geemon - Slashdot User

Submission + - Wired: How Tech Almost Lost the War 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28, 2007 @07:10PM

An anonymous reader writes: Blame the geeks for the mess in Iraq? Wired says so. Networked troops were supposed to be so efficient, it'd take just a few of 'em to wipe out their enemies. But the Pentagon got their network theory all wrong, with too few nodes and a closed architecture. Besides, a more efficient killing machine is the last thing you want in an insurgency like Iraq.

Submission + - More evidence that XP is Vista's main competitor (computerworld.com) 3

Submitted by

Ian Lamont

on Sunday November 25, 2007 @09:35PM

Ian Lamont writes: "Computerworld is reporting that Windows XP Service Pack 3 runs MS Office 10% faster than XP SP2 — and is "considerably faster" than Vista SP1. XP SP3 isn't scheduled to be released until next year, but testers at Devil Mountain Software — the same company which found Vista SP 1 to be hardly any faster than the debut version of Vista — were able to run some benchmarking tests on a release candidate of XP SP3, says the report. While this may be great news for XP owners, it is a problem for Microsoft, which is having trouble convincing business users to migrate to Vista: 'Vista's biggest competition isn't Apple or Novell or Red Hat; it's Microsoft itself, it's XP, [Forrester Research analyst Benjamin Gray] said. So enamored of XP are businesses that Microsoft may feel obligated to extend the operating system's mainstream support past its current April 2009 expiration date. ... He attributed the lowered expectations to a lack of detailed information about Vista in 2006; too-high prices for PCs with 2GB of memory, which is essentially the minimum needed for Vista, according to company managers; and a larger-than-expected number of incompatible applications.'"

Submission + - Web Traffic Snarls Sites on Black Friday (eweek.com)

Submitted by

eweekhickins

on Sunday November 25, 2007 @09:28PM

eweekhickins writes: "A surge of e-commerce traffic on Thanksgiving night and all day Friday apparently caught several retail giants by surprise, with Lowe's, Macys and Victoria's Secret especially hard hit. In fact, almost a third of leading retailers suffered significant slowdowns on Black Friday, according to statistics released this weekend by Keynote Competitive Research, a firm that tracks Web site performance. The site run by Victoria's Secret also slowed, but users seemed more tolerant about waiting for the site's "exclusive" pictures to download. Go figure."

Submission + - Torvalds on where Linux is headed in 2008

Submitted by Stony Stevenson on Sunday November 25, 2007 @08:59PM

Stony Stevenson writes: In this new interview, Linus Torvalds is excited about solid-state drives, expects progress in graphics and wireless networking, and says the operating system is strong in virtualisation despite his personal lack of interest in the area.

From the article: "To get some perspective on what lies ahead in 2008, we caught up with Linus Torvalds via email. His responses touched on the Linux development process, upcoming features, and whether he's concerned about potential patent litigation."

Torvalds on Linux biggest strength: "When you buy an OS from Microsoft, not only you can't fix it, but it has had years of being skewed by one single entity's sense of the market. It doesn't matter how competent Microsoft — or any individual company — is, it's going to reflect that fact. In contrast, look at where Linux is used. Everything from cellphones and other small embedded computers that people wouldn't even think of as computers, to the bulk of the biggest machines on the supercomputer Top-500 list. That is flexibility. And it stems directly from the fact that anybody who is interested can participate in the development, and no single entity ends up being in control of where it all goes.

Submission + - Free Linux based home anti-virus/spy/adware proxy? 1

Submitted by JaBob on Sunday November 25, 2007 @05:20PM

JaBob writes: Would anyone know how would to go about setting up a linux distro as a home firewall/antivirus/antispyware/ad blocking proxy? I have been wanting to play with a linux box more and more, and I'm sick and tired of fixing my family's windows boxes from the crap that they download. Is there some kind of free proxy solution that will also scan incoming files and extensions for malware and other garbage? I know I can't get them to switch to linux, because some of the apps we depend on don't work on linux, even under wine. A simple Google search yields quite a bit on using Squid to filter ads http://www.google.com/search?q=squid+ad+block , but I have yet to find any information on using it as a filter for other things. I have played with MS ISA server 2004 and would love it if there was something similar or better. I'm a bit of a techie (mechanical engineering student that used to major in CS), and don't mind having to learn a bit to get it set up and working properly, but I don't want to have to think about it and write it from scratch myself (no time, insufficient skills). I could really use a bit of help from people who are a bit wiser and more experienced in this than I am. Thanks.

Submission + - Free ERP/CRM java Rich Internet Application (sourceforge.net)

Submitted by

Mauro Carniel

on Sunday November 25, 2007 @03:21PM

Mauro Carniel writes: "JAllInOne is an ERP/CRM java application having a Swing front-end. It is a Rich Internet Application so the front-end can remotely comunicate with the server-side layer of JAllInOne via HTTP protocol. This application was developed in a few months thanks to Openswing capabilities: this is a development framework that allows to create RIAs with a GUI having very complex contents with low development time. Response time over Internet is good, thanks to the limited amount of bytes that go through the net: only data is transmitted between client and server, no presentation content is transmitted over the net, as for HTML based web applications. Client application is launched through Java Web Start utility (included in JRE distribution); only the first time JAllInOne is invoked the client application must be downloaded from the server: after the first download, client application resides in the client machine. Java Web Start automatically sinchronizes client application when new releases are available in the Application Server. Server-side application is based on java servlet technology and does not require an EJB container: so JAllInOne server side application can be executed inside any Web container, such as Tomcat, Jetty, JBoss, etc. Main features: Sales, Purchases, Warehouse, Bill of materials and production, Accounting, Agenda, CRM, Customers and contacts hierarchies, Callouts and appoinments management, Document management, Users and roles management, database schema management, grids and forms customization, reporting solution based on Jasper Report, reports customization. Multi-user, multi-currency, multi-language, multi-company. JAllInOne installation is simplified by means of a wizard automatically invoked the first time the application is remotelly accessed."

Submission + - PS3 Sales Jump in US on Heels of Price Cut

Submitted by tighr on Sunday November 25, 2007 @03:12PM

tighr writes: The PS3 has finally started to gain ground in the latest incarnation of the console wars, though still selling less than the aging Playstation 2.

The higher sales are good news for Sony, which has been running in third place in the console battle in the U.S. In October, 121,000 PlayStation 3 consoles were shipped, according to estimates from NPD Group. That ranks it lower than the seven-year-old PlayStation 2, which shipped 184,000 units in the month. The market-leading Nintendo Wii shipped 519,000 units and Microsoft's Xbox 360 shipped 366,000 units, said NPD.
Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii has pulled even with the XBox 360 in worldwide sales:

The Wii, which sells for $250 and features a motion-sensitive controller, sold 13.2 million units worldwide as of September, Nintendo said. Microsoft reported that the Xbox 360 — in models priced from $280 to $450 — had sold 13.4 million units at the time. Then, in October, U.S. sales of the Wii exceeded Xbox 360 sales, according to the NPD Group. Combined with the Nintendo console's strength in the Japanese market, that effectively would bring the two into a dead heat in cumulative sales.

Submission + - Justice Clarence Thomas' Interview on 60 Minutes, (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Advocate123 on Sunday September 30, 2007 @08:52PM

Advocate123 writes: Steve Kroft gave a balanced interview of Justice Clarence Thomas on 60 minutes. It was a very enlightening discussion. Overall, Justice Thomas was impressive and left the audience with a positive image.

Journal Journal: Mouseovers - as bad as popups? 8

Journal by fyngyrz on Sunday September 30, 2007 @08:26PM

Is anyone else as annoyed as I am by words and phrases in web articles that pop up boxes because my mouse pointer happened to cross them, temporarily hiding the content I was reading in the first place? I didn't click on anything, and consequently, I don't want a context change. I find these annoying to the point of noting what the site is and not going back. Anyone else feel the same? Anyone have a defense of the practice?

Submission + - How Blender compares to the Major 3D applications

Submitted by LetterRip on Sunday September 30, 2007 @08:19PM

LetterRip writes: CGWorld and CGTalk recently asked whether OpenSource software set to become the dominant toolset in feature film production? Also TDT 3D did a comparison chart with the Major 3D Digital Content Creation applications such as Maya, 3DS Max, and XSI, and of course Blender in this 3D Application Comparison. Blender came out surprisingly well, although it definitely still has some weaknesses. So what do slashdotters think? Can Blender 'take over' the 3D industry or will it always be just for 'freelancers and hobbyists'?

Submission + - Broken Bluetooth module on Macbooks (apple.com)

Submitted by

flowolf

on Sunday September 30, 2007 @06:37PM

flowolf writes: "Seems like a lot of Macbooks are showing some bad behavior with the Bluetooth module and Apple's support is incapable of managing it as many people had to send their Macbook for repair more than one time and still they didn't have it fixed.
When did quality leave Apple?"

Submission + - Bungie argues 640p is enough for anyone. (bungie.net) 2

Submitted by

AHuxley

on Saturday September 29, 2007 @05:17AM

AHuxley writes: "Smart people in the Beyond 3D forums have found that
Bungie's Halo 3 did meet the HD resolution of 720p.
Some math and Photoshop showed that Halo 3 was near 624p.
Bungie sees this as a "distracted conversation" in a short statement about "640 pixels", "lighting"
and "interweb detectives"."

Submission + - Married men play the field online

Submitted by

gingerbread-girl

on Tuesday April 10, 2007 @07:39PM

gingerbread-girl writes: "A new study published by Null Hypothesis, the Journal of Unlikely Science, claims our whole evolutionary history could be laid bare on MySpace. Authors found that men using the community site racked up female friends at a startling rate after getting hitched, whilst women stopped shopping around. Dr Mark Steer said, "When you consider the conflicting interests of the sexes, these results really start to make sense. From a man's point of view, the best way to make sure his genes get passed on might be to help one woman bring up the kids whilst sneakily sowing a few extra seeds elsewhere and hoping for the best." http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/science/strange-b ut-true/profs-probings/myspace_sex_married_relatio nship_evolution"

Submission + - Image Analyzer detects porn in data transmissions

Submitted by thefickler on Tuesday April 10, 2007 @07:20PM

thefickler writes: Visual analysis software that was originally created in 2000 has recently expanded to include the detection of pornography within digital data transmission. The detection method and software have been in place for some time, but the recent release of Image Analyzer 3.0 offers significant improvements that will allow its practical use in future applications in real time.

Feed WoW players learn value of Windows updates (theregister.com)

From feed by registerfeed on Tuesday April 10, 2007 @07:13PM

'Vuln left me naked and penniless'

Subscribers playing World of Warcraft on Windows machines continue to find their accounts stolen more than eleven months after hackers first began targeting them using a Trojan attack, according to posts on the game's official website. The perpetrators are employing sophisticated techniques that involve hundreds of booby-trapped sites that in some cases use the ANI cursor vulnerability that Microsoft patched last week.

Slashdot Top Deals