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Power

Google's Addiction to Cheap Electricity 254

Googling Yourself writes "Harpers magazine has published a blueprint of Google's new data center at The Dalles, Oregon where they will be tapping into some of the cheapest electricity in North America. Although the plans show three 68,680-square-foot storage buildings, only two of the buildings have been constructed so far. Based on a projected industry standard of 500 watts per square foot, the Dalles plant can be expected to use 103 megawatts of electricity. Google's server farm represents a new phase in the transformation of the Columbia River over the past half-century. Across the street from the Google data center is an example the last generation of high energy consumers; Microsoft, Yahoo, and Ask.com are also planning data centers on the Columbia River."
Microsoft

Submission + - Is Windows Vista in trouble?

Ken Erfourth writes: I'm a small computer shop owner, and I have noticed how little interest my customers have in Windows Vista. Now, the Inquirer.net is running a story about what they consider two powerful indications that Vista is failing in the marketplace.

One, Dell has reintroduced PCs running Windows XP on its website due to customer demand. Two, Microsoft is conducting a worldwide firesale on a bundle of Microsoft Office 2007/WindowsXP Starter Edition. According to Inquirer.net, at least, these are signs of serious problems selling Vista.

Are we seeing the stumbling of the Microsoft Juggernaught with the slow adoption of Windows Vista?
Windows

Submission + - Only 244 genuine Windows Vista's sold in China

morpheus83 writes: "Whilst Microsoft was bragging about the sales number of their latest OS Windows Vista, few would actually know that they have only managed to sell 244 copies in the whole of China in the first 2 weeks. You heard that right, and that's the number quoted from the headquarters of the Windows Vista chief (90% national volume) distributor in Beijing."
Censorship

Submission + - New Australian laws will censor terror DVDs

An anonymous reader writes: Within a few weeks, Australia may introduce new laws to censor films and literature deemed by the government to be supportive of terrorism. This is not the first time material has been censored in Australia, which has previously censored films and banned publications, including one titled Defence of the Muslim Lands (censored in mid 2006 by Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock). The proposed laws are aimed to target material such as a DVD by Feiz Mohammad containing some of his past controversial sermons calling for jihad and comparing Jews with pigs. The Office of Film and Literature Classification previously classified this DVD as "PG", suitable for viewing by anyone under 15 years of age with parental guidance.
Operating Systems

Submission + - GPL Code Found In OpenBSD Wireless Driver

NormalVisual writes: The mailing lists were buzzing recently when Michael Buesch, one of the maintainers for the GPL'd bc43xx Broadcom wireless chip driver project, called the OpenBSD folks to task for apparently including code without permission from his project in the OpenBSD bcw project, which aims to provide functionality with Broadcom wireless chips under that OS. It seems that the problem has been resolved for now with the BSD driver author totally giving up on the project and Theo De Raadt taking the position that Buesch's posts on the subject were "inhuman".
Puzzle Games (Games)

Submission + - The "Godfather of Sudoku"

circletimessquare writes: "The New York Times profiles 55 year old Maki Kaji who runs Nikoli, in it's article "Inside Japan's Puzzle Palace. Nikoli is a puzzle publisher that prides itself on 'a kind of democratization of puzzle invention. The company itself does not actually create many new puzzles — an American invented an earlier version of sudoku, for example. Instead, Nikoli provides a forum for testing and perfecting them.' Also notable is how Mr. Kaji describes how he did not get the trademark for Sudoku in the United States before it was too late. But reminescent of a theme many Slashdotters will find familiar about intellectual property: 'In hindsight, though, he now thinks that oversight was a brilliant mistake. The fact that no one controlled sudoku's intellectual property rights let the game's popularity grow unfettered, Mr. Kaji says.' Will Nikoli be the source of the next big puzzle fad after Sudoku?"
Patents

Submission + - Linked List Patented in 2006

An anonymous reader writes: Congratulations are in order to Ming-Jen Wang of LSI Logic Corporation who, in patent #10260471 managed to invent the linked list. From the abstract, "A computerized list is provided with auxiliary pointers for traversing the list in different sequences. One or more auxiliary pointers enable a fast, sequential traversal of the list with a minimum of computational time. Such lists may be used in any application where lists may be reordered for various purposes." Good-bye doubly linked list. We should also give praise to the extensive patent review performed by Cochran Freund & Young LLP.
Programming

Is Computer Science Dead? 641

warm sushi writes "An academic at the British Computing Society asks, Is computer science dead? Citing falling student enrollments and improved technology, British academic Neil McBride claims that off-the-shelf solutions are removing much of the demand for high-level development skills: 'As commercial software products have matured, it no longer makes sense for organizations to develop software from scratch. Accounting packages, enterprise resource packages, customer relationship management systems are the order of the day: stable, well-proven and easily available.' Is that quote laughable? Or has the software development industry stabilized to an off-the-self commodity?"
Utilities (Apple)

Submission + - Top 22 Mac OS X Software Tools

An anonymous reader writes: Mac advocate John C. Welch is at it again, this time weighing in with his list of Top 22 Mac OS X Products. The collection of software tools ranges from the obvious — Boot Camp — to the obscure but perhaps more useful. That'd be little-known apps like Peter Borg's Lingon, for creating launchd configuration files, and BBEdit a professional HTML and text editor. (A collection of screen shots is here.) What's on your personal list of indispensable Mac productivity aids and programming tools? Also, do you think Welch pays too much attention to built-in OS X tools such as Workgroup Manager and Sync Services at the expense of third-party products like NetworkLocation?
Robotics

Submission + - Beer Tossing Fridge

cmacdona101 writes: "CNN is reporting on a recent Duke grad that's engineered a remote controlled Fridge that tosses him a beer at the touch of a button. The fridge can launch the beer up to 20 feet, far enough to get to his couch. The video shows the fridge using a "beer magazine clip" and a remote firing system that let you determine angles and ballistics to get the beer to your friends anywhere in the room."

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