By samzenpus from
Slashdot's one-small-station-break-for-man department:
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes
"AP reports that standing by a part of the Apollo 8 spacecraft he once rode, retired astronaut James Lovell read the 1968 Christmastime broadcast from the day he and two others became the first humans to orbit the moon marking the 45th anniversary of the orbit and the famous broadcast. 'The idea of bringing people together by a flight to the moon where we encompassed everybody in our thoughts is still very valid today,' says Lovell. 'The words that we read are very appropriate.' Millions tuned in on Dec. 24, 1968, when Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Lovell circled the moon. A television camera on board took footage of the crater-filled surface as the astronauts read Bible verses describing the creation of Earth. They circled 10 times and began reading from the Book of Genesis on the last orbit. 'It's a foundation of Christianity, Judaism and Islam,' Lovell said of choosing Genesis. 'It is the foundation of most of the world's religions. ... They all had that basis of the Old Testament.' Lovell says at the time the astronauts weren't sure who would be listening and how the broadcast would be taken. The famous "Earthrise" photo was also taken during the mission. Lovell closed with the same message the astronauts did in 1968. 'From the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.'"Read Replies (0)
Ruby 2.1.0 Released
Posted by News Fetcher on December 25 '13 at 12:15 PM
By Soulskill from
Slashdot's not-dying-after-all department:
Today marks
the release of Ruby version 2.1.0. A brief
list of changes since 2.0.0 has been posted, and
file downloads are available. Here are some of the changes:
Now the default values of keyword arguments can be omitted. Those 'required keyword arguments" need giving explicitly at the call time.
Added suffixes for integer and float literals: 'r', 'i', and 'ri'.
def-expr now returns the symbol of its name instead of nil.
rb_profile_frames() added.
Provides low-cost access to the current ruby stack for callstack profiling.
introduced the
generational GC a.k.a RGenGC (PDF).
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By Unknown Lamer from
Slashdot's merry-overthrow-your-government department:
codeusirae wrote in with news that Edward Snowden gave an alternative to the UK's yearly
Christmas message, speaking about
his objections to mass indiscriminate surveillance by governments. The message
aired on channel four at 16:15. Slashgear posted a
transcript. Quoting:
"Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person. A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves — an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. And that's a problem, because privacy matters. Privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be."Read Replies (0)
By Unknown Lamer from
Slashdot's spring-turns-to-winter department:
cold fjord writes with an update on the political upheaval happening in Turkey
"From the article: 'Dawn raids last Tuesday nabbed almost 60 people and implicated three government ministries, the directors of state banks, and some of Turkey's most powerful businessmen in a massive corruption probe spread across three different cases. Three members of Turkey's cabinet resigned on Christmas Day, and one called on Erdogan to follow suit as accusations of kickbacks, smuggling, and abuse of office continue to mount. The scandal has even acquired an international dimension as suspicions that Iran has been using Turkey's banks to shirk sanctions were further bolstered by the arrest of Reza Sarraf, an Iranian businessmen who is accused of bribing the Economic Minister while coordinating transactions from Iran worth $120 billion. The AKP is scrambling to defend itself by claiming the arrests are a result of a dastardly foreign conspiracy ... while police officials have been removed and reshuffled and special prosecutors appointed to a degree that makes Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre look like exemplary justice. The Turkish press continues to eagerly publish the latest colorful details that emerge from the probe, including police reports of $500,000 bribes administered in boxes of chocolate and news that Erdoan himself was being wiretapped as part of the investigation.' Erdogan has been urged to resign, three days ago Turkey banned journalists from entering police stations, and police are using tear gas on protesters."Read Replies (0)
By Unknown Lamer from
Slashdot's xmas-miracle-thanks-to-engineering department:
Yesterday, two astronauts
completed a seven hour spacewalk to finish installation of a spare coolant pump after a
failed coolant pump forced a partial shut down of the ISS. As of late yesterday afternoon, that pump is
online and operating normally:
"The new pump now is considered fully functional, but it will take some time to fully reintegrate the pump and Loop A of the two-loop external cooling system. Teams at mission control are following a schedule that should allow the restored cooling loop to be fully activated and integrated into the station’s cooling system on Christmas Day, Dec. 25. ... Electrical systems that depend on cooling from Loop A will be repowered or moved back from temporary support on Loop B gradually on Thursday, Friday, and throughout the weekend."Read Replies (0)
By Soulskill from
Slashdot's tis-the-season department:
A couple months ago, Rockstar, a patent-holding consortium backed by Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Blackberry, and others launched a barrage of
infringement suits against Google and the makers of Android devices.
Google has now launched a counteroffensive, seeking protection from Rockstar's patent trolling.
The complaint (PDF) says, "Rockstar produces no products and practices no patents. Instead, Rockstar employs a staff of engineers in Ontario, Canada, who examine other companies’ successful products to find anything that Rockstar might use to demand and extract licenses to its patents under threat of litigation." Google's filing also accuses Rockstar of interfering with their business practices by contacting other companies and trying to convince them not to use Android. It asks for a declarative judgment of non-infringement.
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