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π Backbone Cabal
The backbone cabal was an informal organization of large-site news server administrators of the worldwide distributed newsgroup-based discussion system Usenet. It existed from about 1983 at least into the 2000s.
The cabal was created in an effort to facilitate reliable propagation of new Usenet posts. While in the 1970s and 1980s many news servers only operated during night time to save on the cost of long distance communication, servers of the backbone cabal were available 24 hours a day. The administrators of these servers gained sufficient influence in the otherwise anarchic Usenet community to be able to push through controversial changes, for instance the Great Renaming of Usenet newsgroups during 1987.
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- "Backbone Cabal" | 2020-08-22 | 37 Upvotes 8 Comments
π List of formerly open-source or free software
This is a list of notable software packages which were published as free and open-source software, or into the public domain, but were made proprietary software, or otherwise switched to a license (including source-available licenses) that is not considered to be free and open source.
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- "List of formerly open-source or free software" | 2024-03-21 | 44 Upvotes 38 Comments
π Zero-Rupee Note
A zero-rupee note is a banknote imitation issued in India as a means of helping to fight systemic political corruption. The notes are "paid" in protest by angry citizens to government functionaries who solicit bribes in return for services which are supposed to be free. Zero-rupee notes, which are made to resemble the old 50-rupee banknote of India, are the creation of a non-governmental organization known as 5th Pillar which has, since their inception in 2007, distributed over 2.5 million notes as of August 2014. The notes remain in current use and thousands of notes are distributed every month.
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- "Zero-Rupee Note" | 2024-02-25 | 160 Upvotes 76 Comments
π Steve Jackson Games, Inc. vs. United States Secret Service (1993)
Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service, 816 F. Supp. 432 (W.D. Tex. 1993), was a lawsuit arising from a 1990 raid by the United States Secret Service on the headquarters of Steve Jackson Games (SJG) in Austin, Texas. The raid, along with the Secret Service's unrelated Operation Sundevil, was influential in the founding of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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- "Steve Jackson Games, Inc. vs. United States Secret Service (1993)" | 2024-06-09 | 26 Upvotes 3 Comments
π BogleβChandler Case
The BogleβChandler case refers to the mysterious deaths of Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler on the banks of the Lane Cove River in Sydney, Australia on 1 January 1963. The case became famous because of the circumstances in which the bodies were found and because the cause of death could not be established. In 2006 a filmmaker discovered evidence to suggest the cause of death was hydrogen sulphide gas. In the early hours of 1 January an eruption of gas from the polluted river bed may have occurred, causing the noxious fumes to pool in deadly quantities in the grove.
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- "BogleβChandler Case" | 2019-12-22 | 23 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Form Constant
A form constant is one of several geometric patterns which are recurringly observed during hypnagogia, hallucinations and altered states of consciousness.
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- "Form Constant" | 2020-03-01 | 32 Upvotes 10 Comments
π Molle
MOLLE (pronounced , similar in pronunciation to the name Molly) is an acronym for Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment. It is used to define the current generation of load-bearing equipment and backpacks used by a number of NATO armed forces, especially the British Army and the United States Army.
The system's modularity is derived from the use of Pouch Attachment Ladder System (PALS) webbing equipment as rows of heavy-duty nylon stitched onto the vest to allow for the attachment of various compatible pouches and accessories. This method of attachment has become a de facto standard for modular tactical gear, replacing the All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment (ALICE) system used in the earliest modular vest systems (which is still in use with many police forces).
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- "Molle" | 2022-04-03 | 12 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Is Randal L Schwartz notable enough for Wikipedia?
Randal L. Schwartz (born November 22, 1961), also known as merlyn, is an American author, system administrator and programming consultant.
He is known for his expertise in the Perl programming language, his promotional role within the Perl community, as a co-host of FLOSS Weekly, and for a controversial felony conviction resulting from State of Oregon vs. Randal Schwartz, later officially expunged.
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- "Is Randal L Schwartz notable enough for Wikipedia?" | 2011-08-22 | 65 Upvotes 68 Comments
π Program Synthesis
In computer science, program synthesis is the task to construct a program that provably satisfies a given high-level formal specification. In contrast to program verification, the program is to be constructed rather than given; however, both fields make use of formal proof techniques, and both comprise approaches of different degrees of automation. In contrast to automatic programming techniques, specifications in program synthesis are usually non-algorithmic statements in an appropriate logical calculus.
The primary application of program synthesis is to relieve the programmer of the burden of writing correct, efficient code that satisfies a specification. However, program synthesis also has applications to superoptimization and inference of loop invariants.
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- "Program Synthesis" | 2024-04-13 | 54 Upvotes 19 Comments
π Pantala Flavescens
Pantala flavescens, the globe skimmer, globe wanderer or wandering glider, is a wide-ranging dragonfly of the family Libellulidae. This species and Pantala hymenaea, the "spot-winged glider", are the only members of the genus Pantala. It was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1798. It is considered to be the most widespread dragonfly on the planet with good population on every continent except Antarctica although rare in Europe. Globe skimmers make an annual multigenerational journey of some 18,000Β km (about 11,200 miles); to complete the migration, individual globe skimmers fly more than 6,000Β km (3,730 miles)βone of the farthest known migrations of all insect species.
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- "Pantala Flavescens" | 2022-08-16 | 18 Upvotes 9 Comments