dUb - Slashdot User

Submission + - MS attempts to challenge Adobe's Web design suite (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @03:27PM

PetManimal writes: "Computerworld has published an analysis of Microsoft's challenge to Adobe's suite of Web-design and development software. The MS products are part of the $600 Expression Studio, which includes a bunch of different tools such as the successor to FrontPage (Expression Web) and a competitor to Adobe Illustrator (Expression Design). The reviewer found the functionality of the individual tools to be "not bad", and the price is great, but pointed to two major shortcomings: A lack of an image editing program and the failure of the Expression Studio products to really work together:

It's hard not to see Expression Studio as less a true 'suite' than a collection of products that have been co-branded after the fact — partly because Microsoft's other suite, Office, is so tightly knit in comparison. It's tough to see how the products in Expression Studio fit into a single integrated workflow or how they can all be used together, aside from creating XAML applications for Web sites.
The review also notes that these programs support Silverlight, the partially open-source technology that is meant to go up against Flash."

Submission + - EBay pulls from Google AdWords (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

InfoWorldMike

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @03:25PM

InfoWorldMike writes: "EBay has pulled all of its paid search ads from Google AdWords network in the U.S in an eyebrow-raising move likely to be interpreted in the industry as a sign of deteriorating relations between the two Internet giants. An eBay spokesman characterized the decision to pull the U.S. Google ads as an instance in a continued experiment eBay does to determine the best allocation of its advertising and marketing budget. But a source familiar with the situation said the move is an angry reaction by eBay's management to Google's decision to hold a protest party concurrent with the start of eBay Live, the company's annual conference for merchants."

Submission + - What the Microsoft/Xandros deal means for Linux (linux-watch.com)

Submitted by

AlexGr

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @03:18PM

AlexGr writes: "In a Linux-Watch story, Steven Vaughan-Nichols compiles opinions of industry experts and analysts regarding the recent agreement between Microsoft and Xandros. One of the OSS insiders quoted in the article was Linspire's president, Kevin Carmony, who approved the deal. "It would be hypocritical of me to say Xandros shouldn't be able to work with Microsoft, when Linspire offers options from dozens of proprietary companies every day. Choice is rarely a bad thing. Bottom line, I think this was a smart move on their part, even though many in 'the community' won't understand that, at least not right away," Carmony added. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS4862361523.html"

Submission + - OSS becomes OSS - Too Late? (4front-tech.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @03:08PM

An anonymous reader writes: 4Front Technologies [http://www.opensound.com/] will finally license [http://www.4front-tech.com/hannublog/] their Open Sound System (the commercial version of the Linux kernel's old OSS audio drivers) under the GPL and CDDL. Maybe a little too late as ALSA has taken its place now. Developers may eventually change that again as OSS's API is much nicer to program for. The system setup is easier, too. But it will be a hard fight.

Official announcement tomorrow.

Submission + - RIP, SysAdmin Magazine :( (earthtimes.org)

Submitted by

porkrind

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @03:01PM

porkrind writes: "We lossed a good friend today in SysAdmin Magazine. Let us all bow our heads in mourning."

Submission + - A look at DisplayPort and CMOS photonics (beyond3d.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @02:54PM

An anonymous reader writes: Beyond3D has taken a look at how CMOS photonics is shaping the future of hardware interconnects. Hybrid devices, which use CMOS photonics to transmit signals over fiber optic cable at a much lower cost than traditional methods, will make their mainstream debut next year as part of the DisplayPort standard. The net impact for consumers is that they will be 1/10 the size of traditional copper cables with none of the range problems associated with HDMI (where a 1080p signal won't travel more than 15 meters). And there's no reason why they should cost more than copper cables...

Submission + - When is it appropriate to go Web-Based?

Submitted by

Nightlyfe

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @02:52PM

Nightlyfe writes: "I work for a fair-sized resort that is currently exploring changing accounting systems. In our preliminary discussions, the controller asked us to look at web-based systems. I explained that this would seriously limit our options, and may have other drawbacks as well. Going to web-based applications has some serious advantages/disadvantages as I see it. Yes, all of your backup and security is someone else's responsibility, but on the other hand...*all of your backup and security is someone else's responsibility.* I've always felt that that's a pretty significant risk to take with corporate/business applications. We have the hardware and infrastructure in-house to handle an application suite for this, so what are the benefits to going web-based? What are the challenges we could expect to face? I'd really like to know if other slashdot readers have experienced similar situations and what they found out."

Submission + - Bush names anti-open source lobbyist as counselor (pressesc.com)

Submitted by

Citizen Pain

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @02:50PM

Citizen Pain writes: "President Bush today appointed as his counselor a man who received $820,000 from Microsoft to lobby during negotiations over its antitrust settlement as well as to oppose the use, especially within the government, of "open source" systems such as Linux. Enron also paid him $700,000 in 2001 alone to lobby on the "California energy crisis" and thwart efforts to re-regulate the Western electricity market through price controls."

Submission + - Red Planet was once Blue (www.ctv.ca)

Submitted by CowboyRaver on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @02:47PM

CowboyRaver writes: Mars, the rugged Red Planet, may have once been blue according to new research that suggests massive ancient oceans once covered a third of its surface. The discovery was made by a joint Canada-U.S. research team that says it has uncovered evidence of the shorelines of ancient seas. The team's findings are set to be released in the journal Nature on June 14.

Submission + - NASA tests golden solar wings (news.com.au)

Submitted by CowboyRaver on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @02:36PM

CowboyRaver writes: SHIMMERING gold in the sunlight, two new solar arrays were unfurled early yesterday at the International Space Station.

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