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Comment Surely it's not the worst thing (Score 1) 247

by phatStrat (#32999962) Attached to: SFLC Wants To Avoid Death by Code

Sure, pacemakers and insulin pumps may run closed-source software. But there have got to be countless systems running critical aspects of infrastructure or even the military using closed-source software as well. Wasn't the Navy using Windows at some point in its ships?

Seems that the stakes are much higher in the latter although given the pace of medical technology/wetware innovation, having some sort of review or 3rd party testing worked into the approval process now rather than later would be prescient.

Comment Re:You're solving the wrong problem (Score 1) 1092

by phatStrat (#28171601) Attached to: Making a Child Locating System

Two problems with this. First, it's a lot of work. Second, he wanted a solution that runs on Linux.

Seriously. This is slashdot. All problems must be resolved using overly complicated technical solutions requiring minimal socialization skills. When he can interface to the PTA using SOA, THEN we might have a better solution.

Comment Re:The damndest thing with these stories today (Score 1) 508

by phatStrat (#27419789) Attached to: Conficker Worm Strike Reports Start Rolling In

It's so hard to tell which ones are too stupid to be true and so stupid they probably are true.

Not only is it hard to tell, it's scary that we can't tell the difference anymore. Just looking at yesterday's news:
* Honda Develops Brain Interface For Robot Control
* Cold War Standoff Over ISS Toilet

Fact or fiction? Maybe for whoever submit these stories it already was April 1...

Earth

Black Holes From the LHC Could Last For Minutes 672

Posted by kdawson from the becoming-greyer dept.
KentuckyFC writes "There is absolutely, positively, definitely no chance of the LHC destroying the planet (or this way either) when it eventually switches on some time later this year. And yet a few niggling doubts are persuading some scientists to run through their figures again. One potential method of destruction is that the LHC will create tiny black holes that could swallow everything in their path, including the planet. Various scientists have said this will not happen because the black holes would decay before they could do any damage. But physicists who have re-run the calculations now say that the mini black holes produced by the LHC could last for seconds, possibly minutes. Of course, the real question is whether they decay faster than they can grow. The new calculations suggest that the decay mechanism should win over and that the catastrophic growth of a black hole from the LHC 'does not seem possible' (abstract). But shouldn't we require better assurance than that?"
Programming

Scripting In Commodore BASIC For Windows & Linux 213

Posted by kdawson from the nostalgia-isn't-what-it-used-to-be dept.
SomeoneGotMyNick writes "Someone more nostalgic than I am, and with a lot of time on their hands, had created a scripting language based on Commodore BASIC for Mac OS X. They recently finished a version that works on Windows and Linux. You can pass the text of a BASIC program as a parameter to the program. I found it odd that it took 1.8 MB of source code to compile to an interpreter that used to fit in 8K of ROM space. If this ever becomes popular, perhaps we'll see Obfuscated CBM BASIC contests." In a simliar vein, in the comments someone points out what is essentially an open source AmigaOS Classic.

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The IBM 2250 is impressive ... if you compare it with a system selling for a tenth its price. -- D. Cohen

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