http://www.osnews.com Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2010, David Adams Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:24:02 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://osnews.com/story/23780/SiOx_Memory_How_it_Works http://osnews.com/story/23780/SiOx_Memory_How_it_Works "The recent announcement that Rice University grad student Jun Yao has demonstrated a new memory device has created a stir. As well it should. The new device is non-volatile, offers fast sub-100 ns switching times, can be written 10,000 times and is fully compatible with current CMOS manufacturing processes. A 1,000 bit proof-of-concept chip has been built by a private company." Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:12:10 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems http://osnews.com/story/23779/Mac_Cloner_Quo_Computer_Still_Going_Strong http://osnews.com/story/23779/Mac_Cloner_Quo_Computer_Still_Going_Strong There's this hole here at OSNews, a hole left when Psystar was dealt a devastating blow by Apple's legal team. That whole saga provided a nice steady stream of news articles that's been dried up for a while. However, Psystar was not the only clone maker out there - what happened to Quo Computer, that clone maker with an actual real-world store front? They're still here, and just launched a new product. Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:09:56 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems http://osnews.com/story/23778/The_Death_and_Rebirth_of_Duke_Nukem_Forever_a_History http://osnews.com/story/23778/The_Death_and_Rebirth_of_Duke_Nukem_Forever_a_History "Duke Nukem Forever was announced in 1997, after its predecessor, Duke Nukem 3D, had rocked the PC market with a hero who liked kicking ass, hanging out with strippers, and murdering alien police officers that were, literally, pigs. It was inappropriate, raunchy, and amazing. It was also one of the games that gave 3D Realms the success that brought its destruction. Duke Nukem Forever began life as a completely self-funded game; its developer wanted nothing less than perfection, and would chase every update in technology in order to deliver it. The game saw monumental delays, suffered the slings and arrows of a gaming world that was first angry and then tolerant of its favorite whipping boy, had its home taken away, and has since risen from the dead. Is the public still interested in Duke Nukem? Hell yes it is. This is the story of the gaming industry's favorite joke, and how Duke may finally have the last laugh." Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:42:41 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games http://osnews.com/story/23777/Apple_Releases_iOS_4_1 http://osnews.com/story/23777/Apple_Releases_iOS_4_1 Apple has released the first major update to iOS 4. "The iOS 4.1 Software Update is the first major update to iOS 4, bringing Game Center, new iTunes features, high dynamic range photography, and more to iPhone." Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:38:07 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Apple http://osnews.com/story/23776/Google_Launches_Instant http://osnews.com/story/23776/Google_Launches_Instant Hold on to your security blanket, people, because Google is rolling out a pretty big change to its search engine. Not too long ago the internet was in a shock because Google rolled out a new feature that allowed you to pick a background image for the Google home page, just like Microsoft's Bing. Google went a lot further today, and has launched Google Instant, adding search-before-you-type results to the Google home page. Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:53:03 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google http://osnews.com/story/23775/Linux_Mint_Releases_Rolling_Distribution http://osnews.com/story/23775/Linux_Mint_Releases_Rolling_Distribution "Linux Mint Debian Edition comes with a Debian base, which we transformed into a live media and on top of which we added a new installer. It's rougher and in some aspects not as user-friendly as our other editions, it's very young but it will improve continuously and rapidly, and it brings us one step closer to a situation where we're fully in control of the system without being impacted by upstream decisions." It's a rolling release, so expect continuous updates. Not a new concept by a long shot, but it's interesting to see a distribution like Mint try this out. Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:43:12 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux http://osnews.com/story/23772/Cloud_Computing_The_Invisible_Revolution http://osnews.com/story/23772/Cloud_Computing_The_Invisible_Revolution I attended VM World last week, and as you might imagine, it was "cloud computing" this and "cloud computing" that the whole time. The hype factor for the cloud is in overdrive right now. But is it warranted? A lot of people, even tech-oriented ones, outside of the data center sysadmin types, wonder what all the hype is about. I've come to believe that cloud computing is major computing revolution, but for most computing users, it's an invisible one. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article... Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:53:54 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) Internet & Networking http://osnews.com/story/23774/Sony_Steps_up_Fight_Against_PS3_Jailbreaking http://osnews.com/story/23774/Sony_Steps_up_Fight_Against_PS3_Jailbreaking I've often harped on Apple for its policy regarding jailbreaking, but of course, Apple isn't the only company engaging in such practices. We already talked about Motorola, and now, we have Sony - already a company with a checkered past when it comes to consumer rights. As it turns out, Sony don't want you jailbreaking your their Playstation 3. Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:52:56 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games http://osnews.com/story/23773/HP_Files_Suit_Against_Former_Chief http://osnews.com/story/23773/HP_Files_Suit_Against_Former_Chief "It took Hewlett-Packard less than a day to file a lawsuit against its former chief executive, Mark V. Hurd, over his decision to join its rival and partner Oracle as a co-president. H.P. filed its lawsuit on Tuesday in the Superior Court of California in Santa Clara, claiming that Mr. Hurd had breached his contract with the company. The lawsuit said that Mr. Hurd could use his intimate knowledge of H.P. and its trade secrets to aid Oracle and harm H.P. The two companies compete in the market for computer servers, storage systems and business software." Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:15:44 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Legal http://osnews.com/story/23771/Internet_Explorer_9_UI_Video_Leaked http://osnews.com/story/23771/Internet_Explorer_9_UI_Video_Leaked We already know quite a few details about Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft's upcoming attempt to retain - or grow - its market share in the browser world. Standards and speed are the main focus of IE9, and if a video of the upcoming beta release is anything to go by, they're doing pretty well. Just... Did they just manage to make the interface even less appealing? Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:11:30 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Internet Explorer http://osnews.com/story/23770/Bricscad_V10_for_Linux_Released http://osnews.com/story/23770/Bricscad_V10_for_Linux_Released Finally Bricsys has released the official version of Bricscad V10 for Linux. Linux users now have very capable desktop CAD software able to handle the DWG file format. From Bricscad website: "Bricsys is the first to release a .dwg based CAD software for Linux users. Bricsys NV, the developer of Bricscad, announced today that Bricscad V10 for Linux is now available. Bricscad V10 is the first .dwg based CAD platform available for the Linux Operating System. Bricscad V10, the leading alternative CAD platform for the .dwg file format, continues to offer freedom of choice to the CAD and Engineering community." Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:38:29 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux http://osnews.com/story/23769/How_New_Art_Can_End_the_Copyright_Wars http://osnews.com/story/23769/How_New_Art_Can_End_the_Copyright_Wars Every so often we publish here at OSNews articles about copyright, about the war of the "old media" establishment against everyone else. Many, myself included, have argued that the way to get out of this mess -- short of changing the law -- is to have more artists release their work under a Creative Commons license. However, after a few years it became obvious to me that CC would never be able to change the industry all by itself. Offering a Free license, and having 30,000 albums released under it, was still not enough. Until the Summer of 2009, that is. Update: Added audio samples. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article... Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:25:16 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia Loli-Queru) Multimedia, AV http://osnews.com/story/23768/How_to_Secure_Windows http://osnews.com/story/23768/How_to_Secure_Windows In previous OS News articles, I've claimed that mature computers up to ten years old can be refurbished and made useful. My last article identified and evaluated different ways to refurbish these computers. One approach is to keep the existing Windows install and clean it up. This has the advantage of retaining the Windows license and software, the installed applications, and the existing drivers. But it takes some work. In this article we'll see what this entails. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article... Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:56:56 GMT donotreply@osnews.com () Windows http://osnews.com/story/23767/After_the_Patent_Troll_Enter_the_Copyright_Troll http://osnews.com/story/23767/After_the_Patent_Troll_Enter_the_Copyright_Troll We've all heard of patent trolls who buy up patents without using them to make any products. Their only goal is to seek out possible infringers and sue them, making money via the justice system. It was only a matter of time, but we've now got something new: copyright trolls. Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:30:24 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Legal http://osnews.com/story/23766/How_to_Use_KDE_Plasma_Activities http://osnews.com/story/23766/How_to_Use_KDE_Plasma_Activities "When activities were introduced into KDE 4, they did not make much sense in isolation. In addition to having virtual desktops, there were activities, which the user could create and configure to have different wallpapers and different widgets. Much of the virtual desktop functionality of KDE 3 was absent and not directly connected to Plasma activities. With the release of KDE 4.5, Plasma has reached a much higher level of maturity, and activities can now be integrated with virtual desktops, dual monitor screens, and with the Dashboard feature." Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:34:02 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) KDE