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Most new computers come bundled with a free antivirus solution, but sooner or later you have to start paying to get the latest virus-definition updates. When the subscription lapses, your protection evaporates. Don't let that happen! If you don't have the funds or inclination to maintain a subscription, try a free antivirus utility. We looked at three that provide full system scanning and also scan all files on access. (Two others, BitDefender 8 Free Edition and ClamWin Free Antivirus 0.86.2, were omitted, because they lack real-time scanning.)

"Not only does this new, Windows XP-only software promote Urge to the exclusion of other retailers,..."

WMP11 supports many retailers besides URGE, as can be seen here.
Here's a link to the PCMag review of WMP11 that contains the above page.

The retailers shown in the above links are:
MSN Music Store
audible.com
Napster
MovieLink
WallMart
XM Satellite Radio
f.y.e.
Live365.com
PureTracks
PassAlong
URGE

That's fewer than the number of retailers that WMP10 supports (WMP supports the above (minus URGE) plus CinemaNow, CourtTV, emusic, ESDC, MLB, msn/soundsgood.com, MusicGiants, MusicMatch, musicNow, MyStation, SongTouch, soundBuzz, GetMusic), but WMP11 is still in beta, and may very well support all of those when the RTM version is released.

"Not only does this new, Windows XP-only software promote Urge to the exclusion of other retailers,..."

WMP11 supports many retailers besides URGE, as can be seen here.
Here's a link to the PCMag review of WMP11 that contains the above page.

The retailers shown in the above links are:
MSN Music Store
audible.com
Napster
MovieLink
WallMart
XM Satellite Radio
f.y.e.
Live365.com
PureTracks
PassAlong
URGE

That's fewer than the number of retailers that WMP10 supports (WMP supports the above (minus URGE) plus CinemaNow, CourtTV, emusic, ESDC, MLB, msn/soundsgood.com, MusicGiants, MusicMatch, musicNow, MyStation, SongTouch, soundBuzz, GetMusic), but WMP11 is still in beta, and may very well support all of those when the RTM version is released.

I only use ClamAV at home, but if I was compelled to buy some anti-virus software, Bitdefender is the software I would get. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1850851,00.as p shows how it detected 6 viruses, without signatures. For home use it is cheap, and for corporate use it seems to have reasonable prices as well.

Thats because tethering is forbidden by most providers. You can in actually sign up for the cheapo V-Cast service and connect your phone to your laptop. However, don't be surprised if your account is shutdown and you are black listed by Verizon (go to Howard's Forum, its happened to several people). Oh, and even if you pay $60 for Verizon's data plan that lets you connect a phone to a laptop, you cannot use bluetooth: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1918150,00.as p

Here's the story about Dell and Alienware, since you seem to have missed that they're now the same company.

How did Jim Louderback get the Editor-in-Chief position, anyway?

I don't understand your surprise. This is the same magazine that gainfully employs John C. Dvorak! =)

I assume that he's trying to be funny here, but come on. How can anyone take this guy seriously?

and counting.
The projected release of Fedora 6 is six months, (citation).
By the time they release Vista, Fedora 7 will be almost out, and given all the exiting features listed here, many of which are already implemented in Fedora 5, along with the cost of Vista, 2007 might truly be the year of the Linux desktop.

But thats just my 2c

Well, most of us don't bother reading their article on their sits/in their magazines, so we wouldn't ever see them, much less have an opinion on them. Here's a better question for discussion: Would we find these authors so trollish if everything they wrote wasn't completely pulled out of their asses and wrong 99% of the time? I'm I glance over Dvorak's articles every once in a while, and so far the only thing intelligent he has said was on Web 2.0.

and I heard Doom 4 and other rehashed FPSs are going to be there, too! Yea!

The coalition against the Telcos is wide, and strong, and is both from the liberal and conservative end of the political spectrum. The only ones who really want this are the Telcos, the Cable providers, and their lobby firms, AND who they have paid off in Washington.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/

Coalition Sounds Off on Net Neutrality Legislation - 04.24.06
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1953085,00.as p

"Vint Cerf, so-called "father" of the Internet, is among the big names and organizations that have come together to create the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, which hosted a national conference call today.

Other members of the Coalition include Gun Owners of America, Craigslist.com, Public Knowledge, MoveOn.org, the American Library Association, Afro-Netizen.com, the Consumer Federation of America, the Consumers Union, and Free Press." ...and since this is an "old" article - more have signed on since it was published.

Call to all geeks... "if you are a geek, then do something about it"!
March on Washington. "We want freedom, kick them out"!

It is against the Verizon TOS to tether any EVDO phone for access without a broadband plan. It's ok with the x1 only phones, (710, etc), IIRC.

Whether you do it or not is entirely your decision, but people should not run out and buy an E815, razr, 8100, or 9800 for this express purpose without planning to spend a chunk of change.

They have introduced a plan that will allow you to tether for an additional $59 per month. Story here.

I use the E815 as well; I love the BT obex under linux.

Here is a better article with a picture of the phone, and the entire new line described. Plus, they are opening a store in Chicago. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1953830,00.as p

And believe it or not, Dvorak really did whine about System Idle Process hogging CPU time.

Love him or hate him, I found a few interesting things to think about in one of his recent commentaries http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1952995,00.as p
Summary: MS's biggest problem is IE and they should just dump it.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1869377,00.as p

There are many articles on this concept (see below):

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

With modern diesel cars and trucks it is actually possible to mix 50/50 petroleum diesel and vegetable oil. With the right equipment you can even run a diesel off used frying oil (alright you need to clean it) but it is basically free.

The only issue you may have is when the Government insists on you paying the diesel tax:

http://www.sovereignty.org.uk/features/eco/biofuel .html

In fact just do a Google search on "diesel cars" (refine if you wish) since there is a huge amount of reading on the subject of diesel and bio-diesel. In fact diesel cars are starting to become very popular in many countries, although the US and Australia are lagging behind but even there, slow and steady shifts are being made towards diesel cars. What slows down the purchase of diesel cars it the false perception that they are dirty, underpowered and more expensive. this is not true anymore, although before you rush out and get rid of your petrol driven car you should do a bit of homework.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1951524,00.as p
http://www.kirotv.com/consumer/8834497/detail.html

I have a feeling that things are going to get very interesting, when petroleum companies start to wake up to the potential loss of revenue if too many people purchase machines that can use cheap bio-fuel.

Dell already did.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1941376,00.as p

Didn't he just finish predicting that Apple would move to Windows?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1927885,00.as p

New Rule: If you're batting 0.000173 you can't be a pundit anymore.

OK, I really hate doing praising the guy at all, but comments like yours were the exact same response he recieved for this prediction. Not agreeing with this current prediction or saying he isn't a bit out there, but he isn't always wrong.

Dvorak wants Apple to open source the OS so that Microsoft's developers can steal some code for Windows.

Specifically, they can steal the code that gets rid of the "System Idle Process" that hogs the CPU on Windows.

After beating my head against a wall trying to convince people x10 was the right thing from a cost/value standpoint, I've finally seen a better solution by far than what is currently available. At a recent visit to Sprint/Nextel's office in Northern VA, I got to see a presentation of Motorola's wireless Home Automation solution that has similar benefits as Z-Wave as a pure wireless system while adding what I've seen as solving the biggest stumbling block in the business - the contoller.

Motorola allows its phone to be a controlling interface along with a web-PC interface as well which is a great way to connect to what you want to, when you want, where you want. They could use adding home phones to the system and tapping into a more open system (maybe an x10 converter box?), but frankly, having to mess with lighting remotes, other remotes AND a wireless phone just doesn't make much sense.

PC Mag posted this a while back: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1659672,00.as p and SmartHomeUSA is selling it now for a couple hundred bucks to set up. No good if you've already loaded up on x10 like I have, but a something to think about.

• 10. Mod +5 annoying
• 9. New features
• 8. Reasons to use Linux
• 7. Boycott RIAA
• 6. Slashdot dating handbook
• 5. Cowboy Neal vs Godzilla
• 4. Cringely
• 3. Dvorak
• 2. Portman and Hot Grits
• 1. Goatse.cxGoatse.cx

"Thanks to Mr. Jobs idiotic decision to convert the hardware to Intel CPU's AND enabling easy booting of Windows on Mac's using the new Bootcamp saoftware."

Jobs is facing up to the reality that his company has for many years been a failure when it comes to building microcomputers. Apple has painted itself into a corner with overpriced crippled computers. Cool-looking reliable machines that can hardly run anything: imagine if Lexus made the best cars in the world, but made them so they could only run on train-tracks and not roads. It is not sustainable, and it has been a long time since the last Microsoft bailout. They are finally doing what they should have done 20 years ago: change their strategy.

By making Mac's boot Windows, they have greatly increased the salability of Macs and have opened the market. No longer do Mac users have to put up with a meager software base.

What's different now? They've become a huge music company. That's where their bread and butter is; their future.
They no longer live or die by a barely-there microcomputer division. They no longer need bailouts from Microsoft just to keep limping along. They no longer have to cover up for useless machines with slick cool-looking cases.
In the mean time, the PC world lacks a strong premium PC brand. (Alienwere barely counts). There's a big hole for Apple to fill, and by morphing into a PC company, they have a good chance of filling it.

"Stupidist decision Apple ever made. It will destroy the company"

The Apple microcomputer division has been a dead end for years. It doesn't really matter what they do in this area: stick a fork in it it's done. However, by changing over to PC's, they might change that.

Read this column from two months ago:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1927885,00.as p

I was skeptical, until the boot camp news recently, which proved that this is happening.

But people have been predicting a switch for years. And Would anyone accept a bet on what a company will do in 5 years time? If you bet them that Apple will switch to Intel in the next year every year since rumours first started, you would be very very poor by now.

OMG, speaking of drinking the kool-aid, did you even READ his Apple/Intel switch argument?

First of all, you'll recall that the IBM -> Intel switch was necessitated by TIMING. Dvorak's article, here, was written in March of 03. There was no G5 then. In fact, it was announced in June '03.

Also, consider, that his ENTIRE ARGUMENT is built using Motorola's processors. Once the IBM 970 took over the entire lineup, 2004(re: previous link for source), his reasoning became invalid, no matter what outcome was observed. His problem was not with the PPC architecture, but rather their availability, a problem unique to Motorola. Apple's switch to Intel processors had more to do with power-consumption, and a shift towards laptops, which I notice Nostradamus neglects to mention... Dvorak might as well have said Apple will be switching to Intel because their current processors continue to generate excess peanut butter in their cases. He doesn't EVEN consider the third memeber of the PowerPC alliance, who, I might add was spanking serious tookus with their Power server architecture.

Dvorak gets no break, no slack. He proposes a dual-architecture chipset for backwards compatibility; I'm no programmer, but I'm pretty sure that's gotta be hella difficult to accomodate, if not impossible. He also advocated a switch to the Itanium processor. Now, I'm no expert, but if Apple moved to Intel to supply their laptops with plenty of powerful chips, and Dvorak recommends Itanium, why can't I FIND ANY.

Remember, "waiting until 2004 might be a bit risky," Dvorak's analysis: Comdex 2003. Right under the section marked "Timing is everything."

Now, I agree, Slashdot's readers, myself included, can sometimes get swept up in a tide of zealotry, however, if you're going MOD up someone ACTUALLY defending Dvorak, I highly recommend reading his work first. You don't want to find yourself in an awkward situation, because you weren't entirely sure what cause you were supporting...

You mean like the Mac switch to intel a year early, which all the Mac geeks killed him for?

Take a look at that prediction again.

It predicts that
- Apple will switch to Itanium
- Apple will ship dual-architecture Itanium-PowerPC machines
- The switch would happen sometime between March and September of 2004.

Even today, that article is ridiculously out-of-touch. Itanium? Dual-architecture machines? Nobody with a modicum of common sense would buy that.

No, his horrible reputation on Slashdot is from things like this.

Sorry, it was actually 480i instead of 420p, I mistated that, but you're right, still not full HD. I looked up the one I have (JVC AV32S776I) and most places are pricing it around $800-900. I got it on sale, but I didn't realise I got that good of a deal. But, there is also one place you can get the 30" I linked to after S&H for $630. http://shop.pcmag.com/pages/shop_product.aspx?sf=1 &productid=24575221&ZC=68123 I don't know that seller and they may have some additional catch, but $630 is supposedly the total after Tax and S&H.

I can't find the exact one I have, but here's a 30" 1080i for $525http://shop.pcmag.com/shop/product_specs/Toshi ba+30HF85+30+TV+Products+/24575221.aspx and a 420p as cheep as $325 http://shop.pcmag.com/shop/product_specs/Toshiba+3 2A35+32+TV+Products+/25711149.aspx Bull Shit That.

I can't find the exact one I have, but here's a 30" 1080i for $525http://shop.pcmag.com/shop/product_specs/Toshi ba+30HF85+30+TV+Products+/24575221.aspx and a 420p as cheep as $325 http://shop.pcmag.com/shop/product_specs/Toshiba+3 2A35+32+TV+Products+/25711149.aspx Bull Shit That.

The only reason for Apple not allowing XP booting would be if Apple were truly scared. If it thought that OS X wasn't up to snuff and the OS X applications (iLife, iWork et al) were lame, then it should shy away from Windows booting. Instead it is trusting its technology and giving its users more options.

Perhaps Dvorak was right and this is really just another step in the process of Apple gradually dumping OS.X for Windows Vista? Think about it, if Dvorak just blabbers on for long enough he has to come up with something that makes sense (as in the monkeys/typewriters/Shakespere-sonnet parable). He was right about the Intel switch so what we have to ask our selves is: What are the odds of Dvorak stumbling onto the truth about Apples plans twice in the same decade??

My next notebook will be MacBookPro and John Dvorak might be right!

Memmaker was only introduced very late, from DOS 6 onwards ... most of us go back long before that ... IIRC, prior to DOS 6, what became memmaker used to have another name and was sold as part of a commercial product, Microsoft just purchased the app, and renamed and rebranded it (like they've done with ... oh, just about everything they ever sold). It's likely the GP is thinking of the original app, not memmaker per se. (My memory is a little fuzzy though on all this so I may be mistaken but this is how I remember it.)

According to the test:
  http://www.pcmag.com/image_popup/0,1871,s=1565&iid =127601,00.asp

  -All other laptops used Core Duo at 2.0 Ghz
  -The only 2.16 showed N/A
  -And the difference is only 1 second in the test.

  So this test is inconclusive

A few years ago Turbo Tax came out with a version of their software with some nasty DRM/activation scheme, and was 'usable' on one machine only (you couldn't file or print out your taxes from both your desktop and laptop), and had a few other major gotcha's. I boycotted Turbo Tax after that and started using Tax Cut instead.

So does it filter out Rubens[?] Would Michelangelo's David be filtered out[?] How about anatomy/autopsy pictures?

To answer your questions: yes, yes, yes, and even pumpkins too!

"When there are too many porn images on a page, even the Google logo is blocked!"

That's a feature?

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,1205,l=&s= 26690&a=171720&po=6,00.asp

I guess you must only play your IPod through the standard hearing loss ear buds. But if you want to play the IPod downloaded music on other devices, and in other places, here are a few links where you can buy crap to do that.

The point that the French are making is consumers should not have to do this, and I for one agree, they shouldn't. That is just like MS trying to foist the WMA crap on us, and then only provide a one way convertor, MP3 to WMA of course.

Can you imagine what it would be like if the TV signals were like the IPod, with no government regulated mandates and standards. HD TV would never get off the ground, and the sets would still cost $20K, much like the IPod. And no long term assurance that it will still be around tomorrow.

http://ipod.hackaday.com/
http://www.tomdownload.com/dvd_software/super_dvd_ to_ipod_converter.htm
http://www.m2convert.com/ipod-converter.htm
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1866732,00.as p

It should be noted here that Apple have allready pulled the ipod from france due to decibel limits.

However, Apple almost immediately surrendered, limiting the decibels with a firmware update so they could get the French market back again.

There's at least one. It uses the same OmniMount bracket that a plasma or LCD of similar size would use.

Has Adobe ever given an official position about porting to Linux?

I agree, there have been several like it on market, most noticeably Sony VAIO VGN-U750P and Toshiba Libretto (since 1996!).

Here's a review of Toshiba Libretto (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1788009,00.a sp which is what I'd buy if it didn't cost U$ 2000.

If the Microsoft offerings come with a $ 500 price tag AND a decent keyboard I'd consider them.

I have a Fujitsu Lifebook P1000. It's getting a bit long in the tooth (Transmeta Crusoe), but it's light, I get 4-5hrs life out of it with the extended battery, it has a real keyboard and a good screen. I can even wirelessly contect to the internet with it. Oh, and yes, it runs Linux. When it came out, it was impressive.

What are MS playing at? This Origami thing wouldn't have been all that impressive 3 or 4 years ago. Now it looks like a joke!

From this article in PC Mag, the time frame looks like 2007.

Quote:
"Additionally, DirecTV will start providing local HD channels beginning with twelve of the largest television markets by the end of the year, and expanding to nationwide by 2007. DirecTV's aggressive push to deliver MPEG-4 HD video appears to mirror what Apple has managed to with MPEG-4 audio (AAC)--drive consumer demand and expectations."

What? 24" is nothing. How about a Dell 30" Widescreen LCD?

Funny how that you can look at the "specs", yet if you go HEAR it, it sounds great.

PC Magazine gave it 4.5 stars. I guess they were not snickering huh?

oh, pleez...I've been running high school courses running linux exclusively for more than 4 years now. I've forgotten what windows looks like! I enjoy eating my lunch while the windoze users are running around trying to deal with the latest plethora of windows problems.

As for elementary schools, there are lots using all kinds of open source materials, programs, etc.

Check out places like:

http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/

Tuxpaint is designed as an elementary school children paint program. They also have tux math and tux type, which I have found to be excellent programs for elementary level school children.

Google for additional info such as: "linux school programs" etc. and you'll find out that there are thousands of schools using linux already.

And here's a link to a massive roll out of 300,000 linux computers! The entire state of Indiana is moving all of the student computers to linux in every high school!
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1844695,00.as p

And then there is the leadership by schools in the Extramadura region of Spain:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.12/view.html ?pg=4?tw=wn_tophead_3

And so on and so on.

Since you are considering Ubuntu, you might want to look at Edubuntu:
http://www.edubuntu.org/

Reminds me of this article: "It's the Games, Stupid!"