Ubuntu: Past, Present and Future look in parallel

Today’s updates brought some things that make it seem like Ubuntu Dapper is finalizing: neither login messages, release identificators, nor the artwork advertises Dapper’s beta status anymore, the system default look is awesome, and everything works as advertised.

What better way to celebrate the official release of Dapper on June 1st than remember old times? Matt has made the artwork from all previous Ubuntu releases parallel installable, so if you feel nostalgic, you can use the Warty theme and wallpaper.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, debian

Are you filthy rich? Get ready for Windows Vista!

Microsoft has published the hardware requirements for Windows Vista, scheduled for release perhaps sometime this century. A “Vista Capable PC” must have a 800MHz processor and 512M RAM, and a DirectX 9  capable video card. If you want any of the goodies in the new Aero interface, you must have a 1GHz processor, 1G RAM, and 128M of video RAM.

Most consumer-level laptops don’t meet those requirements, and I wonder if companies will run to upgrade all their machines in order to deliver the Aero eye candy to all their office workers.

I wonder if the good old alliance between Microsoft and hardware manufacturers will still work. “What kind of stuff would you like to sell the suckers this year? We’ll be happy to make software that requires it.”

Technorati Tags: vista, digital-divide

BBC 6music radio channel’s Last.fm statistics

MetaFilter reports on the neatest hack I’ve heard about for a while. A BBC systems architect wrote a Last.fm plugin that submitted all the songs played on BBC’s 6radio channel to a Last.fm account called Sekrit.  Not only can you see what kind of “musical taste” BBC’s player robots have, but you can also check out what kind of friends the channel has. Judging from these statistics, I just might try this channel myself and see if I like it :)
 

New versions of US Amendments

Miguel notes that Jesus' General has fixed the amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

A Roach at the Wheel

Artist Garnet Hertz has equipped his cockroatches with robotic vehicles. The roach uses a ping-pong ball as a mouse wheel for steering. They seem to navigate around obstacles just fine most of the time, but "roaches aren't the most predictable bugs".

As with technology so often, this experiment has philosophical implications. Accoring to Mr. Repetto of Columbia University, while robotics has always been about amplifying human ability, Hertz's device "gives roaches skills they wouldn't normally have, which brings up all sorts of questions, including many about responsibility and consciousness".

How to get published for certain

David Egilman's paper was rejected by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine two years ago, so he published it as an advertisement in the same journal. Don't know if it's funny or heroic or scary.

Hamster controlled MIDI device

Slashdot pointed out a cool student project at Cornell: Levy Lorenzo has built a MIDI device controlled by six hamsters. The music sounds much better than most music today, and the hamsters probably are more entertaining than most videos too!