alemaco - Slashdot User

Submission + - 83% of Businesses won't bother with Windows 7

Submitted by Olipro on Monday April 13, 2009 @05:21AM

Olipro writes: According to a survey conducted by Information Week, Most enterprises stated they won't bother with Windows 7 for at least a year as they simply continue to distrust that compatibility issues won't occur with their mission-critical software.

Costs of upgrading are also cited as a concern as economic uncertainty acts as a measure to dissuade businesses in the "investments" which, coupled with the fact that essentially Windows 7 will simply be Vista with tweaks (those of you who follow the server platform will know that Windows 7 will simply be an R2 release for Server 2008) — essentially the whole OS needs to hit the ground running or be doomed to a similar fate as Vista has been, though, bearing in mind the fact that a lot of Vista's headaches were primarily driver related; and also bearing in mind that as such, almost all hardware now has Vista drivers which will undoubtedly be compatible with 7... it's entirely plausible that uptake of Windows 7 will be better than expected.

The Million Dollar question will be whether the fact that XP -> Windows 7 requires a clean install will prove to be Microsoft's undoing.

Comment Macquarie Island (Score 1) 355

by alemaco on Thursday April 09, 2009 @06:54AM (#27516013) Attached to: Climate Engineering As US Policy?

This approach reminds me of the way they tried to control rabbit overpopulation on a small island south of New Zealand. Settlers introduced rabbits as a source of food. Of course rabbits, without predators, multiplied out of control destroying much of the local vegetation. They tried to control their population by introducing feral cats. Of course the feral cats preyed on the local fauna as well, decimating it. Finally, they had to hunt down the feral cats and now the rabbit population is back to previous numbers. Can we afford blunders of this kind on a global scale?

Submission + - Marijuana may fight brain tumours (cosmosmagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06, 2009 @03:52AM

An anonymous reader writes: The main chemical in marijuana kills cancerous brain cells, offering hope for future anti-cancer therapies, say Spanish scientists. A team led by Guillermo Velasco of Complutense University in Madrid, found that the active component of marijuana — tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — kills tumour cells through a process called autophagy. This is the process that occurs when a cell self-destructs by digesting itself.

Submission + - IBM-Sun Merger Talks Off 1

Submitted by

54mc

on Monday April 06, 2009 @01:43AM

54mc writes: "Buisness World reports that merger talks between IBM and Sun Microsystems have been officially called off. Talks first began three days ago for the deal which would have been valued between 6.5 and 8 billion dollars. Much of the reason for the deal being called off was worries of a possible antitrust case against the newly merged company."

Submission + - Scalable remote software/OS deployment options?

Submitted by

RobbieCrash

on Monday April 06, 2009 @01:29AM

RobbieCrash writes: "I've been tasked with finding a single software application that can manage computers in various Active Directory environments ranging from 20 computers to 1,500 computers, that will keep track of software installed, push out Windows updates, install and uninstall software, and be able to remotely install new Operating systems to new computers, or to upgrade existing computers. So far I've been able to find things like Acronis Snap Deploy which will do the OS deployment to various hardware platforms, but won't do any of the other things. Or Admin Arsenal and Desktop Central that will run hardware/software inventories and push updates/software installs, but nothing that will do it all. Is there a one stop program that will do it all? Or am I stuck using multiple programs like WSUS, Acronis and one of the others to get everything done?"

Submission + - The Most Scriptable Handheld. (blogspot.com)

Submitted by

Up Cracky

on Sunday April 05, 2009 @11:56PM

Up Cracky writes: "I'm looking to buy a hand held computer that's about the size of a Blackberry. It doesn't have to be a phone, but it can be.

What it really needs to be is programmable. By programmable I mean programmable, in the real world use of the term, by *me*. Scriptable is even better.

I need to be able to bang out simple programs and run them on the handheld. If it ran Bash with a simple text interface, then that would be sufficient. PerlGtk, with access to the UI would be great. A netbook shrunk down to the size of a pack of cards would be perfect.

I don't want to end up in SDK hell. I want to be able to write the program as a text file and then drag it over using USB. Maybe tweak the program on the handheld and pull it back to my base station for safe keeping.

I'm not looking to implement the Linux kernel in script. Raw Java is overkill. I just want to be able to write arbitrary little programs that only I care about and run them when I want.

So Slashdotters, what do you consider to be the most scripter friendly handheld?"

Submission + - How do i provide a workstation to last 15 years? 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05, 2009 @04:31AM

An anonymous reader writes: My father is a veterinarian with a small private practice. He runs all his patient/client/financial administration on two simple workstations, linked with a network cable. The administration application is a simple DOS application backed by a database. Now the current systems, a Pentium 66mhz and a 486 both with 8 MB of ram and 500 MB of harddrive space, are getting a bit long in the tooth. The 500 MB harddrives are filling up, the installed software (windows 95) is getting a bit flakey at times. My father has asked me to think about replacing the current setup. I do know a lot about computers, but my father would really like the new setup to last 10-15 years, just like the current one has. I just dont know where to begin thinking about that kind of systems lifetime, Do i buy or build myself? How many spareparts should i keep in reserve? what will fail first, and how many years down the line will that happen? Could all the /. people with more knowledge about hardware lifespan / system vendor build quality give me some advice?

Submission + - Thai gov't sets up snitch on fellow citizen site (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by on Sunday April 05, 2009 @02:58AM

An anonymous reader writes: In a move that would make the old eastern German Stasi green with envy, the Thai government has modernized a system that allows citizens to snitch on fellow citizens. "Internet users are being urged to show their loyalty to the king by contributing to a new website called protecttheking.net, which has been set up by a parliamentary committee. On the site's front page it is described as a means for Thai people to show their loyalty to the king by protecting him from what it calls misunderstandings about him. It calls on all citizens to inform on anyone suspected of insulting or criticising the monarchy." An large unknown population of political prisoners are currently being held for 3 to 15 years in Thai prisons for being interpreted as insulting the monarchy.

Submission + - Material that could Replace Platinum in Fuel Cells (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by WSOGMM on Sunday April 05, 2009 @01:37AM

WSOGMM writes: "A new catalyst based on iron works as well as platinum-based catalysts for accelerating the chemical reactions inside hydrogen fuel cells. The finding could help make fuel cells for electric cars cheaper and more practical... The new material meets a benchmark for hydrogen fuel cells set five years ago that 'we thought nobody would ever meet,' adds Hubert Gasteiger, a visiting professor of mechanical engineering at MIT."

Submission + - Part of Copyright Act Ruled Unconstitutional

Submitted by rdnetto on Saturday April 04, 2009 @10:40PM

rdnetto writes: From http://techdirt.com/articles/20090403/1619494384.shtml:
A year and a half ago, we were quite surprised when the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals actually sided with Larry Lessig, concerning how a part of copyright law that pulled foreign works out of the public domain was potentially unconstitutional. This was in the "Golan case," the third of three big copyright cases Lessig had championed. The appeals court had sent the case back to the lower court, and that lower court has now decided that, indeed, a trade agreement (URAA) that pulled foreign content out of the public domain is unconstitutional as it violates the First Amendment. While it may seem narrowly focused, this is the first case that has successfully challenged a part of copyright law as being unconstitutional. The ruling will almost certainly be appealed, so it's not over yet — but it's still a rare and important win for those who are fighting to keep copyright law from destroying the public domain.

Submission + - Decent DVD-Ripping Solution for Linux? 5

Submitted by

supersloshy

on Saturday April 04, 2009 @08:40PM

supersloshy writes: "I'm a user of Ubuntu Linux and I have been for a little while now. Recently I've been trying to copy DVDs onto a portable media player, but everything I've tried isn't working right. dvd::rip always gets the language mixed up (for example, when ripping Howl's Moving Castle one of the files it ripped to was in Japanese instead of English), Acidrip just plain isn't working for me (not recognizing a disc with spaces in its name, refusing to encode, etc.), Thoggen is having trouble with chapters (chapter 1 repeated twice for me once), and OGMRip has the audio out of sync. What I'm looking for is a reliable program to copy the movie into a single file with none of the audio or video glitches as mentioned above. Is there even such thing on Linux? If you can't think of a decent Linux-based solution, then a Windows one is fine as long as it works."

Submission + - Thermite Found in WTC Debris (bentham.org) 1

Submitted by on Saturday April 04, 2009 @07:59PM

An anonymous reader writes: A new peer-reviewed paper was released today in the Chemical Physics journal which claims that out of four samples of debris from the World Trade Center which they analyzed, all of them showed residue from what appeared to be military-grade Thermite, a finding completely contrary to the official report. If the results of their findings are correct, it certainly raises more questions than it answers. You'll need to click the Volume 2 link on the page to get to the paper.

Submission + - Nexuiz 2.5 Raises The Bar For Open-Source Gaming (phoronix.com)

Submitted by

Michael

on Saturday April 04, 2009 @07:25AM

Michael writes: "A new release of Nexuiz, a GPL-licensed first person shooter, has been released. There are over 3,000 changes in Nexuiz 2.5 including new maps, new game-modes, enhanced graphics, new audio, and other major changes. Phoronix has posted a preview of this Nexuiz 2.5 release with screenshots showing the impressive graphics and how it has raised the bar for open-source gaming. Nexuiz 2.5 can be downloaded from SourceForge."

Comment Re:But the real data is worse than the models pred (Score 1) 1190

by alemaco on Sunday March 29, 2009 @11:16PM (#27383939) Attached to: The Global Warming Heretic

I see your point.
Of course models have limits. Science itself has limits, that's all I know. I plead ignorant as I am not a scientist of sort, I don't have a scientific education background and my maths grades were awful in high school so I don't believe I have many chances (will and time) to understand the science behind models and so on.
However, I profoundly doubt whatever comes out of the Heartland's mouths as they are notorious for warping information for corporate gain and I respect the work of thousands of climate scientists around the world whose independent research is pointing out - whatever the differences - to one conclusion.

Comment Re:But the real data is worse than the models pred (Score 1) 1190

by alemaco on Sunday March 29, 2009 @12:26AM (#27376267) Attached to: The Global Warming Heretic

Do you know who the Heartland are?

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