The report "Linux Usability Study" presents the results of a large-scale Usability Study which was conducted in Summer 2003 by the Berlin based relevantive AG. The study deals with the question of how usable desktop applications are on Linux, with a strong focus on the usage in companies and public administrations. Due to the fact that there are no publicly available studies on this subject, the intention is to provide an additional basis for decision-makers who plan, intent or are in the process of migrating to Linux on desktop. The study is built on a task based set of usability tests, where 60 test participants performed typical office tasks on a Linux system. A further group of 20 users performed the identical tasks on a Windows XP system. The participants had no prior experience with the tested systems. The test system based on SuSE 8.2 and KDE 3.1.2 and was configured in close cooperation with basyskom, a Darmstadt based Linux consulting company. The configurations followed basic usability guidelines. All results and statements in this study are related to this preconfigured system. Main results: The usability of Linux as a desktop system has been experienced as nearly equal to Windows XP. The performance (time required to complete a task) was in average only little behind Windows XP. A couple of tasks were even easier and faster to solve on Linux, many applications were rated better by the participants than their equivalents on Windows XP. The majority of the test participants enjoyed working with the Linux system and estimated that they need a maximum of one week to acquire their previous level of competence on this system. It is therefore to conclude that in the course of a migration to Linux a positive acceptance by the users / employees can be expected. It is the strong configurability of Linux / KDE that enables the design of a tailor-made system which is adapting to the requirements of the users in companies and public administrations. The study also shows significant problems that are connected with Linux as a desktop system. This does mainly concern poor wording of programs and interfaces, partly missing clarity and structure of the desktop interface as well as the menus, and poor system feedback. These problems are identified, documented by examples, and their consequences are analyzed with respect to the user performance and experience.
"We believe the evidence will ultimately show that there was no infringement of any kind, and that the accused feature in our browser technology was developed by our own engineers based on preexisting Microsoft technology."
Correct me if I am wrong, but how does this justify their position? Developing a technology for which there is a pre-existing patent still results in patent infringement right? So what's their point? If they can somehow prove that they developed the technology WITHOUT having any knowledge of the patent, can they go scot free?
And pray, how do you think one person one vote is enforced right now?...The Voting machines are intended to register votes, not verify people...WAY Wrong Analogy
Physicists in the US have taken another important step towards making a quantum computer. Duncan Steel of the University of Michigan and co-workers have created a logic gate using two electron-hole pairs - also known as "excitons" - in a quantum dot (X Li et al. 2003 Science 301 809).
Classical computers deal with binary logic and the bits being processed must be either "0" or "1". Quantum computers, on the other hand, exploit the ability of quantum particles to be in two or more states at the same time. A quantum bit or "qubit" can therefore be "0" or "1" or any combination of the two. This means that a quantum computer could, in principle, outperform a classical computer for certain tasks. However, all the quantum computers demonstrated so far have only contained a handful of qubits.
Although qubits have been made with trapped photons, atoms and ions, it is generally thought that it should be easier to build working devices with solid-state systems. Several teams have made significant progress with the superconducting approach to solid-state quantum computing. Now Steel and co-workers at Michigan, Michigan State, the Naval Research Laboratory and the University of California at San Diego have demonstrated the first all-optical quantum gate in a semiconductor quantum dot.
Exciton transitions
Steel and co-workers grew a thin gallium arsenide layer 4.2 nm thick between two 25 nm aluminium gallium arsenide barriers to make a quantum dot. Electrons are trapped in the dot because the gallium arsenide layer has a smaller energy band-gap than the surrounding material. When excited by light, electrons from the valence band in the dot move to higher energy levels. The excited electron and the 'hole' it leaves behind combine to form an exciton. The system has four states: a ground state containing two unexcited electrons; two states containing one exciton; and a state containing two excitons (see figure). The two single-exciton states can be distinguished from each other because the excitons have different polarizations.
The researchers showed that they can drive Rabi oscillations between the ground state and the one-exciton states, and also between the one-exciton states and the biexciton state, with lasers. In particular they showed that the quantum-dot system behaves like a controlled-NOT gate in which the value of one qubit is reversed (the NOT operation) if - and only if - the value of the other qubit is 1.
Although it will not be possible to scale up the system, the group says that many of the ideas and techniques they have developed could be useful in other approaches to quantum computing based on the optical control of electron-spin qubits in quantum dots.
Mod the parent up. I live in Japan and KNOW that this hits home. The Japanese goverment has been suspiciously lax in pursuing enactment of Child Porn laws (Cyber or otherwise) ispite of heavy pressure from US and many European countries. I would say that Japan and Thailand are responsible for most of the Child porn being generated worldwide.
gDesklets provides an advanced architecture for desktop applets - tiny displays sitting on your desktop in a symbiotic relationship of eye candy and usefulness. Populate your desktop with status meters, icon bars, weather sensors, news tickers... whatever you can imagine! Virtually anything is possible and maybe even available some day.
The system consists of three parts: the gDesklets core (a daemon running in the background), the Sensors (providing data and processing user actions), and the Displays (what you will see on the screen). New Displays can be put together by simply composing widgets and Sensors in a XML file. Advanced users may also create new Sensors easily.
As of now, Sensors are restricted to Python modules, but we are planning to extend this to scripting languages like Perl and Ruby, and to C as well.
You can get gDesklets from: www.pycage.de/software_gdesklets.html
Which gadgets can unlock the next technological revolutions? What is the next big thing?
To propose answers to this question, the sixteen nations of the European Space Agency commissioned a project called "Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction for Space Applications" (ITSF). Their results were co-published with two supervisory foundations, the Swiss museum Maison d'Ailleurs and the astronautical society, or OURS Foundation. One aim was to discover what their study called the facts of 'hard science-fiction': literature that uses either established or carefully extrapolated science as its backbone.
As Caltech physicist, author and visiting scholar for NASA's Exobiology Center, David Brin, described in his PBS interview for the special, Closer To Truth: "perhaps an alternative name could have been 'speculative history' because [hard science-fiction authors] deal in different pasts, alternate presents, extension of the human drama into the future...Einstein used the word gedanken experiment and he coined it, he said that just sitting on a streetcar in Bern, leaving the clock tower and imagining he was riding on a beam of light, was 50% of the work [of relativity]. Augmented Science: Galileo's Ship The history of drawing inspiration from speculative literature is deep with success stories.
As early as 1632, to advocate for his classical principle of relativity, Galileo used a fictional character called Salviati who while locked in a closed room below a ship deck, observes a small fish tank which remains quiescent and undisturbed unless the ship accelerates. In dialogue format, he answers all the common scientific arguments against the idea that the earth moves.
Predating lunar travel classics by H.G. Wells and Jules Verne were Cyrano de Bergerac's Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1656), space travel in Voltaire's Micromégas (1752), and alien cultures in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). Even as the liquid-propelled rockets were first being tested by Robert Goddard in the 1920's, technical proposals had already appeared for planetary landers (1928) and aerodynamically-stabilized rocket fins (1929).
Perhaps the most detailed and famous publication was Sir Arthur C. Clarke's 1945 paper, "Can Rocket Stations Give World-wide Radio Coverage?", that laid down the principles of modern satellite communications and geostationary orbits [Wireless World, October 1945].
A half-century later, even a few hours of interruption in this global network today would seem catastrophic: crippled health care delivery, financial disruption including failed automated teller machines and credit card validations, grounded travellers for lack of airline weather tracking, and global TV blackouts. But in 1945, the idea of geostationary satellites had a different kind of reception, as Clarke wrote: "Many may consider the solution proposed [for extra-terrestrial relay services] too far-fetched to be taken seriously. Such an attitude is unreasonable, as everything envisaged here is a logical extension of developments in the last ten years..."
The rocks inside a crater on the Asteroid Eros. Numerous small impacts on the asteroid show brown boulders visible interior to the less exposed (white) lip of the crater. False-color for emphasis. Credit: NEAR Project, JHU APL, NASA
The European space study, appropriately timed for Clarke's "Space Odyssey" series, completed its first project phase in 2001. Altogether fifty fact sheets and technical dossiers were published to catalog the inventions that should be made real. In addition, more than two hundred technologies were outlined and graded for future feasibility studies. Ranging from astrobiology to propulsion, their complete 'what-if' list is available in broad categories online. Examples Pushing the Envelope One mission that has been described in the ESA study is soon to become closer to fact: a fantastic mission to a comet. Seventeen years ago, astrobiologist David Brin's "Heart of the Comet" [1
I am an Indian developer....The place you refer to is Nehru Place in New Delhi and it is now the World's largest gray market for computer software. You can buy not only MS but ANY software that you want over there. Hell, I know of a guy who even sells SAP Modules in Nehru Place. Piracy in India is impartial to MS. The pirates pirate all software....
Ot ask them a dumb question like pet's name and hash the answer as well. to compare it later. If he gets thru, show, not mail him a newly generated pass.(Over SSL, Ha!)
Slashdot Mirror
...dope testing for SAT's and other qualifying exams was announced today.
The report "Linux Usability Study" presents the results of a large-scale Usability Study which was conducted in Summer 2003 by the Berlin based relevantive AG.
The study deals with the question of how usable desktop applications are on Linux, with a strong focus on the usage in companies and public administrations. Due to the fact that there are no publicly available studies on this subject, the intention is to provide an additional basis for decision-makers who plan, intent or are in the process of migrating to Linux on desktop.
The study is built on a task based set of usability tests, where 60 test participants performed typical office tasks on a Linux system. A further group of 20 users performed the identical tasks on a Windows XP system. The participants had no prior experience with the tested systems.
The test system based on SuSE 8.2 and KDE 3.1.2 and was configured in close cooperation with basyskom, a Darmstadt based Linux consulting company. The configurations followed basic usability guidelines. All results and statements in this study are related to this preconfigured system.
Main results:
The usability of Linux as a desktop system has been experienced as nearly equal to Windows XP. The performance (time required to complete a task) was in average only little behind Windows XP. A couple of tasks were even easier and faster to solve on Linux, many applications were rated better by the participants than their equivalents on Windows XP.
The majority of the test participants enjoyed working with the Linux system and estimated that they need a maximum of one week to acquire their previous level of competence on this system. It is therefore to conclude that in the course of a migration to Linux a positive acceptance by the users / employees can be expected.
It is the strong configurability of Linux / KDE that enables the design of a tailor-made system which is adapting to the requirements of the users in companies and public administrations.
The study also shows significant problems that are connected with Linux as a desktop system. This does mainly concern poor wording of programs and interfaces, partly missing clarity and structure of the desktop interface as well as the menus, and poor system feedback.
These problems are identified, documented by examples, and their consequences are analyzed with respect to the user performance and experience.
"my miniature pinscher jumped on my back and woke me up"
A Horny dog is not necessarily predicting an earthquake
"We believe the evidence will ultimately show that there was no infringement of any kind, and that the accused feature in our browser technology was developed by our own engineers based on preexisting Microsoft technology."
Correct me if I am wrong, but how does this justify their position? Developing a technology for which there is a pre-existing patent still results in patent infringement right? So what's their point? If they can somehow prove that they developed the technology WITHOUT having any knowledge of the patent, can they go scot free?
You are Sorry, and I am sorry...
And pray, how do you think one person one vote is enforced right now?...The Voting machines are intended to register votes, not verify people...WAY Wrong Analogy
Excellent point...You have made me see it in a new light...
Physicists in the US have taken another important step towards making a quantum computer. Duncan Steel of the University of Michigan and co-workers have created a logic gate using two electron-hole pairs - also known as "excitons" - in a quantum dot (X Li et al. 2003 Science 301 809).
Classical computers deal with binary logic and the bits being processed must be either "0" or "1". Quantum computers, on the other hand, exploit the ability of quantum particles to be in two or more states at the same time. A quantum bit or "qubit" can therefore be "0" or "1" or any combination of the two. This means that a quantum computer could, in principle, outperform a classical computer for certain tasks. However, all the quantum computers demonstrated so far have only contained a handful of qubits.
Although qubits have been made with trapped photons, atoms and ions, it is generally thought that it should be easier to build working devices with solid-state systems. Several teams have made significant progress with the superconducting approach to solid-state quantum computing. Now Steel and co-workers at Michigan, Michigan State, the Naval Research Laboratory and the University of California at San Diego have demonstrated the first all-optical quantum gate in a semiconductor quantum dot.
Exciton transitions
Steel and co-workers grew a thin gallium arsenide layer 4.2 nm thick between two 25 nm aluminium gallium arsenide barriers to make a quantum dot. Electrons are trapped in the dot because the gallium arsenide layer has a smaller energy band-gap than the surrounding material. When excited by light, electrons from the valence band in the dot move to higher energy levels. The excited electron and the 'hole' it leaves behind combine to form an exciton. The system has four states: a ground state containing two unexcited electrons; two states containing one exciton; and a state containing two excitons (see figure). The two single-exciton states can be distinguished from each other because the excitons have different polarizations.
The researchers showed that they can drive Rabi oscillations between the ground state and the one-exciton states, and also between the one-exciton states and the biexciton state, with lasers. In particular they showed that the quantum-dot system behaves like a controlled-NOT gate in which the value of one qubit is reversed (the NOT operation) if - and only if - the value of the other qubit is 1.
Although it will not be possible to scale up the system, the group says that many of the ideas and techniques they have developed could be useful in other approaches to quantum computing based on the optical control of electron-spin qubits in quantum dots.
Mod the parent up. I live in Japan and KNOW that this hits home. The Japanese goverment has been suspiciously lax in pursuing enactment of Child Porn laws (Cyber or otherwise) ispite of heavy pressure from US and many European countries. I would say that Japan and Thailand are responsible for most of the Child porn being generated worldwide.
gDesklets provides an advanced architecture for desktop applets - tiny displays sitting on your desktop in a symbiotic relationship of eye candy and usefulness.
Populate your desktop with status meters, icon bars, weather sensors, news tickers... whatever you can imagine! Virtually anything is possible and maybe even available some day.
The system consists of three parts: the gDesklets core (a daemon running in the background), the Sensors (providing data and processing user actions), and the Displays (what you will see on the screen).
New Displays can be put together by simply composing widgets and Sensors in a XML file. Advanced users may also create new Sensors easily.
As of now, Sensors are restricted to Python modules, but we are planning to extend this to scripting languages like Perl and Ruby, and to C as well.
You can get gDesklets from: www.pycage.de/software_gdesklets.html
Have fun!
Martin Grimme
Christian Meyer
Jesse Andrews
Half of the males would be in jail if such a law existed....
Which gadgets can unlock the next technological revolutions? What is the next big thing?
To propose answers to this question, the sixteen nations of the European Space Agency commissioned a project called "Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction for Space Applications" (ITSF). Their results were co-published with two supervisory foundations, the Swiss museum Maison d'Ailleurs and the astronautical society, or OURS Foundation. One aim was to discover what their study called the facts of 'hard science-fiction': literature that uses either established or carefully extrapolated science as its backbone.
As Caltech physicist, author and visiting scholar for NASA's Exobiology Center, David Brin, described in his PBS interview for the special, Closer To Truth: "perhaps an alternative name could have been 'speculative history' because [hard science-fiction authors] deal in different pasts, alternate presents, extension of the human drama into the future...Einstein used the word gedanken experiment and he coined it, he said that just sitting on a streetcar in Bern, leaving the clock tower and imagining he was riding on a beam of light, was 50% of the work [of relativity].
Augmented Science: Galileo's Ship
The history of drawing inspiration from speculative literature is deep with success stories.
As early as 1632, to advocate for his classical principle of relativity, Galileo used a fictional character called Salviati who while locked in a closed room below a ship deck, observes a small fish tank which remains quiescent and undisturbed unless the ship accelerates. In dialogue format, he answers all the common scientific arguments against the idea that the earth moves.
Predating lunar travel classics by H.G. Wells and Jules Verne were Cyrano de Bergerac's Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1656), space travel in Voltaire's Micromégas (1752), and alien cultures in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). Even as the liquid-propelled rockets were first being tested by Robert Goddard in the 1920's, technical proposals had already appeared for planetary landers (1928) and aerodynamically-stabilized rocket fins (1929).
Perhaps the most detailed and famous publication was Sir Arthur C. Clarke's 1945 paper, "Can Rocket Stations Give World-wide Radio Coverage?", that laid down the principles of modern satellite communications and geostationary orbits [Wireless World, October 1945].
A half-century later, even a few hours of interruption in this global network today would seem catastrophic: crippled health care delivery, financial disruption including failed automated teller machines and credit card validations, grounded travellers for lack of airline weather tracking, and global TV blackouts. But in 1945, the idea of geostationary satellites had a different kind of reception, as Clarke wrote: "Many may consider the solution proposed [for extra-terrestrial relay services] too far-fetched to be taken seriously. Such an attitude is unreasonable, as everything envisaged here is a logical extension of developments in the last ten years..."
The rocks inside a crater on the Asteroid Eros. Numerous small impacts on the asteroid show brown boulders visible interior to the less exposed (white) lip of the crater. False-color for emphasis. Credit: NEAR Project, JHU APL, NASA
The European space study, appropriately timed for Clarke's "Space Odyssey" series, completed its first project phase in 2001. Altogether fifty fact sheets and technical dossiers were published to catalog the inventions that should be made real. In addition, more than two hundred technologies were outlined and graded for future feasibility studies. Ranging from astrobiology to propulsion, their complete 'what-if' list is available in broad categories online.
Examples Pushing the Envelope
One mission that has been described in the ESA study is soon to become closer to fact: a fantastic mission to a comet. Seventeen years ago, astrobiologist David Brin's "Heart of the Comet" [1
Taco you jerk....Don't do this to me. Now I don;t know if I should believe this or not.
AAAARGH?!?!??!?!
Neutral coverage my Ass. They are slanted in quite the other direction.Check this link
I Heard That! Meet me tomorrow.
Carly
I pay 4200 Yen($35 US) for a 12 MBPS ADSL connection from Yahoo Broadband....and there is no minimum contract...
I am an Indian developer....The place you refer to is Nehru Place in New Delhi and it is now the World's largest gray market for computer software. You can buy not only MS but ANY software that you want over there. Hell, I know of a guy who even sells SAP Modules in Nehru Place. Piracy in India is impartial to MS. The pirates pirate all software....
You do realize that not many people have read the book.
Why is everything getting slashdotted today???
Where is a MOD point when I need one...MOD THIS UP
Ever tried iPlanet..I will explain the problems once my head heals from banging against the monitor....
It is Viagra.
Fucking bullshit and a very lame try bastard. Put any page's name in front of @ and it will show up. Son of a whore.
Ot ask them a dumb question like pet's name and hash the answer as well. to compare it later. If he gets thru, show, not mail him a newly generated pass.(Over SSL, Ha!)
You can always assign new passwords to the users and hash them for storage.Then send the new pass to the users through mail.Look at yahoo