Comment Re:Why replace? (Score 1) 462
Zinc.
FreeBSD 6.4 Released 64
hmallett writes "FreeBSD 6.4-RELEASE, the fifth release from the 6-STABLE branch of FreeBSD development, is now available. In addition to being hosted at many FTP sites, ISO images can be downloaded via the BitTorrent tracker, or for users of earlier FreeBSD releases, FreeBSD Update can be used to perform a binary upgrade."
Comment Re:Ah, that's just so funny. (Score 1) 11
Dudley Moore as Arthur.
Comment Re:Old goats vs young whipper snappers (Score 1) 835
I have a different view. I'm 46 and have been doing networking since Corvus. I still know how to use a freq counter, signal injector, scope, and soldering iron. I'm a beat up old net/sys admin, former OS/2 evangelist, and current rabid linux user.
I feel sorry for a lot of these kids coming into the industry today. It is easier to keep up than catch up. The depth and breadth of experience is a hard beast to defeat. Solutions are most often found quickly by those who've seen enough to jump confidently.
I've had interviewees with all the certs, but had no idea what "righty tighty lefty loosy" meant. Common sense and hand skill are horribly lacking.
I suppose what it comes down to for me is that it's not how smart you are, or whether or not you've been educated properly, but how you think. Troubleshooting skill is more a way of thinking than anything else, and there is no substitute for experience when it comes to putting out fires.
Submission + - New York launches antitrust investigation of Intel (computerworld.com)
Ian Lamont writes: "The New York state Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, has launched an antitrust investigation of Intel. The office is investigating whether Intel violated state and federal antitrust laws by using penalties to force customers to exclude AMD from the international market for CPUs, and whether Intel "improperly paid customers for exclusivity and whether the company illegally cut off competitors from distribution channels." It's not the first time Intel has been accused of monopolistic behavior by official agencies. Last July the EU served Intel with antitrust charges, and in 2005 the Japanese Fair Trade Commission concluded that Intel violated its competition laws."
Journal Journal: Holy Grail in Iceland?
A group of scientists believe the Holy Grail and other lost objects, which according to Christian mythology were guarded by the Knights Templar, may be located at Kjölur in the center of the Icelandic highlands.
Journal Journal: Data breach, voter records stolen
Computer heist puts voter IDs in danger
The names, addresses and complete Social Security numbers of more than 337,000 Davidson County voters may be in the hands of thieves, Metro election officials said Friday. The information could be used by identity thieves. County election officials are warning the public to monitor their credit accounts for any suspicious activity.
Submission + - LANCOR v. OLPC Update (groklaw.net)
drewmoney writes: According to an article on Groklaw: It's begun in a Nigerian court. LANCOR has actually done it. Guess what the Nigerian keyboard makers want from the One Laptop Per Child charitable organization trying to make the world a better place?
$20 million dollars in "damages", and an injunction blocking OLPC from distribution in Nigeria.
$20 million dollars in "damages", and an injunction blocking OLPC from distribution in Nigeria.
Submission + - Foams with good memory for space applications
Roland Piquepaille writes: "The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently reported that two research teams have developed a new porous foam of an alloy that changes shape when exposed to a magnetic field. The NSF states that this new material is able to remember its original shape after it's been deformed by a physical or magnetic force. This polycrystalline nickel-manganese-gallium alloy is potentially cheaper and lighter than other materials currently used in devices ranging from sonar to precision valves. It also could be used to design biomedical pumps without moving parts and even for space applications and automobiles. But read more for additional references and a photograph showing an example of such a magnetic shape-memory foam."
Office 2003 Service Pack Disables Older File Formats 555
time961 writes "In Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, Microsoft disabled support for many older file formats. If you have old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents, watch out! They did this because the old formats are 'less secure', which actually makes some sense, but only if you got the files from some untrustworthy source. Naturally, they did this by default, and then documented a mind-bogglingly complex workaround (KB 938810) rather than providing a user interface for adjusting it, or even a set of awkward 'Do you really want to do this?' dialog boxes to click through. And of course because these are, after all, old file formats ... many users will encounter the problem only months or years after the software change, while groping around in dusty and now-inaccessible archives."
Submission + - Wii Finally Cracked
arbourp writes: "The Register has a video which shows how, at the 24th Chaos Congress, an example of how the Wii was hacked has been presented:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/31/nintendo_wii_hack/"
Submission + - Google mobiles to make February debut? (apcmag.com)
SpinelessJelly writes: "It appears that Google's Android, criticised by Microsoft as vaporware, has sprung to life. Prototype devices are circulating, software developers are experimenting with the SDK and PC-based Android emulator, and there are rumours of a show-stopping debut at February's Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. Numerous examples of the Android GUI are also starting to leak out."
Submission + - Ruby 1.9.0 Released (ruby-forum.com)
sciurus0 writes: "The 1.9.0 development version of the Ruby programming language has been released. This version has many changes, including a new virtual machine that provides great speed improvements."
Submission + - Top solid state disks and TB drive review (computerworld.com) 3
Lucas123 writes: "Computerworld has reviewed six of the latest hard disk drives that include 32GB and 64GB solid state disks, a low-energy consumption "green" drive and several terabyte-size drives. With the exception of capacity, the solid state disk drives appear to beat spinning disk in every category, from CPU utilization, energy consumption and read/writes. The Samsung SSD drive was the most impressive with a read speed of 100MB/sec and write speed of 80 MB/sec, compared to an average 59MB/sec and 60MB/sec read/write speed for a traditional hard drive."
Scientists Expose Weak DNA in HIV 196
Ace905 writes "The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced Thursday that they had discovered a very promising 'weak spot' in the HIV virus. The HIV virus, a progenitor to full blown AIDS has eluded all attempts at a vaccine since it was discovered sometime in the 1970's. The major problem with developing a vaccine initially was isolating the virus. Conventional viruses are often defeated with existing drugs, or after being tested against new compounds. HIV has been unique, and staggering in it's ability to resist all attempts at treatment by mutating its own genetic code. HIV is able to resist, with great effectiveness, any drug or combination drug-therapy that is used against it."
