Comment Re:Just Plane Stupid (Score 1) 332
Minecraft is about creation... we love to create things... in minecraft we're creating a home ultimately a world to our whim... this is very addicting.
Comment Re:Hemos Says: "So Long, and Thanks For All The Fi (Score 5, Funny) 1521
For the record: I really thought that champagne cooler was empty.
Comment Thanks for all the Fish Wrapper (Score 5, Interesting) 1521
In 1997, right after Chips n' Dips had faded away, to be replaced by the enigmatically named http:///..org, all of us free software nerds hung on its every story, comment and poll like it was carved on tablet and flung from a burning bush. A year later I had started at hardware maker VA Research and /. was falling down for lack of machinery, so we rummaged through our returns piles and sent Rob and Jeff some 2u servers to help out. That was for me the beginning of some of the most important friendships in my adult life.
Its hard to explain how important Slashdot was to all of us 10 years ago. Indeed, without it it would be hard to imagine HN, Reddit, Digg, Fark or any of a thousand lesser sites. The editorial perspective of Rob and the other editors of
Throughout, while some have left for those greener shores, slashdot abided even while buffeted by the markets and the de/evolving internet news world, and it has remained a default tab in my and many others' browsers.
I didn't mean this post to be about Slashdot though, but about my friend Rob. I'll only say that while the site will be the lessor for you leaving, I firmly believe that computer science will gain my. While this note reads like an epitaph or the last pages of a book, it is really no more than a thank you note from me and many I know to your for your decade+ of work on the site. So...
Thanks.
Comment Re:I'd rather celebrate the first *man* in space (Score 1) 60
Don't mistaken apathy for ignorance... the average American just doesn't give a sh|t about Soviet "firsts"
Comment Holes and Gas (Score 1) 204
Two holes with Gas shooting out.... come on people I'm in a deadlock as to which of the million jokes this generates.......
Comment Not All Games (Score 1) 220
From personal experience, after a 4 hour marathon of Burnout3 on a big screen TV.... you don't want to get in a car for at least a day.
Apparently... drifting... not as easy to do in reality.
Apparently... drifting... not as easy to do in reality.
Comment Mainstream? So what? (Score 1) 320
I pose this response: Who gives a crap?
I'm a geek, i'm a programmer who loves sci-fi, quantum physics, learning as much about everything as possible (especially anything related to science), I was there when l33t speak was invented by my geek "friends".... and, godamnit, I love Tron.
And once again, I ask, who gives a crap. What I like is not influenced by what the mainstream like other than the fact that usually the mainstream destroys the integrity of what I used to like...
I'm a geek and i always will be until I upload my consciousness to the internet hive brain and merge with the source.
I'm a geek, i'm a programmer who loves sci-fi, quantum physics, learning as much about everything as possible (especially anything related to science), I was there when l33t speak was invented by my geek "friends".... and, godamnit, I love Tron.
And once again, I ask, who gives a crap. What I like is not influenced by what the mainstream like other than the fact that usually the mainstream destroys the integrity of what I used to like...
I'm a geek and i always will be until I upload my consciousness to the internet hive brain and merge with the source.
New Linux Petabyte-Scale Distributed File System 132
An anonymous reader writes "A recent addition to Linux's impressive selection of file systems is Ceph, a distributed file system that incorporates replication and fault tolerance while maintaining POSIX compatibility. Explore the architecture of Ceph and learn how it provides fault tolerance and simplifies the management of massive amounts of data."
Comment Re:Paging Chris DiBona (Score 2, Interesting) 183
Sorry, but Theora is still not as high quality as later codecs. That hasn't changed. But I was very happy to fund this work out of my group.
Google Buzz — First Reactions 310
Google announced Buzz today, as we anticipated this morning. CNET has a workmanlike description of the social-networking service, which is integrated into gmail. CNET identifies a central obstacle Buzz will have to overcome to gain traction: "The problem, however, will be the increasing backlash Google is seeing from the general public over how much data the company already controls on their online habits." Buzz is being rolled out over the next few days so some people will see a Buzz folder in their gmail, but most won't yet (this Twitter post explains how Safari users can get an early glimpse). A blog posting up at O'Reilly Answers points out some of the distinguishing characteristics of Google Buzz — one interesting one being its ability to post an update either publicly or privately, at the user's option. This design choice places it between the public-by-default Twitter and the private-by-default Facebook. Lauren Weinstein sounds a note of caution about the inherent privacy risks of Google's method of filling out initial friend profiles by automatic friending.
Re-Engineering the Immune System 175
destinyland notes a microbiology professor describing "Immunity on Demand" (or "Immunity 2.0") and wonders whether we could genetically engineer all the antibodies we need. "...there's a good chance this system, or something like it, will actually be in place within decades. Caltech scientists have already engineered stem cells into B cells that produce HIV-fighting antibodies — and an NIH researcher engineered T cells that recognize tumors which has already had promising clinical trials again skin cancer. Our best hope may be to cut out the middleman. Rather than merely hoping that the vaccine will indirectly lead to the antibody an individual needs, imagine if we could genetically engineer these antibodies and make them available as needed?"
Comment The story from Google... (Score 4, Informative) 140
Hey, the fellows in netops asked me to clarify for you folks here's the story:
1e100.net is a Google-owned domain name used to identify the servers in our network. Following standard industry practice, we make sure each IP address has a corresponding hostname. Starting in October 2009, we started using a single domain name to identify our servers across all Google products, rather than use different product domains such as youtube.com, blogger.com, and google.com. We did this for two reasons: first, to keep things simpler, and second, to proactively improve security by protecting against potential threats such as cross-site scripting attacks. Most typical Internet users will never see 1e100.net, but we picked we picked a Googley name for it just in case (1e100 is scientific notation for 1 googol).
So there you go!
Comment Lots of comments on LWN.net's coverage (Score 5, Informative) 354
If you head over to LWN, we've already gone back and forth on this a bit. http://lwn.net/Articles/372419/. The short form is that if they don't like how we use the kernel, we're unlikely to be accepted upstream. It's all still released as source code to the world, but the mainline is not interested in most of what we've with to the kernel.
Solar Machine Spins Sunlight-Shaped Furniture 71
Mike writes "Austrian designers mischer'traxler have created a solar powered machine that makes an incredible array of furnishings that vary based on how much sunlight it receives over the course of a day. Titled 'The Idea of a Tree,' the machine spins spools of thread into stools, benches, containers, and lamp shades that wax and wane as the available sunlight shifts. Furniture created during cloudy winter days will be wrapped more slowly, causing it to be darker in color, thicker, and smaller than pieces created during the sun-soaked summer months."
Submission + - Google Summer of Code announces mentor projects!
mithro writes: "As everyone should already know, Google is running the Summer of Code again this year. For those who don't know, GSoC is where Google funds student's to participate in Open Source projects and has been running for 5 years, bringing together over 2600 students and 2500 mentors from nearly 100 countries worldwide. Google has just announced the projects which will be mentor organizations this year. It includes a great list of Open Source projects from a wide range of different genres, include content management systems, compilers, many programming languages and even a bunch of games!"
