Comment Re:Microsoft Office 2010, Dissected (Score 4, Interesting) 291
I've been using the Office 2010 beta for a while now. If you're using Office 2003, it's worth it to upgrade. If you're using Office 2007, don't bother.
Submission + - Whoops: Engadget.com Redirected to TVSquad.com (twitter.com)
mantis2009 writes: Engadget, the Webby Award-winning gadget blog, fell victim to a serious error which saw its traffic redirected to TVSquad.com for a period of at least 30 minutes tonight. Compounding the error, Engadget's RSS feed apparently sent TVSquad stories out to Engadget subscribers, including Slashdot's Firehose. On Twitter, an Engadget editor apologized and explained that a "system wide" error was to blame. Both Engadget and TVSquad are owned and operated by Weblogs, Inc, a subsidiary of AOL, Inc.
Comment Better FA to read (Score 1) 253
Here's a PDF of the original interview in the New York Times:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9907E3D7173EE033A25750C2A9639C946897D6CF
Comment Re:Rise of the Many-to-Many (Score 1) 96
Speaking of DS9: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/a-goldman-observation/
Submission + - Win7 deletes all system restore points on reboot (microsoft.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: Astonishingly, the so-called system restore feature in Windows 7 deletes restore points without warning when the system is rebooted. Today I did a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit (no dual boot), and noticed that whenever the machine rebooted after installing an application or driver, the disk churned for several minutes on the 'starting Windows' screen. Turns out that churning was the sound of my diligently created system restore points being deleted. Unfortunately I only found this out when Windows barfed at a USB dongle and I wanted to restore the system to an earlier state. Searching the net reveals that other users have experienced this problem (see URL). This is an extraordinarily bad bug, which I suspect most Windows 7 users won't realise is affecting them until it's too late.
Comment Re:Lol (Score 1) 99
RTFA - webOS 1.4 (the current version) patches this vulnerability.
Stop beating up on Palm.
Submission + - Are consoles holding back PC gaming? (pcauthority.com.au) 1
An anonymous reader writes: Despite all the excitement over Nvidia's upcoming Fermi GPU, there is still a distinct lack of DirectX 11 games on the market. This article points out that despite the fact the PC has returned to favour as a gaming platform, consoles are still the target for most developers, and still provide the major limitations on the technological sophistication of game graphics. Inside the Xbox 360 sits an ATI Xenos graphics chip, a DirectX 9c based chip that bears similarity to the Radeon X1900 series of graphics cards (cards whose age means that they aren't even officially supported in Windows 7). Therein lies the rub. With the majority of PC games now starting life as console titles, games are still targeted at five year old DirectX 9 hardware.
Submission + - Articles of regional Free Software law violate the (zona-m.net)
MarcoF writes: The italian Constitutional Court just published its decision: two articles of a 2009 italian regional law that promotes Free Software and open digital standards violate the Italian Constitution. It will be VERY interesting now to find how many other local laws (both in Italy and in OTHER countries) have similar problems...
Submission + - Anandtech distributes malware according to Google (geekzone.co.nz)
An anonymous reader writes: It seems Anandtech is just the most recent of a few cases of websites serving malware to its visitors through third party served advertising. Chrome lists some of the domains serving malware through Anandtech and although Google now says there isn't any malware being served one of the domains had 1577 trojans available for distribution.
Comment Re:So... (Score 1) 284
3 good reasons to get a Pre:
hardware keyboard
webOS
cheapest unlimited data and texting plan
1 good reason to not get a Pre:
The Pre has a mirror on the back
Comment Re:firefox is getting old (Score 1) 473
Firefox has been way behind the competition since 2009. Firefox 4.0 -- due later this year -- will catch up to Chrome 3.0. Meanwhile, Google will release Chrome 5.0 in a few months' time. Firefox was great in 2005. But today, Firefox is analogous to IE6 in 2005. Bloated, old UI, insecure add-on system, slower than the competition. RIP, Firefox.
Comment Re:What this study shows is the value of network d (Score 1) 171
A licensing scheme might very well work to make social networking services more transparent and accountable to their users, I agree.
But until there is more general awareness of the extent to which social networking data is valuable, I think people will underestimate how unfair the bargain is when you sign up for services like Facebook. It's true that Facebook users get a valuable service in exchange for handing over their personal information. The relationship asymmetrically advantages Facebook, though, especially given the terms of service that allow Facebook to retain reuse your information virtually in perpetuity.
It's also worth noting that most computing professionals (aka Slashdotters) will be completely unaware of how sophisticated social network analysis really is in 2010. Network analysis been a growing subfield of sociology for decades. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_analysis
Comment What this study shows is the value of network data (Score 3, Interesting) 171
For anyone who isn't clear on why Facebook and Twitter are so valuable, this study is yet another example of how much rich information is embedded in social network data.
It's easy to imagine applications for pulling information out of social network data. Who would be interested in such data? Advertisers, ex-girlfriends, social researchers, police detectives, anti-terrorism, intelligence agencies... the list goes on and on.
Pretty much any project with interests in the social world would benefit from social networking data. It's valuable.
Why you would give away your social networking data to Facebook, Twitter, or Google for free?
Submission + - LHC Will Be Shut Down in 2011 Because of "Mistake" (discovery.com)
astroengine writes: "It's to be expected when pushing the frontiers of physics, but the LHC's epic "will it or won't it" saga continues. Due to an unforeseen construction mistake, the LHC will cease experiments for a year (starting around late-2011) so repairs and upgrades can be carried out. For now, accelerated particles will have a maximum energy of 7TeV (half the power of the LHC's design maximum), which is ample for at least 18 months of experiments before shutdown."
Comment Re:Payback period? (Score 1) 562
Even leaving out tax incentives, it should be noted that these calculations on non-mass produced versions. Driving the costs of manufacturing is certainly the key here but should be doable...
Someone always has to pay a higher upfront cost on new technology to make it widespread. Look at flash drives...
It would be interesting to see how much fuel the eBay units are consuming although I suppose someone could calculate that based on their claimed savings and percentage of power they are getting from 5 units.
