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Comment Re:OpenWRT (Score 1) 193

There was enough interest to write a wiki about it (button press event). And Linux is Linux. A TFTP daemon should be trivial to setup. Beyond trivial. "Just use the DNSMasq TFTP deamon" would have been much snarkier/more accurate reply. And what? Linux seeing a mounted USB storage device is beyond the scope of...linux? Really? None of what I described are in any way "fringe" and all those things individually are covered in wiki, albeit inaccurate/incomplete.

And if it's useful to anybody the router is an Asus RT-N16. Several years old, says "works with DD-WRT" ont he actual box but still only supported in the daily builds with limited documention in this main forum thread.

Comment Re:OpenWRT (Score 1, Interesting) 193

by keith_nt4 (#45045875) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Open Source Project For a Router/Wi-Fi Access Point?

As somebody who spent about 3 weeks (I'm kinda new to linux) trying to get OpenWRT working on my router I would like to disagree. I can't speak to DDWRT's organization but the OpenWRT community seems completely dead to me: the wiki is outdated/inaccurate/contradictory (often on the same page) and the forum seems dead as well except from one or two threads. Good luck finding any help from that "community" *.

I was exploring DDWRT at one point and that documentation said OpenWRT packages will work with DDWRT. I don't know if that's true, partially true or untrue but I don't think I'm ever going to bother with OpenWRT again. If that is true of DDWRT at least for my purposes DDWRT will be just as flexible as OpenWRT. Also from what little I observed the DDWRT forums seem to have constant activity, the supported hardware list is much larger and the documentation much more complete/better written. In fact if you dig deep enough you'll find that OpenWRTs seeming officially supported hardware list is maintained by a completely different entity then that of the people in the forums and the forums is actually the place the look for your router.

* First I had to figure out my router would only run with the bleeding edge daily builds. Then I was trying to setup using local storage on router's USB port(s) then I was trying to get tftp-hpa configured, then I was trying to make the local storage/tftp daemon start/stop with a button press. Too much to ask I guess. Probably a little different if I had only wanted router functionality.

Comment Re:I think they plan to compete on the premium end (Score 1) 348

* Upgradeable

I think I know what you meant but I don't think a console "upgrade" has ever been truly successful. Whether you're talking sega cd/32x/32xCD, that tubo graphics cd thing (turbo duo was it?), that high resolution attachment for the wii remotes...or possibly the kinect. It just fragments the user base.

Maybe if they had some ridiculously easy parts upgrade system/method. Easier than installing toner/ink cartridges in a printer in other words (power off, open panel, pop out old, pop in new, close panel/power on). Anything short of that and it's too hard...

I don't know if this steam box will ever be as easy to work with as a console made specifically for the one purpose. But for the extra effort I bet you'll get a lot. Which is why I'd much rather buy or build a steam box and utilize my game library than buy an xbone/ps4.
Space

Voyager 1 May Be Caught Inside an Interstellar Flux Transfer Event 120

Posted by Soulskill from the at-least-it's-not-stuck-in-the-delta-quadrant dept.
KentuckyFC writes "Last month, NASA declared that Earth's most distant probe had finally left the Solar System. But the announcement may now turn out to be premature. It was prompted by a dramatic increase in the density of plasma in the region of space the spacecraft is now in. However, there has been no change in the local magnetic field, which is what astrophysicists would expect if Voyager had entered interstellar space. Instead, space scientists think the probe may be caught inside a magnetic portal known as an interstellar flux transfer event. This occurs when the magnetic fields from two different objects briefly become connected through a tube-like magnetic structure. This process happens between the Earth and Sun's magnetic field about every eight minutes, so similar events are expected between the Sun's field and the interstellar field. This magnetic tube would allow particles in from outside the Solar System, increasing the density of plasma, while maintaining the same magnetic field. If so, Voyager 1 hasn't yet left the Solar System after all."
Businesses

Obamacare Could Help Fuel a Tech Start-Up Boom 671

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the communist-healthcare-would-have-helped-more dept.
dcblogs writes "The arrival of Obamacare may make it easier for some employees to quit their full-time jobs to launch tech start-ups, work as a freelance consultant, or pursue some other solo career path. Most tech start-up founders are older and need health insurance. 'The average age of people who create a tech start-up is 39, and not 20-something,' said Bruce Bachenheimer, who heads Pace University's Entrepreneurship Lab. Entrepreneurs are willing to take on risks, but health care is not a manageable risk, he said. 'There is a big difference between mortgaging your house on something you can control, and risking going bankrupt by an illness because of something you can't control,' said Bachenheimer. Donna Harris, the co-founder of the 1776 incubation platform in Washington, believes the healthcare law will encourage more start-ups. 'You have to know that there are millions of Americans who might be fantastic and highly successful entrepreneurs who are not pursuing that path because of how healthcare is structured,' said Harris"

Comment Re:It's like deja vu all over again (Score 1) 786

by keith_nt4 (#43647871) Attached to: Microsoft's "New Coke" Moment?

I don't see what the big deal is with the ribbon. It seems like they just took vertical menus that mainly consisted of words and flipped them 90 degrees horizontal (and put more emphasis on pictorals) so it had more of tabbed look. It's really not that. Lots of web sites etc. use that tabbed way of navigation and it seems fine.

Also, for the record, there is way to complete turn off the ribbon and bring back the old vertical menus.
Windows

Some Windows XP Users Can't Afford To Upgrade 953

Posted by samzenpus from the high-cost-of-upgrading dept.
colinneagle writes "During a recent trip to an eye doctor, I noticed that she was still using Windows XP. After I suggested that she might need to upgrade soon, she said she couldn't because she couldn't afford the $10,000 fee involved with the specialty medical software that has been upgraded for Windows 7. Software written for medical professionals is not like mass market software. They have a limited market and can't make back their money in volume because there isn't the volume for an eye doctor's database product like there is for Office or Quicken. With many expecting Microsoft's upcoming end-of-support for XP to cause a security nightmare of unsupported Windows devices in the wild, it seems a good time to ask how many users may fall into the category of wanting an upgrade, but being priced out by expensive but necessary third-party software. More importantly, can anything be done about it?"

Comment Re:This idea is getting worse every day... (Score 1) 329

by keith_nt4 (#42914539) Attached to: Han Solo To Reportedly Return For <em>Star Wars VII</em>

I disagree with the idea that the prequels could only be a fill-in-the blank affair: the same could have been said for the LotRs trilogy but it still managed to be turned into something enjoyable with near-universal appeal (Pippen and Merry seem to have their own following, for instance) even though whether you read the book(s) or not the ending seemed like a fore-gone conclusion.

Comment Re:Rock & A Hard Place (Score 1) 564

by keith_nt4 (#42867087) Attached to: On the end of USPS 1st Class Saturday delivery:

I think everybody should make at least $25 an hour. Anything less and they're not making enough to support themselves in American society, and the rest of us -- government -- are going to have to make up the difference between what their employer is paying them and what they need to survive.

Wow, $25 would be nice. I have disagree with you though on the supporting yourself on anything less: For a whole year I was working at $15/hour in california where it's not exactly cheap. In fact I had a 100 mile round trip so my weekly gas costs was around ~$350 (an old car getting around 25MPG). I was also paying ~$300/month for my own health insurance, paying for car insurance, California's income tax... Actually a smart phone too so that was another $75/month.

Not only was I able to live on that wage I was actually making money. Just have to decide what's important and what isn't. Prioritize. At $25/hour I'd feel like I was living like one of those UAE princes I hear about. But I for one look forward to this proposed socialist utopia.
Businesses

Dell Going Private In $24.4 Billion Agreement 217

Posted by timothy from the next-month-back-in-the-old-dorm-room dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes "Dell is going private again, as the result of a $24.4 billion deal involving private-equity investors and Microsoft. The deal will close before the end of the second quarter of Dell's fiscal 2014, according to Reuters. Dell founder and namesake Michael Dell, who owns roughly 14 percent of the company's common shares, will continue to lead the newly privatized venture as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He will contribute his existing shares to the new company, on top of a 'substantial' additional cash investment. As with other hardware manufacturers in the space, Dell faces the specter of a softening PC market. And while Dell has made significant efforts to penetrate other markets—including the launch of a private cloud architecture based on the open-source OpenStack—that weakness has affected its bottom line: for its fiscal 2013 third quarter, the company reported an 11 percent decrease in revenue from the previous year; while it enjoyed an increase in revenue from its servers and services businesses, revenue from its Consumer division dipped 23 percent. Its Large Enterprise, Small and Medium Business, and Public revenue also declined." Another take at the New York Times.

Comment Re:Split it. (Score 1) 451

by keith_nt4 (#42110187) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Troubling Trend For Open Source Company

I can think of at least two examples of this: Untangle and Asterisk. Asterisk seems to have the right idea with free versus supported models.Maybe one of those two could be a model? There's also Redhat with their...would clone be the right word?... unofficial community version, CentOS. I've heard stories of customers with mixed RHEL/CentOS environments getting indirect support from redhat with a CentOS issue.

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