LeeRagans - Slashdot User

Boost Vista's Performance With Thumb Drives

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27 2007, @06:38AM

An anonymous reader writes "Trying to run Windows Vista on a PC without lots of memory or a hot graphics card can hardware can be an exercise in frustration, since Vista's performance is extremely hardware-dependent. In ReadyBoost: Better Vista Performance In A Flash David Dejean talks about a trio of little-known features that rely on external USB flash drives to improve Vista's performance: ReadyBoost, which uses external flash devices to supplement system memory with a special cache; ReadyDrive, which takes advantage of new hybrid drives that combine conventional disk with flash; and ReadyBoot, which allows fast recovery from hibernation. Thumbdrives are going to be marketed to take advantage of these features. Could this be the boost Vista needs to overcome its need for excessively costly hardware?"

Inside Apple's Leopard Server OS

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27 2007, @06:31AM

An anonymous reader writes "Mac expert John Welch, author of the widely read OS X versus Vista comparison, delves into Apple's Leopard Server OS, with a deep dive into what's known so far about OS X Server 10.5, which will be showcased at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June. He weighs in on Leopard's iCal, Wiki, file, Quicktime, and mail services, along with Xgrid 2, Open Directory 4, and 64-bit capabilities. What does it all add up to? His assessment: Apple probably isn't aiming at "big" enterprises. But has says Leopard Server is shaping up to be a great SMB (small and mid-sized business) product. Welch writes: "For about a thousand bucks on existing hardware, or for the cost of an Xserve, you get a really solid server, able to support Web services, collaboration, groupware, IM, and file services. You can run it with its own directory service, or as part of an Active Directory implementation out of the box. It provides some features that due to pricing and/or setup requirements, have traditionally been reserved for "big" enterprises — in particular clustering of both email and calendaring servers." Do you agree that, with Leopard, Apple has probably has something that's unmatched in terms of bang for the buck, at least on the server front?"

Journal: Loss of USENET access 4

Journal by Alioth on Tuesday March 27 2007, @05:47AM

For the best part of the last two years, I've accessed Usenet news by running slrn on my dedicated server, hosted at ThePlanet in Dallas. The server 'news.theplanet.com' happily served me via NNTP.

Dead Rising and Lost Planet to remain exclusive

Submitted by

Bizzeh

on Tuesday March 27 2007, @04:20AM

Bizzeh writes "as posted on Joystiq

At least "as far as current plans go." So says Capcom's senior director of strategic planning and research, Christian Svensson, posting on the official Capcom forums in the midst of a Devil May Cry outcry. When asked by fans whether the company's new mulitplatform strategy would extend to their pair of successful Xbox 360 titles, Svensson explains that "Dead Rising and Lost Planet are not slated to appear on Wii or PS3," noting that the reasons for the continued exclusivity "are quite convoluted" and are bound by a slew of suspicious non-disclosure agreements.

He goes on to say that Capcom's current approach — which sees Resident Evil 5 and Devil May Cry 4 coming to both PS3 and Xbox 360 — is for future titles and isn't meant to be applied in a "retroactive" manner. Of course, this comes just days after Svensson used the forum to respond to sulking petitioners and their disdain for Devil May Cry gracing multiple platforms.

"We are certainly moved that people are so passionate about our products that they would go to such extremes," he said in a seperate thread. "At the same time we feel that allowing more people access to our content pleases far more people than it displeases (after all, we're not denying DMC4 to anyone that was already going to get it). It really is the best decision for the company and for consumers."

Apparently, Dead Rising and Lost Planet simply missed the multiplatform boat.

"

Syncing Sidenote with Windows Mobile (OS X)

Submitted by on Tuesday March 27 2007, @03:16AM

An anonymous reader writes "From frater.com: "I use Windows Mobile on an XDA ii Atom for my calendars and tasks etc. Because Windows Mobile PDAs are not supported by OS X's syncing utility, I use "The Missing Sync" by MarkSpace, which is excellent. The only problem is that they use their own little notes program for syncing of notes from the PDA and back. I use Sidenote and I would prefer to keep a copy of those on my XDA so I had to come up with a solution. Well, I did — but boy is it convoluted!"

Read how he did it using XCode, Automator, and AppleScript."

Projective geometry and supercomuting

Submitted by achten on Tuesday March 27 2007, @02:44AM

achten writes " Dr. Narendra Karmarkar of the linear programming fame is working on application of projective geometry in design of (networking/routing in) supercomputers. The story is here. Dr. Karmarkar does not provide much detail on the project ("No details. Too sensitive. But let us just say the Americans are interested." from the story). Also from the story "Dr Karmarkar will adapt this technique to the supercomputing effort. "You wouldn't understand it even if I told you. It is n-dimensional geometry," he says in a sympathetic tone." Any knowledgeable people here who can interpret and explain what it is all about (from the available clues !!)."