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Also consider that when something goes wrong with Solaris or Windows, you file a ticket and come out smelling like roses when it's speedily resolved.

Best joke today...

Are your friends still employed?

I would warn potential FOSS adopters of the unintended consequences of their altruism: you might be out of your job.

When you spend $2M for software licensing fees, $500k for IT staff doesn't look bad.
When you spend $0 for software, $500k for staff starts to look like a good cost-cutting target for that asshole PHB exec!

Also consider that when something goes wrong with Solaris or Windows, you file a ticket and come out smelling like roses when it's speedily resolved. When something goes wrong with FOSS that you advocated for, more often then not it's your ass.

Annie Peterson writes "Paul Graham has been maknig the argument that desktop development is dead — That's his premise for declaring Microsoft dead as well, and he claims that no one out there likes to develop for the desktop anymore. But that's not true, or is it? Desktop development is easier, faster, more productive, and infitinetly more enjoyable — right? The question is, since Web Apps were originally built on desktop applications themselves, have the tables flipped? Or is it just wishful thinking?"

An anonymous reader writes "ZFS has been committed to FreeBSD base few days back. This is great news and shows very much needed progress to maintain large data storages with commodity hardware. Linux port (ZFS on FUSE/Linux) is progressing too, but the native ZFS port for Linux kernel will still be graved by many.

ac
—"

TrackinYeti writes "Being an early adopter of leading edge graphics cards, can be an expensive proposition. Not to mention the fact that often times, new features that are offered, like NVIDIA's support of DX10, often lay dormant for the average end-user until games developers play catch up and begin making use of the new hardware in their game engines. However, the recent release of NVIDIA's lower-end GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB card, is a much more affordable step into next gen graphics. GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB performance is high enough at mainstream resolutions that its worth upgrading to a card like this from virtually any last-gen product. At around $300 or so, you won't break the bank doing it. You'll also end up with the added benefits of full HDCP and DX10 support for the future, a better video engine, and a more complete feature set overall, that includes things like CSAA and higher quality anisotropic filtering."

sas-dot writes "Slashdot earlier reported the government of Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India, which has begun initiatives to convert all of their IT systems fully to OSS-based software. Now it's pushing forward for a Linux based ATM. The official incharge wrote in his email "ELCOT had successfully developed the first ever ATM (automatic cash dispenser) that runs on suse linux. The prototype was unveiled on the 21st March 2007. ELCOT also wishes to test the ATM in typical Government operations such as National Old Age Pension Scheme, cash dispensing schemes such as National Rural Employment programme etc. It depends on how the Government machinery is ready to accept a new technology such as an ATM" Here is the press release."

An anonymous reader writes "Thought this was interesting! http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21376703-1702 ,00.html Unfortuently only one news agency has picked it up"

An anonymous reader writes "Most of us (for pretty good reasons!) have come to assume that our Congressional representatives are pretty far out of touch when it comes to things like technology and culture, but it's nice to see that at least one Congressman seems to understand that mixtapes and mashups aren't such a bad thing. Techdirt has the transcript of Rep. Mike Doyle's speech, which talks about the benefits of mixtapes, while wondering about why DJ Drama was arrested: "I hope that everyone involved will take a step back and ask themselves if mash-ups and mix-tapes are really different or if it's the same as Paul McCartney admitting that he nicked the Chuck Berry bass-riff and used it on the Beatle's hit 'I Saw Her Standing There.' Maybe it is. And, maybe Drama violated some clear bright lines. Or, maybe mixtapes are a powerful tool. And, maybe mash-ups are transformative new art that expands the consumers experience and doesn't compete with what an artist has made available on iTunes or at the CD store. And, I don't think Sir Paul asked for permission to borrow that bass line, but every time I listen to that song, I'm a little better off for him having done so....""

Currawong writes "MacTalk Australia reports that one of its users has had their MacBook burst into flames, awaking in the middle of the night to find the MacBook, along with some magazines adjacent to where the MacBook was sitting, alight. His housemate stated that, "she heard it hissing like a steam valve, then smoke started pouring out of it and a couple of seconds later, a very large flash fire started." The owner stated that available charge in the battery of the 11 month old MacBook had become suddenly poor in the 3 weeks leading up to the fire, the day of the fire almost completely failing to work properly at all. Apple last year issued a recall of over 1 million batteries after issues with Sony manufactured batteries caught fire in Dell laptops. Since contacting Apple Australia, they have offered to replace the MacBook with a MacBook Pro and possibly compensate the owner for the damage caused, once they have determined the cause of the fire."

nbauman writes "The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint in Nebraska charging 3 Indian nationals with a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the prices of at least 14 securities with other people's online brokerage accounts. Between July and November 2006, Jaisankar Marimuthu, Chockalingam Ramanathan and Thirugnanam Ramanathan hijacked online brokerage accounts using stolen usernames and passwords. They acquired securities positions in their own accounts, placed buy orders at above-market prices in the hacked accounts, and sold the positions in their own accounts at inflated prices. They made profits of at least $121,500. Online broker-dealers lost at least $875,000. Securities fraud carries a maximum sentence of 25 years. The government will seek extradition to Nebraska. http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2007/lr2 0037.htm SEC v. Jaisankar Marimuthu, Chockalingam Ramanathan and Thirugnanam Ramanathan, Civil Action No. 8:07CV94 (D. Neb.)"

seanj writes "OSWeekly gives a number of reasons why Google will probably fail with its enterprise applications. "To Google fans, I can see where this may be seen as spectacular news. But to the skeptics, such as myself, I believe it's going to prove difficult at best. Why the harsh outlook? Because this has been part of the Microsoft domain for so long that I don't believe that IT managers are ready to make the leap of faith that Google needs to kick start things with. Then again, Google could be closer than I initially thought..."

LNXPhreak writes "OSWeekly.com has an outlook on various media center applications that are available for Linux. "At the end of this examination, I can only conclude that what is stopping people from working off of existing projects must be related to the framework that is involved or perhaps even the style in which the original set of ideas were first put together. Regardless of why, it seems like a shame and possibly someday, we will find a way to overcome this duplication of efforts."

scdayo writes "Samsung, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, announces its newest Ultra- Mobile PC (UMPC) model, the Q1P for Windows Vista, which is Samsung's first UMPC to qualify for Windows Vista certification. With the introduction of Samsung's Q1 and the more powerful Q1P UMPC last year, a new category and form factor for PCs emerged: a truly ultra-mobile device that provides the power of a PC, but can be accessed anytime, anywhere, even where desktop computers are not an option and notebook PCs are impractical. Intended as a companion PC, the Q1 UMPC provides users with an innovative way to combine PC functionality along with multimedia versatility and advanced connectivity, all in an ultra-mobile platform. Featuring an Intel Pentium processor (running at 1.0 GHz), an impressive 60GB hard drive and 1GB of memory — which is twice that of the original Q1 model — Samsung designed the Q1P for Windows Vista UMPC for the professional user who wants a no-compromise, high-performance solution for completing projects and meeting deadlines while on the go. With the Q1P model's increased battery life of approximately two and a half hours, coupled with faster speeds, flexibility and mobile functionality, this product provides a compelling solution in a highly portable package."

Sol was asking about tofu recipes. It's a good question, since I have yet to encounter any american ways of cooking tofu that produce any sort of edible result. If you want add tofu to your diet, you have to look to Asia, primarily to China, although Korea also has some good tofu recipes. So I've decided to expand my Slashdot Cookbook to include a chapter of exclusively tofu recipes.

I've posted some in the past:
Spicy Fried Tofu - deep fried, uses egg, but very tasty if you are ok with those things
Five Spice Tofu - A simple, vegetarian tofu dish
Tofu in Oyster Sauce
Mapo Tofu recipe #1 - includes meat
Mapo Tofu recipe #2 - meat here, too

But Sol is allergic to peppers, so not all of those are available to her, and she's a vegetarian and some of those have meat in them. I wrote a few days ago ideas for cooking tofu that would yield basic tofu and leafy green vegetable kind of stir-fries. They won't be the most exciting dishes you'll ever meat, but it should be decent enough to get into the menu cycle.

Over the next week or so I'm going to list some additional tofu recipes. I'm going to post them in the original format and then make some commentary on them to help out Sol, since many of them include things she is allergic to, but which might not be important to the dish or for which there are good substitutes.

So, on to the first tofu dish of this new cookbook chapter: Sweet and Sour Tofu

1/2 cup drained canned unsweetened pineapple chunks (reserve 1/3 cup juice)
1 tablespoon ketchup (or just plain old tomato sauce or paste, or you can probably safely drop it altogether if tomatoes are a problem)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons white vinegar (or rice vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon of honey (or you can use plain old sugar)
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (I usually mince fresh ginger, either way is fine)
2 teaspoons cooking oil
1 pound of firm tofu
8 scallions, sliced

The recipe calls for a green bell pepper and a red bell pepper, but that's hardly a necessity - there are lots of vegetables you could use here: baby corn, carrots, bok choy, bamboo, water chestnuts, snow peas. I'm thinking snow peas, baby corn and either bamboo or water chestnuts are the winning combination here, but just make your own picks and have fun :)

The recipe also calls for 1/2 cup of canned cannellini beans, but I've never used them, so that's your call.

In a medium bowl, whisk the pineapple juice, ketchup, cornstarch, soy sauce, vinegar, honey and ginger until smooth.

Heat the oil in a wok. Add the tofu and cook until lightly browned, 3-4 minutes, stirring as needed.

Add the scallion and vegetables, and cook until the vegetables are softened.

Stir in the pineapple chunks, beans and the juice mixture. Stir constantly until the sauce thickens and coats the tofu, 3-4 minutes.

Serve :)

An anonymous reader writes "Mac advocate John C. Welch is at it again, this time weighing in with his list of Top 22 Mac OS X Products. The collection of software tools ranges from the obvious — Boot Camp — to the obscure but perhaps more useful. That'd be little-known apps like Peter Borg's Lingon, for creating launchd configuration files, and BBEdit a professional HTML and text editor. (A collection of screen shots is here.) What's on your personal list of indispensable Mac productivity aids and programming tools? Also, do you think Welch pays too much attention to built-in OS X tools such as Workgroup Manager and Sync Services at the expense of third-party products like NetworkLocation?"