Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Space

Submission + - Firefox Logo Spied In Deep Space 5

An anonymous reader writes: Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope is an image of the variable star V838 Monocerotis which lies near the edge of our Milky Way Galaxy. The photo was taken way back in March 2004 and if you rotate the photo a bit, the star resembles the Firefox logo very much!
Microsoft

Submission + - Why Windows Sucks

mikkl666 writes: "In a presentation at a conference in Las Vegas, Gartner analysts gave a detailed analysis on what exactly is wrong with Windows, and what mistakes Microsoft made that let it happen. They point out that 'Microsoft has not responded to the market, is overburdened by nearly two decades of legacy code and decisions, and faces serious competition on a whole host of fronts that will make Windows moot unless the software developer acts.' An example is the market for mobile devices: 'Apple introduced its iPhone running OS X, but Microsoft requires a different product on handhelds because Windows Vista is too large'. As a conclusion, 'for Microsoft, its ecosystem and its customers, the situation is untenable. Windows as we know it must be replaced'."
Patents

Submission + - Rambus Wins Patent Case 1

Blowfishie writes: In another sad day for patents, memory chip maker Rambus has won the case that has been running since the late 90's. You know, the one where Rambus worked its technology into the standards for SDRAM and DDR data transfer, then waited for the major players (Hynix, Micron and Nanya) to be heavily committed before revealing that it had patents on the technology.
Music

Submission + - Big 4 record labels sue Ireland's largest ISP

Gopher971 writes: Silicon Republic among other news sites are reporting that the 4 big music labels, EMI, Universal, Warner Music and Sony BMG are suing Ireland's largest ISP, Eircom for failing to prevent illegal music downloads. The case was brought in the high court and is the first in Ireland aimed at an ISP instead of individual downloaders who have been targeted previously. The full story can be found here. http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single10490
Wii

Submission + - C64 classics set for Wii Virtual Console (play.tm)

londonlives writes: "Released in 1982, the C64 sold 22 million units — an individual computer model record which stands to this day. Nintendo today inform us that C64 releases will begin hitting the Wii Virtual Console service later this year, joining hits from Nintendo, Sega, Turbografx and NeoGeo.

The first titles will be retrograde favourites Karate and Uridium, and we learn that these downloadables will cost 500 Wii Points each. A welcome blast from the past or a re-release too far for the VC?"

Space

Messenger Discovers "Spider" Crater on Mercury 74

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property brings us a Washington Post story which discusses how scientists are finding surprises among the pictures sent back from Mercury by the Messenger spacecraft. In particular, images depicting a crater with over 100 troughs radiating out from it are stumping researchers. The crater is referred to as 'The Spider', and it occupies a basin that has turned out to be larger than once thought. NASA also has a discussion of the crater. The Messenger craft began taking the up-close photos earlier this month. From the Post: "Scientists were also surprised by evidence of ancient volcanoes on many parts of the planet's surface and how different it looks compared with the moon, which is about the same size. Unlike the moon, Mercury has huge cliffs, as well as formations snaking hundreds of miles that indicate patterns of fault activity from Mercury's earliest days, more than 4 billion years ago."

Comment Re:Sharepoint weakness (Score 3, Informative) 370

The main weakness with using Sharepoint as a knowledge repository is that the MOSS search functionality is extremely limited. The search used is the MS developed search, not the search that is used on their OS's or on MSN. When creating a knowledge repository or Knowledge base always ensure that you use a platform that allows you to integrate a search engine.

The message is brought to you by someone who has been struggling (badly) with a Sharepoint based knowledge base for the last 8 months.
Microsoft

Submission + - OLPC developing dual-boot Windows, Linux OS (computerworld.com) 1

Ian Lamont writes: The OLPC Project and Microsoft are developing a dual-boot system to put both Linux and Windows on the laptops, according to an interview with Nicholas Negroponte. The article is thin on details, as the OLPC/Microsoft talks are apparently at an early stage. Could this be the end of the OS wars in Nigeria and other developing countries?
Space

Submission + - Universe running out of time (telegraph.co.uk)

RenHoek writes: With heat death, the big crunch and quite a few other nasty ways in which the universe could see its demise, we can now add "running out of time" to the list. A team of scientists came up with a new theory that would solve the problem of the elusive dark energy that seems to be accelerating the expansion of the universe. They figure that the universe is not speeding up but we are, in relation to the outer regions of space, slowing down. Tests with the upcoming Large Hadron Collider will give more insight if we're going to end up frozen in time.
Microsoft

Microsoft 'Stealth Update' Proving Problematic 257

DaMan writes "According to the site WindowsSecrets, the stealth Update that Microsoft released back in August isn't quite as harmless as the company claims. The site's research has shown that when users try to do a repair to XP subsequent to the update, bad things happen. 'After using the repair option from an XP CD-ROM, Windows Update now downloads and installs the new 7.0.600.381 executable files. Some WU executables aren't registered with the operating system, preventing Windows Update from working as intended. This, in turn, prevents Microsoft's 80 latest patches from installing -- even if the patches successfully downloaded to the PC.' ZDNet's Hardware 2.0 has independently confirmed that this update adversely affects repaired XP installations: 'This issue highlights why it is vitally important that Microsoft doesn't release undocumented updates on the sly. Even the best tested update can have unpleasant side-effects, but if patches are documented properly and released in such a way that users (especially IT professionals) know they exist, it offers a necessary starting point for troubleshooting.'"
The Matrix

Submission + - FedEx uses Half Life style virtual earth (neowin.net)

Technical Writing Geek writes: "Federal Express has launched their new drop box locater service using Virtual Earth. Search for the nearest drop boxes and you'll get a resulting list of locations. Near the top of the result list is a "View Area Map" link which opens up a div containing a Virtual Earth map plotting each of the drop box locations and a legend. You can also check or uncheck different types of results such as "FedEx Staffed," "Self-Service," and "FedEx Authorized Ship Center." You can then update the results for the list and the map. Each location on the map contains a popup with the location name and address.

http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42816"

Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft loses EU appeal

rcasha2 writes: Microsoft has lost its appeal against the EU fine of almost 500m / $700m. Microsoft could still appeal again at the European Court of Justice. More important than the fine, however, is the confirmation of the ruling that Microsoft must share with competitors information needed for interoperability. This ruling could have an effect on such products as Samba, email clients etc.
The Internet

Submission + - How to clear my name? 3

VoiceofDoom writes: A while ago I parted company with a client over their refusal to pay for the IT support service that I had been providing for them. I wrote them off as a bad debt and asked that they remove my name and details from all their IT systems, since I no longer wanted to have anything to do with them, and wasn't interested in their marketing emails.

A quick check of Google for my name recently, revealed that the company has falsified a testimonial from me, glowing with praise for their services. Now my name and email address are plastered all over their site, and they have ignored repeated requests from me that they remove both my personal details and the fake testimonial.

As they haven't infringed on trademarks or copyright, I am not really sure what recourse is available to me to get this personal info and made-up testimonial removed from their website. Can any law-savvy Slashdotters help? FYI — both I and the offending company are UK-based.

Slashdot Top Deals

Happiness is twin floppies.

Working...