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REDDIT        return to top
My programming quotes file was well received when I posted it to reddit three years ago, here is a much updated and expanded version.
submitted by uriel [link] [33 comments]
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2009-07-04T02:52:49.556922+00:00
Man writes Intel 2200BG Wireless driver for Mac OS X from scratch
submitted by Squibbles1077 [link] [72 comments]
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2009-07-03T23:49:33.190680+00:00
Algorithms to Shake Up Vegas
submitted by nsoonhui [link] [82 comments]
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2009-07-03T11:40:09.320012+00:00
Premature Flexibilization Is The Root of Whatever Evil Is Left
submitted by DoeL [link] [47 comments]
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2009-07-03T19:49:02.012642+00:00
Source Code of Several 7800 Games Released!
submitted by jadoon88 [link] [78 comments]
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2009-07-03T16:55:10.979287+00:00
"Phew" moments - when you realise your code is sane, it's just the rest of the world that is crazy
submitted by OhCobblers [link] [69 comments]
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2009-07-03T17:56:58.410439+00:00
It’s Friday. Play some drums…. HTML5 style
submitted by ossreleasefeed [link] [46 comments]
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2009-07-03T19:19:08.093817+00:00
London Stock Exchange to abandon failed Windows platform - Computerworld Blogs
submitted by Abu_mohd [link] [17 comments]
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2009-07-03T21:47:22.758285+00:00
Django design patterns
submitted by scorpion032 [link] [1 comment]
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2009-07-04T06:43:46.825242+00:00
The Pros and Cons of Password Masking
submitted by gthank [link] [2 comments]
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2009-07-03T22:03:43.115835+00:00

Primalogix Tech News        return to top
Coming soon: a Microsoft fuel-cell charger
A New York-based company that is one of a handful developing fuel cells for consumer electronics devices says it has started commercial production of a fuel cell-based recharger for Microsoft.
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Maker Faire: Survival Research Laboratories
Survival Research Labs are coming to this year's Maker Faire. I've always been in awe of SRL's work. I would love to see them in person.
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Butterflies inspire new LED illumination technolog
(NewsTarget) An ingenious method of efficiently emitting light has come from a unique inspiration: butterflies. The science behind higher-emission light emitting diodes (LED) comes from the fluorescent patches found on the wings of the African swallowtail butterfly. LED technology has been around for decades, but this new method of LED manufacture allows the diode to shine brighter.
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Sun is Florida's solution to climate change
Imagine a time in the near future when Florida-produced solar electrons are flowing from your roof to power your zero-energy home, and your plug-in hybrid vehicle in the garage is getting its power from that same rooftop system. You could have all the electricity and hot water you needed for your home 24/7, along with a way to fill up your car without leaving home - all produced by Florida's sunshine.
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Cheaper, More Efficient Solar Cells
Much more efficient solar cells may soon be possible as a result of technology that more efficiently captures and uses light. StarSolar, a startup based in Cambridge, MA, aims to capture and use photons that ordinarily pass through solar cells without generating electricity. The company, which is licensing technology developed at MIT, claims that its designs could make it possible to cut the cost of solar cells in half while maintaining high efficiency. This would make solar power about as cheap as electricity from the electric grid.
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10 Emerging Technologies 2007
As always, Technology Review's annual list of emerging technologies to watch comprises projects in a broad range of fields, including medicine, energy, and the Internet. Some, such as optical antennas and meta-materials, are fundamental technologies that promise to transform multiple areas, from computing to biology. Our reports on peer-to-peer video, personalized medical monitors, and compressive sensingreveal how well-designed algorithms could save the Internet, simplify and improve medical diagnoses, and revamp digital imaging systems in cameras and medical scanners. Nanohealing and quantum-dot solar power demonstrate the potential of nanotechnology to make a concrete difference in our daily lives by changing the way we treat injuries and helping solar energy deliver on its promises. Precise neuron control could help physicians fine-tune treatments for brain disorders such as depression and Parkinson's disease. And single-cell analysis could not only revolutionize our understanding of basic biological processes but lead directly to predictive tests that could help doctors treat cancers more effectively. Finally, by combining location sensors and advanced visual algorithms with cell phones, mobile augmented reality technology could make it easier to just figure out where we are.
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The wisdom of unhealthy crowds: Web 2.0 takes on the flu
It's a familiar situation: the onset of some unpleasant symptoms of an illness leaves you wondering whether this is just the latest flu bug to wander into town, or if it's the first signs of something more serious. A new website called WhoIsSick hopes to harness websurfers' willingness to share what they're feeling in the hope that the information will provide a better perspective on whether to worry.
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DIY back-lit photo lightbox for under $10
My client loved the way photos & images look when back-lit but could not afford the high price of a modern and ultra thin lighbox. I will reveal how a 4x6 up to a 8x10 photo or document viewing lightbox system is created for only $8usd in materials.
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Download of the Day: Engauge Digitizer (Windows/Linux)
Windows/Linux only: Free, open source application Engauge Digitizer lets you extract data from images of graphs and charts. You just import the image, identify a few axis points, and let the program take care of most of the rest. When you've identified your points (or rather, when Engauge has), you can export the results to a CSV file, which can be easily imported into Excel. Graphs are everywhere, but we generally only get to see the images. Engauge Digitizer helps you quickly get the data in your hands if you need it so you don't have to manually enter all of the information yourself. Engauge Digitizer is free, Windows and Linux only.
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10 tips for improving your wireless network
Extend the range and the strength of your wireless network - If Microsoft Windows XP ever notifies you about a weak signal, it probably means your connection isn't as fast or as reliable as it could be. Worse, you might lose your connection entirely in some parts of your home. If you're looking to improve the signal for your wireless network, try some of these tips for extending your wireless range and improving your wireless network performance.
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Techdirt        return to top
Is There Really An Idea/Expression Dichotomy In Copyright?
Copyright system defenders often trot out the commonly accepted wisdom that copyright does not protect "ideas" and that there's an important "idea/expression" dichotomy, where it's only the specific expression that's protected, not the ideas. However, the reality is that both individuals and courts seem to have a pretty difficult time distinguishing between the two, and always have. While perhaps there's some platonic ideal where it's easy to tell the difference between an idea and the expression of that idea, it's much harder in practice. Recent studies have shown how notoriously difficult this distinction is in practice, leading to serious questions about how copyright violates the First Amendment. The latest example of this is the ruling banning the publication of the "modern" sequel to The Catcher in the Rye. If there really were a distinction between the idea and the expression, then a sequel would never be seen as infringing, unless it used significant text directly from the original. Yet, in this case, the ban on publication is making some wonder where that mythical idea/expression dichotomy really exists: First, it exposes the lie that is perpetuated in the legal community that copyright laws don't protect "ideas", but rather only the "concrete expression" of ideas. In practicality, this statement is pure nonsense as evidenced by the fact that a copyrighted work seals in monopoly protections of "characters" and "derivative works" - even if such derivative works don't include any actual "copying" of cloned material from the underlying work. For instance, if I feel that I have a far better script or storyline that utilizes the character of James Bond, but without utilizing any previous cloned image from a Bond film and without copying previously used dialogue beyond a minimal instance of "My name is Bond...James Bond." or "Shaken...not stirred.", I still would not be able to create it, because Ian Flemming's estate and/or Sony Pictures, etc. has a monopoly over the IDEA of James Bond. I would argue that by protecting "derivative" works, copyright effectively asserts control over ideas - except for those envisioned at the most abstract levels. I'm sure we'll get angry comments from some of the copyright defenders who are always quick to chide, but I'm curious how they can use the so-called idea/expression dichotomy as a defense against a First Amendment violation, when that dichotomy doesn't really seem to exist. Copyright system defenders, for years, have relied on the whole "idea/expression" split to explain away how copyright law can be compatible with the First Amendment's insistence that "no law" may be passed that inhibits freedom of speech. If you realize that said split doesn't really exist (or, at the very least, is not enforced by the courts), you have a big, big constitutional problem.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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How Does Offering Free Content Insult Those Who Pay?
It's interesting to see the logical pretzels that certain business execs will twist themselves into to defend a poor business model against one that customers enjoy much more. Take for example, the claim from cable firm Rainbow Media's CEO, Josh Sapan, that free video online somehow "insults" people who pay for cable: "I do think it's important to be technologically progressive and responsive to what consumers want. But that's a different thing, in my mind, from creating bad habits," Sapan said in an interview. "To offer these shows for free ... It's almost insulting to the consumer who's paying money for it, because it says to that consumer, 'What are you doing?'" Of course you could make the identical argument for any obsolete product. The telephone apparently "insulted" telegraphy purchasers. The airplane apparently "insulted" those who traveled by boat across the ocean. The printing press? Man, did that ever insult those monks who wrote out bibles by hand. Honestly, it's yet another sign of the entitlement culture, where some seem to assume they're entitled to keep their business model, and it's somehow "insulting" to show their customers that there are better/cheaper/more efficient ways to get what they need.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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The Myth Of Original Creators
We recently wrote about how many different sources Shakespeare used in writing King Lear, some of which he apparently copied verbatim. However, it seems quite likely that what Shakespeare did with those words created something wholly unique and valuable (at least, it's withstood the tests of time). Yet, this idea that taking the works of others and doing something with them to make them new and wonderful seems to be an anathema to the "true believers" in copyright, who insist that creativity is about being wholly original, and almost never about building on the works of those who came before. Yet, there's almost no evidence to support this. Nearly any creative work can be shown to be built upon the works of those who came before (hell, even our own copyright law is copied from others'). Law professor Peter Friedman recently had a few interesting blog posts that helped highlight this. First, he noted that the very notion of an author as the originator of a new work is a relatively recent phenomenon, and part of the Romantic Movement. However, prior to that, the view was much more akin to what we're actually seeing today with online tools of creation: "creative endeavors are derivative and collaborative, that originality is not the product of isolated genius but of, well, remixing." He then goes on to discuss the blues musician Robert Johnson -- considered by many to be the "quintessential" Blues musician. However, a recent study into Johnson's work suggest that his fame and renown is basically an accident of history. Some British musicians heard Johnson's music, and since they'd never heard it before, they credited him for it, even though he was mainly copying (and building on) the work of others: Conceptions of Robert Johnson's work highlight the context dependent nature of notions of originality. Originality is yet another characteristic of copyrightability that is not always easy to delineate in actual contexts of creation. However, what might seem original to those in one context may not seem as original in other contexts. Consequently, within the context of African American audiences of the 1920s and 1930s, Johnson's work probably did not seem startlingly original in the way that it did to British and other musicians and audiences listening to Johnson's music, often in relative isolation, in the 1950s and 1960s. This later audience was largely removed from the original context of other music that was prevalent at the time Johnson produced his music or able to listen to a limited and likely biased sample of such music. For early African American blues listeners, what seemed original and interesting was very different that what seemed interesting and original to the largely white blues fans that were the major force behind the blues revival in the 1950s and 1960s. For the latter, romantic conceptions about the blues were closely tied to notions of authenticity that are often unsuited to musical creation in living musical traditions. As a result, what is perceived as original may depend in significant part on the contexts within which listeners hear music. Friedman also points back to another recent post where he discusses the nature of content creation, based on a blog post by Rene Kita. In it, she points out that remixing and creating through collaboration and building on the works of others has always been the norm. It's what we do naturally. It's only in the last century or so, when we reached a means of recording, manufacturing and selling music -- which was limited to just those with the machinery and capital to do it, that copyright was suddenly brought out to "protect" such things. But, today, with the rise of the internet, and the ability for anyone to perform those roles, we run smack dab into conflicting interests. People still want to create the way they always have, but the industry of the last century, that has relied on copyright law to make its product seem different and "original" freaks out about this ongoing content creation: Culture is a conversation. Every act of culture is a reply to something, a restatement, correction, modification, reworking. Lawyers are constantly debating how much modfication is required to make a work legal. Thus, you may 'create' a new instance of The Blues(TM Martin Scorsese), by shuffling the notes and words around by a set amount. Shuffle too little and you're in trouble with the law. Shuffle too much and the purists start screaming rape. Still, artists are trained to recognize what is a new song and what a version and their publishing companies have experts to deal with these matters. And there we enter the crux of the matter: Copyright law is corporate law. Or it used to be. Previously, it took heavy investment to publish art, music, writing, so it was always done by companies and professionals. Today, squirting anything into a blog is an act of publishing. The legalese you signed by clicking when you started your blog forbids any use of copyrighted material that you don't own. Suddenly, instead of plain ordinary citizens entitled to sing "Poops, I did it again" or tape Brad Pitt's face in a toilet bowl onto a postcard to a friend, we are all professional artists required to Create Art from Scratch. Because we are no longer just having a conversation, in which we quote from everything we have seen and heard without any thought of Creation and Originality. Your piddling little blog is a Publishing Enterprise held to the same legal standards as Time Warner Inc, except that you do not have the funds to pay for any borrowings. You have been muzzled. This is why people are angry. Their normal modes of expression have been turned into a crime. They know they are only safe from prosecution because they are small fry - unless someone decides to make an example of you. Thus, any time you post some photoshoppery or a musical mash-up you risk having it summarily deleted and your account cancelled for criminal cultural activities. It's nice to see more and more people recognizing and speaking out about these things. The idea that there is a single "author" or "creator" who deserves to get money any time anyone else builds upon his or her works is something that should be seen as increasingly ridiculous as people recognize that all works are created based on the works of others, and it's inherently silly to try to charge everyone to pay back each and every one of their influences in creating a new work.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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Morons In A Hurry Can Raise Their Glasses Of Glenora Whisky Proudly Again
What is it with the silly food related trademark battles we keep hearing about lately? First there were Idaho potatoes, then lettuce, and now whisky. You see, the Scotch Whisky Association takes these things seriously. Already you can't call something Scotch (or Scotch Whisky) unless it was produced at a distillery in Scotland, but now it was trying to expand its control over the word "Glen" as well. There are, of course, a few very well known Scottish distilleries using "Glen" such as Glenlivet or Glenfiddich. So what was the problem? Well, in Glenville, Nova Scotia, Canada there's a whisky distillery called Glenora, who makes a single malt whisky under the name Glen Breton Rare whisky. The Scottish Whisky Association insisted this was a problem and confusing, even though the label on Glen Breton states quite clearly: "Canada's Only Single Malt Whisky." I think even the traditional "moron in a hurry" would recognize that it's from Canada, not Scotland. It appears that some Canadian judges agree -- and have refused to hear the Scottish Whisky makers' appeal, meaning Glenora gets to keep the name. Of course, the other bit of irony, as pointed out by the anonymous person who submitted this: Nova Scotia actually means New Scotland.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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Why Is It So Difficult To Understand The Difference Between A Platform And A User?
In the US, thanks to safe harbor rules in the DMCA and the CDA, courts will often toss out misdirected lawsuits that go after a service provider for the actions of a user. To be honest, I've always questioned why we need such safe harbors in the first place, since it should just be basic common sense that a service provider shouldn't be liable for the actions of a user. But, of course, common sense just isn't that common. This can be seen, first, in all the lawsuits that require incantations of the safe harbors to get them tossed out, but even worse, in foreign countries that have no such safe harbor laws. Take for example, a case in India, where Google India is being blamed for content written by bloggers on Blogger. First, Blogger is run by Google, not Google India, so the lawsuit is doubly misdirected -- but, more importantly, Google itself cannot be responsible for what someone writes using its tool. That's like suggesting that Bic is responsible for what you write with its pens. The case involves a guy who was upset about what some bloggers wrote about him -- so of course, he had to sue Google. What's amazing is that the judge seems to have initially bought this as reasonable. It barred Google from hosting any blog that "defamed" this guy. Google has responded by trying to explain the basics of the internet to the judge and how it's impossible for Google to figure out if someone is defaming someone else using its software.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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Oh Look, Citizen Journalists Can Do Real Investigative Reporting
The newspaper people will tell you that if they are obliterated by the evil internets one of the big loses will be investigative journalism. If it hadn’t been for those gritty investigative journalists the newspaper hires there’d be no Watergate, no Whitewater Gate, no ‘Gates of any kind. Of course, that’s just plain silly. Newspapers didn’t invent investigative journalism any more than they invented news or reporting news. In fact, in this digital age where anyone willing to do the work can spill the beans to a massive audience, there is more reason than ever for independent investigators to step up to the plate. The folks at QuarryGirl, a blog dedicated to animal rights, have done just that. Having been given a great deal of anecdotal proof that some food at Vegan restaurants around LA contained animal by-products, they decided to see if they could prove it. One might assume, as a bunch of bloggers with, potentially, no J-school experience whatsoever, they might make a hash of things. Instead, they made a plan: Here's an outline of the plan: Locate a facility that has no traces of egg, casein or shellfish in which to perform the advanced tests Purchase anti-contamination equipment including industrial sterilization supplies, lab coats, uncontaminated bags, swabs, razor blades, gloves and floor coverings Obtain highly restricted industrial food testing "kits" only available to the food manufacturing industry Develop a regimented process to test each food item with the highest standards of inter-test cleanliness, ensuring that absolutely no food particles from one food item contaminate another Select a diverse set of menu items from 100% vegan-only restaurants throughout LA (with one exception, see later) Order the food for carry-out, and seal it in an airtight bag in its original packaging either inside, or very close to the point of purchase Transport the food items to the testing facility intact and sealed, and perform the tests within 48 hours of purchase, keeping them refrigerated until immediately before the test Develop a strict bracketing control, with a thorough analysis of the testing facility and equipment before testing: A negative control to ensure no pre-existing contamination, and a positive control test on a known-positive food product (containing all three target non-vegan items) to ensure that the tests do indicate positive results Conduct the test in absolute secrecy to ensure that no restaurant would know they were providing samples, and pose as regular customers ordering take-out food in a normal way, with no disclosure that the items would be used for a test. So, we divided up the work between us, and dedicated a Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday as well as over $1,000 of our collective money to pulling off the most extensive scientific test that we know of to find out, once and for all, if samples of restaurant food are vegan or not. Not sure about you, but that sounds like a pretty sound plan. Find out what happened here. This is just one example of how the inevitable death of newspapers will simply not be the information apocalypse they’d like you to think it will be.Dave Title is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Dave Title and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here. Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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Canadian TV Station Selectively Issuing Copyright Takedowns?
A couple people have sent in this story, where the Canadian TV station Business News Network is apparently issuing takedowns on certain videos that are clips from BNN shows. The copyright claims may be valid, but what's odd is that they seem to be targeted very specifically: only at those who posted clips of people pushing back against draconian copyright expansion legislation in Canada. Now, obviously, BNN has the legal right to protect its own copyrights, but there's something pretty sketchy when it selectively only takes down clips that show people fighting against copyright expansion. It certainly goes beyond the purpose of copyright, and shows how copyright is often used not as an incentive, but as a means of stifling speech.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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Judge Tosses Out Lori Drew Ruling
The Lori Drew verdict finding her guilty of computer hacking because she may have broken MySpace's terms of service (without even having read them) was a classic example of prosecutors trying to stretch the law to punish someone who did something they didn't like, but which wasn't against the law. The implications of the ruling were quite troubling, in that they could turn almost anyone into a criminal if prosecutors wanted to charge them as such. For months, though, the judge in the case has been weighing whether or not to overturn the ruling. It's not clear why it took so long, but the judge has in fact acquitted Drew on the three charges she was found guilty of by the jury. This is good news all around. No matter what you think of Drew and what she did, prosecutors twisted the law in a way that would have set an amazingly dangerous precedent. It will be interesting to see if there's an appeal, but for now, this is undeniably good news.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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New Jersey Politician Adds Most GPS Devices To Driver Distractions To Ban
We've pointed out time and time again how silly it is for politicians to run around trying to ban each and every driver distraction, rather than just focusing on beefing up laws for reckless driving. There have been laws or proposals against driving while talking on a phone, texting, viewing a video screen, faxing, eating, shaving, playing video games and even having sex. And now, Comboman alerts us to a proposal in New Jersey to ban drivers from using GPS devices that require manual programming. Instead, drivers could only use those with voice control features. Next up? Who's going to ban adjusting the radio dial or the air conditioning?Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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Blizzard The Latest To Kill Features, Call It An Upgrade
A bunch of folks have been sending in variations on the news that Blizzard has killed off LAN support for StarCraft II. The Buzz Saw points out that Blizzard seems to be taking the same old tactic of claiming that this removal of a feature is for the benefit of users, noting that this is "the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience." However, the company also does admit that it was a "difficult decision" and that a larger part of the reason may have been to "safeguard against piracy." Either way, this seems like a move that's designed to backfire badly. It's all about taking away value, rather than adding value (or a reason to buy). LAN parties using StarCraft were a huge part of the appeal of the game -- and even though there were many pirated versions out there, it's part of what drove more people to buy the legitimate version. One thing that we've seen over and over again is that any business that focuses on "safeguarding against piracy" isn't focusing enough on providing unique value to customers. It's amazing that it still needs to be explained in this day and age, but you succeed in business by providing more positive value to customers, not in taking it away just because it doesn't fit with your business model.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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O'Reilly RADAR        return to top
Four short links: 3 July 2009

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Twitter Approval Matrix - June 2009

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Ignite Los Angeles on 7/21! Submit a Talk

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Patrick Collison Puts the Squeeze on Wikipedia

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In Defense of Social Media (At Least Some Of It)

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Velocity and the Bottom Line

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Everyblock's Code is Open-Sourced

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The Hacker Ethic - Harming Developers?

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Lifehacker        return to top
This Week's Most Popular Posts [Highlights]
Fancy tie-tying, Wi-Fi password cracking, Google Voice, and Firefox 3.5 round out this week's most popular posts. Dress Up Your Ties with the "Merovingian Knot"The realm of dress tie knots is dominated by a handful of traditional tie knots. Check out this rather unique tie knot and be the first on your block to sport it.How to Crack a Wi-Fi Network's WEP Password with BackTrack You already know that if you want to lock down your Wi-Fi network, you should opt for WPA encryption because WEP is easy to crack. But did you know how easy?Google Voice Is Cool, But Do You Need It?You've read about the features, you saw the invites going out, but you might be wondering what, exactly, Google Voice could do for you. Here's our guide for the curious and uninvited on whether your phones need some Google juice.Firefox 3.5 Officially Available for DownloadWindows/Mac/Linux: The final version of the Firefox is starting to show up on Mozilla's web site, and some readers are reporting update notices. Here are a few links and how-tos you should check out before downloading that browser.Top 10 Firefox 3.5 FeaturesFirefox 3.5 is a pretty substantial update to the popular open-source browser, and it's just around the corner. See what features, fixes, and clever new tools are worth getting excited about in the next big release.Top 10 Productivity Basics ExplainedThere's a core set of habits and techniques that filter and color a lot of what we write about at Lifehacker, but we rarely step back to explain them for newcomers.Five Best Free System Restore ToolsBacking up data is a great way to minimize losses after a computing catastrophe. But what about restoring your actual system right away? Here are the five most popular options for our readers.Soaking is Key for Perfect Homemade French FriesYou don't need to install a deep fat fryer in your kitchen or apprentice at a burger stand to get homemade French fries worthy of great praise. The key is soaking your sliced potatoes and using the right oil.Best of the Best: Hive Five Winners, March through June 2009The year is flying by, and so are our readers' picks for software, hardware, and other tools. Come on in to see the winners of our Hive Five polls for the second quarter of 2009.3G Speeds Tested & Compared, City by CityAs wireless users know all too well, not all 3G networks are created equal. PC World recently put Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T to a multi-city test to determine which best delivers speed and reliability.Is The Desktop PC Dead?Desktop sales fell by 23 percent last year across the computer industry. In the U.S., 80 percent of sales went to notebooks. Gizmodo declares the desktop dead, but we're wondering if you see a future for non-mobile systems.
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Celebrate the Fourth of July with a New Desktop Wallpaper [Friday Fun]
If ever there were a holiday that yields colorful and flashy desktop wallpaper, it's definitely the Fourth of July. Celebrate the Fourth on your desktop with these swanky fireworks wallpapers. If you're not going to be shooting your own stunning Fourth of July pictures this weekend, you might as well take advantage of the great photos other people have taken to properly decorate your computer screen for the holiday. The following gallery is a collection of Fourth of July-themed wallpaper we plucked from collections across the web. Each photo has an attribution link that'll take you back to the source of the image for your full-size desktop needs. If you know of a stash of Fourth-themed wallpapers online, share the wealth in the comments below! Photo by esens. Photo by Joe Penniston. Photo by twentyeight. Photo by Tony M.. Photo by Stuck in Customs. Photo by charness. Photo by wmliu. Photo by Jaako. Photo by Barry Yanowitz. Photo by brewskizzlr.
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Get Ready For Summer With Homemade Sunblock [Summer]
Choosing the right sunblock is important, but let's say you're more of a DIY type, or maybe your skin is sensitive to many of the common ingredients. The solution is simple: make your own sunblock. Instructables user scoochmaroo's detailed guide to making your own sunscreen demonstrates the process either completely from scratch or using a store-bought lotion as a base. She goes as far as to include a chart that gives you measurements for the ingredients based on the SPF you're aiming for. Follow the link for the "recipe," and make your high school science teacher proud by heeding the warnings about wearing gloves and a mask while blending the ingredients (zinc oxide should be on your nose, not in it). Have you ever tried a homemade sunblock? What do you use to protect yourself from the sun? Let's hear it in the comments. Homemade Sunscreen [Instructables]
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State of the Airline Industry Chart Compares Airline Service Fees [Saving Money]
If you've ever had to change your flight, check additional luggage, or use in-flight Wi-Fi, you know that these services often come with a price. Consumer site BillShrink has created a handy fee comparison chart for eleven carriers. Though you should always confirm directly with the airline since prices can and do change, the pictured chart is useful if you want to know how much more you'll have to spend on your next trip, and whether—depending on the fee involved—it might be better to book with another carrier. Check out the full link below for all the details. If you'd prefer to avoid paying fees entirely, browse our previous post on how to master one-bag traveling, then take a look at some other avoidable fees you may still be paying for. The Recession and The American Airline Industry [BillShrink]
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June 2009's Most Popular Posts [[this Is Good]]
You may already be celebrating the Fourth, but before you leave June behind for good, here's a quick look back at last month's posts you liked best, including essential Windows and Mac downloads, our Windows vs. Leopard showdown, and more. Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads We feature downloads of all kinds every day at Lifehacker. Today, however, we're bundling all the best free downloads for new computer owners, re-installers, would-be geeks, or anyone who wants to save time installing the best stuff out there. Dress Up Your Ties with the "Merovingian Knot" The realm of dress tie knots is dominated by a handful of traditional tie knots. Check out this rather unique tie knot and be the first on your block to sport it. Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Features Firefox 3.5 is a pretty substantial update to the popular open-source browser, and it's just around the corner. See what features, fixes, and clever new tools are worth getting excited about in the next big release. Windows 7 Versus Mac OS X Leopard: The Feature-by-Feature Showdown Now that we know Windows 7 will go on sale October 22nd and the feature-complete release candidate is available as a free download, it's time to put it through its paces. Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Mac Downloads We've featured countless apps of all sorts over the years, but if you just want a quick look at the best free downloads for your Mac, this post's for you. Upcoming Tech That Will Rock Your World Major announcements from Google, Microsoft, and Apple in the last few weeks have techies flipping out about the awesomeness coming to our browsers, pockets, and desktops in the very near future. Five Best Netbooks If you're thinking about picking up an ultra-portable laptop, this week's Hive Five is a great spot to start your comparison shopping. These are the netbooks most loved by Lifehacker readers. Top 10 Wallpaper Tools & Tweaks A good wallpaper provides a pleasant backdrop to productivity. A great wallpaper changes your whole computer experience. See some of the best image sources, software, and usability tweaks we've come across and rolled up for your downloading pleasure. Best and Worst Fast Food: McDonald's Edition No matter how well you plan, every day can't be an ultra-healthy, bring-your-own-lunch-to-work day. But just because you're eating at a fast food place doesn't mean all bets are off. The Starlight Desktop Reader rykennedyan's desktop combines a beautiful wallpaper with a full set of launchers and tools integrated into a taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Debunking Traffic Ticket Myths Virginia traffic attorney Andrew Flusche can't explain everything you need to do to get out of any traffic ticket, but he does want to shoot down some myths your lead-footed friends might try and convince you of.
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Make Magazine Blog        return to top
Denture ice cubes
These ice dentures should be a hit in the punch bowl at granny's party! If you want to pick up a set, try Amazon. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!
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Fireworks animation by PES
Unexpected, delightful; I did enjoy this fireworks animation by PES. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Holiday projects | Digg this!
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Eensy weensy robot picks things up
Mikey77 writes: Build a 1/20 cubic inch robot with a gripper that can pick up and move small objects. It is controlled by a Picaxe microcontroller. At this point in time, I believe this may be the world's smallest wheeled robot with a gripper. That will no doubt change, tomorrow or next week, when someone builds something smaller. The main problem with building really small robots is the relatively large size of even the smallest motors and batteries. They take up most of the volume of a micro robot. I am experimenting with ways to eventually make robots that are truly microscopic. As an interim step, I made the three tiny robots and the controller described in this instructable. I believe with modifications, these proof of concept robots, could be scaled down to microscopic size. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Robotics | Digg this!
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Making mischief
There are a few clever pranks here. I particularly like the Mentos stealth geyser. From the Mischief Makers' Manual. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!
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Apply for an Awesome Grant!
That's not an adjective in the title, "Awesome Grant" is the actual name of the grant, from the Awesome Foundation, of Cambridge, MA. Each month, they give away $1,000 to someone who wants to do something... well awesome. Here's how they define what they're looking for: Awesomeness is often overlooked by mainstream culture, which tends to rehash the same broadly appealing but mediocre creations. Thankfully, there is the web. Awesomeness is more the product of a creator's passion than the prospect of audience or profit. Awesome creations are novel and non-obvious, evoking surprise and delight. Invariably, something about them perfectly reflects the essence of the medium, moment, or method of creation. Awesomeness challenges and inspires. You enter the proposals on their site and they only need to be 500 words. If you get accepted, you even get access to workspace to realize your project (if you live in the Boston area). If any of our readers submit a proposal that gets accepted, please let us know. We're sure there are plenty of awesome ideas bouncing around the noggins of Make: Online readers. The Awesome Foundation Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Announcements | Digg this!
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Japanese POW camp radio
On today's HacDC Blabber list, Trammell Hudson posted a link to this awesome account of British soldiers building a radio in a Japanese POW camp. Trammel writes: Since they didn't have a local Digikey or Radioshack, everything had to be sourced from what was available. The caps were made from aluminum foil lining of tea-chests, the resistors were rusty barbed wire with burned tree bark, the rectifiers out of oxidised foil and salt water, they smuggled a tube ("valve") in the camps and bribed the local Chinese power station operator to slowly step the output voltage up to 130 from 110 volts. Amazingly they were able to receive the BBC broadcasts! The initial RX design was pretty basic, so they then built a super-het regenerative transmitter, too, but never made use of it. [FYI: The image I used above is not from this story, just a diagram of your basic DIY foxhole radio.] Construction of Radio Equipment in a Japanese POW Camp Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Makers | Digg this!
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Contests on Let's Make Robots
Let's Make Robots is a popular site for robot hobbyists. They've been running two build contests on the site which are now in their finals. Rik, a community member writes: The LMR Dagu Mr. Basic Challenge invited makers to create any robot from a basic four wheel platform (provided by community sponsor Dagu Electronics). Entries vary from spectacular light shows (using Nixie tubes) to fire fighter to mouse droid (as seen on Star Wars). Three money prizes are at stake. All community members are invited to judge the entries. The Oddbot LMR Video Challenge is sponsoring creative videos of home made robots. The criteria for "robot" are stretched far enough as to give any one a shot at the lavish prizes. The resulting videos are very funny and creative. The prizes consist of robots and components that Oddbot built and collected over the years. He must now part with them as he moves from Australia to China to become a pro. I love the sense of humor, and fun, expressed in a lot of the entry bot designs and videos. Let's Make Robots Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Robotics | Digg this!
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Hardware chess sets
The tradition of improvising a chess set from whatever's on hand is probably as venerable as chess itself. Chess culture is chock-full of sets put together from odds and ends of every description, but here I'm only focusing on sets built from mechanical and electrical bits--mostly nuts, bolts, and washers of various flavors. If you've got a good one I missed, please do link it in the comments. If you're interested in making your own and want some guidance, Mother Earth News has a nice tutorial. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Toys and Games | Digg this!
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Make: Projects - Outlet-mount device charging pocket
Most cell phones are provided with a very basic wall-wart charger, and you usually have to pay extra for a proper charging dock. The bundled charger is often unsightly in use, being just a transformer with a cord strung out to an end table or something where the cell phone rests. If you have a cat who likes to chew through cords, as I do, this can be more than just inelegant--it can be totally impractical. It's also a good project if you just hate, for aesthetic reasons, loose power cords strung out across the furniture. A similar product is for sale at ThinkGeek, and that's where I got the idea. The nice thing about my version is that it requires no tools to mount or demount, being suspended by the plug on the charger itself. So you can quickly move it around to whatever outlet you want or take it with you when you travel. Plus it costs all of nothing to build. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in MAKE Projects | Digg this!
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4th of July guide on Instructables
Instructables has a roundup of 4th projects for a happy weekend. BBQs, recipes, summer clothes, and water abound. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Holiday projects | Digg this!
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Technology Review        return to top
Blog - Tittle 'n' tattle
The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv blog this week:
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Blog - AstroTwitter To Reveal Where Telescopes Are Pointing
The success of the Twitter feed from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is leading to a new generation of scientific comunications
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Blog - Gnip Is Hiring Software Developers

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A Limb Regeneration Mystery Solved
Salamanders regrow limbs with less drastic cellular changes than previously thought.
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Blog - How to Reduce Cell-Phone Radiation Exposure
A new network architecture could dramatically reduce the radiation exposure from cell phones.
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Blog - Trada is Hiring for a Test Engineer + Support

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Blog - The Unbearable Stupidity of Some Patents

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Blog - The Wranglers

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Video - Energy loans
At a recent conference at the United Nations, the person in charge of the Department of Energy's finances told Technology Review how his agency is pushing innovation.
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Slashdot        return to top
Generating Power From Ocean Buoys and Kites
cheezitmike writes "Researchers at Oregon State University are testing a new type of wave-energy converter to generate electricity from ocean waves: 'Even when the ocean seems calm, swells are moving water up and down sufficiently to generate electricity. ... For decades the challenge has been to build a device that can withstand monster waves and gale-force winds, not to mention corrosive saltwater, seaweed, floating debris and curious marine mammals. ... In the most recent prototypes, a thick coil of copper wire is inside the first component, which is anchored to the seafloor. The second component is a magnet attached to a float that moves up and down freely with the waves. As the magnet is heaved by the waves, its magnetic field moves along the stationary coil of copper wire. This motion induces a current in the wire — electricity.'" Meanwhile, researchers at Stanford are working to design "turbine kites" that operate at 30,000 feet, where air currents flow much faster than they do close to the ground. Ken Caldeira, a Standford associate professor, said, "If you tapped into 1% of the power in high-altitude winds, that would be enough to continuously power all civilization."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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2009-07-04T06:09:00+00:00
UK Police Told To Use Wikipedia When Preparing For Court
Half-pint HAL tips news of UK prosecution lawyers who are instructing police to study information on Wikipedia when preparing to give expert testimony in court. "Mike Finn, a weaponry specialist and expert witness in more than 100 cases, told industry magazine Police Review: 'There was one case in a Midlands force where police officers asked me to write a report about a martial art weapon. The material they gave me had been printed out from Wikipedia. The officer in charge told me he was advised by the CPS to use the website to find out about the weapon and he was about to present it in court. I looked at the information and some of it had substance and some of it was completely made up.' Mr. Finn, a former Metropolitan Police and City of London officer and Home Office adviser, added that he has heard of at least three other cases where officers from around the country have been advised by the CPS to look up evidence on Wikipedia."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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2009-07-04T04:06:00+00:00
Hawking Says Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution
movesguy sends us to The Daily Galaxy for comments by Stephen Hawking about how humans are evolving in a different way than any species before us. Quoting: "'At first, evolution proceeded by natural selection, from random mutations. This Darwinian phase, lasted about three and a half billion years, and produced us, beings who developed language, to exchange information. I think it is legitimate to take a broader view, and include externally transmitted information, as well as DNA, in the evolution of the human race,' Hawking said. In the last ten thousand years the human species has been in what Hawking calls, 'an external transmission phase,' where the internal record of information, handed down to succeeding generations in DNA, has not changed significantly. 'But the external record, in books, and other long lasting forms of storage,' Hawking says, 'has grown enormously. Some people would use the term evolution only for the internally transmitted genetic material, and would object to it being applied to information handed down externally. But I think that is too narrow a view. We are more than just our genes.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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2009-07-04T02:03:00+00:00
Amazon Wants Patent For Inserting Ads Into Books
theodp writes "Three Amazon inventors set out to correct what they felt was a real problem: that 'out-of-print or rare books ... typically do not include advertisements ... the content is fixed and, therefore, has not been adapted to modern marketing.' Their solution is spelled out in newly-disclosed Amazon patent applications for On-Demand Generating E-Book Content with Advertising and Incorporating Advertising in On-Demand Generated Content. From the patent apps, here's what the future of reading may look like: 'For instance, if a restaurant is described on page 12, [then the advertising page], either on page 11 or page 13, may include advertisements about restaurants, wine, food, etc., which are related to restaurants and dining.' So, what would a delightfully-tacky-yet-unrefined Hooters ad do for your Hemingway experience?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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2009-07-04T00:02:00+00:00
Fake Tamiflu "Out-Spams Viagra On Web"
cin62 writes "The number of Internet scammers offering fake versions of the anti-swine flu drug Tamiflu has surpassed those selling counterfeit Viagra, reports CNN. Since the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, was declared a global pandemic last month, there has been an increase in the number of Web sites and junk emails offering Tamiflu for sale. 'Every Web site that used to sell Viagra is now selling Tamiflu. We are pretty sure that the same people are making the Tamiflu as are making the Viagra,' said Director of Policy for the UK's Royal Pharmaceutical Society." This news fits in nicely with a report Wired ran a couple weeks ago about the hysteria behind H1N1.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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2009-07-03T23:11:00+00:00
Source Code of Several Atari 7800 Games Released
jadoon88 writes to share a series of old Atari 7800 games that have been unofficially open sourced. "Remember Dig Dug or Centipede or Robotron? They used to be favorites when Atari's 7800 series was still around. Since the era of those consoles is over, and a different world of interactive reality gaming has taken over, Atari has unofficially released source code of over 15 games for the coders and enthusiasts to admire the state-of-the-art (because this is what it was back then). During those times, nobody would have imagined in their wildest dreams the games that Atari's developers floated into the gaming thirsty market and instantly swept across continental boundaries. But things changed soon after that and a company once regarded as one of the most successful gaming console manufacturers and developers faded away in the pages of our technology's hall-of-fame."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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2009-07-03T22:22:00+00:00
How To Get Your Program Professionally Marketed?
one-man orchestra writes "I'm the sole programmer of a small, multi-platform, commercial audio program (a spectrogram editor). After over 6 months on the market, I realized that the program would never just sell itself, and that I need some real marketing done for it. Being a one-man orchestra is becoming increasingly difficult; I only can devote so much time to marketing, my skills in that department are lacking, and I'd much rather spend more time coding. Despite my lackluster part-time marketing effort, I still manage to make a modest living out of the sales. My logical assumption is that with someone competent taking care of that part, revenue could greatly scale up. But what's the right way to go about doing this? What type of people/company do I need to contact? What to expect? What to look out for?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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2009-07-03T21:30:00+00:00
Professor Gets 4 Years in Prison for Sharing Drone Plans With Students
Hugh Pickens writes "Retired University of Tennessee Professor Dr. John Reece Roth has been sentenced to four years in prison after he allowed a Chinese graduate student to see sensitive information on Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. In 2004, the company Roth helped found, Atmospheric Glow Technologies, won a US Air Force contract to develop a plasma actuator that could help reduce drag on the wings of drones, such as the ones the military uses. Under the contract, for which Roth was reportedly paid $6,000, he was prohibited from sharing sensitive data with foreign nationals. Despite warnings from his university's Export Control Officer, in 2006, Roth took a laptop containing sensitive plans with him on a lecture tour in China and also allowed graduate students Xin Dai of China and Sirous Nourgostar of Iran to work on the project. 'The illegal export of restricted military data represents a serious threat to national security,' says David Kris of the US Department of Justice. 'We know that foreign governments are actively seeking this information for their own military development. Today's sentence should serve as a warning to anyone who knowingly discloses restricted military data in violation of our laws.' During his trial, Roth testified that he was unaware that hiring the graduate students was a violation of his contract. 'This whole thing has not helped me, it has not helped the university,' said Roth. 'And it has probably not helped this country, either.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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2009-07-03T20:38:00+00:00
Copyright Should Encourage Derivative Works
Techdirt has an interesting look at copyright and the idea that an author is the originator of a new work. Instead, the piece suggests that all works are in some way based on the works of others (even our own copyright law), and the system should be much more encouraging of "remixing" work into new, unique experiences. "Friedman also points back to another recent post where he discusses the nature of content creation, based on a blog post by Rene Kita. In it, she points out that remixing and creating through collaboration and building on the works of others has always been the norm. It's what we do naturally. It's only in the last century or so, when we reached a means of recording, manufacturing and selling music — which was limited to just those with the machinery and capital to do it, that copyright was suddenly brought out to 'protect' such things."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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2009-07-03T19:47:00+00:00
Open Source Facing a Difficult Battle For Cloud Relevance
A recent eulogy for open source's relevance to cloud computing by Redmonk analyst Stephen O'Grady caught the attention of Matt Asay, who breaks down the difficulty of this David and Goliath problem. "In a world where horsepower matters more than the software feeding those 'horses,' in terms of the entry cost to compete, and where big vendors like Amazon and Google are already divvying up the market, the odds of a small-fry, open-source start-up challenging 'Goliath' are slim. It's not a new argument: Nick Carr has been suggesting for some time that only a few, big companies can afford relevance in this hardware-intensive business. Given this fact, O'Grady thinks the best we can hope for (and he thinks it's pretty important) is 'a loose coalition or confederation of [open-source] projects and vendors that will together comprise an increasingly viable top to bottom alternative to some of the cloud providers today.' He includes projects like Puppet (Reductive Labs) and Hadoop in this mix, but is careful to point out that he doesn't see a full-fledged, open-source alternative seriously challenging the closed platforms of Google, Amazon, Salesforce, and the other mega-clouds."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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2009-07-03T18:55:00+00:00

Silicon Valley Sleuth        return to top

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