Most BitTorrent sites operate in the shadows, with operators who rarely speak in public and guard their identities closely. Mininova is not one of those sites and in a new interview, company directors Erik Dubbelboer and Niek van der Maas reveal a little more about running one of the world’s biggest BitTorrent sites.
People often ask, “How do I gain more Twitter followers?” Ars offers six Twitter etiquette tips to help you gain those followers without having resorting to dirty tactics or annoying habits.
It was an unlikely scene for a dot-com party. Drunken revelers raising their fists to offer a devil’s horns salute to a stage flooded with bright flashing lights, kids shouting and clamoring over one another to get closer to the fray, and guitar solos cranked up a few decibels too many.
Lenovo this morning confirmed the existence of its mystery netbook by posting teaser images on its photo feed. The system is now called the Pocket Yoga and has both the ultra-wide, VAIO P-like display and leather-bound shell of leaked photos.
KentuckyFC writes “We’ve seen carbon nanotubes, buckyballs, and chickenwire. Now materials scientists have created a computer model of a Mobius strip fashioned from strips of graphene — a molecule that would have a single surface and only one edge. (Other groups have made Mobius-like organic molecules but never out of carbon sheets.) The model allows the researchers to determine the physical and chemical properties of the molecules and how these depend on the number of twists in the strip. The team say, for example, that ‘Mobius carbon’ should be stable to temperatures of at least 500 Kelvin (abstract). But the most exciting prediction is that strips with an odd number of half twists should have a dipole moment that would cause them to self-organize into a crystal. That implies that there’s a new type of carbon made entirely of Mobius strips ready to be made by any chemists with a good supply of graphene (maybe these guys).”
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mikesd81 was one of several readers to write in about Cisco’s announcement of what has been called Project California — a system comprising servers made from 64-bit Intel Nehalem EP Xeon processors, storage, and networking in a single rack, glued together with software from VMWare and BMC. Coverage of this announcement is everywhere. Business Week said: “The new device, dubbed Project California, takes servers into new territory by cramming computer power into the very box that contains storage capacity and the networking tools that are Cisco’s specialty. Cisco’s approach could help companies use fewer machines — saving money not only on hardware, but also on power and IT staffing — in building data centers. … Cisco is well-girded to take this step. It has more than billion in cash, more than any other tech company. The company is moving into no fewer than 28 different markets, including digital music in the home and public surveillance systems.” The Register provides more analysis: “Microsoft is, of course, a partner on the California system, since you can’t ignore Windows in the data center, and presumably, Hyper-V will be supported alongside ESX Server on the hypervisors. (No one at the Cisco launch answered that and many other questions seeking details). … The one thing that Cisco is clear on is who is signing off on these deals: the CIO. Cisco and its partners are going right to the top to push the California systems, right over the heads of server, storage, and network managers who want to protect their own fiefdoms.”
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Ellis D. Tripp writes “DC District Court judge Reggie Walton has finally ruled in the 9-year old court case pitting the model rocketry community against the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ruling is a ‘slam dunk’ for the rocketry community, stating that the BATFE ignored scientific evidence and overstepped its bounds by classifying ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP) as an ‘explosive.’ Effective immediately, the BATFE has no legal jurisdiction over hobby rocket motors, and a federal Low Explosives User’s Permit will no longer be needed in order to purchase APCP motors. The full text of the Judge’s decision is reproduced at the link.”
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Apple’s third-generation iPhone must adopt several crucial features to outsmart competing smartphones, developers and enthusiasts agree.
GNOME Do is an open source launcher utility for the Linux desktop. Its new dock interface combines Mac-like polish and usability with highly efficient keyboard control, and we put it through its paces.
A list of more than 8,000 user names and passwords for customers of Comcast, one of the nation’s largest Internet service providers, sat unprotected on the Web for the last two months.
