Wubby - Slashdot User

Comment Desktop wars - The users are the casualty (Score 1) 542

by Wubby on Monday June 22, 2009 @10:11AM (#28421517) Attached to: Does the Linux Desktop Innovate Too Much?

I have been a user of KDE since 2.0 running it on Solaris. Every release got better, giving user more tools, better control and an easier experience. When Gnome was dumbing down their interface, KDE stuck to the idea that users wanted control and I was one of those users.

Now we have 4.x. Major features are gone/not implemented, control is lost/not implemented and the tools are so different to the point that they can hardly be called the same app. (Konsole for one).

Innovation is important and it's the one thing that Desktop OSS is known for, but the stigma of making software that isn't really usable or having a development cycle that isn't reliable is well deserved. KDE is pulling a "Vista" with 4.X, but buggier and an even bigger difference between versions. Hell, it an entire philosophical shift.

I guess I don't share it. It's too bad, because I don't honestly expect KDE to survive it either.

Comment Review or Advert? (Score -1, Flamebait) 395

by Wubby on Monday January 26, 2009 @03:13PM (#26610743) Attached to: Daemon

I thought the "Books" section was for reviews. This "review" seems cut and pasted from some marketing copy. Either that, or has a hard-on for the author.

Slashdot's Disagree Mail 188

Posted by samzenpus on Friday September 12, 2008 @01:59PM from the I-want-back-in dept.

Since we covered people who wanted out of Slashdot last week, I thought we'd look at some people who wanted back in. These users found that living without Slashdot was a lot harder than they thought. Maybe you've just been married and are finding out your wife is less interesting than Slashdot or maybe you were bad and want to make amends. These people found out it's hard to make it without your favorite website. Keep reading to find out what they'll do to get back.

How Do I Prevent Lan Party Theft? 758

Posted by timothy on Wednesday August 20, 2008 @04:24PM from the have-it-at-the-neighbors'-place dept.

DragonTHC writes "I'm thinking about hosting a lan party open to the public. I'm aiming for approximately 60 people to attend. I can handle all the logistics of operation. The only thing I can't wrap my head around is: how do I prevent theft at the lan party? Do I hire security guards? Do I need security cameras? I don't know the people who will attend, and I don't know if they're trustworthy enough to not steal other people's equipment. What do I do?"

Why Power Failures Can Always Lead To Data Loss 456

Posted by timothy on Wednesday July 23, 2008 @01:03PM from the when-velcro-snags-shoelaces dept.

bigsmoke writes "So, all your servers run on RAID. You back up religiously. You're even sure that your backups are recoverable. But do you also need a UPS? According to Halfgaar (on Slashdot before to promote better Linux backup practices), yes, usually you do. He argues that despite technological advancements such as file system journaling, power failures can still cause data loss in most setups."

Comment Do not assemble in a copyrighted manner (Score 1) 502

by Wubby on Monday June 30, 2008 @11:34AM (#24001533) Attached to: Brightnets are Owner Free File Systems

Here is all the digital data available in the universe with all duplicate versions removed. It takes up 1 byte.

0|0
1|0
0|1
1|1

You are not allowed to assemble these into a copyrighted work. You have been warned.

The Beginnings of a TLD Free-For-All? 489

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday June 23, 2008 @03:08PM from the bad-ideas dept.

Mordok-DestroyerOfWo writes "According to the BBC, ICANN is considering opening up the wholesale creation of TLDs by private industry. While I'm sure this is done for the convenience of the companies and has nothing to do with the several thousand dollars they will be charging for each registration, I was curious what the tech community at large thought about this idea. It seems to me that this will simply open the doors for a never-ending stream of TLD squatters."

RIAA's Throwing In the Towel Covered a Sucker Punch 411

Posted by kdawson on Friday June 13, 2008 @10:16AM from the many-eyes dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA threw in the towel, all right, but was only doing it in preparation for throwing a sucker punch. After dropping its 'making available' case, Warner v. Cassin, before Judge Robinson could decide whether to dismiss or not, it was only trying to do an 'end run' (if I may mix my sports metaphors) around the judge's deciding the motion and freezing discovery. The RIAA immediately, and secretly, filed a new case against the family, calling this one 'Warner v. Does 1-4.' In their papers the lawyers 'forgot' to mention that the new case was related. As a result, Does 1-4 was assigned to another judge, who knew nothing about the old case. The RIAA lawyers also may have forgotten that they couldn't bring any more cases over this same claim, since they'd already dismissed it twice before. Not to worry, NYCL wrote letters to both judges, reminding them of what the RIAA lawyers had forgotten."

85% of Chinese Citizens Like Internet Censorship 609

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday May 14, 2008 @11:40AM from the well-nevermind-then dept.

cynagh0st writes "A Pew Internet & American Life Project report indicates that of an overwhelming majority of Chinese people that believed the Internet should be 'managed or controlled,' 85% want the government to do this managing. This is resulting from surveys on Internet use over the last seven years in China. 'The survey findings discussed here, drawn from a broad-based sample of urban Chinese Internet users and non-users alike, indicate a degree of comfort and even approval of the notion that the government authorities should control and manage the content available on the Internet.' The report goes further into describing the divide in perspective between China and Western Nations on the matter and discusses the PRC's justifications for Internet control."

Spore, Mass Effect DRM Phone Home For Single-Player Gaming 900

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @11:32AM from the incredibly-lame-ideas dept.

Tridus writes "The PC version of Mass Effect is going to require Internet access to play (despite being a single-player game), as its DRM system requires that it phone home every 10 days. Sadly, Spore will use the same system. This will do nothing to stop piracy of course, but it will do a heck of a good job of stopping EA's new arch-enemy: people playing their single player games offline." Is this better or worse than requiring a CD in the drive to play? Update: 05/07 17:17 GMT by T : According to a message from Technical Producer Derek French (may require a scroll-down) on the Bioware forums, there is indeed an internet connection required, but only for activation, not for all future play. Update: 05/08 04:10 GMT by T : Mea culpa. As reader David Houk points out, the 10-day window is in fact correct as initially described, so don't count on playing this on any machine without at least some Internet connectivity.

Why Aren't More Linux Users Gamers? 693

Posted by Zonk on Monday March 10, 2008 @03:18PM from the all-about-the-games dept.

tops writes "MadPenguin.org wonders why more Linux users aren't gamers and attempts to answer that question. The article suggests, 'As far as I'm concerned, it all comes down to a choice. Expect the gaming industry to follow the Linux doctrine or instead, build up a viable, cross platform gaming market that includes us, the Linux users.' The article urges publishers to consider Linux users as a viable market, and requests that game developers target Linux as a platform during the pre-production phase." What do you think are the most important obstacles barring the big game publishers from reaching out to the Linux market more than they already do?

'Death Star' Aimed at Earth 400

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday March 04, 2008 @03:41PM from the don't-destroy-earth-that's-where-i-keep-my-stuff dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A spectacular, rotating binary star system is a ticking time bomb, ready to throw out a searing beam of high-energy gamma rays that could lead to a major extinction event — and Earth may be right in the line of fire. Australian science magazine Cosmos Magazine reports: 'Though the risk may be remote, there is evidence that gamma ray bursts have swept over the planet at various points in Earth's history with a devastating effect on life. A 2005 study showed that a gamma-ray burst originating within 6,500 light years of Earth could be enough to strip away the ozone layer and cause a mass extinction. Researchers led by Adrian Melott at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, U.S., suggest that such an event may have been responsible for a mass extinction 443 million years ago, in the late Ordovician period, which wiped out 60 per cent of life and cooled the planet.'"

New Science Standards Approved in Florida 891

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 20, 2008 @01:11PM from the thinking-of-the-voters-not-the-children dept.

anonymous_echidna writes "Florida has voted to accept the new K-12 science curriculum standards amidst a storm of controversy around the teaching of evolution, which had up until now been the scientific concept that dare not speak its name. There was a compromise made at the last minute, which was to call evolution a 'scientific theory', rather than a fact. While some lament that the change displays the woeful ignorance of science and scientific terminology, the good news is that the new curriculum emphasizes teaching the meaning of scientific terms and the scientific method in earlier grades."

Supreme Court Won't Hear ACLU Wiretap Case 323

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 19, 2008 @06:39PM from the standing-knee-deep-in-paradox dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The US Supreme Court refused without comment the ACLU's appeal of a lower court ruling that prevented them from suing over the government's warrantless TSP program. The problem was a Catch-22: they lack legal 'standing' to sue over it because they can't prove that they were suspected terrorists, but neither can they find out who was actually suspected, because this is a matter of national security." Update: 02/20 00:17 GMT by KD : Removed an incorrect statement after a reader pointed out that, with the expiration of the Protect America Act this weekend, foreign surveillance will revert to oversight by the FISA court.

House Declines To Vote On Telecom Immunity 341

Posted by Soulskill on Friday February 15, 2008 @09:21AM from the ain't-over-till-it's-over dept.

freedom_india alerts us to news that the House of Representatives declined to bring the surveillance reform bill to vote, prompting House Republicans to walk out in the middle of a session. The bill, recently passed by the Senate, includes retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies who assisted with illegal domestic wiretaps. The walk-out comes after a proposal was shot down on Wednesday that would have extended the current legislation for another three weeks.

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