Comment Beta Updates (Score 1) 168
Didn't Microsoft say recently-ish that clicking "Check for Updates" means you want to be in the beta channel and get beta versions of updates? Or did they reverse that decision?
Comment check Slide8 for a laugh (Score 1) 282
so they spent the last few years making each version look different ("native"), and now they want to make them all look the same again? great.
how about:
1) the crashes and memleaks that are still there. firefox is currently using 2.3GB RAM on my Mint11 system and it's only been running a few hours since it last crashed.
2) the horrendously inefficient database format used for local storage. anyone tried using FF over NFS? it takes twice as long to start as opera, and about 5x as long as Chromium.
Now i realise not the same people work on that stuff as on UI design, but that picture of the airflow around sports car? Slide8. hilarious. someone is getting paid to produce this rubbish? depressing.
Comment the reason this is important for xbox users (Score 1) 57
is that since the xbox split, XBMC mainline has changed to a new "Addon" system, meaning all current plugins wouldn't work on the Xbox - that is, if it weren't for this X4X v3 work. the range of plugins available now have made even LAN shares of "aquired" content pretty much obselete..
check out:
iPlayer (if in the UK)
Icefilms
Navi-X
and others: http://www.xbmc4xbox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1877
prepare to be blown away if you've not used XBMC for a few years.. and the Xbox is still good enough for almost all the plugin content as that's SD Xvid anyway for streaming.
Comment Re:will this help with the swap-paralysis problem? (Score 1) 603
who said anything about KDE? that netbook is runnning Mint9 and Gnome. one of the most common setups there is.
and before you say upgrade the RAM, that's difficult on an Aspire One!
Comment Re:will this help with the swap-paralysis problem? (Score 2, Interesting) 603
ah i see this regularly on my netbook with 512MB RAM and a slow SSD; just by having too many firefox tabs open. didn't realise it was a known problem. yes very annoying indeed. thanks for bringing it up...
Comment performance on older systems (Score 1) 603
presumably if this helps under heavy cpu load, it may benefit older systems the most? is this true? anyone tried on single core? have read RTFA and they use some i7 thing that i would umm expect to be responsive ;)
Comment backport? (Score 2, Insightful) 603
any chance of backport of this e.g. to .35 kernel for use in ubuntu maverick? i could use that :)
or even to .32 for use in 10.04 LTS..
Comment While the officer was inside? (Score 0, Redundant) 125
The vehicle was stolen while the officer was inside.
Worse. Law enforcement Officer. EVAR.
(Ohhhh, wait, nm I see wut u did there...)
Comment Re:Best comics (Score 3, Interesting) 327
I too have ranked The Far Side right up there with C&H for years, and then for Christmas somebody bought me a gigantic collection of Far Side strips (don't remember which one), and I've gotta say TFS really hasn't held up all that well. Yes, there are some classic gems that are damn funny still, but on the whole it's pretty meh.
Unlike C&H, which is going to be fresh for many decades--perhaps centuries--to come.
New WoW Patch Brings Cross-Server Instances 342
ajs writes "World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion was staggered into 4 phases. The fourth and final phase, patch 3.3, was released on Tuesday. This patch is significant in that it will be the first introduction of one of the most anticipated new features in the game since PvP arenas: the cross-realm random dungeon, as well as the release of new end-game dungeons for 5, 10 and 25-player groups. The patch notes have been posted, and so has a trailer. The ultimate fight against the expansion's antagonist, the Lich King a.k.a. Arthas, will be gated as each of the four wings of the final dungeon are opened in turn — a process that may take several months. The next major patch after 3.3 (presumably 4.0) will be the release of Cataclysm, the next expansion."
Sharp Rise In Jailing of Online Journalists; Iran May Just Kill Them 233
bckspc writes "The Committee to Protect Journalists has published their annual census of journalists in prison. Of the 136 reporters in prison around the world on December 1, 'At least 68 bloggers, Web-based reporters, and online editors are imprisoned, constituting half of all journalists now in jail.' Print was next with 51 cases. Also, 'Freelancers now make up nearly 45 percent of all journalists jailed worldwide, a dramatic recent increase that reflects the evolution of the global news business.' China, Iran, Cuba, Eritrea, and Burma were the top 5 jailers of journalists."
rmdstudio writes, too, with word that after the last few days' protest there, largely organized online, the government of Iran is considering the death penalty for bloggers and webmasters whose reports offend it.
US Air Force Buying Another 2,200 PS3s 144
bleedingpegasus sends word that the US Air Force will be grabbing up 2,200 new PlayStation 3 consoles for research into supercomputing. They already have a cluster made from 336 of the old-style (non-Slim) consoles, which they've used for a variety of purposes, including "processing multiple radar images into higher resolution composite images (known as synthetic aperture radar image formation), high-def video processing, and 'neuromorphic computing.'" According to the Justification Review Document (DOC), "Once the hardware configuration is implemented, software code will be developed in-house for cluster implementation utilizing a Linux-based operating software."
The Nickel & Dime Generation 358
Phaethon360 sends in a piece that looks at how quickly game costs can add up these days, now that DLC, microtransactions and standalone expansions are commonplace, writing, "If you were trying to the think of the most expensive games to play, Rock Band or a monthly-fee MMORPG would come to mind. But Halo 3 is right up there, too." It's reminiscent of a recent post at IncGamers where the author tallied up how much he'd spent on World of Warcraft over the past several years, and was astonished to realize it numbered in the thousands of dollars.
Web-based IDEs Edge Closer To the Mainstream 244
snitch writes "Last week Mozilla released Bespin, their web-based framework for code editing, and only a few days later Boris Bokowski and Simon Kaegi implemented an Eclipse-based Bespin server using headless Eclipse plug-ins. With the presentation of the web-based Eclipse workbench at EclipseCon and the release of products like Heroku, a web-based IDE and hosting environment for RoR apps, it seems that web-based IDEs might soon become mainstream."
Stimulus Could Kickstart US Battery Industry 369
Al sends along a Technology Review piece that begins "Provisions in the Congressional stimulus bill could help jump-start a new, multibillion-dollar industry in the US for manufacturing advanced batteries for hybrids and electric vehicles and for storing energy from the electrical grid to enable the widespread use of renewable energy. The nearly $790 billion economic stimulus legislation contains tens of billions of dollars in loans, grants, and tax incentives for advanced battery research and manufacturing, as well as incentives for plug-in hybrids and improvements to the electrical grid, which could help create a market for these batteries. Significant advances in battery materials, including the development of new lithium-ion batteries, have been made in the US in the past few years; but advanced battery manufacturing is almost entirely overseas, particularly in Asia."
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