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Woman Claims Ubuntu Kept Her From Online Classes 1654

Posted by samzenpus from the learning-is-hard dept.
stonedcat writes "A Wisconsin woman has claimed that Dell computers and Ubuntu have kept her from going back to school via online classes. She says she has called Dell to request Windows instead however was talked out of it. Her current claim is that she was unaware that she couldn't install her Verizon online disk to access the Internet, nor could she use Microsoft Word to type up her papers."
Government

Linux As a Model For a New Government? 509

Posted by Soulskill from the i'm-X,-and-i-release-this-message-under-the-GPL dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The hedge fund investor who prided himself on achieving 1000% returns, Andrew Lahde, wrote a goodbye letter to mark his departure from the financial world. In it, he suggests people think about building a new government model, and his suggestion is to have someone like George Soros fund a new government that brings together the best and brightest minds in a manner where they're not tempted by bribery. In doing so, he refers to how Linux grows and competes with Microsoft. An open source government. How would such a system work, and could it succeed? How long before it became corrupt? Would it need a benevolent dictator (Linus vs. Soros)?"
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Another year, same old vapor (wired.com)

Submitted by Braedley
Braedley writes: Wired has their annual vaporware list up, and everyones favorite non-game has been crowned once again. "Another December, another list, another crowning achievement by the Emperor of the Ethereal, the Head Honcho of Hype, Duke Nukem Forever. We were going to disqualify him out of pity, but Sir Duke is back for 2007 thanks to a few leaked screenshots and an overwhelming number of votes. DNF creators 3D Realms even chose this week to debut a well-publicized video trailer for Duke's long-awaited return. Alas, a trailer is not a game, so — long live the king!"
Sony

Submission + - Sony silently drops PS3 linux support. (ps2dev.org) 4

Submitted by
t0qer
t0qer writes: "Up until this week, hackers at the PS2dev.org forums have been hot on the trail of writing a hardware accellerated driver for the PS3 RSX chip until Sony released thier new firmware. Now it seems that updating to the new 2.10 version of PS3 firmware not only blocks RSX access completely, but breaks linux installs as well. This is a harsh blow to the PS3 linux community."
OS X

Submission + - Darwin 9.0 Code Released (macnn.com)

Submitted by mr100percent
mr100percent writes: MacNN reports that Apple has released the source code to Darwin 9.0, the backbone of OS X 10.5 Leopard. x86 and PPC versions are available. According to Apple's developer mailing list, some key drivers are missing however.
Networking

Submission + - A new & cheap way to future proof a home netwo (fierceiptv.com)

Submitted by
tburton
tburton writes: "In the cavernous halls of the Georgia World Congress Center at last weeks TelcoTV trade show there was a small stand getting a lot of buzz and corridor talk. Irish photonics company Firecomms was drawing a lot of attention with their working display of polymer optical fiber (commonly known as POF) for home networking.The fiber is made by Mitsubishi and is already widely deployed in cars and aircraft where its immunity to any electrical noise makes it the cable of choice. The plastic fiber can be bent whichever ways, is very durable and its string like diameter makes it ideal for apartments where it can be neatly tucked under carpet or along the baseboard"
Intel

Submission + - Intel in the GHz game again: Skulltrail hits 5 GHz

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Intel's Skulltrail dual-socket enthusiast platform has been making the rounds on the web for half a year or so, but we haven't seen many details yet. TG Daily got a close look at an almost complete prototype, which surely sounds almost like a production ready version, judging from the article. Everything that TG Daily describes sounds like Skulltrail PCs will be very limited in availability and insanely expensive: A taste: Intel said it has developed "special" Xeon processors with desktop processor attributes just for Skulltrail. These chips are currently running at a stable 5 GHz. Time to start playing the lottery.
Sony

Submission + - Linux on PLAYSTATION 3 - Where do we stand? (hexus.net)

Submitted by
directhex
directhex writes: "It's been a while since the first release of GNU/Linux for Sony's PLAYSTATION 3. Does it make the console a compelling purchase, a cheap blu-ray-and-games-playing Linux workstation — or is it a complete flop? HEXUS.net takes a look at PS3 Linux, and three distributions which attempt to bring user-friendly Linux onto the machine: Xubuntu 7.10, openSUSE 10.3, and Yellow Dog 5.0.1. Which will come out as the most functional and easiest to get going with?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Add Confusion to FUD. OpenDocument Foundation

Submitted by 140Mandak262Jamuna
140Mandak262Jamuna writes: Yesterday in Slashdot we saw the first story about a misleadingly named organization "OpenDocument Foundation" abandoning Open Document Format for something else. Even a few slashdotters were confused initially, then a little digging revealed, that this organization had nothing to do with the founding or support of OpenDocument Format. They turned out to be a couple of shills for MSFT without event the proverbial garage. But the other news organization too are trumpeting around that ODF has been abandoned by its own founders. Story 1 and story 2 and story 3.

We know MSFT has the track record of deliberately confusing issues. It misleadingly named its format OOXML, trying to make the less informed think it is OpenOfficeXML while saying with innocent face it stands for OfficeOpenXML. It tried to buy votes in the ISO committee. Now either it promoted these shills or these shills are hoping to win favor from MSFT.



Will this back fire, the way the ISO committee vote back fired? Do we need to update the FUD=Fear Uncertainity Doubt with Confusion? Or do we wait till we get proper words beggining with K and E could also be added with just cause and make the acronym truly FUC D?
Communications

Submission + - The Pirate Bay developing new P2P protocol to repl (blorge.com)

Submitted by
mlauzon
mlauzon writes: "(TITLE SHOULD READ:The Pirate Bay developing new P2P protocol to replace BitTorrent)


The Pirate Bay, one of the largest BitTorrent trackers in the world, is reported to be actively working on developing a new peer to peer file sharing protocol. The reason? Brokep, One of the head honchos at TPB, claims that BitTorrent as a protocol won't last longer than 12 months. Brokep was interviewed at a conference over the weekend by German website Netzpolitick.org and spoke about The Pirate Bay, and it's future plans for world domination. When asked about the future of the site, he revealed:

"I think we will still grow for a couple of months or maybe a year, and I don't think Bittorrent as a protocol will survive much longer. So if our new protocol works, we will be one of the big websites still. If it doesn't, maybe someone else takes over."

"The biggest problem is that it's owned by the Bittorrent company, which developes new versions of it. So we don't have any input as users to say what we want in the protocol. And Bittorrent is funded by companies which we don't necessarily like as well."
It seems that The Pirate Bay aren't too happy with BitTorrent Inc. and it's recent decision to make some newer additions to the client closed source. They also want to develop a new protocol which will better fend off the increasing incidents of anti-piracy organisations and spammers from affecting the flow of file sharing. The rest of the interview doesn't really reveal any secrets or surprises but this is big news. The BitTorrent protocol has revolutionised the trade in illegal files over the Internet. Which is why sites such as TPB are so intent on keeping the flow going, and why organisations like the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) are so intent on shutting them down and disrupting their activities. The Pirate Bay pirates (for want of a better description) are already working on the new client, but a release of any kind is unlikely until next year."
Biotech

Submission + - Spam Filtering Algorithm Used to Fight HIV (howstuffworks.com) 1

Submitted by akirapill
akirapill writes: FTA: "In 2006, HIV infections killed as many as 3.5 million people. But there's hope for wiping out this disease, and it may be sitting in your e-mail inbox right now. Efforts to wipe out unwanted spam e-mails could provide the key to ending the AIDS epidemic. Researchers at computer software giant Microsoft are in clinical trials testing the same technology used to create spam-blocking programs against HIV." http://health.howstuffworks.com/spam-hiv.htm
Security

Submission + - SPAM: Identity crooks have 50-50 chance of going to jail 1

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: If you're a convicted identity thief, you've got about a 50% chance of avoiding jail time. That's one of the findings of a new study of closed U.S. Secret Service case files, released by Utica College's Center for Identity Management and Information Protection. This is the first time researchers have been allowed to sift through the Secret Service's data. The study's authors based their findings on an analysis of 500 closed Secret Service cases.
Link to Original Source
AMD

Submission + - AMD DTX Small Form Factor Open Standard Preview (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "When AMD first revealed their plans for the DTX open industry standard, the intent of that early briefing was to explain AMD's vision for interoperable small form factor systems. As it stands today, most SFF systems from large companies like Dell and HP are proprietary designs. On the do-it-yourself front, we've got form factors like Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX and SFF barebones systems from major players like Shuttle, Asus and MSI. However, for the most part you can't take parts from one company's SFF design and use it in another's. Today AMD provided more details and a specific design example of the DTX small form-factor standard. This HotHardware article showcases a prototype system built on a low power AMD Athlon 64 BE-2350 processor and 690G chipset motherboard with integrated graphics."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Vista vs. the Gibbon 4

Submitted by ricegf
ricegf writes: If you had 7 computers running various versions of Windows and Linux, on which machine would you choose to do most of your work? Rupert Goodwins describes his experience thus: 'So here's the funny thing. I've used Windows since 1.0. I've lived through the bad times of Windows/386 and ME, and the good times of NT 3.51 and 2K. I know XP if not backwards, then with a degree of familiarity that only middle-aged co-dependents can afford each other. Then how come I'm so much more at home with Ubuntu than Vista?'
Portables

Submission + - Vista, linux and overheating laptops

Submitted by trenien
trenien writes: Recently, a friend of mine has been looking to buy a new laptop. Being a linux user, he isn't interested in Macs, and a doesn't particularly care which version of microsoft os is installed. Wat's relevant is the hardware, how well it's supported under linux and — and that is the crux of it — how quiet the laptop is when not under heavy use. Were it available, he'd buy a laptop with linux pre — installed, or no OS at all (this isn't in the US, so neither Dell nor HP offers are available).

He thought he'd found an interesting deal the other day (Asus Z83TC), but ended up bringing it back as it ran like crasy and was almost as loud as his desktop right after booting. Nothing was running but Vista.

I read somewhere else that Vista was pretty bad with laptops, but that may be with specific ones only. In any case, it could be that one laptop will be particularly loud with Vista but run normally under linux. Would anybody have thoughts or advice about this?

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