twicepending - Slashdot User

Submission + - Microsoft Demands Patent for Saying 'Goodbye' 7

Submitted by

theodp

on Thursday November 01, 2007 @05:16AM

theodp writes: "Demonstrating its commitment to high-quality U.S. patents, Microsoft has submitted a just-published patent application to the USPTO for Automatic Goodbye Messages. By automatically sending messages like 'Have a great afternoon!', 'Sorry, I have got to go!', 'Have a terrific day!', 'Ciao, Harry!', or even a simple 'Bye!' at the end of an IM session, Microsoft explains, one avoids insulting a converser with whom a conversation is ended. Hopefully the USPTO will give this one the quick buh-bye it deserves."

Submission + - Vista not as ready for modern desktop as Linux? 1

Submitted by

Pr0xY

on Wednesday October 31, 2007 @11:06PM

Pr0xY writes: "Recently I purchased my new "gaming rig." So I decided to just go for and loaded up a new Dell XPS 720 with the works. Among other things, I got 4GB of RAM. To my (and many others according to google) surprise, x86 Vista only reports 3 and change GB of RAM.
I do some systems programming, so I had a clue as to what was going on, my first reaction was "PAE must not be enabled." Here's what's going on. With traditional paging, there is 4GB of physical address space available to a 32-bit x86 processor. This includes memory mapped devices, for example, your shiny new video card with 768 Megs of RAM takes up that much space of physical RAM your system can use. The solution is to use either PAE or PSE36, both provide up to 64GB of physical memory to a 32-bit x86 system. The limit of what you can map into memory at a time is still 4GB, but this allows motherboards to relocate the RAM that got displaced by hardware above the 4GB and still be usable.
However, it turns out that first of all, Vista automatically enables PAE if you want DEP since it is necessary for the NX bit. And in addition to that, Microsoft deliberately doesn't use RAM above the 4GB mark even with PAE for "compatibility reasons." The main issue being that DMA can't touch RAM higher than 4GB on x86. Microsoft could have easily had a special pool for this "high memory" in order to make some use of it when you know it's safe. This isn't impractical as the server editions of Windows are in fact able to use upwards of 4GB on 32-bit systems as well.
Linux has no issue using all 4GB of my RAM once I build my kernel with PAE support. Microsoft also claims that they support 4GB of RAM in their documentation. All in all, I find this whole thing to be a bit deceptive on Microsoft's part. Microsoft's solution: "Get Vista x86-64""

Submission + - Fossil of New Whale Specis Rescued by Amateurs (theworldlink.com)

Submitted by

Kreigh

on Wednesday October 31, 2007 @10:44PM

Kreigh writes: "A team of amateur fossil hunters and rockhounds discovered a fossil whale in the tidal zone of Coos Bay, OR. Preliminary study indicates a new genus and species of whale in this probably eight million year old fossil. They rescued the eight foot long fossil from the rock in the Bay and plan on preparing it for exhibit at a Museum. You can find additional pictures here if you scroll down the page to the 'NARG Fossil Point Whale Skull Search & Rescue' link."

Submission + - BBC tech head: "BBC not in bed with Bill Gates (tech.co.uk) 1

Submitted by whoever57 on Wednesday October 31, 2007 @05:36PM

whoever57 writes: According to the BBC's head of technology, there are only a small number of Linux visitors to the BBC's website and this is the reason that the BBC's iPlayer only supports Windows XP Why he expects a large number of Linux based visitors to his site when the media downloads are Windows XP only is not clear. He also thinks that "Launching a software service to every platform simultaneously would have been launch suicide", despite the example of many major sites that support Linux (even if this is through the closed source flash player). How the small number of Linux visitors could cause "suicide" is not explained. Most software processes envisage launching to a select group first, then working out the bugs, then making it available to the largest group.

Submission + - Viacom Wants Industry Wide Copyright Filter (pcworld.com)

Submitted by slashqwerty on Sunday October 21, 2007 @01:30AM

slashqwerty writes: Unsatisfied with the proprietary copyright filter Google recently unveiled, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman has called for an industry standard to filter copyrighted material. Mr. Dauman has the backing of Microsoft, Disney, and Universal. "They reflect the fact that there ought to be a filtering system in place on the part of technology companies," he noted. "Most responsible companies have followed that path. What no one wants is a proprietary system that benefits one company. It is a big drain to a company like ours to have to deal with incompatible systems." How would an industry standard impact freedom of speech and in particular censorship on the internet? How would it affect small, independent web sites?

Slashdot 10-Year Anniversary Charity Auction for the EFF 327

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 15, 2007 @01:02PM from the time-for-fall-cleaning dept.

As part of our 10-Year anniversary, we've decided to have a little charity auction, with the cash going to the EFF. The items currently up for bidding are 'Triton' (the big old tower case from the first x86 used to host Slashdot from Feb 11 1998 through much of 1999... picture is attached to the story if you're curious). A low numbered UID (3 or maybe 2 digits!) so you can win those stupid low UID pissing match threads. Your URL plugged in the story where we announce the auction winners. Oh the fame! The Slashdot Grab Bag: We're putting stuff around the office in a box- random t-shirts, hats, even an old Nokia NGage. The mystery box could contain anything that we stuff in the box before the contest ends... there's a picture of what we have so far attached. A copy of the watchmen trade paperback singed in Hemos's 1999 house fire. An @slashdot.org email alias (tasteful names only ;) The auctions will be running for like 10 days, and we'll post the results when they come up.

Submission + - Canadian penny to cost Toronto $47,680 4

Submitted by owlgorithm on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @12:31AM

owlgorithm writes: The Royal Canadian Mint is demanding the city of Toronto pay $47,680 for using a picture of a Canadian penny in campaign advertisements for setting aside money for municipalities. The mint is also seeking compensation for the city's use of the phrase "one cent" in the campaign.

Submission + - HP Linux credit on new Compaq laptop

Submitted by OTDR on Thursday October 04, 2007 @08:07PM

OTDR writes: Looking for a first laptop for my son, the HP/Compaq V6500Z caught my attention for its combination of features and price. Unfortunately when I went through the online custom configuration process on HP's Online Store there were no options to select any OS other than Vista. I'd already decided to use Fedora 7, KDE, & Open Office and wished not to have to purchase two pieces of software I didn't want and would never use (Vista & MS Works). Unfortunately, that was the only way to complete the purchase, it was late, I was tired, so I just went ahead and did it.

The laptop arrived today and as I unpacked it I thought more and more of the waste — so I called the support number on the card packed in the box before I broke any of the inner packing seals. I explained to the first rep very politely I was inquiring about possible options for returning the OS for refund or credit as (a) I never wanted to buy it and (b) had no need or plan to use it. Rep One transferred me to Rep Two in pre-sales support to whom I made the same polite request. Rep Two apologized about being unable to help being in pre-sales but transferred me to Rep Three. I explained again to Rep Three that, as I had no need or intended use for Vista a refund, or at least a credit of some sort usable at the HP Online Store, seemed reasonable to ask for. I was pleasantly surprised when asked, "What were you interested in purchasing with your credit?" In the end, within less than 10 minutes we politely negotiated a $70 credit (fair enough) which I used to pick up an 80GB pocket drive. The rep was even kind enough to point out that if we added a $19 memory stick I'd qualify for free shipping and save $11 (so I got a memstick for $8 to boot).

Now here's the catch — Rep Three did explain that installation of any operating system other than the pre-configured Vista would void the 1-yr warranty on the computer, a gamble I said I would take. I've seen this discussed before on Slashdot but really don't fault HP. Wacked-out power & thermal management can wreak havoc on hardware. So long as I get through first boot I think I'll be OK. I didn't have high expectations (or any really) of having any recourse getting rid of Vista but the HP reps were pleasant to deal with and the entire process took less than 15 minutes. In the end, I spent $38 dollars (after tax) but got a fair shake on a couple of useful items, which was better than paying for something I'd never use. Kudos to HP and I hope it's not overly optimistic to see this as perhaps the leading edge of greater acceptance of the non-MS community.

Submission + - Demonoid Back Up!

Submitted by

File Follower

on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:03AM

File Follower writes: "So as of 11:59 MST (Mountain Standard Time) 10:59 PST, Sunday September 30, Demonoid Trackers are back up, and website http://www.demonoid.com/ posts a message as follows, Looks like the Canadian Recording Industry didn't take them down, or if they did, Demonoid is keeping it quiet
"The latest changes to the site are giving us some problems — We'll be back soon""

Submission + - Novell shakes hands with Microsoft to club Red Hat (groklaw.net)

Submitted by

mjasay

on Monday October 01, 2007 @12:17AM

mjasay writes: "Groklaw is reporting on a conference that Novell recently published wherein it admits that its primary purpose in partnering with Microsoft is not to advance Linux, but rather to bludgeon Red Hat. Novell's Justin Steinman admitted that Novell markets SUSE Linux Enterprise Server against Red Hat by asking, "Do you want the Linux that works with Windows? Or the one that doesn't?" Not only is such interoperability language false (Ubuntu interoperates with Windows as well as SUSE does, for example), but it also pits Novell against the open-source development community. Novell is benefiting from code that it has made virtually untouchable for the developers who wrote it in the first place (because of patent claims by Microsoft, which Novell supports). Is Novell a friend of open source or its worst enemy?"

The World's Languages Are Fast Becoming Extinct 939

Posted by kdawson on Monday October 01, 2007 @12:06AM from the culture-drain dept.

Ant sends news of a report, released a couple of weeks back by the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages in Oregon, on the alarming rate of extinction of the world's languages. While half of all languages have gone extinct in the last 500 years, the half-life is dropping: half of the 7,000 languages spoken today won't exist by the year 2100. The NY Times adds this perspective: "83 languages with 'global' influence are spoken and written by 80 percent of the world population. Most of the others face extinction at a rate, the researchers said, that exceeds that of birds, mammals, fish and plants."

Submission + - Lobbyists brainwash bureaucrats for REAL ID (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

Christopher Blanc

on Tuesday September 25, 2007 @11:40AM

Christopher Blanc writes: "State bureaucrats have converged in Washington DC for a two-day conference on REAL ID compliance. It's a panel discussion called "Bringing your public onboard for smoothing legislative changes." The summary states that "every State DMV needs to find a way to educate their public so that they can ensure the legislature changes necessary to become Real ID compliant." The panel will also "examine how much of your (i.e., the DMV's) budget a public relations exercise is worth." Such a "public relations exercise" would presumably be conducted at taxpayer expense. The conference is sponsored by Digimarc, Viisage, NXP, and JPMorganChase, all of whom sell the sort of high-tech identification equipment that states will need to comply with the REAL ID Act. In effect, the conference provides a forum for vendors to lobby state bureaucrats to support REAL ID implementation and to encourage them to go back to their states and lobby their legislators for "necessary" legislative changes. And presumably, most of the bureaucrats are attending the conference at the expense of their state's taxpayers.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070924-state-bureaucrats-trained-to-lobby-for-real-id.html"

CMU Professor Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture' 93

Posted by CmdrTaco on Friday September 21, 2007 @12:15PM from the worth-your-time dept.

This is a bit of an unusual story for Slashdot- it's the "Last Lecture" of a professor at CMU who is terminally ill. His early research in VR has benefited everyone and even if you have never heard of Randy Pausch I think this is worth your time. It's a 2 hour long wmv filled with insight, laughs and wisdom from a man who has really done some amazing work. I've been watching it all morning and I think it would really be worth your time if you can spare it to listen to what he has to say. From virtual reality to education to stuffed animals and childhood dreams, there's a lot here worth your time. Thanks drew for the link. Update: 09/21 15:44 GMT by Z : The link is already a little shakey, so you might want to turn to this cut up YouTube version of the talk instead.

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