Submission + - Global Gmail Outage
Anonymous Coward writes: "Based on reports from the unofficial Gmail Down and official Gmail Updates and Alerts groups there appears to be a very widespread outage of the Gmail service."
Submission + - Open Source Highly Available Storage Solutions?
Gunfighter writes: I run a small datacenter for one of my customers, but they're constantly filling up different hard drives on different servers and then shuffling the data back and forth. At their current level of business, they can't afford to invest in a Storage Area Network of any sort, so they want to spread the load of their data storage needs across their existing servers like Google does. The only software packages I've found that do this seamlessly are Lustre and NFS. The problem with Lustre is that it has a single metadata server unless you configure failover, and NFS isn't redundant at all and can be a nightmare to manage. The only thing I've found that even comes close is Starfish. While it looks promising, I'm wondering if anyone else has found a reliable solution that is as easy to set up and manage? Eventually, they would like to be able to scale from their current storage usage levels (~2TB) to several hundred terabytes once the operation goes into full production.
Submission + - Podcast Search Engine for Geeks
pdxSlaher writes: I like this podcast search engine because you can search by keyword or browse podcasts using a faceted navigation on the left. You can remove the word geek to see more results.
View Geek Podcasts Here
Submission + - No more repeats
ninjapiratemonkey writes: Too much time is wasted re-implementing code that someone else has allready done, for the sole reason its faster than finding the other code. Previous source code search engine, such as google codesearch and koders, only considered individual files on there own, leading to poor quality results; makeing them only useful when the amount of time to re-implement was extremely high.According to a recent newsforge article a fledgling source-code search engine All The Code is aiming to change all of this. The refreshingly clean interface is reminiscent of Google in its
heyday — as are the mind-reading, mind-blowing search algorithms employed. By looking at code, not just on its own, but also how it is used, it is able to return more relevant results. This seems like just what we need to unify the open-source community, leading to an actual common repository of unique code, and ending the cycle of unecessary reimplementing.
Journal SPAM: The Harry Potter Machine 4
So Deathly Hollows is available to preorder and has already hit number one for Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I have no idea how Amazon does it - but if you follow that link you will see that they are selling the 'regular' edition for $18.89 and list is $34.99.
Submission + - Netvibes on your mobile phone
Lassagne writes: Does Netvibes seem to work (in secrecy?) on a mobile version of their site. Discover of exclusiveness the first information and images!
Ah magic of Internet! While surfant on one of my daily sites, I discovered a very interesting address of site, that of the mobile version of Netvibes! In your Netvibes Web, it is necessary to create a new mitre entitled "mobile", then one adds flows which interest us. On the mobile, one types the address according to http://m.netvibes.com/ and one informs the fields login/password. And hop, here is Netvibes on your mobile! The service is currently in beta, as indicated, and will appelerai itself Netvibes2Go. Well on ergonomics is worse on the mobile than behind a screen with keyboard and mouse, but the service is excellent to remain always informed of mobility! I am in a hurry to see the final version
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F %2Fwww.giiks.com%2F%3F2007%2F01%2F31%2F388-netvibe s-version-mobile-en-exclusivite&langpair=fr%7Cen&h l=fr&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools
Ah magic of Internet! While surfant on one of my daily sites, I discovered a very interesting address of site, that of the mobile version of Netvibes! In your Netvibes Web, it is necessary to create a new mitre entitled "mobile", then one adds flows which interest us. On the mobile, one types the address according to http://m.netvibes.com/ and one informs the fields login/password. And hop, here is Netvibes on your mobile! The service is currently in beta, as indicated, and will appelerai itself Netvibes2Go. Well on ergonomics is worse on the mobile than behind a screen with keyboard and mouse, but the service is excellent to remain always informed of mobility! I am in a hurry to see the final version
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2
Submission + - Why desktop apps start so slow on Linux?
zaikxtox writes: "Hello Slashdotters. I have been using Linux several yearse from now. Installed Debian on 1999 and never booted again on Windows at home. From 3 years to now i have removed Windows from work so i'm a "Pure Linux User (TM)". I'm really happy with this setup, and my wife, a music teacher uses Debian Etch without any problem, and today prefers Linux to Windows. But there is some issue with desktop applications startup times. I have an amd64 machine with dual channel memory and good hardware so there should not be performance problems on my setup. Tried also Gentoo, but it's almost the same startup time. GTK2.0 and QT (kde) apps tend to delay a second... two... three... sometimes then before opening! Firefox and OpenOffice are the more spectacular.
I tried prelinking, noatimes on my fstab, and several tricks for optimizing startup times but probably the problem is that the dynamic linker has a lot of work with apps with lots of library's that have them self another bunch of library's linked, like the ones that conform a modern desktop on Linux today. Also tuned and recompiled my kernel, used realtime and preemtion patches... but on a PII 350 with 128 mb ram a fresh installed Windows XP loads Firefox almost instantly, and on my amd64 3000+ with dual channel 512mb it takes 5 secconds!!
And it's not an X Window issue... SDL apps seem to be the quicker to load. Also Enlightenment DR17 svn builds really fly.
I have been asking other users near to me and this issue is a common complain, so... is there someone working on it apart from the prelink author? maybe it's a problem with the ELF format, that has true dynamic linking instead of binary linking like win32?
Thanks
Ivan (aka zaikxtox)"
I tried prelinking, noatimes on my fstab, and several tricks for optimizing startup times but probably the problem is that the dynamic linker has a lot of work with apps with lots of library's that have them self another bunch of library's linked, like the ones that conform a modern desktop on Linux today. Also tuned and recompiled my kernel, used realtime and preemtion patches... but on a PII 350 with 128 mb ram a fresh installed Windows XP loads Firefox almost instantly, and on my amd64 3000+ with dual channel 512mb it takes 5 secconds!!
And it's not an X Window issue... SDL apps seem to be the quicker to load. Also Enlightenment DR17 svn builds really fly.
I have been asking other users near to me and this issue is a common complain, so... is there someone working on it apart from the prelink author? maybe it's a problem with the ELF format, that has true dynamic linking instead of binary linking like win32?
Thanks
Ivan (aka zaikxtox)"
Submission + - Open XML Translator for Microsoft Word Available
narramissic writes: The first phase of a Microsoft-funded project to create software that can convert Microsoft Word documents between Open XML and Open Document Format (ODF) has been completed and The Open XML Translator is now available for download in version 1.0 from SourceForge.net.
Submission + - Prototype Maxwell's Demon developed
retrosteve writes: "Led by Professor David Leigh, the team from Edinburgh have designed and built a molecule known as a rotaxane, that can move and sort particles. It took three years of painstaking work to find a molecular form that could do this job. It is powered by light, so the Second Law is intact."
Submission + - Vista SHortlisted for Environmental Award
Anonymous Coward writes: "After suffering accusations that Vista will harm the environment, Microsoft have been shortlisted for an 'Environmental Product Innovation' award by UK organisation, Sustain IT.
I for one would very interested to hear what makes Vista an Environmental Product Innovation.
http://sustainit.org/news-archive/news_info.php?re fnum=1342"
Submission + - Take your spare room off-grid
An anonymous reader writes: So, you want to go off-grid? Or maybe you want to find out what it's like before taking the plunge? How about taking one room of your house off grid? It's a less expensive way of learning the technology, before committing yourself.
We suggest starting with a bedroom. Look around your bedroom and see what devices you have that run on electric. As I look around my room, I see one table lamp, two floor lamps, wall lamp, digital TV, Stereo, satellite box, portable dvd player, vcr, and XBox. I also have a battery powered clock, powered by rechargeables, so I'll add the battery charger to our list. There is also a curling iron, hair dryer, and ceiling fan with lights, but we will leave those items off our list for now.
The first thing I need to do, is plug these devices in, one at a time, to my Kill-A-Watt ($30 or £16.20), to determine individual loads and daily run times. This will determine the battery capacity, and size and number of Photovoltaic (PV) panels necessary to support these loads.
Lets assume I need 100 watts to power any devices used simultaneously, and I use that load 6 hours a day. I would then need 100 x 6, or 600 watt-hours (wh's) per day to power that equipment. I would only need a 100 watt inverter, but there is little price difference between that and a 300, so I'll upgrade this item to a 300 watt inverter ($40 or £21.60).
I decide I want to have 1 days worth of power in a battery bank, in case of no sun, so I convert those watt hours into amp-hours (ah's) by dividing by 12, the voltage of my battery pack. 600 / 12 = 50 ah's. I do not want to discharge my battery pack more than 50%, to ensure long life, so I want a 100 ah pack. One deep cycle type 27 battery from Walmart is 115ah and cost $55 (£29.70).
To keep that battery charged, I need to be able to put 600 wh's per day back into the pack. My area of the world gets on average 2.5 sun hours daily, so 600 / 2.5 = 240 watts of PV. A 240 watt array (2 * 120w panels) ($480 or £259.50 each panel) would need a 30 amp (240 / 12 + 50%) charge controller ($180 or £97.30) to keep the array from overcharging the battery.
So there you have it, for less than $1300 (£702.70), you have taken one room off grid, and eliminated $0.09 / day (600wh's x $0.15 kWh) of grid electric, giving you a 40 year payback ($1300 / $0.09 = 14444 days / 365 = 39.6 years). And if electricity prices rise faster than inflation, which they will, the payback is much faster. In fact you get the double benefit of having made one room Kyoto-compliant, AND saving money.
We suggest starting with a bedroom. Look around your bedroom and see what devices you have that run on electric. As I look around my room, I see one table lamp, two floor lamps, wall lamp, digital TV, Stereo, satellite box, portable dvd player, vcr, and XBox. I also have a battery powered clock, powered by rechargeables, so I'll add the battery charger to our list. There is also a curling iron, hair dryer, and ceiling fan with lights, but we will leave those items off our list for now.
The first thing I need to do, is plug these devices in, one at a time, to my Kill-A-Watt ($30 or £16.20), to determine individual loads and daily run times. This will determine the battery capacity, and size and number of Photovoltaic (PV) panels necessary to support these loads.
Lets assume I need 100 watts to power any devices used simultaneously, and I use that load 6 hours a day. I would then need 100 x 6, or 600 watt-hours (wh's) per day to power that equipment. I would only need a 100 watt inverter, but there is little price difference between that and a 300, so I'll upgrade this item to a 300 watt inverter ($40 or £21.60).
I decide I want to have 1 days worth of power in a battery bank, in case of no sun, so I convert those watt hours into amp-hours (ah's) by dividing by 12, the voltage of my battery pack. 600 / 12 = 50 ah's. I do not want to discharge my battery pack more than 50%, to ensure long life, so I want a 100 ah pack. One deep cycle type 27 battery from Walmart is 115ah and cost $55 (£29.70).
To keep that battery charged, I need to be able to put 600 wh's per day back into the pack. My area of the world gets on average 2.5 sun hours daily, so 600 / 2.5 = 240 watts of PV. A 240 watt array (2 * 120w panels) ($480 or £259.50 each panel) would need a 30 amp (240 / 12 + 50%) charge controller ($180 or £97.30) to keep the array from overcharging the battery.
So there you have it, for less than $1300 (£702.70), you have taken one room off grid, and eliminated $0.09 / day (600wh's x $0.15 kWh) of grid electric, giving you a 40 year payback ($1300 / $0.09 = 14444 days / 365 = 39.6 years). And if electricity prices rise faster than inflation, which they will, the payback is much faster. In fact you get the double benefit of having made one room Kyoto-compliant, AND saving money.
Submission + - Are long-term working skills a thing of the past?
Scribe writes: "In his article in the New Statesman this week, Peter Wilby asks whether the need for flexibility in companies has killed off long-term skills and, with it, commitment to and quality of the work itself.
"Their skills are declared obsolescent, their job is outsourced, their company is taken over or suddenly switches to different products and markets. Constant downsizing and delayering make any promotion provisional. In such a world, only a fool commits either to a particular company or a particular skill.
Submission + - The OCaml Summer Project
Yaron Minsky writes: "In a nutshell: The project will pay student developers $6k to hack on open-source OCaml projects over the summer. Our company, Jane Street Capital, is an extensive user of OCaml, and is funding this to help support and grow the OCaml community. It's an interesting example of the success of a minority programming language in the real world."
Submission + - Reinventing the Source Code Search Engine
ninjapiratemonkeyofdoom writes: It's always been a dream of programmers: stop reinventing the wheel. Find that method, end your madness. News forge has an atrcile on ,a solution
thats still in the alpha stage (and presently only for Java), fledgling source-code search engine Allthecode. Unlike previous generations of code search engines (such as google codesearch and koders), it actually considers how often code is used and the context in which it used, often leading to better results. The refreshingly clean interface is reminiscent of Google in its heyday — as are the mind-reading, mind-blowing search algorithms employed. The database was apparently cobbled together from hundreds (so far) of open-source and free-software projects, and thus under a variety of licences. This seems like just what we need to unify the open-source community, leading to an actual common repository of code, and ending the cycle of "hoboware": the errant macros, subroutines, and entire classes that have in the past been easier to re-write than to track down and put to work.
