ender8282 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Microsoft kicks Windows XP off support list (pcauthority.com.au)

Submitted by Slatterz on Tuesday April 07, 2009 @07:01PM

Slatterz writes: Come next week, Microsoft will be in the unusual position of no longer offering mainstream support for its most widely used product. Windows XP will pass another milestone on the road to retirement next week when Microsoft withdraws mainstream support for the operating system. Mainstream support for XP will end on 14 April 2009, over seven years after the operating system originally shipped. While the company said that it will continue to provide free security fixes for XP until 2014, any future bugs found in the platform will not be fixed unless customers pay for additional support. Windows XP accounts for about 63 per cent of all internet connected computers, according to March 2009 statistics from Hitslink, while Windows Vista makes up about 24 per cent.

Submission + - $0.69 Tracks MIA as iTunes Shifts Pricing

Submitted by Hodejo1 on Tuesday April 07, 2009 @06:40PM

Hodejo1 writes: Steve Jobs vowed weeks ago that when iTunes shifted to a tiered price structure in April older tracks priced at $0.69 would outnumber the contemporary hits that are rising to $1.29. Today, several weeks later, iTunes made the transition. While the $1.29 tracks are immediately visible, locating cheaper tracks are proving to be an exercise in futility. With the exception of 48 songs that Apple has placed on the iTunes main page, $0.69 downloads are proving to b a scarce commodity. MP3 Newswire tried to methodically drill down to unearth more of them only to find: 1) A download like Heart's thirty-four year-old song Barracuda went up to $1.29, not down. 2) Obscure 90s Brit pop and 50's Rockabilly artists — artists most likely to benefit from a price drop — remained at $0.99. 3) Collected tracks from a cross-section of 1920s, 30s, and 40s artists all remained at $0.99. Finally, MP3 Newswire called up tracks in the public domain from an artists named Ada Jones who first recorded in 1893 on Edison cylinder technology. The price on all the century-old tracks remained at $0.99 (Since they are in the public domain the same tracks are available for free on the Archive.org). Wonder where the price savings on deeper catalog cuts went? The problem may reflect the fact that the labels themselves decide which price tier they want to pursue for a given artist and they are mostly ignoring the lower tier. Meanwhile, Amazon's UK site has decided to counter promote their service by dropping prices on select tracks to 29 pence ($0.42).

Submission + - Acer AspireRevo First to Adopt NVIDIA ION (pcper.com)

Submitted by Vigile on Tuesday April 07, 2009 @06:40PM

Vigile writes: Acer is officially the first to take the wraps of a retail-ready system featuring the NVIDIA ION platform. The specifications on the AspireRevo are fairly impressive: an Intel Atom 230 single-core processor, NVIDIA ION chipset and graphics solution, support for up to 4GB of dual-channel DDR2 memory and a 250GB 2.5" hard drive. The form factor only measures 7.1" x 7.1" x 1.2" yet includes features like VGA, HDMI, eSATA, six USB 2.0 ports and a memory card reader all while shipping with Windows Vista Premium support. Pricing and availability are still up in the air but Q2 is the most likely time frame.

Submission + - Difficult to pronounce = risky (nih.gov)

Submitted by larry hunter on Tuesday April 07, 2009 @06:37PM

larry hunter writes: In a series of experiments, psychologists at the University of Michigan have demonstrated that words that are hard to pronounce are associated with greater perceptions of risk, both negative (e.g. for food additives) and positive (for amusement park rides). http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121615894/abstract

Submission + - Intel launches new chip logos, rating system (cnet.com)

Submitted by N!NJA on Tuesday April 07, 2009 @06:21PM

N!NJA writes: Intel has revamped its processor badging and rating system. Consumers are the main target, though business systems will get new badging too.

The new badges include a die (the chip minus the packaging) accent in the upper right hand corner, a prominent main brand (e.g., "Core"), and the modifier (e.g., "i7").

Intel has also instituted a star system that rates chips from five stars (best performance in class) to one star (lowest performance). "So when a consumer goes into a Best Buy store they can distinguish between Centrino, Core, Celeron, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad," said Intel spokesman Bill Calder.

Submission + - "We're Linux" Finalists announced (ostatic.com)

Submitted by ruphus13 on Tuesday April 07, 2009 @05:29PM

ruphus13 writes: In an effort to drive more awareness to Linux, the Linux Foundation announced the "We're Linux" contest. Over 90 entries were received, and the finalists are now out. From the article, "The contest was spawned from the idea that other software companies were paying millions of dollars to celebrities for endorsements, while Linux was promoted and shared by enthusiastic, passionate, actual users. Contestants were given a simple directive: tell the Linux Foundation what Linux is for you, why you use it, and why you'd encourage others to do the same. Humor and professional production quality weren't required — it just had to be genuine." Details on the finalists can be found on the Linux Foundation Video site here.

Comment Disambiguation section for your resume (Score 1) 564

by ender8282 on Tuesday February 17, 2009 @03:33PM (#26891641) Attached to: Repairing / Establishing Online Reputation?

Add a section to your resume that covers your internet presence. Look at the disambiguation section of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AndrewDressel for an example. Note: I am not Andrew Dressel.

Comment Re:Presumably, all the Swedish researchers need (Score 5, Interesting) 367

by ender8282 on Thursday January 29, 2009 @05:58PM (#26659259) Attached to: Lie Detector Company Threatens Critical Scientists With Suit

Don't know the law in the EU but in the US it looks like making a statement in good faith or making a true statement are both defenses. This means that if the scientist has done a reasonable amount of research and believes that the machine is bogus then he will pass the test and wouldn't be held liable for libel.

Comment Re:Different pockets, same taxpayers' money (Score 1) 1026

by ender8282 on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @05:02PM (#26551849) Attached to: What will Obama change most in the first 100 days?

Cut FICA from 15% to 10% and remove its $75k/yr cap; Gates and Ballmer pay <.0000001% and I pay 15% and they think that's fair? Make them pay the same percentage as me.

You forget that how much you get out of Social Security is proportional to how much you put in. If Bill and Steve put more in they would just get more out when they retire.

The bigger problem is that I have been putting money into FICA but at 27 years old I don't expect to see any of it by the time I retire. It will be all gone paying off the retiring baby boomers

Comment Re:If you're that worried... (Score 1) 940

by ender8282 on Thursday October 09, 2008 @05:13PM (#25320603) Attached to: Tips For Taking Your Laptop Into and Out of the US?

How do you figure that they don't have the ability to decrypt? They might decide that a brute force attack isn't worth their time but they certainly could.

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