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Comment Re:How do I even run it??? (Score 1) 111

by tajmorton (#22913912) Attached to: Photoshop Express Terms of Use Cause Stir, Will Be Revised

But I have the latest version of Flash for Linux installed...

Check that you really do have the latest flash. I got that error while using the latest flash-nonfree from Ubuntu, but it wasn't really the latest version. Go to about:plugins and check that 9.0 r115 (I think I had r45 from ubuntu before) is installed.
Editorial

Submission + - Will Linux Ever Make it to the Desktop? (wildgardenseed.com)

Submitted by BlueParrot
BlueParrot writes: Almost every year someone declares it to be "The Year of the Linux Desktop." Yet, these pundits are wrong-every year. Definitely, Linux has made a lot of progress since the days of Red Hat 6.0, but it still has major architectural problems that have existed since the beginning (and actually, in the pre-Linux days as well). http://www.wildgardenseed.com/Taj/blog/2007/04/15/will-linux-ever-make-it-to-the-desktop/
Programming

Submission + - Is your code horizontally challenged too ?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I'd like to put forward a style question : How do you 'horizontally' format the code that runs afoul of the 80 character 'line width'? Or is that a superficial restriction that I'm placing on myself?

Please note that it is, in my case (c++ template programming), a problem I face on literally every other line of code.
Upgrades

Submission + - Replacing a Voice Mail System

Submitted by
mikey1134
mikey1134 writes: "I am a Network Technician for medium-sized business firm in the north-eastern US. I have been charged with creating a backup to our voicemail system. The current implementation is a Lucent Intuity Audix system running on SCO Unixware system (let the joking ensue) The system is no longer supported by the installers and the only choice offered for a redundant system is a complete replacement with a price tag upwards of $20,000. We are looking at replicating the current system, but hardware for it (PXO, cards etc.) is hard to come by. I've considered suggesting something like Asterisk but I've never personally seen a voicemail-only implimentation. Can anyone point me in the right direction for either keeping the old system going (new hardware, etc.) or failing that, suggestions for a drop-in replacement system, preferably utilizing free software."
Businesses

Submission + - The open source community's double standard? (cnet.com) 1

Submitted by
mjasay
mjasay writes: "Red Hat splits into Fedora and Advanced Server. The open source community howls in protest. MySQL restricts its Enterprise code to paid subscribers. The open source community cries "Foul!" But SugarCRM opens up a portion of its code under GPLv3 and everyone applauds. IBM, Novell, Oracle, etc. open up small pieces of their product portfolios and they are met with wild acclaim. What gives? Does the open source community have a double standard? Is it judging 100% open source companies too harshly?"
Mozilla

Submission + - Firefox remote execution (xs-sniper.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: From the article — "Once again, a flaw in the URI handling behavior allows for remote command execution. UNREGISTER ALL UNNECESSARY URIs NOW! This example shows flaws in Firefox, Netscape, and Mozilla browsers... other browsers are affected by related vulnerabilities."

cbf adding more, gogo editor!
Communications

Submission + - iPhone sales figures released. AAPL down 6%

Submitted by
Whiney Mac Fanboy
Whiney Mac Fanboy writes: "Forbes is reporting on AT&T's figures for iPhone activations over the release weekend. Many analysts had predicted 500,000 activations (and many slashdotters predicted million plus sales). Unfortunately, AT&T reported only 146,000 activations. Following this news, Apple shares fell $US8.81, or more than 6 per cent, to $US134.89, wiping out more than $US7 billion of Apple's market value. Does an over-hyped product always lead to a stock bubble?"
Software

Submission + - Traverso 0.40.0 Released (traverso-daw.org)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The Traverso development team is pleased to announce the release of Traverso 0.40.0. Traverso is a cross platform multitrack audio recording and editing suite with a clean and innovative interface targeted for home and professional use. New in this version is support for LV2 plugins, a completely revamped User Interface, and a Linux installer.
Programming

Submission + - Mono brings Visual Basic programs to Linux

Submitted by
flydpnkrtn
flydpnkrtn writes: "'The Mono Project on Feb. 20 announced that it has developed a Visual Basic compiler that will enable software developers who use Microsoft Visual Basic to run their applications on any platform that supports Mono, such as Linux, without any code modifications.'

As the article says, '37 percent of enterprises use Microsoft Visual Basic.NET for development and maintenance of their in-house applications. Among .NET developers, 59 percent use Visual Basic.NET as their only programming language.'

IMO this is huge news — instead of using such products as RealBasic to get cross-platform goodness you can run Visual Basic apps on anything Mono runs on, and oh by the way you don't have to relearn anything."
Biotech

Submission + - Promissing cancer cure at University of Alberta

Submitted by
dsieme01
dsieme01 writes: "Human trials will start in the near future is the goal. It's exciting to see research that should provide for a low cost, simple method. Unfortunately big drug companies appear not to be interested.

Quoting from http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/

DCA is an odourless, colourless, inexpensive, relatively non-toxic, small molecule. And researchers at the University of Alberta believe it may soon be used as an effective treatment for many forms of cancer.

Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, a professor at the U of A Department of Medicine, has shown that dichloroacetate (DCA) causes regression in several cancers, including lung, breast, and brain tumors.

Michelakis and his colleagues, including post-doctoral fellow Dr. Sebastian Bonnet, have published the results of their research in the journal Cancer Cell.

Scientists and doctors have used DCA for decades to treat children with inborn errors of metabolism due to mitochondrial diseases. Mitochondria, the energy producing units in cells, have been connected with cancer since the 1930s, when researchers first noticed that these organelles dysfunction when cancer is present.

Until recently, researchers believed that cancer-affected mitochondria are permanently damaged and that this damage is the result, not the cause, of the cancer. But Michelakis, a cardiologist, questioned this belief and began testing DCA, which activates a critical mitochondrial enzyme, as a way to "revive" cancer-affected mitochondria.

The results astounded him.

Michelakis and his colleagues found that DCA normalized the mitochondrial function in many cancers, showing that their function was actively suppressed by the cancer but was not permanently damaged by it.

More importantly, they found that the normalization of mitochondrial function resulted in a significant decrease in tumor growth both in test tubes and in animal models. Also, they noted that DCA, unlike most currently used chemotherapies, did not have any effects on normal, non-cancerous tissues.

"I think DCA can be selective for cancer because it attacks a fundamental process in cancer development that is unique to cancer cells," Michelakis said. "One of the really exciting things about this compound is that it might be able to treat many different forms of cancer".

Another encouraging thing about DCA is that, being so small, it is easily absorbed in the body, and, after oral intake, it can reach areas in the body that other drugs cannot, making it possible to treat brain cancers, for example.

Also, because DCA has been used in both healthy people and sick patients with mitochondrial diseases, researchers already know that it is a relatively non-toxic molecule that can be immediately tested patients with cancer."
The Internet

Submission + - Emerging patterns in modern website design

Submitted by
engadven
engadven writes: "We design has grown from almost nothing to a huge global industry in little more than 10 years. The technologies we use have changed significantly and this article discusses current trends to see how websites will be designed differently in the future.
Early website design was dominated by the fact that most people got it wrong. We thought that making elaborate designs with super cool Flash intros would tempt people to stay on our sites, but in fact it just made them difficult to or add content and distracted people's eyes from reading the message. Now the requirements for CSS compliance, accessibility, SEO and content syndication have brought a huge commonality in form and function.
Early sites were created in WYSIWYG editors, but these have never been good for working with external stylesheets and many designers have already gone back to their basic text editors. I'm sure there will be good visual editors emerging although the modular format of CSS may see the usable of code libraries being preferred.
Another factor spelling the end of WYSIWYG editors is the benefit of keeping content 100% separate from design so that any site can be given a complete new look in an instant. Also the ease and speed with which large sites can be created with modern CMS packages means that creating each page with a custom layout or by hand will no longer be effective. Again the consistent approach of a CMS is not seen as boring by the user but just easier to navigate around. Blogging has revolutionised the amount of content being created by giving relatively unskilled users the ability to create nice looking, compliant sites, very quickly and easily. It's the blogging technology's basic approach that has allowed it to succeed and this will definitely transfer to traditional websites. Firstly the simple structure is easy for users to follow and makes creating and updating the site very easy. The templates are also basic and easy to customise so unique designs are easy to achieve. Blogging is also mindset that has motivated a lot more people to put information online where they could not or would not have built a website. Perhaps now these same people will start to create websites using the blog technologies and remove the need for a web designer completely.
Ultimately one type of CMS will never be the best for every situation so I'm sure web developers will still be needed to set up the appropriate program for each client. This will probably include a traditional online database CMS and page generator like a blog, wiki or client side solutions. For larger sites where several people need to update the content remotely then an online version is a must, but for the majority of information sites that are created by developers for their clients then a page generator may be more appropriate. These generate lots of sites from one installation so the initial time to build and more importantly, the time to maintain or upgrade later is much reduced. Real page generators can also produce much better structured, low bandwidth, reliable pages which don't suffer the drop in performance caused by high levels of server processing requests when running several online CMS packages on the same server.
Here is a summary of some of the key factors that may determine the future.
1. CSS will stay. The browser bugs will go and growing modular libraries will make it quicker.
2. CMS for every site. 100% split of content and design is a must. The justification for laying out each page separately will be rare.
3. Usability over unique design. Common layouts with text based, accessible menus rather than over complicated designs.
4. Speed and simplicity. Blogging has delivered much more online content because it is so quick and easy. Commercial CMS solutions will become just as easy.
5. Customisable templates. Although site layouts and operation will be very similar, clients will always want individuality and branding so CMS templates will be even more flexible and easy to configure.
6. Maintenance services. If website solutions are instance we won't need so many traditional web designers. However, clients rarely like add their own content so this service will grow.
7. eMarketing services. Internet generated business will continue to grow with off site marketing becoming an important service.
8. Rich media not rich graphics. The early, over designed, graphic heavy sites will never return. Updating text and pictures needs to be easy but will always be a poor form of communication. Sound, video and simulation will deliver messages better.
9. Web2.0 benefits for business sites. Smaller company websites will also benefit from better interaction with their customers.
10. Multiple site CMS solutions. Not installing a CMS for every site, instead a single app that creates all sites will make upgrades much easier e.g. blog, wiki, client side solutions.
11. Performance quality. CMS solutions will continue to change, driven by the need for the best SEO performance, speed, flexibility and bolt on services. 12. As CMS systems develop it's likely developers will have knowledge of several different types to suit each client's size, budget and technical abilities."
Slashdot.org

Submission + - How to moderate an underlying story

Submitted by
cprael
cprael writes: "So, it's rather obvious how to moderate comments that are good or bad, crap or interesting. But how does one do same to the underlying article? I'm not suggesting on a regular basis, but every once in a while, some of the top-level story stuff that gets posted just cries out to be moderated. Man bites dog journalism, slow news day... it's still crap. And deserves to mod'd accordingly."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Open-source replica of KIM-1 trainer

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Anyone besides me remember Mos Tech's KIM-1 6502 trainer? It was quite the innovation back in 1975, and set the stage for computers like the Commodore Pet and Apple 1/II. There's going to be a KIM-1 replica kit this summer for 99 bucks, from the same guy who made Apple 1 and Altair kits in the past. Cool stuff.
Quickies

Submission + - Which Countries Have An IT Skills Shortage?

Submitted by
bugg_tb
bugg_tb writes: "I am a programmer based in England and after a few years in the same job have finally got itchy feet. I don't want to leave the industry but I would like a change in scenery.
So my question is, if the destination really isn't an issue(I've done some contract work in Afghanistan), which countries have an IT skill shortage where I could put my skills to good use?"
Quickies

Submission + - The face, not the body, attracts a mate.

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "New Scientist reports that it appears that the opposite sex is much more interested in human's face than their bulging biceps or elegant figure, especially if you're a man. At least that's the upshot of the first study to assess how much faces and bodies contribute to someone's overall attractiveness... Seen on Blue's News."

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