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Developers: Tanenbaum-Torvalds Microkernel Debate Continues

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday May 15, @12:25PM
from the arguements-that-never-die dept.
Operating Systems
twasserman writes "Andy Tanenbaum's recent article in the May 2006 issue of IEEE Computer restarted the longstanding Slashdot discussion about microkernels. He has posted a message on his website that responds to the various comments, describes numerous microkernel operating systems, including Minix3, and addresses his goal of building highly reliable, self-healing operating systems."

Why Emails Are Misunderstood

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday May 15, @11:28AM
from the i-thought-it-because-you-were-a-jerk dept.
Communications
werdna writes "The Christian Science Monitor has a piece on why it's so easy to misinterpret emails. From the article: 'First and foremost, e-mail lacks cues like facial expression and tone of voice. That makes it difficult for recipients to decode meaning well. Second, the prospect of instantaneous communication creates an urgency that pressures e-mailers to think and write quickly, which can lead to carelessness. Finally, the inability to develop personal rapport over e-mail makes relationships fragile in the face of conflict.'"

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IT: People Suck at Spotting Phishing

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday May 15, @10:30AM
from the no-doubt-here dept.
Spam
JohnGrahamCumming writes "Initial results at SpamOrHam.org show that people don't fare well when trying to spot spams and phishes. This blog entry shows some actual spams and phishes that people fell for, as well as genuine messages that they think are spam." The thing about these s[cp]ams is that they must work sometimes. When I see the messages, I can't fathom 'how'.

Developers: John Carmack Discuss Mega Texturing

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday May 15, @09:34AM
from the you-mean-we-don't-do-that-already dept.
Programming
An anonymous readers writes in to say that "id Software has introduced a new technology dubbed Mega Texturing that will allow graphic engines to render large textures and terrains in a more optomized way while also making them look better. Gamer Within has Q & A with John Carmack on Mega Texturing."

Hardware: Budget Graphics Cards Compared

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday May 15, @08:38AM
from the bang-for-the-buck dept.
Graphics
EconolineCrush writes "Tired of reading reviews of high-end graphics cards that cost several hundred dollars or more? The Tech Report has a round-up of three budget cards that cost $80 or less. ATI's Radeon X1300 Pro, NVIDIA's GeForce 7300 GS, and S3's Chrome S27 are compared in an array of gaming, video playback, power consumption, and noise level tests against not only each other, but also a typical integrated graphics solution. As one might expect, the budget cards offer significantly better 3D performance than integrated solutions. What's even more impressive is the fact that even with newer games, the sub-$80 cards still have enough punch to deliver respectable performance."

Linux: Can Ordinary PC Users Ditch Windows for Linux?

Posted by Zonk on Monday May 15, @07:40AM
from the do-or-do-not-there-is-no-try dept.
Windows
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Mark Golden, a reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, tried to switch from Windows to Linux, and found it too complex for his liking. He writes: 'For me, though, using the Linux systems didn't make sense. I often send documents and spreadsheets between my home PC and the one at work, which uses Microsoft Office. And the files are sometimes complex. Meanwhile, for both personal and professional computer use, I want access to all multimedia functions. While solutions may exist to almost every problem I encountered, I was willing to invest only a limited amount of time as a system administrator. Claims by some Linux publishers that anybody can easily switch to Linux from Windows seem totally oversold.'"

Science: A Traffic Control System For Molecules

Posted by Zonk on Monday May 15, @12:51AM
from the turn-right-at-the-corpuscle dept.
Biotech
Roland Piquepaille writes "Our cells contain small protein factories which have to deliver materials inside the cell via a network of microtubules. And the transportation is carried out by biomolecular motors. Now, researchers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have built a traffic control system able to force individual molecules to choose between 'roads' by applying strong electrical fields locally at Y-junctions. This traffic control system can potentially lead to new nano-fabrication techniques. Read more for additional references and pictures showing how this traffic system works."

Your Rights Online: The Future of Digital Books

Posted by Zonk on Sunday May 14, @10:29PM
from the new-library-at-alexandia dept.
Google
Tabercil writes "The New York Times has an article about the mass scanning of books, which argues that actions such as Google's Book Search project are an inevitable outgrowth of the internet." From the article: "Scanning technology has been around for decades, but digitized books didn't make much sense until recently, when search engines like Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN came along. When millions of books have been scanned and their texts are made available in a single database, search technology will enable us to grab and read any book ever written. Ideally, in such a complete library we should also be able to read any article ever written in any newspaper, magazine or journal. And why stop there?"

HD Video Could 'Choke the Internet'?

Posted by Zonk on Sunday May 14, @08:10PM
from the i-like-the-internet-breathing dept.
The Internet
richdun writes "Yahoo! is carrying an AP story explaining how ISPs are worried large streaming videos could 'choke the Internet.' This is used as a yet another reason for tiered pricing for access to content providers." From the article: "Most home Internet use is in brief bursts -- an e-mail here, a Web page there. If people start watching streaming video like they watch TV -- for hours at a time -- that puts a strain on the Internet that it wasn't designed for, ISPs say, and beefing up the Internet's capacity to prevent that will be expensive. To offset that cost, ISPs want to start charging content providers to ensure delivery of large video files, for example."

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Linux: Kororaa Accused of Violating GPL

Posted by Zonk on Sunday May 14, @04:19PM
from the penguin-is-confused dept.
GNU is Not Unix
AlanS2002 writes "The Kororaa Project, a pre-configured binary install method for Gentoo Linux which bundles nVidia's and ATI binary drivers in its Kororaa Xgl Live CD , has put its Live CD on hold after being accused of violating the GPL. The issue appears to be the distribution of the Linux Kernel and nVidia's/ATI binary drivers together. When the binary drivers are built the GPL'ed code is included in the binary result, which is a violation."

Apple: Google's Love For Small Businesses

Posted by Zonk on Sunday May 14, @01:21PM
from the no-one-is-small-on-the-internet dept.
Google
bariswheel writes "The Fearless Frog is at it again: In his latest post, Cringely aims to slap some sense into Microsoft, Apple, and IBM altogether. From the article: 'What counts is that for Microsoft the platform is the PC while for Google the platform is the Internet and nobody can hope to control the Internet -- not Microsoft OR Google. Google is making a ton of money from people [small/medium sized businesses] who never were even in business before. This is not only a fundamental change in how advertising is done; it is a fundamental change in how BUSINESS is done.'"

Firefox 2 Alpha 2 Reviewed

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday May 14, @11:32AM
from the guess-what's-coming dept.
Mozilla
pcabello writes "Firefox 2 Alpha 2 was released yesterday. Check what's new in this review at mozillalinks.org with screenshots."

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Developers: What's the Secret Sauce in Ruby on Rails?

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday May 14, @10:25AM
from the having-a-hard-time-caring dept.
Programming
An anonymous reader writes "Ruby on Rails seems to be a lightning rod for controversy. At the heart of most of the controversy lies amazing productivity claims. Rails isn't a better hammer; it's a different kind of tool. This article explores the compromises and design decisions that went into making Rails so productive within its niche."

Hardware: The Treo 700p Confirmed

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday May 14, @09:09AM
from the thank-god-we-can-sleep-easy dept.
Portables
Tam Hanna writes "People have been rumoring about the Treo 700p for quite some time, Now, HandMark has "officially" confirmed the Treo 700p's existance on their home page. While developers have had access to the machine for quite some time; this is the first "real" sighting""

Politics: Chinese Scientist Admits To Stealing Chip Research

Posted by Zonk on Sunday May 14, @08:25AM
from the do-you-want-to-make-money-sure-we-all-do dept.
Politics
An anonymous reader writes "A prominent Chinese scientist, one of the founders of the chip manufacturing industry in the country, has admitted to stealing his research." From the article: "Chen Jin, a dean of Shanghai's prestigious Jiaotong University and the leader of a government-funded high-tech research project, was dismissed from his university posts this week and stripped of other government titles and perks. The government also said that Chen had been permanently banned from taking part in any government-funded science projects. In a statement Friday, Jiaotong University--one of the nation's elite schools--said, 'Chen Jin has breached the trust of being a scientist and educator. His behavior is despicable.'"

In-Flight VOIP Coming Soon

Posted by Zonk on Sunday May 14, @06:23AM
from the i-am-talking-to-you-from-the-skies dept.
Communications
hdtv writes "U.S. airline customers are likely to be thrilled with an opportunity to sit next to someone constantly chatting on the phone. Information Week magazine is reporting that government auction is opening a way for telecoms to introduce voice-over-IP links on in-flight communication systems." From the article: "Airfone already offers phone service on many flights, but its high cost has limited its use. JetBlue has declined to say what its LiveTV LCC unit would do with a winning frequency. Although many frequent flyers and airline attendants favor a ban on the phone chatter, Connexion by Boeing, whose Internet service is already offered on nearly 200 international flights a day, notes that there have been no complaints of in-cabin incidents about the technology. The Connexion service is regularly used by passengers to make VoIP calls. "

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Your Rights Online: London 2006, Meet London 1984

Posted by Zonk on Sunday May 14, @04:31AM
from the what-is-the-newspeak-for-change-the-channel dept.
Privacy
Draape writes "Shoreditch TV is an experiment TV channel beaming live footage from the street into people's homes. According to the Telegraph U.K. television will broadcast from 400 surveillance cameras on the streets, into people's homes. For now they are only showing it to 22,000 homes, but next year they plan on going national with the 'show'. They fly under the flag 'fighting crime from the sofa'."

Your Rights Online: Australians Allowed to Format Shift Media

Posted by Zonk on Sunday May 14, @02:28AM
from the yay-for-rights dept.
Media
An anonymous reader writes "Australian Federal law will now allow format shifting of media (ie:Ripping CDs to MP3s). Something long allowed under US copyright legislation, but only now coming to the Land Down Under." From the article: "Once the new laws are passed, 'format shifting' of music, newspapers and books from personal collections onto MP3 players will become legal. The new laws will also make it legal for people to tape television and radio programs for playback later, a practice currently prohibited although millions of people regularly do it. Under the current regime, millions of households a day are breaking the law when they tape a show and watch it at another time."

Examining Tokyo's Media Immersion Pods

Posted by Zonk on Sunday May 14, @12:23AM
from the import-this-concept-please dept.
Media
the terminal of geoff goodfellow writes "The New York Times has an article on the Bagus Gran Cyber Café in Tokyo, where customers rent so-called media immersion pods. From the article: 'At first glance the spread looks officelike, but be warned: these places are drug dens for Internet addicts outfitted with VHS and DVD players, satellite and regular television on a Toshiba set, PlayStation 2, Lineage II and a Compaq computer loaded with software, all the relevant downloads and hyperspeedy Internet. In the nearby library were thousands of comic books, magazines and novels.'"

Examples: media, tech
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