Comment New Coke (Score 2) 444
I have 2 words for Windows 8. "New Coke."
I'm sure on the laptop and desktop market it will be even less popular than Coca-Cola's forray into reformulating a new taste.
Comment Re:Time and Money (Score 1) 1880
For me, it is using my computer as a tool to do what I want to do, rather than spending time trying to get things to work.
Linux is a wonderful OS. It is great for servers, and a pretty good workstation OS as well. It just can be frustrating to some who are not as technically motivated as some, to get everything working correctly. Some issues, like driver availability, are outside of the OS programmers abilities. If a company does not wish to put effort into creating drivers for an OS that is in use in maybe 0.5% of desktops & laptops, then that is their prerogative. I know if I were creating a device that required drivers, I would not waste time and effort to support operating systems that the vast majority of people do not use. This puts people in a bind who actually just want to get things done. My sister has a Kodak printer. Kodak does not make Linux drivers for their multipurpose printers. So I was out of luck. Either I could waste more space in our small living space and set up my HP DeskJet, or not printer/scan.
Recently I bought a new laptop that has Windows 7 Home on it. I have Solaris 11 Express installed in a Virtualbox virtual machine. This gives me the option of tinkering with "geeky" things, and still being able to get things done. I play a few games on my laptop, but that is not a biggie for me. IMHO, KMahjongg is THE BEST version a mahjongg that is out there. But if I really want to play it, I can install KDE on my laptop and play KMahjongg. I love choice. Linux/FreeBSD/UNIX are great--just not as the primary OS on my machine that I use to do everything.
Just my 2 worth.
Comment Did I miss something? (Score 1, Troll) 113
"She says that while we live in a culture saturated with sexual images, the blind have been 'left out.'""
Gee, could it be because they are BLIND? Images are, by definition, visual. There is a reason they call blindness a handicap. It is not just that they are too lazy to open their eyes. I can't see three dimensions. I get by quite well, but I don't go to see 3D movies because then I feel handicapped. It is just one thing that one learns to live without.
PhD Candidate Talks About the Physics of Space Battles 361
darthvader100 writes "Gizmodo has run an article with some predictions on what future space battles will be like. The author brings up several theories on propulsion (and orbits), weapons (explosives, kinetic and laser), and design. Sounds like the ideal shape for spaceships will be spherical, like the one in the Hitchhiker's Guide movie."
Feed Intel to Build Advanced Chip-Making Plant in China (nytimes.com)
Intel has only seven other similar wafer fabrication facilities in the world, mostly in the western United States.
Feed Indian Police to Arrest Smells (wired.com)
Feed Online Dating Lacks Dimension (wired.com)
Feed CeBit: Commodore Unbound (wired.com)
Journal Journal: Photons trapped for 1/7 of a second
Quantum computing is one step closer to reality, as scientists at France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) have managed to trap a photon for 1/7 of a second.
Submission + - High schooler is awarded $100,000 for research
wired_LAIN writes: A teenager from Oklahoma was awarded $100,000 in the Intel Science Talent Search competition for building an inexpensive and accurate spectrograph that can identify the specific characteristics of different kinds of molecules. While normal spectrographs can cost between $20,000 and 100,000 to build, her spectrograph cost less than $500 dollars. The 40 finalists' projects were judged by a panel of 12 scientists, all well established in their respective fields. Among the judges were Vera Rubin , who proved Dark Matter, and Andrew Yeager, one of the pioneers of stem cell research. My only question is: why aren't these kids given more media coverage?
Puretracks Music Store Drops DRM 236
khendron writes "The Canadian online music store Puretracks (a store I have generally avoided because of their Microsoft-specific solutions) has announced that it will immediately start selling part of its catalog as DRM-free MP3 files. The site's unprotected catalog, which includes artists such as The Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan, will initially feature only 50,000 of its 1.3 million tracks, but their number will grow weekly. The Globe and Mail says the move will likely profit Puretracks because its DRM-free-music will be playable on iPods. It quotes one industry watcher saying 'We're seeing the death of DRM.'" Essentially Puretracks is relaxing the major-label mandated DRM rules that it had initially applied to all labels, even the indies that wanted no part of DRM.
Journal Journal: Google Moves into Microsoft terriotry, at last.
As expected Google announced that it is going to sell Office suite as a
subscription service.
Submission + - What's missing from Vista's "official apps"
PetManimal writes: "Microsoft has just released a list of 800 applications it says are "officially supported" on Windows Vista. What's special about this list, however, are the programs that are not included:
Another area in which Vista has found to be lacking is gaming, as discussed earlier on Slashdot."Popular Windows software that is conspicuously missing from Microsoft's list includes Adobe Systems Inc.'s entire line of graphics and multimedia software, Symantec Corp.'s security products, as well as the Mozilla Foundation's open-source Firefox Web browser, Skype Ltd.'s free voice-over-IP software and the OpenOffice.org alternative to Microsoft Office
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