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Submission + - The World's Largest Ferris Wheel will be in New York Soon (expensiveplaces.com)

justelite writes: "It is an old trend to build "The World's larget..." something. Now, The New York come in this race with The World's Largest Ferris Wheel: 630-foot tall, thirty-six capsules, each carrying up to 40 passengers. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said “The New York Wheel will be an attraction unlike any other in New York City even unlike any other on the planet.”
Starneth BV forcast that "The Wheel will accommodate up to 1,440 people per ride, welcoming as many as 30,000 visitors per day and an anticipated 4.5 million visitors per year.""

Hardware

Submission + - Australia's first digital computer (pcauthority.com.au)

An anonymous reader writes: Sometimes, it's the oldest machines that are the most fascinating. PC & Tech Authority has posted this gallery of photos of the first automatic electronic stored-program computer in Australia and one of the first in the world — CSIRAC. The photos show a machine massive in size — the main system comprised nine steel cabinets containing 2000 valves that weighed over 7000kg. Using valve technology and World War II radar systems as a starting point, the machine was used for various purposes including weather forecasting, forestry, loan repayments and building design. It boasted a 1000Hz memory clock and a serial bus that transferred one bit at a time. The system generated so much heat, cool air needed to be blown up through the cabinets from the basement below. In addition to being Australia's first computer, it is also said to have been the first computer to play digital music anywhere in the world. When CSIRAC was turned off for the last time, a witness described it as "like something alive dying".
Censorship

Journal Journal: Scott Adams: Assange Has the World's Biggest Nuts 4

Dilbert creator, Scott Adams, flirts with NSFW musings on Julian Assange:
"The Swedish language has 400 words that all mean "and your cute friend is next."... I was having a hard time making up my mind about Assange. On one hand, he might be hurting the interests of my country and putting people in danger. Death to him! On the other hand, a little extra government transparency might prevent more problems than it causes. Hero! It was

Microsoft

Why Microsoft Cozied up to Open Source at OSCON 325

This year at OSCON it seemed that you couldn't throw a stone without hitting someone from Microsoft (and in fact, I'm sure several people did). They were working very hard to make themselves known, and working desperately to change public opinion of Microsoft's involvement in the open source community. Linux.com's Nathan Willis took a look at what they were preaching, with a hefty dose of skepticism, and tries to postulate what the "angle" is. Of course, the powers that be at Microsoft may have finally seen the writing on the wall and felt the pressure from Google enough to alter their strategy a bit. For now I guess we'll have to wait with guarded optimism (or laughable contempt, depending on how old/jaded you are).

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"The eleventh commandment was `Thou Shalt Compute' or `Thou Shalt Not Compute' -- I forget which." -- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982

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