arehnius - Slashdot User

Submission + - 7-year-old laptop designers' club (themorningnews.org) 2

Submitted by

Rosecrans

on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @12:52AM

Rosecrans writes: "Hi guys,

Thought you'd enjoy these interviews we just published (plus a gallery of example images) with a bunch of 7-year-olds who designed their own laptops out of construction paper. It's remarkable what they assign different keys to, and Amy Tiemann (a CNET parenting author) does a good job of putting it all in context. I know I wish my Macbook had a "kitten" or "riley werd games" key, or numerals that went up to 11.

Enjoy: http://themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/the_laptop_club/

Best,
Rosecrans"

Submission + - Winefix - improved desktop integration for Wine (blogspot.com)

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Monday October 22, 2007 @07:25AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "I found this on the Ubuntu user forums, thanks goes out to (deadlydeathcone) here is his post.

A script called winefix. In short, it allows Wine applications to be run just as easily as those native to Linux, meaning that they can be linked to or run from any directory, whether from a terminal or even a file manager like nautilus. It also handles some of the more awkward Wine extensions like .lnk and .msi, akkowing them to be run with a double click.

It also offers a good number of enhancements and fixes over "vanilla" Wine, especially in regards to Compiz and Beryl. If either of the two are running when a Wine application requiring DirectX or OpenGL is run, you'll be asked if they should be temporarily disabled, and reinstated immediately after the application exits. it also allows for the "Legacy Apps" workaround in Compiz Fusion to be similarly enabled and disabled, as always leaving it on is a disaster — while it can fix the fullscreen modes of Wine apps, it actually breaks those of most native ones. The other enhancements allow the option for each application to have it's own dedicated virtual Windows desktop (basically whether a program should be started "windowed" ), be reniced, ensure that fullscreen applications restore the desktop resolution properly, or, for 64 bit machines, run in 32-bit compatability mode (thanks to mikey for suggesting the last two!)

The script also changes Wine's error reporting behavior. Wine normally reports every error and fixme message that is encountered when an application is running, meaning that running programs via terminal results in a deluge of error messages that can greatly hurt performance, and that running them via script or file manager results in losing the ability to see any error messages at all. This script, by default, only reports critical system and Wine error messages, and only displays them if a Wine program actually crashes, in which case you'll then see a dialog much like this:

If it's the first time a particular application has crashed, you'll also be given the option to view its Winehq.org Application Database page, or if not found, asked if you'd like to create one.

The script also allows for more thorough error reporting by the use of command line options. Adding the flag "-d 1" causes all errors normally reported by Wine to be displayed, and saves application to the "log" folder in your Wine directory. There's also a "-d 2" option that causes ALL errors and system relays to be reported, but it's really only useful for debugging (it's insanely slow).

Using the script is pretty easy — it's used in exactly the same manner as wine itself, ie 'winefix drive_c/Program Files/dwarfort.exe' or 'winefix "C:\Program Files\dwarfort.exe"', and accepts all of wine's environment varables. It adds many command line options as well — run "winefix -?" in a terminal for a complete list.

The easiest way to use the script is to install the attached deb — the script will be automatically integrated with Gnome, allowing Wine apps to be run with a double click — something that can't be reliably done with Wine alone (see Bug #1, below). It does the same with Wine files of the .msi, and .lnk extensions, and adds Tango icons to the Wine menu as well:"

Submission + - Theo de Raadt details Intel Core 2 bugs

Submitted by Eukariote on Thursday June 28, 2007 @06:11AM

Eukariote writes: Recently, Intel patched bugs in its Core 2 processors . Details were scarce, soothing words that a BIOS update was all that was required were spoken. OpenBSD founder Theo de Raadt has now provided more details and analysis on outstanding, fixed, an non-fixable Core 2 bugs. Some choice quotes: "Some of these bugs (...) will *ASSUREDLY* be exploitable from userland code.", "Some of these are things that cannot be fixed in running code, and some are things that every operating system will do until about mid-2008".

Slashdot Top Deals