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Red Hat Software

Raymond Knocks Fedora, Switches to Ubuntu 608

narramissic writes "After 13 years as a loyal Red Hat user, Eric Raymond, co-founder of the Open Source Initiative, is switching to the Ubuntu distribution. In a message distributed to Linux mailing lists and news organizations, Raymond cited technical issues with Red Hat, such as the way repositories are maintained, the submission process and 'stagnant' development of Red Hat's packaging technology, as well as governance problems, the failure to gain desktop market share and the failure to include proprietary media formats. 'Over the last five years, I've watched Red Hat/Fedora throw away what was at one time a near-unassailable lead in technical prowess, market share and community prestige,' Raymond wrote. 'The blunders have been legion on both technical and political levels.'"
PHP

Submission + - Boost PHP Performance with Opcode Cache

IdaAshley writes: PHP is an easy to use scripting language often used in Web applications. PHP code is parsed and translated to opcodes every time it executes, but there is no need to translate the same PHP code each time. An opcode cache eliminates that rework, making PHP applications faster.
Operating Systems

Submission + - South Africa joins countries switching to OSS

An anonymous reader writes: According to reports by Reuters and IOL, the South African government has officially announced that all government departments are to switch to Open Source operating systems and software from this year onwards. There is no word on how long the process will take (likely years), but a joint office to be run by the Department of Science and Technology and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will be set up by April to oversee the process.
Windows

Submission + - Widgets: Are these big mini-apps over hyped?

ffdixon writes: "Today, the widget landscape resembles the Wild Wild West where every vendor wants to show the rich graphical capabilities of their platform. When installed, they all offer a large analog clocks, weather status, one or two RSS feeds, and very little substance beyond that. The result is form over function. Serence tries to buck the trend and bring simplicity back with KlipFolio 4, the personal dashboard with small Lego-like Klips. See www.klipfolio.com for screenshots and download (< 1 MEG)."
Microsoft

Submission + - MS attacks it's own DRM

morlock_man writes: "Despite claiming to support the PlaysForSure DRM into the indefinite Future, MS has apparently broken the DRM compatibility with Windows Media Player 11 and Vista. A number of reports are coming in from companies working with the DRM that attempts at playing any music licensed through the PFS DRM under Vista consistently produce errors. Is this an oversight on Microsoft's part? Or are they attempting to cripple their licensed DRM system in favour of supporting their own proprietary Zune business model? Can you say 'Antitrust'?"
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Sen. Murphy Discussion on his Blog

mjackiw writes: Sen. Murphy, who has introduced a bill (SB1682) that would disallow access to "social networking" sites in schools and libraries is going to have a discussion about it on his blog at http://senmattmurphy.blogspot.com/ . If people give good, clean arguments why such a bill is wrong, it might help Sen. Murphy understand how social networking sites, which are used by libraries and schools for communication with both children and adults, are actually more beneficial than harmful. Also that he should not go after the the schools and libraries, but put more teeth into laws to punish on-line predators.
Wii

No More GameCube, Wii 2.0 On the Far Horizon 153

The little purple machine that could is no longer being manufactured. Hardware revisions are in store for the Nintendo Wii eventually. These announcements aren't terribly shocking, but they're still interesting admissions from Perin Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America. GameDaily has the interview, which also discusses Wii sales, the lull in games, new IPs, and some details on plans online. Don't worry, you won't have to buy a new Wii anytime soon. Kaplan is immediately talking about the planned Japanese version with DVD Playback capability, but does say 'Sure, absolutely' to the question of whether we'll eventually see hardware changes on the order of the DS/DS Lite.
Media

Submission + - Colossal Squid Caught

michaelrash writes: "From the article, "A fishing crew has caught a colossal squid that could weigh a half-ton and prove to be the biggest specimen ever landed, a fisheries official said Thursday. If calamari rings were made from the squid they would be the size of tractor tires, one expert said. The squid, weighing an estimated 990 pounds and about 39 feet long, took two hours to land in Antarctic waters, New Zealand Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said.""
Space

Submission + - Shape Shifting Aircraft

RebelSponge writes:
Air & Space Magazine has an article concerning shape shifting aircraft."New "morphing" technology promises adroit aircraft that reshape themselves, bird-like, in flight." They have already developed a model of a Blackhawk helicopter blade and are awaiting further funding to develop a full morphing helicopter.
Displays

Submission + - Cheap HDMI cables and Switchers

Robbie Hodge writes: "Hello /.,

My name is Robbie Hodge. I am a manager over here at FireFold.com. When at work all of us enjoy reading news blogs and your website. I figured I'd drop a line to show you some of our products. Right now we are a big hit in the HDMI section. We have the lowest HDMI cables on the web right now. Today we just brought on a new product called the HDMI Switcher. You've probably seen them around ... but our price is really nice. Check the switcher out: http://www.firefold.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid =HDMI-3SWITCH. HDMI Cables: http://www.firefold.com/category.aspx?categoryID=5 7

We've been on Gizmodo and a few other websites recently as they talked about HDMI Mark up at retail places and how crazy that is. FireFold is out there to save the public a buck(or 100!) and make a few our selves. Check out the website and see what you think.. Feel free to link us up. We will do the same for you!

Thanks,

Robbie
FireFold.com
1-877-792-4300"
United States

Submission + - Inflatable mirrors may make solar power very cheap

rhettb writes: "Inflatable mirrors for capturing sunlight could reduce the cost of solar power 90% by 2010, making sun energy cost competitive with traditional fossil fuels. CoolEarth Solar, based in Livermore, California, believes its technology could make solar farming economically competitive within three years by making solar cheaper than coal and allowing farmers to become net suppliers of electricity. The technology essentially uses a string of balloons to concentrate and capture the sun's energy without occupying valuable real estate or using large amounts of silicon."

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