Comment Re:ladies and gentlemen: (Score 1) 557
the AAC and H.264 codecs are openly documented well enough that there are open source implementations of both.
Submission + - Linux installfests maturing? (blogspot.com)
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."
Comment Re:In technology... (Score 1) 475
PowerPC was never intended to be faster than x86, it was intended to be comparable in performance at a much smaller die size and lower subsequent cost.
I think these days, it is called "Performance Per Watt".
1 button mice were always stupid.
I see you've never worked on a help-desk trying to talk a (l)user through a simple point-and-click operation.
help: click on the phone icon
user: i've got a menu, which one do i choose
help: noooo, click your left mouse button just once on the phone icon
user: do you want me to choose properties from this menu?
help:
Submission + - Unusual physics engine game ported to Linux (blogspot.com)
christian.einfeldt writes: "Halloween has come early for Linux-loving gamers in the form of the scary Penumbra game trilogy, which has just recently been ported natively to GNU-Linux by the manufacturer, Frictional Games. The Penumbra games, named Overture, Black Plague, and Requiem, respectively, are first person survival horror and physics puzzle games which challenge the player to survive in a mine in Greenland which has been taken over by a monstrous infection/demon/cthulhu-esque thing. The graphics, sounds, and plot are all admirable in a scary sort of way. The protagonist is an ordinary human with no particular powers at all, who fumbles around in the dark mine fighting zombified dogs or fleeing from infected humans. But the game is remarkable for its physics engine — rather than just bump and acquire, the player must use the mouse to physically turn knobs and open doors; and the player can grab and throw pretty much anything in the environment. The physics engine drives objects to fly and fall exactly as one would expect. The porting of a game with such a deft physics engine natively to Linux might be one of the most noteworthy events for GNU-Linux gamers since the 'World of Goo' Linux port."
Why TV Lost 576
theodp writes "Over the past 20 years, there's been much speculation about what the convergence of computers and TV would ultimately look like. Paul Graham says that we now know the answer: computers. 'Convergence' is turning out to essentially be 'replacement.' Why did TV lose? Graham identifies four forces: 1. The Internet's open platform fosters innovation at hacker speeds instead of big company speeds. 2. Moore's Law worked its magic on Internet bandwidth. 3. Piracy taught a new generation of users it's more convenient to watch shows on a computer screen. 4. Social applications made everybody from grandmas to 14-year-old girls want computers — in a three-word-nutshell, Facebook killed TV."
Submission + - ninemsn Music Store, closing on the 21 Jan 2008
ColonelBlinky writes: Below is a copy of an email that I, just like others, got today from ninemsn music. So what do I do now, do I make the switch to iTunes or go back to paying for CD's with extra tracks I won't ever listen too?
I am very aware of the controversy over DRM but I assume (unwisely now) that no matter where I got my DRM music from that if they went bust someone would buy them out and the licenses transer. In this case OD2 provide the back end service so I can't see why another OD2 distributor can't take over?
CB
Australia
ps. my 1st post on Slashdot, constructive feedback on my posting technique is welcome
=== copy email below ===
The ninemsn Music Store will be closing on the 21 January 2008 at 9pm EST.
If you still have credit left in this account, please use it by the 21 January 2008. Any pre-pay credit remaining after this date will expire and NOT be able to be redeemed. Subscriptions will automatically expire over the next month, and from today, no more subscription payments will be taken.
All tracks that you have downloaded through the ninemsn Music service can continue to be enjoyed after the service has closed, but we recommend that you burn them all to audio CD using Windows Media Player to avoid any loss of licenses. Please do this before the store closure on the 21 January 2008, in case you have any questions that need to be directed to our support team.
If you have any other queries regarding the closure of your account and this service, please contact our customer support team directly at 9msn.support@od2.com.
We thank you for your loyalty and support and will email you in the near future with some new and even more exciting music initiatives we have planned.
Kind Regards,
The ninemsn Music store team
I am very aware of the controversy over DRM but I assume (unwisely now) that no matter where I got my DRM music from that if they went bust someone would buy them out and the licenses transer. In this case OD2 provide the back end service so I can't see why another OD2 distributor can't take over?
CB
Australia
ps. my 1st post on Slashdot, constructive feedback on my posting technique is welcome
=== copy email below ===
The ninemsn Music Store will be closing on the 21 January 2008 at 9pm EST.
If you still have credit left in this account, please use it by the 21 January 2008. Any pre-pay credit remaining after this date will expire and NOT be able to be redeemed. Subscriptions will automatically expire over the next month, and from today, no more subscription payments will be taken.
All tracks that you have downloaded through the ninemsn Music service can continue to be enjoyed after the service has closed, but we recommend that you burn them all to audio CD using Windows Media Player to avoid any loss of licenses. Please do this before the store closure on the 21 January 2008, in case you have any questions that need to be directed to our support team.
If you have any other queries regarding the closure of your account and this service, please contact our customer support team directly at 9msn.support@od2.com.
We thank you for your loyalty and support and will email you in the near future with some new and even more exciting music initiatives we have planned.
Kind Regards,
The ninemsn Music store team
Submission + - UT3 on Linux or Mac Anyone?
Space-Nut writes: It is well known that the Unreal Tournament series have tried hard in the past to make their games available for Linux and Macs. With the upcoming Unreal Tournament 3 release sometime soon and a statement back in May from Mark Rein in thread about DX10"..All this means is that UT3 will support DX10 — it does NOT mean that DX10 is required! We expect the vast majority of our users will be Windows XP / DX9 users. We will also support Mac and Linux as per usual." Is anyone else really excited about UT3 and 2007 and will you support Epic in providing a Linux and Mac version by buying the game?
Submission + - Browser Market Share - why does it matter?
An anonymous reader writes: Why does market share for a web browser matter? My computer came with IE but I use FireFox for most browsing. Did Microsoft lose? If so, what did they lose? Why would a company that gives something away for free (Mozilla) care if they have 10% of the market share or 90%? I have my suspicions but thought the the slashdotters would be able to give some good information. If you were to put aside features and security (that is a lot to put aside), should I care who developed my browser?
Submission + - ISO document standard battle
Elektroschock writes: "Some activists believe that Microsoft ooxml should not become an ISO standard for technical reasons. But would you prefer a closed Microsoft Office Format that is not approved as a standard? Or will a single ISO 26300:2006 (ODF) standard encourage Microsoft to support it when DIS 26500 (MS-ooxml) gets rejected? What is your opinion on the controversial issue?"
Submission + - Are there any new motherboards without a TPM?
An anonymous reader writes: For those of us who don't want any piece of "treacherous computing" in our PC's, that means not having a TPM chip on the motherboard. That's easy enough if you're using an older computer, but what about the latest offerings? Are there any late-model motherboards or laptops being sold that do not have a TPM chip?
Submission + - Are spaces in filenames worth it?
innocent_white_lamb writes: After yet another episode of having a perfectly good script (this one straight out of a book, in fact) fail due to a space in a filename, I was just thinking.... Do you think that the "convenience" of having spaces as allowed characters in a filename outweighs the special processing that having a space in a filename requires when you are trying to do something from the commandline? Even if you're typing a simple command, you still have to use a \ in front of every space in the filename, which adds characters to what you're typing. And in bash scripting you get into little joys like single and double quotes and so on.
In the day of DOS, you had to work at it to get a space into a filename. (And with 8.3 you generally wouldn't want to waste that character even if you could do it easily.)
My Letter to Aunt Sally.txt is indeed somewhat more readable than MyLetterToAuntSally.txt, but is it sufficiently better as to justify the additional special handling it will require if you're trying to deal with it from a commandline?
In the day of DOS, you had to work at it to get a space into a filename. (And with 8.3 you generally wouldn't want to waste that character even if you could do it easily.)
My Letter to Aunt Sally.txt is indeed somewhat more readable than MyLetterToAuntSally.txt, but is it sufficiently better as to justify the additional special handling it will require if you're trying to deal with it from a commandline?
Submission + - Good note-taking software
An anonymous reader writes: I've noticed that I do a lot of brainstorming on paper, and I wondered why I don't use my computer more. I realized that one of the things I like about writing on paper is the ability to arbitrarily position my text. Is there good software for OS X that lets me put the cursor anywhere I want and begin typing immediately? As for PCs, I think OneNote allows this — is there anything else? What about software that also lets me drag and drop entire blocks of text any way I want to organize them?
Submission + - Digital progress stopped::Where is surround music?
x_terminat_or_3 writes: "I am a great music and movie lover and I enjoy myself immensely watching movies in Surround Sound and eagerly await the next improvement in movie-watching-experience.
At the same time I wonder why the Music industry doesn't follow the example of the Movie business: Surround Sound. Current technology is perfectly capable of distributing music with more then 2 audio streams (stereo) and I imagine that despite current artificial price differences between CD and DVD, it doesn't have to be more then 1% more expensive to the customer to buy new albums on dvd and in 5.1 or higher
On the extra space they could add extra memorabilia of the artist/band/label, or even video clips
From mono to stereo was a big improvement and so is it from stereo to 5.1 or higher, and each standard is 100% backwards compatible with its predecessor so there is no risk of breaking music playback in older non-capable players."
At the same time I wonder why the Music industry doesn't follow the example of the Movie business: Surround Sound. Current technology is perfectly capable of distributing music with more then 2 audio streams (stereo) and I imagine that despite current artificial price differences between CD and DVD, it doesn't have to be more then 1% more expensive to the customer to buy new albums on dvd and in 5.1 or higher
On the extra space they could add extra memorabilia of the artist/band/label, or even video clips
From mono to stereo was a big improvement and so is it from stereo to 5.1 or higher, and each standard is 100% backwards compatible with its predecessor so there is no risk of breaking music playback in older non-capable players."
Submission + - Student teacher's career over before it starts?
An anonymous reader writes: My wife is currently on "prac", which is when student teachers go to a school for practical experience before they finish their studies. She got this email this morning, I find it kind of disturbing that this 'guilty until proven innocent' type of reasoning is so often administered in schools these days. The results of prac teaching have a BIG effect on your future employment prospects. It seems this guy's career could already be over before its started. I don't know the whole story, he may be in the wrong but it seems he's not been given any chance to try settle this fairly. If we assume this guy is innocent then what could he do?
Email Follows (names have been removed):
Hi — after reading of ****** positive experiences, I thought I'd offer something of my own.
My name is ********* and I'm a grad dip education student. In the course of my ****** studies I was allocated ********* primary as my prac school. I was placed in a yr 7 class.
******* is a suburb adjoining Inala. The school has a high representation of culturally diverse students. The majority of which come family backgrounds characterised by socio-economic hardship.
Upon commencing my placement I was immediately aware how little my 'community of learners' resembled the hypothectical students featured in the rhetoric of QUT middle yrs teaching. A quarter to a third were barely literate- ie; deficient in basic spelling, syntax, tense, vocab, grammar. A similar potion of the class exhibited behaviours which seriously inhibited their own — and other students' capacity to work within the class.
The majority of the syllabus comprised; maths and literacy activity sheets, silent reading, and spontaneous instances of improved 'show and tell'. Usually half to two-thirds of the class would make some effort to comply with their teachers' instruction re this material — I took it as my role to attempt to engage, motivate and disipline those remaining. This understanding on mybehalf seems now to have been the wrong one. For whatever reason — many unacceptable, anti-social behaviours had become a norm within the class. Students who would simply refuse to attempt the work allocated would invariably progress to distracting, bullying and in instances physically-threatening/harming classmates. As an outsider — my attempts to regulate this behaviour were challenged by some students. By my final day of prac some students were flatly ignoring my instruction. This was a loud, high needs class — my teacher did not have the time or capacity to regularly affirm my status as a legitimate authority to the class. I was concerned and stressed about my inability to manage my remedial students — but I regularly consulted my teacher about this — and also informed my academic liason. I was coping.
I was the second of two males within the teaching community at ****** — the other was a yr 5 teacher of middle age. From the outset — it was apparent that some female students within my class were conscious of my status as a 28 yr old male within a school env. comprised almost exclusively of women. Some female students — under the influence of a principal student, appeared to be exhibiting behaviours in my presence which were innapropriate given my status a a teacher within a classroom. It is difficult to articulate this crap — but haughty, flirtacious, body language appeared to be exhibited — when I addressed some of them. My preliminary behaviour management 'strategy' of seeking eye-contact and frowning or shaking my head only appeared to confirm some students' understanding that I had some manner of innappropriate affection for one or more female students. I now reason that this understanding — would have been founded and encouraged by one particular student.
Yesterday I attended my school. The principal of ***** attended my class. I was removed from my class as was this particular student. The principal had this student recount how I apparently touched her innappropriately during the course of a physEd class, touch football game. It was hardely appropriate for me to cross-examine this student. Apparently I touched her 'back'. A peer of this student was similarly asked outside and she recounted how I apparently called her a pet name and touched her on the shoulder. By the afternoon the principal informed me that parents had come forward with complaints — and she thought it best that I conclude my placement at the school.
I have worked intermittantly as a Child Safety Support Officer with the Dept of Child Safety since 2000. The majority of my work invloved contact with children who were victims of serious; physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse. I am ill at the suggestion that I have initiated or intended to have innapropriate physical contact with students.
I contacted my academic liason yesterday afternoon and the Field Studies office this morning — somewhat disconcerted at the supposition/inference that I am a paedophile. I was keen to speak with someone face to face — debrief and convey some of the crap I have experienced in the course of my placement. I was prepared for this prac and went with the best intention to learn what I could in teaching what is a community of disadvanted, high needs students. Like everyone else here I'd decided to allocate a year of my life and commensurate hecs fees towards pursuing a career as a teacher. I was told by the Field Office that I should attend the UNI councilling service today, and email my account of my prac to the field studies office. Apparently a face to face meeting with a rep within the Field Office would serve no useful end. I called the councilling service- they said they couldn't see me sooner then a week today. I showed up anyway as a 'walk-in' client — but I missed out there
. So — I'm in the library now. This is my email. I'm done now. I wish all of you the very best with your prac and remaining studies. *******
Submission + - NFS vs. Samba for backing up a Mac to Linux?
An anonymous reader writes: I want to back up my MacBook Pro to a big hard drive on my Linux server. How should I mount the Linux filesystem on OSX for maximum throughput for the backup? I've been using Samba so far, but it is far slower than it should be on my Gigabit network, using Apples otherwise very nice Backup.app software. Any recommendations for the optimal setup? Are there other choices than NFS and Samba?
