Comment Re:Great video from Milwaukee (Score 1) 163
I Saw it pretty clear here in Iowa City out the window to the North... if it was ALSO north of Wisconsin, My guess would by Canada... or the patrol officer didn't know which way North was-
Comment Popcorn Hour? (Score 1) 536
I'm currently a Tivo Series 3 user (Works awesome and basically zero maintenance, other than the monthly fee and a very occasional spontaneous reboot--???!!!)
--That said, I've been keeping an eye on the Popcorn hour boxes...http://www.popcornhour.com
--Looks like it plays all the media you can throw at it, and toss in a blue-ray drive and you can even watch those-
It supports a Huge laundry list of features, but it looks like the one thing it doesn't actually do is the DVR of actual tv streams... Anyone know of any updates in that area?
Comment Re:indeed (Score 1) 1231
Really? I upgraded my kubuntu from 9.04 to 9.10 without a single hitch...
It shouldn't take too long, but there's considerable embarrassment on my Part about it. ("No REALLY- Its Normally a LOT more graceful than that!")
Stumbling really hurts-
Comment Re:Honeymoon is over (Score 1) 774
I'm likely one of the statistics who "Couldn't forego Windows"....but to be Fair, I DID have a decet reason... The Linux version only came with the Dinky sized SSD. The ONLY model they sold with an actual Hard Drive of any significant size in it also happened to have Windows on it. (That was pretty easily remedied though-)
I think that the sales numbers for this kind of thing will be (artificially) skewed away from linux for a while if the manufacturers continue to pull that kind of poop...
Pushing Linux Adoption Through Gaming 269
An article on CNet questions the viability of using games as part of a strategy to increase Linux adoption. It points out a blog post by Andrew Min which suggests:
"... Linux companies also need to start paying attention to the open source gaming community. Why? It's lacking. However, gamers can get excited about free games. They just have to be up to par with commercial games. The problem is, commercial companies pay hundreds of employees to build a game for several years, while many competing gaming projects only last several years before the developer moves on. It's time for open source developers to start getting paid for their jobs. Who better to pay them than the companies that benefit most?"
Google Tells Users To Drop IE6 426
Kelly writes "Google is now urging Gmail users to drop Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) in favor of Firefox or Chrome. Google recently removed Firefox from the Google Pack bundle, replaced it with Chrome, then added a direct download link for Chrome on Google and YouTube. Google's decision to list IE6 as an unsupported Gmail browser does not affect just consumers: Tens of thousands of small- and mid-sized businesses that run Google Apps hosted services may dump IE6 as well. What's especially interesting is the fact that Mozilla is picking up two out of three browser users that Microsoft surrenders."
Submission + - Future of Compiz Uncertain 1
dov_0 writes: "Kristian Lyngstol from the Compiz project has shared some pretty big worries about the health of the Compiz/compiz-fusion project. He cites a lack of direction, organisation and a dropping number of programmers as major areas of concern. Responses from the compiz community to his mailing list post have not been overwhelming, with only one person posting in his support so far.
If Compiz was gone, surely someone else would pick up the pieces? Distros like Ubuntu have made it a notable feature of their desktop setup. Haven't we all enjoyed the glazed over eyes and admiring stares of onlookers as we spin our desktop cubes and pull out bling that makes Vista desktop effects fade by comparison?
Is the compiz project already dead without knowing it and who will pick up pieces and keep our desktop cubes spinning?"
If Compiz was gone, surely someone else would pick up the pieces? Distros like Ubuntu have made it a notable feature of their desktop setup. Haven't we all enjoyed the glazed over eyes and admiring stares of onlookers as we spin our desktop cubes and pull out bling that makes Vista desktop effects fade by comparison?
Is the compiz project already dead without knowing it and who will pick up pieces and keep our desktop cubes spinning?"
Submission + - No serious linux speech recognition software?
wally66 writes: I was impressed by the quality of some Windows-based speech recognition packages [1,2]
in the more recent past. Having successfully and happily moved to Linux for more than a year now, I miss nothing but a decent speech recognition program to relieve me from typing from time to time.
The lack of progress for Linux-based applications in this field is stunning. The last entry in the linux speech-reconition HOW-TO is from 2002 and this is not an indication that the field has matured :-)
The rest of the hits that you get when searching the net is not much more up-to-date. I know that there are packages for speech recognition in the default repositories of Ubuntu and other distros, but given the state of Windows-based speech recognition software such as ViaVoice or Dragon Naturally Speaking, they are prehistoric.
Am I overlooking something?
Submission + - Amarok is being ported to Windows (kde.org)
NightFears writes: Amarok, the popular Linux multimedia player, is being prepared for a Windows port. As highly-demanded as it is, the port spawned a lot of controversy among the dedicated Linux users, since many of them feel that after the release there'll be one strong argument less for convincing people to switch to Linux.
Ah yes, and there's a screenshot.The amazing part here is that it only took two days. Basically most of Amarok was already so portable that it compiled without changes. I really expected it to be much more work. Shows that it pays off to use an excellent cross-platform toolkit like Qt in the first place.
Submission + - The Inconvenient Truth about Carbon Offsets
theodp writes: "An investigation by The Guardian concludes that carbon offsetting, an idea which flows not from scientists but from politicians and business execs, does little or nothing to combat global warming. Tree-planting projects in Guatemala, Ecuador and Uganda have been accused of disrupting water supplies, evicting thousands of villagers from their land, seizing grazing rights from farmers, cheating local people of promised income, and running plantations where the soil releases more carbon than is absorbed by the trees. 'I think planting trees is mostly a waste of time and energy,' explained the founder of Climate Care, which relies for some 20% of its online sales on forestry. 'People love it unfortunately.'"
Submission + - ArchLinux changing their name
An anonymous reader writes: After 5 years of being called Arch Linux and 5 years of people confusing us with Ark Linux, we've finally come up with a solution. We've spent the last few months talking to the Ark Linux people to come up with a solution that's beneficial for both distributions. Today, we are happy to announce a name change for Arch Linux. Today, I am happy to announce, we will be known as Ark Linux!
We will keep our domain archlinux.org for the next few weeks, while people are still getting used to the name change, but eventually we will switch domains as well. In changing names, we are sure that people will never again have problems discerning Arch Linux with Ark Linux.
http://www.archlinux.org/
and by the way, the old ark linux is also changing their name
http://www.arklinux.org/
Submission + - Firefox No Longer Alternative Enough
Kelson writes: "The Alternative Browser Alliance, which promotes the use of alternative browsers over Internet Explorer, has stopped promoting Firefox after nearly two years. According to the announcement, Firefox has sold out, gone mainstream, and "is no longer an alternative web browser."
Reportedly the site will throw its weight behind iCab, as it is guaranteed to remain alternative since it will never run on Windows Vista.""
Reportedly the site will throw its weight behind iCab, as it is guaranteed to remain alternative since it will never run on Windows Vista.""
Submission + - Ubuntu Flying Spaghetti Monster Edition announced
An anonymous reader writes: Pastafarians can rejoice everywhere, with the release of Ubuntu Flying Spaghetti Monster Edition. We believe His Noodliness chose Linux because Linux users are obviously all pirates already. Ubuntu Flying Spaghetti Monster Edition is now undergoing final beta testing and will be released shortly. Prepare yourselves to be touched by His Noodly Appendage!
Submission + - Inside ReactOS
Andareed writes: "Alex Ionescu, a lead developer of ReactOS (an open-source, source and binary compatible clone of Windows NT) recently gave a talk on the internals of ReactOS. In this talk, Ionescu also discusses how ReactOS is nearing complete kernel compatibility with Windows Server 2003. Interestingly, Ionescu hints that there are no plans for ReactOS once the kernel has been completed."
Submission + - Yellowstone Supervolcano Making Strange Rumblings
Frosty Piss writes: "Supervolcanoes can sleep for centuries or millennia before producing incredibly massive eruptions that can drop ash across an entire continent. One of the largest supervolcanoes in the world lies beneath Yellowstone National Park. Yet significant activity continues beneath the surface. And the activity has been increasing lately, scientists have discovered. In addition, the nearby Teton Range of mountains, in a total surprise, is getting shorter. The findings, reported this month in the Journal of Journal of Geophysical Research, suggest that a slow and gradual movement of a volcano over time can shape a landscape more than a violent eruption."
