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Government

State of Virginia Technology Centers Down 190

Posted by Soulskill from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept.
bswooden writes "Some rather important departments (DMV, Social Services, Taxation) in the state of Virginia are currently without access to documents and information as a technology meltdown has caused much of their infrastructure to be offline for over 24 hours now. State CIO Sam Nixon said, 'A failure occurred in one memory card in what is known as a "storage area network," or SAN, at Virginia's Information Technologies Agency (VITA) suburban Richmond computing center, one of several data storage systems across Virginia.' How does the IT for some of the largest departments in a state come to a screeching halt over a single memory card? Oh, and also, the state is paying Northrup Grumman $2.4 billion over 10 years to manage the state's IT infrastructure." Reader miller60 adds, "Virginia's IT systems drew scrutiny last fall when state agencies reported rolling outages due to the lack of network redundancy."

Comment Re:VMkernel is a kernel... (Score 1) 443

by Nailer (#20234011) Attached to: VMware May Violate Linux Copyrights
Apparently the argument goes as follows:

>> 1) A Linux kernel is used to boot the VMWare kernel.
Yes, through a binary blob loaded by a driver, that does not run on any kernel other than Linux.

>> 2) This makes the VMWare kernel a "derived work."
According to Linux logic, and Christoph Hellwig, yes.

>> 3) The Linux kernel source used to boot the VMWare kernel is not available.
Er no. You made that up. The article doesn't say that anywhere.

The issue is that the source for vmkernel is not available.

>> 4) Therefore we can't tell if the VMWare kernel is a "derived work" or not.
Er no. You made that up too. The article doesn't say that anywhere.

The vmkernel would be considered derived unless it has been ported from another Operating System (proving it does no requite Linux to function). VMware could prove this without giving away the code.

>> 5) And if the Linux kernel source for the kernel used to boot the VMWare kernel is not available, it's a violation of the GPL on its own.
Er no. You made that up again. The article doesn't say that anywhere.

The source for the Linux kernel used to start VMware is available from the VMware website. The source for vmkernel is not.

If you need to lie to prove your point, you clearly don't have one.
Operating Systems

Submission + - Kernel devs say VMware violates Linux copyrights (venturecake.com)

Submitted by Nailer
Nailer writes: Bloomberg believe VMware's IPO today may the largest technology offering since Google. But doubts have been cast over the company's supposedly proprietary ESX product, as top 10 Linux contributor Christopher Hellwig claims the software violates Linux kernel copyrights.
The Internet

Wikipedia May Require Proof of Credentials 317

Posted by CmdrTaco from the yeah-good-luck-with-that dept.
narramissic writes "According to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, a new policy is currently under discussion by the community of users who regularly write and maintain Wikipedia that would require contributors to the site who claim certain credentials to prove they really have them. The new policy comes after one of Wikipedia's most prolific and respected editors, who went by the pseudonym 'Essjay,' was found not to be the 'tenured professor of theology' he claimed to be but a run-of-the-mill 24 year-old from Kentucky. Said Wales, 'To discover that someone had been deceiving the community for a long time really was a bit of a blow to our trust. Wikipedia is built on the idea of trusting other people and people being honest and we find that in the most part everyone is, so it was a real disappointment.'"
Windows

Microsoft Takes a 'Patch Tuesday' Break 151

Posted by CmdrTaco from the wish-i-could-take-a-post-friday-break dept.
Phill0 submitted a ZD story about Microsoft's week off which says "Microsoft has no new security updates planned for Tuesday, despite at least five zero-day vulnerabilities that are waiting to be fixed. The patch break could be a welcome respite for IT managers still busy testing the dozen fixes Microsoft released last month. Also, many IT pros may be occupied with the switch to daylight saving time, which at the behest of Congress, is happening three weeks earlier this year. "
Wii

Spielberg Working on Wii Exclusive 36

Posted by Zonk from the just-don't-lose-your-grip dept.
GameDaily is reporting on comments made to them by EA Los Angeles General Manager Neil Young, stating that Steven Spielberg is working on a Wii title. Spielberg's relationship to the games giant is well known; we discussed it last year during E3. The site promises a more thorough interview next week, but for now just offers the promise of a Wii title with Spielberg's storytelling magic. "The first one, what I can tell you is what you'd expect, sort of, from a Steven Spielberg production. Steven's stories are intimate stories that take place around huge, world-changing events... sort of, big stories shown through the eyes of a small group. Doug Church is producing it... The second project is something Lou Castle is producing, one of the great producers in this industry, and that's one of the products we're building for the Wii. Very exciting and interesting..."
Nintendo

The Reinvention of Zelda 74

Posted by Zonk from the he's-always-wearing-green-at-least dept.
Gamespot reports on a lecture at GDC on Thursday, with commentary from Nintendo's manager of software development Eiji Aonuma. Aonuma went through the very long process involved in bringing Twilight Princess to the American audience. Realistic graphics were chosen for the US playerbase, but many other decisions came about via unorthodox thinking and the intervention of a higher power. "It was around this stage that Aonuma was talking to Nintendo senior managing director Shigeru Miyamoto, who told him something along the lines of, 'It's as though the Revolution (later renamed the Wii) was designed just for Zelda! Why don't you try making a Zelda for the Revolution?' In the end, believes Aonuma, the kind of direct control offered by the Wii Remote was exactly what was needed to breathe life into the game."
Games

A Glimpse Into The Long Development of Final Fantasy XII 65

Posted by Zonk from the cactaur-killing-good-time dept.
In a talk Thursday at the Game Developer's Conference, attendees were exposed to a rare treat: technical information behind development at Square/Enix. Programming supervisor Taku Murata, co-director Hiroshi Minagawa, and lead realtime rendering programmer Yoshinori Tsuchida were onhand to shed some light on a game many years in the making. Though the session didn't provide any dirt on those interested in the departure of game designer Yasumi Matsuno, there was plenty to take away from the highly focused discussion. "Final Fantasy games require a lengthy development process, and this presents the very real threat of being obsolete by the time it ships. To combat this the team allocated its resources with a heavy emphasis on art."
Privacy

Homeland Security Tests Snoop Computer System 233

Posted by CowboyNeal from the return-of-tia dept.
Parallax Blue writes "The Washington Times reports that Homeland Security has developed and is testing a new computer system called ADVISE (Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement) that collects and analyzes personal information on US citizens. Relevant data 'can include credit-card purchases, telephone or Internet details, medical records, travel and banking information.' The program apparently uses the same process as the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness project, which was aborted in 2003 due to privacy concerns."

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