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Comment Re:What's so special about this computer system? (Score 1) 196

by Tokimasa (#36664118) Attached to: US Army Spent $2.7 Billion On Crashing Computer

The D stands for Distributed. There are probably many nodes. The USAF's DCGS (DCGS-AF) implementation has about half a dozen nodes with unclassified locations, plus a number of classified sites and mobile stations that are able to connect to the network. I would suspect that the Army system is very similar, and I wouldn't be surprised if Langley and/or Fort Meade are integrated into the system.
Privacy

Submission + - US to employ overhead spying domestically (washingtonpost.com) 1

Submitted by DigitAl56K
DigitAl56K writes: The Washington Post reports that, "The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon" and that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said that "Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement". Last year CNET reported on at least one county in North Carolina already using a UAV to "monitor gatherings of motorcycle riders at the Gaston County fairgrounds from just a few hundred feet in the air — close enough to identify faces".

Discovery Channel's Future Weapons has provided insight into numerous UAVs, including the Fire Scout, Global Hawk, Predator 2, and the Dominator, their coverage of the Predator 2 particularly demonstrating surveillance and tracking capabilities of these units.

According to DefenseNews the US Air Force just announced the purchase of 28 Predators as part of a contract awarded to General Atomics. The US Air Force has just begun running ads on cable TV as part of their "Above All" campaign that feature the UAVs (sorry, no online video yet).

Initially, it appears that the administration plans to leverage conventional satellites for domestic surveillance purposes.

Behave yourself, citizens.
Medicine

Submission + - What font color is best for eyes? 8

Submitted by juraj
juraj writes: I was wondering, what font color and what background is best for eyes, when you work for a long time. I found various contradictory recommendations and I wonder if you know about any medical studies about this topic.
Education

Submission + - VA is 1st State to mandate internet safety lessons (wdbj7.com) 2

Submitted by
kaufmanmoore
kaufmanmoore writes: "The Commonwealth of Virginia has become the first state in the nation to require that students in all grade levels receive a form of internet safety lessons. The story is scant on details about the lessons, but describes one recently at a high school where the presenter showed a social-networking profile of a convicted sex offender posing as a 15 year-old girl. We have seen the **AA try to get their internet lessons taught in school, is this type of lesson necessary with more children going online?"
Linux

Torvalds Puts Support Behind GPL2 Linux 326

Posted by CmdrTaco from the license-and-registration-please dept.
Christiangrays writes "Linux creator Linus Torvalds has used an interview being made public by the Linux Foundation to stress that version 2 of the GPL still makes the most sense for the Linux kernel over the newer GPL version 3. GPL 3, which was released last year by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), reflects the FSF's goals while GPL 2 closely matches what Torvalds thinks a licence should do, Torvalds said. "I want to pick the licence that makes the most sense for what I want to do. And at this point in time, Version 2 matches what I think we want to do much, much better than Version 3," said Torvalds, who is now a fellow at the foundation. He was interviewed in late-October by Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin."
Portables (Games)

NYT Report Inaccurate on Full DS Downloads Via Wii 27

Posted by Zonk from the close-but-no-cigar dept.
Kotaku notes that the report from the New York Times, that full DS games would be downloadable via the Wii, wasn't entirely accurate. "That's right, according to Nintendo, the Wii will NOT be able to transmit or download full DS games. Apparently the New York Times confused DS demos with WiiWare titles. So you can download full on Wii games (which we knew), but only wireless DS demo games (which we also knew)."
Idle

India Wants Your Legs

Posted by samzenpus from the an-arm-and-a dept.
Things are tough economically everywhere but no place is tougher than the city of Tirupati, India where they are stealing legs. 'Holy legs' to be precise. The thieves got the original owner drunk and cut his leg off just below the knee after he passed out.
Microsoft

Submission + - Do OpenOffice users save in Microsoft format? (zdnet.co.uk) 8

Submitted by
superglaze
superglaze writes: "Looking through an article on the Series 60 office suite Quickoffice, I noted a claim by a company executive that OpenOffice users usually save their documents in a Microsoft (eg. .doc) format (hence no plans at Quickoffice to support .odf). I guess I can see the rationale for this — it helps if you're sending a document to an MS-using company — but what's the general /.-user's experience of this?"
Windows

Submission + - Stealthy Windows update raises serious concerns

Submitted by UniversalVM
UniversalVM writes: What is the single biggest issue that bothers open source advocates about proprietary software? It is probably the ability of the vendor to pull stunts like this. Windows has stealthily updated components of the operating system using its update service. The update will not be flagged even if you have set up your update to notify you and only execute if permitted.
The weak explanation seems to be a great exercise in circular logic "Had we failed to update the service automatically, users would not have been able to successfully check for updates and, in turn, users would not have had updates installed automatically or received expected notifications." News.com is reporting that all of the updated files on both XP and Vista appears to be in windows update itself. This is information that was independently uncovered by users and still not released by Microsoft.
More interestingly could this be construed as a hacking of Windows users' systems? Does the EULA specify that Microsoft has the right to silently break into my machine, change components of the operating system and ignore any settings that explicitly prohibit this sort of behavior? Seems like a good argument could be made for Microsoft breaking into a system without the users' permission.
Software

Submission + - Smaller and more lightweight software is better?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I prefer software that takes as little hardrive space and RAM as possible. I can't stand bloated software like iTunes, as compared to Foobar or classic Winamp; or Windows Media Player, as compared to VLC or Media Player Classic. What are some of your favorite applications which are virtually bloat-free?

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