Submission + - Porting GPL Code? 3
ripnet writes: If someone ports a GPL application to another language (say from c++ to c#), with reference to the original source code, is the new work covered by the GPL?
Submission + - OSS vs. Shareware in a Small Internet Community
yotto writes: "I am a nonvocal member of a fairly insular internet community. I have written an XSLT file to process an XML file that this community uses, to turn that XML into a set of web pages. My process is functional but not pretty, and I'm considering submitting the project to Sourceforge and announcing it on my community's message board to get help and make the project better. However, not only does the community already have a piece of software that does exactly what my XSLT file does, but that software is shareware and the author is an active and well-liked member of that community. He's also a nice guy and though I don't know him personally I have no problems with him. Has anybody ever attempted to introduce an OSS project into a community that already likes their closed-source, shareware solution? Was there a backlash and much hatred, or did everything work out? Or did your project fizzle because nobody helped?"
Submission + - My own private grid
giorgist writes: I have a lot of computers at work, and they sit idle for most of the time. Is it possible to muster them all together and get them cracking on some problem of our own choosing ? We have a cluster doing computations and time on it is limited. Maybe I can setup another were I can run packets on idle computers. People from work can join in and take "packets" home and run them on their computers at home while they work.
G
Submission + - What are the best network monitoring programs? 1
Ace writes: What are the best programs to keep track of all the IP addresses of incoming and outgoing connections that are connecting to your computer? I've been using firewall software but lately I've discovered strange anomolous connections to .ru sites that I can't explan (and I've run virus scan, have firewall, etc). I'd really like to find a package that logs a list of all sites, their IP's, etc (incoming and outgoing) and which program is doing it. I'd like not to have to reformat but it's looking likely.
Submission + - Application development for the OLPC laptop
desNotes writes: IBM DeveloperWorks (registration required) has a
tutorial on developing Python activities for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) computers. It covers the XO laptop architecture, internals, and talks about its application environment with the Sugar UI written in Python , accessible to everyone (including kids). The tutorial explores the APIs and shows how to develop and debug a graphical activity using Python, and platform emulation with QEMU (for those /. ers who did not order their own). The G1G1 program is running through 31 December.
Submission + - Document intranet -- web based
abissinger writes: "I am looking for a document storage/presentation web solution. My company uses one that was crafted a while back in gASP and is since defunct. I would seriously like to find one written to function on apache or iis. So far I haven't found any solutions that don't cost a fortune(really a cheap guy) or are remotely functional. I am able to set up basic to intermediate databases and will set up apache or iis to serve it. Any suggestions?"
Submission + - Finding an OSS project that needs help?
KlaymenDK writes: My father has been thinking about retiring from the (lumbering behemoth of a) company he's been working at, and I've teased him by saying that he can always find an open source project that needs his kind of skills.
A few days ago he actually did retire (well, was retired) but he's got plenty of energy left in him, and also more than 35 years of IT experience. So how, specifically, would one go about determining the best project to dedicate one's effort to?
He's a civil engineer, has done a ton of wizardy mainframe programming "back in the day", and has spent the last 15-20 years doing product presentations and educating the sales force about the technical side of the product lines. He's an avid promoter of "green" technology (that is, energy-efficiency and recyclability), and has never been afraid to go against management if he had a better plan. However, he's not entirely up to speed on the open source movement and free operating systems, though I do my best to educate him.
I'm sure he would make an excellent spokesperson for the OpenMoko, except they don't have any openings. So where else could you suggest, where would you start looking?
A few days ago he actually did retire (well, was retired) but he's got plenty of energy left in him, and also more than 35 years of IT experience. So how, specifically, would one go about determining the best project to dedicate one's effort to?
He's a civil engineer, has done a ton of wizardy mainframe programming "back in the day", and has spent the last 15-20 years doing product presentations and educating the sales force about the technical side of the product lines. He's an avid promoter of "green" technology (that is, energy-efficiency and recyclability), and has never been afraid to go against management if he had a better plan. However, he's not entirely up to speed on the open source movement and free operating systems, though I do my best to educate him.
I'm sure he would make an excellent spokesperson for the OpenMoko, except they don't have any openings. So where else could you suggest, where would you start looking?
Submission + - 'Profane' Content On 700Mhz Band?
janitorj writes: "As I was reading the manual for my new cellular phone (yes I RTFM), I came across an FCC warning that reads "No person shall utter any obscene, indecent or profane language by means of radio communication." This just means I cannot legally curse during my phone calls, but then I started thinking about all the talk about the high stakes FCC auction for the 700Mhz band. If, as the hype suggests, a large broadband network is created on these frequencies, what will become of internet censorship? The FCC will potentially have jurisdiction over any data sent over its frequencies, so does that mean if this wireless network is created, there will be no more profanity allowed on the internet?"
Submission + - Nerds steroids for the Brain
sm62704 (mcgrew) writes: "Several papers, including the Chicago Tribune (bugmenot required) and LA Times are running stories about brain-enhansing drugs like adderal and Provigil. From the Times:
What's your take on it? Should these drugs be sanctioned, outlawed, or ignored?"
My opinion on geek enhansing drugs is the same as jock enhansing drugs. I have no problem. They say Babe Ruth did it on babes and beer, but cocaine was legal then and there wre no drug tests. Give me a million bucks and I'll take damned near anything.Despite the potential side effects, academics, classical musicians, corporate executives, students and even professional poker players have embraced the drugs to clarify their minds, improve their concentration or control their emotions.
"There isn't any question about it — they made me a much better player," said Paul Phillips, 35, who credited the attention deficit drug Adderall and the narcolepsy pill Provigil with helping him earn more than $2.3 million as a poker player.
What's your take on it? Should these drugs be sanctioned, outlawed, or ignored?"
Submission + - No serious linux speech recognition software?
wally66 writes: I was impressed by the quality of some Windows-based speech recognition packages [1,2]
in the more recent past. Having successfully and happily moved to Linux for more than a year now, I miss nothing but a decent speech recognition program to relieve me from typing from time to time.
The lack of progress for Linux-based applications in this field is stunning. The last entry in the linux speech-reconition HOW-TO is from 2002 and this is not an indication that the field has matured :-)
The rest of the hits that you get when searching the net is not much more up-to-date. I know that there are packages for speech recognition in the default repositories of Ubuntu and other distros, but given the state of Windows-based speech recognition software such as ViaVoice or Dragon Naturally Speaking, they are prehistoric.
Am I overlooking something?
Submission + - The Erosion of Scientific Journalism (wordpress.com)
scida writes: "I've had my doubts with scientific journalism before (see here and here). My beef was, in short, how can a journalist who has not been well educated in a particular field effectively cover that field's scientific discoveries? How can they understand the small nuances and assumptions, those that professionals aren't always familiar with, those that can often change the course of an entire field for a decade or more, and report on them to the lay person? My conclusion: they can't, but neither can all scientists.
A recent article published in PLoS ONE has addressed part of this very issue: Reporting Science and Conflicts of Interest in the Lay Press (Cook et al., 2007). The authors searched through over 1100 articles published in 2004 and 2005, and categorized them according to "discipline of study being reported on" and whether, among other things, the financiers of the authors and studies were identified in the articles.
Although this information is readily available to journalists, only 38% of the stories identified the studies' funders, while only 11% of the financial ties of the researchers were reported.
Worse yet, just under half of these articles portrayed the information in either a positive or neutral light (i.e. "great job, and see here for more benefits of said research" or "here's what they observed, make up your own damn mind"), while only ~2% were critical of them (i.e. "what are the ethical ramifications of such work?").
The authors then argue, "Journalists work under many different constraints [such as editors, deadlines, etc], but nonetheless news reports of scientific research were incomplete, potentially eroding public trust in science."
First, is this conclusion valid? I believe so. The ivory spires of academia aren't typically painted with money begotten from private sources. Indeed, most purely academic pursuits are government funded. Therefore, to many academics, funding is never an item of contention when dealing with a piece of research. Rather, the science is what matters, and you prove your own trustworthiness among your peers through your work.
However, in the non-academic world, who's paying whom plays a big role in how we decide whether to trust a given information source or not: if an oil exec, backed by millions of dollars and a deep desire to keep his/her job, tells you "everything is fine", will you believe them over the academic funded by the public coffers? I sincerely hope not, but such is not always the case.
Therefore, yes — public trust is likely being eroded, like a house falling over a flooded river bank into the waters of celebrity gossip, tween magazines, and pseudo-political analyses.
What, then, might contribute a greater proportion to this great erosion — the flood (general public untrustworthiness), or the river banks (the journalists role of writing trustworthy scientific articles)?
Journalists are, after all, the ultimate segue between science and the general public in the current media model. Therefore, if one plans properly, and builds a solid foundation, the flood will pass and the Academy's towers will remain standing. I think Cook et al. have clearly demonstrates this is not occurring.
Are some journalists lazy? Arguably, yes, since so few articles analyzed by Cook et al. included information on the works' funding sources. After all, if they were to follow what may be the "Golden Rules" of Health and Medicine reporting (The Commonwealth Fund's "Tipsheet for Reporting on Drugs, Devices and Medical Technologies"), and typically the general rule for all reporting, there wouldn't be such an under representation of this information.
Why then, were so few articles reported on as either positive or neutral, when most were certainly not "great"? Well, the positive aspects of a particular discovery are very easy to grasp — it requires no more background work than to quote mine the introduction and discussion of any given article. Furthermore, simply reporting "as is" requires even less work.
Before attending the Future Directions of Science Journalism in October, out of naivety I would have ended this with, "shame on you journalists, shame on you!" I've now come to realize this really isn't the case, as those who attended the conference would attest to, because journalists aren't scientists. They don't have virtually unlimited amounts of time to work on a given problem, or write a given paper. Scientists, by their very nature, must do this in order to successfully publish in a peer reviewed journal. On the contrary, journalists have editors to deal with and deadlines to meet. Under these circumstance, its easier to to agree with a given piece of work, or simply report it without any further thought.
So where does the future of public scientific discourse lie? I would argue it is the Academy's responsibility to demand proper science reporting from the media. How? Through grass roots organization of a coalition of scientists dedicated to accurate, fair, and unbiased scientific reporting. Many individuals that might read this will likely think, "But scientists are terrible at explaining their work to the general public!", just as many of you commented similarly on my previous essay.
I disagree. SEED's ScienceBlogs is a great example of how scientists from many different fields have come together to form a spectacular and engaging public conversation on science. Furthermore, the Bloggers for Peer Reviewed Research Reporting (BPR3) are currently putting together a grass roots movement as it, "...strives to identify serious academic blog posts about peer-reviewed research...".
Scientific discoveries are slowly pervading more of public discourse, while the ivory spires of the Academy are slowly tipping into the river. Simultaneously, the current model of pubic media is shoveling sand away from the foundation. Perhaps it is time we take another look at how scientific discoveries are being communicated, and, instead of educating those reporting, empower those with the knowledge with the skills to better convey their knowledge.
I'm very curious what the slashdot community thinks — what is the best route for future scientific journalism?"
A recent article published in PLoS ONE has addressed part of this very issue: Reporting Science and Conflicts of Interest in the Lay Press (Cook et al., 2007). The authors searched through over 1100 articles published in 2004 and 2005, and categorized them according to "discipline of study being reported on" and whether, among other things, the financiers of the authors and studies were identified in the articles.
Although this information is readily available to journalists, only 38% of the stories identified the studies' funders, while only 11% of the financial ties of the researchers were reported.
Worse yet, just under half of these articles portrayed the information in either a positive or neutral light (i.e. "great job, and see here for more benefits of said research" or "here's what they observed, make up your own damn mind"), while only ~2% were critical of them (i.e. "what are the ethical ramifications of such work?").
The authors then argue, "Journalists work under many different constraints [such as editors, deadlines, etc], but nonetheless news reports of scientific research were incomplete, potentially eroding public trust in science."
First, is this conclusion valid? I believe so. The ivory spires of academia aren't typically painted with money begotten from private sources. Indeed, most purely academic pursuits are government funded. Therefore, to many academics, funding is never an item of contention when dealing with a piece of research. Rather, the science is what matters, and you prove your own trustworthiness among your peers through your work.
However, in the non-academic world, who's paying whom plays a big role in how we decide whether to trust a given information source or not: if an oil exec, backed by millions of dollars and a deep desire to keep his/her job, tells you "everything is fine", will you believe them over the academic funded by the public coffers? I sincerely hope not, but such is not always the case.
Therefore, yes — public trust is likely being eroded, like a house falling over a flooded river bank into the waters of celebrity gossip, tween magazines, and pseudo-political analyses.
What, then, might contribute a greater proportion to this great erosion — the flood (general public untrustworthiness), or the river banks (the journalists role of writing trustworthy scientific articles)?
Journalists are, after all, the ultimate segue between science and the general public in the current media model. Therefore, if one plans properly, and builds a solid foundation, the flood will pass and the Academy's towers will remain standing. I think Cook et al. have clearly demonstrates this is not occurring.
Are some journalists lazy? Arguably, yes, since so few articles analyzed by Cook et al. included information on the works' funding sources. After all, if they were to follow what may be the "Golden Rules" of Health and Medicine reporting (The Commonwealth Fund's "Tipsheet for Reporting on Drugs, Devices and Medical Technologies"), and typically the general rule for all reporting, there wouldn't be such an under representation of this information.
Why then, were so few articles reported on as either positive or neutral, when most were certainly not "great"? Well, the positive aspects of a particular discovery are very easy to grasp — it requires no more background work than to quote mine the introduction and discussion of any given article. Furthermore, simply reporting "as is" requires even less work.
Before attending the Future Directions of Science Journalism in October, out of naivety I would have ended this with, "shame on you journalists, shame on you!" I've now come to realize this really isn't the case, as those who attended the conference would attest to, because journalists aren't scientists. They don't have virtually unlimited amounts of time to work on a given problem, or write a given paper. Scientists, by their very nature, must do this in order to successfully publish in a peer reviewed journal. On the contrary, journalists have editors to deal with and deadlines to meet. Under these circumstance, its easier to to agree with a given piece of work, or simply report it without any further thought.
So where does the future of public scientific discourse lie? I would argue it is the Academy's responsibility to demand proper science reporting from the media. How? Through grass roots organization of a coalition of scientists dedicated to accurate, fair, and unbiased scientific reporting. Many individuals that might read this will likely think, "But scientists are terrible at explaining their work to the general public!", just as many of you commented similarly on my previous essay.
I disagree. SEED's ScienceBlogs is a great example of how scientists from many different fields have come together to form a spectacular and engaging public conversation on science. Furthermore, the Bloggers for Peer Reviewed Research Reporting (BPR3) are currently putting together a grass roots movement as it, "...strives to identify serious academic blog posts about peer-reviewed research...".
Scientific discoveries are slowly pervading more of public discourse, while the ivory spires of the Academy are slowly tipping into the river. Simultaneously, the current model of pubic media is shoveling sand away from the foundation. Perhaps it is time we take another look at how scientific discoveries are being communicated, and, instead of educating those reporting, empower those with the knowledge with the skills to better convey their knowledge.
I'm very curious what the slashdot community thinks — what is the best route for future scientific journalism?"
Submission + - What happens to your brain when you're coding?
youthoftoday writes: Discussions with friends have shown that we all have slightly different mental approaches to coding. I personally find that often the code just appears under my fingers. Sometimes when trying to code something complex (usually with pointers) I have to actively stop thinking about the problem and some more abstract part of my brain over which I have no control writes the code for me. This seems to raise a few eyebrows.
So how do slashdot readers write code? Cold and logical? Subconscious and inexplicable? Is there some truth in http://xkcd.com/323 ?
So how do slashdot readers write code? Cold and logical? Subconscious and inexplicable? Is there some truth in http://xkcd.com/323 ?
Submission + - Access Personal Information from Multiple OS's
Reapman writes: "I am trying to find the ideal setup for sharing my personal data over multiple Operating Systems, and keep coming up just short of my goal. My biggest priorities are Email (done currently with Courier IMAP), Appointments, task list, and Contacts. The OS's I use are Linux, Windows, Palm (Treo, willing to consider a different Phone/OS if it would help) and most recently a Macbook running Leopard. Google seems like a likely source for Calendar and Contacts but ideally I'd like to be able to access this data "offline" as well. Palm seems to be able to sync with Google Calendar but not without jumping through some rather annoying hoops.
Also looking to have bookmarks (Firefox?) and MSN Chat Logs (stuck with MSN, was thinking aMSN as the client?) between my desktop and laptop too. Documents right now are accessible via a Samba Domain Controller (so login / logout scripts are available to be worked with)
My goal would be some sort of streamlined process where I log in and it's all just there, no having to manually sync anything. This is just for me so the expensive "enterprise" solutions like Exchange and such aren't really viable options. I have looked at Fedora's Directory Services a bit however did'nt have much luck getting it running. I'm probably asking for quite a bit, but I figured if there was a solution, someone on here would know!"
Also looking to have bookmarks (Firefox?) and MSN Chat Logs (stuck with MSN, was thinking aMSN as the client?) between my desktop and laptop too. Documents right now are accessible via a Samba Domain Controller (so login / logout scripts are available to be worked with)
My goal would be some sort of streamlined process where I log in and it's all just there, no having to manually sync anything. This is just for me so the expensive "enterprise" solutions like Exchange and such aren't really viable options. I have looked at Fedora's Directory Services a bit however did'nt have much luck getting it running. I'm probably asking for quite a bit, but I figured if there was a solution, someone on here would know!"
Submission + - Bootsplash
An anonymous reader writes: My client recently switched to Ubuntu and hated its bootsplash (usplash). After digging into it, found that they have designed something to work in userspace. Switching to good old bootsplash was not easy, as Ubuntu 7.10 had blacklisted framebuffers, and bootsplash has stopped support for latest kernels. What could be best option to have a different splash in his machines?
Submission + - How Does An Entire ISP Block A Webpage? (gracefam.net)
The Claytonator writes: "I run a web server on an older computer that was destined for the trash heap (an HP Pavilion 9880C, with a P4 1.5 GHz processor and 512 mB Rambus ram). I am running the web server using Apache 2.2.4, PHP 5.2.3, and MySql 5.0.41 on Windows XP Pro. I ended up sending my webpage that receives the most hits to a host since it was really slowing my server down (that page received upwards of several hundred hits per day with multiple pages hit per visit). I originally opted to host that page on a host server believing that the slowing was caused by the speed of my internet, but now I believe it's more a slowing from the server itself, specifically the MySql database. I wonder what the best way to increase the speed of this server, specifically, how can I speed up the MySql server (is there a way to use caching, and if so, how)?
Another problem I ran into with this server is that although most people I know that want to access it have no problems whatsoever, I had one person in Colorado, who uses Bresnan Online as her ISP, and she could never get any pages to open. Most of her neighbors use the same ISP, and none of them were ever able to open pages either. Would this be some type of filter on the ISPs side, or a problem with my server? If this is caused by an ISP filter, how did I get on their filter list (since this server is brand new)? Could it be that there filter system blocks everything unless it is known safe? Anyway, I know it's not a problem with the site itself, or its database, since the day I switched to DirectNIC for hosting, those using Bresnan DSL as an ISP have been able to access the site. What other thoughts would you have to increase the speed and efficiency of this server? If I decided to build a new server from scratch, what components are most important (# of cpu cores, processor speed, amount of ram, etc.)? Would running a linux server increase speed and efficiency vs. Windows?"
