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Software

Submission + - Seeking a great Linux text editor

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "Sharon Machlis is seeking a Linux text editor that can replace the functionality she's used to on Windows using NoteTab Pro. The specific features she needs are:

  • Good text manipulation — things like changing text case, joining lines, stripping html
  • Programmable macros
  • One-click html tagging for things like bolding, centering and adding links
  • Straight ASCII text only (leaving out the OpenOffice word processor)
  • Editing functions such as spell check
She's tried out Kate, Bluefish and ActiveState's Komodo Edit, but she says they don't make the grade. Do Slashdot readers have any other suggestions?"
AMD

Submission + - New AMD Chipset Brings HDMI and ATI Graphics

Submitted by
Vigile
Vigile writes: "Today AMD announced the new AMD 690 series of chipsets that feature integrated graphics based around the aging ATI Radeon X700 core architecture. It is the first AMD branded chipset in nearly 4 years and features some interesting features; one of which is the inclusion of integrated HDMI support. This should make for an interesting HTPC design though as PC Perspective reports, without support for decode acceleration of HD-DVD and Blu-ray, that HDMI is mostly just fluff. They also report that though the gaming performance is better than what NVIDIA's current 6150 chipset offers, it still doesn't impress as they'd hoped it would."
Businesses

Submission + - Performance problems complicate market decline

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: Keynote Systems, which monitors Web site performance worldwide, saw a 25% decrease in the number of transactions it could execute at various online brokerages from 1:30 p.m. EST until the market closed at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, February 27. Sites including Ameritrade, Fidelity, Firstrade, Muriel Siebert, Schwab, ShareBuilder, TD Waterhouse and Wells Fargo all experienced performance issues, according to Keynote. The New York Stock Exchange itself experienced intermittent delays toward the end of the trading day, which may have further complicated a major sell-off in U.S. equity markets. A sell-off in China's equity market fanned worries that stock valuations there are too high, and some data indicated that U.S. economic growth may slow.
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - The Truth About Switching: what it's really like!

Submitted by
TheMacThinker
TheMacThinker writes: "Poke around the net for a while searching for information on what it's like to switch to a Mac, and you'll quickly get a face full of hyperbole, zealots, platform bigots, feature weenies, and naysayers — from both the Windows and Mac camps.

But there are precious few places to get an honest word about what it's like to switch, other than some deeply technical face-offs. So, I've been taking notes for the past few years, and thought I'd write them down.

Before I get into things, I should say that I've been a happy Mac user for 3 or 4 years, but spent most of the 10+ years before that quite enamored with Windows and DOS as well.

So, here's what it's like to switch to a Mac, without all the whining and hysterics:

01 People will ridicule you for having a Mac
My former boss, an otherwise friendly and intelligent person, was always on the lookout for opportunities to poke fun at me because I used a Mac and brought it to work with me every day. This is changing, however, and mainly applies to corporate settings there days.

02 You'll feel like you're in a little club
When other Mac owners find out you have one too, you'll get a little smile of appreciation, and will likely end up talking about Macs for five or ten minutes — no matter who they are and what the circumstance is. You may or may not find this annoying.

03 People will help you for no reason
Other Mac owners are usually fairly willing to help you get up and running on the Mac. This may be self-serving on their behalf, because it helps sell more Mac stuff which in turn justifies their investment in a company with less than 10% market share, but it's still a perk.

04 Fewer people will try to attack you
Probably not through altruism, but rather because Mac platform is (a) less widely used and (b) based on a fairly robust UNIX operating system, there are almost no viruses or other nasty stuff for the Mac.

05 You'll be able to ignore most viruses
Each time the Windows community gets up in arms about the next big virus that is circulating around the globe, you can go about your business on your Mac without really worrying. However, you do have to be careful to not forward on infected files from one Windows user to another...

More on http://www.mostofmymac.com/articles/the-truth-abou t-switching-what-it%E2%80%99s-really-like-to-move- to-a-mac/"
Biotech

Submission + - Electrical charge helps re-grow body part

Submitted by
MattSparkes
MattSparkes writes: "Tadpoles can regenerate their tails thanks to a technique that alters the electrical properties of their cells, a new study shows. The build-up of electrical charge at the site of amputation helps guide tissue regeneration. They speculate that doctors might one day be able to regenerate tissue in patients — such as those who have suffered spinal cord injury, or even those who have lost fingers — by altering the flow of positively charged molecules out of cells."
NASA

Golf-Ball Sized Hail Damages Shuttle 118

Posted by CmdrTaco from the don't-make-me-stop-this-thing dept.
MattSparkes writes "The Shuttles March launch has been delayed to late April after golf-ball sized hail caused 7000 pits and divots in the foam that shields the fuel tank. NASA say it's the worst damage of its kind that they have ever seen, but hail is not a new problem for the agency. In 1982, a hailstorm damaged the sensitive heat shield tiles on the Columbia's wings. The damaged tiles then absorbed about 540 kilograms of rain. Once in space, the orbiter faced the Sun to allow the tiles to dry out."
Linux Business

Submission + - Samba Success in the Enterprise?

Submitted by
gunnk
gunnk writes: "We've deployed a Samba server here to replace some aging Novell Netware boxes. It works great: fast, secure, stable. However, we have one VIP that feels that Samba is "amateur" software and that we should be buying Windows servers. I've been searching with little success for large Samba deployments in enterprise environments. Anyone out there care to share stories of places that are happily running large Samba installations for their file servers? Or not so happy, for that matter — better to be informed!"
Microsoft

Submission + - MS Adds 'Indeterminate' Grade to Antipiracy Tool

Submitted by narramissic
narramissic writes: Microsoft will recognize shades of grey in the updated version of its software antipiracy tool, Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications. The company has added a new category, 'indeterminate,' to the tool, which had previously only identified an OS as either valid or invalid.
The Internet

Submission + - Beware the MySpace eco-system

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Too many companies in the social web space have an unhealthy reliance on MySpace, says ZDNet's The Social Web: The social networking site has become so popular, that companies who 'wigitize' their service — so that it can be embedded on MySpace user-profiles — hope to see a significant return, both in terms of traffic and visibility. For some companies, tapping into the MySpace eco-system provides an additional revenue stream, while for others, it's a lifeline. Getting blocked from MySpace can be the equivalent of turning off the life support machine. Fox Interactive (the parent company of MySpace) says that widget's will be blocked if they violate copyright, pose a security risk, are pornographic, or engage in commercial activity. But isn't commercial activity the whole point of the MySpace eco-system?
Microsoft

Submission + - Avaya turned down Microsoft partnership deal

Submitted by Rob
Rob writes: CBRonline.com reports that Avaya claims it was offered a Unified Communications partnership by Microsoft ahead of Nortel, but refused to license its call control technology to the operating system giant. "They came to us to offer that deal and we turned them down, and now they're coming back to try again," said Karyn Mashima, senior VP of strategy and technology at the Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based vendor of enterprise telephony infrastructure. Mashima said a deal would have required licensing what constitutes Avaya's "crown jewels" to Microsoft, which Nortel, "struggling in the enterprise market", was prepared to do. "I guess it was something Nortel felt was worth giving up," she said.
Linux

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Drawing Near 331

Posted by CmdrTaco from the millions-rejoicing-in-the-street dept.
daria42 writes "Ubuntu developers are finalizing preparations for the release of the next version — dubbed Feisty Fawn — of the popular Linux distribution in mid-April. Overnight, Ubuntu developer Tollef Fog Heen announced Ubuntu's main software repository had been frozen — with no changes allowed to the code — as developers got ready to issue a fifth major test version ("Herd 5") of the next version of Ubuntu."
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Exclusive Interview with Douglas Adams from 1979

Submitted by
DarkerMatter
DarkerMatter writes: "A new online science fiction magazine, Darker Matter, has just gone live with an exclusive interview conducted with Douglas Adams (author of the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy) in 1979, just before his first book was published. The interview was never used until now. The site also has high quality short sf stories from writers inclusing Hugo award winner David D. Levine, Bud Sparhawk and Edward M. Lerner. The site is funded by advertising, pays the going rate to writers and is planning to donate any profits to charity.

http://www.darkermatter.com/"
The Internet

Submission + - FlickrCombat, a New Mashup in Town

Submitted by Pink Fluffy Dinosaur
Pink Fluffy Dinosaur writes: There are so many great photos added every day on Flickr. So many, that no human being can ever rank them. FlickrCombat's aim is to manage to do that, involving the community power. Flickrcombat.com is a mashup that is offering an effective process to involve the community in revealing the best Flickr photos (sourced via the flickr.com API) and at the same time to keep things interesting and entertaining. In the good web 2.0 spirit, the users exercise an influence over the content and the more they get involved, the more value they add to the application. As for the theme... nothing new under the sun. The idea of two pictures fighting against each other had been exploited before in various ways, especially when it came to pictures of hot babes, a category preferred by far by a male majority user community. Everybody knows that sex sells. The other categories seem almost an overplus since they are not really addressed to the target. It's more of a bonus for those who, in addition, are pet lovers or just enjoy nature and art. As for the "guys" category... how many women really waste time participating in that combat? The design of the web site is a plus, though. Simplicity does its work here, highlighting the photos in the combat. And you can easily find your way around. So what is FlickrCombat all about? Two pictures in each combat, seven categories to choose from, and a top 21 that says it all. Users can choose from several categories — babes, cars, cats, dogs, views, guys and art — and vote on one picture they like best out of two. The rank of each picture is determined by the number of defeats, wins and combats. The users can enjoy the result of their rating checking out the goodies in the top (and by this you know what I mean...)

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