Nokia Trades Symbian For MeeGo In N-Series Smartphones 184

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 24, 2010 @07:33PM from the unfortunate-name dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Nokia announced that moving forward, MeeGo would be the default operating system in the N series of smartphones (original Reuters report). Symbian will still be used in low-end devices from Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. The move to MeeGo is a demonstration of support for the open source mobile OS, but considering the handset user experience hasn't been rolled out and likely won't be rolled out in time for its vague June deadline outlined at MeeGo.com, could the decision be premature?"

Lower Merion School's Report Says IT Dept. Did It, But Didn't Inhale 232

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 06, 2010 @03:46PM from the so-what's-a-few-snapshots-anyhow dept.

PSandusky writes "A report issued by the Lower Merion School District's chosen law firm blames the district's IT department for the laptop webcam spying scandal. In particular, the report mentions lax IT policies and record-keeping as major problems that enabled the spying. Despite thousands of e-mails and images to the contrary, the report also maintains that no proof exists that anyone in IT viewed images captured by the webcams."

Comment Re:More than a million? (Score 0) 395

by basneder on Wednesday January 20, 2010 @05:01PM (#30837462) Attached to: Lines of computer code written in my life:

Mod parent up!

Comment Re:Kudos to Nokia (Score 0) 263

by basneder on Tuesday September 01, 2009 @05:44PM (#29278703) Attached to: Nokia Makes LGPL Version of PyQt

One advantage is that you can use the QT documentation, which is really nice.

Comment Re:Purpose? (Score 0) 316

by basneder on Tuesday September 01, 2009 @05:13PM (#29278301) Attached to: My flash memory is mostly in the form of ...

I even use flash drives to play multiplayer games! No need for network anymore.

Comment Re:Please (Score 0) 153

by basneder on Tuesday June 02, 2009 @05:41PM (#28188343) Attached to: <em>Monkey Island</em> To Return

And *please* make it run on linux (wine or native). I played the old games with great pleasure, now i am old enough to buy games i really intend to play. Having to get a no-cd patch means no money from me.
Probably wont happen, but one can hope :)

How To Keep Rats From Eating My Cables? 1032

Posted by timothy on Thursday February 12, 2009 @06:17PM from the increase-their-cocaine-ration dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I am curious to know what vermin prevention/eradication methods are used in other locations. I am working at a dealership and we have an exterminator man who puts out glue traps and bait stations, but they still come and eat my cable. The latest was a couple of fiber runs — very expensive. I have threatened my boss with a cat for the server room (my office), going so far as to cruise the local Humane Society's website and eye-balling a nice Ragdoll-Siamese mix. Even if I do feel like dealing with a litter box, cat hair in the equipment and pouncings on my keyboards (and I'm not sure I do), that only covers the server room. We have multiple buildings on the campus which get locked up to prevent theft, but it isn't secure enough to keep out the critters and the latest chew spot was in the ceiling. Any ideas?"

Comment Where is step 3? (Score 0) 880

by basneder on Friday June 13, 2008 @01:23PM (#23781363) Attached to: How To Teach a Healthy Dose of Skepticism?

Of course, critical thinking and logic are anathema to anyone who believes in god.

Given 1: I believe in God. Given 2: I am an excellent computer engineer, with dual degrees in computer engineering and computer science. Given 3: Earning dual degrees in computer engineering and computer science and working as a computer engineer require strong critical thinking and logical skills. They also require having taken classes in logic and critical thinking. Step 1: Earning computer science and computer engineering degrees and working in the computer engineering field require logical and critical thinking skills (Given 3), and I work in this field and have those degrees (Given 2). Therefore, it follows that I have logical and critical thinking skills. Step 2: I have logical and critical thinking skills (Step 1), and I believe in God (Given 1). Therefore, there exist some people who believe in God and have critical thinking and logical skills. Conclusion: I have disproved your statement that "critical thinking and logic are anathema to anyone who believes in god" by counterexample. QED.

Step 3: Profit?!

Software Error Likely Killed MGS Spacecraft 199

Posted by kdawson on Thursday January 11, 2007 @11:32AM from the off-by-one dept.

Aglassis writes "NASA investigators have determined that a software update performed in June of 2006 may have doomed the 10-year-old spacecraft. Apparently the software error caused the solar arrays to drive against a mechanical stop which then forced the spacecraft into safe mode. Unfortunately, after that the spacecraft's radiator was pointed at the sun which overheated the battery and destroyed it. Contact was lost with the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in November 2006. NASA will form an internal review board to determine formally the cause of the loss of the spacecraft and what remedial actions are needed for future missions."

How MythTV Detects and Flags Commercials 403

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 30, 2006 @01:19PM from the gotta-love-the-bugs dept.

peterdaly writes "Automatic commercial detection is the "killer app" feature that none of the commercial DVR's dare to include. MythTV's automatic commercial detection does a great job of properly separating commercials from content. Here's how the commercial flagging works."

ScummVM Developers Barred From Using PayPal 130

Posted by Hemos on Monday September 04, 2006 @09:46AM from the stupid-moves dept.

lskovlund writes "The ScummVM developers have received notice that their use of PayPal for donations is in violation of PayPal's AUP. According to a forum post, the AUP bans 'Game enhancers (which enable the play of import software and/or back up versions of software).'"

Air Marshals Place Innocents on Secret Watch List 571

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday July 25, 2006 @04:15PM from the just-wait-till-a-system-upgrade-mistake dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Denver Channel 7 News reports that federal air marshals are operating under a quota for reporting a minimum number of suspicious travelers which is resulting in innocent people being placed on a secret government watch list. From the article: 'These unknowing passengers who are doing nothing wrong are landing in a secret government document called a Surveillance Detection Report, or SDR.'"