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| Authored by: TiddlyPom on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 05:40 AM EST |
It is my birthday today and when I read this news in OMG Ubuntu I got another birthday present. The HP Pavillion 20-b101ea is not exactly a high
specification PC - it uses an AMD APU/Radeon combined chip with is perhaps twice
as fast as an equivalent Intel Atom chip but is perfectly acceptable for a
desktop workhorse PC. My daughter uses a Lenovo S205 netbook which has a similar PC specification
and you CAN play games on it but you do have to drop the resolution down. (BTW
I would NOT recommend buying an S205 for running Linux. It is painful getting
UEFI configured and getting WiFi running requires a set of annoying hacks and
patches).
HP are also selling a similarly specified HP Pavillion running Windows 8 and it is
significantly more expensive (£499 vs £349) than the Ubuntu one. Note that the
Ubuntu PC has 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard disk whereas the WIndows 8 PC has 8GB RAM
and a 1TB hard disk but with hardware prices as they are - that is only about
£50 worth of electronics so the Linux one is still about £100
cheaper!
My biggest worry is that HP will not advertise this anywhere
and it will not be sold in high street shops like Currys/PCWorld, John Lewis or
Littlewoods so this opportunity might fizzle out. I presume that Microsoft will
do everything in their power to try and prevent this happening as
well.
---
Support Software Freedom - use GPL licenced software like
Linux and LibreOffice instead of proprietary software like Microsoft
Windows/Office or Apple OS/X [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Steve Martin on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 06:19 AM EST |
Well, here it is. Ten years ago today, Caldera (d.b.a.
The SCO Group) filed suit in
Utah State Court against IBM
alleging misappropriation of trade secrets,
unfair
competiton, interference with contract, and breach of
contract, and
claiming to the world that IBM had donated
Caldera's UNIX code to Linux. PJ
first wrote about the
lawsuit in her article on May 17, 2003, back
in the early
RadioLand days of Groklaw.
Ten years later, Caldera (now
known officially as The
TSG Group) is still in Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection,
and
Linux is taking over the world.
---
"When I say something, I put
my name next to it." -- Isaac Jaffe, "Sports Night" [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: JamesK on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 08:04 AM EST |
| Dilbert
;-) ---
The following program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: tiger99 on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 01:21 PM EST |
BBCThe
$299 (£198) Android device includes learning programs for pupils as well as
tools for teachers, allowing them to monitor progress and
attendance. Well, that seems to be ok, but here is the
snag:News Corp's education unit, along with firms such as Apple and
Pearson, is betting on a technology-led educational future and is digitising
traditional textbooks and redesigning them for children who have grown up using
multimedia devices. Heading for a vendor lock-in, I
think.A slightly more expensive tablet with access to 4G - costing
$349 - has been designed for children working from home. The preloaded
curriculum will cost $99 for a two-year subscription. Yes,
vendor lock-in, and rental instead of ownership...."Everyone wants
to offer proprietary software that will lock education into their system and
that just isn't going to happen," said Prof Stephen Heppell, a digital education
expert at Bournemouth University. Silly man, it is happening right
before his very eyes.The only thing fundamentally wrong with this is that it
is being orchestrated by Murdoch, whose malign influence greatly exceeds that of
those whom we (deservedly) like to criticise here, such as Gates. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 02:53 PM EST |
Today’s credit markets reflect an unreal state of perfection. They
do so because of the existence of four ‘perfect’ factors:1.
The perfect
calm - courtesy of the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy andits attitude
towards financial stability.
2.
The perfect product - structured credit
instruments with their off-market,leverage, and yield characteristics.
3.
The perfect trade - persistent relative value created by rating agencies
overrating the senior tranches.
4.
The perfect buyers - performance hungry
hedge funds for junior tranches,yield hungry and rating constrained institutions
for the senior tranches.
This is not an efficient market phenomenon but a
composition of market failures and distorted incentives.
The aggregate
picture is one of leveraged, mispriced credit markets in which “hedge fund
banks” are exposed to liquidity risks, the banking system is exposed to
hedgefund counterparty risk, and rated tranche debt holders are exposed to
mispriced default risk.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/58602806/Cracking-the-Credit-Market-Code[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 03:16 PM EST |
| "Google has already discriminated against local companies developing their own
Android-based operating systems by not sharing code with them in a timely
manner, the paper claims, without naming companies".
link
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 03:20 PM EST |
"Computing-wise that three week vacation turned out to be very relaxing.
Machine would suspend and resume without problem, WiFi just worked, audio did
not stop working, I spend three weeks without having to recompile the kernel to
adjust this or that, nor fighting the video drivers, or deal with the bizarre
and random speed degradation that my ThinkPad suffered".
"While
I missed the comprehensive Linux toolchain and userland, I did not miss having
to chase the proper package for my current version of Linux, or beg someone to
package something. Binaries just worked". M
iguel de Icaza[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: macliam on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 04:39 PM EST |
Just spotted this letter concerning Patents in
Mathematics on the web. It says volumes regarding the depth of mathematical
knowledge and expertise considered sufficient by the Patent Office for the
purpose of assessing computer-implemented inventions. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 05:03 PM EST |
|
Help
Desk
Comic
Enjoy.
Waynehttp://madhatter.ca
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 05:38 PM EST |
|
The Independent reports
that Prince Alwaleed is not pleased at Forbe's
Billionaire List under-reporting his wealth. The Saudi Prince was said to
be manning one of the lifeboats circling the sinking SCO early in its
bankruptcy. Forbes
offers its excuses. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 09:15 PM EST |
pcmag.com
Cerf, who serves as a chief
Internet evangelist at Google,
told Reuters that during the
debate over the use of real names on the search
giant's
network, he supported the use of pseudonyms... [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 10:38 PM EST |
Just watched another iPad commercial where they show it running a bunch of apps
that will run on any tablet.
My daughter has called my Playbook an iPad ever since I brought it home.
Does Apple get a warning from some agency that their trademark is falling into
general use, or do they have to sue someone for misusing the name?
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: skyisland on Wednesday, March 06 2013 @ 10:55 PM EST |
I had a bad experience today at work. Chrome update popped up encouraging me to
update to a newer, safer version of Chrome. I clicked yes, but little did I
know that the update hijacked my default browser preference, Firefox. Which
also messed up my configuration for Genesys meeting center, just as I was about
to open up an international meeting. So I quickly had to Google how to change
back my browser preference on Windows 7 (no, it's not obvious). So I am
disappointed in Google, that it would make such a change without my permission.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 07 2013 @ 03:31 AM EST |
From memory to inspiration
The MIT Media Lab community
invites you to join us for a
remembrance of
Aaron Swartz
(1986-2013)
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
4:00pm
MIT Media
Lab
Sixth floor event space
75 Amherst Street, Cambridge,
MA
Reception immediately following the memorial program
http://www.media.mit.edu/events/2013/03/12/memory-inspiration-remembrance-aaron-
swartz
more info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/318892888214473/
Speakers include:
Joi Ito, MIT Media Lab
Larry Lessig, Harvard Law School
Tim Berners-Lee,
World Wide Web Consortium & MIT
Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, Aaron's
partner
Bob Swartz, Aaron's father
and here too on Taren
Stinebrickner-Kauffman's page:
http://tarensk.tumblr.com/post/44649373978/mit-boston-memorial-event-march-12-4p
m [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 07 2013 @ 06:52 AM EST |
"Over the past weekend, an anonymous source posted 4.6GB of .xml files
detailing the exact compensation histories and ownership positions the CEOs and
Directors of the preponderance of listed corporationsa"
"A
simple grep of the entire archive paints a revealing picture of the propaganda
media model, which posits that newspapers and other media serve corporations as
their primary customers, providing audiences as their primary product" link[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 07 2013 @ 10:51 AM EST |
A court in New Zealand has ruled that Megaupload boss Kim Dotcom can
sue the country's foreign intelligence service for illegally spying on
him.
The court rejected a challenge to an earlier ruling allowing him to sue
the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) over his
treatment.
[...]
The New Zealand attorney general had asked the appeals
court to exclude the GCSB from Mr Dotcom's lawsuit seeking compensation, after
the high court ruled last year that the agency could be held liable for
illegally spying, but the court rejected the bid.
BBC[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 07 2013 @ 11:05 AM EST |
|
Link
Sorry MS, too late!
Home computer is now Gnu/Linux Mageia
powered and Libre Office is now the default office package. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 07 2013 @ 11:11 AM EST |
Is being reported that Microsoft is changing their controversial
install-once-and-only-once licensing term for the MSOffice package.
It's (naturally) being wrapped in heart-warming terms indicative of Microsoft
having listened to their customers and made the change accordingly.
In other news, OpenOffice reports 40 mill downloads in less than a year.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 07 2013 @ 02:14 PM EST |
The ‘rolling release’ meme has been a popular one for years in
Ubuntu. It’s one of the top requests from members of our user community. And
it’s popular with Canonical team members too (who, largely, come from the
community and share its values).
The problem for me is straightforward: a
rolling release isn’t actually a release at all. It offers little certainty for
those who need certainty. And we essentially accommodate the need for daily
crack with our development releases, which have become highly usable (for
developers) because of the strong commitment the Canonical and community teams
made to daily quality throughout the release cycle.
So I haven’t personally
given any air time to the topic of rolling releases over the
years.
[...]
So I think it IS worth asking the question: can we go even
faster? Can we make even MORE releases in a year? And can we automate that
process to make it bulletproof for end-users?
That’s where I think we
should steer the conversation on rolling releases:
- Can we make the
update process from point to point really bulletproof? Upgrading today is
possible, but to keep the system clean over multiple successive upgrades
requires an uncommonly high level of skill with APT.
- Can we strengthen
the definition of point releases in the LTS so that interim releases are
obviously less relevant?
- Can we do a reasonable amount of release
management on, say, MONTHLY releases that they are actual releases rather than
just snapshots?
Daily quality has made the Ubuntu development
release perfectly usable for developers. That’s a huge accomplishment. Now let’s
think carefully about the promises we’re making end-users, and see if it isn’t
time to innovate again, just as we innovated when we created Ubuntu on a six
month cadence.
Mark Shuttleworth[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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