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Comment Re:If you have abstraction, switching is a LOT eas (Score 1) 622

Clean, well-separated code should be able to be ported to a new database platform at least three times before it starts to approach the break-even point that would have made building your own general purpose database abstraction layer worthwhile. This is the sort of false economy that you commonly find rearing its head with developers who are attempting to solve problems that don't exist yet.

If avoiding vendor lock-in is such an important requirement, it would generally be cheaper to buy a database abstraction framework (or, thinking outside the box here, sticking to standard SQL) rather than attempting to roll your own. However, in practice I think vendor lock-in on the database platform is less of a concern than vendor/technology lock-in on your web application framework, so to my mind it's questionable that you're getting a great deal of value by going down this path.

United States

Submission + - CSPAN to adopt Creative Common Styled License

Trillian_1138 writes: "CSPAN, a network in the United States dedicated to airing governmental proceedings, has adopted a Creative Commons style license for all its content. This follows the network claiming Speaker of the House Pelosi's use of C-Span videos on her site violated their copyright . Specifically, "C-SPAN is introducing a liberalized copyright policy for current, future, and past coverage of any official events sponsored by Congress and any federal agency — about half of all programming offered on the C-SPAN television networks — which will allow non-commercial copying, sharing, and posting of C-SPAN video on the Internet, with attribution." The press release should be on the C-SPAN website here but, as of this submission, the link is not functional. The question remains whether videos of governmental proceedings should be public domain by default or whether the attribution requirement is reasonable in the face of easy video copying and distribution."
Mozilla

Submission + - 20 must-have Firefox extensions

mrbluze writes: "Computerworld has an article: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com mand=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=development&art icleId=9011975&taxonomyId=11&intsrc=kc_feat which reviews 20 useful Firefox extensions. I must admit this was a very fruitful read and identified some extensions that don't usually come up when you browse the 'popular' list on the website.

Do fellow slashdotters have other extensions they cannot live without?"
Linux Business

Submission + - Dell to Linux users: Not so fast

PetManimal writes: "After all the hubbub over Dell's note about manufacturing Linux-friendly Dells and choosing distros, the company is now telling users not to expect factory-installed Linux laptops and desktops anytime soon:

The company said today that the note was just about certifying the hardware for being ready to work with Novell SUSE Linux, not an announcement that the computers would be loaded and sold with the operating system in the near future.
According to the article, Dell says that lining up certification, support and training will 'take a lot of work.'"
Security

Submission + - World-leading anti-virus software is pants

spge writes: The most popular anti-virus software in the world is some of the least effective. According to this review, originally published in Computer Shopper magazine, home products from Norton, McAfee and Trend Micro are beaten heavily by the likes of Kaspersky Lab and Eset. The free AVG software is not much better than Norton etc, but at least it's free. And it is a bit better, according to these reviews.
Microsoft

Submission + - Ballmer repeats threats against Linux

daria42 writes: Steve Ballmer has reissued Microsoft's patent threat against Linux, warning open-source vendors that they must respect his company's intellectual property. In a no-nonsense presentation to New York financial analysts last week, Microsoft's chief executive said the company's partnership with Novell, which it signed in November 2006, "demonstrated clearly the value of intellectual property, even in the open-source world."
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - Could Sun be the dot in web 2.0

oxide7 writes: "With the demand for computing power exploding among the distributors of media rich Internet content, some analysts believe Sun (Nasdaq: SUNW) is poised for a rebound in demand following five years in the wilderness. The most notable development, one analyst contends, its UltraSPARC T1 processor, with an architecture fit for tomorrow's "Web 2.0" Internet. "The T1 appears to align Sun perfectly with the needs of mega-scale computing companies whose mission is to deliver content, which is beginning to rapidly migrate from text to video," Wolf says. "These companies are likely to turn to suppliers who can provide sophisticated systems at competitive prices rather than companies focused simply on the assembly of generic boxes.""
Software

Submission + - VR used to treat US soldiers with PTSD

dhardisty writes: "Researchers at the University of Southern California have created a virtual reality program 'that simulates life in the war zone for Iraq veterans suffering from conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).' The program incorporates wrap-around vision, sounds, physical sensations, and even smells. It is used to support exposure therapy, an empirically supported cognitive behavioral treatment for PTSD."

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