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Comment Re:Linux (Score 3, Interesting) 408

by johnnys (#45695931) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Would You Secure Your Parents' PC?
The last time my 82 year old father-in-law visited, he wanted to check some web news sites so I handed him my netbook running Ubuntu. Half an hour later, I told him he was using a Linux system and he was happily surprised since he was used to Win7.

What I learned at that moment is that IF you provide a good system running Linux and presenting the apps a user needs in a usable way, THEN the user doesn't really care whether it's Linux or whatever. Firefox and Thunderbird and Libre Office really are good enough (or better) for any "normal" user doing "normal" things.

I haven't converted his home system yet, only because he has a son who does support for him, so it's Not My Problem. :)

Comment Inaccurate test. (Score 5, Insightful) 132

by johnnys (#45529119) Attached to: Speed Test 2: Comparing C++ Compilers On WIndows
According to the fine article, "The Intel compiler occasionally âoecalls homeâ to an Intel-owned Website to check licensing information. When it does so, it prints out a message about when the current license expires. I didnâ(TM)t use the results when that happens, since it would add time and skew the timing results. " WRONG. The tester should not have excluded these results where time was wasted with this nonsense: If WE the users have to put up with it, it SHOULD be included in the benchmarks.

Comment Re:DD-WRT on Buffalo hardware (Score 4, Informative) 193

by johnnys (#45045521) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Open Source Project For a Router/Wi-Fi Access Point?
This is probably not what the OP wants to hear (surprise! It's Slashdot after all) but I agree that a VERY good option is a Buffalo router. I bought a Buffalo WZR-600DHP running DD-WRT and it has been completely reliable in my SOHO environment. The feature set, tunability and capabilities of DD-WRT on this device are extensive and impressive.

I have tried DD-WRT on some older routers (Linksys) in the past and although the features were there the reliability and dependability were just not there. I had to reset every few weeks and reconfigure. So when I saw Buffalo was using DD-WRT I decided to try it and I have been very happy.

Submission + - Seej: An Open Source 3d Printed Tower Defense Game (zheng3.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From the dust, smoke, filaments, and bots at World Maker Faire in New York last weekend emerged Seej, an Open Source 3D printed Tower Defense game.

Players print their own Seej engines and fortifications and try to knock over their opponents flags by flinging pennies at each other. A community of designers, engineers, makers, and artists adds new and improved models to the The Forge, resulting in a constant evolution of gameplay.

Submission + - 9 Things You Can Do In Space Right Now! (photostospace.com)

Submitted by techmage
techmage writes: Like the idea of space travel but don't have $250,000 extra in your wallet? PhotosToSpace.com has put up a list of 9 things you can do in space right now that don't cost as much as a moderate sized home. Want to send a photo? Maybe rent time on a satellite or take the ultimate in space training. Almost everything from $6 photo flights to full up space training is covered.

Full disclosure: I work for Photos To Space, a participant in the new space arena.

Submission + - Why Call of Duty: Ghosts is next-gen's biggest gamble (redbull.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Call of Duty game is a licence to print money, but as an interview published today points out, it's one that creator Infinity Ward ripped up and re-applied for. Instead of debuting on the Xbox One and PS4 with Modern Warfare 4, as gamers expected, it went for a new IP instead. Call of Duty Ghosts is still a high-octane shooter, but it's one with a new focus on narrative (An Oscar-winning screenwriter helped pen the story) and character empathy. There's even a dog, Riley, who senior community manager Tina Palacios admits was a bit tricky to include:

"We mo-capped a dog and that was not easy. It took quite a while and we gave the dog a lot of breaks too."

Submission + - Candy Crush Saga Maker Files for Secret IPO

Submitted by cagraham
cagraham writes: King.com, the UK gaming company behind the popular Candy Crush Saga, has filed papers for a confidential IPO in the US. According to the Telegraph, King.com says its games are played over 30 billion times a month, while Candy Crush is the most-played game on Facebook. The company is expected to be valued at approximately $5 Billion, but are taking advantage of the same confidential filing law Twitter recently used, meaning they don't have to disclose any financial statements until just a few weeks before they start their offering campaign. For many, this might bring back memories of the once-popular casual game maker Zynga, who recently reported a 31% decline in revenue year-over-year.

Submission + - Weight gain in ex-smokers may be due to changes in gut bacteria (bytesizebio.net)

Submitted by Shipud
Shipud writes: Smokers who quit often gain weight. This has usually been attributed to decreased metabolism, and /or food replacing smoking as a reward system. New research shows that changes in gut bacteria may explain weight gain in those who quit smoking. The changes in the gut bacteria in people who quit smoking are startling. Moreover, the type of bacteria that emerge in the gut after smoking cessation are the same type that have been shown to cause obesity.

Submission + - Bill Gates admits CTRL-ALT-DELETE was a mistake (geekwire.com)

Submitted by carcomp
carcomp writes: Bill Gates made many exceptional decisions while he was leading Microsoft to immense success. He did, however, make a few errors.
gatesharvard12

Bill Gates chats with David Rubenstein, Harvard Campaign co-chair.

One of those was the idea of using “Control-Alt-Delete” — initially designed to efficiently reboot a computer — as a way to log into Windows.

Jump to around 17 minutes in to hear the admission of the mistake.

Submission + - Researcher Turns to Kickstarter for Journal Funding (kickstarter.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In what may the first example of crowfunding a scientific journal, Dr. Crista Royal is currently trying to raise $150,000 to start "JNegRes"--a journal for publishing "negative" results from experiments. From the Kickstarter page:

Currently it is very difficult to publish negative results in science. Not all results are positive, yet all truth should be shared. Sharing negative results will help refine our collective knowledge and bring our ideas closer to the actuality of how the universe works. Each negative result, as well as each positive result, brings us closer to the truth.

Submission + - How LucasArts Fell Apart (kotaku.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Over the last five months, I’ve talked to a dozen people connected to LucasArts, including ex-employees at the company’s highest levels, in an attempt to figure out just how the studio collapsed. Some spoke off the record; others spoke under condition of anonymity. They told me about the failed deals, the drastic shifts in direction, the cancelled projects with codenames like Smuggler and Outpost. They told me the stories behind the fantastic-looking Star Wars 1313 and the multi-tiered plans for a new Battlefront starting with the multiplayer game known as Star Wars: First Assault.

All of these people helped paint a single picture: Even before Disney purchased LucasFilm, the parent company of LucasArts, in November of 2012, the studio faced serious issues. LucasArts was a company paralyzed by dysfunction, apathy, and indecision from executives at the highest levels."

Submission + - Android, Windows Phone set to collide in China (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp
smaxp writes: An astounding 450 million smartphones will ship in China in 2014, which amounts to approximately a third of worldwide shipments. It also means that next year, one in every three Chinese men, women and children will buy a smartphone. China is a tantalizing target for Apple, Microsoft and Google.

Submission + - Tesco - 3D printing will come to supermarkets "within a few years" (v3.co.uk)

Submitted by TinTops
TinTops writes: The IT chief of supermarket giant Tesco has said he believes there is a market for 3D printing in large supermarkets, and that it will be "good for customers":

Tesco IT chief Mike McNamara told V3: “I think it will help Tesco as a company, I don’t think it will be a bad thing,” he said. “It’ll be a great thing for customers, we’ll have 3D printing in our stores. As retailers you’ll always adapt. So new things come along — the internet came along, we adapted to that one. We kind of have the internet version two with smartphones now, which has been a bigger impact than the wired internet, we’ll adapt to that, we’ll adapt to 3D printing, we’ll adapt to RFID. You live, you change.”

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