Shippy - Slashdot User

Microsoft 'Ribbonizes' Windows 8 File Manager 951

Posted by Soulskill on Monday August 29, 2011 @05:22PM from the statistically-driven-interface dept.

CWmike writes "Microsoft said today it will 'ribbonize' the file manager in next year's Windows 8, adding Explorer to the short list of integrated applications that already sport the interface in Windows 7. Microsoft's Alex Simons, director of program management, released screenshots of the new ribbon interface planned for Explorer (scroll way down). 'We evaluated several different UI command affordances including expanded versions of the Vista/Windows 7 command bar, Windows 95/Windows XP style toolbars and menus, several entirely new UI approaches, and the Office style ribbon,' explained Simons. 'Of these, the ribbon approach offered benefits in line with our goals.' Plans by Microsoft and others to ribbonize applications have often met resistance. 'We knew that using a ribbon for Explorer would likely be met with skepticism by a set of power users, but there are clear benefits,' Simons said."

Linus Thinks Virtualization Is 'Evil' 330

Posted by Soulskill on Friday August 19, 2011 @03:35PM from the know-who-else-used-virtualization? dept.

Front page first-timer crdotson writes "Linus said in an interview that he thinks virtualization is 'evil' because he prefers to deal with the real hardware. Hardware virtualization allows for better barriers between systems by running multiple OSes on the same hardware, but OS-level virtualization allows similar barriers without a hypervisor between the kernel and the hardware. Should we expect more focus on OS-level virtualization such as Linux-VServer, OpenVZ, and LXC?"

Comment Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings (Score 1) 180

by Shippy on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @01:13PM (#36229830) Attached to: Amazon Gags On Gaga

I know, right? I'm not a huge Gaga fan, but hey, $0.99 is a steal. When I went to purchase the album, there was a clear indication on the page that downloads were delayed. I just left my Amazon Downloader going and it was still done in only a couple hours. Some people are just whiners.

Submission + - Fake SSL Certificates Issues for Popular Domains (sans.edu) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 23, 2011 @01:47PM

An anonymous reader writes: Google, Mozilla and now Microsoft are warning of fake certificates apparently issued using a Comodo certificate, which is trusted by all browsers. Sadly this comes just after large sites like Facebook and Twitter enabled users to opt in to SSL by default. The affected host names are www.google.com, login.live.com, mail.google.com, login.yahoo.com , login.skype.com and addons.mozilla.com. All popular domains that may now be impersonated using the fake certificates. As the ISC diary puts it: Turing the SSL trust pyramid into a stinking pile of doo

Comment Re:wait....mark said WHAT?! (Score 1) 297

by Shippy on Friday October 15, 2010 @05:00PM (#33912814) Attached to: Facebook, Microsoft Team Up Against Google

Someone forgot this Bing technology which microsoft has innovated so greatly is mostly just yahoo under the hood

Citation, please.

Army DNS ROOT Server Down For 18+ Hours 154

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 02, 2010 @09:30AM from the inter-arma-enim-silent-tubulis dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The H-Root server, operated by the US Army Research Lab, spent 18 hours out of the last 48 being a void. Both the RIPE's DNSMON and the h.root-servers.org site show this. How, in this day and age of network engineering, can we even entertain one of the thirteen root servers being unavailable for so long? I mean, the US army doesn't even seem to make the effort to deploy more sites. Look at the other root operators who don't have the backing of the US government money machine. Many of them seem to be able to deploy redundant instances. Even the much-maligned ICANN seems to have managed deploying 11 sites. All these root operators that have only one site need a good swift kick, or maybe they should pass the responsibility to others who are more committed to ensuring the Internet's stability."

Microsoft Releases Final Windows Phone 7 Dev Tools 170

Posted by Soulskill on Friday September 17, 2010 @11:35AM from the wrapping-things-up dept.

cgriffin21 writes "Microsoft on Thursday released the final Windows Phone 7 developer tools to manufacturing, giving coders a couple of weeks' lead time to get their apps ready for the launch of the Windows Phone Marketplace in early October. Microsoft released the Windows Phone 7 OS to manufacturing on Sept. 1, and its OEM partners are in the process of testing it on handsets. The Windows Phone 7 developer tools are the final piece of the puzzle for Microsoft, which is now ready to march back into a mobile market where it has fallen alarmingly behind the leaders." In related news, CNET reports that Windows Phone 7 will only be available for GSM networks at launch, with a CDMA version planned for the first half of next year. This rules out Sprint and Verizon for launch.

Petaflops? DARPA Seeks Quintillion-Flop Computers 185

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday June 23, 2010 @01:43PM from the that's-a-lotta-flops dept.

coondoggie writes "Not known for taking the demure route, researchers at DARPA this week announced a program aimed at building computers that exceed current peta-scale computers to achieve the mind-altering speed of one quintillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000) calculations per second. Dubbed extreme scale computing, such machines are needed, DARPA says, to 'meet the relentlessly increasing demands for greater performance, higher energy efficiency, ease of programmability, system dependability, and security.'"

Blizzard Boss Says Restrictive DRM Is a Waste of Time 563

Posted by Soulskill on Friday May 28, 2010 @03:24AM from the what-about-lan-play dept.

Stoobalou writes "Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce reckons that fighting piracy with DRM is a losing battle. His company — which is responsible for one of the biggest video games of all time, the addictive online fantasy role player World of Warcraft — is to release StarCraft 2 on July 27, and Pearce has told Videogamer that the title won't be hobbled with the kind of crazy copy protection schemes that have made Ubisoft very unpopular in gaming circles of late. StarCraft 2 will require a single online activation using the company's Battle.net servers, after which players will be allowed to play the single-player game to their hearts' content, without being forced to have a persistent Internet connection."

Comment Re:Vista scrapped a lot (Score 1) 375

by Shippy on Thursday May 20, 2010 @12:49PM (#32281302) Attached to: Ballmer Says Microsoft Wasted Time On Vista

Longhorn as it was called during its development scrapped some functionality during its development cycle. (It even got so much redefined that it was renamed from blackcomb to longhorn)

Not quite. Longhorn before the code reset in 2004 is now generally referred to internally as Longhorn Alpha. Thew new Windows Server 2003-based codebase was still known as Longhorn until the final name Vista was picked. Blackcomb was the original name for the post-Longhorn OS that would eventually become Windows 7. When the Vista name was picked for Longhorn, Blackcomb was re-named Vienna. However, once actual Windows 7 development began, it became known as Windows 7 internally and the name stuck for release.

Apple Loses Another 4th-Gen iPhone 466

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday May 12, 2010 @08:52AM from the ok-now-its-funny dept.

An anonymous reader noted that Apple appears to have lost another of its 4th generation iPhones. This doesn't seem like the most efficient distribution mechanism, Steve. Wonder if the SWAT team will get called in.

Oil Leak Could Be Stopped With a Nuke 799

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday May 11, 2010 @12:01PM from the lesser-of-two-disasters dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico could be stopped with an underground nuclear blast, a Russian newspaper reports. Komsomoloskaya Pravda, the best-selling Russian daily, reports that in Soviet times such leaks were plugged with controlled nuclear blasts underground. The idea is simple, KP writes: 'The underground explosion moves the rock, presses on it, and, in essence, squeezes the well's channel.' It's so simple, in fact, that the Soviet Union used this method five times to deal with petrocalamities, and it only didn't work once."

Submission + - Saturn's Strange Hexagon Recreated in the Lab (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by cremeglace on Thursday April 08, 2010 @12:22PM

cremeglace writes: Saturn boasts one of the solar system's most geometrical features: a giant hexagon encircling its north pole. Though not as famous as Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, Saturn's Hexagon is equally mysterious. Now researchers have recreated this formation in the lab using little more than water and a spinning table—an important first step, experts say, in finally deciphering this cosmic mystery. More details, including a cool demo video, at ScienceNOW.

Bing Maps Wows 'Em At TED2010 277

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday February 14, 2010 @10:06AM from the where-we're-going dept.

theodp writes "In an eye-candy filled presentation that earned him a standing-O at TED2010, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft. In his eight minute spiel, an extension of a shorter tech preview video, the Bing Maps architect shows how geo-tagged Flickr images can be precisely incorporated into streetside views, demonstrates indoor panoramas at Pike Place Market complete with live video overlays, and even takes the audience into space with Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope. " This is a really exciting video and worth your 8 minutes.

Google Releases Chrome OS Tablet Concept Demo 237

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday February 02, 2010 @12:47PM from the keeping-up-with-the-jobses dept.

MojoKid writes "With all of the iPad buzz stirring up the tech world over the past couple of weeks, Chrome OS has almost been forgotten. Though Google has yet to officially release the netbook-centric operating system to the public, the company continues to keep details flowing about their forthcoming lightweight operating system. In their own response to all the recent tablet fanfare, Google decided to release some teaser shots and a demo video of the Chrome OS running on a concept tablet device. The Chromium team suggests that a screen of 5" to 10" is optimal for enjoying Chrome OS and of course tablets, netbooks and MIDs all fit that size class rather well. Couple a streamlined Google-based OS with NVIDIA's Tegra 2 processor in a design like this and the iPad could have serious competition."

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