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Microsoft

Submission + - Where Do I Go Now that Oracle Owns OpenOffice.org? (openoffice.org) 2

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: So I noted that there was better support for my processor in the latest BIOS for my mainboard. After downloading the update, there was a .doc file containing flashing instructions. No matter, I have OpenOffice.org installed on this machine and just opened it up. And, as should be no surprise, there was an Oracle logo splash screen while OpenOffice.org 3.2 started up. At my job, I've had a less than favorable history with Oracle that I'm not going to get into — rather let's just say I never want anything to do with them again. Including installing any of their software on my machine. So I'm facing a dilemma. I've looked into the forked LIbreOffice but that's still in beta and I'm a little wary of depending on that. Has anyone used LibreOffice (it's installing as I type this) extensively? Does it handle complex Powerpoint files okay? Is there some alternative out there that I'm completely overlooking for open source? Can anyone convince me that there's no reason to fear the Oracle OpenOffice.org? Will it remain the de facto standard? Will it eventually lock me into a commitment with Oracle? If you get by without one of these heavyweight monster editors, what do you use and how do you handle doc, ppt, etc extensions?
Privacy

Lawsuit Hits Companies Using 'Zombie' Flash Cookies 140

Posted by kdawson from the brains-for-a-filling dept.
A privacy activist has filed a lawsuit targeting eight corporate users of Quantcast's "zombie" Flash cookies, in addition to Quantcast itself. The suit alleges that MTV, ESPN, MySpace, Hulu, ABC, Scribd, and others used Quancast's Flash-based cookies to recreate browser tracking cookies that users had taken the trouble to delete. "At issue is technology from Quantcast, also targeted in the lawsuit. Quantcast created Flash cookies that track users across the web, and used them to re-create traditional browser cookies that users deleted from their computers. These 'zombie' cookies came to light last year, after researchers at UC Berkeley documented deleted browser cookies returning to life. Quantcast quickly fixed the issue, calling it an unintended consequence of trying to measure web traffic accurately. ... The lawsuit (PDF)... asks the court to find that the practice violated eavesdropping and hacking laws, and that the practice of secretly tracking users also violated state and federal fair trade laws. The lawsuit alleges a 'pattern of covert online surveillance' and seeks status as a class action lawsuit."

Submission + - Students show dramatic drop in empathy (psychologytoday.com) 1

Submitted by MotorMachineMercenar
MotorMachineMercenar writes: Several news sources report that today's college students show a precipitous drop in empathy. The study of 14,000 students shows that students since year 2000 had 40% less empathy than those before them, and the article has a laundry list of culprits, from child rearing practices and self-help movement to free market economy and income inequality. There's also a link so you can test your very own level of narcissism. Let's hope slashdot crowd doesn't break the lack of empathy -counter.

Comment Re:Works for me (Score 1) 4

by John Seifarth (#31811758) Attached to: Quote of the day

And what is the problem to network Mac OSX? I haven't yet had the pleasure of yet trying Microsoft's latest and greatest, but I've been networking Macs with Linux servers since Mac OSX public beta, using NFS, SMB, and netatalk, and I haven't found it to be particularly hard. Even now, with Snow Leopard, and the previous netatalk version, I've had no problems at all.

However, I've never tried to integrate Macs into Active Directory, and that could well be a problem.

What kind of issues have you had with Mac OSX? Did they involve Active Directory? What have been your problems with Win7?

Comment Re:Did you type this on a manual typewriter? (Score 1) 776

by John Seifarth (#31734806) Attached to: Toyota Accelerator Data Skewed Toward Elderly

(OT: How do they refer to what we in the US call 'mileage' in other countries? Kilometerage?)

In most European countries, they call it "fuel consumption" in their native language, and calculate it as the number of liters of fuel consumed per 100 km driven. Automobile advertising includes CO2 emissions in grams CO2/100km as well as fuel consumption in liters[petrol|diesel|ethanol|LPG]/100km.

I've just wasted my time trying to figure out how to convert between miles/gallons and litres/100km. This should be pretty straightforward, but my basic algebra is so rusty from disuse... Can the guy refreshing his math post how to do the conversion?
Games

New Assassin's Creed Next Year, Will Have Multiplayer 56

Posted by Soulskill from the two-assassins-one-creed dept.
Ubisoft has announced that the next stand-alone Assassin's Creed title will come out next year, and it will be the first in the series to come with an online multiplayer mode. The company also said it will be "shoring up its focus on competitive AAA core titles on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3" in the coming year, making mention of upcoming releases for the Tom Clancy game series and a new Prince of Persia title.
GUI

IDEs With VIM Text Editing Capability? 193

Posted by timothy from the one-keybinding-to-rule-them-all dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I am currently looking to move from text editing with vim to a full fledged IDE with gdb integration, integrated command line, etc. Extending VIM with these capabilities is a mortal sin, so I am looking for a linux based GUI IDE. I do not want to give up the efficient text editing capabilities of VIM though. How do I have my cake and eat it too?"
Movies

Cameron's Avatar a 3D Drug Trip? 215

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the i'll-take-three-squid-recordings-and-a-bag-of-chips dept.
bowman9991 writes "James Cameron's first movie since Titanic, his upcoming science fiction epic Avatar, has a budget pushing US$200 million and enough hype to power a mission to Mars. Now it appears the 3D technology he created to turn his vision into a reality, the key to Avatar's success or failure, may be habit forming. Dr. Mario Mendez, a behavioral neurologist at the University of California, said it is entirely possible Cameron's 3D technology could tap brain systems that are undisturbed by conventional 2D movies. Cameron himself believes 3D viewing 'is so close to a real experience that it actually triggers memory creation in a way that 2D viewing doesn't' and that stereoscopic (3D) viewing uses more neurons, which would further heighten its impact."

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