AnwerB - Slashdot User

University of Penn. Recommends Against Vista SP1 286

Posted by kdawson on Sunday March 23 2008, @03:49PM
from the windows-me-plus-seven dept.

At least one university liberal enough to accept the deeply flawed and mostly rejected Vista OS is recommending faculty and students stay away from SP1. "University of Pennsylvania tech staffers are advising faculty and students not to upgrade their computers to the new service pack for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. The school's Information Systems & Computing department said it will support Vista SP1 on new systems where it's pre-installed, but added that it 'strongly recommends that all other users adopt a "wait and see" attitude,' according to a newly published department bulletin." And CIO magazine doesn't quite go so far as to call on Microsoft to throw away Vista, but it does ask its readers to weigh in on that topic.

Preload Drastically Boosts Linux Performance 144

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 26 2008, @01:12AM
from the getting-in-line-early dept.

Nemilar writes "Preload is a Linux daemon that stores commonly-used libraries and binaries in memory to speed up access times, similar to the Windows Vista SuperFetch function. This article examines Preload and gives some insight into how much performance is gained for its total resource cost, and discusses basic installation and configuration to get you started."

ODF v. OOXML: Eric Kriss, Peter Quin and the ETRM-> 0

Submitted by

Andy Updegrove

on Friday December 28 2007, @04:53PM

Andy Updegrove writes "Over the past 30 months I've conducted interviews with many of those most involved in the ODF-OOXML standards war, and received a great deal of inside information from them, some of which I have not previously shared. Last month, I launched an on-line book recounting the ODF saga, taking the story back to its roots in 2002 for those that tuned in late. In this fourth chapter of ODF vs. OOXML: War of the Words, I draw on a two hour interview with Peter Quinn's boss, State Secretary of Administration and Finance Eric Kriss, to tell the story of how Kriss and Quinn started down the road that would lead to the adoption of ODF — and much more."
Link to Original Source

September 2007 Oil Production Forecast and Charts-> 0

Submitted by

Prof. Goose

on Friday September 21 2007, @01:22PM

Prof. Goose writes "An update on the latest production numbers from the EIA along with graphs/charts of different oil production forecasts.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3001"
Link to Original Source

NPR picks up RIAA lawsuits stories 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2007, @10:56AM

An anonymous reader writes "NPR's programme Marketplace is running a series of segment specials in regard to how the RIAA's lawsuit strategy. The series is available for podcast, with the first being linked here, beginning at time stamp 19:50. While there is little new content for Slashdot readers, could this be the harbinger of the mainstream media and the general public finally taking notice?"

Microsoft loses anti-Trust EU case-> 0

Submitted by CPUsInHotPlaces on Monday September 17 2007, @06:22AM

CPUsInHotPlaces writes "The BBC is reporting that the European Union's "Court of First Instance" has ruled against Microsoft in the ongoing anti-trust case. As a result of this ruling, they must pay abide by the original ruling from 2004 (including a 497m euro fine), and also pay 80% of the EU commission's legal costs.

The only section of the original ruling that was not upheld was the comission's attempt to impose an independent monitoring trustee"
Link to Original Source

2007 State of the Future-> 0

Submitted by

sixtuslab

on Tuesday September 11 2007, @03:30AM

sixtuslab writes "August 2nd saw the release of the 2007 State of the Future -report. The report summarises the current predictions of the future backed by loads of data. See the 9 page Executive Summary (pdf)."
Link to Original Source

Mark Shuttleworth on Goals and Success-> 0

Submitted by

tykev

on Tuesday September 11 2007, @02:30AM

tykev writes "Mark Shuttleworth talks about success, failure, and the lessons he has learned. He gives his thoughts on Linux gaming, KDE vs. Gnome in Ubuntu, Microsoft's patent deals, the OpenXML format, and tivoization. From the interview: 'My interest is always in finding big changes in the world and then trying to accelerate them, and be part of them. [...] I won't start looking for another project until I'm comfortable that Ubuntu has fulfilled all its potential.'"
Link to Original Source

How-To: Switch Your Grandma to Linux-> 0

Submitted by

LNX

on Tuesday September 11 2007, @01:07AM

LNX writes "Matt Hartley of MadPenguin.org writes to let us know that a new article on How-To: Switch Your Grandma to Linux is up on his site. It's a humorous article that shows you how to take beginners, such as your grandma, and convert them into Linux users. He continues, "I've said it before, with the proper support in place, anyone can use certain Linux distributions successfully. And apparently, this has been shown to be true yet again. But even considering this success story, there remains a shortage of understanding on which dial-up modems will work and why, if that new all-in-one printer grandma just purchased will work with her chosen distribution and so on. Today, I will explore the viability of grandma, obviously not using some kind of broadband connection, making the switch. Hassle and benefit will be looked into here."
Link to Original Source

New Wonder Weed Fuels Cars 1

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Monday September 10 2007, @01:29PM

Hugh Pickens writes "Jatropha, an ugly, fast-growing and poisonous weed that has been used as a remedy for constipation, may someday power your car. The plant, resilient to pests and resistant to drought, produces seeds with up to 40 per cent oil content that when crushed can be burnt in a diesel car while the residue can be processed into biomass for power plants. Although jatropha has been used for decades by farmers in Africa as a living fence because its smell and taste repel grazing animals, the New York Times reports that jatropha may replace biofuels like ethanol that require large amounts of water, fertilizer, and energy, making their environmental benefits limited. Jatropha requires no pesticides, little water other than rain and no fertilizer beyond the nutrient-rich seed cake left after oil is pressed from its nuts. Poor farmers living close to the equator are planting jatropha on millions of acres spurred on by big oil companies like British Petroleum that are investing in jatropha cultivation."