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Comment Re: So he's turning the White House into... (Score 1) 96

Okay, thank you. Turns out iOS 11 changed the default quotation marks from the ASCII ones to curly ones. For anyone interested, you have to long press the quotation mark key on the soft keyboard if you want to bypass the curly quotation and select the AACII one (or to select another of four options).

Comment This book should be up-to-date for a few years (Score 4, Informative) 81

Thanks for reviewing this book, which appears to have been published in early Fall of last year. Since it's a book on the commands, editors, and shell programming, it'll probably be valid for years to come. (I've had college instructors require students to purchase texts that were "only" four years old, but already severely outdated by that point.)
Technology

Submission + - The Raspberry Pi Turns One (paritynews.com)

hypnosec writes: The Raspberry Pi turned one yesterday and marking the occasion the credit card-sized computer's main distributor Farnell element14 announced the month of March as the Raspberry Pi month. The company also baked a cake on the occasion. Raspberry PI was first launched on 29 February 2012 in the UK and it was received with a huge amount of enthusiasm by students and researchers alike. The Pi has had quite an eventful year with researchers building a Raspberry Pi cluster; release of an official turbo mode patch; 512 MB RAM upgrade; launch of Pi Store; sales of over a million units; and release of Minecraft Pocket Edition.
Piracy

Submission + - Microsoft accidentally gifts pirates with a free Windows 8 Pro license key (extremetech.com) 1

MrSeb writes: "In an amusing twist that undoubtedly spells the end of some hapless manager’s career, Microsoft has accidentally gifted pirates with a free, fully-functioning Windows 8 license key. As you have probably surmised, this isn’t intentional — Microsoft hasn’t suddenly decided to give pirates an early Christmas present (though the $40 upgrade deal from Windows 8 Release Preview is something of a pirate amnesty). In fact, it’s probably just a case of poor testing and a rushed release by Microsoft. The bug involves the Key Management Service, which is part of Microsoft's Volume Licensing system. Pirates have already hacked the KMS to activate Windows 8 for 180 days — but this is just a partial activation. Now it turns out that the free Media Center Pack license keys that Microsoft is giving out until January 31 2013 can be used on a KMS-activated copy of Windows 8 to turn it into a fully licensed copy of Windows 8 Pro. The massive irony, of course, is that Microsoft originally intended to strip Media Center from Windows 8 Pro — and then, in the face of consumer backlash, decided to offer it as a free upgrade until January 31 2013. Presumably, instead of taking the time to deliver the upgrade properly, Microsoft pushed it out the door as quickly as possible — and this is the result."
Music

Submission + - One Musician's Demand From Pandora: More Data (itworld.com)

jfruh writes: "Most Slashdotters have been following the debate among the various players in the music industry about how much money artists (and their labels) get from traditional music outlets like radio and newer services like Pandora or Spotify. But Zoë Keating, a professional cellist who has a professional interest in the outcome of this argument, thinks there's one thing missing from all the proposals: more data on who her audience is. Even digital services can't tell her how many people heard her songs or where they're most popular. "How can I grow my business on this information?" she asks. "How do I reach them? Do they know I’m performing nearby next month? How can I tell them I have a new album coming out?""
Science

Submission + - Vegetative state man "talks" by brain scan (bbc.co.uk)

c0lo writes: Severely brain-injured Scott Routley hasn’t spoken in 12 years. None of his physical assessments since then have shown any sign of awareness, or ability to communicate, thus being diagnosed as vegetative (vegetative patients emerge from a coma into a condition where they have periods awake, with their eyes open, but have no perception of themselves or the outside world).

Scott Routley was asked questions while having his brain activity scanned in an fMRI machine. British neuroscientist Prof Adrian Owen said Mr Routley was clearly not vegetative.
"Scott has been able to show he has a conscious, thinking mind. We have scanned him several times and his pattern of brain activity shows he is clearly choosing to answer our questions. We believe he knows who and where he is."

As a consequence, medical textbooks would need to be updated to include Prof Owen's techniques, because only observational assessments (as opposed to using mind-readers) of Mr Routley have continued to suggest he is vegetative.

The professor in an earlier interview functional MRI machines are expensive (up to $2 million), but it’s quite possible that a portable high-end EEG machine, costing about $75,000, can be used at a patient’s bedside.

Phillip K Dick's world is one step closer.

Linux

Submission + - Why Linux Can't "Sell" on the Desktop (lockergnome.com) 1

VoyagerRadio writes: "Recently I found myself struggling with a question I should easily have been able to answer: Why would anyone want to use Linux as their everyday desktop (or laptop) operating system? It’s a fair question, and asked often of Linux, but I'm finding it to be a question I can no longer answer with the conviction necessary to “sell” the platform. In fact, I kind of feel like a car salesman who realizes he no longer believes in the product he’s been pitching. It's not that I don't find Linux worthy; I simply don't understand how it's every going to succeed on the desktop with voluntary marketing efforts. What do Linux users need to do to replicate the marketing efforts of Apple and Microsoft and other corporate operating system vendors? To me, it seems you don’t sell Linux at all because there isn’t supposed to be one dominant distribution that stands out from the rest. Without a specific product to put on the shelf to sell, what in the world do you focus your efforts on selling? An idea?"

Comment Re:I had this class... (Score 1) 1021

I'm with you on these. Fahrenheit 451 was a remarkably compelling read for me as a kid. Real page-burner -- uh, turner. What caught my eye about your post, however, is Ursula K. Le Guin. Though I'm only recently familiar with LeGuin's work, and haven't yet read the Earthsea books, I'd definitely recommend the works I've read, Left Hand of Darkness or the short story I read last week, The Matter of Seggri. Both are gender and genre-bending stories that are both representative of traditional sci-fi and yet defy convention. As an alternative, LeGuin's essays on the topic of sci-fi -- since she challenged the existing notions about the genre -- would be excellent additions to the curriculum.

Comment The Music of Chance by Paul Auster (Score 1) 1021

Paul Auster's The Music of Chance immediately springs to mind. You really should consider books that aren't full of the usual genre material -- not only to provide a wider survey of these genre but also to help youth in understanding that science fiction/fantasy isn't all Battlestar Galactica and Lord of the Rings. The Music of Chance is that Twilight Zone-ish strange tale that is at once terrifying and impossible. It's an easy, relatively short read (perfect for high schoolers). Great introduction to "the strange tale" for those who might be turned off by all the space aliens and/or orcs and elves. Anyone up for a game of cards?

Comment Re:Is this an ad? (Score 1) 135

I guess I jumped all over that one, but I'm not totally opposed to contests. (Unfortunately, most contests are simply dressed-up advertisements for the service/website, and hardly dressed-up at that.) Scavenger hunts can be fun, but it sure wastes our time when there's no actual possibility of reaching the goal. Perhaps in this case there is; I would hope Wired wouldn't resort to phony ad/spam scams, but -- except the Wired editors themselves -- who knows?
Operating Systems

Submission + - Nokia leaks phone with full GNU/Linux distribution 2

An anonymous reader writes: It is now clear why Nokia has been so slow with S60 updates: the upcoming N900 just left everything else in the dust. Unlike Google's Linux platform, Nokia is not intentionally breaking compatibility with real distros, choosing instead to bring you the unmatchable power of GNU/Linux on your phone. This is the most awesome device I have ever seen.

OMAP3 CPU/GPU, 3,5" 800x480 touchscreen, keyboard, wifi, hspa, gps
5 MP camera, CZ lens, 32GB storage, SD slot
X11 window server, VT100 terminal emulator, APT package manager
Price without credit: est. 550e/$780 (N.5800: 280e/$390, iPhone 3GS: 530e/$750)

Developers should note that even though the current desktop is still GTK+, Qt will be standard across all Nokia platforms in the near future (less powerful phones will use Qt on the Symbian kernel). Users can download flashing software from Nokia, and patches can be submitted at the Maemo site.

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