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Submission + - Google kills Wave (blogspot.com)

Submitted by mordejai
mordejai writes: Google stated in it's official blog that they will not continue developing wave as a standalone product. It's sad because it had a lot of potential to improve communications, but Google never promoted it well, denying it a chance to replace email and other collaboration tools for many uses.

Submission + - RIAA's elementary school copyright curriculum (arstechnica.com) 2

Submitted by selven
selven writes: In a blatant attempt devoid of any subtlety the RIAA is fighting for the hearts and minds of our chilldren with its Music Rules, a collection of education materials on how to respect copyright. It includes vocabulary such as "counterfeit recordings, DMCA notice, "Grokster" ruling, legal downloading, online piracy, peer-to-peer file sharing, pirate recordings, songlifting, and US copyright law." with no mention whatsoever of fair use. Compounding the bias, it includes insights such as that taking music without paying for it is "songlifting", and that making copies for personal use and then playing them while your friends come over is illegal. On the bright side, it includes math which shows that the total damages from copyright infringement by children in the US amount to a measly $7.8 million.

Comment Re:Shut up "New Atheists"? (Score 1) 899

by AstronomicUID (#29424237) Attached to: How To Make Science Popular Again?
The issue is, the experiment you suggest attempts to answer a valid question about the physical world. Independent of the likelihood of any reproducible results (which I think we agree it will be negligible), the question is valid within the realms of Science, because the effect this hypothetical scientist is trying to reproduce is measurable (water being splitted). Assuming there is no reproducible results, I see two explanations: (a), prayer has absolutely no effect on the behavior of water, or (b), there is some supernatural cause explaining the negative result (for example, God does not like being tested, has stage panic, or simply dislikes scientific rigor). Answer (b) "explains" some speculation by means of another speculation, in a regression which leads nowhere (not only within physics, also within logic). Therefore (b) has no place in a consistent explanation of the world, unless at some point it implies some falsifiable proposition (I believe this is similar to the case with String Theory). My argument is that, by Occam's razor one should stick with (a), and definitely not claim that there is a supernatural realm, the elements inside which sometimes interact with the physical world and sometimes don't, in an untestable way.

Comment Re:Shut up "New Atheists"? (Score 1) 899

by AstronomicUID (#29422653) Attached to: How To Make Science Popular Again?

Science does not say that there is no God. It doesn't give a damn.

Actually, I think proper, honest Science should care a lot. A Universe where causality and the laws of Physics can be suspended by praying, or by miracles, is quite different from a Universe where the laws are immutable. Only a God which does not intervene at all in the processes of the Universe would be separate from Science, otherwise, it has to enter one's assumptions at some point if we are really honest about our application of the scientific method, and not simply choosing to "enable scientific mode" for some things.

Submission + - Sam Ramji, Microsoft's Open Source Guru Moving On (typepad.com)

Submitted by
barking_at_airplanes
barking_at_airplanes writes: "Some called him crazy 3-1/2 years ago when he joined Microsoft to run the Open Source Software Lab but he endured and made real differences to how Microsoft treats Open Source and how open source people now view Microsoft. Sam Ramji is now heading back to Silicon Valley to join a Cloud Computing startup. Sam comments in his announcement:
46 months later, I am amazed at the changes that have occurred for the company, for the team I belonged to, and the sentiments of the industry.
It's a statement that 46 months ago few Slashdotters would have thought could come true! With Sam leaving, can Microsoft's positive momentum into Open Source continue successfully?"
Operating Systems

Submission + - How Do You Manage Your Home Directories? 1

Submitted by digitalderbs
digitalderbs writes: A problem plaguing most people with multiple computers is the arduous task of synchronizing files between them : documents, pictures, code, or data. Every one seems to have their own strategies, whether they involve usb drives, emailed attachments, rsync or a distributed management system, all of which have varying degrees of success in implementing fast synchronization, interoperability, redundancy and versioning, and encryption. Myself, I've used unison for file synchronization and rsnapshot for backups between two linux servers and a Mac OS X laptop. I've recently considered adding some sophistication by implementing a version control system like subversion, git or bazaar, but have found some shortcomings in automating commits and pushing updates to all systems. What system do you use to manage your home directories, and how have they worked for you for managing small files (dot config files) and large (gigabyte binaries of data) together?

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