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Linuxcare

Submission + - No serious linux speech recognition software?

Submitted by wally66
wally66 writes: I was impressed by the quality of some Windows-based speech recognition packages [1,2] in the more recent past. Having successfully and happily moved to Linux for more than a year now, I miss nothing but a decent speech recognition program to relieve me from typing from time to time. The lack of progress for Linux-based applications in this field is stunning. The last entry in the linux speech-reconition HOW-TO is from 2002 and this is not an indication that the field has matured :-) The rest of the hits that you get when searching the net is not much more up-to-date. I know that there are packages for speech recognition in the default repositories of Ubuntu and other distros, but given the state of Windows-based speech recognition software such as ViaVoice or Dragon Naturally Speaking, they are prehistoric. Am I overlooking something?
Media

Submission + - Amarok is being ported to Windows (kde.org)

Submitted by NightFears
NightFears writes: Amarok, the popular Linux multimedia player, is being prepared for a Windows port. As highly-demanded as it is, the port spawned a lot of controversy among the dedicated Linux users, since many of them feel that after the release there'll be one strong argument less for convincing people to switch to Linux.

The amazing part here is that it only took two days. Basically most of Amarok was already so portable that it compiled without changes. I really expected it to be much more work. Shows that it pays off to use an excellent cross-platform toolkit like Qt in the first place.
Ah yes, and there's a screenshot.
Businesses

Submission + - The Inconvenient Truth about Carbon Offsets

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "An investigation by The Guardian concludes that carbon offsetting, an idea which flows not from scientists but from politicians and business execs, does little or nothing to combat global warming. Tree-planting projects in Guatemala, Ecuador and Uganda have been accused of disrupting water supplies, evicting thousands of villagers from their land, seizing grazing rights from farmers, cheating local people of promised income, and running plantations where the soil releases more carbon than is absorbed by the trees. 'I think planting trees is mostly a waste of time and energy,' explained the founder of Climate Care, which relies for some 20% of its online sales on forestry. 'People love it unfortunately.'"
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - ArchLinux changing their name

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After 5 years of being called Arch Linux and 5 years of people confusing us with Ark Linux, we've finally come up with a solution. We've spent the last few months talking to the Ark Linux people to come up with a solution that's beneficial for both distributions. Today, we are happy to announce a name change for Arch Linux. Today, I am happy to announce, we will be known as Ark Linux! We will keep our domain archlinux.org for the next few weeks, while people are still getting used to the name change, but eventually we will switch domains as well. In changing names, we are sure that people will never again have problems discerning Arch Linux with Ark Linux. http://www.archlinux.org/ and by the way, the old ark linux is also changing their name http://www.arklinux.org/
Mozilla

Submission + - Firefox No Longer Alternative Enough

Submitted by
Kelson
Kelson writes: "The Alternative Browser Alliance, which promotes the use of alternative browsers over Internet Explorer, has stopped promoting Firefox after nearly two years. According to the announcement, Firefox has sold out, gone mainstream, and "is no longer an alternative web browser."

Reportedly the site will throw its weight behind iCab, as it is guaranteed to remain alternative since it will never run on Windows Vista.""
Operating Systems

Submission + - Ubuntu Flying Spaghetti Monster Edition announced

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Pastafarians can rejoice everywhere, with the release of Ubuntu Flying Spaghetti Monster Edition. We believe His Noodliness chose Linux because Linux users are obviously all pirates already. Ubuntu Flying Spaghetti Monster Edition is now undergoing final beta testing and will be released shortly. Prepare yourselves to be touched by His Noodly Appendage!
Operating Systems

Submission + - Inside ReactOS

Submitted by
Andareed
Andareed writes: "Alex Ionescu, a lead developer of ReactOS (an open-source, source and binary compatible clone of Windows NT) recently gave a talk on the internals of ReactOS. In this talk, Ionescu also discusses how ReactOS is nearing complete kernel compatibility with Windows Server 2003. Interestingly, Ionescu hints that there are no plans for ReactOS once the kernel has been completed."
The Matrix

Submission + - Yellowstone Supervolcano Making Strange Rumblings

Submitted by
Frosty Piss
Frosty Piss writes: "Supervolcanoes can sleep for centuries or millennia before producing incredibly massive eruptions that can drop ash across an entire continent. One of the largest supervolcanoes in the world lies beneath Yellowstone National Park. Yet significant activity continues beneath the surface. And the activity has been increasing lately, scientists have discovered. In addition, the nearby Teton Range of mountains, in a total surprise, is getting shorter. The findings, reported this month in the Journal of Journal of Geophysical Research, suggest that a slow and gradual movement of a volcano over time can shape a landscape more than a violent eruption."
Security

Submission + - Security risk of OSS software

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: WordPress announced that someone cracked their server and inserted malicious code in their product. This, in itself, has nothing to do specifically with Open Source Software — the same problem could have arisen with proprietary software that is made available on an imperfectly-secured web site. OSS may be more susceptible to this kind of problem, however, because the software is often distributed through a wide variety of mirrors, and because their servers are by nature more open to access to the general public. How many OSS distributions supply an MD5 hash, and how many users check their download against it? Does anyone besides me prefer to download directly from the originating organization, instead of from a server at some university that might be hacked?
Programming

Submission + - How do you change careers into programming?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I have worked in tech support for the last several years, but find myself wanting to move on to something else — programming. I've written some small programs in my limited spare time but nothing particularly impressive; just functional stuff to make my life easier. I've spent a lot of time recently working through programming books, and feel I'm ready to make the switch in my career. That said, I don't have a CS degree, and find that responses to my resume have been along the lines of "Thanks, but we aren't hiring for tech support positions." Surely someone from the slashdot crowd has been in the same position — what would you recommend?
Announcements

Submission + - Help Find Jim Gray With Satellite Images

Submitted by Bananatree3
Bananatree3 writes: On January 29th, Jim Gray who was sailing to the Farallon Islands off San Francisco went missing. A massive search is now underway using satellite imagery and distributed human effort. Satellite images were taken where Jim is thought to have been. Help find Jim by reviewing these images and looking for any evidence of him on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Instructions on what to look for can be found on the Mechanical Turk site. Also, further information and updates on the search can be found on the blog of Amazon's chief technology advisor, Werner Vogels.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - DocuColor Tracking Dot Decoding Guide

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The EFF has posted a nice little guide decoding the grid that is printed by the Xerox DocuColor series printer. The FBI and NSA use this to keep track of certain groups, like Greenpeace, here in the US. The article itself only covers the DocuColor series printers, but the EFF warns that this maybe used by other printers as well. Very interesting read, and also very scary knowing that whatever we print can possibly be tracked with exact date and times and the serial number of the printer used. Enjoy!
Education

Submission + - OSSDI to Distribute OpenOffice.org in Schools

Submitted by
Xampper
Xampper writes: "The Open Source Software Distribution Initiative (OSSDI) is a new organization planning to distribute open source alternatives to expensive commercial software packages, primarily in education. Initially, OSSDI will be focusing its efforts on giving away professionally pressed CD-ROMS containing the OpenOffice.org software suite within school districts in poverty-stricken regions. These distributions will give students access to a professional office suite, which they might otherwise be unable to afford, while spreading awareness of open source software."
AMD

Submission + - Anyone else confused by AMD?

Submitted by
Alfius
Alfius writes: "I'm the proud owner of an high end Nvidia590 skt AM2 motherboard which I bought last summer, I furnished it with the rather low end single core Athlon 3800+ on the understanding that AMD would be releasing a conroe beating quadcore chip sometime in 2007. Since then I've read many seemingly conflicting reports about how/when/what AMD will actually be producing quad core wise. I find this whole 4x4 or should I say 2x2 business exceedingly confusing to say the least, and then there's socket F which I thought was supposed to be a server socket, and what really is AM3 anyway? Does anyone have the facts, can I look forward to quad core goodness on my AM2 board anytime this year? Or should I just forget all about it and buy an x2?"

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