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PHP

Submission + - Why isn't PHP5 migration fixed yet? (fplanque.com)

Submitted by
Francois
Francois writes: "It's been 3 years since the release of PHP5. Yet PHP 4 still rules on the vast majority of web hosting platforms.

This is annoying for PHP open source developers who cannot leverage the potential of PHP 5 as long as they need to support PHP 4. This is also annoying for the PHP development group since they still need to support PHP 4 instead of focusing on PHP 6.

There would be an obvious solution: let PHP 5 behave like PHP 4 and explicitely request "PHP 5 mode" at the beginning of a script. Yet the PHP team seems to fail to recognize it... and the PHP world is still stuck in 2004."
Software

Submission + - Web 2.0: Free Desktop Environment (media-sight.net)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "A unique, powerful, and free Desktop Environment that lets you use any computer in the world as your own. You'll never be required to install any plug-ins or new software onto your computer because it all runs right inside your web browser just like going to a regular website."
Announcements

Submission + - Linus on GPLv3 and ZFS

Submitted by slurpster
slurpster writes: Linus makes his views about GPLv3 and ZFS clear in his lastest posting to the Linux mailing list.

He writes

'So to Sun, a GPLv3-only release would actually let them look good, and still keep Linux from taking their interesting parts, and would allow them to take at least parts of Linux without giving anything back (ahh, the joys of license fragmentation). Of course, they know that. And yes, maybe ZFS is worthwhile enough that I'm willing to go to the effort of trying to relicense the kernel. But quite frankly, I can almost guarantee that Sun won't release ZFS under the GPLv3 even if they release other parts. Because if they did, they'd lose the patent protection.'
Media

Submission + - Consequences of Closed Source Software in Linux (osweekly.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: What is wrong with closed source apps in Linux? That's the question that Matt Hartley attempts to answer. He writes, "I believe another simple fact of life is that people are going to have to get used to the issue of Windows migrants bringing their need for specific applications along with them. This would certainly explain the explosion is WINE popularity for sure. So, if we are so quick to allow proprietary applications in WINE, why the resistance and even downright resentment with proprietary applications then? Simple, the rules of the GPL disallow it. This may not seem fair, but regardless, this is simply how it is.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft "Surface Computer" Revealed (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by
cmulder
cmulder writes: "Popular Mechanics gets a sneak peek in this video and article of the design, features and possible uses of a future Microsoft product... a new computer design called the 'Microsoft Surface'.

"The company's unofficial Surface showman is Jeff Gattis. He's a clean-cut fellow who is obviously the veteran of a thousand marketing seminars. He spoke in sentences peppered with "application scenarios," "operational efficiencies" and "consumer pain points" while he took me through a few demonstrations of what the Surface can do. One of Gattis's consumer pain points is the frustrating mess of cables, drivers and protocols that people must use to link their peripheral devices to their personal computers. Surface has no cables or external USB ports for plugging in peripherals. For that matter, it has no keyboard, no mouse, no trackball — no obvious point of interaction except its screen."
The video demonstrates the Minority Report-like functioning of the Surface while the Microsoft spokesmen describe the technology as a 'complete new ecosystem for computers'."
Microsoft

Submission + - Bill Gates, Harvard dropout, gets degree

Submitted by El Lobo
El Lobo writes: Gates, who dropped out of Harvard and co-founded Microsoft Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500) to become the world's richest person, stopped off at his former stomping grounds to collect an honorary law degree.

I've been waiting for more than 30 years to say this: Dad, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree," Gates, 51, told the crowd, which included his father, also named Bill.

Jobs and Gates share the spotlight "I'll be changing my job next year, and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume," said Gates in a reference to his plan to shift full time into philanthropy.
Google

Submission + - Google urges US govt to raise number of H-1B visas (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
sanbro
sanbro writes: "Internet search giant Google on Thursday urged the US government to raise the number of H-1B visas by highlighting the contributions of its co-founder Sergey Brin and the company's principal scientist Krishna Bharat, both foreign-origin workers."
Patents

Submission + - Company aims to patent security patches (eweek.com)

Submitted by
Jonas Maebe
Jonas Maebe writes: "Someone thought up another way to profiteer from the software patent system: when a security hole is discovered, they'll try to patent the fix in order to collect money when the affected vendors close the hole in their product.. The company in question is not shy about its intentions: Intellectual Weapons will only consider vulnerabilities in high profile products from vendors with deep pockets. Let's be thankful for yet another way software patents are used to promote science and the useful arts."
Television

Submission + - CBS to give Jericho a Second Chance

Submitted by TobyRush
TobyRush writes: After being deluged by e-mails, phone calls, and salty snacks, CBS has reconsidered its decision to cancel the apocolyptic serial drama 'Jericho'. Worthy of note is a point made by the series' executive producer, Carol Barbee, referencing the series' online episode availability:

"I really think that what has been learned here is that networks are going to have to look at numbers and who is watching their show and who is downloading their show in a different way from here on out. I think they have to understand that the Nielsens are not telling the story anymore and that the 18-49 demographic they're all so keen on is online and that's how increasingly they are getting their news and entertainment."
Better yet is CBS President Nina Tassler's postscript: 'Please stop sending us nuts.'
Science

Forgetting May be Part of the Remembering Process 191

Posted by samzenpus from the what-was-I-talking-about dept.
CFTM writes "The New York Times is running an interesting article about how human memory works and the theorized adaptive nature of forgetfulness". From the article, "Whether drawing a mental blank on a new A.T.M. password, a favorite recipe or an old boyfriend, people have ample opportunity every day to curse their own forgetfulness. But forgetting is also a blessing, and researchers reported on Sunday that the ability to block certain memories reduces the demands on the brain when it is trying to recall something important. The study, appearing in the journal Nature Neuroscience, is the first to record visual images of people's brains as they suppress distracting memories. The more efficiently that study participants were tuning out irrelevant words during a word-memorization test, the sharper the drop in activity in areas of their brains involved in recollection. Accurate remembering became easier, in terms of the energy required."
Supercomputing

Submission + - World's first quantum circuit

Submitted by
Anonymous
Anonymous writes: "NEC, JST and RIKEN have together announced the unveiling of the world's first quantum circuit. The unveiling comes as the third step, after first unveiling the first solid-state qubit and the world's first logic gate between two qubits. This is an important step toward actually using quantum computing for something useful. Previously scientists have only been able to control a single qubit, with good results, but NEC's new circuit makes it possible to use pairs of qubits for computing quantum algorithms and logical functions, and then scale these pairs into a whole quantum computer, sometime in the future."
Windows

Submission + - Free tool turns Aero on or off in three seconds

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Techlogg.com has this freeware tool on its website called VistaAeroSwitch. It turns Vista's Aero interface on or off in less than three seconds. Even works on Vista systems with only 512MB of memory. Requires Vista Home Premium or better. Even includes useful system specs as well. http://techlogg.com/content/view/110/
Republicans

Submission + - O'Reilly propaganda techniques analyzed

Submitted by
Franso6
Franso6 writes: "The Indiana University published a paper analysing the (ab)use of propangada techniques in O'reilly's show (press release , full article (PDF) ).

In brief, the study applies a classification of techniques in seven categories (Name calling, Glittering generality, transfer, plain folks, testimonial and bandwagon) and then count the occurences of using these.
It appears that O'Reilly's favorite technique is 'name calling' (anyone surprised?)
All the tables here
Interesting insight for those of us who're interested in how to analyse that kind of "journalism"

For example, FTFA
"O'Reilly used all seven of the propaganda devices in his commentaries, but name calling is the backbone of his communication strategy (see Table 1). Results show O'Reilly employed name calling 8.88 times a minute, which is close to once every seven seconds.
On average, O'Reilly used six of the propaganda devices 12.91 times a minute, which means almost seven out of every 10 devices he employed was name calling"



All right, maybe I've written his name too many times now and that would count as propaganda, wouldn't it?"

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