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Journal Journal: "Scientists prepare to move Doomsday Clock forward"

Journal by flaming error on Friday January 12, 2007 @07:21PM

Reuters reports that the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists says conditions are closer to doomsday than the used to be:

When it was created by the magazine's staff in 1947, it was initially set at seven minutes to midnight and has moved 17 times since then.

Journal Journal: Skeptic Revamps $1M Psychic Prize 11

Journal by robi2106 on Friday January 12, 2007 @06:50PM

Amusing and interesting all in one! Go read the article at the source but if you don't want to give Wired any page hits (or are lazy), I'll quote it below. The gist is that a magician, a practicer of slight of hand not the paranormal, got fed up with psychics and their tricks and ploys bilking the unsuspecting public so he offered up a cash prize to anyone that can prove their claim of supernatural abilities.

Submission + - Why are free-desktop developers wedded to Linux?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09, 2007 @03:48PM

An anonymous reader writes: We have been hearing promising predictions like "This year will be the year of Linux on the desktop" for the last decade. But Linux today seems to be as far away as ever from realizing the explectations of mass adoption we once had for it, without significant growth in home usage since the late 90s. Clearly, if Linux is unable to reproduce a third of Firefox's end user uptake over a much longer timeframe, there are deficiencies with the direction the GNU/Linux/X/Gnome/KDE system has taken. But almost all free software and desktop efforts and development remain unquestioningly oriented around Linux. Other free-desktop operating system projects which take different and innovative approaches like ReactOS, AROS, Mona and Syllable remain comparitively starved of developers and interest. An often cited reason for using a non-Microsoft OS is to avoid a monoculture, but free-desktop efforts have created a total monoculture around developing and promoting Linux, despite a decade of failure in supplanting Microsoft's properterial OSes with it. Why are free-desktop developers neglecting to consider an alternative to the penguin?

Submission + - OpenCourseWare program at MIT

Submitted by Kent Simon on Tuesday January 09, 2007 @03:22PM

Kent Simon writes: Many people may not know that MIT has initiated OpenCourseWare, an initiative to share all of their educational resources with the public. This act of philanthropy is intended (in classical MIT style) to make knowledge free, open, and available. This is a great resource for people looking to improve their knowledge of our world, which is exceptionally beneficial to those who may not be able to afford the quality of education offered at a school like MIT. You can access all currently available courses here. It is expected that by the end of the year every course offered at MIT will be available on the OpenCourseWare site. This includes lecture notes, homework assignments, and exams. This is not something offered to replace collegiate education, but rather to spread knowledge freely.

Submission + - Gates Foundation Causing Harm With the Same Money

Submitted by on Tuesday January 09, 2007 @03:07PM

An anonymous reader writes: "The Los Angeles Times has revealed the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made millions of dollars each year from companies blamed for many of the same social and health problems the Foundation seeks to address." http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/0 9/1455200

Submission + - First version of FooPlot released

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09, 2007 @01:11PM

An anonymous reader writes: Vector graphics technologies have given rise to a multitude of applications that run entirely within a web browser. The first version of FooPlot has been released, featuring live scrolling of 2-D function graphs, 3-D graphs generated entirely on the client side, and an easy-to-use URL: All one has to do is type:
http://fooplot.com/x^2+2x
for example. More promised features include connectivity to Google Spreadsheets, a multi-lingual interface, and online curve fitting.

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