UncleFluffy - Slashdot User

Submission + - How can a student easily switch to opensource?

Submitted by on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @12:29PM

An anonymous reader writes: I am a high school student and have been the tech guru for the computers in my newspaper class for two years. Last year, I was appointed Editor-in-Chief, and will continue to be so this fall. When we got our current network, the former tech guru installed pirated software from the OS up. There wasn't really a problem until last year, when our pdf distiller had an activation error and ceased to function until a re-pirate. Since I'm in charge, I want to switch the system to opensource software, but though I am very computer savvy with Windows, I'm not exactly a Linux pro. I need a distribution that is very user-friendly (everyone is familiar with Windows) and that is easy to network. I'm considering Ubuntu, with Scribus as layout software, the GIMP and Irfan view for image editors, and OpenOffice as the office suite. Are there any other options that would allow an easy switch, with minimal time needed for teaching the new software to others?

Submission + - Municipal Fiber Gets Final Approval (theadvertiser.com)

Submitted by

Teh Treag

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @12:20PM

Teh Treag writes: "After over three years of court battles with BellSouth, and Cox Communications over providing fiber to residential customers for broadband, telephone, and television, the final hurdles were crossed. The city of Lafayette, LA. expects the fiber to increase competition, drive down broadband prices, and attract technology business development. Expect the battle over funding the $125 million project to continue.

From the Daily Advertiser

"Certainly this is a day we've all been waiting for," said LUS Director Terry Huval...

John St. Julien has been maintaining a blog following this story from the beginning."

Submission + - Companies that Clean Up Bad Online Reputations

Submitted by Radon360 on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @12:20PM

Radon360 writes: As the ever-increasing amount of information available online becomes indexed and searchable, more and more people find themselves potentially at risk of having unwanted personal information revealed or their names incorrectly associated with inflammatory topics. The are several firms that now sell their services of trying to remove or bury such information that their client deems offensive or troublesome. Companies, such as ReputationDefender and DefendMyName will, for a fee, do the legwork to find content that negatively impacts your reputation and have it removed or buried deeper in search rankings. However, some of these efforts can backfire, as the act to get it taken down can sometimes draw more attention than the offending content in the first place.

Submission + - Weightless Hawking

Submitted by obyom on Thursday March 01, 2007 @11:30AM

obyom writes: According to CNN: "Renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who wrote the best-selling book, 'A Brief History of Time,' soon will experience a brief history with weightlessness."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/03/01/hawking.s pace.ap/index.html

Be careful, Stephen.

Submission + - Voting systems company threatens Dutch state

Submitted by Eelco on Thursday March 01, 2007 @05:42AM

Eelco writes: The monopolist provider of software used during elections in The Netherlands has threatened the Dutch state after the state ordered security enhancements right before the parliamental elections of 2006. This was discovered by the we-don't-trust-voting-computers foundation who received, invoking the Dutch Freedom of Information Act, shocking internal documents from the Dutch Electoral Council. In one of the e-mails, the companies owner Jan Groenendaal threatens (translated) that his company will cease all activity if Rop Gonggrijp of the we-don't-trust-voting-computers foundation becomes a member of the independent commission that is investigating the future of the electoral process. Moreover, he demands the state to buy his company, in exchange for his cooporation during the next national elections. The full story shows a weird an almost not imaginable relationship between the Dutch state and the company that provides all software to tabulate election results, as well as the software used in 90% of the voting machines itself.

Bookmark AMD 690 Chipset Builds in ATI Graphics (pcworld.com)

by Kirks11 on Thursday March 01, 2007 @02:07AM

Submission + - Can you run an open GSM network?

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @11:28PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Here in Vancouver cellphone companies are charging ridiculous amounts for basic cellphone plans. I'm wondering if it's possible to run an open/almost free GSM network on a small college campus. Assuming we could find the hardware and get the rights, is there open source software out there to handle all this?"

Submission + - Simple computation using dominos

Submitted by on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @08:39PM

An anonymous reader writes: When silicon fails to beat Moores law, maybe dominos can help. This guy has created a half adder in dominos as a proof of concept for domino computation. If he intends to make a full domino computer he's going to need an awful lot of dominos...

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