Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Mozilla

Submission + - SeaMonkey 2.0 released (seamonkey-project.org) 2

Submitted by aodash
aodash writes: The SeaMonkey project at Mozilla is excited to release its completely refurbished next generation of the all-in one Internet suite today: SeaMonkey 2.0, now available for free download, melds the ideas behind Netscape Communicator with the modern platform of Firefox 3.5 to create one of the most compelling open source products for advanced Internet users.

The combination of an Internet browser, email & newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools, that has already established a wide user base in its previous incarnations, has been rebuilt on top of the modern Mozilla platform, featuring world-class add-on management among other things.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Tiger Users Led Astray by Apple on Leopard Upgrade (allthingsd.com)

Submitted by nz17
nz17 writes: From Walt Mossberg's review of Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6):
For owners of Intel-based Macs who are still using the older Tiger version of the Mac OS, Apple is officially making Snow Leopard available only in a "boxed set" that includes other software and costs $169. The reasoning is that these folks never paid the $129 back in 2007 to upgrade to Leopard. But here's a tip: Apple concedes that the $29 Snow Leopard upgrade will work properly on these Tiger-equipped Macs, so you can save the extra $140. http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20090826/apple-changes-leopards-spots/

Comment Re:IE8 Runs Horribly on My Computer (Score 2, Informative) 374

by nz17 (#29033099) Attached to: MS — Dropping IE6 Support "Not an Option"

Due to a number of questions and assumptions that arose due to what I suppose was my lack of explicitness, I shall try to clear the water here:

I didn't upgrade to XP from 2000 sooner because...
1) The default XP GUI sucks.
2) It's more of a resource hog than 2000.
3) You have to deal with activation and Windows Genuine Advantage.
4) XP wasn't really a good choice until SP2 came out, as SP2 combined with the earlier advances of SP1 to address many issues that XP suffered from.
5) I wasn't going to pay for a new version of Windows. My copy of XP (and Vista and 7 if I wish) was furnished by my university under Microsoft's MSDNAA program.

Other points...
-I never said XP itself was slow.
-I did say IE8 is slow on my configuration.
-Though the browsers themselves have responsibilities in this regard, our individual setups also determine program performance. A large number of factors play into this including OS, upgrade paths of the software which are installed, background processes, et cetera.
-I did an in-place upgrade from 2000 to XP to preserve my programs' installations and settings. Don't worry, I backed up everything before the XP upgrade happened.
-My computer is not old nor outdated, though like all of ours it could always use more upgrades. ;)

And on that note, I'll close by saying, "...Oh no, something on your computer is older now than it was a moment ago - better upgrade again!"

Comment Re:IE8 Runs Horribly on My Computer (Score 1) 374

by nz17 (#29032937) Attached to: MS — Dropping IE6 Support "Not an Option"

A) Program startup time and memory usage are not the same thing.
B) I'm sure our different experiences with the Web browsers are a matter of different system configurations in hardware and software, not a matter of the browsers themselves. That is why benchmarking is done on identical system configurations.
C) My hardware is not ancient, let alone old.

Comment IE8 Runs Horribly on My Computer (Score 4, Informative) 374

by nz17 (#29028391) Attached to: MS — Dropping IE6 Support "Not an Option"

I have to tell you, IE8 runs horribly on my desktop computer. When I installed XP over 2000, I upgraded right from 6 to 8 and hated it. The startup time was ridiculous, something like 30 seconds or 60 seconds, and opening a new tab took just as long as starting a new instance of IE8. Even after starting it once, starting it again wasn't must faster. That's my reason that I "downgraded" Internet Explorer to version 7, which really was an upgrade from version 8 in terms of performance, starting in about 3 seconds instead. I suppose that I can't be alone in this - there must be others for whom 7 or 6 runs better than 8 for whatever reason.

I know as far as I'm concerned IE7 fixed a lot of bad things with Internet Explorer that made it a big difference over 6, whereas 8 just seems to be an incremental improvement over 7 that really should not be pushed by Microsoft as a Critical Update. MS is probably coming out with frequent updates like this now just to try to stay competitive with Firefox and Safari and Chrome. I know that the Steam Overlay browser which embeds IE's Trident engine certainly got a speed boost from me going with 7 over 8, and that's the way it's going to stay unless and until Microsoft releases something newer for me to try on Windows XP. With Vista and soon Windows 7 out in retail, I don't think anything else is coming for XP users though.

Good thing I don't even use Internet Explorer as my primary browser then. Long live my mighty combo of Firefox, Opera, and Konqueror!
Linux Business

Submission + - Linux installfests maturing? (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
christian.einfeldt
christian.einfeldt writes: "Linux installfests apparently are expanding from an emphasis on serving individual users to mass network installs serving non-profits and schools. In the past, installfests have often been held as part of Linux User Group meetings, and involved individual new computer users bringing their computers to a small meeting to have Linux installed on their machines. But now there is an apparent trend visible in Linux installfests toward mass network installs supported by greater corporate or municipal involvement in Linux installfests. In many cases, the newly-installed Linux computers are being given to end user institutions such as schools. For example, a recent installfest in Austin, Texas, was put on by two non-profits and was supported by the personal participation of upper management at AMD and nFusion. The majority of the eighty-three machines were PXE-booted and mass-installed at that event over an ad hoc network. Likewise, at last year's LinuxWorld expo in San Francisco, 350 Linux computers were mass-installed over a similar PXE network in a mass installfest put on in a partnership between the non-profit Alameda County Computer Resource Center and the for-profit Untangle and IDG firms. The machines were donated to San Francisco Bay Area schools. Similar installfests have been held in Chile and India, to name just a few."
Biotech

Submission + - DNA differences observed between blood and organs (genomeweb.com)

Submitted by Scrameustache
Scrameustache writes: Researcher working on a rare type of aortic abnormality found that the DNA from diseased tissue did not match the DNA from the blood of the same patients on the same gene. So far it's unclear whether these differences in the blood and aortic tissue are the consequence of RNA editing, which changes the messenger RNA but not the gene, or DNA editing, which involves differences in the gene itself.
Based on the evidence so far, senior author Morris Schweitzer, an endocrinologist and lipidologist with McGill University, believes the differences his team detected resulted from developmental rather than somatic DNA alterations. Such a pattern may not hold true for all genes, he said, but there could be other genes that vary slightly between blood and other tissues.
The Media

Submission + - Danish Expert Declares Vinland Map Genuine (newsdaily.com)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "A Danish expert named Rene Larson has finished a study of the infamous Vinland Map and declared it genuine. "All the tests that we have done over the past five years — on the materials and other aspects — do not show any signs of forgery," he said at the press conference. He and his team studied the ink, the paper, and even insect damage. They believe that the ink, which was discovered to contain titanium dioxide in 1972 and thus supposedly too new for the map to be genuine, was contaminated when it was being dried, causing the contamination."
Security

Submission + - What to do with a pwned router? 2

Submitted by Headbonk
Headbonk writes: So say that theoretically you live in a big apartment building where lots of people have wireless networks... When scanning for networks you find like 10 different network names. Lets say that one day you notice a new unsecured network that still has the default network name set from the wifi router manufacturer. Say you also discovered this router still had the default administrator password set for the config pages? Assume that there are enough people and networks in the building that you can't figure out who the unsecured router belongs to.

What is the correct thing to do here? From a security standpoint and or an ethics point of view? You could turn on encryption, but that would just make the outer stop working for the people whose network it is. It would be a pain in the ass for them and there's nothing preventing them from just reseting the router or buying a new one thus going back to the same situation as before. Is it right to get involved at all? Does it even matter since the default settings of wifi routers include a firewall and the unsecured wireless just makes them vulnerable to their neighbors (like you)? Is there a right "good citizen" thing to do here to help protect the people who connect to that network?

Comment Security (Score 4, Informative) 342

by nz17 (#26674027) Attached to: Google Unofficially Announces GDrive By Leaked Code

I know that Google is all about introducing new (usually useful) services which tie into its already existing sites and services, and for that I applaud it. However I hope that it takes privacy, security, and encryption into account for this new online storage service. It's one thing to do a search with Google's engine - trusting Google with personal files is another issue entirely.

Also, here's hoping for a rich desktop client instead of just a Web interface.
Businesses

Submission + - Linux to Spend Eternity in Shadow of Little Blue e (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by nz17
nz17 writes: To these people, a computer means Windows. There's the Mac, but users see the Mac as something different from the computer. Mac has its own software, its own system. Graphic designers use the Mac. So, when a normal person buys a computer and it doesn't come with Windows, there's a pretty big disconnect happening, and it's not because the person is dumb. It's because of violated expectations. Linux will never be accepted as mainstream because too many users expect a computer to have Windows.

Slashdot Top Deals

The one day you'd sell your soul for something, souls are a glut.

Close