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Comment opensolaris (Score 1) 906

by Luminair (#27649619) Attached to: Oracle Buys Sun

people should be told before it disappears, that opensolaris is the desktop distribution of solaris, based on open solaris code. like an ubuntu clone, only with solaris. it is maintained basically entirely by sun. what will happen is that since oracle doesn't care about a desktop os, the desktop os part of that initiative will be flushed. and the solaris os migration from the old solaris code to new opensolaris code and build systems and such will probably be accelerated.

oracle wants sun because sun has everything oracle needs to provide service top to bottom. all of the official releases from both companies, and the internal memo, speak of this. they all mention solaris and "open" java. none of them mention opensolaris.

they also don't mention workstation machines, virtualbox desktop virtualization, and whatever else sun does that oracle doesn't care about.

so anyway, RIP opensolaris. people at sun worked hard for years now bringing it up to standards set by linux desktop distros.
Communications

First Nations Want Cellphone Revenue 513

Posted by samzenpus from the the-great-spirit-wants-his-cut dept.
Peacenik45 writes "The CBC is reporting that First Nations in Manitoba want compensation for every cell phone signal that passes through their land because it violates their airspace. The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs recently resolved to negotiate revenue sharing with Manitoba Telecom Services. Ovide Mercredi of the Grand Rapids First Nations says "When it comes to using airspace, it's like using our water and simply because there's no precedent doesn't mean that it's not the right thing to do." This move may inspire First Nations in other provinces to follow suit."
Censorship

Holocaust Dropped From Some UK Schools 1286

Posted by kdawson from the careful-you-might-offend-somebody dept.
dteichman2 writes "It appears that some UK schools are ignoring the Holocaust. A government-backed study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, found that some teachers are reluctant to teach history lessons on the Holocaust for fear of offending Muslim students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial. Additionally, similar problems are being encountered with lessons on the Crusades because these lessons contradict teachings from local mosques."
Science

Scientists Claim Major Leap in Engine Design 775

Posted by Zonk from the but-does-it-still-make-roaring-noises dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Purdue researchers say they have made a major advance in the design of the internal combustion engine, one that could seriously boost fuel efficiency and cut emissions. A key portion involves building intake and exhaust valves that are no longer driven by mechanisms connected to the pistons, a departure from the way car engines have worked since they were commercialized more than a century ago. 'The concept, known as variable valve actuation, would enable significant improvements in conventional gasoline and diesel engines used in cars and trucks and for applications such as generators, he said. The technique also enables the introduction of an advanced method called homogeneous charge compression ignition, or HCCI, which would allow the United States to drastically reduce its dependence on foreign oil and the production of harmful exhaust emissions. The homogeneous charge compression ignition technique would make it possible to improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by 15 percent to 20 percent, making them as efficient as diesel engines while nearly eliminating smog-generating nitrogen oxides, Shaver said.'"
Windows

Russinovich Says, Expect Vista Malware 193

Posted by kdawson from the UAC-be-damned dept.
Hypertwist writes "Despite all the anti-malware roadblocks built into Windows Vista, Microsoft technical fellow Mark Russinovich is lowering the security expectations, warning that viruses, password-stealing Trojans, and rootkits will continue to thrive as malware authors adapt to the new operating system. Even in a standard user world, he stressed that malware can still read all the user's data; can still hide with user-mode rootkits; and can still control which applications (anti-virus scanners) the user can access. From the article: '"We'll see malware developing its own elevation techniques," Russinovich said. He demonstrated a social engineering attack scenario where a fake elevation prompt can be used to trick users into clicking "allow" to give elevated rights to a malicious file.'

The Math of Text Readability 282

Posted by Zonk from the looks-good-to-me dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Wired magazine has an article that explains The Law of Optical Volumes, a formula for spacing the letters on a printed page that results in maximum readability. Wired's new logo (did anyone notice?) obeys the law. Unfortunately, Web fonts don't allow custom kerning pairs, so you can't work the same magic online as in print. Could this be why some people still prefer newspapers and magazines to the Web?"
Space

U.S. Billionaire Heads to Space Station 208

Posted by samzenpus from the now-that's-an-expensive-hotel dept.
TurnAround writes "According to an International Business Times article, a Russian rocket carrying the American billionaire who helped develop Microsoft Word roared into the night skies over Kazakhstan Saturday, sending Charles Simonyi and two cosmonauts soaring into orbit on a two-day journey to the international space station. Climbing on a column of smoke and fire into the clouds over the bleak steppes, the Soyuz TMA-10 capsule lifted off at 11:31 p.m. local time, casting an orange glow over the Baikonur cosmodrome and dozens of officials and well-wishers watching from about a mile away."

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