Saturday, April 28, 2007

The Green Party: Vista means more dead PCs

The Green Party has claimed that Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista, could lead to a mass upgrade of PCs that will result in old machines being dumped in landfill sites.

The Green Party warns that migrating to the operating system would result in many consumers and businesses having to buy new hardware, Vista requires more expensive and energy-hungry hardware, passing the cost on to consumers and the environment, this will also further exclude the poor from the latest technology, and impose burdensome costs on small and medium businesses who will be forced to enter another expensive upgrade cycle.

Some early adopters of Vista have already reported that the new operating system has forced them to upgrade their hardware. Microsoft has published the minimum specifications required to run Vista. Windows Vista-Capable PCs will be able to run at least the core experiences of Windows Vista...

Rather than opting for another proprietary OS, the Green Party argues that businesses should look into free software alternatives — such as Linux — as they don't require high-specification hardware. Free software can run on existing hardware, reduces licensing costs for small businesses and affords important freedoms to consumers.

The Green Party's warning about the environmental impact of Vista follows a similar statement from the British Computer Society (BCS) in December last year. Nigel Shadbolt, BCS president, said the release of Vista could eventually see large numbers of PCs being upgraded and many old PCs discarded. "PCs contain many toxic components, so if they end up in a landfill we are creating a real problem for the future. It can be really easy to pass on the old machine to be reused, and if it's beyond use, to recycle it,".

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Intel's Ultra-Mobile PC & Internet Device Future.

Intel will be dropping Microsoft's Windows in favor of Linux (embedded Linux) for its next generation (iPod - iPhone like) future device. This new technology is based on the up and coming WiMAX, SaaS and PC push technology format. I cant wait...




Friday, April 13, 2007

Linux gaming improves with Cedega 6.0

TRANSGAMING has released a new version of its Windows emulator the Cedega 6.0 which allows gamers to play proper games on their Linux machines.

Cedega is based on Wine and is available on a subscription basis, and it is designed to solve the huge problem that Linux has in getting into the home market, namely that it can't play popular games. Cedega is the main way that Linux geeks get to play World of WarCraft or Doom online. I cant wait for Cedega to build support for "LeftBehind" I'm not a big fan of Window.

This version of Cedega uses new technology and improvements to the existing engine. According to a company press release, Shader Model 2.0 support enables recent games to be played at the highest detail settings. There is also a better FBO implementation provides better overall graphics performance and compatibility with DirectX 9.

There are also improvements to the ALSA support to provide better audio and allow users to listen to their own music while in-game. There is also better memory allocator, coupled with other enhancements, to improve the performance of games.

here's the link: www.transgaming.com

Happy Gaming :-)

Friday, April 06, 2007

Sourcefire releases Daemonlogger open source tool

Sourcefire, the security firm that oversees the open source intrusion-detection system software, Snort, is making available another open source tool for network traffic logging.

The tool, called Daemonlogger (http://www.snort.org), is a packet sniffer that can passively capture network traffic logs and write them to disk in PCAP format. Sourcefire said Daemonlogger is being licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2, under which anyone may access, modify and redistribute the Daemonlogger source code so that users can share enhancements and new features with other network professionals.

Martin Roesch, CTO of Sourcefire and the originator of Snort IDS, said open source Daemonlogger is intended to be a “handy and easy-to-use tool.” Sourcefire indicated Daemonlogger is offered as an alternative to proprietary products for logging and storing network traffic that are needed to meet with a growing number of regulatory requirements.

By Ellen Messmer

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Software that lets you create a CyberTwin

If spending too much time online turns you into your evil twin, then it might be time for a "CyberTwin."

An Australian upstart on Monday introduced MyCyberTwin, an early version of software that lets people create and customize a virtual personality that can chat with others while they're offline. Liesl Capper, co-founder of RelevanceNow, which built MyCyberTwin, said the so-called chat bot technology can be used on blogs, dating sites or in social networks like MySpace by cutting and pasting code from the site onto the third-party page.

Capper describes the software as an extension of your personality online. "It can talk to friends when you're sleeping or tell people where the party is Saturday night," she said.

Virtual personalities are not new, but MyCyberTwin could take the trend of instant-messaging avatars like Yahoo's and Second Life personas in a new direction.

The MyCyberTwin service lets people pick one of five basic personalities, such as "warm-hearted, intellectual" or "cheeky, down to earth," and then have that choice act as a chat proxy to friends or strangers. But a subscriber can also tailor their persona further by answering a set of psychological questions, like "Is success a motivator for you?" giving the chat bot more complexity.

RelevanceNow has built tools to evaluate a person's psychographics, which classify attitudes and values, likes and dislikes. The more information the software has, the more "personality" the chat bot will have.

People also can write out answers to commonly asked questions so that their chat bot will respond in that manner, or they can prompt a cybertwin to ask specific questions of others, such as "What is the most important thing in your life?" People can review their friend's answers by looking in the log that MyCyberTwin keeps of all conversations. Capper said the service can also handle FAQs for bloggers, company brands or other well-known people who maintain a Web site.

"Sites and bloggers will want them so that people can learn about them when they're away. And companies can learn about customers without having direct conversations," Capper said.