darkjedi521 - Slashdot User

Submission + - when Macs break

Submitted by

cyber-dragon.net

on Monday March 05, 2007 @09:38PM

cyber-dragon.net writes: "I have long been a staunch supporter of Apple and Macs, bordering on but not quite a fan boy. My recent experience with trying to bring them into my department at work has been dissapointing. We had a Mac Pro (the big quad processor monster) die after four days. Ok, it happens, everything else has worked flawlessly. I even delt with the inevitable teasing about the siny new Mac being a lemon.
Well after almost four hours dealing with Apple Care, three hours dropping off and picking up my computer at different stores as per thier instructions trying to get this done quickly... I am beginning to wonder if Apple really wants business customers to rely on these machines. Much as I may dislike Dell like the rest of you... when my Linux box died it was fixed in four hours and I spent maybe 20 mintes of my time setting up the repair. I have spent seven hours of my time so far on this Mac and it still will not power up. Is this just me or have other people lost critical business machines to the depths of Apple Care inefficiency and lack of business level support?"

Submission + - Whatever happened to superconductors?

Submitted by

AltGrendel

on Monday March 05, 2007 @04:25PM

AltGrendel writes: "Jonathan Fildes of the BBC wrote that 'In 1987, Ronald Reagan declared that the US was about to enter an incredible new era of technology. Levitating high-speed trains, super-efficient power generators and ultra-powerful supercomputers would become commonplace thanks to a new breed of materials known as high temperature superconductors (HTSC). "The breakthroughs in superconductivity bring us to the threshold of a new age," said the president. "It's our task to herald in that new age with a rush."

But 20 years on, the new world does not seem to have arrived. So what happened?'

He shares what he found in this article."

Microsoft Sells Linux To Wal-Mart 245

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday January 23, 2007 @06:54PM from the devil-you-know dept.

Several readers wrote in to let us know that Wal-Mart is planning to buy SUSE Linux vouchers from Microsoft in the course of building out its infrastructure. These are the support vouchers that Microsoft must distribute to hold up its end of the bargain with Novell. Wal-Mart has been a customer of Red Hat Linux. CBR Online notes that the deal is not entirely unexpected because Microsoft's COO, Kevin Turner, is the former CIO of Wal-Mart.

Submission + - Lost Moon landing tapes discovered

Submitted by de_smudger on Monday January 15, 2007 @10:20AM

de_smudger writes: For years 'lost' tapes recording data from the Apollo 11 Moon landing have been stored underneath the seats of Australian physics students. A recent search has uncovered them.

Recorded on telemetry tapes, they are said to be the best quality images of the landing (unconverted slow scan TV) yet to be seen by a public still fascinated by the early space race. These tapes were mislaid in the early 1980s on their way to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Submission + - KDE on Windows

Submitted by

AlanS2002

on Monday January 15, 2007 @03:05AM

AlanS2002 writes: "This week's KDE Commit Digest tells about an installer for KDE on Windows and the problems the developers encountered setting up a working environment for KDE to run on. Many screenshots included, showing the first applications (such as Konqueror) running natively."

Submission + - Forced hardware retirement

Submitted by

AlonzoTG

on Monday January 15, 2007 @12:47AM

AlonzoTG writes: "I have been informed that I must upgrade my motherboard to a newer and more common type in order to maintain linux compatibility. In my enthuseasm to buy a SMP machine in 2003 I overlooked the fact that my Tyan Tiger MPX (S2466) wasnt very popular as a workstation and would develop serious compatibility issues only four years in to its fifteen year useful life span. Fedora Core cannot be installed on the machine, nor can my existing installation support OpenGL graphics without crashing. (an issue with the GART chip which the kernel still claims to support — it stopped working about eight months ago). If I were to accept this loss, which workstation class boards can I choose which will remain operable under Linux for the entirety of their useful lifespan? Is it possible to obtain a guarentee with respect to a specific board that it will continue to be supported?"

Submission + - FreeBSD 6.2 released

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14, 2007 @04:25PM

An anonymous reader writes: FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE has now been made available. It is around 2 months behind schedule, but the ISO images of the CD's are now available at ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD.

Vim 7 Released 665

Posted by Hemos on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:58PM from the time-to-get-your-upgrade-on dept.

houseofmore writes "After many years of development, Bram Moolenaar, creator of Vim, today announced version 7 of the widely used editor. New features included spell checking in up to 50 languages, intelligent completion, tab pages, extended undo branches and much more. Downloads available here for Unix, Windows, Mac and more."

World's First Completely Transparent IC 225

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday March 20, 2006 @09:11PM from the other-researchers-will-see-right-through-this dept.

An anonymous reader writes "DeviceForge is reporting that researchers at Oregon State University claim to have created the worlds first 'completely transparent' ICs (integrated circuit) from inorganic compounds. From the article: 'The technology can enable extremely inexpensive electronics for use in "throw away" devices, and is expected to be used in automobile windshields, cell phones, TVs, games, and toys, among other applications, OSU said. OSU also believes that the technology might result in more efficient solar cells or improvements and LCD displays (liquid crystal displays), it said.'"

Playing The Escape 154

Posted by Zonk on Saturday March 18, 2006 @09:09PM from the cue-howard-shore-music dept.

erich666 writes "Wired reports on 'La Fuga' (The Escape), a real-world game. You overcome physical and mental challenges to escape a prison. Not just any live-action role playing game, this one is run in a $20 million facility in Madrid. A networked PDA and RFID tag keep you in touch while you play. The company is now building a 30,000-square-foot game center at 49th and Broadway in New York City." From the article: "The screen goes static and then switches to a view of a sweaty prisoner with a 5 o'clock shadow who tells me that I can liberate myself and all the other drones stuck in the prison. Those who have escaped before me will contact me to assist in my quest. The door opens, and I enter a sort of closet before another door opens to reveal a metal air duct. I try to step in, but I slip, fall hard on my ass, and slide down the chute into a room containing a baggage carousel surrounded by screens."

Slashdot Top Deals