Comment Re:Satellites FTW? (Score 1) 145
Yes, but satellite internet pretty much kills any possibility of internet gaming, other than turn-based games. Wikipedia says it adds 500 to 900 miliseconds, which, erm, would suck.
Astronaut Loses Tools While Performing an EVA 445
tpheiska writes "NASA press release states that 'At approx. 3:33 p.m. EST, Piper reported that one of the Braycote lubrication guns had released grease into her toolbag. As she was cleaning the bag and wiping the tools and equipment inside, the bag floated away. Another bag carrying identical equipment is now being shared by Piper and Bowen.' Luckily they had a spare."
Microsoft To Offer Free Anti-Virus Software 448
Dynamoo writes "The good news is that Microsoft have announced free anti-virus software for consumers, dubbed Morro, available late next year. The bad news is ... well, exactly the same. Although Microsoft's anti-malware products are pretty good, this move could drive many competitors out of business and create a dangerous security monoculture; major rivals will be lawyering up already. On the other hand, many malware infections could be prevented even by basic software. So is this going to be a good or bad thing overall?"
Is Windows 7 Faster Or Just Smarter? 619
Barence writes "The Windows 7 unveiling garnered largely positive coverage, with many hands-on testers praising it for being faster than Vista. But is it actually? To find out, this blogger ran a suite of benchmarks to see just how much quicker Windows 7 really is — and the results weren't quite what he expected. 'The actual performance gap between Vista and Windows 7 is ... nada. Absolutely nothing. Our Office benchmarks and video encoding tests complete in precisely the same time regardless of which OS is installed. [...] It's tempting to see this as a bit of a con. They've sped up the front end so it feels like you're getting more done, but in terms of real productivity it's no better than Vista."
Comment Re:What I'd like to know is... (Score 3, Informative) 639
23AndMe includes HIV Resistance in their battery of genetic tests.
"Challenge Room" DLC Doesn't Follow BioShock's Strengths 41
Kotaku took a look at the "Challenge Room" downloadable content for the PS3 version of BioShock. They came to the conclusion that while the combat is entertaining, it doesn't have the same focus on the story that made BioShock such a good game. Quoting:
"What's really bothering me is the lack of fiction. I'm not asking for a new ending or a tacked-on chapter that somehow changes the fantastic story of BioShock — why fix something that isn't broken, right? It's just that what made BioShock special was the story. Oh, sure, the graphics were spiffy, the art style was cool and the game really does play well (not too glitchy or difficult to manage). But to me, BioShock without its story is like a Twinkie without its filling — still somewhat tasty, but hollow and far less satisfying."
Submission + - Michael Crichton dead at age 66
Sethb writes: "Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, and many man other Sci-Fi bestsellers died today at the age of 66."
Blizzard Sued By South Carolina Inmate 239
Benjamin Duranske writes "Jonathan Lee Riches, an inmate in South Carolina famous for filing long, handwritten, rambling screeds against celebrities, politicians, and even buildings, has filed a third-party motion in Federal Court in Arizona in the MDY v. Blizzard botting case claiming that Blizzard's World of Warcraft 'caused Riches mind to live in a virtual universe, where Riches explored the landscape committing identity theft and fighting cybermonster rival hacker gangs. Riches was addicted to video games and lost touch with reality because of defendants. This caused Riches to commit fraud to buy defendants video games. Riches chose World of Warcraft over working a legit job, Riches mind became a living video game.'"
Reliable, Free Anti-Virus Software? 586
oahazmatt writes "Some time ago my wife was having severe issues on her laptop. (A Dell Inspiron, if that helps.) I eventually found the cause to be McAfee, which took about an hour to remove fully. I installed AVG on her system to replace McAfee, but we have since found that AVG is causing problems with her laptop's connection to our wireless network. She's not thrilled about a wired connection as the router is on the other end of the house. We're looking for some good, open-source or free personal editions of anti-virus software. So, who on Slashdot trusts what?" When school required a Windows laptop, I used Clam AV, and the machine seemed to do as well as most classmates'. What have you found that works?
Which Phone To Develop For? 344
Rob MacKenzie writes "I have to decide on a mobile phone to develop for. We're building a house with some automation built in, and we want the mobile phone to be able to control certain aspects of it, and retrieve information on what's going on in the house. Our choices are the usual suspects: Apple's IPhone, RIM's Blackberry, Nokia's line (Symbian), any Android phone we can get in Canada, J2ME generic app, or a Web-based UI we would interact with in the phone's browser. What would you choose if you had to go with one? Which exact model? We will be buying a few to develop for, so price is a bit of an issue."
Computers Causing 2nd Hump In Peak Power Demand 375
Hugh Pickens writes "Traditional peak power hours — the time during the day when power demand shoots up — run from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. when air conditioning begins to ramp up and people start heading for malls and home but utilities are now seeing another peak power problem evolve with a second surge that runs from about 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. when people head toward their big screen TVs and home computers. 'It is [not] so much a peak as it is a plateau,' says Andrew Tang, senior director of the smart energy web at Pacific Gas & Electric. '8 p.m. is kind of a recent phenomenon.' Providing power during the peak hours is already a costly proposition because approximately 10 percent of the existing generating capacity only gets used about 50 hours a year: Most of the time, that expensive capital equipment sits idle waiting for a crisis. Efforts to reduce demand are already underway with TV manufacturers working to reduce the power consumption in LCD and plasma while Intel and PC manufacturers are cranking down computer power consumption. 'Without a doubt, there's demand' for green PCs, says Rick Chernick, CEO of HP partner Connecting Point, adding that the need to be green is especially noticeable among medical industry enterprise customers."
FireFox 3.1 Leaves IE in the Dust 435
Anonymous writes "Granted, FireFox 3.1 is just a beta and IE 8 is also in beta, but it looks like Microsoft has some ground to make up when it comes to browser performance. Given that Mozilla appears to be on a much faster cycle than Microsoft with this stuff, it's also possible that it could increase the gap even more before IE 8 is GA, no?"
Submission + - Best NAS device for use a datastore with VMWare?
Keith Eckersly writes: Hi All. A recent power outage caused the disks on my home ESXi server to fail but luckily I was able to restore the VM guests from an older backup. From sniffing around on the internet and a few forums, I suspect that a NAS device will provide a cheap-ish and effective way to separate ESX OS Hypervisor and the Virtual Machine VMDKs. This should prevent a disk failure from wiping both the ESX OS -and- the VM guests in one fell swoop.
My question is — is there a retail NAS solution that fits the bill? Or, should I go buy an old box on eBay and stuff it with drives? Or, perhaps NAS isn't the way to go at all? I'm sure this is the right place to ask.
My requirements for external storage: -It must be easy to setup and administer since it will be used at home in conjunction with some family members. -It must run as a datastore on VMWare ESXi 3.5. -I am willing to spend around $500-$650 on a decent solution that will see me through a good two or three years at least. Cheers.
My question is — is there a retail NAS solution that fits the bill? Or, should I go buy an old box on eBay and stuff it with drives? Or, perhaps NAS isn't the way to go at all? I'm sure this is the right place to ask.
My requirements for external storage: -It must be easy to setup and administer since it will be used at home in conjunction with some family members. -It must run as a datastore on VMWare ESXi 3.5. -I am willing to spend around $500-$650 on a decent solution that will see me through a good two or three years at least. Cheers.
