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Software

Submission + - Any creative uses for an extra hard drive?

Submitted by
GM_Kombucha
GM_Kombucha writes: "I just moved my music collection off of two internal hard drives, a 20 gig and a 60 gig, onto my much larger external drive. And now I have two utterly empty internals just itching for some action, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get their motor spinning, if you know what I mean. My first thought was to dual-boot a Linux distro or two (with my current XP setup) but I've had some rather negative experiences on that end, what with my Wacom tablet and my ZyXEL card and my Radeon 9000. So I think I want to go a different route this time, but really, I don't know where to turn. Anyone have any creative, nerdy, semi-pointless uses for these babies? I can't run OS X... but I'm up for just about anything. Thanks!"
The Media

Submission + - Reiser's wife's ex-boyfriend is mass murderer

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Wired.com has an interesting scoop in the Hans Reiser case. Reiser's disappeared wife, the one Hans is charged with murdering, had a boyfriend after she split with Hans. This boyfriend, Sean Sturgeon, has admitted to killing eight people. But he denies killing Nina. The case keeps getting weirder and weirder. But this is good news for Hans. The story is at http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/05/rei ser
Linux Business

Submission + - OpenOffice + Linux = Crap

Submitted by ramboando
ramboando writes: Open Kernel Labs founder Professor Gernot Heiser had some blunt words for the OpenOffice community — the product isn't ready to compete with the big boys. In this story, he says: "If you want to be successful in open source it can't just be a 'me too' product. Anything that's not the best technology will not work ... enterprise is willing to pay for the best. OpenOffice is not the best ... it's the first thing that made me move from Linux to Mac," Heiser said. "Open source is creating the most pure Darwinist environment possible. It's brutal survival of the fittest," he said, surprising the crowd at CeBIT's Open Source Business session today. "Only the best software will be able to survive. Regardless of how free it is, enterprise will not use it unless it is better," Heiser added. Sun's Simon Phipps basically said he was talking crap.
Windows

Submission + - Windows Uptime Maximum 3 Months

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ever see the Windows vs Linux uptime graphs? I think NetCraft has some really good ones comparing Apache and IIS web-servers. Well they're the most inaccurate measurement of uptime available to mankind and should be completely ignored when comparing uptime propensity of a particular operation system. The reason? Microsoft forces you to reboot your server after applying security updates. So if we say Microsoft releases a critical update 4 times a year, we can conclude that the average uptime of a Microsoft server is 3 months. Pretty quick and easy math. No graphs needed here. What do you think should be a proper measurement of uptime? Is Microsoft guilty of falsely advertising their products as reliable? Could that be grounds for misrepresentation?
Movies

'Kryptonite' Discovered in Serbian Mine 272

Posted by Zonk from the okay-now-nobody-find-the-red-kryptonite-and-we're-fine dept.
Rubinstien writes "A mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum was contracted to help identify an unknown mineral found in a Serbian mine. While he initially thought the miners had discovered a unique compound, after its crystal structure was analyzed and identified the researcher was shocked to find the material already referenced in literature. Fictional literature. Dr. Chris Stanley, from the BBC article: 'Towards the end of my research I searched the web using the mineral's chemical formula — sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide — and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luthor from a museum in the film Superman Returns ... I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either — although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange.'"
KDE

Submission + - Dolphin all set to be included in KDE4

Submitted by
b1ufox
b1ufox writes: "ArsTechnica carries an article on Dolphin, the new file manager which will debut with much awaited KDE4.The screenshot definitely looks promising.As dolphin will be the default file manager for KDE4, it certainly does not mean Konqueror has been displace.Knoqueror is still one of the most advanced file managers out there, among the FOSS community. More at http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070405-afir st-look-at-dolphin-the-kde-4-file-manager.html"
It's funny. Laugh.

Dresses Made from Wine 119

Posted by samzenpus from the julianne-whiskey-pants dept.
Horar writes "Australian researchers have combined art and science to make dresses from fermented fabric, using bacteria to 'grow' slimy dresses from wine and beer."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft kills off J# language

Submitted by
twofish
twofish writes: "Microsoft have announced that J#, its Java clone for .NET, and the Java Language Conversion Assistant will be discontinued and will not appear in the next version of Visual Studio. At the same time they have announced pans for a 64-bit version of the J# Redistributable this year."
Databases

Microsoft Plays Up Open Source 224

Posted by kdawson from the coopetition dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Recently Microsoft's open source software lab posted PostgreSQL on Windows: A Primer. Postgres is one of the longest running open source databases — it has been around for nearly 11 years. The powerful object-relational database is a direct competitor to other OSS databases, as well as Microsoft's SQL Server 2005. So why is Microsoft promoting it? I get Redmond's interest in boosting anything that runs on Windows as a platform. Is this simply a case of left-hand, right-hand, or is something deeper going on?"
Space

Submission + - MacGuyver In Space: Duct Tape and Tranqs

Submitted by
WED Fan
WED Fan writes: "NASA's contingency plan for unstable astronauts includes duct tape and tranquelizers.

What would happen if an astronaut came unglued in space and, say, destroyed the ship's oxygen system or tried to open the hatch and kill everyone aboard?


That was the question on some minds after the apparent breakdown of Lisa Nowak, arrested in Orlando this month on charges she tried to kidnap and kill a woman she regarded as her rival for another astronaut's affections.


But what if astronaut Homer, eating chips-on-the-fly lets loose a bunch of ants and...?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows ME is an Apple OS?

Submitted by
Dmpstrdvr
Dmpstrdvr writes: "We have all heard that Microsoft has terminated support for Windows ME/98 etc. I still have several Windows ME machines that dual boot with Linux. Some applications only supply Windows client software.. but, still support Win ME. Today, I ran "Windows Update" on one of the Win ME machines, and got the following message: "Thank you for your interest in obtaining updates from our site. This website is designed to work with Microsoft Windows operating systems only. To find updates for Microsoft products that are designed for Macintosh operating systems, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/mac/. " link to the page here: http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/thank s.aspx?ln=en-us&thankspage=2& I repeated the "Windows Update" with another machine — same result! It appears that they are trying to "distance" themselves from Win ME!"

Windows Chief Suggests Vista Won't Need Antivirus 361

Posted by CowboyNeal from the steadfastly-bulletproof dept.
LadyDarth writes "During a telephone conference with reporters yesterday, outgoing Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin, while touting the new security features of Windows Vista, which was released to manufacturing yesterday, told a reporter that the system's new lockdown features are so capable and thorough that he was comfortable with his own seven-year-old son using Vista without antivirus software installed."

Unplugging Your Backups 71

Posted by CowboyNeal from the long-range-storage dept.
Lucas123 writes "Computerworld has an article about how consumers, home offices and company branch offices can use microwave, free space optics, WiMax, and a new Wireless USB protocol to backup and access data over short and long distances. The story says that wireless USB can be used to transmit data from one to 10 feet from a PC or laptop at up to 480Mbps, while microwave and WiMax can be used to transmit data securely over miles. Steinbach Credit Union Inc., in Canada, has been using microwave and an IP network for years to backup data to a disaster recovery site 32 miles away, the story states."

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