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Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What Happens If A Hyperloop Train Fails? 8

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: I've been following Elon Musk's Hyperloop initiative with great interest. The idea of getting from one city to another at 700 MPH without having to suffer through an airport and all that jazz is revolutionary. I'm glad that somebody is trying to innovate in the area of land travel. My question though: When conventional trains going at much slower speeds derail or crash, the result is often serious injuries or deaths. What happens if something goes wrong with a 700 MPH Hyperloop train/pod or with part of the track? Would a Hyperloop accident at that speed even be survivable?

Submission + - Linux Foundaiton President using MacOS for presentation at Open Source Summit (itsfoss.com)

Submitted by mschaffer
mschaffer writes: It appears that Jim Zemlin, President of the Linux Foundation, was using MacOS while declaring "2017 is officially the year of the Linux desktop!” at the Open Source Summit 2017. This was observed by several YouTube channels: Switched to Linux (https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DkBFlU7Cy3fM) and The Lunduke Show (https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D3f8FPnAsIJ4). Finally it was reported by It's FOSS (https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fitsfoss.com%2Flinux-foundation-head-uses-macos%2F)

The obvious irony here makes one think that if, indeed, this is the year of desktop Linux, why oh why cannot people like Zemlin present a simple slide presentation---let alone actually use a Linux distro for work. This is truly sad.

Comment Re:You don't want to hear my call (Score 1) 164

by marekjm (#53492177) Attached to: Should cell phone calls be allowed on commercial airplane flights?
Exactly. It's not that a phone call could make a plane crash - it's the fact that the phone would be *rapidly* switching between cellular network towers that's the problem (mainly during takeoff, when at cruise altitude the plane should be out-of-range for cellular towers anyway). The term for this "switch" is handover. Full disclaimer: I'm not an expert in the field so what I've written above may be in fact utter bullshit, even if according to my best knowledge it's not.

Submission + - Green Party calls for recount, wants to push for open-source voting machines (nationbuilder.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "On November 23, the Stein/Baraka Green Party Campaign launched an effort to ensure the integrity of our elections. " , calling for "publicly-owned, open source voting equipment". In approximately 48 hours (as of 1:20pm EST (GMT-5) on Nov-25-2016 ) $5,026,516.15 has been raised to pay for a recount in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and [they are] currently collecting towards a recount in Michigan. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjillstein.nationbuilder.com%2Frecount also states: ' The Green Party Platform calls for "publicly-owned, open source voting equipment and deploy it across the nation to ensure high national standards, performance, transparency and accountability; use verifiable paper ballots; and institute mandatory automatic random precinct recounts to ensure a high level of accuracy in election results." '. More details can be read on MS-NBC news . The Washington Post asks Why are people giving Jill Stein millions of dollars for an election recount?

Submission + - Edward Snowden Loses Norway Safe Passage Case (bbc.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Edward Snowden's bid to guarantee that he would not be extradited to the US if he visited Norway has been rejected by the Norwegian supreme court. The former spy contractor filed the lawsuit in April, attempting to secure safe passage to Norway to pick up a free speech award. It had already been rejected by Oslo District court and an appeals court. Mr Snowden's lawyers have previously said if he were extradited to the US, it would be "a foregone conclusion" that he would be convicted and jailed. Mr Snowden has been living in Russia, out of reach of the US authorities, since the leaks in 2013. He had hoped to travel to Oslo to receive the Ossietzky Prize, for "outstanding efforts for freedom of expression." The award was due to be presented earlier this month. But the Norwegian Supreme Court said it could not rule on the legality of any move to extradite Mr Snowden as the US had so far made no such request.

Comment Re:Blame Managment (Score 1) 280

by marekjm (#53350755) Attached to: Slashdot Asks: Are You Ashamed of Your Code?
Ah, yes. I guess we've all been there. When I set deadlines on my own projects they are reasonable (it's "ship when it's tested, and debugged" rather than "ship next week, no matter what"). When I write requirements for my own projects I try to keep them sane. I also get to choose tools best suited to the task. At work I have no such power. And even if I voice concerns, the project manager can just not listen.

Comment Re:Things are a lot more complicated (Score 1) 255

by marekjm (#47064055) Attached to: The Sci-Fi Myth of Robotic Competence

If that means you have to wait until the belligerent victim goes unconscious (and maybe unsavable) before you approach him, you wait.

I used to work as a lifeguard on the sea coast. The rules are: "Most important is safety of the action, second is safety of the lifeguard, only then - safety of the victim." Even during the training course, they will tell you that if you have to - use brute force to knock the victim out of consciousness for easier handling.

Comment Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score 1) 267

by marekjm (#43310007) Attached to: GNOME 3.8 Released Featuring New "Classic" Mode
Well, it can be even called "whatever" provided you know where your .desktop files are can adjust them to your needs. Enter "shit" in .desktop for Terminal and you will got in results when you type "shi"... GNOME 3 is damn well customizable -- go to https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwiki.archlinux.org%2F and search for GNOME. I think that good part is that it's written partially in JS so I can change the source code (and thus the appearance, workflow and so on) without the least bit of recompilation. Fast, clean and efficient. And ya know what? I change my Javascript. Besides, I think their JS codebase is pretty well clean so you can just wander around the code and see where everything is and what does what. Can you name a second DE who offer similar level of customizablility? And it's not rolling, I am seriously asking.

Submission + - GNOME: Seven Possible Recovery Strategies (datamation.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The conventional wisdom these days is that GNOME is faltering. GNOME 3 is unpopular, and users and distributions are abandoning it for alternatives such as Xfce or Mate.

The project itself suffers from a lack of developers and a loss of morale, and faces new challenges as mobile devices become more common than traditional desktop environments.

So what strategies are available for GNOME in the next few years?

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