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Windows expert to Redmond: Buh-bye
After living with the Mac for three months and comparing it to my Vista experiences, the choice is crystal clear. I’ve struggled to sort out my gut feeling about Windows Vista, but the value and advantage of the Mac and OS X are difficult to miss. While I continue to work with Windows XP and Vista on a number of other machines, I am now recommending the Macintosh for business and home users.
These stories will never stop coming along, as it’s really a matter of personal choice. There have been hundreds of converts from Windows to Linux, Mac to Windows, Linux to Windows and so on. Regardless, the author doesn’t really go into depth in this article about why a Mac in general is better than a PC, but lists off many applications that he enjoys that are not available for Windows (even though many are).
Source: Computer World
Ubuntu and Linspire Join Forces
Canonical Ltd., the sponsor of Ubuntu, and Linspire Inc., the developer of Linspire and Freespire, on February 8 announced a technology partnership to integrate with each other’s Linux distributions. Linspire/Freespire will be based on Ubuntu, rather than Debian, and Ubuntu will integrate with Linspire’s CNR package installer/updater. Starting with Ubuntu’s 7.04 release in April, Ubuntu users will gain access to Linspire’s newly opened CNR (Click and Run) e-commerce and software delivery system. For Linspire, that will mean moving from Debian to Ubuntu as the base for its Linspire and Freespire desktop operating systems.
This is a good move for both companies. Linspires CNR is a rather well-done software delivery system, so Ubuntu users will likely not complain about implementation. Linspire and Freespire on the other hand will have Ubuntu as the base, which has its obvious advantages over the barebones Debian.
Source: Desktop Linux
Microsoft to Share Ad Revenue With Casual Game Developers
Microsoft today unveiled plans to share a percentage of in-game advertising revenue from MSN Games with its casual game developers. Funds will accrue monthly, with developers sharing a percentage of the gross revenue received from the advertisements shown during online gameplay for their titles, including ads served during the loading screens at the start of a game or in between levels, as well as ads placed in or around the game window during gameplay.
This may prove a huge advantage for game developers deciding to create a game for MSN Games, as it could fuel development of expansions or future titles. In-game advertising sucks, but if it keeps these games free and helps the developers, it ain’t so bad.
Source: Daily Tech
OCZ Unveils the New PC2-6400 Flex XLC CAS 3
Sunnyvale, CA—February 8, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the PC2-6400 Flex XLC CL3 series. This latest edition to the highly-awarded OCZ Flex XLC product family is engineered to produce significant performance gains on the latest NVIDIA nForce SLI platforms by implementing Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP) and allowing the memory to operate at a stable 800MHz at CL3 upon start up. Developed and tested on the 680i platform, the Flex XLC CL3 series provides rock-solid stability and compatibility for enthusiasts looking to reap the benefits of aggressively priced, low latency memory.
You can read the full press release here.
Intel and USAID Commit to Broaden Technology Access in Emerging Markets
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 8, 2007 – Intel Corporation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are working together to broaden access and usage of information and communications technology (ICT) in developing communities around the world. The organizations signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), identifying three areas of common focus: increasing the use of ICT in education, enabling last mile Internet connectivity and supporting ICT usage by small- and medium-sized businesses to enhance economic development opportunities.
You can read the full press release here.
RIAA Misreads Jobs’ Open Letter On DRM
The RIAA issued a response today lauding Apple’s offer to license FairPlay as a “welcome breakthrough” that would be a “real victory for fans, artists and labels.” There’s only one problem: Jobs didn’t offer to license FairPlay at all. In fact, he makes it pretty clear that he thinks that switching to an open model for DRM wouldn’t work.
You could easily fill up an entire hard drive with documents describing the RIAAs foolishness. It’s highly unlikely that they completely oblivious to the actual facts though. They simply want to try to turn the tables and brainwash people. Is it working? Nah, but it is funny.
Source: Engadget
Samsung Fined $90 Million for DRAM Price Fixing
In a settlement, Samsung agreed today to pay $90 million USD for participating in illegal DRAM price-fixing practices. Samsung and several other major DRAM companies were all caught up in bitter court ordeals involving business conspiracies that affected the bottom line for several major OEMs and system integrators.
Now Samsung doesn’t have to feel left out since they were the only ones not originally affected. What sucks is that none of the actual end-users who paid -more- for their ram will be compensated. If anything, we can hope that this type of thing will not happen again.
Source: Daily Tech
5 Million Pirated Discs in Asia-Pacific Sting
Operation Trident consisted of 1,874 raids which resulted in the seizing of nearly 5 million pirated discs and the arrest of 870 people during a two-month anti-piracy operation. The large-scale operation targeted pirate production facilities, pirated optical discs from street vendors, retail shops and markets; and the exporters of pirated DVDs and video CDs.
Wow, that is not a small number! As one commenter in this thread points out, it is -these- people that the RIAA should be going after. This is where the huge losses are. Of course, this is the same company that enjoys suing innocent people.
Source: Neowin
Samsung LCD Boasts 100,000:1
The flagship model was a 40-inch LCD panel destined for the HDTV market. The screen boasts 500 cd/m2 of brightness, 180-degree viewing angle, and 1366 x 768 pixel (720p) HD resolution. The widescreen panel also claims to offer an impressive 100,000:1 contrast ratio, achieved using local dimming LED backlighting.
Samsung makes some of the most beautiful LCDs around and the 100,000:1 is sure a nice figure. Is there even a point where you would notice the difference between 100,000:1 or 50,000:1 though? Either way, I am drooling based on the numbers alone.
Source: Daily Tech
NY May Ban iPods While Crossing Street
New Yorkers who blithely cross the street listening to an iPod or talking on a cell phone could soon face a $100 fine. New York State Sen. Carl Kruger says three pedestrians in his Brooklyn district have been killed since September upon stepping into traffic while distracted by an electronic device. In one case bystanders screamed “watch out” to no avail. Kruger says he will introduce legislation on Wednesday to ban the use of gadgets such as Blackberry devices and video games while crossing the street.
It’s hard to argue with a ruling such as this. I’m still unsure how this happens “because” of an iPod though. Personally, when I have crossed the street in the past with headphones blaring, I pay -far- more attention to what’s going on around me. Do people really just care less because of the music they are listening to?
Source: Reuters
Wronged Victim To Be Awarded Legal Fees From RIAA
Some of you may remember Capitol Record v. Debbie Foster, where the RIAA sued an Oklahoma woman over copyright infringement. In July, the case against her was dismissed with prejudice, which, in the eyes of the judge, made her the prevailing party. Earlier today, the judge handed her another legal victory, awarding her “reasonable” attorneys’ fees from the RIAA.
The sad thing is that Debbie Foster is not really a winner here. She had to go through the insane hassle of being wrongfully sued and then on top of it, had to wait well over a year for this conclusion to arise. It would be great to see this happen more often, but it’s still chump change as far as the RIAA is concerned.
Source: Ars Technica
Anyone Can Now Sign Up For GMail
Almost three years after GMail was first launched, Google changed their ways and are now allowing anyone to sign up for the service. For those who have not been paying attention, GMail up to now has been invite only. This hasn’t really been a problem since you could get invites virtually anywhere, but why did it take them almost three years before taking off that restriction? The good news is that in those three years, the accounts have grown by 800MB, so the current limit is around 2.8GB worth of e-mail storage.
Source: GMail
Diskeeper for Vista Now Available
Burbank, CA, —Diskeeper Corporation launched a new version of its award-winning performance enhancement software called, Diskeeper 2007, now compatible for Windows Vista. The release not only performs its defragmentation duties better and faster, but also enhances the speed of the Vista file system itself. Defragmentation is now done on the fly, as fragmentation occurs, using only idle system resources. This approach ensures maximum speed and reliability at all times.
You can read the full press release here.
Steve Jobs On Music DRM
With the stunning global success of Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to “open†the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let’s examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.
If you are interested in the DRM scheme of things, this is a good article to reference. Steve goes into depth with regards as to why we have DRM in the first place and also what other options we have. The conclusion is that the best solution would be ridding it altogether. He goes on to mention that 90% of the songs legally purchased are DRM free, so having it in the first place seems needless.
Source: Apple.com
Microsoft Jacks Up Support Prices
Prices for both Windows Vista and XP support were raised, from $39 to $59 per incident while support prices for Office XP and Office 2007 went from $35 to $49 per incident. General support inquiries as well as inquiries for less prominent software, such as Microsoft Money, remain at $35 per incident.
Ouch, a $20 increase for support? I think it’s time for a lot of people to discover forums around the web and get support for free. $60 a shot is just ridiculous.
Source: Ars Technica
Hackers Attack Key Net Traffic Computers
Hackers briefly overwhelmed at least three of the 13 computers that help manage global computer traffic Tuesday in one of the most significant attacks against the Internet since 2002. Experts said the unusually powerful attacks lasted as long as 12 hours but passed largely unnoticed by most computer users, a testament to the resiliency of the Internet. Behind the scenes, computer scientists worldwide raced to cope with enormous volumes of data that threatened to saturate some of the Internet’s most vital pipelines.
This was quite a significant attack but didn’t really seem to effect much except the machines themselves. There doesn’t seem to be a motive, but three of these DNS root servers were specifically targeted. You can check out the graphs here and see just how much load both “G” and “I” had.
Source: Breit Bart
Why Windows Is Less Secure Than Linux
In its long evolution, Windows has grown so complicated that it is harder to secure. Well these images make the point very well. Both images are a complete map of the system calls that occur when a web server serves up a single page of html with a single picture. The same page and picture.
This article was posted last year, but it gets the point across. When a web page is called from a Windows server, the amount of calls when compared to Linux is amazing. The pictures have to be seen to fully understood. Thanks Slashdot.
Source: ZD Net
Apple.com Timeline
For you Apple fans out there, you will appreciate this photo gallery over at Flickr. Community members gathered together and put their collective screenshots in a pot to form a pretty comprehensive look at the Apple.com homepage from 1997 up until today. Take a look, it may just spark some memories.
Source: Flickr
Popular Vista Anti-Virus Programs Fail
Microsoft’s much-hyped anti-virus solution, Live OneCare, as well as McAfee’s VirusScan Enterprise, G DATA’s AntiVirusKit 2007, and Norman’s VirusControl all failed to pass a series of tests that are required to achieve the company’s VB100 certification. “With the number of delays that we’ve seen in Vista’s release, there’s no excuse for security vendors not to have got their products right by now,’ said John Hawes, technical consultant at Virus Bulletin.
The fact that these “issues” are not ironed out by now makes me scratch my head. Vista was available to business partners for over two months prior to public launch, so there was plenty of time to produce a far more solid application. This is just another reason why Vista is more of a hassle than it should be, at least at this point in time.
Source: TechBlorge
Mushkin 2GB PC2-8500 Contest
Mushkin has sent along word that they are holding a contest on their forums where you could win one of two PC2-8500 2GB kits, complete with Micron D9 chips. Of course, there is a catch… you must have some sense of creativity as they want a nice ad designed. If you think you have what it takes, give it a go. Before entering, you could even read our review of the same memory being offered.
Source: Mushkin Forums
NCsoft Reports 2006 Revenue
Seoul, South Korea, February 6, 2007—NCsoft Corporation (KSE:036570.KS), the world’s leading developer and publisher of online computer games, today reported earnings results for 2006. On a consolidated basis, sales came to KRW 338.7 billion (US$361 million), operating profit to KRW 43.3 billion (US$46.1 million), pre-tax profit to KRW 50.0 billion (US$53.3 million) and net profit to KRW 38.0 billion (US$40.5 million). Compared to the previous year, sales maintained a similar level while operating income and pre-tax profit decreased 44% and 41% respectively. The company saw its net profit drop 43% year to year.
NCsoft had a fantastic year in sales, but still had a slight drop thanks to current projects in the works. Lineage 1 and Lineage 2 are really doing their part to keep the company profitable though.
Source: NC Soft
New AMD Opteron Processors Unveiled for Ultimate Datacenter Performance-Per-Watt
SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Feb. 7, 2007 – Delivering on its commitment to industry-leading datacenter performance and performance-per-watt, AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced availability of new AMD Opteron(tm) processor models in both highly efficient (68 watt) and mainstream (95 watt) thermal envelopes.
You can read the entire press release here.
Are We Not Paying Enough For Music?
The RIAA has an information page where they try to convince you that the cost of a CD should be much, much higher than it is, and therefore you’re getting a great deal. Basically, they’re claiming that based on basic consumer price index information (i.e., inflation) the price of the CD should have risen over the past few decades, rather than stayed more or less the same.
This is something to think about next time you are in a music shop about to hand over $20 for a new disc! I buy a fair share of music and haven’t even found the prices to be that bad lately. Most new releases I’m finding are around $13CAN. Of course, it could be that I don’t buy the most popular music out there, which is why it’s less expensive. It’s the -older- releases that sway people away the most though. It seems that once an album has “passed it’s prime” it doubles in price. Either way, the RIAA needs to get a grip on reality.
Source: Tech Dirt
More megapixels, better photos: Fact or fiction?
Digital camera makers continue to squeeze ever more megapixels into their products. But does that make for better pictures? Some experts say no. Image quality isn’t improving, they say, and some fear it may actually be degrading as the megapixel race escalates. The basic concern is that smaller pixels on camera sensors means less sensitivity to light, leading to image noise such as off-color speckles or rough edges, worse performance in dim conditions, and the loss of finer tonal gradations such as the subtle shadows of a white wedding dress. Point-and-shoot cameras, with their small sensors, are the chief culprits.
I don’t think anyone can use a new 10MP point-and-shoot camera and exclaim great quality. Some have better than others, but unless you have a DSLR, anything above 6MP is going to appear blotchy or have lots of noise. I’m a believer of Quality > Quantity, but I think having a point-and-shoot camera that takes “great” photos at 6MP would be a win.
Source: News.com
Wal-Mart Joins Movie Download Business
Wal-Mart announced a deal Tuesday with six major Hollywood studios to allow video and television downloading from its web site. As in most categories, Wal-Mart is a giant in retail video sales. The company is hoping this move will help it hold on to that position on line as well.
Is there anything Wal-Mart doesn’t want to sell? I’m still waiting for the day when I see replacement body parts on their shelves.
Source: News.com