Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment signed UEFI makes difficult to install Linux (Score 1) 269

by perles (#42143925) Attached to: NPD Group Analysts Say Windows 8 Sales Sluggish
I was planing to purchase a laptop to replace my old one with more than 5 years. But since I use only Linux the UEFI, a crapy BIOS replacement, comes with a digital signature that forbids the installation of any other OS that is not signed I decided to postpone indeffinetly till things are sorted out in favor of FOSS community.
Government

Submission + - Sandia Lab celebrates original "Mr. Clean" the clean room inventor (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Sandia National Laboratories physicist Willis Whitfield, 92, passed away earlier this month and left a technological legacy that continues to reverberate today: The legendary clean room.

The original laminar-flow 10 x 6 clean room developed 50 years ago by Whitfield was more than 1,000 times cleaner than any cleanrooms used at the time and ultimately revolutionized microelectronics, healthcare and manufacturing development. According to Sandia, with slight modifications, it is still the clean room standard today."
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 8 PCs Still Throttled By Crapware (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Windows 8's Metro UI presents a clean and spiffy new interface for Microsoft's latest OS. But one of the operating system's oldest and most hated problems — crapware — still lurks below the surface. For instance, the Acer Aspire 7600U is an all-in-one that, at $1,900, is hardly a bargain-basement PC. And yet as shipped it includes over 50 pieces of OEM and third-party software pre-installed, much of which simply offer trials for paid services."
Microsoft

Submission + - Is Microsoft On The Verge Of A Sudden Collapse Predicted By Catastrophe Theory? (forbes.com) 5

Submitted by skade88
skade88 writes: Forbes has an interesting article predicting the end of days for Microsoft. Do you think it is compelling?

" The departure of Steve Sinofsky so soon after the launch of Windows 8 was not a vote of confidence by the maker of the world’s largest operating system. But is it a sign of Microsoft‘s imminent collapse?

Last week, usability expert Jakob Nielsen wrote a devastating critique of Windows 8 on his Alertbox blog. He writes, “One of the worst aspects of Windows 8 for power users is that the product’s very name has become a misnomer. ‘Windows’ no longer supports multiple windows on the screen. When users can’t view several windows simultaneously, they must keep information from one window in short-term memory while they activate another window. This is problematic for two reasons. First, human short-term memory is notoriously weak, and second, the very task of having to manipulate a window—instead of simply glancing at one that’s already open—further taxes the user’s cognitive resources.”"
Transportation

Submission + - Self-Driving Car Faces Off Against Pro on Thunderhill Racetrack

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Rachel Swaby writes that a self-driving car and a seasoned race-car driver recently faced off at Northern California's three-mile Thunderhill Raceway loop. The autonomous vehicle is a creation from the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS). "We tried to model [the self-driving car] after what we've learned from the best race-car drivers," says Chris Gerdes. So who won? Humans, of course. But only by a few measly seconds. "What the human drivers do is consistently feel out the limits of the car and push it just a little bit farther," explained Gerdes. "When you look at what the car is capable of and what humans achieve, that gap is really actually small." Because the self-driving car reacts to the track as if it were controlled in real time by a human, a funny thing happens to passengers along for the ride. Initially, when the car accelerates to 115 miles per hour and then breaks just in time to make it around a curve, the person riding shotgun freaks out. But a second lap looks very different. Passengers tend to relax, putting their faith in the automatically spinning wheel. "We might have a tendency to put too much confidence in it," cautioned Gerdes. "Watching people experience it, they'll say, oh, that was flawless." Gerdes reaction: "Wait wait! This was developed by a crazy professor and graduate students!""
Education

Submission + - How do you stop online students cheating? (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by G.Sarab
G.Sarab writes: BBC News asks: How do you stop online students cheating? Online academia seeks the credibility of traditional in-person schools, but by definition, remote and online students are on their honor, even on exams. Three main strategies:

1) Change assessment methods so that outside sources are less useful, such as project-based assignments rather than traditional exams. Problem: What is really being measured by the assessment? How well are students being prepared versus assessment by older methods?

2) Technology like biometrics, audio/video tracking, keystroke analysis, etc., to identify students and prevent cheating. Problem: How effective can these be? How easy to game?

3) Give exams in person, either at a "campus" or remote test center. Problem: What if there's no campus, or students are spread geographically? How can you validate student identity when they never meet instructors face-to-face? If using test centers, are only randomized multiple choice exams feasible?
Windows

Submission + - Acer delays Windows RT tablets over Surface concerns (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Taiwanese computer maker Acer has put back the launch of its Windows RT tablets following mixed reviews for Microsoft's own Surface device which is powered by the new operating system.

Acer said it was now unlikely to distribute the product before April.

Windows RT appears similar to the full Windows 8 system and is designed to run on ARM-based processors.

Unlike Windows 8, Microsoft only allows Windows RT to install third-party software from its own online store, and the apps can only run via the system's touch interface and not in the traditional desktop mode.

However, in return for this trade-off Windows RT computers are likely to offer longer battery life and cheaper prices.
Government

Submission + - NASA teams to build gyroscopes 1,000X more sensitive than current systems (networkworld.com) 3

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "NASA today said it would work with a team of researchers on a three-year, $1.8 project to build gyroscope systems that are more than 1,000 times as sensitive as those in use today. The Fast Light Optical Gyroscope project will marry researchers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center; the US Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center and Northwestern University to develop gyroscopes that could find their way into complex spacecraft, aircraft, commercial vehicles or ships in the future."

Comment more clarifications (Score 1) 249

by perles (#41766635) Attached to: EXT4 Data Corruption Bug Hits Linux Kernel
Perhaps the author of this summary could have been more precise. The bug is very unlikely to be triggered, here are some examples: https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/10/24/535 and http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?74697-EXT4-Data-Corruption-Bug-Hits-Stable-Linux-Kernels&p=293446#post293446 . Indeed is a good measure to downgrade to a safe version and wait for a patch to come. I have been using the 3.6.2 on my two Gentoo boxes for a couple of days and nothing happened. As a precaution I will downgrade till they release such fix.

Slashdot Top Deals

An Ada exception is when a routine gets in trouble and says 'Beam me up, Scotty'.

Close