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Comment Re:Not quite ready for prime time (Score 1) 100

by TehClaws (#35451144) Attached to: DraftSight 2D CAD For Linux Beta Available
Exactly what you said. I've only given it a test run, but I immediately noticed the 'lack' of layer controls. It simply has to be within reach all the time. Admitting to some of QCADs shortcomings, I have yet to find a 2D CAD that beats it in 'speed' as soon as you learn just a few of the comprehensive set of keyboard short cuts. I stopped holding my breath for ver. 3 when I blacked out though, I guess they will release it when they're good and ready.
United States

Submission + - Consumers Buy Less Tech Stuff, Keep it Longer 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The NY Times reports that there are indications that a sea change is taking place in consumer behavior as a result of the great recession: Americans are buying less tech stuff and making it last longer (reg. may be required). Although in many cases the difference is mere months, economists and consumers say the approach may outlast a full recovery and the return of easy credit, because of the strong impression the downturn has made on consumers. For example Patti Hauseman stuck with her five-year-old Apple computer until it started making odd whirring noises and occasionally malfunctioning before she bought a new computer for Christmas — actually, a refurbished one. "A week later, the old one died. We timed it pretty well,” says Hauseman adding that it was not so much that she could not afford new things, but that the last few years of economic turmoil had left her feeling that she could be stealing from her future by throwing away goods that still had value. Consumers are holding onto new cars for a record 63.9 months, up 4.5 months from a year ago and 14 percent since the end of 2008, according one research firm and industry analysts also report that people on average are waiting 18 months to upgrade their cellphones, up from every 16 months just a few years ago. “We’re not going back to a time of our grandmothers’ tales of what they kept and how they used things so carefully,” says Nancy F. Koehn, a professor at the Harvard Business School and a historian of consumer behavior. ". But we’ll see a consistent inching or trudging towards that.""

Comment Re:will this help with the swap-paralysis problem? (Score 1) 603

by TehClaws (#34267954) Attached to: The ~200 Line Linux Kernel Patch That Does Wonders
I don't think it's as bad as it used to be, but perhaps I have an atypical setup: 4Gb RAM + 1Gb swap on a SSD. When something leaks or I set a wrong param. in a program I use, it usually takes around 1 - 1½ min. for the kernel to do an OOM and restart X, granting me a login screen - I've lost everything I worked on of course.
Real Time Strategy (Games)

FOSS RTS Game Glest Gets Revival — Enter Mega-Glest 103

Posted by Soulskill from the strategic-fork dept.
Softhaus writes "Many readers here are likely familiar with the popular, open source RTS game Glest, which comes packaged with nearly every Linux distro. Unfortunately, all development ceased on the original game back in 2008, disappointing many around the world. During the past year, a new fork (called Mega-Glest) has endeavored to take this great game and bring it to the masses. This new fork can provide hours of fun at your next LAN party, as it supports up to eight players in real-time (with or without CPU AI players), and the newly released v3.3.5 offers Internet play via a master server lobby. Cross-platform network play is now a reality, which could help bridge the gap between Linux and Windows users in a cohesive manner. One of the best features of Mega-Glest (and indeed Glest itself) is the ease with which new 'factions' and mods may be produced via a Map editor, model viewer, Blender plugins, XML files describing your unit traits, particles, weapons, and LUA scripting for scenarios and AI. Full installers for Windows, Linux 32-bit and 64-bit are available on SourceForge, promising hours of fun. But one warning: the game can become highly addictive. You can provide feedback for the game through the official forums."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Gamer Plays Doom For the First Time 362

Posted by Soulskill from the new-is-relative dept.
sfraggle writes "Kotaku has an interesting review of Doom (the original!) by Stephen Totilo, a gamer and FPS player who, until a few days ago, had gone through the game's 17-year history without playing it. He describes some of his first impressions, the surprises that he encountered, and how the game compares to modern FPSes. Quoting: 'Virtual shotgun armed, I was finally going to play Doom for real. A second later, I understood the allure the video game weapon has had. In Doom the shotgun feels mighty, at least partially I believe because they make first-timers like me wait for it. The creators make us sweat until we have it in hand. But once we have the shotgun, its big shots and its slow, fetishized reload are the floored-accelerator-pedal stuff of macho fantasy. The shotgun is, in all senses, instant puberty, which is to say, delicately, that to obtain it is to have the assumed added potency that a boy believes a man possesses vis a vis a world on which he'd like to have some impact. The shotgun is the punch in the face the once-scrawny boy on the beach gives the bully when he returns a muscled linebacker.'"
Medicine

Doctor Invents 'Zero Gravity' Radiation Suit 83

Posted by samzenpus from the baron-harkonnen-approved dept.
DrFrasierCrane writes "You think you feel weighed down when your dentist lays that lead apron on you to take X-rays: how about the doctors who deal with radiation treatments and have to wear those aprons all day long? A Dallas, Texas, doctor has created a 'zero gravity' radiation suit for just that problem. From the article: 'Physicians are supposed to wear a lead apron during those procedures. It is back-breakingly heavy and doesn't cover the body completely. The zero gravity suit eliminates the weight and the exposed openings.'"

Comment Re:good plan (Score 1) 169

by TehClaws (#32499282) Attached to: NZ Plan For Fiber To the Home
Same here. I spent six months in NZ and had the BIGGEST BADDEST internet connection available - I think the download once went up to 100kb/s ! and D/L limit was 10gigs a month - and we were 3 people using it :( Coming from Denmark where I currently have a lowly 10Mb line with ulim. download, I was quite shocked.
Television

MythTV 0.23 Released 214

Posted by kdawson from the record-with-daring-and-whimsey dept.
An anonymous reader writes "After six months of our new accelerated development schedule, MythTV 0.23 is now available. MythTV 0.23 brings a new event system, brand new Python bindings, the beta MythNetvision Internet video plugin, new audio code and surround sound upmixer, several new themes (Arclight and Childish), a greatly improved H.264 decoder, and fixes for analog scanning, among many others. Work towards MythTV 0.24 is in full swing, and has be progressing very well for the last several months. If all goes according to plan, MythTV 0.24 will bring a new MythUI OSD, a nearly rewritten audio subsystem capable of handling 24- and 32-bit audio and up to 8 channels of output, Blu-ray disc and disc structure playback, and various other performance, usability, and flexibility improvements."

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