Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
GNOME

Ubuntu's "Lucid Lynx" Enters Beta 366

Posted by timothy from the but-that-danged-button-arrangement-sucks dept.
ActionDesignStudios writes "The upcoming release of Ubuntu, titled 'Lucid Lynx,' has just entered the beta cycle. Alongside the usual desktop and server versions, a special version has been released that is designed to run on Amazon's EC2 cloud service. This release of Ubuntu does away with the brown 'Human' Gnome theme we've all become accustomed to, replaced by a new version Canonical says is inspired by light. The new release also includes much better integration with social networking services such as Twitter, identi.ca and Facebook, among others."
Cellphones

Submission + - USB Tethering working on iPhone 3.0 through hack (macrumors.com)

Submitted by
eviltangerine
eviltangerine writes: "Twitter user stroughtonsmith was dinkering around with the carrier bundle files for his developer version of the iPhone 3.0 OS and enabled the USB tethering options. Apparently he has even been able to use his laptop to access the internet over the USB tether. MacRumors comments that while Apple has announced the availability of tethering, it hasn't hashed out the details with the mobile carriers (probably so they can charge more in fees).

No word on connection speed, but here are some pictures of his phone while tethering."
Power

Distributed "Nuclear Batteries" the New Infrastructure Answer? 611

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the not-in-my-backyard dept.
thepacketmaster writes "The Star reports about a new power generation model using smaller distributed power generators located closer to the consumer. This saves money on power generation lines and creates an infrastructure that can be more easily expanded with smaller incremental steps, compared to bigger centralized power generation projects. The generators in line for this are green sources, but Hyperion Power Generation, NuScale, Adams Atomic Engines (and some other companies) are offering small nuclear reactors to plug into this type of infrastructure. The generator from Hyperion is about the size of a garden shed, and uses older technology that is not capable of creating nuclear warheads, and supposedly self-regulating so it won't go critical. They envision burying reactors near the consumers for 5-10 years, digging them back up and recycling them. Since they are so low maintenance and self-contained, they are calling them nuclear batteries."
NASA

NASA's New Lunar Rover, Now Testing In Arizona 59

Posted by timothy from the detatchable-p-suit dept.
MarkWhittington writes "NASA has unveiled a new prototype lunar rover, called the Chariot, a production version of which is hoped to be operational on the lunar surface by 2019. NASA is now testing the Chariot lunar rover in Arizona, on terrain that resembles the lunar surface." Perhaps Arizona's an even closer match to the moon's surface than is Texas, or Moses Lake, WA where NASA was testing the last time we mentioned Chariot. (Here's a bit of video from the Texas round.)
Hardware

Recovering Moldy Electronics? 512

Posted by kdawson from the moldy-oldies dept.
cookiej writes "We just completed having our basement gutted and our house decontaminated from mold. The finished basement is gone, my office floor has been removed as well as 24' of drywall around the base of the room. So, we had a full home theater downstairs along with a couple of computers in the electronics closet that were completely immersed (rainwater, not sewage). We moved them to a sheltered area outside and covered them with a plastic tarp. Since the electronics were off when the water hit them, 1) do I have a chance of recovering them? 2) If so, is there a way to clean them with some sort of liquid bath that would not damage the electronics? and 3) I don't want to bring moldy pieces back in the clean house. How could I decontaminate the electronics themselves, pre-bath? Not looking to save the speakers, just the amp, DirecTV box, video switch, etc. Thanks for any help, here, Slashdot." Read on for more details of this reader's plight.
Google

Google Radio Ads Experiencing Early Troubles 41

Posted by Zonk from the try-to-avoid-the-random-porn-ads-during-drive-time dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Google's tech-heavy solution to advertising has worked wonders on the internet, and made it a friend to bloggers everywhere. The low-tech nature of traditional radio, though, has caused some conflicts with Google's radio ad service. The impersonal nature of online ads are very different than the one-on-one personalized service that radio advertising normally uses. While Google ads are running on some 700 radio stations, that's a very small part of the market. They are committed to improving, but onlookers think it will take a change in pitch. 'Whether Google can succeed in radio "is questionable, because you do need relationships with radio stations to give you something of value. If you don't have radio-focused personnel...you'll get the low-hanging fruit but may not be able to grow the market," said Maribeth Papuga, senior vice president and director of radio buying for Media Vest, a part of ad firm Publicis Groupe. "Their challenge is going to be having a broad enough list of markets and stations to make it a viable enough player on a national scale."'"
Power

Renewable Energy for the Data Center? 55

Posted by Cliff from the every-erg-saved-is-precious dept.
rohar asks: "The ISP/Carrier/Colo company I work for has just announced a new 'green' program. Although this is a step forward, they don't have a comprehensive environmental sustainability plan. I have been leading an open renewable energy project and I think we have 2 novel ideas for scalable and reliable renewable electrical power, the Solar Ammonia Absorption Convection Tower and the Compressed Air Wind Electrical Generation System. Do you have new ideas (Solar PV has been done, for example) for renewable power generation and conservation for the data center and other areas of industry?"
Biotech

Grid Computes 420 Years Worth of Data in 4 Months 166

Posted by Zonk from the that-is-a-lot-of-nerd-hours dept.
Da Massive writes with a ComputerWorld article about a grid computing approach to the malaria disease. By running the problem across 5,000 computer for a total of four months, the WISDOM project analyzed some 80,000 drug compounds every hour. The search for new drug compounds is normally a time-intensive process, but the grid approach did the work of 420 years of computation in just 16 weeks. Individuals in over 25 countries participated. " All computers ran open source grid software, gLite, which allowed them to access central grid storage elements which were installed on Linux machines located in several countries worldwide. Besides being collected and saved in storage elements, data was also analyzed separately with meaningful results stored in a relational database. The database was installed on a separate Linux machine, to allow scientists to more easily analyze and select useful compounds." Are there any other 'big picture' problems out there you think would benefit from the grid approach?
The Internet

War of Words Over Wikipedia Ads Continues 353

Posted by Zonk from the gotta-make-a-buck dept.
Willis W. writes "Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales reiterates his opposition to advertising in response to reports that Wikipedia needs a major cash infusion. Responding to Jason Calacanis' charges that he 'has a fringe, anti-corporate bent to him' that is 'holding Wikipedia back,' Wales says that running ads on Wikipedia is not his decision to make. Though he personally dislikes the idea of advertising on Wikipedia, any decision to utilize ads would have to come from the community. At the moment, he won't rule anything out. 'I can't say if I would ever support something like that,' he tells Ars, 'but I can say that I currently maintain the same position I always have: I am opposed to it.'" What do you think Wikimedia should do to shore up the financial situation of the Wikipedia?
Biotech

Bionic Eye Could Restore Vision 167

Posted by Zonk from the we-have-the-technology dept.
MattSparkes writes "A new bionic eye could restore vision to the profoundly blind. A prototype was tested on six patients and 'within a few weeks all could detect light, identify objects and even perceive motion again. For one patient, this was the first time he had seen anything in half a century.' The user wears a pair of glasses that contain a miniature camera and that wirelessly transmits video to a cellphone-sized computer in the wearer's pocket. This computer processes the image information and wirelessly transmits it to a tiny electronic receiver implanted in the wearer's head."
Science

Scientists Dubious of Quantum Computing Claims 107

Posted by Zonk from the little-salt-with-your-quantum dept.
Dollaz wrote with a link to the International Business Times, which questions the authenticity of D-Wave's Quantum computing. We discussed the 'Sudoku playing' computer yesterday, but scientists in the field have expressed a lot of distrust of the company's findings. The machine was not available for inspection during or after the demo, and even if the technology was working as intended there is some doubt that it can be scaled. The article points out that "notwithstanding lofty claims in the company's press release about creating the world's first commercial quantum computer, D-Wave Chief Executive Herb Martin emphasized that the machine is not a true quantum computer and is instead a kind of special-purpose machine that uses some quantum mechanics to solve problems." Good to see people in the field questioning 'breakthroughs'.
Games

The History of Electronic Arts 65

Posted by Zonk from the 80s-action-game-dev dept.
Gamasutra is running an extensive article today on the long history of Electronic Arts. Starting all the way back with the days of Trip Hawkins, they move through the days of Madden, Nintendo, small studio purchases and, of course, the Sims. There's also an a whole series of images associated with the article, letting you look back and chuckle about the cover art of games from the past. The article concludes: "Art and commerce have always been uneasy bedfellows, and nowhere is that tension more evident than in the world of video games. Perhaps after looking at the history of Electronic Arts we may have some insight into that hot point of ignition where business and inspiration combine to create cutting edge games. As Trip Hawkins explained, 'Entrepreneurship is a creative art form. Like other creative people, we do it because we have to do it. We have no choice but to express ourselves in this way. But of course like all artists we are optimists, so we believe good things will come ... It is not about making money, it is about making a difference.'"
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Stallman convinces Cuba to switch to open source

Submitted by
prostoalex
prostoalex writes: "Big victory for Richard Stallman in North America, as Cuba decided to adopt open source software on the national level. Both Cuba and Venezuela are currently working on switching the entire government infrastructure to GNU/Linux operating system and applications, Associated Press reports from Havana: "Both governments say they are trying to wean state agencies from Microsoft's proprietary Windows to the open-source Linux operating system, which is developed by a global community of programmers who freely share their code." AP article doesn't mention the distro used for government workers, but says that the students are working on a Gentoo-based distro."

Comment Re:Stop the argument before it starts... (Score 1) 162

by robasen (#9287403) Attached to: 64-Bit Rugrat Virus Emerges
Can we get some sort of bridge here from slashdot to the real world? I know we've all been through this before, so I'll leave off comments on the rest (well, just to mention that Bill G has an army on this stuff, vs "nobody can see the source code" - I know, you meant 14-yr old white hats in Bratislava, and that's just the least of it)... but, the "customers cannot remove that code, therefore..." bit is just stunning in its lack of understanding of why people care about computers (not here of course, I mean most people).

Only a small fraction of Windows users care in the least about what they could or could not remove/include - enterprise admins, hobbyists, me, etc - the vast majority want to execute their work/email/games whatever, I mean does your grandma/boss/accountant even update anti-virus? I'm sure you've all been through linux releases and know that even for the devoted fetishist it's pretty intense. If you just want to get your work done and go on with your real life, why would you even care to spend a second thinking about this stuff?

And for all the folks mentioning Apple, OMG, enough already - if you're a hacker bent on destruction, don't you want to target the overwhelming majority of systems out there (e.g., per #4 above)?

Since we're going to re-hash these discussions from ENIAC until doomsday, let's at least freshen them up.

Slashdot Top Deals

The Macintosh is Xerox technology at its best.

Close