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OS X

Submission + - Ease of Use: Why Leopard Trumps Windows (osweekly.com)

Submitted by techish
techish writes: OSWeekly.com author Brandon Watts compared the easy of use factor for Vista and Leopard and declared Leopard the hands down winner. "Oddly enough, one of the endearing things about Leopard is made clear as soon as the installation process is underway and then completed. Yes, before you even use Leopard for the first time, you'll love something about it, and for all of you Windows users out there, you may need to sit down for what I'm about to say: the install is simple and there's no activation.
Software

Submission + - A new low in restrictive software licensing 4

Submitted by Coutal
Coutal writes: Licensing is usually looked upon as a burden by software customers, although one we're grudgingly used to living with. However, at times one encounters new lows which can still invoke sufficient outrage — a stealable license.
Recently, my i-go based pocket pc navigation unit was stolen. However, I still retained my valid serial number, certificate of authenticity, proof of purchase and even a backup of the software. I figured restoring my software to another device should be a matter of unit service or (tops) minimal fee for media restoration. Tech support, however, had other ideas in mind. They informed me that my license was stolen with the unit. No amount of explanation of the lack of logic in that statement made through. They insisted that my backups were also void because I no longer have the original SD card and that I am not allowed to use them (which kind of defeats the whole purpose of backup, as the device only stores extremely little other data than the original software — no more than a few points of interest and marginal settings).
Education

Submission + - 7 Medical Myths Even Doctors Believe

Submitted by
DesScorp
DesScorp writes: "There seem be a number of medical myths that even doctors buy into. LiveScience reports on an investigation performed by the British Medical Journal on the myths, and how they persist even among doctors. Among the myths are some classics; that we only use 10 percent of our brains, that Turkey makes us drowsy, and that hair and nails continue to grow after death."
Security

Submission + - Kaspersky quarantines Windows Explorer (zdnet.com)

Submitted by mike.rimov
mike.rimov writes: Ziff Davis is reporting that Kapersky AntiVirus has been mistakenly categorizing Windows Explorer as malicious code and quarantining it. (Of course, some of us at Slashdot might agree with the decision)
Censorship

Submission + - FL Universities pay big $$ to block file sharing

Submitted by bwcbwc
bwcbwc writes: The Palm Beach Post is reporting that Florida Universities are paying big bucks for software to block peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Florida Atlantic University paid US $500,000 plus annual maintenance of $50,000 for software that isn't even configurable to allow legal peer-to-peer networks. The University of South Florida seems to be getting a better deal at $75,000 initial purchase with annual maintenance in the same range. Their software is at least configurable, so their students will still be able to download those Knoppix DVD images. Sounds like another opportunity to PROFIT!!! (Fair warning to those with high blood pressure: the article has a decidedly pro-RIAA slant. Reading it may be hazardous to your health.)
Windows

Submission + - Vista SP1 to Kill the controversial kill switch (zdnet.com)

Submitted by
Khuffie
Khuffie writes: "In a reaction to a year of embarrasing WGA glitches, server outages and customer complains, Microsoft plans to strip away one of Vistas most annoying 'features': the ability for it to 'kill', or reduce the functionality of, installations of Vista it detects as pirated. Instead, you will merely get more notifications asking you to activate, and you will only be able to click 'Activate Later' after 15 seconds."
Windows

Submission + - Vista discount for pirates?

Submitted by hanshotfirst
hanshotfirst writes: Several sites, including this one: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/15639/1103/ , are reporting this morning that Microsoft is relaxing their anti-piracy lockout in Vista. It apparently reduces functionality and pesters the user hourly to buy a license at a reduced cost. Does this give users of the pirated version a better discount than retail purchasers?
Security

Submission + - Catching thieves with Flickr (heise-security.co.uk)

Submitted by
devkhadka
devkhadka writes: "Social networks can not only be used to make new contacts, but also to track down thieves as events last week at Flickr.com showed. Four laptops and two iMacs, one of which had a web cam, were stolen from Canadian office services provider WorkSpace. The Flickrbooth plug-in for Apple's Photo Booth was installed on the iMac with the web cam. The program automatically sends photos taken with the web cam to the selected Flickr account. An employee at WorkSpace was naturally surprised when he looked into his Flickr account and saw that a new image had been uploaded — one of a tattooed man posing in front of the stolen iMac. The man apparently knew that the iMac was taking pictures of him, but not that it was sending them to Flickr. The image quickly became viral in forums and blogs all over the world. Shortly after, the suspected thief turned himself over to the police according to a report in the Vancouver Sun. He claims that he bought the computer from a friend of a friend but wished to return it. WorkSpace now hopes to get additional information about who the actual thieves are."
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Reducing distribution updates bandwidth?

Submitted by
ptaff
ptaff writes: "I recently upgraded a friend's computer from an old Windows to the latest Ubuntu LTS (so that I can avoid reinstalling for a while). As he gets online through a dial-up connection, he now complains that downloading updates takes forever, compared to his old Win box. I understand that GNU/Linux distributions update all installed software, but I wonder, does the update process need to use such bandwidth just to fix buffer overflows and fix input validation? At least, why aren't executables and libraries (possibly insecure) separate packages from the data, docs and multimedia? Why isn't there a system to simply fetch and apply the fixes to the original package? Are all this limitations of package manager's designs or is there a more subtle explanation? As reducing update bandwidth seems so simple at first sight, what do you think are the reasons we still have to download so much to keep a GNU/Linux system secure?"
Censorship

Submission + - MoveOn.org Becomes Parody of Self

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The L.A. Times has an opinion piece about MoveOn.org in which they discuss attempts by MoveOn.org to squelch dissenting speech that incorporates their trademarks. T-shirts with phrases critical of MoveOn.org and that include the name MoveOn.org were demanded removed by MoveOn.org because they supposedly infringed on their merchandising rights. I hope MoveOn.org doesn't send a cease-and-desist letter because this post includes the name MoveOn.org.
Media

Submission + - Popular Coverage of Science Research Often Bunk

Submitted by
Eagle5596
Eagle5596 writes: "Many of you will remember the recent UCLA research story which covered supposed differences between liberals and conservatives. Turns out that, like in many cases, the media coverage was wrong, or misled. An interesting article goes into details on the problems with many conclusions drawn by scientific research by the popular press, and why the media often gets it all wrong. From the article:
"People love to draw broad conclusions from results that are utterly unable to support them. Due to media buzz, increasing popular influence, and just plain old bad science, this has become an increasing problem. Whats worse is that it detracts from the credibility of scientists everywhere, and public understanding of what science is."
Microsoft

Submission + - CNet reporter calls for Microsoft to abandon Vista (news.com)

Submitted by mr_mischief
mr_mischief writes: As it's hard to miss the stories lately, all of us on /. are likely to know people are underwhelmed with Windows Vista. Well, Don Reisinger over at CNet's News.com is not quite just underwhelmed. He suggests that Vista may be the downfall of Microsoft because the company has really just missed the mark with the operating system. Despite years in development, Reisinger says Vista was delivered to market too early. He also says it's overpriced and plain doesn't work well enough for its users, among other complaints. His suggestion? Support those who are running it, but ditch Vista and move on.
Handhelds

Submission + - TomTom uses Linux, but doesn't support Linux users 3

Submitted by
Michele Alessandrini
Michele Alessandrini writes: "Having bought several TomTom One navigation systems here at work (Italy), I was browsing their web site to find information about maps. There are several pages of documentation about their devices. In one of them, they proudly inform you that their devices use Linux, as a warranty of power and stability. But, when you come to the software (the one used to manage updates, set locations, etc), they only support Windows and Mac OS. Not that surprise, and not that the software is really necessary. But the point is: they probably saved million dollars using a free kernel, and they didn't even care supporting Linux users. Am I the only one disappointed?"

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