Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

As a Linspire Insider I got an early notice… Linspire and Ubuntu have begun an alliance. What will each get out of the deal? Well, Linspire will now be based off of Ubuntu instead of Debian… a HUGE change… and Ubuntu will get the CNR technology for software installation. This is will be a BIG synergistic deal for both organizations! I have to admit… it makes sense. CNR was always Linspire’s big innovation… and Ubuntu has gotten the acceptance that Linspire has not in the Open Source community. As Linspire President Kevin Carmony says, “Why do Linspire and Canonical want to work together? For the benefit of synergy – each can get farther, faster by working together than continuing to work individually. Each group does certain things well and there’s also a fair amount of overlap in what both have been doing. The less time, energy and resources Canonical, Ubuntu, Linspire, Freespire, and others spend duplicating efforts on the common challenges that face all of desktop Linux, the faster desktop Linux as a whole can advance. The partnership also frees up resources for each to dedicate to unique improvements and innovation that are important to their specific users and market segments.”

Wow! Both my favorite Linux distros sharing tech… gotta love that!

Linspire and Ubuntu Join Forces!

Security expert, Steve Gibson, said not long ago that you could bring down the entire Internet by attacking the root DNS servers. well, somebody did it. Just like he said. BUT… the redundancy that makes the Internet work also made it impervious to permanent harm! Hooray for the good guys!

UltraDNS attack targeted G and L root servers

“Reports confirmed by the AP (Associated Press) and RIPE prove that two of the thirteen root domain servers were taken down during attack Tuesday. Servers G and L failed to respond to ninety percent of the requests made to them. The two servers are managed by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and the United States Department of Defense. There are reports, again confirmed by RIPE, that two other servers aside from G and L were slowed by the attack. These servers did not fail under the strain of the vast amounts of data sent to them. The denial of service was carried out by Botnets, zombie like computers, to spread the load of the attack across all thirteen of the root servers. What is known is that the attack centered on ‘.org’ domains and UltraDNS. UltraDNS is the company who manages many of the ‘.org’ domains. The attacks, the largest since 2002, lasted over twelve hours. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement, ‘There is no credible intelligence to suggest an imminent threat to the homeland or our computing systems at this time.'”

Wow!

This is a hoot! A guy’s father asked him to get Vista Ultimate for him… so he replaced the CD with Ubuntu Linux and installed it… telling him it was Vista Ultimate. And, while he hasn’t told him about the prank yet… his father is thrilled with Ubuntu!

Not My Father’s Vista!

“My father heard about Vista coming on the news. Since he was interested in getting it, he asked me to obtain it and install it on his computer and he would give some cash in return. I told him I was going to do that, but instead I burned an Ubuntu CD and installed it. Later, when he came home from work, I showed him his new “Vista” install, complete with the latest Office and Solitaire. Well, it’s been a few days since that and now he says Bill Gates is better than Steve Jobs and brags about how OS X on my iMac is obsolete compared to Vista on his PC. I will continue with the prank for some weeks, after which I’ll tell him the truth and give him back his money.”

Why would you want to!!! Well, if you are trying to convert a newbie to a safer web browser, but you know they will freak completely if they see anything different from what they are used to. Now you have a method to “stealth” change them to Firefox!

Make Firefox Look Like Internet Explorer

“Yes, it’s true. There are some people that prefer the look of Internet Explorer to the way Firefox looks (though I’ve never met one). And, yes, there are other explanations on how to accomplish this. But, for me at least, these leave a bit to be desired as they include a lot of additional recommendations and extensions that are not required for a base installation of Firefox looking like IE. So, I’ve created this simple How To guide that shows you just what needs to be done to get Firefox looking just like IE. I even have a downloadable pre-built profile that works with Portable Firefox to do it. The goal of this project is mainly to demonstrate the power of Firefox’s themes and extensions in making the browser work the way you want it to.”

“It is what both wide-eyed engineers and anxious executives have described as the ‘Holy Grail of semiconductor technology,’ and Friday morning Intel revealed it has developed working 45-nm processor samples running Microsoft Windows Vista, Mac OS X, Linux and other operating systems, where this material – a compound based on the element hafnium, atomic number 72, a frequently occurring impurity in zirconium typically found in fake diamonds – serves as the dielectric gate between the current source and the current drain. With the hafnium material serving as the gate, Intel will then replace the polysilicon electrode layer with a metal electrode, the exact alloy used here also being kept secret. As a result, transistors for 45 nm semiconductors starting with Intel’s Penryn family will be fabricated at half the size of those used in today’s 65 nm Core 2 processors. At the same time, transistor switching power can be reduced by as much as 30%, while still obtaining a performance improvement of as much as 20%. And current leakage at the gate will be reduced by a factor of 10.”

Intel Re-Invents the Transistor

Wow! I know this is a highly geeky article, but read it over and try to understand the implications! Smaller, faster, more efficient chips! Very cool tech coming down the pipeline… this is cool stuff!

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No longer a beta version… the full Version 3.0 of Paint.NET is now out!

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New Features in Paint.NET V3.0