent — of the networks they surveyed were actually private, peer-to-peer networks, meaning they weren't official hotspots. Instead, they were running off someone else's computer."
Comment Re:N810 (Score 1) 167
everything open source
Are you sure this is true? Last I checked, a fair bit of the software supplied with the Maemo OS was not open source. Not to mention that a number of high profile third-party Maemo applications aren't open source either.
I have an N800, and they're great devices, but finding this out after I bought it was a great disappointment.
