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Comment EFI (Score 2) 554

by hector_uk (#16009168) Attached to: Apple and Windows Will Force Linux Underground
EFI, it's the main difference between macs and pc's atm and it's bigger than one may suspect, the BIOS is a 20 something year old POS held together with hacks, my macbooks boot time is legendary even when booting windows, i just hit the button press down to select XP and bam the windows logo appears, none of this scrolling black text shit, no bios random issues, everything just works perfectly and reliably, it's pretty similar to open firmware, just a little less open. I've switch many many more people to platforms other than windows through the soft sell, telling people they are an idiot for buying a pc from asda (uk version of walmart) is not going to get them to trust you to install ubuntu on it, you need to be open and talk to them about their needs and skills and determine what's best for them, this whole linux/mac/windows fanboyism that is so rampant with nerds needs to stop, otherwise people will just baulk at it and continue to use windows which we ALL don't want. OS X is very much the user friendly version of unix, i'm skilled at useing linux/BSD and i run it on my headless boxen but everything i can do in linux i can do better/faster in OS X, unless i want to be completely customizing my OS linux is not really suitable for the desktop as OS X eclipses it in most respects, sure for those on a strict budget linux is still a good OS choice if your technically competent. but OS X is perfect for 90% of users and it has a complete open source underpinning. It is imperative that linux is kept going, and i cant see anything killing it in the near to distant future in the server space, OS X will take a decent amount of that market from both linux and Microsoft once apple becomes more established, xserves are awesome 1U servers and are gaining marketshare fast once admins actually look at them. OS X is not the end all OS, but it seems like the majority of linux geeks have been handed a near godly OS and they've shunned it because the UI and a few API's are proprietary, it's not perfect and it's not going to replace linux but it's a damn good OS inbetween windows and linux as it has allot of the advantages of both, apple is not going to become Microsoft, and if they did they would have to turn OS X 100% proprietary which would alienate most of their user base, being hostile to apple is completely silly.

AT&T Breached, Exposes 19,000 Identities 143

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the somewhat-worse-than-a-laptop dept.
mytrip writes to tell us News.com is reporting that a recent attack on AT&T's systems saw thousands of customers' personal data compromised. About 19,000 customers of AT&T's online store who purchased equipment for a DSL connection were affected. From the article: "AT&T is offering to pay for credit monitoring services for customers whose accounts have been impacted because they could be at risk of identity fraud. The company also has made available a toll-free number to affected customers to call for more information."

Vista Hacking Challenge Answered 388

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the still-some-work-to-be-done dept.
debiansid writes "Microsoft's most secure Operating System yet has been compromised at the Black Hat hacker conference. We all know that Andrew Cushman, Microsoft's director of security outreach invited the Black Hats over to touch and feel Vista in order to showcase the superiority of this OS. Joanna Rutkowska, from Coseinc, a Singapore-based security firm, obliged and showed how it is possible to bypass security measures in Vista that prevents unsigned code from running with the help of a little software she calls the 'Blue Pill.'" To be fair, the hack was possible only when the target is in administrator mode rather than a limited user account.

Microsoft Invites Black Hats into Vista 189

Posted by Zonk from the you-may-want-to-think-this-through dept.
gtzpower writes "Microsoft is inviting hackers to 'Take Your Best Shot' at Vista. 'You need to touch it, feel it,' Andrew Cushman, Microsoft's director of security outreach, said during a talk at the Black Hat computer-security conference. 'We're here to show our work.'" From the article: "A security team with oversight of every Microsoft product — from its Xbox video game console to its Word program for creating documents — has broad authority to block shipments until they pass security tests. The company also hosts two internal conferences a year so some of the world's top security experts can share the latest research on computer attacks." Essentially a tie-in with an article we discussed yesterday.

Mozilla Partners with Real Networks 386

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the need-a-realware-checker dept.
engineer_uhg writes to tell us that Mozilla has just entered into a multi-year agreement with Real Networks to have Firefox distributed with downloads of RealPlayer, Rhapsody, and RealArcade. The Mozilla team cited Real's estimated 2 million downloads per day as a great tool for distribution. However, many Firefox supporters question the move, complaining of questionable practices by Real.

Tech Replaces Diamonds As Girl's Best Friend 313

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the dog-still-man's-best-friend dept.
Ant writes to tell us that 'diamonds are no longer a girls best friend', at least according to a recent study commissioned by the Oxygen Network. From the article: "The survey, commissioned by U.S. cable television's Oxygen Network that is owned and operated by women, found the technology gender gap has virtually closed with the majority of women snapping up new technology and using it easily. Women were found on average to own 6.6 technology devices while men own 6.9, and four out of every five women felt comfortable using technology with 46 percent doing their own computer trouble-shooting."

HD DVD vs Blu-ray Direct Comparisons 423

Posted by Zonk from the i-complain-about-artifacting-too dept.
An anonymous reader writes "With today's release of three movies on Blu-ray, Warner Home Video has become the first studio to release movie titles on both high-def formats, making it finally possible to do an apples-to-apples comparison of the same titles on both formats . High-Def Digest has just posted reviews of all three titles — 'Training Day,' 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' and 'Rumor Has It' — comparing video, audio and extras to the previous HD DVD releases. Their verdict? Due to issues with image cropping, audio selection and supplemental features on the Blu-ray discs, the HD DVD versions win this first face-off."

Music Industry Looking for Lyrics Payoff 205

Posted by Zonk from the those-lyrics-look-unlicensed-there-kid dept.
theodp writes "U.S. digital entertainment company Gracenote has obtained licenses to distribute the lyrics of more than 1 million songs. Music publishers are still mulling legal action against Web sites that provide lyrics without authorization." From the article: "Ralph Peer II, Firth's counterpart at peermusic, said licensing lyrics should boost worldwide music publishing revenues, estimated at about $4 billion annually. Peer said he hopes the unauthorized sites will seek licenses. 'I think we'll see a reasonable increase, as much as a 5 percent increase, in industry music publishing revenues five years out from where we are right now,' Peer said."

World Firefox Day 251

Posted by CmdrTaco from the immortalized-in-code dept.
kbrosnan writes "Are you a fan of Firefox? Want to spread the word to a friend who hasn't heard of it yet? If you can convince just one person to switch to Firefox before September 15th, you'll both be immortalized in Firefox 2.0's source code."

Lens That Writes on Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray 289

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the one-lens-to-rule-them-all dept.
morpheus83 writes "Ricoh claims they have developed an optical component that reads and writes all disk formats -- Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, as well as DVD and CD -- with one pickup and one objective lens. The component is a 3.5-mm diameter, 1-mm thick round diffraction plate with minute concentric groves on both sides which function as a diffraction grating. Based on disc information the drive can identify which format disk is loaded, Ricoh's optical diffraction component adjusts the laser beam with its diffraction grating for each format and passes it to the objective lens."

Western Union Blocking Money Transfers to Arabs 904

Posted by timothy from the no-get-the-even-broader-brush dept.
lowrydr310 writes "Western Union is blocking money transfers to people with Arab names. They have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed. 'In one example, an Indian driver here said Western Union prevented him from sending $120 to a friend at home last month because the recipient's name was Mohammed.' Western union claims they are merely following U.S. Treasury Department guidelines that scrutinize cash flows for terrorist links. I agree that Western Union shouldn't allow anyone supporting terrorism to use their service, however I'm fairly certain there are millions of people named Mohammed or Ahmed who aren't terrorists. I wonder if any other financial companies such as banks are doing the same thing."

AP Looks at Piracy, Misses the Point 406

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the toeing-the-line dept.
TechDirt is reporting that the Associated Press has covered several stories recently about what a "huge threat" piracy is in other countries. This article, however, argues that they have perhaps missed out on the whole story by ignoring the other side of the coin. From the article: "the AP doesn't bother to mention how all that piracy helped created new and different business models for musicians in China that let them thrive despite the piracy (actually, in some cases, because of it). Nor does the AP bother to mention how software piracy helped boost certain aspects of the industry in China by decreasing the cost of inputs."

Nerds Switching from Apple to Ubuntu? 957

Posted by timothy from the different-bell-curve-entirely dept.
Mindpicnic writes "The recent switch of two lifelong Mac nerds to Ubuntu hasn't escaped Tim O'Reilly's radar. He cites Jason Kottke: 'If I were Apple, I'd be worried about this. Two lifelong Mac fans are switching away from Macs to PCs running Ubuntu Linux: first it was Mark Pilgrim and now Cory Doctorow. Nerds are a small demographic, but they can also be the canary in the coal mine with stuff like this.'"

Student Suspended Over IM Icon 652

Posted by Zonk from the lol-omg dept.
Chris Reimer writes "C|Net News.com is reporting that a 15-year-old student lost a lawsuit over having an instant messenger icon that represented a death threat against an English teacher on his personal computer that another student reported to school authorities. From the article: 'His parents sued, claiming that the icon was protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech, that the school district failed to train staff in proper threat assessment and that the school board violated state law in not following proper procedures. [The judge] Mordue rejected the free-speech claims.'"

Internet Giving Homeless a Home 261

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the long-reach-on-that-outreach dept.
Wired is reporting that many individuals currently without permanent housing still manage to stay connected via a cellphone, laptop, or some other gadget. Many homeless have email addresses and find that it offers them a way to get their foot back in the door of 'normal' society. From the article: "Hellerich slept on benches but she frequented a women's shelter with a cluster of internet-connected computers used mostly by the children who arrived at the safe house with their mothers. She started blogging and conducting a business. As an independent internet marketer, she was able to maintain bank accounts, nurse existing client connections and forge new business relationships. The business brought in only about $100 a month, but that was enough to help get her life back on track."

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