gadget junkie - Slashdot User

Submission + - win7 runs better than XP.....just barely (extremetech.com)

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gadget junkie

on Friday November 20, 2009 @06:48PM

gadget junkie writes: "An interesting Article by Extremetech does a quick and dirty comparison between Windows 7, Vista, and good ole Windows XP. none of the tests are real life tests, and the hardware was dated, but "[...]For the most part, these tests don't show Windows 7 soundly trouncing XP. But for an operating system that's far richer in features and more advanced in interface, Windows 7 is quite close to the older OS and tops it in several tests. Most impressive among Windows 7's wins were its JavaScript and shutdown time results."
One phrase was rather defensive, tough:"For gamers, the results are pretty much a wash between XP and Windows 7. In any case, power gamers are far more likely to be buying for a new high-end machines and not upgrading an old XP system."
Now, I am not a big geek, but I DO play games .My quad core intel runs on XP, and you'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers; and many other people I know choose hardware sellers on one big service they offer: they do the downgrade from Vista or Win 7 to XP.
I do not have the time and resources to buy a win7 machine for inhouse testing, expecially the user experience: what's the score for slashdotters on this one?"

Submission + - is Virtual Desktop going mainstream? (wsj.com)

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gadget junkie

on Tuesday September 29, 2009 @05:20PM

gadget junkie writes: "Thin clients have waxing and waning for almost a decade now. I've worked for a number of companies in Italy, and seen others, and no meaningful example has come across my path. Now the Wall Street Journal runs a story about the increasing use of virtual desktops in corporations and educational environments. Since the WSJ is not a specialist publications, there are what I reckon some oddities in the article, for example there's a vague suggestion of a link between the debut of Win7 and the increase in use of thin desktop. Is it the start of a glorious revolution, or the PC will remain the mainstay for years to come?"

Submission + - Aircraft simulation and MS windows 2

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gadget junkie

on Saturday May 02, 2009 @01:47PM

gadget junkie writes: "I live in Turin, and this year the World Air Games will be held here. In advance of the games proper, I went to a small event where there were the usual scale models, some industry presentation and air simulators; the most interesting was one by Alenia Aereonautica featuring the Typhoon fighter aircraft, with two 16:9 big screens, one with the outside view, and the other a touchscreen simulating the cockpit layout. At one point, the operator had to restart the program from scratch, and imagine my amazement when the screen flashed the operating system: FEDORA!!!There is hope for games on linux then!!!!

The person operating the system told me that this demo simulator had been shown at the Farnborough air show as well. Do any of you know other instances of simulation/games up to the standard of the windows world?"

Submission + - Tomtom patent dispute with Microsoft ends

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gadget junkie

on Monday March 30, 2009 @04:31PM

gadget junkie writes: "According to a Wall Street Journal article, Microsoft and Tomtom have settled their patent dispute. The article states that Tomtom will pay an "undisclosed amount" for Microsoft patents, while Microsoft will receive "coverage" for four Tomtom patents free of charge.
While this might seem unbalanced, I personally am more disturbed by the lack of details of the agreement, but since both companies are listed, eventually [...] we will know more.
warning: possible subscription required for the WSJ article."

Submission + - Invisibility cloak: the klingons are amongst us!!! (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by

gadget junkie

on Friday March 13, 2009 @06:21AM

gadget junkie writes: "Cloaking technology has been around for some time, but today's article in the Wall Street journal makes it mainstream: cloaking, be it in the visual or in the RF spectrum, is not only possible but under advanced research and development. For a Sci-fi buff like me, this opens lots of interesting speculations. For many a decade, past war practices and technologies were "ported" into science fiction: uncountable sci-fi classic books draw on naval wars. This time, it could be the other way around.
Shall the Pentagon hire sci-fi buffs as strategists as a consequence?"

Submission + - News from Space: Isaac Asimov was (almost) right!

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gadget junkie

on Thursday November 22, 2007 @06:33PM

gadget junkie writes: "Isaac Asimov, in his "Foundation" book series, postulated that Earth was unique in having a satellite one quarter as big as itself. According to this press release from the Spitzer Space Telescope site, he was reasonably close....big moons are hard to find. At least the ones born out of collisions between big objects, like the nascent Earth and something the size of Mars....But be of good cheer, 5% of Billions of planets is still a lot!!!"

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