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Comment Re:Religion is poison (Score 4, Insightful) 385

How can faith be tested by skepticism? Isn't faith the belief in something without proof?

faith
noun
1.
complete trust or confidence in someone or something.

2.
strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

Even its definition counters your statement. It seems perhaps that you may be confused as to what faith is.

Submission + - Microsoft Starts To Open Source .NET And Take It Cross-Platform To Mac, Linux

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft today announced plans to open source .NET, the company’s software framework that primarily runs on Windows, and release it on GitHub. Furthermore, Microsoft also unveiled plans to take .NET cross-platform by targeting both Mac OS X and Linux. In the next release, Microsoft plans to open source the entire .NET server stack, from ASP.NET 5 down to the Common Language Runtime and Base Class Libraries. The company will let developers build .NET cloud applications on multiple platforms; it is promising future support of the .NET Core server runtime and framework for Mac and Linux.

Submission + - Incredible Footage Shows a Perseid Meteor Exploding (universetoday.com)

Submitted by Nancy_A
Nancy_A writes: Photographer and digital artist Michael K. Chung said he couldn’t believe what he saw when he was processing images he took for a timelapse of the Perseid meteor shower this week. It appears he captured a meteor explosion and the resulting expansion of a shock wave or debris ring.

After this article was posted, Universe Today received more 'explody' footage from the Perseid meteor shower, which has been added to the article.

Comment Re:Prior art (Score 1) 322

by wisesifu (#44019219) Attached to: Ancient Roman Concrete Is About To Revolutionize Modern Architecture
It seems to me that while they did not have the insight to know what was happening at the chemical level of today, Trial and Error plays a large part in science, as in you experiment to test the world around you, and it seems that its used in quite a bit in modern science still [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_and_error#Examples[/url], specially with the advent of computers.

To say they used no science, no wisdom and that it was good luck is just wrong. By simply looking up the word Wisdom I find "The soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of such experience, knowledge, and good judgment." It seems they did exactly this.

Comment Re:Good Job (Score 3, Interesting) 155

by wisesifu (#43743105) Attached to: Apache OpenOffice Downloaded 50 Million Times In a Year
I disagree,

OpenOffice brand was already damaged by Oracle and I believe by giving it to Apache they wanted to continue the damaging effect of the way they handled to community.

Why not give it to LibreOffice? When they realized they where wrong and it was time to dump the code, why give it to Apache? Why not give it to the people already doing development, previous community members?

I think OpenOffice while it may have been downloaded more times its LibreOffice with the uptrend, with the following.
Microsoft

Submission + - Was .NET all a mistake? (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: The recent unsettling behavior at Microsoft concerning .NET makes it a good time to re-evaluate what the technology is all about. It may have been good technology but with the systems guys building Windows prefering to stick with C++ the outcome was inevitable. Because they failed to support its way of doing things .NET has always been a second class Windows citizen unable to make direct use of the Windows APIs — especially the latest. .NET started out as Microsoft's best challenge to Java but now you have to ask what has the excursion into managed code brought the Microsoft programmer and indeed what good has it done Microsoft? From where we are now it begins to look very much like an unnecessary forced detour and Windows programmers are going to be living with the mess for years to come.
Android

Submission + - Oracle Ordered To Lower Damages Claim On Google (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "Oracle has been ordered to lower its multibillion-dollar claim for damages in its patent infringement lawsuit against Google and its Android operating system, court papers show. Oracle's expert 'overreached' in concluding that Google owed up to $6.1 billion in damages for alleged infringement of Oracle's Java patents, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup said Friday in a sternly written order. The 'starting point' for Oracle's damages claim should be $100 million, adjusted up and down for various factors, he said. At the same time, Google was wrong to assert that its advertising revenue is not related to the value of Android and should therefore not be a part of Oracle's damages, the judge wrote. He also warned Google, 'there is a substantial possibility that a permanent injunction will be granted' if it is found guilty of infringement."
Google

Submission + - Dell, Torvalds among Google+ early adopters (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Part of the buzz this week about Google+ is that Google is reportedly working to lure celebrities such as Lady Gaga to its new social network service with verified accounts. Not sure if tech big shots beyond Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg count as celebrities, but the list of the technology industry’s biggest names using Google+ is on the rise. Dell chief Michael Dell – yes, the real Michael Dell — has grabbed headlines for his early enthusiasm for Google+ and interest in using it as a newfangled customer support and interaction tool. Open source movers and shakers like Linus Torvalds, Miguel de Icaza are also posting away.
Power

Submission + - Solar Breakthrough Could Make Solar Cells Obsolete (inhabitat.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at the University of Michigan have made a discovery about the behavior of light that could change solar technology forever. Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics and William Fisher, a doctoral student in applied physics, discovered that light, when traveling at the right intensity through a material such as glass that does not conduct electricity, can create magnetic fields that are 100 million times stronger than previously thought possible. In these conditions, the resulting magnetic field is strong enough to rival a strong electric effect. The result is an “optical battery, which could lead to “a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation”, according to Rand.
Microsoft

Submission + - Paul Allen Rips Bill Gates in Autobiography (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Bill Gates was guilty of 'mercenary opportunism' when he schemed with Steve Ballmer to dilute Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's equity in the company while Allen was recovering from Hodgkin's disease. In his upcoming autobiography, 'Idea Man,' which is excerpted in Vanity Fair, Allen paints a portrait of Gates as brilliant, focused, driven ... and ruthless. According to Allen, Gates in the early days twice sought larger equity in the company on the grounds that he 'did more.' Allen says he acquiesced each time, both because he understood his partner's reasoning and to avoid major conflict."
Python

Submission + - SourceForge Open-Sources Their Platform Software (pythonisito.com)

Submitted by
rick446
rick446 writes: "In late 2009 SourceForge embarked on a plan to “reboot” our developer tools on an open platform including Python, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, and SOLR. The result was the Allura platform, and was released under the Apache License in February 2011."

Feed Ars Technica: Linux beyond X: Shuttleworth contemplates Wayland (arstechnica.com)

From feed by feedfeeder

Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth wrote a blog post this week contemplating the possibility of making Ubuntu's new Unity shell work on the Wayland display system, with the aim of eventually shipping Wayland as Ubuntu's standard display manager. A transition of such enormous scope isn't going to happen in the near future, but it certainly can't hurt to start thinking about it now.

The X Window System (X11) is a cornerstone of graphical Linux computing. It is a display server that is responsible for showing graphics on the screen and mediating user input. The ubiquitous X.org implementation of the X Window System is included in all mainstream desktop Linux distributions. The problem with this venerable component of the Linux technology stack is that it was created in the 80s and hasn't been able to shed the superfluous accoutrements of yesteryear computing.

Read the comments on this post



AMD

Submission + - AMD One-Ups Intel With Cheap Desktop Chips (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday announced inexpensive desktop microprocessors with up to six cores to put pricing pressure on rival Intel. AMD's new chips include the fastest AMD Phenom II X6 1075T six-core processor, which is priced 'under $250' for 1,000 units, AMD said. AMD also introduced a range of dual-core and quad-core Athlon II and Phenom II desktop microprocessors priced between $76 and $185. By comparison, Intel's cheapest six-core processor is the Core i7-970 processor, which is priced at $885 per 1,000 units, according to a price list on Intel's website.

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