Johannes K. - Slashdot User

Why Do Computers Take So Long to Boot Up? 975

Posted by Zonk on Sunday December 10, 2006 @09:48PM from the tired-hampsters dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Computers take too long to boot up, and it doesn't make sense to me. Mine takes around 30 seconds; it is double or triple that for some of my friends' computers that I have used. Why can't a computer turn on and off in an instant just like a TV? 99% of boots, my computer is doing the exact same thing. Then I get to Windows XP with maybe 50 to 75 megs of stuff in memory. My computer should be smart enough to just load that junk into memory and go with it. You could put this data right at the very start of the hard drive. Whenever you do something with the computer that actually changes what happens during boot, it could go through the real booting process and save the results. Doing this would also give you instant restarts. You just hit your restart button, the computer reloads the memory image, and you can be working again. Or am I wrong? Why haven't companies made it a priority to have 'instant on' desktops and laptops?"

Submission + - Best Example of Good Open Source Code?

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Thursday December 07, 2006 @11:55PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "As a burgeoning software developer, I regularly use GPL'd software. Occasionally, I even take a peek at the code. But looking at the source code for firefox or thunderbird, I'm left wondering what a software developer who wishes to support open source does in his spare time. Learning such a complex code base would take a big commitment for even the simplest patches. I'm interested in knowing which piece(s) of software with an open source license have a model for good development. What applications stand out for good design and coding practices, as well as easily read and maintained source code? If open source produces better code (and I think it does), what are the best examples of good code? (and perhaps some examples of the worst as well)"

Apple Gene for Red Color Found 180

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday December 01, 2006 @01:10AM from the and-blue-and-purple-and-orange dept.

FiReaNGeL writes "Researchers have located the gene that controls the red color of apples — a discovery that may lead to bright new apple varieties. 'The red color in apple skin is the result of anthocyanins, the natural plant compounds responsible for blue and red colours in many flowers and fruits,' says the leader of the CSIRO. By identifying master genes that were activated by light, they were able to pinpoint the gene that controls the formation of anthocyanins in apples. 'As well as giving apples their rosy red hue, anthocyanins are also antioxidants with healthy attributes, giving us plenty of reasons to study how the biochemical pathway leading to apple color is regulated,' researchers said."

RMS transcript on GPLv3, Novell/MS, Tivo and more 255

Posted by Hemos on Monday November 27, 2006 @09:40AM from the years-of-adoption-and-version-battles-predicted dept.

H4x0r Jim Duggan writes "The 5th international GPLv3 conference was held in Tokyo last week. I've made and published a transcript of Stallman's talk where he described the latest on what GPLv3 will do about the MS/Novell deal, Treacherous Computing, patents, Tivo, and the other changes to the licence. While I was at it, I made a transcript of my talk from the next day where I tried to fill in some info that Richard didn't mention."

Ballmer Says Linux "Infringes Our Intellectual Property" 820

Posted by Zonk on Friday November 17, 2006 @09:38AM from the oh-it-is-so-on-now dept.

Stony Stevenson writes "In comments confirming the open-source community's suspicions, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday declared his belief that the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property." From the ComputerWorld article: "In a question-and-answer session after his keynote speech at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Ballmer said Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell earlier this month because Linux 'uses our intellectual property' and Microsoft wanted to 'get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation.'" His exact wording is available at the Seattle Intelligencer, which has a transcript of the interview. Groklaw had an article up Wednesday giving some perspective on the Novell/Microsoft deal. Guess we'll have something to talk about in 2007, huh?

Google Earth In 4D 147

Posted by Hemos on Monday November 13, 2006 @10:05AM from the wasting-the-morning-away dept.

Rockgod writes to tell us about Google Earth's latest expansion. From the article: "Google skipped right past the third dimension and landed directly in the fourth (time) by offering historical maps on Google Earth. Now you can travel back in time — for example, I am looking at the globe of 1790. Don't expect detailed high resolution photography from days gone by, but it's still interesting to see old maps overlaid on the satellite imagery of today." I suppose a link to Earth4 would have been good.

Astronauts Throw Trash Into Space 138

Posted by Hemos on Monday November 13, 2006 @08:13AM from the out-of-sight-out-of-our-gravity-well dept.

MattSparkes writes "The International Space Station is home to an increasing amount of unwanted goods, and NASA has just approved a policy where these could be thrown out of the door into space. 'Tools and other gear have accidentally floated away during spacewalks. But NASA has shied away from intentionally jettisoning gear off the ISS in the past because of the threat of space junk hitting the station or other spacecraft.' The loosening of the rules on this comes just as Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin is about to take a space walk where he will hit a golf ball from the ISS in a promotional stunt for a golf company."

Why Oracle Isn't Part of the OSDL 193

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday June 21, 2006 @03:41AM from the breaking-it-down dept.

darthcamaro writes "Some may wonder why OSDL, the self-proclaimed center of gravity for the Linux Universe and employer of Linus Torvalds, does not include Oracle as a member. Well, in a recent interview Wim Coekaerts, Director of Linux Engineering at Oracle has spelled it out in no uncertain terms. From the article: 'The thing that was really kind of revolting is that OSDL goes out and basically says that they represent the Linux community while there is no direct feedback line back to the community.'"

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