Posts by Roy

Mythbusters RFID episode axed after 'pressure' from credit card firms

@ Gordon Fecyk

Or maybe, just maybe some calls were made, some people didn't want bad press, some people told some other people to retract their statements, and maybe someone did.

It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

Scientists unravel galactic spaghetti monster

All hail his noodly appendages...

... and praise the bounty which he bestowed upon us mere mortals.

This is a clear sign of his power and anger, so we must all shed the chains of our mundane lives, and don our pirate outfits, and plunder the unbelievers!

The PSP: what's its future?

I love my PSP fat

... but then I've hacked mine. It went from being a mediocre gaming platform to a truly fantastic multimedia platform.

The PSP's biggest problem, as with any such commercial device, (excepting maybe the gp2z), is that DRM fucks up it's usability.

With the hack, I can have several fully fledged PSP games on a single memory card. Not only does it spare me the hassle of carrying around umd discs, it actually increases battery life.

Granted, converting video to the PSP format is a hassle, but if you've got the inclination, you can carry loads of whatever is is you want to watch.

A reinvention, as the article states, should include a webcam, hdspa, microphone, keyboard, and probably a touchscreen as well. The UMD drive just has to go of course. And it should have something akin to ASUS's flashtop bios's. A PSP linux implementation. It should run FF, Skype, MSN (or pidgin). It should become a fully fledged multimedia machine, with unsurpassed gaming possibilities.

Add that with things like the PSP GPS, a mount option for your bedroom radio, home theatre system or whatever, coupled with it's already impressive PS3 compatability, you have a recipy for success.

Oh, and SONY, take your clue from the Google Android project, you want to do everything in you power to ALLOW for third party developers. Run with the times, make it open source, or at least allow open source implementation of third party software.

Hardware is useless without innovative software solutions. It's sad to see that the hacker scene has made the PSP 10 times more useful than it is originally.

Ubuntu man Shuttleworth dissects Hardy Heron's arrival

To all the Ubuntu haters

I'll be the first to admit that certain Ubuntu users, perhaps especially the newly converted evangelical Ubuntu users can be annoying. They sound and act like the Mac Cultists, and it's annoying.

I can also understand why you get pissed off when they perpetuate an image that Linux = Ubuntu.

I'll even concede the point that there are too many attention whores that fish for diggs on digg or reddit by riding the media wave ubuntu is getting nowadays.

But it does *not* serve any purpose bashing on ubuntu, or making lame jokes along the line Ubuntu is an african word for [insert inane insult here].

You are not helping by trash-talking ubuntu because you prefer your own distro, or because you're a die-hard console user.

Ubuntu is very successful at converting former windows users to GNU/Linux. Canonical has managed to market a Linux distro to the consumer desktop market. They've managed to make a Linux distro "popular", by catering to all the newbies. They are helping the FOSS movement!

So stop your elitist, self aggrandizing behaviour, and start trying to help the linux community as a whole.

All this inter distro warfare makes us look like a bunch of idiots.

Just like trash-talking Windows, no matter how much you dislike it, is not going to recruit users to the wonders of Linux, trash-talking other distros scares people away from making the switch.

Red Hat scurries away from consumer desktop market

@ The BigYin

Then we disagree.

When I install ubuntu, the process is easy, intuitive, and painless. All my devices work, all drivers are automatically installed, and the only "tweaking" I do, is making changes to my GUI.

Granted, some processes could be made easier, but as it stands, I spend far less time configuring everything to my liking on ubuntu, then I do on XP.

If I add a USB stick, it pops up on my desktop, along with any external drive. It detects my phone via bluetooth effortlessly, and .. everything!

I know what you refer too, and I had alot of issues like that in the past.

First time I installed linux, was Slackware back in 99. I spent two weeks getting the graphic and sound card running.

Then I tried Mandrake 6 or 7 later. Both times, I gave up.

Now? What can I say? I find it easier than windows. It automatically updates every app I use, I never worry about viruses, spyware or malware. And when I want to play a game, wine works well for the most part. Maybe it needs some minor tweaking, but the amount of how-to's and community support makes it a breeze.

I'm sorry your experience is less. But the community is doing everything it can to adress such issues. Hopefully, in a year or two, those issues bothering you will be gone :)

Desktop GNU/Linux

I don't understand these suggestions that GNU/Linux is not ready for consumer Desktop.

I switched to linux a year ago or so, having tried it unsuccessfully several times before.

Today, it is not only ready, I daresay at least some Distros, like Ubuntu, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS are in many ways superior Windows in quite a few ways.

Compiz-fusion and customization options are fantastic for those that want to personalize their experiance.

OpenOffice, GNUCash and other programs are excellent, and more than enough for most consumers.

Driver support is no longer a problem, especially if you buy from vendors like Dell, or other retailers who preinstall.

It has alternatives to all major apps; Torrent Apps, MSN replacements, P2P apps, The Gimp.

Major windows only apps, like Photoshop CS2 runs nearly flawlessly with Wine, in addition to many games, like Civilization4, WoW, Eve-Online, Supreme Commander, CS, Halflife, Unreal Tournament, Quake etc.

And that's just the issues people think are lacking.

The Package Managers, like .deb .rpm are way ahead of anything windows has to offer.

In my humble opinion, Linux as a Desktop is superior to both XP and Vista, for most users, excepting only the most demanding gamers, or people who use such obscure win apps they simply won't run. And even then there is virtualization.

My friends are continuously amazed at what Linux has to offer. I think the only real problem left, is getting people to realize what Linux can offer.