Comment Undulatus Asperatus (Score 1) 166
Seen it. Took a picture. Just sent it to them. I was at a camp out. Everybody totally freaked out and hid in their tents and vehicles.
Chrome OS Designed To Start Microsoft Death Spiral 817
Al writes "Technology Review has a feature article that explores the business strategy underlying Google's decision to develop its Linux-based operating system, Chrome OS. Writer G. Pascal Zachary argues that Eric Schmidt has identified a sea-change in the software business, as signaled by Microsoft's recent problems and by the advancement of cloud computing. Zachary notes that Larry Page and Sergey Brin have pushed to develop a slick, open-source alternative to Windows for around six years (with the rationale that improving access to the Web would ultimately benefit Google), but that Schmidt has always refused. While developing Chrome OS is a significant gamble for Google, Zachary believe it will exploit Microsoft's historical weakness in terms of networking and internet functionality, forcing its rival to better serve Google's core business goals, whilst initiating its own steady, slow-motion decline."
Comment The Disconnect Between Management and the Value of (Score 1) 333
It's like the Fire Dept. saying that the mechanics working on their trucks are not important.
Submission + - Legal problems for Wikipedia
ToiletDuck writes: "The Wikimedia Foundation has been named in a lawsuit filed by literary agent Barbara Bauer, apparently over her less-than-complimentary Wikipedia biography (mirror). The lawsuit comes in the wake of the resignation of Brad Patrick, Wikimedia's General Counsel and Executive Director. When questioned about Wikipedia's liability in an interview with GC South last year, Patrick stated 'Our belief is that since every post is attributed to an individual, is time-stamped and is retained in the database, the foundation itself is not publishing that content. We view individual editors as responsible and have prominently displayed on every edit page that individuals are responsible for their own contributions. We take the position that we are a service provider and are protected under section 230 [of the Communications Decency Act].'
Should Wikipedia be liable for defamatory information added by its volunteer editors?"
Bookmark How do I convert an Mp3 file song into a URL for MySpace? (askdavetaylor.com)
Journal Journal: Where Do The Presidential Candidates Stand On Energy? 2
Energy policy is a big thing for me in the 2008 election. So I went and looked at the web sites of four Democratic frontrunners and four Republican frontrunners to see what their issue statements were on the topic. Of the 8, only 3 laid out their plans in detail, 2 merely paid lip service with appropriate buzz words but no r
Submission + - Borrow items from your neighbors...
neighborrow writes: "with neighborrow.com you make the most of the items you use least and pay the least for the items you want most!
neighborrow.com is a global yet extremely localized, interactive, online library (glocal onlinebrary) which enables you to see the DVDs, books, CDs, games, tools, and other items that are available in your building or neighborhood, and allows you to check them out and borrow them, FREE. Now you can find (and borrow, trade, or donate) items in your neighborhood without compromising anyone's privacy, especially your own (all profiles can are can be private and secure, addresses are kept private and exchanges can be anonymous if desired). Securely lend the items you rarely use but still want to own, trade the items you don't want at all, and share the cost of new items. Finally, a fun, free, safe and practical way to get the most out of your stuff. Sharing with your neighbors really saves dollars and makes sense."
Submission + - The Office's Pam Gets Naked for Wired
theodp writes: "Taking a page out of SI's Swimsuit Issue playbook, Wired offers up a Get Naked Issue for April, featuring Pam from The Office (aka Jenna Fischer) as the now-she's-in-a-business-suit-now-she's-not cover girl for radical corporate transparency. Wired explains it's easier on the eyes than Dwight, but not all are amused."
Submission + - Ubuntu running on the Xbox 360
Anonymous Coward writes: "Cpasjuste has managed to get Ubuntu (comunity developed Linux-based operating system) running on the Xbox 360. It contains all the standard applications such as a WEB BROWSER, spreadsheet software, instant messaging software and more. To get it running King Kong is required as well as the vulnerable kernels. Read more about it here at:
http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?p=4670 13#post467013
The news stub can be found here:
http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=15411"
Submission + - Best OSS Systems Mgmt App You Never Heard Of
FLOSSisnot4Teeth writes: "You probably are familiar with Nagios and Webmin as two of the most widely deployed open source systems management applications. However, this month's SourceForge.net Project of the Month is probably a newcomer to open source systems and network administrators. Zenoss Core is a systems monitoring platform, released under GPL and over the last year it's become one of the most popular SF.net projects. Unlike most of these new "commercially backed" open source projects, Zenoss Core is the only version, their corporate sponsor doesn't offer a "pro version". Also their developers have been committing code back to other projects like RRDTool and Twisted. I have been playing around with Zenoss for about six months and have been totally impressed. Would be curious to see what other Slashdot readers think."
Submission + - Scientists powering batteries with soda, tree sap
BobB writes: "St. Louis University researchers have concocted batteries fueled by almost any kind of sugar, from tree sap to flat soda, and that could be used to power everything from computers to cellphones. Their thinking: If sugar can jack up the human body, why not electronics?
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1288 6"
Submission + - Economist Talks on Details of Software Startups
bobdole3k writes: Larry Smith, a world class economist from the University of Waterloo has dedicated his career to studying software enterprises. Recently, he gave a talk on the mechanics of starting a successful software company. Through his extensive knowledge of the industry, Smith provides a detailed analysis of what worked and what didn't in software startups. A video of the talk is available on the Computer Science Club's media archive.
MS Trying To Spur Vista Sales With Discounts 329
Ang writes "Is Microsoft having worries about selling Vista already? Ars reports that Microsoft has announced yet another 'discount program' for Vista, but these new discounts work out to only about 10% off list price — not much when you notice that retailers already sell Vista below list. To make matters worse, the discount program would still end up costing you $100 more than the older 'family' discount built around Vista Ultimate in some situations. Ars spends seven paragraphs explaining this convoluted offer. Is all of this complexity supposed to help sell Vista?" If you must buy Vista, it might be advisable to sit on your wallet for a while. The discounts are bound to get sweeter.
Submission + - Applying Art of War Principles to OSS Battle
mrbluze writes: "Openaddict has an interesting read on how to best fight the good fight against the Evil Empire, quoting Sun Tzu's famous work.
It's not enough that we're better (because we are) — we also have to out maneuver our opponent in the press and in the hearts/minds of the average user.
"
Submission + - Million Dollar Laptop
thefekete writes: 'UK-based bespoke luxury goods creator Luvaglio has created the first million dollar laptop.'
'Full details of the laptop have not been released at this point, but it is known that it incorporates a 17" widescreen LED lit screen with a specially designed anti-reflective glare coating for clear and brighter image, 128GB of Solid State Disk space and a slot loading Blue-Ray drive. There is an integrated screen cleaning device and a very rare coloured diamond piece of jewellery [sic] that doubles up as the power button when placed into the laptop and also acts as security identification.'
Story from gizmag.com
'Full details of the laptop have not been released at this point, but it is known that it incorporates a 17" widescreen LED lit screen with a specially designed anti-reflective glare coating for clear and brighter image, 128GB of Solid State Disk space and a slot loading Blue-Ray drive. There is an integrated screen cleaning device and a very rare coloured diamond piece of jewellery [sic] that doubles up as the power button when placed into the laptop and also acts as security identification.'
Story from gizmag.com
