fuzzy12345 - Slashdot User

Fast-Booting Text-Editor Operating System? 660

Posted by timothy on Saturday September 20, 2008 @04:29PM from the hell-you-say dept.

cgenman writes "What is the fastest booting operating system out there that is still sufficient for editing text? Quite frequently, I'll need to boot my laptop and edit a few lines of text, or jot down an idea or two. XP loads in roughly 4 minutes to usable, and Ubuntu loads in about 60 seconds. Both feel like an eternity if there isn't a pen and paper around. What is the best operating system that people have found which would load to useable in under 20 seconds, can edit text files in something a little more friendly than VI or EMACS, yet can still access fat32 formatted USB drives? GUIs aren't required, but commands which require arcane foreknowledge or a cheat sheet are out."

Comment Sheesh, seems like a match made in heaven (Score 4, Interesting) 103

by fuzzy12345 on Wednesday July 02, 2008 @03:36PM (#24035225) Attached to: Amazon's EC2 Having Problems With Spam and Malware

Previously, senders of large volumes of paid-for (by the sender) yet unwanted (by the receiver) emails had to corral their own clouds of distributed, low-cost computing resources (a.k.a botnets). Amazon provides similar capabilities for pennies an hour. Both Amazon's and the emailers' business models work, and questionable penetration of third parties' computers is no longer required.

Somebody finally solved the ????? = Profit equation. What's everyone getting so worked up about?

Google Ends Silence On C Block Auction 162

Posted by kdawson on Friday April 04, 2008 @12:24PM from the bidding-against-ourselves dept.

Phurge found a post on the Google Policy Blog in which they lift the cone of silence that had been imposed by regulation over the recently concluded FCC spectrum auction. As some had speculated, Google was in it mainly to force some openness into the wireless industry. "Based on the way that the bidding played out, our participation in the auction helped ensure that the C Block met the reserve price. In fact, in ten of the bidding rounds we actually raised our own bid — even though no one was bidding against us — to ensure aggressive bidding on the C Block. In turn, that helped increase the revenues raised for the US Treasury, while making sure that the openness conditions would be applied to the ultimate licensee."

OpenOffice.Org Now Under LGPLv3 107

Posted by kdawson on Friday March 07, 2008 @09:56AM from the not-just-lip-service dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Sun has moved OpenOffice.org to the LGPLv3 license. In his blog Sun's Simon Phipps cites worry over software patents as being one of their main reasons for this move: 'Upgrading to the LGPLv3 brings important new protections to the OpenOffice.org community, most notably through the new language concerning software patents. You may know that I am personally an opponent of software patents, and that Sun has already taken steps in this area with a patent non-assert covenant for ODF. But the most important protection for developers comes from creating mutual patent grants between developers. LGPLv3 does this.'"

Microsoft Buys Ad Firm for $6 Billion 167

Posted by Zonk on Friday May 18, 2007 @01:06PM from the a-bunch-of-people-just-got-really-quite-wealthy dept.

bain writes "The BBC is reporting that Microsoft has agreed to buy the digital marketing firm Aquantive, in what will be its biggest ever acquisition. The software giant spent almost $6 billion acquiring the agency, in its first bid to tackle the online advertising market. 'The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2008, subject to regulation. Microsoft said the expensive price tag was worth it to access the complementary technology of Aquantive. The firm will continue to operate from Seattle as part of Microsoft's online operations, and will help the software giant broaden the scope of services its MSN consumer internet unit can offer. Microsoft is the latest technology firm to pounce on the shrinking independent online advertising sector.'"

Billion Dollar Handout To Upgrade TVs 663

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday March 13, 2007 @06:55PM from the if-we-can-send-a-man-to-the-moon dept.

db32 writes "SFGate has the story of the cutoff date for those rabbit ear antennas that some of us grew up with (Feb. 19, 2009). Now while the story of analog vs. digital TV has been beaten to death, still I think there is something more here. 'The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration... said it is setting aside $990 million to pay for the boxes. Each home can request up to two $40 coupons for a digital-to-analog converter box, which consumer electronics makers such as RCA and LG plan to produce.' Beyond my disdain for most TV to begin with, I am blown away that with all of our current problems — homelessness and crime on the home front, war fighting and terrorism abroad — our government is seriously going to spend this much money on upgrading peoples' televisions."

SCO to Unix developers, We want you back 427

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday June 21, 2006 @12:01PM from the buying-friends dept.

NoGuffCheck writes "CRN is reporting that Darl McBride is looking to get Unix developers back onboard with cash incentives for completing training in SCO's new mobile application kit; EdgeBuilder. It doesn't stop there; there's a 12-cylinder BMW or $100,000 dollars for the development of the best wireless application."

Nokia's New All-In-One Phone 317

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @09:30PM from the new-toys dept.

conq writes "BusinessWeek has a piece on Nokia's new phone, introduced today and hitting the shelves in July. The N93, costing $660, will supposedly fill all of your needs for electronic equipment on the go. From the article: 'Should anyone miss the point, Nokia's press extravaganza in a spiffed-up Berlin warehouse ended with a video in which the camera slowly panned across a tableau of dusty, discarded electronic equipment -- including digital cameras and a cobweb-covered iPod. The message: Nokia plans to make these products obsolete.'"