The GNOME and KDE projects have announced that they will be holding a joint desktop summit in Berlin in August, 2011. "The 2011 Desktop Summit will build on the first Summit's success. More than 1,000 contributors from more than 50 countries are expected to attend the 2011 event in Berlin. In addition to members of the GNOME and KDE development community, the conference will also attract many participants in the overall FLOSS community from local projects, organizations, and companies."
July 30, 2010 06:23 PM
Fossil fuels may be doing an even more efficient job of warming the planet than we thought. A new study shows that black carbon generated by fossil fuels seems to warm the planet more than other sources, and sulfates generated by burning cheaper fuels help the black carbon absorb even more energy. The scientists who authored the paper note that policies will likely need to tamp down on both substances in order to make a dent in the rate of global warming.
Researchers have long considered black carbon a culprit behind the increasingly warm atmosphere, as it holds incoming heat rather than reflecting it. They haven't been able to decisively point fingers, though, because it's difficult to pinpoint how much warming the black carbon causes. The source of the carbon seemed to play an important role, as did the ambient amount of other substances, like sulfates.
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July 30, 2010 06:14 PM
Debian has updated openldap (denial
of service).
Fedora has updated kvirc (F13, F12:
remote command execution) and F12: pidgin
(denial of service).
Red Hat has updated java (multiple
vulnerabilities) and freetype (RHEL
3, RHEL 4&5: multiple
vulnerabilities).
SUSE has updated firefox, thunderbird,
seamonkey (multiple vulnerabilities).
July 30, 2010 06:02 PM
So that Android app which was stealing all your data? Turns out maybe not so much
July 30, 2010 06:01 PM
[Jason Statham] [Martin Magnusson] wrote in to tell us about his adventure in building a wearable computer. The device in its current state is a Beagleboard running Angstrom Linux tethered to an iPhone for internet. A bluetooth keyboard allows for input, while output is displayed on monocle-ized Myvu. And last but not least, the entire setup is powered by 4 AA batteries for 3 hours of life.
Its not as small as some of the wearable computers we’ve seen before, but if you wanted to whip out your own it sure takes a lot less soldering.
July 30, 2010 06:00 PM
Here's your daily Wall Street-related laugh -- after getting busted for knowingly selling self-described "sh*tty deals" to clients, Goldman Sachs has now decided that it must stop employees from using naughty words in company emails:
The New York company is telling employees that they will no longer be able to get away with profanity in electronic messages. That means all 34,000 traders, investment bankers and other Goldman employees must restrain themselves from using a vast vocabulary of oft-used dirty words on Wall Street, including the six-letter expletive that came back to haunt the company at a Senate hearing in April.
"[B]oy, that timberwo[l]f was one s— deal," Thomas Montag, who helped run Goldman's securities business, wrote in a June 2007 email that was repeatedly referred to at the hearing.
Mr. Montag, who couldn't be reached for comment, wouldn't be allowed to send that email under Goldman's sanitized communications policy, which is being enforced by screening software. Even swear words spelled with asterisks are out.
Oh, now where's the fun in that! How can get an accurate picture of the Real Wall Street works if traders aren't allowed to email each other messages such as "LOL OMG I CANT BELIEVE THE DUMB-A** C***S***ER BOUGHT THAT S****Y M*****F***ING DEAL I CAN'T WAIT 2 SHORT THAT B***H ROFL!!!!1!"
Man, it's hard out here for a pimp these days. Continuing:
A Goldman spokeswoman said: "Of course we have policies about the use of appropriate language and we are always looking for ways to ensure that they are enforced."
"We always tell our f***ing traders not to mouth the f**k off about the s****y deals they make over email," he added. "That sort of talk must be reserved for company restrooms only."
The new edict—delivered verbally, of course—has left some employees wondering if the rule also applies to shorthand for expletives such as "WTF" or legitimate terms that sound similar to curses.
Traders are now banned from writing things like, "OMFG THAT MF HAS NO IDEA WTF IS ABOUT 2 HAPPEN LMAO! I PURCHASED CDS ON THOSE POS SECURITIES FIVE MINUTES AFTER HE BOUGHT THEM FROM ME -- NOW WHEN HE BLOWS UP I WILL BE EFFING RICH LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!"
This new Goldman policy is a classic example of what we professional philosophers call "Missing the damn point." No one is taking offense at the fact that they used four-letter words in company emails. The offensive thing is that they allegedly designed collateralized debt obligations filled with crappy mortgages and then sold them to unwitting clients and then shorting securities in the CDOs through credit default swaps.
This sort of behavior, needless to say, is much more offensive than using the s-word over and over again in emails.
July 30, 2010 06:00 PM
MapleStory (PC)
Unleash your skills.
July 30, 2010 05:50 PM
Selling fear:
The Vivos network, which offers partial ownerships similar to a timeshare in underground shelter communities, is one of several ventures touting escape from a surface-level calamity.
Radius Engineering in Terrell, Texas, has built underground shelters for more than three decades, and business has never been better, says Walton McCarthy, company president.
The company sells fiberglass shelters that can accommodate 10 to 2,000 adults to live underground for one to five years with power, food, water and filtered air, McCarthy says.
The shelters range from $400,000 to a $41 million facility Radius built and installed underground that is suitable for 750 people, McCarthy says. He declined to disclose the client or location of the shelter.
"We've doubled sales every year for five years," he says.Other shelter manufacturers include Hardened Structures of Colorado and Utah Shelter Systems, which also report increased sales.
[...]
The Vivos website features a clock counting down to Dec. 21, 2012, the date when the ancient Mayan "Long Count" calendar marks the end of a 5,126-year era, at which time some people expect an unknown apocalypse.
Vicino, whose terravivos.com website lists 11 global catastrophes ranging from nuclear war to solar flares to comets, bristles at the notion he's profiting from people's fears.
"You don't think of the person who sells you a fire extinguisher as taking advantage of your fear," he says. "The fact that you may never use that fire extinguisher doesn't make it a waste or bad.
"We're not creating the fear; the fear is already out there. We're creating a solution.
Yip Harburg commented on the subject about half a century ago, and the Chad Mitchell Trio recited it. It's at about 0:40 on the recording, though the rest is worth listening to as well.
Hammacher Schlemmer is selling a shelter,
worthy of Kubla Khan's Xanadu dome;
Plushy and swanky, with posh hanky panky
that affluent Yankees can really call home.
Hammacher Schlemmer is selling a shelter,
a push-button palace, fluorescent repose;
Electric devices for facing a crisis
with frozen fruit ices and cinema shows.
Hammacher Schlemmer is selling a shelter
all chromium kitchens and rubber-tiled dorms;
With waterproof portals to echo the chortles
of weatherproof mortals in hydrogen storms.
What a great come-to-glory emporium!
To enjoy a deluxe moratorium,
Where nuclear heat can beguile the elite
in a creme-de-la-creme crematorium.
July 30, 2010 05:47 PM
uhh, that's good marketing actually. if I pay a $150 setup fee and save $15/mo, they make money if I cancel before 10 months, and I save money if I stay for over that (and they now have a long-term customer)
July 30, 2010 05:46 PM
