738971
submission
spandex_panda writes:
I read just now about a new media centre version of Ubuntu, actually it is an independent distro but seems to be including a new media center app which is GPL licensed. A developer has posted something here talking about a few things regarding it.
I think this is one of those things Ubuntu really needs, although I haven't tried it it looks great from the screen shots and the developer sounds very professional and organised. I personally don't like myth-tv as it is not quite 'shiny' enough! Something like eAROS could be the beginning of some more Linux migration as people move from windows based media centers to linux based ones.
737689
submission
tigreye007 writes:
Something is stirring over at Blizzard Entertainment, but as per usual, they're keeping it hush-hush, and all the while giving us vague hints at the possibilities. The most obvious hint is a newly-added splash screen on most of Blizzard's web sites. The splash image at first glance looks like a cracking chunk of ice, but a closer look reveals small runic symbols with circles around them that most people currently believe will continue to be added each day leading up to this weekend. With the start of their annual Worldwide Invitational (WWI) on Saturday, they're definitely building up a buzz, and many signs are pointing to the coming of the next version of Diablo, i.e. Diablo III. A 50+ page (and quickly growing) thread filled with speculation and hope can be found here.
736493
submission
TheGrumpster writes:
Following in the footsteps of Verizon, it would seem, Time Warner has apparently dumped all usenet newsgroup service. A connection to any of their groups gives the following:
"Time Warner Cable will be discontinuing its newsgroup service effective 06/23/2008.
For more information please visit: http://help.rr.com/HMSFaqs/e_newsgroups_termination.aspx"
Comically, they cite a "lack of use" as the reason for dropping usenet. I guess the 1.5 TB of goodiez I downloaded during the past year isn't sufficient to demonstrate "use".
736335
submission
schliz writes:
A group of some 140 Linux developers are calling on hardware vendors to open up their driver code. Backed by the Linux Foundation, the developers signed an open letter addressed to all hardware vendors who have yet to release their Linux drivers as open source software.
734417
submission
UltraLoser writes:
When is it acceptable to encourage users to accept a self-signed SSL cert? Recently the staff of a certain website turned on optional SSL with a self-signed and domain mismatched certificate for its users and encourages them to add an exception for this certificate. Their defense of this certificate is that it is just as secure as one signed by a commercial CA and because their site exists for the distribution of copyrighted material the staff do not want to have their personal information in the hands of a CA. In their situation is it acceptable to encourage users to trust this certificate or is this giving users a false sense of security?
734349
submission
jschauma writes:
Alistair Crooks, president of the NetBSD Foundation, announced recently that it ``has changed its recommended license to be a 2 clause BSD license.'' This makes NetBSD even more easily available to a number of organizations and individuals who may have been put off by the advertising or endorsement clauses. See Alistair's email and NetBSD's licensing information for more details.
708157
story
RickRussellTX writes
"eBay is being pressured
by an animal welfare group to ban sales of ivory and animal tooth
products on its site. Although eBay is in compliance with the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species when it warns users that
such postings may be inviolation of national and international law, the
International Fund for Animal Welfare
is demanding that they go a step further to search for and delete any
posting of ivory products."
689733
story
pln2bz writes
"Eric Lerner, author of The Big Bang Never Happened, has received $600k in funding, and a promise of phased payments of $10 million if scientific feasibility can be demonstrated to productize Lerner's focus fusion energy production device. Unlike the Tokamak, focus fusion does not require the plasma to be stable, does not produce significant amounts of dangerous radiation, directly injects electrons into the power grid without the need for turbines and would only cost around $300k to manufacture a generator. Lerner's inspiration for the technology is based upon an interpretation for astrophysical Herbig-Haro jets that agrees with the Electric Universe explanation."
644680
story
toomin writes
"Reviews of the latest Ubuntu version, 8.04 Hardy Heron, are everywhere, but most of them are undertaken by geeks familiar with Linux. This guy sits his girlfriend down at a brand-new Ubuntu installation and asks her to perform some basic tasks. Some of them are surprisingly easy, others frustrate and annoy. There are lots of little usability tweaks he stumbles upon just by seeing the desktop experience from the point of view of the mainstream user."
596446
story
Chris Blanc writes
"Mozilla Lab's push is to blur the edges of the browser, to make it both more tightly integrated with the computer it's running on, and also more hooked into Web services. So extended, the browser becomes an even more powerful and pervasive platform for all kinds of applications. 'Beard wants the new online/offline, browser/service to be more intelligent on behalf of its users. Early examples of this intelligence include the "awesome bar," which is what Mozilla calls the new smart address bar in Firefox 3. It offers users smart URL suggestions as they type based on Web searches and their prior Web browsing history. He's looking to extend on this with a "linguistic user interface" that lets users type plain English commands into the browser bar. Beard pointed me towards Quicksilver and Enso as products he's cribbing from.'"
