Anml4ixoye - Slashdot User

Submission + - Why do we use x86 CPUs?

Submitted by bluefoxlucid on Tuesday January 02, 2007 @06:51PM

bluefoxlucid writes: With Apple having now switched to x86 CPUs, I've been wondering for a while why we use the x86 architecture at all. The Power architecture was known for its better performance per clock; and still other RISC architectures such as the various ARM models provide very high performance per clock as well as reduced power usage, opening some potential for low-power laptops. Compilers can also deal with optimization in RISC architectures more easily, since the instruction set is smaller and the possible scheduling arrangements are thus reduced greatly. With Just-in-Time compilation, legacy x86 programs could be painlessly run on ARM/PPC by translating them dynamically at run time, similar to how CIL and Java work. So really, what do you all think about our choice of primary CPU architecture? Are x86 and x86_64 a good choice; or should we have shot for PPC64 or a 64-bit ARM solution?

Submission + - Cameras Help Cops Capture Cold-blooded Killer

Submitted by CrazedWalrus on Tuesday January 02, 2007 @04:34PM

CrazedWalrus writes: Philadelphia police recently captured a serial killer using a combination of Homeland Security and private surveillance cameras. Police pieced together relevant video from twelve different cameras, and eventually were able to identify the murderer. Once caught, he confessed to several other murders spanning the past eight years. Without these cameras, this killer would probably be lurking the streets of Philadelphia today. With results like that, is there really a good basis for argument against these cameras?

Submission + - A Microsoft-speak timeline: From Altair to Zune

Submitted by

netbuzz

on Tuesday January 02, 2007 @12:31PM

netbuzz writes: "No company has had more to say about software over the past 30 years than Microsoft (for better or worse). How they've said it — the actual language used — reveals a lot about the company's evolution and is the focus of a new timeline-like "tag cloud" provided by the Seattle P-I. In addition to analyzing the linguistics of about 90 documents, there are also links to such gems as Bill Gates' Playboy interview and his famous "Open Letters to Hobbyists."

Blog item about it:
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1017 7

Link to P-I tool:
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/tags/ "

Submission + - Apple's New Ipod Pea

Submitted by

on Monday January 01, 2007 @11:41PM

An anonymous reader writes: With the new iPod Pea, Apple has finally managed to reduce their popular MP3 player to a size that barely accommodates its own headphone jack.

Submission + - Microsoft's Xbox 360 to Run Linux Soon?

Submitted by on Monday January 01, 2007 @08:27PM

An anonymous reader writes: In a very short presentation during the Lightning Talks at the 23rd Chaos Communication Congress in Germany an anonymous masked 'hacker' showed what could be an exploit in Microsoft's new console that will allow to boot Linux or other unsigned code. After booting and loading a game of King Kong the Xbox 360 displayed a logo of Xbox360, Tux and the old MacOS with the words "coming soon...". His retail 'Core' Xbox360 unit has a small custom PCB hanging out of the case and he's using a Apple Macbook pro to proceed with his hack. Discussions on community sites suggest he might have found an exploit in the vector shaders of King Kong which aren't signed or checked for validity by the Xbox 360.

Submission + - Open formats save the day

Submitted by

Amnl4ixoye

on Monday January 01, 2007 @07:56PM

Amnl4ixoye writes: "This evening, I had the unfortunate experience of shift-deleting my entire Inbox for one of my accounts in Thunderbird. However, thanks in part to their openness of formats and standards, I was able to save the day by making some simple changes. Thank you open and clear formats!"

Submission + - UFO Above Chicago O'Hare International Airport

Submitted by Aglassis on Monday January 01, 2007 @07:00PM

Aglassis writes: On Nov 7, 2006 at about 4:30 p.m. several United Airlines employees including several pilots observed a 6 to 24 ft diameter flying saucer-like object above Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. After hovering for several minutes without displaying any lights it then shot straight up and punched a hole in the 1,900 ft cloud ceiling. No explanation has been given nor did the air traffic control tower detect the purported craft on radar. One controller did note that "to fly 7 million light years to O'Hare and then have to turn around and go home because your gate was occupied is simply unacceptable."

Submission + - QuickTime Exploit Kicks Off Month of Apple Bugs

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01, 2007 @06:47PM

An anonymous reader writes: A previously undocumented security hole in Apple's QuickTime media player could expose Windows and Mac users alike to having unwanted software installed on their machines if they view a specially-crafted streaming media file, according to the first entry over at the controversial Month of Apple Bugs project. The problem apparently resides in the way QuickTime handles URLs that begin with "rtsp://". The Washington Post's Security Fix blog notes that while Safari and Internet Explorer will happily load such links, Firefox 2.0 does not. From the piece: "If the advisory is correct, this vulnerability does not strictly rely on tricking the would-be victim into clicking on a maliciously-crafted hyperlink. The exploit could be inserted into a video embedded in a Web page, one that loads automatically when the user visits the site. It also can be invoked inside of Macromedia Flash code or through Javascript commands.

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