Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
Programming

Git Adoption Soaring; Are There Good Migration Strategies? 346

Got To Get Me A Git writes "Distributed version control systems (DVCS) seem to be the next big thing for open source software development. Many projects have already adopted a DVCS and many others are in the process of migrating. There are a lot of major advantages to using a DVCS, but the task of migrating from one system to another appears to be a formidable challenge. The Perl Foundation's recent switch to Git took over a year to execute. The GNOME project is planning its own migration strategy right now after discovering that a significant majority of the project's developers favor Git. Perhaps some of the projects that are working on transitions from other mainstream version control systems can pool their resources and collaborate to make some standardized tools and migration best practices documentation. Does such a thing already exist? Are any folks out there in the Slashsphere working on migrating their own project or company to a DVCS? I'd appreciate some feedback from other readers about what works and what doesn't."
Image

Ubuntu Kung Fu 253

Lorin Ricker writes "Back in the dark ages of windows-based GUIs, corresponding to my own wandering VMS evangelical days, I became enamored of a series of books jauntily entitled Xxx Annoyances (from O'Reilly & Assocs.), where "Xxx" could be anything from "Windows 95", "Word", "Excel" or nearly piece of software which Microsoft produced. These were, if not the first, certainly among the most successful of the "tips & tricks" books that have become popular and useful to scads of hobbyists, ordinary users, hackers and, yes, even professionals in various IT pursuits. I was attracted, even a bit addicted, to these if only because they offered to try to make some useful sense out of the bewildering design choices, deficiencies and bugs that I'd find rampant in Windows and its application repertory. Then I found Keir Thomas, who has been writing about Linux for more than a decade. His new "tips" book entitled, Ubuntu Kung Fu — Tips & Tools for Exploring Using, and Tuning Linux, and published by Pragmatic Bookshelf, is wonderful. Having only recently wandered into the light of Linux, open source software, and Ubuntu in particular, this book comes as a welcome infusion to my addiction." Read below for the rest of Lorin's review.
Music

UK ISPs Near Agreement On Illegal File Sharing 97

ISPreview UK writes "UK Music's chief executive, Feargal Sharkey, claims that progress has been made on a deal between the music industry and broadband ISPs to tackle illegal file sharing. The comments came during yesterday's annual Internet Service Providers' Association conference in Eversheds, with an ISPA spokesman confirming that 'some kind of agreement between rightholders and ISPs can be reached,' adding, 'everyone wants to work together to make legal online models work.' The news follows July's crucial Memorandum of Understanding agreement between copyright holders and six of the UK's largest ISPs, which account for roughly 90% of the country's broadband market. The initial agreement approved a principal of sending warning letters to customers who have been accused of downloading illegal music or movies."

Comment Phorm (Score 3, Informative) 238

From Phorm's website:

"With OIX and Webwise, consumers are in control: they can switch relevance 'off' or 'on' at any time at Webwise.com. There's no small print and no catches: it's completely up to the consumer."

In the comments on the Techdirt article somebody is saying that Phorm are the latest incarnation of 121media which made the contextplus rootkit. A quick search later and indeed they are the same company.

Anybody got any more dirt on them?

Feed Engadget: Research firm says planned internet capacity upgrades will fall 60% short by 201 (engadget.com)

Filed under: Networking

A new study published by the Nemertes Research Group indicates that demand for bandwidth will outstrip capacity by 2010 -- and that planned infrastructure upgrades will fall some 60-70 percent short of making up the difference. Using a model it claims anticipates the next bandwidth-consuming innovation, Nemertes says that carriers and other infrastructure providers will have to spend at least an additional $42B over the estimated $72B it estimates is currently budgeted to prevent the bandwidth crunch from taking place -- but we're a little unclear on where those numbers are coming from, so don't start running your cable modem on overdrive just yet. Either way, it looks like network scaling is something we'll all be affected by over the next few years -- unless the shame of watching people make fools of themselves on YouTube is finally too much and we move to the beach for good.

[Via Physorg]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!


User Journal

Journal Journal: Argonne Hydrogen Catalyst Tools For Desalination

Argonne Labratories has just announced some advances in catalysts for fuel cells. They have developed some cool tools for catalytic research in doing so -- which I think might be applicable to desalination research as well. The idea would be to have a catalyst settle Na & Cl out of solution and skim off the fresh water. This would be an extremely cheap process. So cheap it would make it
Power

Wind, Solar & Biofuels to Power Remote Cell Towers 119

tcd004 writes "How do you set up a cell network when there's no power grid? Namibia, India and Nigeria are building towers using localized power sources to provide critical cell phone access to the most remote parts of their countries. Wind/solar hybrids, and biofuel power plants will power the radio towers, peripheral communications, and even the protective fencing around the installations."

CUTEST WEB SITE EVER DISCOVERED!!! 341

ToeSocks06 writes "The cutest site i've ever or youve ever seen is this one CLICK IT NOW LOL!!! because they have the cutest pictures you will ever see :) :) :) Like hamsters wearing SO CUTE hats and so many kittens zomg i love kitties especially that brown one i hope they show him with hats to LOLOLOLOLOL!!! Ok I gottta go now bye!!!"

NASA Reaffirms Big Bang Theory 313

Peretz writes "NASA has found evidence reinforcing a theory of what took place post-Big Bang and time expansion. They claim: 'Over the course of millions of years, gravity exploited the density differences to create the structure of the universe---stars and galaxies separated by vast voids.' Thereby creating a 'structure' to the universe -- a kiddush cup. '...finds that the first stars---the forebears of all subsequent generations of stars and of life itself---were fully formed remarkably early, only about 400 million years after inflation. This is called the era of reionization, the point when the light from the first stars ionized hydrogen atoms, liberating electrons from the protons.'"

Slashdot Top Deals

Some people pray for more than they are willing to work for.

Working...