Drosera - Slashdot User

Submission + - SpaceX sets target date for next launch: February 24th

Submitted by Rei on Monday February 08, 2016 @09:38AM

Rei writes: After some consternation about the pacing of Falcon 9 upgrades, SpaceX has announced that it plans to launch again from Cape Canaveral with a target date of February 24th. While the primary mission will be to place the SES-9 communications satellite in orbit, this will also mark their fourth attempt to land the first stage on an autonomous drone ship, after their last launch touched down softly but fell over when one leg failed to latch. SpaceX is working to significantly accelerate the rate of production and launches — they are reportedly moving the factory from 6-8 cores produced per year to 18 at present, and expect to reach 30 by the end of the year. After the upcoming launch, they expect to launch one rocket every two to three weeks.

Submission + - Where Are The Raspberry Pi Zeros? (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk on Monday February 08, 2016 @09:33AM

mikejuk writes: No matter how you spin it the Pi Zero is remarkably good value for a one-off or a repeat-production IoT project.
It also has one big advantage over similarly priced alternatives — a community and a track record. There are so many Pis out there that it has a stability that any IoT developer will find reassuring. Thus when the Pi Zero at $5 was announced it was a knockout blow for many of its competitors.Suddenly other previously attractive devices simply looked less interesting. The $9 C.H.I.P, the $20 CodeBug and even the free BBC MicroBit lost some of their shine and potential users.
But the Pi Zero sold out.
The Pi Zero was supposed to be available from November 26, 2015. It is now the start of February and all of the stockists, including the Pi Swag Shop, are still showing out of stock. That's two whole months, and counting, of restricted supply which is more than an initial hiccup.
Of course you would expect enough to be made available initially to meet the expected demand.
The Pi sells something in the region of 200,000 per month so what do you think the initial run of the Pi Zero actually was?
The answer is 20,000 units. Of which 10,000 were stuck to the cover of MagPi and "given away" leaving just 10,000 in the usual distribution channels. And yet Eben Upton, founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, commented:
"You'd think we'd be used to it by now, but we're always amazed by the level of interest in new Raspberry Pi products,"
Well yes, you really would think that they might be used to it by now and perhaps even prepared for it.
At the time of writing the Pi Zero is still out of stock and when it is briefly in stock customers are limited to one unit.
A victim of its own success, yes, but the real victims are the Raspberry Pi's competitors.

Submission + - Hackers Leak DHS Staff Directory, Claim FBI Is Next (csoonline.com)

Submitted by itwbennett on Monday February 08, 2016 @09:28AM

itwbennett writes: On Sunday, the name, title, email address, and phone number of more than 9,000 DHS employees, with titles ranging from engineers, to security specialists, program analysts, InfoSec and IT, all the way up to director level was posted on Twitter. 'The account went on to claim that an additional data dump focused on 20,000 FBI employees was next,' writes CSO's Steve Ragan. The hacker told Motherboard that the data was obtained by 'compromising the email account of a DoJ employee, although he would not elaborate on how that account was accessed in the first place.'

Submission + - India Rules In Favor Of Net Neutrality, Blocks Facebook's Free Basics (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08, 2016 @08:13AM

An anonymous reader writes: India’s leading telecom regulator, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), has today voted against differential pricing, ruling with immediate effect that all data prices must be equal, and that companies cannot offer cheaper rates than others for certain content. The call is a significant blow to Facebook’s Free Basics (previously Internet.org) initiative and Airtel Zero – projects which work to make internet access more accessible by providing a free range of ‘basic’ services. The watchdog confirmed that providers would no longer be able to charge for data based on discriminatory tariffs but instead that pricing must be ‘content agnostic’. It added that fines of Rs. 50,000 – 50 Lakh would be enforced should the regulations be violated.

Submission + - Elon Musk's next great idea? An electric jet that can take off vertically (bgr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07, 2016 @05:22PM

An anonymous reader writes: Elon Musk is changing the world one idea at a time. First, with Tesla, the man so many people call the real life Tony Stark has done an incredible job of bringing electric vehicles to the mainstream. Second, Musk has been doing an impressive job over at SpaceX in the realm of space travel. And third, Musk’s effective rough draft of a high-speed transportation system known as the Hyperloop is being contemplated and conceptualized in a very real way by some extremely smart people.

So where does Musk go from here? Why, Mars of course. Recently, Musk said that he plans to unveil SpaceX’s Mars roadmap next September. But on another front, Musk has also been thinking about developing an electric airplane capable of taking off and landing vertically.

While answering a few questions during a Q&A session at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Award Ceremony last week, Musk was asked what his “next great idea” was.

The answer? Electric-powered air travel.

Submission + - Listen to a Hawking lecture on Black Holes! (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 06, 2016 @11:26AM

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC has now put the second of Stephen Hawking's Reith Lectures up on their web site, with accompanying illustrations. It's not 'All you ever wanted to know about Black Holes', but it's an easy introduction to some of the latest thinking on them...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie... refers...

Comment Re:catchiness (Score 3, Insightful) 133

by Drosera on Saturday July 24, 2004 @08:12AM (#9788271) Attached to: IT, Be Free!

Is the need for open standards or open source "self evident"? To anybody in their mid-forties, or older, who studied any of the sciences, or anybody that studied the history of science, the answer is "yes".

Almost all of the technology that we love was developed in an environment of free exchange of ideas. Individuals laboured in isolation or small groups and freely published their ideas and discoveries for others to adopt, adapt, or criticize.

Derivative works made useful products - the production of which might be closed, secret or protected by laws. It was not until the early 1980s that it became common practice for basic researchers to turn to patents and secrets to protect or withhold their ideas from their colleagues and the world at large.

For example: where would we be with computer displays if the painter George Seurat (1859-91) had been able to say to the world: "No, no, no. It is only I that may make images by the laying of pure primary colors in minute dots upon a white background. The pointillism image that you produced is therefore my image and you and all those who have viewed it owe me $699 each".

Oh my. . . This just mutated into a SCO rant. Mod me down.

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