Recent Comments

Where can I find past polls?

Where is Windows Phone? What is this all iOS / Android nonsense?

Dammit, forgot to add netbooks. I had a great one I bought from System76 in 2009 and I liked it a lot. Hardware finally died, but I'd take a netbook over almost any other device at this point: I'm no fan of Ultrabooks, my Chromebook is great but not as great as my netbook, and I could add a GSM modem to make it into an internet device usable miles-from-nowhere.

Ballmer can kiss my ass for helping destroy the netbook because it threatened his empire. I wish companies were still making them. Maybe I should look into a used one on ebay but you never know what you're getting there.

Fruits Basket being an example better in English

What a calm, measured, competent, and technical response - refreshing change of pace from the tech media. Good quote:

"Many of the claims made in the popular press about this technology have been exaggerated." said Robert Latiff, chair of the committee that wrote the report, president of Latiff Associates, and a former Air Force Major General. "For in-space use, the technology may provide new capabilities, but it will serve as one more tool in the toolbox, not a magic solution to tough space operations and manufacturing problems. However, right now NASA and the Air Force have a tremendous resource in the form of the International Space Station," Latiff added. "Perfecting this technology in space will require human interaction, and the Space Station already provides the infrastructure and the skilled personnel who can enable that to happen."

Additive manufacturing is the process of joining materials -- usually layer upon layer -- to make objects from 3-D model data. The addition of material one layer at a time, placed in very specific regions, significantly reduces the amount of waste created during production. Additive manufacturing offers unique economic incentives for space operations by cutting raw material costs, reducing payload sizes, and eliminating the need to frequently launch spare or replacement parts into orbit. Although additive manufacturing is a fairly mature technology for components that can be manufactured on the ground, its application in space is not feasible today, except for very limited and experimental purposes, the report says.

The committee found that multiple limitations preclude fully automated additive manufacturing in space from becoming an immediate reality. The vacuum of space, zero gravity, and intense thermal fluctuations all pose extreme and harsh environmental obstacles. These factors are important not only in terms of completing the manufacturing process but also in how they can alter the integrity of the final product.

They may be cautiously trying to counter growing opinion that all future space missions will need to do is upload a 3D printer and some extruding plastic rods, and they'll be all set, whereas we haven't yet adequately tested the strength and resistance of materials extruded in low gravity and we still need to focus on being prepared and thinking ahead. How intelligent.

I'm going to have to add the National Academies to my RSS reader. I'm getting tired of all the hype in the media and am glad to listen to people who think carefully through problems before speaking.

(Great article, by the way - thanks for posting it).

All of our new web apps are perl behing tomcat with apache in front. Java can still be used for old apps. On the high end SAP (ABAP) is now the future.

... and all it takes is a single missed byte to crash that sucker.

I know. I wish she would move out.. but she owns the place.

How evil is it compared to more people being raped? Or cutting off the.penis? Or imprisonment? Or... what?

1 Gb? For a phone OS? WTF?

The future according to Cory Doctorow coming to life

If I had an AppleTV I'd be in a lonely, lonely crowd. Joking, but I have never, ever seen one of those devices in the wild - I get the idea they weren't and aren't very popular and that other services/products like Roku and maybe even Amazon Fire have surpassed them.

Still, interesting to see Chromecast working with Apple products - it's a surprise to me. I don't think I'd go out and buy an AppleTV just to do this, though. My HDMI port on my TV is currently being shared by a Roku and a RaspberryPi running XBMC streaming stuff from my NAS.

Sysadmins take note: the OSX Server caching service does not cache the iOS 8 update, despite that kind of being it's purpose. The update is a hair under a gigabyte

If you have a bunch of iOS users and were relying on this (I know I was), you might want to block the update for now.

Just found this study, sponsored by NASA and the U.S. Air Force, that's a major downer on 3D printing in space, stressing all the limitations and saying the media has been exaggerating the benefits:

http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=18871

I don't know about any discussion sites that are about technology rather than tech fetishism, neither Slashdot, Soylent News, or Pipedot, nor Ars Techinca or the Register which aren't really discussion sites. None of the blogs I know about either, no matter how famous or well reputed, nor any of the mailing lists, and certainly not the low end gossip & celebrity sites like Wired.

With one or two exceptions there is no widely or easily available public informed debate of any significant value concerning current technological issues rather than specific hardware or software. The exceptions I've seen are one or maybe two intentionally obfuscated proxy discussions which would have been interesting anyway solely based on their proxy nature. There is also some relevant academic work being published but it's very rare.

Of course I don't expect this to change, it's asking too much and requires too much work, the occasional insightful comment is all that is on offer and I expect those to disappear as well because they've become markedly rarer.

Normalization of the new status quo and nostalgia for a past that wasn't is all it really is, can't say I mind that much myself, one has to accept it when that's the way it is and instead aim for victory through defeat once more :)

Wow, still really don't care. I have a couple of Apple devices and have no intention of ever upgrading them to the newer "flatter" and uglier interfaces. The Ars link summary sounds as if iOS always trailed behind Android. Not news, and only true since Android matured at 2.x.

I talked to a couple of people who mentioned they were upgrading their iDevices tonight. Okay. So? This just isn't news, sorry. iOS is finally catching back up to Android. Great, fine. Can we go back to talking about important things like space exploration and KDE based distros? :)

If you have an AppleTV hooked up to that television (and on the same WiFi network as the iPad), you would just activate AirPlay and mirror the screen to the TV.

Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

There are actually just 4 major terrestrial digital TV broadcast standards in the world:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Digital_broadcast_standards.svg

The various details of each (eg. codecs) are handled in software easily enough. Heck, if you just have a basic tuner that can grab a ~6MHz chunk of the spectrum in the target frequencies, software defined radio could do all the RF decoding for you. Only problem for SDR is that old analog TV tuner cards separated video from audio before output, so chunks of the digital signal are missing, and you have to jump up to ridiculously expensive specialized non-consumer hardware. One company demanding such a thing could push the economies of scale, and get it very cheap.

I don't see any reason to include satellite/cable/etc tuners. OTA is the only one that'll be convenient for tablet use. If you want cable/satellite on your tablet once you've wall-mounted it, you can use whatever converter box is convenient, via HDMI input.

Poll suggestion: What mobile devices do you own or use. Get a snapshot of the community. Have a discussion about why we bought them. I did not buy an android for the ability to dig around in the guts and modify the OS. But I would like to!

I hear that to here hear you have to hear here, hear?

Suggest posting this kind of article where apple fans congregate... Slashdot perhaps :p

Well appparently this already exists

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chromecast/id680819774?mt=8

I'm as surprised as you are.

There is also probably a variety of standards of HDTV to deal with, across different countries the world and across different sources (satellite, ADSl, cable, terrestrial...).

I'm aware of the pills and chemical castration and the like. But having to submit to some sort of device that modifies your brainwaves/urges on behalf of the State? That's just pure evil.

Probably the cost of manufacturing, or the risk those components would interfere somehow. Good ideas though. My wife was just wondering how she could transfer what was on the screen of her ipad to the tv in front of us. I didn't know of any way. Guess on an Android device you could use Chromecast or something, but if something like that exists for iOS I'm not aware of it. Yes, a simple HDMI output would've saved the day. But I'm not holding my breath for it.

Man, it's so quiet you can hear a pin drop around here.

Good review by Ars Technica, who like it: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/ios-8-thoroughly-reviewed/

Overuse of hyperbole is a pet peeve of mine, but after using iOS 8 for a couple of months, I have to say that they're warranted in this case. iOS 7 was a comprehensive makeover for an operating system that needed to reclaim visual focus and consistency. iOS 7.1 improved stability and speed while addressing the new design's worst shortcomings and most egregious excesses. And iOS 8 is the update that turns its attention from the way everything looks to the way it works.

Just as iOS 6's look had begun to grow stale by the time 2013 rolled around (six years is a pretty good run, though), iOS' restrictions on third-party applications and UI customization now feel outdated. Sure, back in 2007, slow processors and small RAM banks required a strict, Spartan approach to what apps could do and the ways they could interact. But now, our smartphones and tablets have become powerful mini-computers in their own right. Competing platforms like Android, Windows, and Windows Phone have all demonstrated that it's possible to make these little gadgets more computer-y without tanking performance or battery life. ...

That's not Sci-Fi, it has been standard operating procedure for the past half-century. Convicted rapists in many situations (depending on jurisdiction) have been required to take pills or injections that reduce sexual urges, as a condition of their parole for many years. It has been happening in the US since 1966, and is law in several states. In Europe, Alan Turing chose that punishment for his homosexuality, rather than jail time, back in 1952:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_castration

Why don't tablet makers include HDTV tuners, and HDMI inputs?

For minimal extra cost, your tablet would be much more flexible, and have a vastly longer useful life-span.

Just imagine that your beloved tablet could double as a computer monitor. That would be a killer feature for any techies. Adding that capability to a laptop costs over $300, and people are happy to pay it: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002CLKFTQ/

And once your tablet gets to be a bit out-of-date, instead of throwing it away, you can just mount it on a wall connected to your antenna as a (free) 10" HDTV. And a very "smart" TV it is, at that, able to integrate Netflix/Hulu/etc. streaming without needing an extra $50 Roku/Chromecast box attached to it.

Or if you don't have a need for a small TV, it can go on your desk, doing duty as an LCD computer monitor. Heck, you could use it as a computer monitor right away, and just have the option to use your monitor as a tablet for quick tasks without starting-up your noisy and power-hungry main computer.

And that's not even mentioning the benefit tablet users would get from having a handy HDTV tuner with them all the time. In most cities, an internal antenna is good enough to pick-up several TV channels, so you'd have lots of free content available whenever you wanted to watch, without the need for high-speed internet access for streaming the video. Of course there's always the option of connecting a larger external antenna, even if just a long piece of wire yu scrounged up, in reception-poor areas.

Indeed there is - thanks for the careful read!

I don't have any problem with story rejection... not at all. I just think that "somebody else got there first" shouldn't be a singularly disqualifying offense, unless you really want |. to be a second-class citizen to all other sites, and basically force your readers to go elsewhere. I certainly don't want to see |. copy the junk SN posts, either, but |. shouldn't lose out on any interesting stories just because it isn't always first, here.

Not sure this counts as another spelling comment, but: hit harder, there is still a living bichr :-)

Fixed! And yet another pipedot story whose only comment involves a spelling correction. Yay us!

Bichr or bichir?

It's coming later today. Pipedot is so on top of the news you now get the articles even before they happen. Stay tuned and later today the entire Internet will collapse under the weight of a massive iOS8 gab-fest. Just remember you heard it hear first :)

Thanks, never knew that! Updated.

Interesting indeed. I've got a Nexus 7 and didn't know any of that stuff. Android is cool and all, but stuff like this makes a good reminder that other solutions ought to be possible, if not recommended! Too much of what makes Android Android is not available for the curious to poke around with, and I hate that. Dalvek - I'm looking at you.

It doesn't appear to be released yet. Apple's website still says "Coming soon" and software updater doesn't show anything.

Looks like this article was released prematurely, just to be "first".

It's written as "Qt". Otherwise people might confuse it with QuickTime.

I really don't care about another incremental OS update for iDevices. I hadn't noticed the nerdgasm yet... so thanks?

I did note that ABC seemed to devote an entire evening to promoting the ugly ass mass disappointment that is the not-iWatch. It was shameful.

In short, people really like a good story, Jobs was a heck of a promoter, and the media is still feeding furiously on the last tiny bits of the carcass of his fast-fading RDF.

C.D.O. - Get the order right son

Here it is courtesy of the Register.co.uk, too: good article.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/16/attachmate_micro_focus_merger/

Attachmate, the software shop that headhunted Novell and SUSE Linux, is itself being bought out by Micro Focus International.

The mainframe and COBOL specialist is acquiring Attachmate Group from its parent company Wizard in a deal calculated at $2.3bn before costs.

Micro Focus is taking Attachmate Group in exchange for 86.60 million shares, in a deal described as a merger. The combined companies will create a "leading global infrastructure software company" with revenue of $1.4bn, Micro Focus said. The deal is expected to close in November.

It also represents a "significant increase in the scale and breadth of Micro Focus."

The deal will allow the new company to offer products and services spanning Linux and host connectivity in addition to mainframe modernization and COBOL.

Attachmate gives MicroFocus access to SUSE and Novell, business units bought by the company in 2010 for $2.2bn. Novell owned SUSE Linux, which it had bought in 2003 for $210m. Under Attachmate, the two were broken apart.

$2.3B is one helluvalotta cash.

You mean the same Nexus 7 over which the maintainer of the Android Open Source Project quit in protest due to unreleased proprietary blobs? That Nexus 7?

http://liliputing.com/2013/08/android-open-source-maintainer-quits-over-proprietary-code-issues.html

"Jean-Baptiste Qui©ru is a software engineer who had until recently been in charge of the AOSP project. But in a Google+ Post, he says "there's no point being the maintainer of an Operating System that can't boot to the home screen on its flagship device for lack of GPU support."

Translation: Google can't release the full source code or factory image for the new Nexus 7, because it includes proprietary binaries related to Qualcomm's Adreno graphics core.

This doesn't appear to be a new problem. Google never released a factory image for the first member of the Nexus family, the Google Nexus One. That phone also had a Qualcomm processor.

There are images for the Qualcomm-powered Nexus 4 smartphone, but it took a while for those to be released, and Qui©ru has suggested he's not sure the issues will be resolved at all for the new Nexus 7 tablet.

Independent developers can still take advantage of the proprietary blobs to included hardware-accelerated video and graphics support in custom ROMs for the Nexus 7 and other tablets. But since Google doesn't officially have support to distribute those blobs, the company can't offer factory image downloads.

It's not clear why Qualcomm is being more protective over its intellectual property than Samsung, NVIDIA, or Texas Instruments. Those companies made the chips found in other Nexus devices. But it's also not clear why Google would continue to work with a company that has a poor track record of working with the Android Open Source Project."

Just noticed the Verge covered this too, and very well. There are some great quotes from that article.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/27/6074855/this-is-what-happens-when-you-raise-fish-to-walk-on-land

As it turns out, growing up on land really does change how a fish walks.

"Fish raised on land walk with a more effective gait," Standen says. "They plant their legs closer to the body's midline, they lift their heads higher, and they slip less during that walking cycle." The fish raised on land were also generally more consistent in the way they walked than their aquatic counterparts. But their behavior wasn't the only thing that changed. For example, "the bones in the pectoral girdle - the bones that support the fins - changed their shape," she says. "And their clavicles became elongated." Most changes that occurred were ones that gave their heads and fins more room to move around.

"It's an important change, because if you think of a terrestrial lifestyle," Standen explains, "you actually need a neck on land because you're stuck on this plane, and you need to have more head motion that's independent from the body."

Could it be used to treat OCD, I wonder.

Fair enough - wearing the helmet can be part of your fight to remain in society - voluntary helmet wearers.

While the thought of totalitarian society is scary and deplorable, some people who do terrible things compulsively actually realize they are terrible things, don't want to do said things, but can't fight the urge. They may welcome a device which helps them alleviate the desire to commit those acts. IF these things were developed and used without abuse, they might not be so bad.

And you might want to stay away from the alcohol.

I wouldn't be surprised if we find they have some extremely peculiar adaptations for life in that environment.

on the other hand, it's likely that sunlight is deadly to them, isn't it ? just like their natural environment is deadly to us

well, I think that discussion was covered widely when we imported all SN article here (for a few hours) as a test. Overall, the conclusion of the experiment was something along the lines:

1. keep |. original, don't copy SN, we can go there to read it if we want
2. we want articles more tech-oriented than SN & /.

Now I think some articles from SN indeed do have a place here, and I guess that's why yours got accepted. In other words, my opinion on this is: please, by all means, keep sending to the pipe, but be also aware that not all of them fit in and that copy-pastes with a 2-day delay are not that interesting anymore ;-)

ps: I really enjoyed the article on microbial life in the arctic :-)