Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon
Join Dr. Bill as he examines the wild and wacky world of the web, computers, and all things geeky! Hot Tech Tips, Tech News, and Geek Culture are examined… with plenty of good humor as well!
Dr. Bill pontificates on all things technical!
A Linux that has as its goals:
1. Bring Linux to the “masses”
2. Absolutely NoConfig (ANB)
3. User-friendly
4. Eye-catching
5. “Vista”-like
The screenshot here makes it look cool. It is based on Fedora… lot’s of eye candy… it is interesting! We’ll see if it catches on. Being like Vista is not a big deal for me, but for those trying to “win over” the masses, it could be a winner!
Wow! Fifty years ago TODAY the Sputnik satellite was launched by the Soviet Union, thus starting the “Space Race!” It also fueled the explosion in science fiction and all things geeky! A big day for a science nut, sci fi nut, and Star Trek fan like myself! Here’s to “Sport-nik!” (Shameless reference to the “Do the Cosmonaut-y” video!) Who would have thought that a basketball sized ball that beeped would lead to so much!
Well, the operating system itself is not impressive… what do you expect?
Windows Vista SP1 beta lacks ‘wow’
“If you’ve been waiting for Windows Vista SP1 to come out before you make the leap to the new operating system, don’t, says Microsoft. Microsoft’s Pete McKiernan, a senior product manager for Windows, told CNET News.com that one of the purposes of a service pack is to include all the patches that have been released in one package. Windows Vista SP1 will have that, but little else for the home user. Unlike the buzz surrounding Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista SP1 won’t include a new version of Internet Explorer, and won’t include any new features that are considered must haves. Most of the enhancements within Windows Vista SP1 are under the hood and for enterprise customers. In short, Windows Vista SP1 lacks ‘wow.’ Currently, Microsoft is beta-testing the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 on about 12,000 machines worldwide. As the beta continues, more users will be invited, but the numbers will not match the estimated 5 million that tried the operating system prior to RTM (release to manufacturing) last summer.”
Wow! You have to click on the link below and check out the photos of this “model rocket!” It is a real 21 foot replica of the Star Wars X-Wing ship… and it really flies! Zowie!
“Andy Woerner and his crazy rocketeer friends have built a 21-foot long X-Wing model that can actually fly. Yes, this is a real X-Wing powered by four solid-fuel rocket engines complete with radio-controlled moving wings. It blasts off in California next week, and we talked with Andy about the project, and how they expect it will do.”
Fifteen days and counting until Ubuntu 7.10 is out! And, now you watch the clock “tick by” everyday on the sidebar (to the right in the light blue area, near the bottom) on the first page of the web site… right here! Stay tuned!
Yep… Yahoo is phasing out it’s podcast directory. Not that it has been very good.
Yahoo to Stop Podcasts, Unlimited Music’s Future in Doubt
“In a banner along the top of its Web page, Yahoo notified users of its podcast service today that it will be shutting down that service on October 31. This as TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington discovered the company has scheduled a priority meeting of its senior executives, including CEO Jerry Yang and President Susan Decker, for tomorrow morning. This afternoon, Yahoo felt the need to prepare customers – and perhaps investors – for tomorrow’s news, by giving it the best spin possible early on. ‘Today we’re planning some changes that also have our user and customer experiences in mind,’ reads a message on Yahoo’s corporate blog from entertainment and video head Vince Broady, entitled, ‘Finding Focus in Hollywood.’ ‘We are streamlining the structure of one portion of our Santa Monica presence – our entertainment division – with a vision of offering a more integrated entertainment experience. That means we’ll be creating more synergies between our music, games, movies, TV, and omg! properties, making them more personal and engaging for entertainment hounds.'”
Is Vista catching on? Apparently not! Microsoft has been pressured into continuing to sell Windows XP!
Five More Months Tacked Onto XP Availability Roadmap
“Apparently bending to pressure from partner OEMs who continue to report customers continuing to demand Windows XP, Microsoft decided this morning to extend the availability of the older operating system series to the retail channel and to partners from January to June 2008, as it maintains availability to system builders clear through to January 2009. The move comes several months after Dell reported it would continue offering Windows XP as an option for its systems as long as it could. However, another possible contributing factor could be the company’s plan for XP Service Pack 3. A check of the company’s service pack roadmap today shows the company has only tentative faith in its ability to produce SP3 by as late as next June.”
The smiley face “emoticon” is twenty five years old. Wow! Does everything have a “birthday” these days?
“Another milestone of online communications has been reached. The smiley turns 25, according to Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman who says he was the first to use three keystrokes. ‘Language experts say the smiley face and other emotional icons, known as emoticons, have given people a concise way in e-mail and other electronic messages of expressing sentiments that otherwise would be difficult to detect. Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on Sept. 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.'”
As you know, Freespire is my favorite Linux DESKTOP distro (followed closely by Kubutu.) My favorite SERVER distro is CentOS Linux. Anyway, a new version of Freespire is out! Check it out!
Changes:
Config files updated:
sources.list (commented out ubuntu repository sources resolving apt-get upgrade issues)
Packages upgraded:
cnr-client (new and improved CNR plugin version 0.1.2600)
flash9-plugin (updated to 9.0 r60 – version 9.0.60)
knetworkconf
knetworkmanager
kplayer (updated from version 0.5.3 to 0.6.3)
kuser
sun-java6-bin
sun-java6-jre
sun-java6-plugin
Packages removed:
nvu
It is interesting that they removed Nvu… maybe Komposer is taking over it’s “market share!”
Gordon Moore can rest easy. His “law” is still in effect!
Big future beckons for tiny chips
The next step in the silicon industry’s steadfast pursuit of ever smaller and faster chips has been unveiled. Intel has shown off what it says are the world’s first working chips which contain transistors with features just 32 billionths of a meter wide. Their production means the industry axiom that has underpinned all chip development for the last 40 years, known as Moore’s Law, remains intact. Speaking to BBC News, Dr. Gordon Moore said that he expected the proposition that bears his name should continue ‘for at least another decade.’ ‘Eventually, however, we’re down approaching the dimensions of individual atoms and that’s clearly as far as we can go down the path of shrinking dimensions,’ he told the BBC News website.”