Comment Re:A Day in the Life of Debbie G1bs0n (Score 2, Funny) 158
Indeed. I sort of actually started paying attention when I caught, "The ninja was flanked by a pair of Nazi frogmen...."
Comment Serious question, then: (Score 3, Interesting) 746
When people say they like Windows, what are they actually comparing against?
Yes, Linux is gaining some amount of traction with the techno-hipster crowd, but that's still a relatively small slice of the sum total of all computer users across history capable of forming opinions. There are people that have walked into an Apple store and played with one of the locked away, overheating iMacs with mushy keyboards and single-button mice for a few minutes without getting a feel for how the system is actually used. Students that used old Unix shell accounts and IT guys that work overtime fighting the server over a serial terminal with sh. People that remember DOS or their old SGI Irix workstations. People bitten badly by the BeOS and OS/2 generation and people that spend their days working with the arcana of the AS/400 and its legacy.
And then, there are people that have never done any of this and have no perspective by which to judge in the first place.
I suspect that a great many of people that are purpourted to "like" Windows fall into this latter category. (I suspect also that a lot of people will consider commenting at this point with a, "Well, I..."-type response before realizing that, as readers of slashdot, they are not even remotely to whom I refer
There are undoubtedly people that like Windows more than any other platform for various reasons ("Games" seems the most-often cited, to be sure), but that crucial set of statistics that outline how many have ever heard of, seen, or used another platform with any amount of rigour is sadly not accounted for in any of what I have seen. Until that point, we can only look at it with mass generalizations: there are likewise a lot of people that commonly use Linux or MacOS on their desktops and laptops and a lot that say they would switch from Windows to something else were it not for some piece of third-party software (engineers give me this often. A lot of the high-powered CAD stuff is shockingly platform restricted and doesn't run in Wine at all).
Comment Re:Hmmm... (Score 1) 277
I know two...well, one bisexual and one lesbian. Though since those are my love and myself respectively and we're like fanatically monogamous, it's not going anywhere. Seirously though, there have got to be more of us out there; just keep looking! Go to the local LGBTA or something, I know there's more of us.
Comment Obligatory South Park Reference... (Score 1) 81
"Have you ever heard of the Doctrine of First Sale?!"
"Err, I don't listen to hip-hop."
Meh, I've never been much of a gamer ayway, especially not in the past 10 years. But the best old games will never die *hugs her SNES and Lufia cartridges*
Comment Re:What Has Changed? (Score 0, Redundant) 900
I, too, fail to see how GGP is flamebait: In truth, I'd say it's a fair approximation of the interaction between two incredibly and inexplicably memory-hungry applications.
I would also like to mention the AC that is my GP is not somehow "insightful" for being a bog-standard troll calling someone names on the internet.
SP1 Unsuccessful in Preventing Vista Hacks 214
"The other A. N. Other" writes "It seems that Microsoft has been unsuccessful with SP1 in preventing hackers from turning a pirated, non-genuine copy of Vista into genuine copies that pass activation. The article initially looked at two of the most popular hacks (OEM BIOS hack and the grace timer hack) but after a little digging ZDNet were able to transform a non-genuine install into a genuine one. 'After a few minutes of searching the darker corners of the Internet and a few seconds in the Command Prompt I was able to fool Windows into thinking that it was genuine.'"
Linux Kernel 2.6 Local Root Exploit 586
aquatix writes "This local root exploit (Debian, Ubuntu) seems to work everywhere I try it, as long as it's a Linux kernel version 2.6.17 to 2.6.24.1. If you don't trust your users (which you shouldn't), better compile a new kernel without vmsplice." Here is millw0rm's proof-of-concept code.
Birds Give a Lesson to Plane Designers 250
Roland Piquepaille points out a news release from the University of Michigan where researchers are looking to birds and bats for insights into aerospace engineering. Wei Shyy and his colleagues are learning from solutions developed by nature and applying them to the technology of flight. A presentation on this topic was also given at the 2005 TED conference. From the news release:
"The roll rate of the aerobatic A-4 Skyhawk plane is about 720 degrees per second. The roll rate of a barn swallow exceeds 5,000 degrees per second. Select military aircraft can withstand gravitational forces of 8-10 G. Many birds routinely experience positive G-forces greater than 10 G and up to 14 G. Flapping flight is inherently unsteady, but that's why it works so well. Birds, bats and insects fly in a messy environment full of gusts traveling at speeds similar to their own. Yet they can react almost instantaneously and adapt with their flexible wings."
Ron Paul Campaign Answers Slashdot Reader Questions 1011
On January 15th we asked you for tech-oriented questions we could send to the various presidential candidates, and you responded like mad. The candidates were the exact opposite: not a single one answered emails we sent to their "media inquiry" links or email addresses. Slashdot has more readers than all but a handful of major daily papers, so that's kind of strange. Maybe they figure our votes aren't worth much or that hardly any of us vote. In any case, the Ron Paul campaign finally responded, due to some string-pulling by a Slashdot reader who knows some of Ron Paul's Texas campaign people. Perhaps other Slashdot readers -- like you (hint hint) -- can pull a few strings with some of the other campaigns and get them to communicate with us. Use this email address, please. But first, you'll probably want to read the Ron Paul campaign's answers to your questions (below).
The Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition Preview Books 378
It's a big year for tabletop gamers. In just a few months the first books for the Fourth Edition of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) will be released by publisher Wizards of the Coast (WotC). The last major update to the game rules was released in 1999, and sparked interest in D&D not seen since the early 80s. To attempt to answer some of the biggest questions about this newest edition, WotC has learned from mistakes made in 99', and is previewing their game updates with a pair of softcover books. Called "Races and Classes" and "Worlds and Monsters", the two titles cover everything from character creation to the new default world's pantheon. More importantly, it includes a large amount of commentary from the designers about why things are going to be as they are. In short: they're must-haves for hardcore D&D fans. Read on for my impressions of these highly entertaining (and vastly overpriced) chapbooks.
Python 3.0 To Be Backwards Incompatible 438
Stony Stevenson writes "Organizations using Python will be affected in a major way by changes in store for the language over the course of the next twelve months, Linux.conf.au attendees were told this morning. The Python development community is working towards a new, backwards-incompatible version of the language, version 3.0, which is slated for release in early 2009. Anthony Baxter, the release manager for Python and a senior software engineer at Google Australia, said "We are going to break pretty much all the code. Pretty much every program will need changes." Baxter also added another tidbit for attendees, saying that Python accounts for around 15 percent of Google's code base."
Time for a Vista Do-Over? 746
DigitalDame2 writes "'There's nothing wrong with Vista,' PC Mag editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff tells a Microsoft rep at this year's CES. 'But you guys have a big problem on your hands. Perception is reality, and the perception is that Vista is a dud.' He goes on to confess that the operating system is too complex and burdened by things people don't need. Plus, Vista sometimes seems so slow. Ulanoff gives four suggestions for a complete Vista makeover, like starting with new code and creating a universal interface table. But will Microsoft really listen?"
Engineers Have a Terrorist Mindset? 837
An anonymous reader writes "Do engineers have a way of looking at the world not all that different from terrorists? According to an article in the EE Times, they do. The story cites 'Engineers of Jihad,' a paper (pdf download) by two Oxford University sociologists, who found that graduates in science, engineering, and medicine are strongly overrepresented among Islamist movements. The paper also found that engineers are 'over-represented' among graduates who gravitate to violent groups. Authors Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog chalk this all up to what they call the 'engineering mindset,' which they define as 'a mindset that inclines them to take more extreme conservative and religious positions.' Is this just pop psychology masquerading as science?"
Internet Group Declares War on Scientology 891
Darkman, Walkin Dude writes "An internet group calling itself Anonymous has declared war on the Church of Scientology, in the form of an ominous posting to the YouTube site. 'In the statement, the group explained their goal as safeguarding the right to freedom of speech. "A spokesperson said that the group's goals include bringing an end to the financial exploitation of Church members and protecting the right to free speech, a right which they claim was consistently violated by the Church of Scientology in pursuit of its opponents." The press release also claimed that the Church of Scientology misused copyright and trademark law in order to remove criticism from websites including Digg and YouTube. The statement goes on to assert that the attacks from the group "will continue until the Church of Scientology reacts, at which point they will change strategy".' It should be noted that Slashdot users have had interactions with Scientology in the past as well."
Yahoo Patents 'Smart' Drag and Drop 128
Unequivocal writes "According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Yahoo has filed a patent for 'smart' drag and drop. From the article: 'A computer-implemented method for manipulating objects in a user interface, comprising: providing the user interface including a first interface object operable to be selected and moved within the user interface; and in response to selection and movement of the first interface object in the user interface, presenting at least one additional interface object in the user interface in proximity of the first interface object, each additional interface object representing a drop target with which the first interface object may be associated.' How do these patent claims differ from normal drag and drop? In pretty trivial ways if at all, but it may be hard for a patent examiner to understand that trivial changes in drag and drop user interface are not in fact novel enough to warrant a patent. If Yahoo gets this patent, they'll have a mighty big stick to shake at competitors."
