Comment Obligatory Star Wars refernce (Score 1) 368
... as if millions of Linux users suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Comment Unless... (Score 1) 529
Unless your brain happens to be in the body of a woman, because then you're screwed.
Comment I left KDE for GNOME... (Score 3, Insightful) 818
because with KDE 4 they change the fundamental design philosophy of the project. I didn't want easy of use, I wanted control, which I why I originally left GNOME for KDE before that.
Now with GNOME making the same design choices, I'm left with MATE, which is just a fork of the the GNOME I want to use, but it's still lacking right now.
I understand that they want the interface to be easy for anyone to approach, but what about those of us who want to do more than just browse the web and share pictures of the grandkids?
I'm loosing all the features of the Linux Desktop that I left Windows for in the first place. *sigh
Comment Re:Dear Evangelicals, (Score 1) 1014
And the fundamentalists are enraged that all the liberal Christians are diluting the word of God by accepting things that are clearly not biblical, like treating women as equals, using science to understand things, and not spreading the faith through any means necessary (including lies and war).
Comment Dear Evangelicals, (Score 4, Insightful) 1014
Welcome to the 19th Century.
Sincerely,
Science
Comment Desktop wars - The users are the casualty (Score 1) 542
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
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.
Submission + - Microsoft slapped with $1.52 billion payout in MP3
Ice.Saoshyant writes: "Those federal juries in San Diego do seem to frown on MP3 patent infringement. They just ordered Microsoft to fork over $1.52 billion (yes, with a "b") to Alcatel-Lucent for infringing on two MP3 audio patents with its Windows Media Player, the largest patent ruling in history. Naturally, Alcatel-Lucent seems to like this turn of events.
I guess that's what they get for not using non-proprietary patent-free formats like Vorbis and FLAC. Software patents are a nightmare."
I guess that's what they get for not using non-proprietary patent-free formats like Vorbis and FLAC. Software patents are a nightmare."
Submission + - Rocket creates 1000 new pieces of space junk
MattSparkes writes: "A Russian rocket exploded in orbit on monday, creating 1000 new pieces of space junk. It is one of the worst space debris events ever recorded, the amount created being roughly on par with China's recent test. Researchers are not yet certain what may have caused it to explode; It could have been hit by a micrometeoroid, or corrosion or mechanical failure of the rocket body could have caused the fuel and oxidiser to come into contact, leading to an explosion. 2006 was an especially bad year in terms of satellite break-ups, with eight objects breaking up in orbit."
Submission + - NASA to Launch Magentic Storm Probes
eldavojohn writes: "The aurora borealis (also known as the Northern Lights) has long been known to be an effect resulting from the Sun's solar wind pushing particles into the earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. In light of the possible danger that these substorms could pose to astronauts & equipment, NASA is now planning a mission to track down these magnetic storms and disturbances. The program's not so catchy name of Time History of Events and Macroscale Interaction during Substorms has a slightly catchier acronym of THEMIS. From the article, "In order to scan the Earth's magnetic field and pinpoint the origin of substorms, THEMIS researchers plan to stagger their spacecraft in different orbits that range in altitude from 10 to 30 times the radius of the Earth (the planet's radius is about 3,962 miles, or 6,378 kilometers).""
Submission + - Conn. Teacher "spyware" case in-depth comm
boyko.at.netqos writes: "Network Performance Daily has two interviews dealing with the case of Julie Amero, the Connecticut schoolteacher convicted of harming minors from porn pop-up ads that the defense contends was the result of a spyware infection. The first is from defense witness Mr. Herb Horner, the second from prosecution witness Detective Mark Lounsbury."
Submission + - Microsoft pegs 1/2 million false pirates
arhhook writes: "Microsoft's anti-piracy tool has marked more than one in every five copies of Windows as bogus, the Redmond, Wash., developer said Tuesday, while more than half a million users may have been mistakenly pegged as pirates.
WGA has been criticized by users and some analysts for frequently getting the real versus counterfeit question wrong, mistakenly identifying valid copies as illegitimate. Lazar acknowledged that this "false positive" rate was a burden to users and Microsoft."
Submission + - The worst sounds in the world: official
An anonymous reader writes: Over 1.1 million votes have been counted and the results are in. But the worst sound is not fingernails on a blackboard (16th), or babies crying (3rd). The number one is truly sickening . . . vomiting.
Submission + - Google Sues Leo Stoller for Racketeering
EdwardianDandy writes: "Leo Stoller — the Chicago attorney who has successfully sued companies like Paramount and Northrop Grumman because he claims to own the trademark "stealth" (as in stealth bomber) — has finally been sued by Google for racketeering. Stoller has been harassing Google for years, arguing that he owns the trademark "Google," and submitting forged documents to the courts to prove his case."
Submission + - Revived House Science/Tech Investigations Subcomm.
Doc Ruby writes: The US House of Representatives has revived the once moribund Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology. Slashdot has covered government bias/censorship of science in policy. This subcommittee's job is to expose and correct such misgovernment. The new subcommittee Chair describes its recent history and immediate future in an interview. He mentions an anonymous tipoff form anyone can use to report abuse to the subcommittee.
