First MySQL 5.5 Beta Released 95

Posted by kdawson on Friday December 18, 2009 @01:29PM from the taking-care-of-business dept.

joabj writes "While MySQL is the subject of much high-profile wrangling between the EU and Oracle (and the MySQL creator himself), the MySQL developers have been quietly moving the widely-used database software forward. The new beta version of MySQL, the first publicly available, features such improvements as near-asynchronous replication and more options for partitioning. A new release model has been enacted as well, bequeathing this version the title of 'MySQL Server 5.5.0-m2.' Downloads here."

PhD Candidate Talks About the Physics of Space Battles 361

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 17, 2009 @03:18PM from the load-photon-torpedoes dept.

darthvader100 writes "Gizmodo has run an article with some predictions on what future space battles will be like. The author brings up several theories on propulsion (and orbits), weapons (explosives, kinetic and laser), and design. Sounds like the ideal shape for spaceships will be spherical, like the one in the Hitchhiker's Guide movie."

Lack of Manpower May Kill VLC For Mac 398

Posted by timothy on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @05:53PM from the vlc-generally-rocks dept.

plasmacutter writes "The Video Lan dev team has recently come forward with a notice that the number of active developers for the project's MacOS X releases has dropped to zero, prompting a halt in the release schedule. There is now a disturbing possibility that support for Mac will be dropped as of 1.1.0. As the most versatile and user-friendly solution for bridging the video compatibility gap between OS X and windows, this will be a terrible loss for the Mac community. There is still hope, however, if the right volunteers come forward."

Comment screw the EMTs for a second... (Score 1) 465

by theguywhorunspetesbr on Wednesday September 30, 2009 @10:25AM (#29593169) Attached to: Artificial Heart Recipient Has No Pulse

emergency personnel aside for a second, this doesn't seem right. seriously? there's gotta be some kind of physical problem w/ that... oh, in case you're wondering, i'm not a medical professional

Comment simple temperature sensing array (Score 1) 364

by theguywhorunspetesbr on Thursday July 16, 2009 @10:26AM (#28716431) Attached to: Low-Budget Electronics Projects For High School?

here's one that we're actually looking to use at the office. jeroen hoppenbrouwers has a great little write up (http://www.hoppie.nl/tempsens/) on building a temperature sensing array. students can build individual sensors for well within your $5 ballpark and the group can assemble the rs232 interface and whatever housing you decide to go with for just a little bit more. everything rolls back through the serial connector to an antiquated chunk of x86 hardware that you get from it department is getting ready to throw out. pick your favorite linux distro, install digitemp (http://www.digitemp.com/) and you're ready to start gathering scads of data for use with nagios (http://www.nagios.org/), cacti (http://www.cacti.net/) or your favorite rrd (http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/) based tool.

kids get to learn about:
-simple circuits
-open source and standards
-the power of cheap, effective systems
-how badly the building needs hvac work
-start to finish application of multiple layers of technology

Should Job Seekers Tell Employers To Quit Snooping? 681

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday March 04, 2009 @02:14AM from the easy-for-you-to-say-you-have-a-job dept.

onehitwonder writes in with a CIO opinion piece arguing that potential employees need to stand up to employers who snoop the Web for insights into their after-work activities, often disqualifying them as a result. "Employers are increasingly trolling the web for information about prospective employees that they can use in their hiring decisions. Consequently, career experts advise job seekers to not post any photos, opinions or information on blogs and social networking websites (like Slashdot) that a potential employer might find remotely off-putting. Instead of cautioning job seekers to censor their activity online, we job seekers and defenders of our civil liberties should tell employers to stop snooping and to stop judging our behavior outside of work, writes CIO.com Senior Online Editor Meridith Levinson. By basing professional hiring decisions on candidates' personal lives and beliefs, employers are effectively legislating people's behavior, and they're creating an online environment where people can't express their true beliefs, state their unvarnished opinions, be themselves, and that runs contrary to the free, communal ethos of the Web. Employers that exploit the Web to snoop into and judge people's personal lives infringe on everyone's privacy, and their actions verge on discrimination."

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