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Patents

Submission + - Microsoft Wants Patent on Indentation

theodp writes: "Throw some text in a worksheet, make the columns small, and color the cells to denote a hierarchy. Like this. That, my friend, may constitute patent infringement for the next twenty years if the USPTO grants Microsoft the patent it's seeking for Minimizing Indenting (actual patent image). Just one more example of how Microsoft's lawyers are making the world a better place through more joyful and inclusive design."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Apple to re-enter the sub-notebook market

An anonymous reader writes: AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has plans to reenter the sub-notebook market this year. FTFA: "This new tiny MacBook, people familiar with the project say, remains in development ahead of its target launch date around the time WWDC rolls around mid-year. It will be both lighter and more compact than any other Mac portable Apple has put forth in recent years, bundling a display of similarly smaller proportions."

http://appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2500
Operating Systems

Submission + - OpenBSD: Linux's "Free Driver Offer" is a

microbee writes: KernelTrap reports that Greg Kroah-Hartman's offer for free GPL drivers has caused criticisms from OpenBSD developers, including founder Theo de Raadt who calls it a farce. Their reason is that this move will make companies even more reluctant to provide open specs and will hurt free software in the long run. Greg is not convinced, but given his track record of being wrong once, maybe the OpenBSD folks have a point?
SuSE

Submission + - Microsoft exec: SUSE guest support, interop coming

Max Kincora writes: "http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalCon tent/0,289142,sid39_gci1243601,00.html This spring, Novell and Microsoft will release a virtualization tool that bridges the chasm between Linux and Windows, says a Microsoft exec in this Q&A. He also discusses hardware virtualization and the upcoming open standards that should boost ISVs' releases of Linux-Windows interoperability tools."
Businesses

Submission + - apple's devine business practices

Anonymous Coward writes: "http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article ?AID=/20070213/NEWS/702130409/1001/NEWS a small "hipster" bar called "The Lift" catering to technology clueless 20 and 30 somethings held a weekly event called "iPod monday" in which said hipsters could bring in their iPods and have 20 minutes of their songs played over the sound system. They recently received a Cease and Desist order from apple for trade mark infringement. On a side note i'd like to add the organizer of the event was unable to figure out how to play files off of a creative nomad, the concept of a mass storage device being too much for him."
Upgrades

Submission + - No closed video drivers for next Ubuntu release

lisah writes: "Ubuntu's next release, Feisty Fawn, is due out in April and, according to company CTO Matt Zimmerman, proprietary video drivers failed to make the cut for the default install. Zimmerman told Linux.com that although, the software required for Composite support is not ready for prime-time and therefore will not be included in Feisty, Ubuntu hasn't given up entirely on the inclusion of video drivers in future releases. '[T]he winds aren't right yet. We will continue to track development and will revisit the decision if things change significantly.' Ambiguous or not, the decision to exclude proprietary drivers for now should satisfy at least some members of the Ubuntu Community. In other Feisty Fawn news, the Board also decided to downgrade support for Power PC due to a lack of funding."
Windows

Submission + - Microsoft says no plans for new Windows in 2009

Janqie writes: Microsoft has disavowed any announced plans to ship a new version of Windows in 2009 (previous /. coverage), issuing a statement saying that the company is not prepared to offer any guidance on when the next version of Windows might ship. Kevin Kutz, Director of Windows Client development, said: "We are not giving official guidance to the public yet about the next version of Windows, other than that were working on it. When we are ready, we will provide updates."
Security

Submission + - Embarrassing Solaris 0-day vulnerability

philos writes: "According to SANS ISC, there's a vulnerability in Solaris 10 and 11 telnet that allows anyone to remotely connect as any account, including root, without authentication. Remote access can be gained with nothing more than a telnet client. More information and a Snort signature can be found at riosec.com. Worse, this is almost identical to a bug in AIX and Linux rlogin from way back in 1994."
Slashback

Submission + - Followup: Free Linux Kernel Driver Development Q&a

schwaang writes: The recent announcement by Linux Kernel Developer Greg Kroah-Hartman that "the Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development" seems to have stirred up some interest as well as some questions (see the Slashdot discussion about the announcement here).

Greg K-H addresses some of the Slashdotters' questions and maybe even raises a few more in a new Free Linux Driver Development FAQ on his blog. An excerpt:

Q: Are companies really going to do this?
A: Yes, already we have received a number of serious queries from companies about producing Linux drivers for their devices. More information will be available later when details are firmed up.

Comment MOD PARENT UP! (Score 1) 356

Think about it this way, if you had to explain to someone to "go to website, navigate through the page (which may change), find correct exe, install/configure (yes, even windows needs configuring from time to time)." vs go to the terminal, type "sudo apt-get install ..." or better yet, use a search in synaptec, which one sounds easier?

Terminal-phobia is one of my pet peeves though.
OS X

Journal Journal: Spotlight Upgrades in Leopard 356

Mac OS 10.5 Leopard is set to feature several new enhancements to Spotlight, Apple's desktop search, according to ComputerWorld. These include searching across multiple networked Macs, parental search snooping, server spotlight indexing, boolean search, (sorely needed) better application launching, and quick look previews.
Windows

Submission + - Microsoft extended xp support to 2014

nithinraju writes: "As declared earlier,Microsoft released their new operating system Windows "Vista" at midnight on Jan. 29. Everybody believes that with vista`s release, XP will lose its popularity. But latest news says that "Microsoft extended xp support to 2014".so xp users have to enjoy! With this extended support, XP will get a total support of 12 years. This is a record for Microsoft ,for offering largest support period for an Operating System. But the bad news is that their latest version "vista" will get support for only 10 years. ie XP regained its strength. Microsoft gave no reason for the support changes to Windows XP."
Microsoft

Submission + - State of Microsoft source code revealed

An anonymous reader writes: From the Comes v. Microsoft case in Iowa comes an expert report filed by Andrew Schulman (author of Undocumented DOS and Undocumented Windows): http://iowaconsumercase.org/index.html ... 2. Microsoft can't keep track of its source code for Windows. Mr. Schulman's report, which was an exhibit to the deposition, reveals that Microsoft is unable to keep track of the source code for Windows. Mr. Schulman quoted from an April 2001 email written by Jim Allchin, in which Mr. Allchin complained that some components shipped with Windows did not check their source code into the Windows build tree: "Windows as you know contains many pieces of functionality from different groups around the company. Regardless of product, good engineering practice would require us to be able to do a fresh build of a product at any time using the same tools. Unfortunately, we cannot do this with Windows today. . . . We need all the source code for Windows being built out of one place with one consistent set of tools. It is actually amazing how we have not done this for so long. . . We need to be able to build what we ship long after we RTM. . . . There are legal obligations regarding our ability here. . . . There are 27 components . . . that are still dropping binaries [on Whistler]. . . ." As Ms. Conlin observed in a November 11, 2006 hearing: "Microsoft has made statements, public statements, reported statements that governments and third-party security auditors have conducted thorough and exhaustive reviews of its Windows source code. That, of course, can't be true if, in fact, they don't seem to have all of their Windows source code." (11-09-2006, Tr at 54:11-54:17). During that hearing, counsel for Microsoft confirm that Microsoft still is unable to keep track of its Windows source code. Mr. Schulman's report is posted online at http://iowaconsumercase.org/assets/attachments/Sup p_Rpt_Andrew_Schulman.pdf
Announcements

Submission + - Linspire and Canonical announce partnership!

timinphx1 writes: "After the January 23, announcement that Linspire/Freespire is planning to go multi-distro with their "CNR-Technology", Today, they have announced their plans to partner with Canonical (Ubuntu's parent company).
          Per the cnr.com FAQ, "There are two main components to this partnership: 1) Linspire will immediately transition from Debian to Ubuntu as the base for their Linspire and Freespire operating systems, and 2) Canonical will utilize Linspire's CNR technology for aspects of Ubuntu's software delivery system.
          It appears they are anticipating a number of questions regarding the partnership, they have covered most of the bigger questions in the FAQ's and Press Release sections on cnr.com"
Security

Submission + - University professor chastised for using Tor

Irongeek_ADC writes: "As reported in the The Chronicle of Higher Education, University IT "professionals" came knocking on Professor Censarini's door asking about why he was using the Tor network. While there they also asked that he not teach his students about it, and said it was likely against university policy. An interesting read that goes to show even Universities are turning big brother."

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