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Comment Re:Most Important Websites... (Score 5, Informative) 123

Did you ever Altavista search "linux games"? If you were looking for Linux games you would have found this site, along with Happy Penguin (I think they started as separate sites - could be wrong on that), and Tux Games. Eventually Loki Games got things really rolling, and now we have Steam.

Freshmeat would be the obvious other place to search for Linux games. The TuCows Linux site wasn't very reliable.

Comment Re:New to computers (Score 1) 718

I've been MS free for over a decade and my parents and brothers for about 3 years. Debian and then Ubuntu.

Had this page included some illustrative video about what comes preinstalled with each system in a little walkthrough this A or B page may have been more fair. They could also include a primer to cloud services. I think grannies might consider Ubuntu if they saw how well it suits their needs.

I think the "new user" point makes sense coming from Dell. They sell software and would like to offer consumers the gratification of buying something that will work on their new computer. I think this works both ways. The consumer wants to buy Office, an awesome CPU-munching anti-spyware app (who doesn't), and a handful of games.

Dell customers who take Ubuntu home will be left holding their discs in their hands. I remember (and worked) at CompUSA when it was possible to buy CorelOffice and Loki games off the shelf. Those days have passed and with todays generation of console, Flash, mobile, and HTML based games ... and OpenOffice, who needs them. People would happily keep their $100-$500 Office dollars if they knew about Google Apps.

I still have the worst luck picking mid-consumer grade printers off the shelf that work under Linux without hitting the net first. I thought all Brothers were safe and I bought my mom the one that wasn't - now it is a coaster.

I think any programmer - not just "open source" programmers would benefit from the Ubuntu choice. Did they really have to spotlight the Games menu?

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Family Circus Cthulhu Edition 4

Next week, follow Billy's dotted-line path into madness.
Unix

Persistent Terminals For a Dedicated Computing Box? 288

Theovon writes "I just built a high-end quad-core Linux PC dedicated to number-crunching. Its job is to sit in the corner with no keyboard, mouse, or monitor and do nothing but compute (genetic algorithms, neural nets, and other research). My issue is that I would like to have something like persistent terminal sessions. I've considered using Xvnc in a completely headless configuration (some useful documentation here, here, here, and here). However, for most of my uses, this is overkill. Total waste of memory and compute time. However, if I decided to run FPGA synthesis software under WINE, this will become necessary. Unfortunately, I can't quite figure out how to get persistent X11 session where I'm automatically logged in (or can stay logged in), while maintaining enough security that I don't mind opening the VNC port on my firewall (with a changed port number, of course). I'm also going to check out Xpra, but I've only just heard about it and have no idea how to use it. For the short term, the main need is just terminals. I'd like to be able to connect and see how something is going. One option is to just run things with nohup and then login and 'tail -f' to watch the log file. I've also heard of screen, but I'm unfamiliar with it. Have other Slashdot users encountered this situation? What did you use? What's hard, what's easy, and what works well?"
Social Networks

"Wisdom of Crowds" Works For Individuals Too 158

ideonexus writes "Take a crowd of people and have them guess how many jelly beans are in a jar, and the average of their answers will be remarkably accurate. Now researchers have found the same goes for asking one person to guess about the same thing several times. Accuracy improved when the individual was given longer periods of time between guesses." The anonymous author of the Economist piece, not quoting the researchers, says the finding bolsters the "generate and test" model of creative thinking.

Endeavour Crew to Assemble Giant Robot, in Space 147

Frizzled writes "Part of the space shuttle crew's scheduled mission for this week is to assemble a massive robot which will 'rise like Frankenstein' from the shuttle's cargo bay. The robot, named Dextre, has 11-foot arms, a shoulder span of nearly 8 feet, a height of 12 feet, and was built by the Canadian Space Agency. 'Dextre can pivot at the waist, and has seven joints per arm. Its hands, or grippers, have built-in socket wrenches, cameras and lights. Only one arm is designed to move at a time to keep the robot stable and avoid a two-arm collision. The robot has no face or legs, and with its long arms certainly doesn't look human.'"
Media

Porn Industry May Not Decide Format War 185

nixkuroi writes "MSNBC Reports that the porn industry may be overstating their numbers and, as a result, may not be the decider of the next winning movie format. Even more interesting: Vivid Entertainment says that despite Sony's refusal to license Blu-ray to the adult industry, they've found a way to replicate the technology and will release Debbie Does Dallas on both formats. Film writer Jimmy Digiorgio states, in an email with MSNBC: 'In the past, porn embraced new technologies that were just gaining a foothold. DVDs are not new, and I don't think consumers perceive Blu-Ray and HD-DVD as new technologies. Instead, they see them as an evolution of an existing technology.... With Blu-ray [versus] HD-DVD, porn will go where the masses go.'"
Businesses

Why Don't More CIOs Become CEO? 279

jcatcw writes "Thornton May is mystified by the very small number of Fortune 500 companies that led by former CIOs. "Knowing what we know about CIOs — that is, that most are smart, hardworking, supremely aware of how the business works and increasingly savvy regarding the workings of external customers' minds — the failure of more CIOs to become CEO has to be one of the biggest mysteries of our age.""
Software

Using AI to Monitor Kids Online 230

eldavojohn writes "An Australian startup believes that the best way to protect your children online is through an artificially intelligent software program. The inventors of this idea are banking on children's attachment to pets. The creature's 'cuteness' and helpfulness will ingratiate the software with the child, so that he or she will respect it and listen to it, or even find it as a likable companion. Agent-based internet applications are nothing new but for concerned parents, this might be an admirable solution to what is perceived by many to be a growing problem. From one of the inventors: 'Of course, we're also planning to release a version of the Moji IM for teenagers and adults, but we're focusing on children at the moment.'"

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