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Firefox

Submission + - Are we fast yet? ask the Firefox team (arewefastyet.com) 2

Submitted by kangsterizer
kangsterizer writes: Mozilla Firefox web-page following various browser's Javascript engine speed against SunSpider and V8 bench caugh my eye recently. It shows day-by-day Firefox's javascript performance progress, and it seems to be going at very fast peace lately.

Although, as they say "are we fast yet? NO" they seem to be getting closer and closer to Chrome and Safari performance. Traced fatval "Jaeger-monkey" engine could hypothetically even equal or surpass Chrome's speed in the near future (mid-august) according to the data available.

However, it's a shame that they couldn't run Opera's and IE's engine yet on their test platform.

Comment Re:Please give me GM everything. (Score -1) 835

by mxh83 (#32836444) Attached to: Avoiding GM Foods? Monsanto Says You're Overly Fussy

Truly amazing that this post got modded 5, I thought the Slashdot community were the ones in the know. GM is more about patents, lawsuits (making many farmers broke), proprietary seeds (with lock-in) and terminator genes than about benefits to the end user. Considering the ignorance of the people it's not even worth explaining more, they were supposed to know that when discussing this thread.
Firefox

Submission + - Firefox 4 Beta available for download (tekgoblin.com) 1

Submitted by tekgoblin
tekgoblin writes: Yes you heard right, Firefox (Firefox) 4 beta 1 is now available for download. The update is released for Windows (Windows), Mac OSX, and Linux (Linux) operating systems. The update is chalk full of new features like: New HTML 5 support, CSS3, New Addons Manager, and more.. The full list is on their site, head on over and check it out!

Comment Re:Hmm.... (Score 0) 833

by mxh83 (#32822560) Attached to: Blizzard To Require Real First and Last Names For Official Forums

Really? I have two facebook profiles. One with my real name, with very limited details, and one with a fake name where all my RL friends can find me. A google search brings up nothing about me, even though I was convicted of a felony 23 years ago, there are no pictures of me on the internet that I can find, and I use my real name for nothing, including my WoW account. My phone, cable and power bill are all in fake names, and I rent for cash from a former employer. My vehicles are registered to me, at a 10 year old address and my DL shows the same address. Which the banks also have as my permanent address. I use a PO box in the same county as my "official" address shows. Not everyone is willing to let the government or corporations track their where abouts and doings with ease.

How did you manage that?

Comment Re:Aaaarrg (Score -1) 336

by mxh83 (#32821840) Attached to: HDBaseT Supporters Hope To Kiss HDMI Goodbye

You're right, in the initial iteration, HDBaseT will bring nothing great as far as technological advances go. It will probably come into the picture later because they claim it scales well. I read that ethernet is capped at just 100Mbps initially, and power at just 70W- barely enough for a 40" TV.
Google

Submission + - VP8 and H.264 Codecs Compared in Detail (compression.ru)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Moscow State University's Graphics and Media lab have released their sixth MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video codecs comparison. Also of note is a recently added appendix to the report which compares VP8, x264, and Xvid. The reference VP8 encoder holds its own against x264 despite the source material offering x264 a slight advantage. The VP8 developers comment in the report: 'We've been following the MSU tests since they began and respect the group's work. One issue we noticed in the test is that most input sequences were previously compressed using other codecs. These sequences have an inherent bias against VP8 in recompression tests. As pointed out by other developers, H.264 and MPEG-like encoders have slight advantages in reproducing some of their own typical artifacts, which helps their objective measurement numbers but not necessarily visual quality. This is reflected by relatively better results for VP8 on the only uncompressed input sequence, "mobile calendar." '
Science

Submission + - Avoiding GM Foods? You're Overly Fussy - Monsanto (postpeakpublishing.com)

Submitted by blackbeak
blackbeak writes: The BBC today characterized those who avoid GM foods as overly fussy, the very same day that the Wall Street Journal announced picky eating may be recognized in the 2013 DSM as a psychiatric disorder. The DSM item refers to something completely different, though I'm sure many will confuse the two. Of course, this was not done without subterfuge; the author, Professor Jonathan Jones in no way indicates his close ties to Monsanto. Point by point Jones regurgitates the same pro-GM arguments debunked numerous times all over the net for years, while serving up some stale half facts too.

Comment Re:Hmmm... (Score -1) 218

by mxh83 (#32728294) Attached to: VP8 Codec Coming To FFmpeg

Free OSes are now comparable in terms of usability to commercial ones, and in technical terms are years AHEAD of commercial OSes.

I really don't agree with that. Usability constitutes many things including UI, graphics and even device support. On the desktop, Linux is lacking in all departments. It is inconsistent between programs, and within the user interface itself. Device support is shaky and unreliable. OS updates to some distributions like Ubuntu nuke the whole system sometimes. Many things don't even have a UI. And lastly, none of the desktop environments look modern and cool. There are many many other issues with free software that have caused it to fail for home environments; unless they are accepted and worked on, free software will continue to be for nerds and not the masses.
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 8 Leaked, Microsoft Looks To Apple (msftkitchen.com) 1

Submitted by j0hnyquest
j0hnyquest writes: Over the weekend, the Italian Windows site Windowsettea managed to get ahold of a leaked Microsoft presentation on Windows 8. The presentation contains a large number of slides from what seems to be a Windows planning committee on the companies next generation operating system. Windows 8 promises to have an array of new features, such as Facial Recognition, Touch Screen Capabilities, and a new feature called Theming. Of special note is a slide entitled "How Apple Does It: A Virtuous Cycle" where they look to Apple as an example of how product satisfaction leads to brand loyalty and profit. The presentation also mentions a new Microsoft App Store for Windows 8, which TechFlash has dubbed 'Mac Envy'.

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