icsEater - Slashdot User

Submission + - Windows 7 sales beat Vista's by 234% in first week

Submitted by Bimal on Thursday November 05, 2009 @06:35PM

Bimal writes: Ars Technica reports:

Initial sales of Windows 7 boxed software surpassed those of Vista's by 234 percent in the first few days of the operating system's availability on the US market, according to data collected by NPD's weekly tracking service. NPD compares sales numbers for the week of October 18, 2009 to October 24, 2009 as well as Windows 7 preorders sales and compared them to the first few days of Vista's sales. This seems like great news for Microsoft, but it wasn't all positive.

NPD claims that revenue growth wasn't very strong for Microsoft, due to two main factors: early discounts on the preorder copies and no promotional activity for the Ultimate edition (the most expensive one). As a result, the dollar sales were only 82 percent higher than Vista. The average selling price was $76 for Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade, $147 for Windows 7 Professional Upgrade, and $149 for the Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack (three upgrade licenses).

Submission + - traditional chinese food to fight breast cancer (genglob.com)

Submitted by genglob on Thursday November 05, 2009 @06:27PM

genglob writes: Two Chinese dietary staples – mushrooms and green tea – may have the power to ward off breast cancer, mounting evidence suggests. A study of over 2,000 Chinese women in the International Journal of Cancer found large quantities of both in the diet slashed cancer risk by up to 90%.
Research suggests chemicals in the foods block tumour growth and boost the body’s natural defences against cancer. But experts say it is unclear whether the benefits will apply to all women. It is known that the rate of breast cancer in China is four- to five-times lower than rates typically seen in developed countries, although this is changing as women are adopting Western diets rich in meat and dairy – and piling on the pounds.

Submission + - Crazy Yelp Lady (sfgate.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05, 2009 @05:27PM

An anonymous reader writes: Watch what you say on Yelp. But if you don't, at least don't piss off someone who will try to track you down!

Submission + - Synchronize data between Linux, OS X, and Windows? 2

Submitted by aaaaaaargh! on Thursday November 05, 2009 @01:23PM

aaaaaaargh! writes: I'm using a laptop with Ubuntu 8.04 for work, a netbook with Ubuntu 9.10 when I'm outside, Mac OS X 10.5 for hobby projects, and Windows XP for gaming. For backups I'm currently using Jungledisk and Apple Timemachine and I use a local svn repository for my work data. Now I need to frequently exchange and synchronize OpenOffice and Latex files and source code in various cross-platform programming languages between one machine and another.

Options range from putting everything online (but Jungledisk disks seem to be too slow for anything else than backup), storing my data on external medias like USB sticks or SD cards, or working with copies by synchronizing folders over the network. I don't want to give my data away to some server outside without strong encryption (controlled by me, including the source code) and external media like USB sticks are a bit too fragile according to my taste. The solution should be reliable, relatively failsafe, as simple as possible, and allow me to continue to use Jungledisk for backup.

So what would you recommend?

Submission + - NASA Develops Star Trek-like Replicator Tech. (msn.com) 1

Submitted by sean_nestor on Thursday November 05, 2009 @12:11PM

sean_nestor writes: Space explorers have yet to get their hands on the replicator of "Star Trek" to create anything they might require. But NASA has developed a technology that could enable lunar colonists to carry out on-site manufacturing on the moon, or allow future astronauts to create critical spare parts during the long trip to Mars.

The method, called electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF3), uses an electron beam to melt metals and build objects layer by layer. Such an approach already promises to cut manufacturing costs for the aerospace industry, and could pioneer development of new materials. It has also thrilled astronauts on the International Space Station by dangling the possibility of designing new tools or objects, researchers said.

Comment Re:Software engineering is not a new concept. (Score 1) 436

by icsEater on Monday June 29, 2009 @06:58PM (#28521299) Attached to: Does the 'Hacker Ethic' Harm Today's Developers?

Umm no. I made $60K living outside the DC in NoVA suburbs and I got along just fine. WIth $1200/month payment for shitty condo.

I wouldn't count DC as a major US city. That said, I think only NYC, SF, and parts of LA and Chicago have such ridiculous high costs of living to make 80K only marginally above-average pay. I enjoyed a fairly well-off lifestyle in the midwest before moving moving out here to silicon valley. My monthly rent for my tiny hole-in-the-wall apartment is more than my spacious luxurious condo in the Midwest. Add in the utilities and higher cost of groceries, gas, etc, the 30% jump in salary just doesn't cut it.

Submission + - Lenovo's Answer To The Eee PC, IdeaPad S10 (hothardware.com)

Submitted by

MojoKid

on Friday November 07, 2008 @03:12PM

MojoKid writes: "In the ever-crowded market of low cost netbooks, Lenovo's new IdeaPad S10 is one of the more interesting releases to date. Lenovo's design incorporates a 10" diagonal screen, which appears to be what most consumers are drifting towards for usable screen real estate on a netbook. Also, Lenovo's build quality is generally perceived as one of the best in the notebook market with the long history of their rugged ThinkPad series designs. Finally, Lenovo is being aggressive with competitive pricing on the system and offering the S10 with a decent feature set based on Intel's new low power Atom processor. Versus Asus Eee PC, the IdeaPad S10's performance is about on par but the overall build quality of the machine is up a notch or two."

Team Fortress 2 Stats Confirm Every Suspicion 110

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday December 11, 2007 @05:02PM from the bloody-snipers dept.

Valve has released another round of stats, this one concerning all that Team Fortress 2 playing we've been doing. They have things broken out along a couple of different metrics, including lifespan, kills, assists, captures, and even just damage dealt. As Rock, Paper, Shotgun's commentary notes, the stats confirm every suspicion you've had about your fellow players. "Yes, there are more rushy-bastard Scouts than any other class. Yes, campy-bastard Snipers earn the most points. Yes, hitpointy-bastard Heavies get the most kills. Yes, hidey-bastard Engineers live longest. And so on. What's slightly odder is the breakdown of which side wins most frequently on each map. BLU has the edge in every killing field except Dustbowl and Gravelpit. Why? How? I thought we were all the same! Damn you for not being neater, demographics." We previously discussed Valve's stats release on Half-Life 2: Episode 2 .

Submission + - FTC: payment processor schemes took millions (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Tuesday December 11, 2007 @04:48PM

coondoggie writes: "The Federal Trade Commission and seven states have charged a payment processor with violating federal and state laws by debiting, or attempting to debit from consumers' bank accounts on behalf of numerous fraudulent telemarketers and Internet-based merchants.Between June 23, 2004 and March 31, 2006, the payment processing company, Your Money Access, processed more than $200 million in debits and attempted debits to consumers' bank accounts and more than $69 million of the attempted debits were returned or rejected by consumers or their banks for various reasons, indicating the lack of consumer authorization, the FTC complaint alleges. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/22935"

Submission + - Free Yale College Courses Debut Online (yale.edu)

Submitted by

gyokuro

on Tuesday December 11, 2007 @04:17PM

gyokuro writes: "Today, Yale University is making some of its most popular undergraduate courses freely available to anyone in the world with access to the Internet. The project, called 'Open Yale Courses,' presents unique access to the full content of a selection of courses and makes them available in various formats, including video."

Submission + - Ulteo brings OpenOffice.org to the web browser! (ulteo.com)

Submitted by

joestar

on Tuesday December 11, 2007 @04:08PM

joestar writes: "Just announced on their website and now on some news sites: OpenOffice.org 2.3 can now be used online within the web browser (at least Firefox and IE), without prior download nor install. I've just tried it and they have implemented an interesting way to print documents, as a PDF download. It seems that the Ulteo plateform also offers some realtime desktop sharing capabilities, for training and workgroup. I would love to access all my apps online the same way!"

Submission + - Ohio caves to encryption after massive data breach (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by

Lucas123

on Tuesday December 11, 2007 @03:56PM

Lucas123 writes: "After a backup tape containing 106,821 pieces of sensitive information on Ohio residents and businesses was stolen from the car of a government intern in June, the state government just announced it has purchased 60,000 licenses of encryption software for state offices to use to protect data. Ohio's missing backup tape featured the names and Social Security numbers of 47,245 individuals; the names and Social Security numbers of 19,388 former state employees; and banking information on less than 100 businesses. It's estimate that the data loss will cost the state $3 million. In September, the state docked a state government official about a week of future vacation time for not ensuring that the data would be protected."

Submission + - SpaceX Provides Major Progress Update

Submitted by iamlucky13 on Tuesday December 11, 2007 @03:34PM

iamlucky13 writes: In an online posting Monday, SpaceX founder Elon Musk gave a detailed update on the status of their ongoing projects. The many details covered include extensive testing of the new, higher-performance Merlin 1C engine, test firing of a Falcon 9 first stage, groundbreaking on a new launch facility at Cape Canaveral, results from the NASA COTS critical design review, updates on the Dragon capsule including splash-down testing and work on the heat shield, a new hypergolic OMS engine called "Draco," and plans to launch the third Falcon 1 in spring of 2008. Whew! Also included are some great pictures and videos of the Falcon 9 test firing, its 17 foot diameter payload fairing, Dragon test articles, the new manufacturing facility, and plenty of other fascinating evidence of the work going on at SpaceX.

Submission + - SPAM: Microbes churn out hydrogen at record rate 1

Submitted by

FiReaNGeL

on Tuesday November 13, 2007 @02:51PM

FiReaNGeL writes: "By adding a few modifications to their successful wastewater fuel cell, researchers have coaxed common bacteria to produce hydrogen in a new, efficient way. Using starter material that could theoretically be sourced from a salad bar, the researchers have coaxed microbes to generate hydrogen. "We achieved the highest hydrogen yields ever obtained with this approach from different sources of organic matter, such as yields of 91 percent using vinegar (acetic acid) and 68 percent using cellulose"."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Enigma machine still up for grabs (rhul.ac.uk) 1

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Tuesday November 13, 2007 @02:20PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Ever wanted to own your own piece of crypto history?

A genuine WWII Enigma machine, potentially worth thousands of US dollars, is up for grabs in a code-breaking competition associated with the book "Can you crack the Enigma code?" by author Richard Belfield (ISBN-10: 0752875264, ISBN-13: 9780752875262).

As part of the book, Richard worked with a team of experts from the Information Security Group at Royal Holloway, University of London to create a challenging collection of puzzles. These "Enigma puzzles" are designed to test even the most experienced puzzle addicts. The puzzles have been designed in such a way that ingenuity and lateral thinking will be as important as having access to a computer in solving them. The prize: a genuine Enigma machine, potentially worth thousands of pounds.

The competition has been running for over a year, and so far, it seems that the puzzles have defied even the most determined attempts to break them. There's been plenty of discussion on the on-line forum at http://enigma.isg.rhul.ac.uk/ but so far it seems that only the first three of the six puzzles have been cracked.

Time to sharpen your pencils and get to work..."

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