jpetts - Slashdot User

Aussie education dept picks Apple Macs

Submitted by daria42 on Monday February 26 2007, @12:15AM

daria42 writes "Western Australia's Education Department will install Apple Macs in a large number of schools throughout the state in a massive new project. The department will install Intel-based iMacs, Mac minis and MacBooks."

Youtube Claims DMCA Covers Public Events

Submitted by

simon

on Monday February 26 2007, @12:12AM

simon writes "Does the DMCA prevent you from recording public events? Apparently so, as one West Australian Citizen Journalist find out last week when YouTube removed his public recordings of the Red Bull Air Race at the request of IMG Media. From the article:

...it raises a much larger issue with respect to copyright. Are IMG Media, the people that organize the Red Bull Air Race, suggesting that they own the copyright to all free public displays of the Red Bull Air Race? What type of precedent would that set?

"

Microsoft Plays Up Open Source 224

Posted by kdawson on Sunday February 25 2007, @11:58PM
from the coopetition dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Recently Microsoft's open source software lab posted PostgreSQL on Windows: A Primer. Postgres is one of the longest running open source databases — it has been around for nearly 11 years. The powerful object-relational database is a direct competitor to other OSS databases, as well as Microsoft's SQL Server 2005. So why is Microsoft promoting it? I get Redmond's interest in boosting anything that runs on Windows as a platform. Is this simply a case of left-hand, right-hand, or is something deeper going on?"

Put a price on switching jobs.

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Sunday February 25 2007, @11:43PM

Anonymous Coward writes "I've been out of school for little more than a year and I have only good things to say about the job market! So far, there doesn't seem to be any lack of demand for a good .NET developer. I've got to admit, though, I feel a little disloyal at this point. Several great job offers have come my way and I've taken them. My resume is starting to make me look a bit restless and it worries me. Until now I've just chalked it up to "I'm just settling in," but now another opportunity has been dropped into my lap. Would I be digging my own grave by taking this job? It'd be my fourth job in 16 months but each offered a promotion and a 30% to 40% raise. I know better than to put a price on job satisfaction but I'm pretty certain I'd be happy there. Is being branded as a "hot potato" enough to keep you from switching? What's your price on this stigma?"

Microsoft: The World's Biggest Cybersquatter?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2007, @09:57PM

An anonymous reader writes "What happens if you use Internet Explorer and try to visit a domain that doesn't actually exist? Microsoft sends you to an automatically generated results page filled with related pay-per-click ads. Click any ad and MS earns $$$. Earthlink is doing this too and Charter just got into the game. Is Firefox next?

http://www.dailydomainer.com/200784-microsoft-eart hlink-charter-cybersquatting.html"

Why Linus hates GNOME.

Submitted by nnkx00 on Sunday February 25 2007, @08:18PM

nnkx00 writes "DesktopLinux.com is running a story about why Linus hates the GNOME Desktop Environment. And while the bulk of the story is spent telling of Linus' complaints, the real story is about how to make a good out-of-the-box desktop environment that works for people just sitting down at a machine, and yet is customizable."

Journal: Steve Ballmer, infringement claims, and an open letter 0

Journal by Quixotic Raindrop on Sunday February 25 2007, @08:17PM

Here recently on /., there was a news item about an open letter to Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, essentially calling Microsoft out on their claims that Linux infringes several patents that Microsoft claims to own. I like the idea; in fact I think it's vitally important that if there is a question of trademark, patent, or copyright infringement in Linux or other OSS/Free Software that it be identified and resolved. After reading the letter, t

Windows Vista WGA Still Plagued By Problems

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2007, @07:12PM

An anonymous reader writes "IWeek blogger Alex Wolfe writes that Vista is Still Plagued By Windows Genuine Advantage "False Postive" Problems. Along with his own experience (a support person hung up on him), he cites numerous cases on Microsoft's own forums where users have be forced to reactivate their copies of Vista and told there's a problem with their license.

[Messages like this: "After running vista for a few weeks, I rebooted this morning to find that my purchased copy of vista is no longer genuine."]

Based on the volume of problems, Wolfe characterized Microsoft's downplaying of false-positives last month as "spin control." Right now, the only "technical" solution when you run into this is to type "slui 4" into the command line and then go through phone activation. Have you had a problem with WGA? Do you agree with Wolfe that WGA should be shut off until Microsoft can resolve the 'false positives' problem? More importantly, do you think this could seriously undermine adoption of Vista?"

File Deleting Software a Hoax

Submitted by

teamhasnoi

on Sunday February 25 2007, @06:02PM

teamhasnoi writes "In a followup to yesterday's story the developer of Display Eater has responded to the poor publicity, admitting that the app does not delete files. Quote: "It was my hope that if people thought this happened, they would not try to pirate the program. I could stop wasting time writing copy protection routines to be broken over and over. It turned out to be a mistake." He has now made the application free by posting a registration code, and plans to open-source it."

BitTorrent going legit - why would users pay?

Submitted by Tookis on Sunday February 25 2007, @05:33PM

Tookis writes "As of Monday you'll be able to pay for movie downloads from BitTorrent.com, but why should people use file sharing for good instead of evil? While there are plenty of legit uses for the BitTorrent technology, obviously the number one use is to illegally download files such as movies, television and music. So what makes BitTorrent.com think these people will suddenly be prepared to pay for what they already get for free? Will files from the BitTorrent Entertainment Network come down faster than illegal BitTorrent files from the wider internet? Not likely, as the factors that affect peer-to-peer download speeds are still at play regardless. And why should people use a legit BitTorrent with DRM instead of say iTunes? http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9922/1085/"