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Red Hat Software

Red Hat Set To Surpass Sun In Market Capitalization 221

Posted by CmdrTaco from the now-that's-a-milestone dept.
mytrip writes "In what may come to be seen as a deeply symbolic moment in the history of operating systems, Red Hat is on the verge of surpassing Sun Microsystems' market capitalization for the first time. Sun, perhaps unfairly, represents a fading Unix market. Red Hat, for its part, represents the rising Linux market. Given enough time for its open-source strategy to play out, Sun's market capitalization will likely recover and outpace Red Hat's."
Businesses

Abused IT Workers Ready To Quit 685

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the thankless-jobs dept.
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that new research is suggesting as many as a quarter of all IT staff in small to medium businesses have suffered some sort of abuse and are looking for careers elsewhere (PDF). "The study also found that over a third have suffered from sleepless nights or headaches as a result of IT problems at work, while 59 percent spend between one and 10 hours a week working on IT systems outside normal hours. ... The biggest cause of stress among IT staff is problems arising from operational day-to-day tasks, the survey found. Another major cause came from loss of critical data, according to Connect."
Government

$30B IT Stimulus Will Create Almost 1 Million Jobs 809

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i'm-sure-they-won't-filter-anything-either dept.
itif writes "This report takes a look at how many jobs you get if you invest $10 billion each in three different IT infrastructure projects — broadband, health IT and the smart grid. It argues that if you are going to be spending billions on a stimulus package, investing in 'digital infrastructure' creates more jobs than physical infrastructure (e.g. roads and bridges) in the short-term, and you get a whole host of other benefits in the long-term."

Comment I have a ton of flash drives... (Score 1) 485

by HaloZero (#26357137) Attached to: How Do You Manage Your SD Card Library?
...and no data on any flash drive is ever permanent. Usually, the first thing I do with one before I start using it for whatever task I've picked it up for is wipe it. There's a folder on my file server of .dmgs - snapshots of 'important' jumpdrive stuff that I'm not confident is being replicated everywhere. But I have convinced myself that ever an SD card, CF card, USB drive, whathaveyou is found, the data onboard is transient.

These cards are not intended as long-term storage, they're portable medium until you can get the data onto something with more iron. If the data is important to you, transfer it to the drobo, or file storage, or CD or something. Just not on the portable media.

It's the same old story: backup, backup, backup.
Microsoft

Microsoft Issues Workaround For Zune Freeze 277

Posted by kdawson from the discharge-before-you-leap dept.
UnknowingFool writes "As a followup to the Zune New Year's Eve meltdown, Microsoft has issued a workaround for what some users have correctly guessed was a bug caused by a leap year. To recover from the problem, let the Zune drain the batteries and restart it after noon on January 1, 2009. Many sites are reporting that Microsoft has 'fixed' the issue, but technically all Microsoft has done is to ask users to wait out the conditions that triggered the bug. Unless a software patch comes out, Zunes will suffer the same problem again in four years." Reader ndtechnologies adds, "According to posts in the Toshiba forum at anythingbutipod.com, the same bug that shut down millions of Zune 30's also affects the Toshiba Gigabeat S. The Zune 30 is based off of the Gigabeat S series and was co-developed by Microsoft with Toshiba."

Comment Big business is slow to respond (Score 4, Insightful) 426

by HaloZero (#26291227) Attached to: Google Tells Users To Drop IE6
I work for a Very Large Company. Unfortunately, this particular company has built quite a bit of business process around Microsoft's tattered and broken products. For starters, the client engineering group requires that you use a build of IE6. Without several security patches. Why? Because a lot of the web portal applications do not run on anything but IE6. Upgrade to IE7? Unsupported. Chances are, the app won't work, or won't display correctly. For most of the apps that have forms, upgrading to IE7 means you'll never see the 'Submit' button, either because it's not there, or was rendered off of the page (and there's no horizontal scroll). Worse, most of these rely on stupid IE6 javascript tricks that don't quite work right in Firefox or Chrome or Safari. Firefox is semi-usable for most things, though you will eventually hit a page that just won't "Work". Unfortuantely, this corps makes up a not-insignificant chunk of the population. It's groups like that that would need to take care of in-house breakware before an adoption of Firefox or Chrome can be taken seriously.
Classic Games (Games)

Resurrecting Old Games, What Works? 381

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the waiting-for-a-daikatana-sequel dept.
There has definitely been a resurgence of old games being made new again through various methods. Unfortunately, any time you reinvent an old classic you risk either alienating the original audience or not making it appealing enough for the a new audience. "Capcom has been at the forefront of the recent remake boom, re-imagining a number of their classic titles as downloadable games. Bionic Commando, for example, was given a high-definition 2.5D makeover, and a rockin' remixed soundtrack with Bionic Commando: Rearmed. Capcom also re-released a new version of Street Fighter II on the way, with the lengthy new title Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Interestingly, both games are coming out near new entries in their respective franchises: Street Fighter IV and Bionic Commando. But the question remains, how do you decided what games will still appeal to the current gaming audience? " What games can be counted amongst the success stories, and which can be chalked up as utter failures?

Comment By Publisher / Interest (Score 1) 423

by HaloZero (#26090533) Attached to: My top-level book organization is based on ...
Books get sorted/shelved according to the following flow: OReilly? Cisco Press? Microsoft Press? Like publisher Assorted The OReilly books are then broken down by spine color and sorted into disciplines; programming, security, administration, networking; Cisco press books are broken down by certification and then utility; CCNA, CCDA, CCNP, CCDP, Routing, Switching, Security/ASA, Voice, Design, Wireless. I lied, I don't have a single Microsoft Press book on my shelf. I do have a couple of the jumpstarts for things like MCSA, but.. I think they're unmolested.
Patents

McDonalds Files To Patent Making a Sandwich 346

Posted by kdawson from the mayo-gets-its-own-claim dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "McDonalds has applied for patent WO2006068865, which carries the title 'METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING A SANDWICH.' John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, can eat his heart out (unless that's been patented, too). Undoubtedly, some people are contemplating whether there's anything novel in this patent that is somehow obscured by its generic title. Feel free to examine their flowchart for yourself and see exactly how novel their sandwich 'subroutines' are. The good news is that, given that it only mentions generic sandwich making 'tool(s),' rather than any specific machine, it might not survive after the In Re Bilski decision, which was meant to put a stop to absurdities such as this. But until McDonalds's application is rejected or invalidated, make sure you don't use their flowchart when making sandwiches. After all, if you 'apply appropriate condiments to appropriate compartment,' you might infringe upon their IP."
Robotics

Honda Assists With "Next Steps" For Mankind 57

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the hurry-up-with-my-power-armor-already dept.
hedonisticaltruism writes "The CBC reports that Honda has just unveiled a new walking-assist device that enhances the walking motion rather than just providing transportation. The device braces and strengthens natural leg movements primarily in walking and crouching. They're looking to market this to rehabilitation cases, the handicapped and industries requiring repetitive crouching and walking movements such as factory work and delivery services."
Biotech

First Whole Cancer Genome Sequenced 115

Posted by timothy from the gee-gnome-sounds-like-a-good-open-source-project dept.
dooling writes "A paper detailing the sequencing of the first human cancer genome will be published in the 6 November 2008 issue of Nature. This is not only the first cancer genome published, it is the first female genome as well. You can read the paper's abstract, DNA sequencing of a cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukaemia genome, or the story in Science News. This issue of Nature also has articles on the sequencing of the first African and Asian genomes. The sequencing in all three articles was done using the Illumina Genome Analyzer, one of the massively parallel, next-generation genome sequencing platforms."

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