giberti - Slashdot User

Feed Recoll: A search engine for the Linux desktop (newsforge.com)

From feed by nffeed on Monday April 23, 2007 @01:13PM

Desktop search engines are all the rage these days. While Beagle may be the most popular desktop search engine for Linux, there are alternatives. If you are looking for a lightweight and easy-to-use yet powerful desktop search engine, you might want to try Recoll Recoll. Unlike Beagle, Recoll doesn't require Mono, it's fast, and it's highly configurable. Recoll is based on Xapian, a mature open source search engine library that supports advanced features such as phrase and proximity search, relevance feedback, document categorization, boolean queries, and wildcard search.

Submission + - Do PC Games Have A Brighter Future?

Submitted by Hoi Polloi on Monday April 23, 2007 @12:56PM

Hoi Polloi writes: The New York Times has this article that seems to contradict all of the gloom and doom over the future of PC gaming.

This quote is especially interesting:

...in the first two months of 2007, domestic retail sales of PC games reached $203 million, a 48 percent increase over the $136.8 million in the period a year earlier.

Feed HP sues Acer again over patents (com.com)

From feed by cnetfeed on Monday April 23, 2007 @12:52PM

In second suit against Acer in a month, HP seeks to prevent Taiwan-based PC maker from selling its computers in the U.S.

Feed Sony's Phil Harrison talks PS3 homebrew possibilities (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed on Monday April 23, 2007 @12:32PM

Filed under: Gaming

Given some of the bold statements that Sony's Phil Harrison has made, hinting at possible PlayStation 3 homebrew plans doesn't seem all that remarkable, but it's still nice to hear it coming from the source. While he unfortunately didn't get very specific, he certainly seemed to be open to the idea in a recent interview with Slashdot, saying that he fully supports "the notion of game development at home using powerful tools available to anyone," adding that he believes it's "a vital, crucial aspect of the future growth of our industry." He then went on to earn himself a bit of cred by talking about his Commodore 64 coding past, also citing Sony's Net Yaroze homebrew development kit for the PS1 as evidence of the company's openness to the idea. Let's just hope that any homebrew effort on the PS3 doesn't demand the same premium price that the Net Yaroze did.

[Via Gamesindustry.biz]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Feed USB BB gun sports barrel-mounted webcam, ensures home security (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed on Monday April 23, 2007 @12:32PM

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household

While there's certainly a variety of options to keep watch and protect your property from curious intruders, the latest branch of vCrib gives a new meaning to being on guard. Crafted by the designer of the Virtual Crib home automation software, the USB BB gun sports automatic firing, manual reloading, and the ability to fire based on commands given remotely on a PC. Moreover, the weapon actually packs a webcam on the barrel, allowing users to login via computer, tilt / swivel the gun with simple mouse flicks, and fire away if you spot any intruders within its broad line of sight. It shouldn't need mentioning that we'd make absolutely sure our landlord was cool with mounting a remotely-controlled weapon in the window, but if you need to take home security into your own hands (without actually being at home), be sure to click on through to see this controversial creation spittin' hot fury.

Continue reading USB BB gun sports barrel-mounted webcam, ensures home security

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Star Wars, the Lost Interviews 133

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 23, 2007 @12:28PM from the i-should-get-screenwriter-credits-this-time dept.

smooth wombat writes "Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Release of Star Wars, Ballantine Books is publishing J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of Star Wars", which bills itself as "The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film." The book is the result of Rinzler's discovery of interviews that Charles Lippincott, Lucasfilm's VP marketing and merchandising in the mid-'70s, conducted with the film's principals between 1975 and 1978."

Submission + - New Amiga hardware to be released.

Submitted by baryon351 on Monday April 23, 2007 @12:22PM

baryon351 writes: Finaly a wait is over. Amiga Inc. have announced new PowerPC hardware for running AmigaOS to be unveiled next week. First off a base level $500 design, and second a power user $1500 design. The systems have been under development for the last 12 months between Amiga Inc. and ACK Software Controls; availability and final price of the systems will be announced soon.

Feed Theory Predicts Aging Process In DVDs, Plexiglas, Other Polymer Glasses (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed on Monday April 23, 2007 @12:13PM

Polymer glasses are versatile plastics widely used in applications ranging from aircraft windshields to DVDs. Scientists have now developed a theory that predicts how these materials age. The theory also explains why motions at the molecular level can have macroscopic consequences.

Submission + - Ubuntu 7.04 "a huge step in the right directio

Submitted by OSAgnostic on Monday April 23, 2007 @11:54AM

OSAgnostic writes: It seems that Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" is winning a lot of friends. Over on ZDNet the latest version of Ubuntu is being hailed as a "huge step in the right direction for Linux." The article also offers some hints as to where improvements should be carried out to make the operating system friendlier to newcomers:

Don't get me wrong, overall Ubuntu is nice, friendly and convivial. But there are dark corners that absolutely reek of Linux geekdom cliquiness that average users aren't going to feel at home in (I don't feel at home there). Ubuntu updates are one such area where you need a high level of know-how to understand what's going on.

Feed Got a question for Obama or Clinton? Join the online debate (com.com)

From feed by cnetfeed on Monday April 23, 2007 @11:53AM

Charlie Rose-hosted presidential debates on Yahoo, Slate and The Huffington Post to let voters query candidates, assess performance.

Feed Google logo take Earth Day temperature (com.com)

From feed by cnetfeed on Monday April 23, 2007 @11:53AM

Blog: Sunday was Earth Day, and like many tech companies, Google did its part to celebrate the environment and eco-awareness. The company...

AMD's Barcelona to Outpace Intel by 50% 199

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 23, 2007 @11:44AM from the harder-better-faster-stronger dept.

Gr8Apes writes "AMD is upping the performance numbers for Barcelona by stating that "Barcelona will have a 50% advantage over Clovertown in floating point applications and 20% in integer performance 'over the competition's highest-performing quad-core processor at the same frequency'". AMD also claims that the new 3.0 GHz Opterons beat comparable Intel Xeon 5100 series processors in three server-specific benchmarks (SPECint_rate_2006, SPECint_rate2006, SPECompM2001) by up to 24%."

Submission + - Seven steps to a green data center

Submitted by jcatcw on Monday April 23, 2007 @11:30AM

jcatcw writes: Computerworld's Rob Mitchell has advice about saving money by saving enery. First, consolidate — removing physical servers can save up to $1,200 in energy costs per server per year. Use of power management features and turning off unused servers can cut energy requirements by about 20%. Go with high-efficiency power supplies. Break down internal business barriers, especially between IT and facilities — a watt saved in data center power consumption saves at least a watt in cooling. Forty-one percent of Computerworld readers say they don't know how much energy their data centers use — either because it's not metered separately from the rest of the facility or because it's not part of the IT budget. But greening is about more than just energy. A Fannie Mae facility received points toward LEED certification for being located within a half-mile of public transportation, and by providing bicycle storage areas, changing rooms, preferred carpool parking and refueling stations for alternative fuel vehicles.

Open WAP = Probable Cause? 466

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 23, 2007 @11:09AM from the summon-sam-waterston dept.

RockoTDF writes "A court in texas has ruled that an open WAP is not a sufficient defense against child pornography charges, a ruling which could carry over to p2p users. In addition, it appears that an open WAP could be seen as probable cause by law enforcement."

Hacked DX10 for Windows Appears 336

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 23, 2007 @10:37AM from the well-maybe-it-did-anyway dept.

Oddscurity writes "According to The Inquirer someone managed to write a wrapper allowing DirectX 10 applications to run on platforms other than Vista. The Alky Project claims to have reverse-engineered Geometry Shader code, allowing Windows games to run on Windows XP, MacOSX and Linux. The Inquirer is understandably cautious about these claims, urging readers to investigate the releases themselves to ascertain whether or not it's a hoax."

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