http://www.osnews.com/ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams OSNews version 4 donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg) donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:34:32 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com/ 120 http://www.osnews.com/story/22400/GeoCities_Decommissioning_Unleashes_Torrent_of_Nostalgia/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22400/GeoCities_Decommissioning_Unleashes_Torrent_of_Nostalgia/ The Blogosphere has been abuzz over the past few days, with remembrances of the halcyon days of the internet viewed through the lens of atrociously-designed GeoCities sites. If you missed the xkcd GeoCities tribute, you'll have to be content with a screenshot, as it was a limited-time engagement. (Update: a mirror) The Archive Team is working on saving as much of GeoCities as possible for future generations. The internet is ephemeral, and, like ancient civilizations, it seems we're constantly building our new cities on the ashes of our old cities, but, this being the internet, in a much faster cycle. Like anthropologists who get excited about pot shards or shriveled woven sandals found in a cliff dwelling, a lot of internet old-timers like me get pretty nostalgic about how the internet used to be, and think it's worth preserving, or at least commemorating. Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:33:52 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) Humor 37 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 Editorial http://www.osnews.com/story/22380/Host_Your_Windows_7_Party_Today/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22380/Host_Your_Windows_7_Party_Today/ Funny Or Die has posted a video showing you how to have your very own party to celebrate today's Windows 7 release. It's strikingly similar, yet importantly different from the video that Microsoft put out a couple of weeks ago. Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:42:37 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) Humor 19 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22149/Carrier_Pigeon_Faster_Than_South-African_Broadband/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22149/Carrier_Pigeon_Faster_Than_South-African_Broadband/ In an attempt to show just how slow South Africa's Telkom broadband is, a frustrated IT company had a race to see which would be faster: transferring 4GB by sending a USB drive via pigeon 60 miles away, or transferring the files via the broadband connection. There were even rules in place so as to not have any unfair advantage over the broadband such as "birdseed must not have any performance-enhancing seeds within." It was faster to send the data by pigeon than by broadband. It took the bird about an hour to reach the recipient station, and it took another hour to transfer the data to the other computer. The file being transferred via the broadband connection was still at 4%. Telkom said that it is not responsible for the firm's slow Internet speed. Winston, the bird, is safely back in the IT office, probably enjoying birdseed without any performance-enhancing caplets mixed in. Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:45:59 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Humor 26 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21944/The_10_Most_Annoying_Things_in_Internet_Comments/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21944/The_10_Most_Annoying_Things_in_Internet_Comments/ Since I think we haven't been having enough fun lately on OSNews, I decided it's time we do something fun for a change. We all have our little pet annoyances when it comes to other people's comments. Fixed expressions or comment styles that annoy the living daylights out of you. Here are mine. Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Humor 175 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 Editorial http://www.osnews.com/story/21877/If_You_Give_Microsoft_Toaster_Tech/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21877/If_You_Give_Microsoft_Toaster_Tech/ In honor of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, that adorable book some of you (or some of your kids) may be familiar with, we now have the If You Give Microsoft Toaster Tech episode. This isn't official Microsoft swag, but someone with spare time on his hands and a knack for tinkering designed this brave little toaster that brands bread with the Windows logo. Of course, I wouldn't buy one of these unless I had the Windows 7 upgrade coupon. This brings to mind: if Apple were to create a toaster, would you have to buy premium Apple bread for it to work? And would there be Psystar and Quo toasters for cheaper? How about a Linux toaster? Fill up the comments below with your wonderfully creative toaster/tech analogies. You could even bleed over into other kitchen appliances (an Ubuntu fridge, for instance, would be nearly good enough for anyone, but you'd have tinker and hack a bit before your ice would come out cubed). Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:48:49 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Humor 13 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21827/Hannah_Montana_Linux_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21827/Hannah_Montana_Linux_/ That was my first reaction when I saw the headline. Should Hannah Montana and Linux even be allowed to be in the same sentence? Someone apparently thinks so. According to IT Knowledge Exchange, Hannah Montana Linux, obviously designed with Hannah Montana fans in mind, emerged recently on Twitter, being tweeted and re-tweeted so many times. It's been hosted at SourceForge and is currently available for download, but you had probably get your copy quickly because I'm sure the long, iron arm of Disney will find out about this project and quickly shut it down. Big companies are often touchy about their trademarks. Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:17:37 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Humor 19 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News Moulinneuf http://www.osnews.com/story/21724/New_Mouse_Reduces_Noise_Pollution_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21724/New_Mouse_Reduces_Noise_Pollution_/ If the title didn't cause you to spit up your morning/afternoon drink of preference, perhaps this will: the mouse is specially designed to reduce noise pollution by 22.5 dB so that the precious ears of your fellow office workers or the kids running about your house won't be disturbed. Protect your eardrums from the menace to society (the mouse, of course) for only $30 US. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:29:55 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Humor 14 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21681/Dreaming_Big_Outlet_Wall/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21681/Dreaming_Big_Outlet_Wall/ Instead of having too many appliances and devices plugged into one outlet, why not reverse the idea? In order to save ourselves from the rat's nest of wires below the entertainment center (or the computer desk), David Friedman, photographer, had the idea to have an entire wall of plugs. Just imagine. No more crowded daisy-chains, no more losing pets and small children to the mess underneath, and just think how jealous the neighbors will be with the new sort of 21st-century art you'd have on your wall-- changeable depending on your current mood, too! Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:39:58 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Humor 5 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21412/2012_The_End_of_the_Internet/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21412/2012_The_End_of_the_Internet/ According to research that's supposed to be published later this year, growing demand for Internet use will soon outstrip the stamina of the infrastructure supporting it, and the Internet will cease to be reliable by 2012. Complete anarchy will ensue, and the world will essentially end along with the Internet we created for it. Perhaps this is what the Mayan prophecies meant? Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:53:07 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Humor 43 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21134/Determine_Your_Laptop_Using_the_Netbook_Flowchart/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21134/Determine_Your_Laptop_Using_the_Netbook_Flowchart/ Ok, so you just got a new laptop. You've been hearing about this whole "netbook" thing that's all the rage these days, and you wonder: am I cool? Do I have a netbook? You launch the internet (that blue E), and you ask Google "Do I have a netbook?" soon, you'll be swarmed by loads of terms that all seem to mean the same thing: a really small laptop. Enter The Register's netbook flowchart. Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:54:57 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Humor 43 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News http://www.osnews.com/story/20926/Is_it_Windows_7_or_KDE_4_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20926/Is_it_Windows_7_or_KDE_4_/ Is it Windows 7 or KDE 4? In this video, ZDNet takes to Sydney's streets to find out what people think of what they think is a Windows 7 demonstration. Some funny responses by the passers-by in this little nonsense-investigation. Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:31:06 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Humor 28 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News rlem6983 http://www.osnews.com/story/20745/Shouting_at_Your_Computer_May_Just_Make_it_Worse/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20745/Shouting_at_Your_Computer_May_Just_Make_it_Worse/ A recent YouTube video by Sun's Fishworks Lab's Brendan Gregg proves that vibrations (including shouting) will cause hard drives' latency to spike. But then, he only shouted at it angrily. Who's to say that perhaps blasting Mozart in your server room will cause the latency to drop? Perhaps telling each hard drive that he or she is special may even make their capacities grow! Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:25:27 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) Humor 4 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News weildish http://www.osnews.com/story/20699/Some_Nerdy_Holiday_Cheer/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20699/Some_Nerdy_Holiday_Cheer/ The folks over at Engadget found some edible nerdiness. You've seen gingerbread men, gingerbread houses, but why not a classic gingerbread Mac?. While you're there, check out the edible laptop, Wii, and Kindle. Sat, 27 Dec 2008 22:43:10 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) Humor 0 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News weildish http://www.osnews.com/story/20633/Teacher_Throws_Fit_Linux_Is_NOT_Free_and_Holds_Children_Back/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20633/Teacher_Throws_Fit_Linux_Is_NOT_Free_and_Holds_Children_Back/ A teacher in Austin, TX reprimanded a student for demonstrating Linux to his classmates and distributing free Linux CDs. She then goes on to contact Ken Starks of the HeliOS Project, who provided the CDs, and claim that "putting Linux on these machines is holding our kids back" and "No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful". Although she claims to have used Linux herself in college, she feels that "putting on a carnival show for an operating system is not helping these children at all". On the HeliOS blog, Ken Starks hints that this may be more than just ignorance of the teacher's part. Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:14:58 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) Humor 150 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News jawbreaker http://www.osnews.com/story/20166/Comedy_Comparing_Distribution_s_Art_Process/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20166/Comedy_Comparing_Distribution_s_Art_Process/ From OpenSuse's automatic green-finding algorithm, to Fedora's long-winded concept explanations, examining each distribution's art process can tell you a lot about the distribution. Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:37:28 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Amjith Ramanujam) Humor 5 http://www.osnews.com/topics/30 News computerishcat