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User: SirTalon42

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  1. Re:Vs. Cygwin on A Virtualized Linux System For Windows · · Score: 1

    Yes, it is a potential replacement. It should have far better compatibility (as the apps would be running in their native environment, not a compatibility layer), but it might (maybe) be slower. Last time I tried Cygwin, though, it had HORRIBLE data transfer rates (which caused ClamWin to be PAINFULLY slow), so it's possible the coLinux solution is simply faster (depending on how the distro is setup).

  2. Re:mod me down, but picking just one would be grea on Moving Toward a Single Linux UI? · · Score: 3, Informative

    4.0.4 adding support for multiple panels, I believe. Also, each release has added some more configuration options (though most are going into 4.1).

    I believe having 2 major environments is best. People always have disagreements on how things should be done, with two major environments it's easier to try your different options, and often times one will win (like DBUS being based on DCOP), or things where people don't really disagree on anything a single standard is formed (icon theme naming). A major rearchitecturing like KDE4 probably wouldn't have been easy to convince people to attempt if everything relied on it. During KDE4.0's development KDE 3.5 was still being developed in a mostly bugfix mode, but it'd likely have caused a fork with a single environment which might have taken years to end (look how long GTK 1 apps have stuck around... XMMS was only recently killed off).

    Now that it's starting to appear like the major rearchitecturing of KDE4 is paying off, the Gnome/GTK camp have begun discussing a GTK3 that breaks binary compatibility. The Gnome camp and the KDE camp are constantly competing with each other, yet at the same time working together (generally under the banner of FreeDesktop.Org). It's really the best of both worlds, as they try to one-up each other, but there's no problem for a dev from one camp to go up to a dev in the other and ask about how they implemented something, or how they worked around certain problems with the implementation. A monopoly is a bad thing, regardless of whether it's a giant corporation behind it, or a free software project (this is one of my criticisms with Mozilla... they've mostly had a monopoly on the Linux desktop so have been prone to neglect it... now with WebKit becoming very popular people have a choice and Mozilla has proper motivation to improve Gecko's modularity and Firefox's integration and performance).

  3. Re:From TFA ... page/slide 8 ... on Moving Toward a Single Linux UI? · · Score: 1

    He wasn't talking about a package manager, he was talking about Compiz/Beryl packages that were integrated for Mandriva/Ubuntu.

  4. Re:UI choice on Moving Toward a Single Linux UI? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >My main bone of contention with X11 is that it's not being developed seriously as a GUI interface for modern machines.

    Ever heard of XCB (replaces Xlib and is asynchronous to make multithreading easier, and provides an xlib implementation on top of XCB to ease porting), Gallium3D (a new graphics stack that'll be easier to port and work much more like modern video cards, includes software fallbacks for everything), Composite (which should make it easy to make a panning window manager), XRandR 1.2 (greatly improved the hotplug-ability of X), Glucose (experiment to attempt to accelerate X rendering operations using X11, haven't heard much from this one lately), and several other projects?

    Basically there is work going on in Xorg that you're wanting, it just takes time (thanks to the state of massive bitrot it'd developed into during the age of XFree). Many of the projects (like Composite, XCB, XRandR, and AIGLX) are just becoming mature (look at all the craze over compiz/beryl/compizfusion thanks to Composite+AIGLX), but the more fundamental changes need more time (like Gallium3D and the TTM Memeory Manager for video cards) before people can really see the fruits of their labor, and for others no one will really notice the new abilities until some crafty developer finds some way to do something nifty with them (like XCB).

  5. Re:Block DirectX on HP Unveils Small Commercial Linux Laptop · · Score: 1

    Cause no games use OpenGL?

    And don't forget, the graphics in this machine is probably so crappy that 90% of the (newer) games out there couldn't run. Of course, that wouldn't stop the kids from running something, like, the old versions of Doom or Quake or even UT. Those games have quite low requirements, and can easily be fit on tiny USB dongles and don't have copy protection schemes that'd make that a pita.

  6. Re:Well, it depends on Are Optional Ads Worth The Trouble? · · Score: 1

    Because theres a lot of people that don't care enough to adjust the setting. They think they'll have more people leaving it on than people going out of their way to turn it on.

  7. Re:Truecrypt on Fingerprint-Protected USB Sticks Cracked · · Score: 1

    [quote]When I plug it into another computer, the autostart popup comes on the screen to mount the volume, easy enough, and as almost everyone run their windows as administrator, no problem to run Truecrypt.
      It works also on Linux and OSX.

      And if someone steal it, good luck finding the key![/quote]

    If someone knows a machine you'll be sticking it into at some time, they could simply get there before you and put a few simple tools on it to monitor what happens, and either flat out copy the encrypted partition's contents the moment you mount it (getting the unencrypted version of everything), or copy the encrypted partition + passphrase + optional keyfile. Hell, they could do both.

    Using a hidden partition wouldn't help as well. The moment it's mounted the contents can be copied just the same. You really don't have any security when you access encrypted data on a machine that isn't controlled exclusively by people you trust.

  8. Re:duplicate comments up the wazoo?? on Fingerprint-Protected USB Sticks Cracked · · Score: 1

    Welcome to Slashdot. If you want original, informative, interesting, or insightful discussion, this place isn't for you.

  9. Re:Again? on $5 Per Month Fee Proposed For Legal Music P2P · · Score: 1

    If you're in the US (and if my memory is working correctly, Canada) you ARE paying a RIAA tax on every blank CD you purchase (and probably on DVDs).

  10. Re:Probably right on this one... on NVIDIA Doubts Ray Tracing Is the Future of Games · · Score: 1

    I think they need to be working more on the physics of the environment than making it all look pretty. Hardware like the PhysX card are a step in the right direction and I would like to see that trend continue. FYI, nVidia bought the company that makes the PhysX cards and said they plan to add Physics supports via a driver update to all 8xxx series cards (so you can use your GeForce 8xxx as a PhysX card as well as a video card). It'll probably be several generations of game engines before any REALLY take advantage of technology like that, though.
  11. Re:Linus has already changed his mind on Linus Denounces NDISWrapper, Denies It GPL Status · · Score: 4, Informative

    Linus isn't saying you can't use ndiswarapper. What'll happen, though, is when you report a bug they'll see your kernel has been tainted by a random binary blob they can't touch, and your bug report will be much less useful to them and it'll probably be marked as being much lower priority unless it can be confirmed that the binary blob isn't causing the problems (i.e. re-create the problem without the blob, either by not loading the module or from another machine without the module to begin with).

    Again, no ones complaining that you're using it to load non-GPL code.

  12. Re:How about a software solution? on Cracking a Crypto Hard Drive Case · · Score: 2, Informative

    Trust Crypt uses a kernel module (entirely software solution). It isn't a USB device.

  13. Re:Nice move, SUN -now port it to Solaris. on Sun Snags Open Source Virtualization Company, Innotek · · Score: 1

    Theres supposed to be a beta (somewhere) for FreeBSD.

  14. Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation on Nokia Buys Trolltech · · Score: 1

    SLES (the one your link is talking about) isn't really a major distro. It's based on OpenSUSE, which doesn't default to GNOME, which is.

  15. Re:Dangerous precedent on Ford Claims Ownership Of Your Pictures · · Score: 1

    If you're talking about the same sculpture I'm think about, it was also funded by the city government to have it put up!

  16. Re:Common Sense Should Prevent This on Researchers Say Wi-Fi Virus Outbreak Possible · · Score: 1

    Why is it ineffective? Is there some way to spoof a MAC Address? Yes, lots of hardware (especially routers) set their MAC Address in software.

    If so, how could someone get the MAC address of another computer they do not have physical access to? MAC Addresses are constantly being broadcast, it'd be trivial to catch one.
  17. Re:Retarded on Researchers Say Wi-Fi Virus Outbreak Possible · · Score: 1

    If it works (most of the times), attempt to overwrite the firmware And here you hit his point A. The worm would have be incredibly complex to run on a wide variety of architectures and operating systems, and INCLUDE all those operating systems in the firmware image it uploads to the router...
  18. Re:root listens to audio? on Multiple FLAC Vulnerabilities Affect Every OS · · Score: 0, Troll

    sudo wouldn't be any more immune to the keystrokes being logged than su.

  19. Re:Your company/family/school on Hackers Use Banner Ads on Major Sites to Hijack Your PC · · Score: 1

    Opera has had a built in AdBlock for quite a while now (which is easier to use IMO, right mouse click on the page, block content, then click on all the ads you see then done). So does Konqueror and a lot of other free (and Free) browsers. Firefox is probably one of the few that doesn't...

  20. Re:Why not boycott Gnome? Who needs it? on GNOME Foundation Helping OOXML? · · Score: 1

    Or Sun with OpenOffice.org.

  21. Re:So spoof IP of botnet IRC server and it suicide on Storm Worm Strikes Back at Security Pros · · Score: 1

    Storm doesn't use an IRC server, or any centralized server in the traditional sense. It uses fast flux, the 'central servers' are always in flux.

  22. Re:30 Watts? WTF? on Ubuntu's Power Consumption Tested · · Score: 1

    Mine uses 28-30 watts while idle. Your screen size and other things will make a huge impact on how much power is consumed (I have a big 17 inch laptop screen... I also only get about 1 1/2 hours battery life, even with wireless off).

  23. Re:Snazzy effects on Ubuntu's Power Consumption Tested · · Score: 1

    Compiz prevents the GPU from ever going into any power savings state. Thats a current limitation with all the drivers. The problem arises because whenever theres any 3D visuals being used, all power savings features are disabled for maximum performance.

    Sure compiz is causing less heat from the CPU, but it's causing far more from the GPU because of the (current) limitations. Also compiz indeed doesn't work very well on a LOT of pieces of hardware (though, I have a good feeling that by the time the next major release of Ubuntu would have come out that would have changed, with possibly only nvidia hardware being the only ones that won't work it out of the box)

  24. Re:Linux but no Mac? on Unreal Tournament 3 Performance Revealed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sounds like you didn't buy UT2004. They did a great job of packaging it, having a nice GUI installer, and quite stable (including supporting installing it for just the current user or system wide).

  25. Re: Ban Roland on Virtual Robots Fooled By Visual Illusions · · Score: 1

    He USED TO link to his blog as the article links in his text, which had ads. Now he links directly to the articles he talks about in the /. summary, and his name's link is no_follow (I think).

    Pretty sure the Roland hate is from what used to happen and not anything he does now (AFAIK).