Here are some links to read when I’ll have time: How to write comments ( Slashdot discussion) A Recipe for Newspaper Survival in the Internet Age The nose cells that may help the paralysed walk again ( Slashdot discussion) What Makes a Good IM Client? Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age ( Slashdot discussion) The only thing worse than flying is open source code ( Slashdot discussion) Now, back to work …
Oxford University is building a new facility to replace and regroup all its laboratories working with animals. In July 2004, after a campaign of protest from animal rights group, works stopped. They are now resumed ( BBC story). I am working with animals in my laboratory and, if I can understand some arguments from the animal rights activists, I can’t understand why they are going that far. A big part of the “modern comfort” that Europeans and North American are used to comes from and needs animal experimentation. For example, if we take any drug, it has to be tested on animal first before coming to the market. Of course, you can use in vitro cells but the complex behaviour of an animal (including the human) won’t be there. Animals are a collection of cells; but these cells are not the same in the arm or in the brain: they are specialised. How can you be sure that a general in vitro cell will react in the same way as an animal (including the human)? If we completely abolish animal testing, will you still go in court if a drug have side effects (that would have been spotted if tested first on animals) on you? ...
(For once, this post will be in French since I am refering to a French newspaper) Dans son article intitulé " Firefox souffle 18 bougies et poursuit sa mue", Eric Nunès parle de la sortie de Firefox 1.5, de ses parts de marché (notamment face aux autres navigateurs), de la fondation Mozilla Europe et du projet de loi français interdisant tout système de diffusion de connaissance n’intégrant pas un procédé technique de traçage de l’utilisation privée (HTTP, FTP, SSH, etc. ; certains diront que c’est la fin des logiciels libres, d’autres que c’est la fin d’internet …). ...
In an interesting article on Wired, Bruce Schneier is showing the collusion between computer-security companies and an entertainment corporation. Sony BMG Music Entertainment distributed a copy-protection scheme with music CDs that secretly installed a rootkit on your computers. A rootkit is a software usually used by an intruder after gaining access to your computer and in order to steal information, track your habits, collect your preferences without your knowledge nor your consent. Moreover, you can’t remove it since it will damage your operating system (the main software of your computer). ...
Open source software are more and more observed (if not used) in the biological sciences field. They provide all the advantages of Open Source software, plus they bring needs for consensus on file formats, data representation and manipulation methods. I’ve just read a short article from Greg Wilson ( in Nature) who is working with the Python Software Foundation “to develop a course that will teach scientists and engineers the 10% of software engineering they need to solve 90% of their problems”. Their goal is to “introduce them to some open-source tools and working practices that can reduce the amount of time they spend programming by up to 25%”. The course is already available here ( Software Carpentry) … for free, of course!
Soit je suis parano, soit j’ai raison de peu apprécier le raccourci suivant : Protocole non propriétaire = absence de contrôle = attention à l’extrême-droite … Résumé : le Vlaams Belang, parti politique d’extrême-droite flamand / belge, émet une émission sur les ondes AM, via le système DRM ( Digital Radio Mondiale, une sorte d’équivalent au DAB ou RSN), à partir de l’étranger. Cette émission de 2 heures est apparemment “captable” (“écoutable”) en Belgique, avec le récepteur ad hoc. Le problème est que cette émission / radio / parti n’a pas d’autorisation pour émettre en Belgique. ...