JPMaximilian - Slashdot User

Comment: Huge amount of Data (Score 1) 120

by JPMaximilian on Tuesday February 20 2007, @06:25PM (#18088702) Attached to: Europe Moves To Track Phone and Net Use

Will such a huge amount of data really be useful? Depending on how its organized, if you have the logs of millions of users, will you realistically be able to sort through it all for whatever safety/prevention measures the government claims this is for?

Either way this is a huge violation of one's right to privacy.

64-bit Vista is hard to get

Submitted by daria42 on Monday February 19 2007, @10:07PM

daria42 writes "For some crazy reason, Microsoft makes you firstly buy the 32-bit version of Vista, then order a CD of the equivalent 64-bit version online. The issue has started to grate on some users. "Imagine going into a shop and buying a music CD only to get it home and open it up and find a bit of paper inside telling you to go online to pay to have the actual CD mailed out to you at an additional cost," wrote one."

Google HD failure report, high temps/usage

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2007, @09:56PM

An anonymous reader writes "The impact of heavy use and high temperatures on hard disk drive failure may be overstated, says a report by three Google engineers. The report examined 100,000 commercial hard drives, ranging from 80GB to 400GB in capacity, used at Google since 2001. From the article: "The report also looked at the impact of scan errors — problems found on the surface of a disc — on hard drive failure. "We find that the group of drives with scan errors are 10 times more likely to fail than the group with no errors," said the authors. They added: "After the first scan error, drives are 39 times more likely to fail within 60 days than drives without scan errors.""

Who Killed the Light Gun?

Submitted by Entrep on Monday February 19 2007, @09:01PM

Entrep writes "Planet Xbox 360 wonders why that given Xbox consoles are notoriously pegged as gaming systems for people who love to shoot things, does the one "kiddie" console on the market have the only library of gun simulator games?"

HP voids warrenty if linux is installed

Submitted by ShadowHywind on Monday February 19 2007, @08:58PM

ShadowHywind writes "Having Hardware failures, I decided to call the HP tech support for help. They asked If i Had any other operating System installed, other then Windows. Because I duel boot, I said yes, I have linux and windows installed. He then quickly stated that If you install another operating system other then Windows, It will void your warranty. I quickly hung up the phone hoping that he wouldn't create a file sense i am working on month 4 of 3 years of my warranty. Is it right for a company to void a warranty just because you decide to install something other then windows?"

It's Official: Sirius & XM Agree To Merge

Submitted by

sovtekmidget

on Monday February 19 2007, @08:26PM

sovtekmidget writes "From Radio Ink:
It's official: Sirius and XM have agreed to merge in a deal that will consolidate the only two companies in the business of subscription-only satellite radio. In a statement from both companies, it was announced that Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin will become chief executive of the new company while XM Chairman Gary Parsons will remain in that role. Under the agreement, the companies will be combined in a tax-free, all-stock merger of equals with a combined enterprise value of approximately $13 billion, which includes net debt of approximately $1.6 billion. The companies have approximately 14 million combined subscribers and analysts predict the deal will save both companies approximately $7 billion annually. Wait a minute, isn't this going to create a monopoly? As reported on slashdot before, the FCC was going to shoot this down, but it looks as if it's getting pushed through anyways."

How Jobs Played Hardball In iPhone Birth 479

Posted by kdawson on Monday February 19 2007, @08:21PM
from the my-customer-dammit dept.

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Apple bucked the rules of the cellphone industry when creating the iPhone by wresting control away from normally powerful wireless carriers, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: 'Only three executives at the carrier, which is now the wireless unit of AT&T Inc., got to see the iPhone before it was announced. Cingular agreed to leave its brand off the body of the phone. Upsetting some Cingular insiders, it also abandoned its usual insistence that phone makers carry its software for Web surfing, ringtones and other services... Mr. Jobs once referred to telecom operators as "orifices" that other companies, including phone makers, must go through to reach consumers. While meeting with Cingular and other wireless operators he often reminded them of his view, dismissing them as commodities and telling them that they would never understand the Web and entertainment industry the way Apple did, a person familiar with the talks says.'"

"Self-Made" Software?

Submitted by

atanas

on Monday February 19 2007, @08:09PM

atanas writes "The term 'self-made software' has been popping up all over lately. According to some industry watchers, 'mashup' applications are ready for the enterprise. And big players like IBM are rolling out easy-to-use tools for users to create their own mashups. In this Flash demonstration, Dion Hinchcliffe from ZDNet shows off IBM's QEDWiki, used to create a Google Maps mashup. http://blog.entchev.com/2007/01/21/selfmade-softwa re.aspx"

What's happening with Transmeta

Submitted by

prostoalex

on Monday February 19 2007, @07:00PM

prostoalex writes "At launch Tranmeta Corp. received tons of publicity — boasting Linux Torvalds among its employees, the energy-efficient microprocessor company was supposedly revolutionizing the world of microprocessors as we know it. Electronic Engineering Times provides an update on what's happening with Transmeta right now: "Transmeta last week laid off 75 employees, decreasing its worldwide work force by about 39 percent. Most of the cuts were in the engineering-services business, which is being discontinued. Sales and support offices in Taiwan and Japan are also being closed. Over the next two quarters, the company expects to further reduce head count by about 25 to 55 people.""

HD DVD on-the-fly copy tool announced

Submitted by tronicum on Monday February 19 2007, @06:30PM

tronicum writes "Heise reports that Antigua based SlySoft announced a tool called "AnyDVD HD" which ripps AACS on-the-fly from HD DVD discs. It also allows to watch movies on a computer without HDCP equipment and comes with built-in UDF 2.5 for Windows XP. It ships for 79 US$."