Arathon - Slashdot User

Submission + - Free Hackers Defeat Commercial iPhone Unlocking (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 11, 2007 @11:52PM

An anonymous reader writes: Gizmodo had exclusive live coverage on the first free iPhone Software Unlock. They broke the news of the first free unlock at 7:10PM EST, when the iPhone Dev Team tried it for the first time. This marks the beginning of the end for iPhone Sim Free, the company who used the hackers' tools to develop their own commercial unlock. Their software was in the market for barely 24 hours before the free unlock hit. Absolutely beautiful and bitch-slapping poetic justice. The software and the source code is available directly from the article and other mirrors.

Submission + - ISO rejects OOXML (computerworld.com)

Submitted by jcatcw on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @10:31AM

jcatcw writes: Microsoft's Office Open XML was rejected by the International Standards Organization today. To be accepted as a standard, a proposal must pass two hurdles, and this one failed both of them. Now, Microsoft will have to respond to negative comments and hope it can get a positive vote in early 2008. In the meantime, MS may be losing revenue to open source competitors, according to Computerworld.

Submission + - Windows Media Player, still on top (blogspot.com)

Submitted by

Teominator

on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @08:53AM

Teominator writes: "The last BlogAboutTheWeb poll shows that Windows Media Player is still the most used media player out there."

Submission + - Microsoft Fails to Gain Approval for OOXML (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by

Andy Updegrove

on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @08:44AM

Andy Updegrove writes: "Microsoft's bid to gain approval for its OOXML specification in the first round of global voting has failed. I now have official confirmation of that fact, and expect to have final numbers soon. In the meantime, Microsoft has just issued a press release, putting the best spin it can on the results. That release is titled "Strong Global Support for Open XML as It Enters Final Phase of ISO Standards Process."The release focuses on the degree of participation (51 National Bodies), and level of "support" (74% of all qualified votes, without differentiating between P and O countries).It also refers to this level of support at "this preliminary stage of the process," and compares it "favorably" to the number of countries participating in the votes to consider ODF and PDF, but without mentioning percentage levels of support, which would include Observer as well as Participating member votes.The drama will now switch to the long run up to the February 25 — 29 Ballot Resolution Meeting, and to how much Microsoft will be willing to change in OOXML in order to convert a sufficient number of no votes to yeses, in order to finally gain approval, if it can, for its beleaguered specification."

Submission + - My Afternoon in Wal-Mart's MP3 Download Hell (medialoper.com) 2

Submitted by

Lopy

on Wednesday August 22, 2007 @02:01PM

Lopy writes: "Everything about the process of buying DRM-free music from Wal-Mart is wrong. At one point they actually asked me to reveal my "baby's due date"! And that wasn't even the absurd part. I had to install support for Windows WMA protected music files just to download an MP3. The whole sad story is detailed on Medialoper.com"

Submission + - Bioshock PC is defective by design 4

Submitted by ringbarer on Wednesday August 22, 2007 @01:41PM

ringbarer writes: Kotaku reports that the long-awaited spiritual successor to System Shock has a few shocks for any PC gamers who want to buy it. Customers are discovering that the 'SecuROM' anti-copying technology will only permit them to install the game twice, after which the DVD becomes nothing more than an expensive coaster. As PC Gamers are renowned for rebuilding and reinstalling their machines on a regular basis, it is clear that this will only hurt legitimate players.

Submission + - OEM won't support own Vista release (infoworld.com) 2

Submitted by Jim Johnson on Wednesday August 22, 2007 @11:31AM

Jim Johnson writes: Averatec sells PCs with Vista Express Upgrade, then claims purchaser violates warranty, then lies to California Attorney General that they support Vista on these PCs.

Submission + - BitTorrent Closes Source Code (slyck.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08, 2007 @01:51PM

An anonymous reader writes: "There are two issues people need to come to grips with," BitTorrent CEO Ashwin Narvin told Slyck.com. "Developers who produce open source products will often have their product repackaged and redistributed by businesses with malicious intent. They repackage the software with spyware or charge for the product. We often receive phone calls from people who complain they have paid for the BitTorrent client." As for the protocol itself, that too is closed, but is available by obtaining an SDK license.

Submission + - How to turn a Mini Maglite into a powerful laser (lifehacker.com) 3

Submitted by

Lucas123

on Wednesday August 08, 2007 @11:20AM

Lucas123 writes: "Using the laser from a DVD burner, this instructional video shows you how to create a hand-held laser that is powerful enough to light a match and pop a balloon. There's some soldering involved and the Maglite's bulb housing needs to be drilled out to fit the new laser diode, but with some basic skill, most people could do this. Just plain cool."

Submission + - Sun Enters the Commodity Silicon Business (sun.com)

Submitted by Samrobb on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @11:54AM

Samrobb writes: According to Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz, Sun has decided to release its UltraSPARC T2 processor under the GPL. According to Schwartz, "We're announcing the fastest microprocessor we've ever shipped this week — delivering 89.6 Ghz of parallel computing power on a single chip — running standard Java applications and open source OS's. Simultaneously, we've said we're entering the commodity marketplace, and opening the chip up to our competition... To add fuel to the fire, the blueprints for our UltraSPARC T2... the core design files and test suites, will be available to the open source community, via its most popular license: the GPL."

Submission + - Safari for Windows released to satisfy AT&T?

Submitted by

Lisandro

on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @10:19AM

Lisandro writes: "Robert Cringley's latest column discusses that Apple's move to release Safari for Windows is not a challenge to Microsoft nor providing a developement plaform for iPhone webapps. Rather, he beleives that the move is solely to satisfy AT&T, since they decided not to go full 3G with the iPhone and want to push their landline video service."

Submission + - Isaac Newton Religious?

Submitted by Snydley Whiplash on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @09:54AM

Snydley Whiplash writes: In this day and age where Science is our religion and God is relegated to fairy tale status, I find it incredibly interesting that many of the people who laid the foundation for modern science were in fact religious people. More amazing is the fact that thier religion and thier science did not conflict, but instead thier efforts to figure out the workings of the world were driven by thier belief in God.

So Slashdot readers; why can't religion and science co-exist? Is there a real reason, or is this just another Mac vs. PC, Linux vs. Windows, Audi vs. BMW style argument where it's "my way or the highway"??

Manuscript Shows Isaac Newton Calculated Date of Apocalypse

Submission + - Should I consider something else than FORTRAN?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @08:01AM

An anonymous reader writes: I'm about to start my PhD in solid state physics. Most of my work will revolve around numerical simulations of lattice systems — Monte Carlo simulations, density functional calculations [iterative solutions of differential equations], etc.
Almost all of the legacy code is written in FORTRAN(95), the systems available are quite ...diverse ( some old Alphas, Opterons, Power5). Furthermore, I want to be able to simply 'write down' my code (consisting mainly of matrix equations) without worrying (much) about operator precedence, pointers, whatever. So, the programming language should fulfil the following requirements:

1) speed
2) portability
3) easy parallelisation
4) sane, safe, easy syntax

FORTRAN claims all of the above with the possible exception of #4, though in my -limited- experience it's not as bad as the old stories tell if one can muster a bit of self-discipline. C fails -for all I know — on #3 and #4 (remember, matrix manipulation).
But of course, my knowledge is rather limited, especially considering other alternatives (assumed existing), so I thought I'd better ask.

Note that I do not care if the language will be regarded as a 'valuable asset' by future employers, as If I would consider a corporate job they'd better hire me for my brain and not for my toolbox.

Submission + - Microsoft agrees to change Vista desktop search

Submitted by Cragien Boro on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @05:39AM

Cragien Boro writes: Microsoft agreed to make changes to the desktop search feature in Windows Vista in an effort to assuage Google and head off a further antitrust battle with U.S. regulators. In a filing made jointly with the Justice Department, Microsoft said it would change the search feature as part of the first service pack to Windows Vista. In the filing, Microsoft talked for the first time about when that service pack would arrive, saying a beta version will come by the end of the year. Under the agreement, Microsoft will create a mechanism whereby both computer makers and individuals will be able to choose a default desktop search program, much as they can choose a rival browser or media player, even though those technologies are built into Windows.

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