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Operating Systems

Submission + - Petition to open OS/2 source, round/2 (os2world.com) 1

Submitted by The_Wilschon
The_Wilschon writes: On September 25, 2005, OS2World.com sent a petition with 11,613 signatures to IBM, asking them to release some or all of the source code to OS/2. Oddly, given IBM's embrace of the Open Source movement, the letter was ignored. So, on November 19 of this year, OS2World.com sent a second letter. They have also opened up a second petition round in order to show even more support to IBM for their requests. In particular, the System Object Model (SOM), Workplace Shell (WPS), and OS/2 kernel could both spur new OS/2 development and provide some fresh ideas to the Free Software world.
Microsoft

Submission + - WARNING: driver updates causing Vista deactivation (apcmag.com)

Submitted by
KrispySausage
KrispySausage writes: "After weeks of gruelling troubleshooting, I've finally had it confirmed by Microsoft Australia and USA — something as small as swapping the video card or updating a device driver can trigger a total Vista deactivation.

Put simply, your copy of Windows will stop working with very little notice (three days) and your PC will go into "reduced functionality" mode, where you can't do anything but use the web browser for half an hour.

How can this ridiculous situation occur, and what is Microsoft's response... read on."
The Internet

Submission + - Pirate Bay earns 20,000 Euros a day (rixstep.com) 2

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: controverisal pro-piracy website the piratebay likes to portray itself as an innocent hobby site that provides a free index without censorship, but recent facts show that the site is earning up to 20,000 Euros per day from its advertising. Taking in money on this scale puts a different slant on the motives behind the Swedish filesharing site, and could open up the runners of the site to prosecution for profiting from copyright infringement.
Security

Submission + - New Tool Automates Webmail Account Hijacks (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A pair of software tools demonstrated at the Black Hat security conference today automate the interception of cookie files transmitted over a wireless network that allow attackers to hijack accounts for Gmail, Hotmail, Facebook and a number of other Web 2.0 services, washingtonpost.com's Security Fix reports. From the story: "the attack works even if victims subsequently change their passwords, or actively sign out of their accounts. However, attackers would be unable to change the victim's password, as all of the above-named services force the user to reenter the current password before changing it to a new one."
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Apple May Track IPod Thieves & You (msn.com)

Submitted by
Ryan N. Kamfolt - ClickAway
Ryan N. Kamfolt - ClickAway writes: "Apple may begin implementing software in its I-Tunes suite to track serial numbers of I-Pods and compare them to a stolen I-Pod database. Due to the worlds most successful and popular product being on the #1 most stolen items list. This may alert the local police to come knocking on your door, if "Your" I-Pod is in question. Weather it be stolen or legit, people are not taking this to heart kindly at all. With the right to privacy walls closing in on us ever so fast, this seems to be another push to take our privacy rights away even more, or is it? Those who have had their I-Pods stolen love the idea. Others are not so happy about the idea. Some privacy right advocates have suggested implementing I-Pods or I-Phones with owner ID verification, such as a password or other forms of verification that must be entered into the devices before they will take a charge or allow you to place songs on the device. Or offer a service that is apart of Apple iCare, which allows users who feel they may become a victim of theft, to join this database, to further protect them in the even their I-Pod is stolen."
KDE

Submission + - KDE 4.0 Beta 1 Released 1

Submitted by
mernil
mernil writes: "The KDE Community is happy to announce the immediate availability of the first Beta release for KDE 4.0. This release marks the beginning of the integration process which will bring the powerful new technologies included in the now frozen KDE 4 libraries to the applications."
Biotech

Submission + - Scientists Closer to Turning Skin Cells toTissue

Submitted by Nrbelex
Nrbelex writes: The New York Times is reporting that 'In a surprising advance that sidesteps the ethical debates surrounding stem cell biology, researchers have come much closer to a major goal of regenerative medicine, the conversion of a patient's cells into specialized tissues that might replace those lost to disease. The advance is an easy-to-use technique for reprogramming a skin cell of a mouse back to the embryonic state. Embryonic cells can be induced in the laboratory to develop into many of the body's major tissues.'
Education

Submission + - ASUS $199-$299 Notebook Announced

Submitted by
Plekto
Plekto writes: "http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/3951/asus_introd uces_new

I ran across this last night, but it evidently is slow to get out into the news.

Go to the ASUS site and select "global" as your area — there's an area on the left bottom side of the screen that you can click to bring up a nice bit of animation(the site's all JAVA, so I can't provide a direct link).

Prices will be $199-$299 — and it's not marketed as a OLPC, but a small basic laptop aimed at the younger crowds/college students/etc — who need more than a PDA but don't want it to be huge, either. It reminds me a lot of the Toshiba Libretto. Just under a pound."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Linux developers outline tech gaps (linuxworld.com)

Submitted by
dmarti
dmarti writes: "Linus Torvalds, Andrew Morton, and Jonathan Corbet talk about core kernel areas needing significant development work, including the filesystem, power management, and instrumentation. "Many people would like for the driver to also use power efficiently, and handle suspend/resume well, but it's definitely a secondary concern to 'working'," Linus says."
Intel

Submission + - Intel 45nm Penryn Quad-Core Spotted At Computex (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Intel has been allowing the press to have sneak peeks at their new 45nm-based Penryn quad-core processors this week out at Computex. Preliminary information regarding these processors and their accompanying platform, shows that they are based on Intel's LGA771 packaging, the packaging that is used with Intel's current Xeon processors. These processors will be housed in a dual socket LGA771 motherboard (Skulltrail) that will feature multiple PCI Express x16 slots. We also know that this platform will only support FBDIMMs — at least in the beginning — making it pretty obvious that like AMD, Intel has simply transformed a dual socket server platform into a dual socket desktop platform.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Finally, someone creates the mouse mouse.

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "It's been a long time coming, but someone has finally created the mouse mouse. What is a mouse mouse, you ask? It's a computer mouse, in a real mouse. It's a recursive mouse! It even has a scroll wheel.

It's on Instructables, so there are instructions as well, should one feel a normal mouse is just completely inadequate and the need to create one's own. I'm doubting many will go that far, but hey, it's good to have the option. Best yet, it glows!"
Operating Systems

Submission + - Solaris 10 as a Desktop OS

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This article reviews Solaris 10 — one of the most robust Unix operating system out there. The review is writen in the perspective of a desktop user and points to various solaris related resources where one can get more help in the day to day running of Solaris on your desktop. The article concludes ...


I believe this is an operating system which holds a lot of promise as a Desktop OS. And if the people steering Sun Microsystems take the right decisions (hint: GPL ???), it just might take the fancy of a large section of IT savvy public, enough to motivate many of them to start developing Free software for Solaris

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