Comment Re:Fredric Brown (Score 1) 1130
There's also his short-short story "Answer" (to the question "Is there a god?"). But my favorite (and one of the first Sci-Fi novels I ever read) is "Rogue In Space".
Comment Invented at MIT (Score 1) 138
Red Hat Settles Patent Case 76
darthcamaro writes "Red Hat has settled another patent case with patent holding firm Acacia. This time the patent is US Patent #6,163,776, 'System and method for exchanging data and commands between an object oriented system and relational system.' While it's great that Red Hat has ended this particular patent threat, it's not yet clear how they've settled this case. The last time Red Hat tangled with Acacia they won in an Texas jury trial. 'Red Hat routinely addresses attempts to impede the innovative forces of open source via allegations of patent infringement,' Red Hat said in a statement. 'We can confirm that Red Hat, Inc and Software Tree LLC have settled patent litigation that was pending in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas.'"
Deodorant Sought to Save New Zealand's Native Birds 102
New Zealand researchers have received a NZ$600,000 grant to develop a deodorant for native birds whose strong odors make them easy targets for introduced predators. Since the birds evolved without any mammal predators they emit a very strong odor compared to birds in other parts of the world. Canterbury University researcher Jim Briskie says kiwis smell like mushrooms or ammonia, while kakapo parrots have a hint of "musty violin case."
Terry Pratchett's Self-Made Meteorite Sword 188
jamie writes "Fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett says he was so excited after being knighted by the Queen that he decided to make his own sword to equip himself for his new status... the author dug up 81kg of ore and smelted it in the grounds of his house, using a makeshift kiln built from clay and hay and fueled with damp sheep manure."
Supercomputing, There's an App For That 66
aarondubrow writes "Researchers at MIT have created an experimental system for smart phones that allows engineers to leverage the power of supercomputers for instant computation and analysis. The team performed a series of expensive high-fidelity simulations on the Ranger supercomputer to generate a small "reduced model" which was transferred to a Google Android smart phone. They were then able to solve engineering and fluid flow problems on the phone and visualize the results interactively. The project proved the potential for reduced order methods to perform real-time and reliable simulations for complicated problems on handheld devices."
Comment Re:Karma will run over your Dogma (Score 1) 1231
I installed the beta of Karmic UNR, and it imported users from the existing Win XP partition. Even set up a profile photo on the gdm picker -- but the photo it associated with my profile was my wife's photo, not mine. I really wonder how that happened.
Then, I couldn't see how to change the photo. After googling around I saw a mention of gdmphotosetup. Trying to run that in an xterm, the system informed me that I needed gdm-2.20 or some such. Apt-getting that, there was a warning about package dependencies -- then when I rebooted graphical log-on was not working at all.
I can still log on to the console and run startx so to me it's not that bad. At least it's a funny bug 8^).
Comment Re:Hmmmm (Score 1) 122
Comment Re:Need... (Score 1) 361
ISTR that IBM claims 4 9's reliability for the IBM i (new name of the AS/400) which is a midrange machine. For IBM z, the claim is 100% uptime.
Submission + - Digging Dinosaurs Made Underground Dens
anthemaniac writes: Scientists have long puzzled over how some dinosaurs and other creatures survived the asteroid impact that supposedly caused the KT mass extinction 65 million years ago and wiped out all the big dinos. One idea has been that smaller animals, including mammals, could have endured the fallout, the big chill, the subsequent volcanoes, and whatever else by burrowing. Now scientists have come up with the first evidence of burrowing dinosaurs. They speculate that underground dens might explain how some dinosaurs got through long, dark winters at high latitudes, too.
Submission + - Wii Doing What Nintendo Wanted It To
superdan2k writes: "When Nintendo brought the Wii to market, one of their stated goals was to get people who didn't normally play video games using their console. Based on this article from the AP, it seems they've made some headway in capturing the senior citizen market. With the Wii's price point, and it being a good way to get people engaged in physical exercise, it's easy to envision it catching on with other retirement homes beyond the one mentioned in the article. Now that it's expanding beyond the 'typical' video game demographic, has the Wii taken the first steps toward winning the console war?"
Submission + - Java-based x86 Emulator
jaavaaguru writes: "Researchers at Oxford University have produced a Java-based x86 emulator which they hope will be useful in testing applications and learning about viruses without damaging the host PC's operating system. They have an online demo available which boots DOS and has some games to play. Being purely Java, this emulator should be able to run on almost anything, including cell phones."
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