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Comment More Practical Suggestion (Score 2) 131

I already use my Android phone to do some light remote work. I use ConnectBot http://code.google.com/p/connectbot/ to SSH into a remote workstation. For graphical apps, I set up port forwarding for VNC (there's a menu option for it in connectbot) and use AndroidVNC http://code.google.com/p/android-vnc-viewer/

I have my VNC server set to only accept connections from localhost (and it's firewalled, too), so that only connections which are forwarded and encrypted via SSH wind up being accepted. This way I get secure remote access, the VNC protocol tends to be less bandwidth-intensive than raw X, and it preserves my session in case I get disconnected.

Don't get me wrong, an X server on Android is a cool technical achievement, but existing SSH and VNC clients for Android are a more practical and secure way of accessing your workstations/servers on the go.

Comment Nupur Lala and the perfect balance (Score 1) 534

I had the pleasure of meeting the champion from spellbound, Nupur Lala, when we were both undergraduates at the University of Michigan. We became great friends and, along with another friend, shared an apartment our senior year. Although she is undoubtedly a genius, Nupur is far from the stereotype of the over-achieving Indian kid. She loves her family and is proud of her heritage, and her parents are likewise very proud of her. Her parents didn't, however, force her into academic competition or drill her with thousands of words per day. They did instill in her a love of learning and gave her a great deal of gentle encouragement when she showed a passion for language.

I think Nupur's example shows that very high-achieving young people, Indian or otherwise, need not be humorless robots driven by overbearing parents. She's a fun-loving, friendly, and extroverted woman who has the support of an engaged family that values academics without pushing too hard. She attended public schools her whole life (on through UM, go wolverines!) and likewise found teachers and peers who inspired her to further develop her talents.

In the end, what I'm driving at is that my experience with an Indian spelling bee champion contradicts a lot of stereotypes about Indians and Indian families, as well as those about high-achieving students. In her case, triumph is all about passion, inspiration, and love, not ethnicity.

The Courts

SCO v. Novell Goes To the Jury 67

Excelcia writes "Closing arguments in the six and a bit year old slander of title case between SCO and Novell occurred today and the case is finally in the hands of the jury. It's been an interesting case, with SCO alternately claiming that the copyrights to UNIX did get transferred to them, and that the copyrights should have been transferred to them. 'Judge Ted Stewart said, after the jury left to begin to deliberate, that in all his years on the bench, he's never seen such fine lawyering as in this case.' We're not going to find out the results until at least Tuesday, however, as one juror is taking a long weekend. Great lawyering notwithstanding, we can all hope next week that the Energizer bunny of all spurious lawsuits will finally go away."
Cellphones

Toshiba Intros Trilingual Translation App For Cellphones 44

MojoKid writes "Shortly after hearing of a simple, two-way Spanish-to-English translator for the iPhone, Toshiba has announced that it has developed a new language translation system that requires no server-side interaction. The app is designed to be operated independently on a smartphone, which will eliminate costly data roaming fees that are generally incurred using systems that require an internet connection to retrieve translations. The system is trilingual in nature and enables users to translate freely among Japanese, Chinese, and English."
Space

Submission + - What Drugs Do Astronauts Take? (discovery.com)

astroengine writes: Science fiction is stuffed full of examples of pill-popping space explorers and aliens enjoying psychedelic highs. After all, space is big, it can get boring/scary/crazy up there. It's little wonder, then, that our current space explorers consume a cocktail of uppers, downers, tranquilizers and alcohol to get the job done. Robert Lamb on tranquilizers in the space station: "Sure, it hardly makes for a civilized evening aboard ISS, but it beats someone blowing the hatch because they think they saw a something crawling on one of the solar panels."
Books

Submission + - Hearst Launching Kindle Competitor (engadget.com)

ScuttleMonkey writes: "The Hearst Corporation has announced their intention to launch an e-reader competitor to Amazon's Kindle and a supporting store and platform that is much more "publisher friendly." More details are also available form their official press release this morning. "Launching in 2010, Skiff provides a complete e-reading solution that includes the Skiff Service platform, Skiff Store and Skiff-enabled devices. Skiff will sell and distribute newspapers, magazines, books, blogs and other content. Skiff gives periodical publishers tools to maintain their distinct visual identities, build and extend relationships with subscribers, and deliver dynamic content and advertising to a range of dedicated e-readers and multipurpose devices. Skiff is headquartered in New York City and also has offices in Palo Alto, Calif. Visit Skiff at www.Skiff.com.""
The Internet

Submission + - Salon.com Editor Looks Back at Paywalls (guardian.co.uk)

ScuttleMonkey writes: "Techdirt pointed out an interesting retrospective by Scott Rosenberg, former managing editor of Salon.com, about their experiments with paywalls and how repercussions can last a lot longer than some might expect. "More important, by this point the public was, understandably, thoroughly confused about how to get to read Salon content. It took many years for our traffic to begin to grow again. Paywalls are psychological as much as navigational, and it's a lot easier to put them up than to take them down. Once web users get it in their head that your site is "closed" to them, if you ever change your mind and want them to come back, it's extremely difficult to get that word out.""
Idle

Submission + - Play with LEGOs, get arrested by SWAT team (jeremybell.com)

An anonymous reader writes: 6 SWAT, 2 uniformed officers, 2 undercover, a chopper in the air, surrounding streets blocked off with five cop cars, two ambulances and a dozen cops. That's what it takes to stop a man packing LEGOs. Jeremy bought himself one of these, someone saw him playing with it in the office and the rest is history.
Games

Man "Beats" World of Warcraft 655

Precision pointed out that a Taiwanese man has been named the first ever person to successfully beat World of Warcraft, getting all 986 achievements, completing 5906 quests and /hugging 11 players. Insert joke here. There are many.
Caldera

SCO Terminates Darl McBride 458

bpechter writes "Linux Today reports SCO has terminated Darl McBride and linked to the SCO 8K SEC report. The report found also at the SCO site and states: 'the Company has eliminated the Chief Executive Officer and President positions and consequently terminated Darl McBride.'"
Businesses

Banking Via Twitter? 193

In the latest example of how just because you can do something doesn't mean you should, one credit union has decided to offer a new feature, dubbed "tweetMyMoney," that allows members to interact with their accounts via Twitter. Can't wait for the next version, "tweetSomeoneElsesMoney." "tweetMyMoney, available exclusively to Vantage members! With tweetMyMoney, you can monitor your account balance, deposits, withdrawals, holds and cleared checks with simple commands. And, you can even transfer funds within your account. It's all available on Twitter, 24/7!"
Space

NASA Discovers Life's Building Block In Comet 148

xp65 writes "NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA's Stardust spacecraft. 'Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet,' said Jamie Elsila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. 'Our discovery supports the theory that some of life's ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts.'"

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