Free Republic

ONE MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT, a student at the University of Helsinki posted a query to the newsgroup comp.os.minix asking, "What would you like to see most in minix?" The student's name was Linus Torvalds, and that Usenet post was the beginning of the Linux operating system (OS). The date was 25 August 1991, exactly 20 years ago today. Pictured-used-and-licensed-under-the-GNU-Free-Distribution-License-by-linuxmag-com-Martin-StreicherIn 1991 Unix had existed for about 20 years since the early 1970s, Apple had come out with its Mac OS in 1984, and Microsoft had been flogging Windows since 1985. Torvalds' ambitions for his "new (free) operating system" were modest. It was...

I just noticed the facebook-Like icon on the new article posts - or am I seeing things?

I see that many posters here have a comment in parentheses next to their user names. I cannot figure out how to do that. Please explain to me how I it is done. Many thanks for your time and courtesy.

Intel's Paul Otellini predicts that the "next big thing" won't happen in the States unless government policies change. ZoomMonday night Intel CEO Paul Otellini warned government officials that the U.S. will face a huge tech decline if government policies are not altered. In fact, the "next big thing" won't be invented here in the States, and jobs will be created outside our borders. The warning was part of his observations about the Obama administration and the nation's economy during dinner at the Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum. He took aim at the U.S. legal environment, claiming that its become so...

After getting frustrated out of the lemons his problems gave him, David Miller made his own corporate lemonade. Due to the frustration of always having to call technical support to solve his own frequent hardware problems, he started taking the initiative to educate himself.

Like to know how many people have viewed a particular thread, whether mine or someone else's, so I'm curious if we'll see that feature return.

I have a single frame from a YouTube video that I'd like to capture and edit using my PhotoShop Elements. I've tried uploading the capture to PhotoShop, but apparently I don't have the software I need to get the screen print into a format that can be read by PhotoShop.I downloaded the video to RealPlayer, but still don't know how to get the image into PhotoShop. Can someone help me with this?It'll make a dynamite sign!

The Federal Communications Commission has begun to benchmark Internet service speeds across the United States to allow consumer to compare the real world performance of their ISP with its advertised speeds. Consumers may visit the agency's Broadband.gov Web page to run the rest from their PCs or download the FCC Broadband Test app for Android and the iPhone.

PACIFIC MISSILE RANGE BARKING SANDS, Hawaii | On January 19, the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii began construction of an Advanced Radar Detection Laboratory (ARDEL) facility. The ARDEL project will test and evaluate a new radar system planned for the next generation of surface combatant vessels strengthening the U.S. Navy's ability to detect, track, and provide information required to engage ballistic missiles at greater distances than current systems in use as well as more elusive long-range air threats. The advanced technologies of the new radar incorporate various aspects of ballistic missile defense (BMD), air defense (AD),...

Testing of the Lockheed Martin Sniper Targeting Pod on board the B-1B Lancer bomber has been accelerated in recent and is nearly completed, leading to the Air Force's Air Combat Command plans to approve sending pod-equipped bombers on operational missions by mid-summer. Because the sniper pod is a desperately needed capability in theater, Edwards Global Power Bomber Combined Test Force and the 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, combined the operational and developmental testing of a B-1B Lancer to accelerate the integration of the sniper targeting pod with the B-1B bomber. "Everyone at the here...

While the Pentagon may not have been listening to the increasing calls, from the troops, for a militarized smart phone, one defense supplier (Raytheon) has, and resulted in RATS (Raytheon Android Tactical System). Taking advantage of the open source Android operating system (think of it as mobile Linux), and the thousands of applications already available for it, RATS combines this with increasingly powerful, and inexpensive smart phone hardware, to produce something the troops want. Actually, RATS isn't a phone, it's a wi-fi device that looks like one (as does the Ipod Touch). RATS has GPS, a compass, vidcam and software...

The US Air Force Research Laboratory's X-51A WaveRider scramjet engine demonstrator completed its first captive-carry flight under the wing of its B-52H mothership from Edwards AFB on Dec. 9. The first free flight is planned for mid-February. The B-52 climbed to the planned launch altitude of 50,000ft during a 1.4h flight that checked out systems and telemetry. The next flight, planned for mid-January, will be a full dress-rehearsal for the first of four planned X-51A hypersonic test flights. The Boeing-built X-51A will be released at 50,000ft over the Pacific and accelerated to Mach 4.5 by a solid rocket booster. The...

The military is a major user of supercomputers (the fastest computers on the planet). These machines were first developed, as were the first computers, for military applications. These ultra-powerful computers are used for code breaking, and to help design weapons (including nukes) and equipment (especially electronics). The military is also needs lots of computing power for data mining (pulling useful information, about the enemy, from ever larger masses of information.) Because there's never enough money to buy all the super-computers (which are super expensive) needed, military researchers have come up with ways to do it cheaper. A decade ago, it...

Russia has reneged on an agreement to deliver a total of 10 kilograms of plutonium-238 to the United States in 2010 and 2011 and is insisting on a new deal for the costly material vital to NASA’s deep space exploration plans. The move follows the U.S. Congress’ denial of President Barack Obama’s request for $30 million in 2010 to permit the Department of Energy to begin the painstaking process of restarting domestic production of plutonium-238. Bringing U.S. nuclear laboratories back on line to produce the isotope is expected to cost at least $150 million and take six years to seven...

It's been a long wait—in some ways, more than 50 years—but in April 2010, the U.S. Air Force is scheduled to launch an Atlas V booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the newest U.S. spacecraft, the unmanned X-37, to orbit. The X-37 embodies the Air Force's desire for an operational spaceplane, a wish that dates to the 1950s, the era of the rocket-powered X-15 and X-20. In other ways, though, the X-37 will be picking up where another U.S. spaceplane, NASA's space shuttle, leaves off.

The U.S. Air Force has hired Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems to study the possibility of integrating additional Missile Defense Agency (MDA) sensors into the U.S. Space Surveillance Network that tracks orbiting satellites, a Raytheon official said Oct. 28. The Tewksbury, Mass.-based company was awarded a $3 million contract from Air Force Space Command for a program called the Enterprise Sensing Prototype Architecture for Space Situational Awareness (ESP-SSA), Joe Chapa, Raytheon’s technical director for national theater security programs, said in an interview. The Air Force’s Space Surveillance Network employs a host of optical telescopes and radars around the world. The telescopes...

There've been satellites orbiting Earth for half a century. But getting information to and from them is still a pain. Which is why Pentagon research arm Darpa is looking to finally hook the orbiting spacecraft up with reliable broadband connections. It's part of a larger movement to extend terrestrial networks into space, and eventually build an "Interplanetary Internet." In the meantime, we might even get less-than-crappy satellite internet service - if the project works out, of course. Darpa recently issued a request for information about supplying "persistent broadband ground connectivity for spacecraft in low-Earth orbit." The idea would be to...

The U.S. Navy conducted successful test flights Sept. 3 and 4 of two Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missiles (FBMs) built by Lockheed Martin. The Navy launched the unarmed missiles from the submerged submarine USS West Virginia (SSBN 736) in the Atlantic Ocean. The Trident II D5 missile now has achieved 129 consecutive successful test flights since 1989 - a record unmatched by any other large ballistic missile or space launch vehicle. "These successful missile tests again demonstrate the readiness and reliability of the entire Trident II D5 Strategic Weapon System," said Melanie A. Sloane, vice president of Fleet Ballistic...

OTTAWA -- The recession in Canada is only over in a technical sense because the recovery is extremely fragile and there are still problems in the job market, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday. "We've got (Federal Reserve) Chairman (Ben) Bernanke and others saying the recession is over but I think that's only in a technical sense," Mr. Harper told a televised news conference in Guelph, Ont. "As long as we continue to have challenges in the labor market that affect Canadian families on the ground, then I don't think we can truly say the recession is over. So...

Greetings! I just volunteered for a project at work to chair a team that will look at building a knowledge base for our internal use. We are a technical company that provides computers, software and services with resources that are based around the globe. Our documentation is scattered about with pockets of organization and a lot of head-knowledge. The charter will be to develop a tool that is easy to use (otherwise no one will use it, of course) that allows our resources to access the information via an index or query and provide links to where formal documentation may...