Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Ubuntu

Submission + - Nine features we may see in Ubuntu 11.10 'Oneiric (arnnet.com.au) 1

Submitted by splitenz
splitenz writes: Canonical's Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" may still be occupying much of the Linux world's attention, but at last week's Ubuntu Developer Summit in Budapest, the next version of the free and open source Linux distribution began to take form.

A number of decisions were reportedly made about Ubuntu 11.10, or "Oneiric Ocelot," at the conference, while numerous other questions are still being debated.

Ready for a very early look at Oneiric Ocelot? Here's a roundup of what's been reported so far.

Comment Re:What the hell? (Score 1) 374

by JohnConnor (#35322848) Attached to: Canonical To Divert Money From GNOME

Your operating system is Linux, not Ubuntu. You operating system is not worrying at all about how you should be buying mp3s, you can rest assure. Ubuntu is much more than an operating system, it's also a whole set of applications, a way to integrate them together and extra services as well. I doubt that you only want basic OS functionality, but if you do just install the server version of Ubuntu and your problem is solved.

Comment Unbreakable solaris (Score 2, Insightful) 392

by JohnConnor (#31685024) Attached to: Solaris No Longer Free As In Beer

It's not surprising at all that Oracle would shut down a free competing product to its unbreakable Linux. In fact it would be crazy for them to allow internal competition between two OSes to happen. What I am really disappointed about is the fact that *open*solaris was not really open and that now it will die. That's what sucks about the various half-assed open-source licenses and practices of former Sun. Had openSolaris been a complete open-source prject, not dependent on binary blobs, the closing of solaris itself would not be such a problem.
Security

Doom-Like Video Surveillance For Ports In Development 56

Posted by Soulskill from the hurt-me-plenty dept.
oranghutan writes "A research and development group down under is working to develop an advanced video surveillance system for ports around the world that uses video superimposed onto a 3D map. With 16-megapixel high-definition cameras on a distributed (cabled) network and a proprietary system written in a variety of languages (C++, Python, SQL, etc.), the group from NICTA is aiming to allow security teams at the Port of Brisbane — which is 110km long — to monitor shipping movements, cargo and people. By scrolling along a 3D map, the security teams can click on a location and then get a real-time video feed superimposed onto the map. Authorities from around the world with the right permissions can then access the same system. The main difference from regular surveillance systems is the ability to switch views without having to know camera numbers/locations and the one screen view."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Infinity Ward Fights Against Modern Warfare 2 Cheaters 203

Posted by Soulskill from the be-careful-they-cheat dept.
Faithbleed writes "IW's Robert Bowling reports on his twitter account that Infinity Ward is giving 2,500 Modern Warfare 2 cheaters the boot. The news comes as the war between IW and MW2's fans rages over the decision to go with IWnet hosting instead of dedicated servers. Unhappy players were quick to come up with hacks that would allow their own servers and various other changes." Despite the dedicated-server complaints, Modern Warfare 2 has sold ridiculously well.
Graphics

What's the Importance of Graphics In Video Games? 506

Posted by Soulskill from the not-all-pixels-are-created-equal dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I develop games as a hobby. I've experimented with games on almost every platform available. For me, the gameplay is the most influential factor of a game, with history and graphics dividing second place. But, for some reason, it's not the technical beauty of the graphics that appeal to me. I have played Crysis, and I've played Pokémon games. The graphics of the Pokémon games entertain me as much as the graphics of Crysis. I think both are beautiful. So, why is the current generation of games giving so much importance to the realism in graphic games? I think it is sufficient for a game to have objects that are recognizable. For example, while the water in some games may not look as good as in Crysis, I can still tell it's water. What are your opinions on the current direction of game graphics? Do you prefer easy-to-render 3D scenes that leave space for beautiful effects, like with Radiosity, or more complex 3D scenes that try to be realistic?"

Comment Perfect platform for this (Score 1, Insightful) 275

by JohnConnor (#28387323) Attached to: <em>New Super Mario Bros. Wii</em> To Include Official "Cheat"

This is a good idea for the Wii. This platform is not supposed to be for hardcore gamers and the focus is more on the general public. Take myself as an example: I play the Wii but unlike my kids I don't have time to repeat a game sequence hundreds of times until I get it right. If I get stuck somewhere in a game I don't waste my time and I move on (read I drop this particlar game). I'm looking forward to be able to skip a frustrating part and get on with the rest of the game. I am not playing to get frustrated
PC Games (Games)

Understanding Addiction-Based Game Design 308

Posted by Soulskill from the i-can-quit-any-time-i-want-to-i-just-don't-want-to dept.
spidweb writes "The common theory is that games like World of Warcraft are addictive. But what are the exact qualities that make it so? Are there specific elements of the design that can be pulled out, distilled, and used at will to give a game drug-like properties? Is it wrong to do so? A new article at IGN RPG Vault attempts to isolates the exact qualities that go into making an addiction-based design. From the article: 'If a game uses rewards of any sort to entice you to experience highly repetitive content, you should see what it's trying to do and which of your buttons it's trying to press. If you don't mind, that's cool, but you should understand it.'"

Comment Re:Social Engineering first (Score 1) 1232

by JohnConnor (#27935245) Attached to: Man Arrested For Taking Photo of Open ATM

He should have softened them up first with a base level social engineering attack something like:

I completely disagree with you.
My first point is that you shouldn't lie to do something that you are perfectly allowed to do. You don't have to, you don't want to be that kind of person and you don't want to contribute to create a society where lying is better than not.
My second point is that by lying you are putting yourself in a position of wrongdoing. Now that you are lying, there is a case to be made that you are acting in bad faith. Your original intention when you were taking the pictures will then rightfully be questioned.

Comment Look at the problem differently (Score 2, Insightful) 209

by JohnConnor (#27728245) Attached to: Cross-Distro Remote Package Administration?

I think that you are not putting your efforts where it matters.
What is important is that the critical services run properly on each server. Sure that can be affected by patching but also by many other factors. So don't focus solely on the patching, focus instead on making sure all the services are running properly.
You should have your own scripts that check that each server is responding as required. Make your test suite as strong as you can and improve it each time a new problem crops up that wasn't caught by your spying tools.
Once you have this in place, you can safely do daily automatic updates and stop second guessing the package maintainers. You will have a more reliable system and you will save yourself a lot of work too over the years.
Programming

Submission + - Giving up programming (2di2d.com)

Submitted by
JerryQ
JerryQ writes: "I have spent my life building business systems (and cameras). Over that time I have developed techniques to almost remove programming entirely between application definition and delivery. I have written a paper to outline the technique.
What would the slashdot panel say was the best way to get these techniques circulated, appraised, and made commonly and freely available?
See http://www.2di2d.com/"
Security

Submission + - Deep Computer-Spying Network Touched 103 Countries (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "A 10-month cyberespionage investigation has found that 1,295 computers in 103 countries and belonging to international institutions have been spied on, with some circumstantial evidence suggesting China may be to blame. The 53-page report provides insights into the efforts of politically motivated hackers while raising questions about their ties with government-sanctioned cyberspying operations. It describes a network which researchers have called GhostNet, which has been tracked for several years and primarily uses malware called gh0st RAT (Remote Access Tool) to steal sensitive documents, control Web cams, and completely control infected computers. A second report by Cambridge researchers was less circumspect, saying that the attacks against the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama were in fact launched by 'agents of the Chinese government.'"

Slashdot Top Deals

If you think the system is working, ask someone who's waiting for a prompt.

Close