Dow Jones Plunge Fueled by Overwhelmed Computers 215
cloudscout writes "The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 400 points today. While there were various valid financial reasons for such a decline, some of the blame is being placed on computer systems that couldn't keep up with the abnormally high volume at the New York Stock Exchange and the resulting tremor as they switched over to a backup system."
Submission + - New AMD Chipset Brings HDMI and ATI Graphics
Vigile writes: "Today AMD announced the new AMD 690 series of chipsets that feature integrated graphics based around the aging ATI Radeon X700 core architecture. It is the first AMD branded chipset in nearly 4 years and features some interesting features; one of which is the inclusion of integrated HDMI support. This should make for an interesting HTPC design though as PC Perspective reports, without support for decode acceleration of HD-DVD and Blu-ray, that HDMI is mostly just fluff. They also report that though the gaming performance is better than what NVIDIA's current 6150 chipset offers, it still doesn't impress as they'd hoped it would."
Submission + - The Truth About Switching: what it's really like!
TheMacThinker writes: "Poke around the net for a while searching for information on what it's like to switch to a Mac, and you'll quickly get a face full of hyperbole, zealots, platform bigots, feature weenies, and naysayers — from both the Windows and Mac camps.
But there are precious few places to get an honest word about what it's like to switch, other than some deeply technical face-offs. So, I've been taking notes for the past few years, and thought I'd write them down.
Before I get into things, I should say that I've been a happy Mac user for 3 or 4 years, but spent most of the 10+ years before that quite enamored with Windows and DOS as well.
So, here's what it's like to switch to a Mac, without all the whining and hysterics:
01 People will ridicule you for having a Mac
My former boss, an otherwise friendly and intelligent person, was always on the lookout for opportunities to poke fun at me because I used a Mac and brought it to work with me every day. This is changing, however, and mainly applies to corporate settings there days.
02 You'll feel like you're in a little club
When other Mac owners find out you have one too, you'll get a little smile of appreciation, and will likely end up talking about Macs for five or ten minutes — no matter who they are and what the circumstance is. You may or may not find this annoying.
03 People will help you for no reason
Other Mac owners are usually fairly willing to help you get up and running on the Mac. This may be self-serving on their behalf, because it helps sell more Mac stuff which in turn justifies their investment in a company with less than 10% market share, but it's still a perk.
04 Fewer people will try to attack you
Probably not through altruism, but rather because Mac platform is (a) less widely used and (b) based on a fairly robust UNIX operating system, there are almost no viruses or other nasty stuff for the Mac.
05 You'll be able to ignore most viruses
Each time the Windows community gets up in arms about the next big virus that is circulating around the globe, you can go about your business on your Mac without really worrying. However, you do have to be careful to not forward on infected files from one Windows user to another...
More on http://www.mostofmymac.com/articles/the-truth-abou t-switching-what-it%E2%80%99s-really-like-to-move- to-a-mac/"
But there are precious few places to get an honest word about what it's like to switch, other than some deeply technical face-offs. So, I've been taking notes for the past few years, and thought I'd write them down.
Before I get into things, I should say that I've been a happy Mac user for 3 or 4 years, but spent most of the 10+ years before that quite enamored with Windows and DOS as well.
So, here's what it's like to switch to a Mac, without all the whining and hysterics:
01 People will ridicule you for having a Mac
My former boss, an otherwise friendly and intelligent person, was always on the lookout for opportunities to poke fun at me because I used a Mac and brought it to work with me every day. This is changing, however, and mainly applies to corporate settings there days.
02 You'll feel like you're in a little club
When other Mac owners find out you have one too, you'll get a little smile of appreciation, and will likely end up talking about Macs for five or ten minutes — no matter who they are and what the circumstance is. You may or may not find this annoying.
03 People will help you for no reason
Other Mac owners are usually fairly willing to help you get up and running on the Mac. This may be self-serving on their behalf, because it helps sell more Mac stuff which in turn justifies their investment in a company with less than 10% market share, but it's still a perk.
04 Fewer people will try to attack you
Probably not through altruism, but rather because Mac platform is (a) less widely used and (b) based on a fairly robust UNIX operating system, there are almost no viruses or other nasty stuff for the Mac.
05 You'll be able to ignore most viruses
Each time the Windows community gets up in arms about the next big virus that is circulating around the globe, you can go about your business on your Mac without really worrying. However, you do have to be careful to not forward on infected files from one Windows user to another...
More on http://www.mostofmymac.com/articles/the-truth-abo
Submission + - CompUSA to close half of its stores
silic0nsilence writes: "Businesswire.com is reporting that CompUSA will be closing 126 stores, which is more than half of them. This comes months after a announcements that CompUSA may have been sold since it is not making much profit."
Submission + - VMware cries foul over Microsoft virtualisation
daria42 writes: The battle to control the virtualisation market has heated up with the launch of a white paper from VMware, which accuses Microsoft of anti-competitive practices. In language reminiscent of Microsoft's anti-trust battles in the US and its ongoing struggle with the European Union, VMware claimed that the software giant is "forcing [its] specifications and APIs on the industry", and "trying to restrict customers' flexibility and freedom to choose virtualisation software".
