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Data Storage

OpenSUSE May Be First Major Distro To Adopt Btrfs By Default 104

Posted by timothy from the slippery dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The openSUSE Linux distribution looks like it may be the first major Linux distribution to ship the Btrfs file-system by default. The openSUSE 13.1 release is due out in November and is still using EXT4 by default, but after that the developers are looking at having openSUSE using Btrfs by default on new installations. The Btrfs features to be enabled would be the ones the developers feel are data-safe."
Biotech

DoD Declassifies Flu Pandemic Plan Containing Sobering Assumptions 337

Posted by samzenpus from the what's-the-plan dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Department of Defense has just declassified a copy of its 2009 Concept of Operations Plan for an Influenza Pandemic. Among the Plan's scary yet reasonable assumptions are that in the United States, such a pandemic will kill 2 percent of the infected population, or about 2 million people. The plan also assumes that a vaccine won't be available for at least 4 to 6 months after confirmation of sustained human transmission, and that the weekly vaccine manufacturing capability will only produce 1 percent of the total US vaccine required. State and local governments will be overwhelmed, and civilian mortuary operations will require military augmentation. Measures such as limiting public gatherings, closing schools, social distancing, protective sequestration and masking will be required to limit transmission and reduce illness and death. International and interstate transportation will be restricted to contain the spread of the virus. If a pandemic starts outside the US, it will enter the country at multiple locations and spread quickly to other parts of the country. A related document, CONPLAN 3591-09, was released by DoD in 2010."

Comment Re:should slashdot be asking if the U.S. should bo (Score 1) 659

by jdavidb (#44823213) Attached to: Should the U.S. bomb Syria?

You're perfectly fine in using violence to stop the guy. But you're not fine in using violence to force other people to help you. So if I'm on the sidelines and think I have a different perspective and don't want to become involved for whatever reason, you're perfectly fine in thinking I'm terrible and calling me nasty names, but you are not fine in using force to make me to become involved.

Comment Re:Chemical Weapons Suck (Score 1) 659

by jdavidb (#44822895) Attached to: Should the U.S. bomb Syria?

I guess I feel an obligation and a duty to make sure no backwater leader feels weapons of mass destruction are an OK response to a regional conflict.

I support your right to personally go and do something about it, or to pool your resources with others and send them to do something about it.

I do not support your right to use my money or the money of others. We don't feel this obligation. You ought to support your own feelings of duty - not impose them on the rest of us.

Comment Re:Too late (Score 1) 189

by jdavidb (#44821015) Attached to: Java 8 Developer Preview Released

Really? Java is still the #1 language and will remain so for a long time to come. The toddlers will use the supposed hip languages all they want meanwhile most other devs are just using Java and solving real problems.

I used to say something like that about Perl, and now I'm a Java developer.

Comment Re:Don't fly. (Score 1) 1233

by jdavidb (#44657395) Attached to: Don't Fly During Ramadan
Boycott isn't a market-based solution in this case, because there is no free market in airline travel. Yes you can charter a private airline - but nobody can create a competing service on the scale of the existing airlines that is not subject to TSA regulation.

Comment Re:Slashvertisement (Score 1) 254

by jdavidb (#44617745) Attached to: The Cryonics Institute Offers a Chance at Immortality (Video)
Many of these desperate dying people have been committed to having themselves cryonically preserved since the 1960's and have spent all their lives preparing for this moment. Two I can name in particular are Robert Ettinger and Fred Chamberlain. I might also mention Mike Darwin, who is still breathing and has been active in cryonics for his entire adult life (and before). Many of these people risked jailtime and other punishments to protect others who had already been preserved. So it's not all a scam for uninformed people.
Biotech

Video The Cryonics Institute Offers a Chance at Immortality (Video) 254

Posted by Roblimo from the never-ever-refer-to-me-as-a-corpsicle-you-room-temperature-bag-of-bones dept.
Do you want to be frozen after you die, in hopes of being revived a century or two (or maybe ten) in the future? It can cost less than an electric car. That's what the Cryonics Institute (CI) offers. David Ettinger, today's interviewee, is both the son of CI founder Robert Ettinger and CI's lawyer. In this video, among other things, he talks about arrangements that were made for his father's demise, and how they were able to start the cryopreservation process almost immediately after he expired. Is Cryonics the best chance at immortality for those of us likely to die before the Singularity arrives, and gives all of us the tools we need to live forever? David Ettinger obviously thinks so. (This is Video #1 of 2. The second one is scheduled to run tomorrow. It's an interview with CI Director Andy Zawacki, who takes us into the facility where the frozen bodies are stored.)

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