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Debian

Debian Gets FreeBSD Kernel Support 425

Posted by timothy from the types-like-this-kept-me-out-of-good-schools dept.
mu22le writes "Today Debian gets one step closer to really becoming 'the universal operating system' by adding two architectures based on the FreeBSD kernel to the unstable archive. This does not mean that the Debian project is ditching the Linux kernel; Debian users will be able to choose which kernel they want to install (at least on on the i386 and amd64 architectures) and get more or less the same Debian operating system they are used to. This makes Debian the first distribution, and probably the first large OS, to support two completely different kernels at the same time."
Medicine

California Classes LED Component Gallium Arsenide a Carcinogen 495

Posted by timothy from the tooth-fairy-is-a-cat-burglar dept.
Reader LM741N, pointing to a report released this month by California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, writes "Gallium Arsenide has now been listed as a carcinogen. Given the increasing usage of gallium arsenide, the main constituent in LEDs, and their recent championing as more efficient light sources in recent news stories and Slashdot, there may be significant environmental concerns as related to their disposal. Morover, workers in industries using the substance may be at risk of cancer as well."
Databases

Submission + - Help Find Jim Gray

Submitted by bartc
bartc writes: Werner Vogels has a post on how you can help find Jim Gray, Jim Gray, a renowned computer scientist who was reported missing at sea on Sunday, January 28th, 2007. From his post:

Through a major effort by many people we were able to have the Digital Globe satellite make a run over the area on Thursday morning and have the data made available publicly. We have split these images into smaller tiles that can be easily scanned visually and stored into the Amazon S3 storage service. We then created tasks for reviewing these images and loaded then into the Amazon Mechanical Turk Service. This is where you come in. We need your help in reviewing these images to see whether you can locate Jim's boat in any of these images. Please go to the Amazon Mechanical Turk site and help us find Jim Gray.

On Apple vs Apple 324

Posted by CmdrTaco from the ridiculous-court-cases dept.
Since nothing else really interesting is happening, here is a CNN story about Apple vs Apple where you can read about the latest developments in the latest round of the never ending court battles as two bazillion dollar companies fight over who gets to use the word 'Apple' to sell music.

Online Test Measures Speed of your Brain 256

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the new-kind-of-quick-draw dept.
KingSkippus writes "According to CNet, a company named Posit Science has produced an online test using Flash that uses sounds to measure the speed of your brain down to the millisecond. According to the company, the test 'measures auditory processing (listening) speed—one of many measures of brain function...The faster we can take in information accurately, the better we can keep up with, respond to and remember what we hear.'"

Memo Outlines Microsoft's Plans 118

Posted by Zonk from the now-it's-on-the-interweb dept.
conq wrote to mention a BusinessWeek article that covers some of Microsoft's upcoming web plans. From the article: "Live.com, Microsoft's customizable search-oriented portal, has more than 3 million users and the second-highest Net Promoter score -- a metric showing how many users would recommend the site to others -- of all MSN.com properties, writes Cole. That's good news, since the Live.com portal is the entry point for the first release of its Windows Live Search, the site through which Microsoft hopes to make the big bucks through paid search. Microsoft on Mar. 8 unveiled a slew of features aimed at letting users personalize the way they search the Web."

Long Dev Time Equals Better Game? 88

Posted by Zonk from the not-always dept.
Via a GameSetWatch post, a piece on Treyarch Producer Stuart Roch's blog. He discusses the long development time of Shadow of the Colossus, and what four years of work did for that title. From the article: "Granted, it's a bit of a stretch to make a simple correlation between more development time and higher quality product based on this tiny product sample, but I have to admit, there is certain attractiveness to the argument. Can it be that in a given number of development cycles, those that had more time with less resources would create better games than those that had short dev cycles with monster teams? One might think that having more time would allow for more polish and iteration and therefore yield higher quality product, but as I'm sure you're thinking, examples can be made of both good and bad games that were in production for long periods of time."

Comment Not if using ports (Score 1) 387

by RinkSpringer (#11118780) Attached to: PHP Vulnerabilities Announced
Using FreeBSD 5.3-STABLE, I did:

# cvsup /etc/cvsupfile
# portupgrade php5-cgi
# portupgrade -f php5-extensions

The latter -f causes all extensions to be rebuilt, which is what I wanted. Voila, upgraded in about 20 minutes on an Athlon XP 2000+.

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