Ecneics - Slashdot User

Submission + - First Pictures and Specs of Commodore's New PCs

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 15, 2007 @01:13PM

An anonymous reader writes: Following last week's announcement of the return of Commodore with a new line of gaming PCs comes the first specs and images of the new systems. The models, from entry-level to high-end, are the Commodore Cg, Cgs, Cgx, and Cxx. The initial hardware specifications for the 'extreme level' Cxx are as follows: Intel CoreT2 Extreme quad-core processor, an Asus P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI motherboard, two 150 GB 10,000 RPM SATA drives in RAID 0, with a spare 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA drive, 4GB (2 x 2048) Corsair Dominator memory at 1066 MHz, two nVidia 8800 GTX videocards, a Creatve Labs X-Fi, and Windows Vista Ultimate installed. Hell, it might even run Crysis.

Valve To Support DX10 With Episode 2 96

Posted by Zonk on Thursday March 15, 2007 @12:06PM from the really-really-shiny-alyx-vance dept.

In an interview with Game Informer from last week, representatives from Valve confirmed that they'll be supporting DirectX 10 functionality in the release of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2. This will be the case even for those folks who haven't upgraded to Vista yet. No worries if you don't have a DX10 card, though. They've got functionality nailed all the way back to DirectX 8, and are trying to push it all the way back to 7.

Novell Assents To "Windows Is Cheaper Than Linux" 351

Posted by kdawson on Thursday March 15, 2007 @12:04PM from the whose-side-you-on-anyway dept.

dyous87 points out a ZDNet article reporting that Novell has endorsed a customer's comment claiming that the total cost of ownership of Linux is higher then that of Windows. Novell and Microsoft jointly issued a press release quoting an IT guy for a UK-based bank, HSBC: "Some will be surprised to learn that our Windows environment has a lower total cost of ownership than our current Linux environment." The context of the comment makes it clear that HSBC's Linux environment has a mix of distros, and that a move to centralize around one distro — Novell's — will save money. Nevertheless, Novell's connection to this assertion is not likely to improve their reputation in the open source community.

Submission + - NASA to Duct Tape Psychotic Astronauts

Submitted by Thib on Friday February 23, 2007 @05:43PM

Thib writes: After NASA astronaut Lisa Novak reportedly tried to kidnap and kill another woman in a much-publicized love triangle last month, NASA added five pages to a thousand-page document detailing all procedures for dealing with medical emergencies. Their guidelines: duct tape. From the CNN article: "The documents, obtained this week by The Associated Press, say the astronaut's crewmates should bind his wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him down with a bungee cord and inject him with tranquilizers if necessary." The article features various tidbits from previous NASA and Russian missions and from previous stays in the International Space Station and in the Mir space station. NASA is also thinking of revising its policies on psychological screening.

Submission + - Chimps hunting with spears! Are nukes next?

Submitted by

kc7rad

on Friday February 23, 2007 @05:23PM

kc7rad writes: "Published today in the Des Moines Register is an article about a significant scientific discovery by Iowa State anthropologist Jill Pruetz. "Pruetz and colleague Paco Bertolani are the first scientists to document chimpanzees habitually hunting in this way (with spears they fashioned themselves). In the western African nation of Senegal, they observed 10 different chimpanzees in 20 instances of hunting, without human assistance." Also, according to the article, "The peer-reviewed findings appeared Thursday on the "Current Biology" Web site and will be printed in the March 6 edition of the journal.""

Submission + - ebaY hacked by Romanian, scrambling to cover-up

Submitted by vdovault on Friday February 23, 2007 @05:16PM

vdovault writes: You all ought to check into this developing story that ebaY is trying (for obvious reasons) to supress discussion of: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/23/vladuz_str ikes_again/ and earlier http://www.theregister.com/2007/02/20/ebay_conspir acy/ Pics of the hacked ebaY database are available at: http://www.ebaymotorssucks.com/rflello.htm Pics of vladuz's very own (presumably self-created) ebaY pink account are at: http://www.ebaymotorssucks.com/vladuz-suppliment.h tm Articles from those who make their living via ebaY and are really ticked off at ebaY's inaction, ineptitude and/or insincerity are at: http://www.auctionguild.com/generic149.html http://www.auctionguild.com/generic148.html http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl? /comments/2007/2/1172237333.html Vladuz's own 'press relase' in German http://www.falle-internet.de/de/html/pr_vlad2.htm

Feed MP3's Loss, Open Source's Gain (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Friday February 23, 2007 @05:12PM

A jury's $1.52 billion judgment against Microsoft hangs a sudden, unexpected cloud over MP3. This could be the opening open-source advocates have been waiting for. By Eliot Van Buskirk and Evan Hansen.

Submission + - Microsoft to pay $1.52bn over mp3 patent

Submitted by p0rkrind on Friday February 23, 2007 @05:09PM

p0rkrind writes: Microsoft was ordered by a federal jury Thursday to pay $1.52 billion in a patent dispute over the MP3 digital file format, the technology at the heart of the digital music boom. If upheld on appeal, it would be the largest patent judgment on record. The ruling, in U.S. District Court in San Diego, was a victory for Alcatel-Lucent, the networking equipment company. Its forebears include Bell Laboratories, which was involved in the development of MP3 almost two decades ago.

Submission + - RIAA Releases Infringing College Rankings

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Friday February 23, 2007 @05:04PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070222-8900 .html Notable is that Purdue is not playing nice with the RIAA."

Submission + - Use Linux, Lose an Election

Submitted by

johnlittledotorg

on Friday February 23, 2007 @05:02PM

johnlittledotorg writes: "Rob Enderle has written a piece on Cuba's increasing adoption of Linux that represents an astounding achievement in the art of sowing FUD:

If I'm running against an incumbent (who probably has no clue about software at all) and I know some organization under them deployed Linux and that it is being positioned as anti-U.S., might I not use that in the election? "Ladies and gentlemen I promise that under my administration we will not implement products like Linux that put the nation at risk, which contribute critical technology to the terrorists, and embolden our enemies."
What next Rob? A bounty on Osama bin Linus? Please tell us how to we can stamp out this threat to our nation. Oh, all we have to do is install Windows Vista? Sweeeeet."

Journal Journal: Marconi Myriad - playing music

Journal by Virbius on Friday February 23, 2007 @04:35PM

Just seen the following posting.

start
Marconi Myriad (Score:1)
by Hugo Graffiti (95829) on Wednesday November 15 (2006 I assume), @10:02PM (#16859972)
The first computer I ever programmed on back in 1977 was a Marconi Myriad. It had a small speaker that made a different tone depending on what instruction was being executed. It provided excellent feedback on the health of the system. When everything was running normally it made a very rich and

Slashdot Top Deals