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Comment Why XFS was never an option (Score 1) 830

by dtfinch (#27158813) Attached to: Apps That Rely On Ext3's Commit Interval May Lose Data In Ext4

Ext3's commit interval was one of its best features.

Sure, it doesn't have to make guarantees when the app doesn't explicitly sync, but losing data 1% of the time in an outage is better than losing data 99% of those in those cases.

Whenever I saw people complaining of losses in XFS that wouldn't have happened in ext3, the "doesn't have to guarantee unless synced" thing was brought up as an excuse.
The Almighty Buck

How To Handle Corporate Blackmail? 675

Posted by CmdrTaco from the slashdot-is-not-a-lawyer dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I have been in a software engineering position at a large company for approximately seven years. Recently, for a variety of reasons, I accepted a new job working for a local software company. I have given my employer three weeks' notice, instead of the standard two, as a courtesy. In return, it has been implied that, in spite my record of above-average performance appraisals and promotions, I will be marked as leaving the company 'on bad terms' if I refuse to extend my departure date further. With only three weeks remaining, I am hesitant to rock the boat by contacting our HR department, but this concerns me and seems like an extremely unethical practice. I live in an 'at-will' employment state, so I know that they have no legal recourse to keep me. I am concerned about the references they could give in the future; having spent a large majority of my career at this company, I will be dependent on them for references to verify my career experience. Has anyone ever run into this kind of situation before?"
Biotech

Human-Animal Hybrids Fail 554

Posted by timothy from the good-help-hard-to-find dept.
SailorSpork writes "Fans of furries and anime-style cat girls will be disappointed by the news that attempts to create human animal hybrids have failed. Experiments by British scientists to create embryonic stem cells by putting human DNA into cow or rabbit eggs had raised ethical concerns, but the question of how we would treat sub-humans will have to wait until we actually figure out how to make them."
Microsoft

Microsoft 'Vista Capable' Settlement Cost Could Be Over $8 Billion 313

Posted by Soulskill from the making-seinfeld-look-like-chump-change dept.
bk- writes with news that documents from the "Vista Capable" class-action lawsuit against Microsoft indicate the software giant could be on the hook for as much as $8.52 billion in upgrade costs. "[University of Washington economist Keith] Leffler came up with his total upgrade costs by calculating how much it would cost to upgrade each of the 19.4 million PCs with 1 GB of memory and graphics cards or onboard chipsets able to run Aero, according to Keizer. Leffler put the maximum cost of upgrading the desktops at $155, while positing that the notebooks' integrated graphics would be more tricky to replace and would cost between $245 and $590 per unit. The total price tag for Microsoft would thus range from $3.92 billion to $8.52 billion and in some cases would include complete replacements of notebooks that could not be feasibly upgraded, Leffler testified. Microsoft in its response argued that giving litigants 'a free upgrade to Premium-ready PCs would provide a windfall to millions.'"
Privacy

Oregon Governor Proposes Vehicle Mileage Tax 713

Posted by timothy from the if-you-have-nothing-to-hide dept.
tiedyejeremy writes "As covered by the Crosscut Blog, the Governor of Oregon, Ted Kulongoski, is proposing a change in the funding of the Oregonian transportation system that drops gasoline taxes and, by way of GPS tracking, taxes the number of miles driven, to the tune of 1.2 cents per mile. The reason for the proposed change is that lower fuel consumption via fuel efficiency will leave the system underfunded. The concerns involve government tracking of the movements of vehicles within the state, though this has been denied by ODOT official, James Whitty. I'm wondering how this affects people using the Interstate System and private roads, and if the outputs can or will be used by law enforcement to check alibis."
Google

Google Chrome Is Out of Beta 444

Posted by timothy from the could-be-a-contender dept.
BitZtream writes "This morning Google announced that Chrome is out of Beta, and showing improvements for plugin support, most notably video speed improvements. It also contains an updated javascript engine, claiming that it operates 1.4 times faster than the beta version, and work has begun on an extensions platform to allow easier integration with the browser by third parties."

Comment I wonder if the cd installer still sucks (Score 2, Funny) 64

by dtfinch (#25960063) Attached to: FreeBSD 6.4 Released

This is Disk 1. Please install Disk 2 and select OK to continue.
This is Disk 2. Please install Disk 1 and select OK to continue.
This is Disk 1. Please install Disk 2 and select OK to continue.
This is Disk 2. Please install Disk 1 and select OK to continue.
This is Disk 1. Please install Disk 2 and select OK to continue.
This is Disk 2. Please install Disk 1 and select OK to continue.
* repeat 50+ more times *
GUI

Windows 7 Beta Screenshots Leaked 587

Posted by timothy from the they're-prevolutionary dept.
Slatterz writes "Screenshots of what is said to be the next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system have been leaked onto the internet. The ThinkNext.net blog posted a range of screenshots over the weekend which it said represents Windows 7. Overall, the screenshots show a distinctly Vista-like interface, but there is still plenty of time for tweaks and changes to take place."
Patents

The Death of Nearly All Software Patents? 731

Posted by kdawson from the we-can-only-hope dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Patent and Trademark Office has now made clear that its newly developed position on patentable subject matter will invalidate many and perhaps most software patents, including pioneering patent claims to such innovators as Google, Inc. In a series of cases including In re Nuijten, In re Comiskey and In re Bilski, the Patent and Trademark Office has argued in favor of imposing new restrictions on the scope of patentable subject matter set forth by Congress in article 101 of the Patent Act. In the most recent of these three — the currently pending en banc Bilski appeal — the Office takes the position that process inventions generally are unpatentable unless they 'result in a physical transformation of an article' or are 'tied to a particular machine.'"

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