jorgis - Slashdot User

Submission + - A New Global IPv6 Backbone (telephonyonline.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21, 2009 @05:21PM

An anonymous reader writes: Still waiting for your Internet provider to support IPv6? Apparently one provider gave up waiting for other ISPs and deployed a free global IPv6 backbone with tunnel end points around the world. Most Microsoft users are now automatically using this IPv6 infrastructure. As a result, IPv6 reachability no longer sucks (i.e. loss / latency) and one blog claims IPv6 traffic has jumped by 1400% (http://asert.arbornetworks.com/2009/09/who-put-the-ipv6-in-my-internet/).

Submission + - Large scale Mac deployment. 1

Submitted by

UncleRage

on Monday September 21, 2009 @05:04PM

UncleRage writes: "I've been asked to research and ultimately recommend a deployment procedure for Macs across a rather large network.

I'm not a stranger to OS X; however, the last time I worked on deployment NetRestore was still king of the mountain. Considering the current options, what methodology do admin adhere to? Given the current selection of tools available, what would you recommend when planning, prototyping and rolling out a robust, modular deployment scenario?

For the record, I'm not asking for a spoon fed solution; I'm more interested in a discussion concerning the current tools and what may (or may not) have worked for you. There are a lot of options available for modular system deployment... what are your opinions?"

Submission + - Acne can Make you Uninsurable

Submitted by

pickens

on Monday September 21, 2009 @02:20PM

pickens writes: "Hugh Pickens writes:

The Washington Post reports that health insurers have issued guidelines that deny coverage to people suffering from such conditions as acne, hemorrhoids and bunions. Documents obtained from a California insurance broker show that other uninsurable conditions included pregnancy, and being an "expectant father" was grounds for "automatic rejection." There was also this more general disqualifier: "currently experiencing/experienced within the last 12 months symptoms for which a physician has not been consulted." As Congress works on legislation to overhaul the nation's health-care system, one of their main objectives is to stop insurers from denying coverage on the basis of health status. Proposed legislation would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to individuals with preexisting conditions or charging them higher premiums because of their medical history — practices known as medical underwriting. The internal insurance company documents reveal that insurers deny applicants based on occupation, age, weight, use of a wide range of common prescription drugs, minor health conditions or mere "symptoms" that have not been reported to a physician. "What these documents show is the lengths to which insurance companies are willing to go to make a profit," said Jerry Flanagan, health-care policy director of Consumer Watchdog, a nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization. "What it shows is that insurance companies want premiums without any risk.""

Submission + - Synthetic Binaural Audio Comes to the iPhone

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21, 2009 @02:17PM

An anonymous reader writes: This past Friday, a $1 app came out on the iPhone, Aves. The app itself is a brief 3D shoot-the-bird game, but there's some awesome technology under the covers — the entire game is rendered with synthetic binaural audio, something I've never seen before in anything, much less a throwaway game for the iPhone. It has to be played to be believed, and it will have your head swiveling the first time you try it. (if you've never heard of binaural recording before, the Virtual Barbershop is the ur-example online.)

Submission + - Microsoft launches new pre-Windows 7 anti-Linux of (itwire.com)

Submitted by

davidmwilliams

on Monday September 21, 2009 @08:21AM

davidmwilliams writes: "Microsoft has been making steps to educate U.S. retailers that Linux is a limited operating system that works with only few peripherals or online services, and that what most customers want is Windows.

Highlights include the fact that "Windows Live" is a free download for Microsoft Windows but not available for Linux. What I want to know is where is the "one-stop updater" and "license free" checkboxes?"

Comment Re:Inc. China (Score 3, Interesting) 235

by jorgis on Thursday April 23, 2009 @03:28AM (#27683977) Attached to: Germany Institutes Censorship Infrastructure

I don't believe that this necessary will lead to censorship of other "offensive" or politically incorrect material. Here in Norway, we've had a similar filter[1] in place for a few years now, and it hasn't been extended in any degree to include anything other than what has been deemed as child porn. It's efficiency in combating the distribution of child porn can be questioned, but I don't think you'll ever find it being used for other purposes. [1] http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Norwegian_secret_internet_censorship_blacklist%2C_3518_domains%2C_18_Mar_2009

Setting Up Ubuntu On a PS3 For Emulation 81

Posted by Soulskill on Monday February 02, 2009 @01:20AM from the eight-bit-high-def dept.

Gizmodo is running a guide on how to install Ubuntu on a Playstation 3 and set it up to play vintage games through emulation. Quoting: "It still kind of surprises me (in a good way) that Sony was, from the start, very OK with PS3 owners tinkering with Linux on their PS3s. A modified release of Yellow Dog Linux was available from the very beginning, and some very handy hard drive partitioning and dual-boot utilities are baked right into the PS3's XMB; Ubuntu gets installed on an entirely separate partition of your PS3's hard disk, so your default system doesn't get touched and switching between Ubuntu and the XMB is a piece of cake. There is a flipside to this coin, however. Since the PS3's Cell Processor is PowerPC based, you won't be able to use any Linux software that's compiled for x86, which is, unfortunately, most of it. However, Ubuntu has always had a PPC distro, and most of the basic stuff will work just fine. You can even load up a PPC-compiled Super Nintendo Emulator, SNES9X, and play some classic games pretty easily on your Sixaxis controller paired via Bluetooth."

Comment Re:Sounds Great! (Score 1) 272

by jorgis on Tuesday January 27, 2009 @10:20AM (#26621561) Attached to: Testing the KDE 4.2 Release Candidate, On Windows

Well, now you can get that AND the occasional BSoD! :D

Comment Re:It could mean there is hope. (Score 1) 625

by jorgis on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @08:53PM (#26539721) Attached to: Canonical Close To $30M Critical Mass; Should Microsoft Worry?

The moment I realized that there would be no final year of Linux was the moment I discovered that my beloved stage piano(!) actually ran some version of Linux. While the debate has raged over what year will be "the year of Linux on the desktop", people has assumed that being ready for the desktop is somehow equated with being successful. At the same time, Linux has snuck in the back door into surprisingly many homes, into appliances Microsoft never ever dreamed of supporting, and that is a good a measure of Linux' success as a win on the desktop. I believe the day Linux has more installs (appliances/computers running its code) than any Microsoft product will come a long time before Linux matches the user share of Windows on the desktop.

Canonical Close To $30M Critical Mass; Should Microsoft Worry? 625

Posted by timothy on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @01:24PM from the so-you're-saying-shuttleworth-has-business-acumen dept.

ruphus13 writes "Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical, claims that the company is very close to the $30M mark, at which point, they will be a self-sustaining company. While people feel that this should not worry Microsoft, the real question is whether a 10,000 person effort on a failure like Vista can actually be the paradigm of a long-term strategy. From the article: 'Microsoft had 10,000 people [the article is unclear whether these were all developers, or administrative and support staff were factored in] working on Vista for a five year period ... huge profits in any given year can mean relatively little five years on. Canonical's self-sustaining revenue may not be threatening — but it leaves one wondering how sustainable Microsoft's development process really is.'"

Will People Really Boycott Apple Over DRM? 664

Posted by kdawson on Monday December 22, 2008 @09:14AM from the for-tuppence-and-a-pretty-interface dept.

Ian Lamont writes "DefectiveByDesign.org is waging a battle against DRM with a 35-day campaign targeting various hardware and software products from Microsoft, Nintendo, and others. On day 11 it blasted iTunes for continuing to use DRM-encumbered music, games, TV shows, movies, audiobooks, and apps with DRM, while competitors are selling music without restrictions. DefectiveByDesign calls on readers to include 'iTunes gift cards and purchases in your boycott of all Apple products' to 'help drive change.' However, there's a big problem with this call to arms: most people simply don't care about iTunes DRM. Quoting: 'The average user is more than willing to pay more money for hobbled music because of user interface, ease of use, and marketing. ... Apple regularly features exclusive live sets from popular artists, while Amazon treats its digital media sales as one more commodity being sold.' What's your take on the DRM schemes used by Apple and other companies? Is a boycott called for, and can it be effective?"

Trading the Markets With FOSS Software? 417

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 18, 2008 @07:34PM from the free-markets-deserve-free-software dept.

Robert writes "Along with many other techies, I share an interest in the world of finance (bubble-era stock options pulled me in). Unfortunately, as someone with a strong preference for GNU/Linux as my operating system of choice, I have found that software in this area seems quite sparse. For awhile I have made do with Python, R, Gnumeric, Gnucash and a telephone, along with some small utilities I have written myself. What I would like to know is: what FOSS software do you use for financial analysis, trading, system development, and testing in a Un*x environment? Are there programs you would like to see written or ported? Do any brokerages, data providers, or other services provide good support for we the few? And finally, what commercial entities do you know of that are using FOSS software in their operation?"

7th-Grader Designs Three Dimensional Solar Cell 719

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 18, 2008 @01:54PM from the lucky-guess dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "12-year-old William Yuan's invention of a highly-efficient, three-dimensional nanotube solar cell for visible and ultraviolet light has won him an award and a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development. 'Current solar cells are flat and can only absorb visible light'" Yuan said. 'I came up with an innovative solar cell that absorbs both visible and UV light. My project focused on finding the optimum solar cell to further increase the light absorption and efficiency and design a nanotube for light-electricity conversion efficiency.' Solar panels with his 3D cells would provide 500 times more light absorption than commercially-available solar cells and nine times more than cutting-edge 3D solar cells. 'My next step is to talk to manufacturers to see if they will build a working prototype,' Yuan said. "If the design works in a real test stage, I want to find a company to manufacture and market it.""

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