SP2 And The Damage Done

  Submitted by Geoff Floding Windows 44 Comments
Many users and IT administrators had a lot to say about Microsoft's removal of the "blocker" mechanism this week, which had temporarily disabled the delivery of WinXP SP2. THG contacted members of the IT community and spoke with often-cited security experts, who discussed their concerns about the damage SP2 may cause and some cases where the download might really be necessary.
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Tenor: Beyond Search and into the Contextual for KDE

  Submitted by David KDE 18 Comments
There's been quite a lot of buzz around so-called 'search' tools lately, from the on/off WinFS, to Beagle and Apple's Spotlight. Tenor is KDE's proposed 'framework' for taking this even further. Kurt Pfeifle, along with insights from Scott Wheeler (one of Tenor's authors and primary designers), sat down to talk about the current problems, Tenor itself, how the thinking is different and how KDE's flexible technology provides a solid basis for making it happen.
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USENIX 2005: Unix in Southern California

Unix 18 Comments
This is the 30th anniversary of USENIX, the Advanced Computer Association. USENIX was started in 1975 as 'The Unix Users Group' and has been holding regular conferences ever since (along with many other activities, of course). USENIX focuses on the Unix world, including unix-like OSes like Linux. The USENIX conference is the place to go if you want to find out about topics such as advanced system administration or the latest filesystem research projects. USENIX is a blend of academic presentations and socialization. If you want to ask Andy Tanenbaum what he thinks of Linux, you can do it at USENIX.
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Nokia 3230 review: Smartphone for the masses

Wireless 13 Comments
This is supposed to be the "smartphone for the masses" selling at around $400 without a contract in US (the phone hasn't been released officially in US yet so it's rare to find). Here's a comprehensive review of the unit at GSMArena with plenty of pictures. The device comes with a recent build of Symbian OS v7. Pros: GPRS class 10, EDGE class 5, 1.3 MP camera, Bluetooth, includes a 32 MB MMC card, FM radio, image/video editor, Real player, 176x208 hi-res screen, email, XHTML browser. Drawbacks: It seems to be using a rare kind of MMC (about $55 for 256 MB), only 6 MBs of internal memory, earphones only deliver mono sound for mp3 playback and they don't seem reliable with FM either.
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Linux – How To Take Over The Market

Linux 147 Comments
I've only been using GNU/Linux since 2001, so I won't say that I'm by any means an expert yet, as most of those that are reading this, probably have been using Linux much longer than I have. However, I still have high hopes for the Linux scene. The purpose of this article is to voice my personal opinion on what I feel is keeping GNU/Linux from taking over the mainstream operating system market. My intentions aren't to "badtalk" the open source kernel+apps, but rather give constructive criticsm on what I personally feel it could be done better.
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Palm Releases the Tungsten E2

Wireless 22 Comments
PalmOne released today a sequel for its popular Tungsten E. The Tungsten E2, looks essentially identical to its predecessor, but offers Bluetooth wireless networking, and a more powerful battery. Like the original, the E2 has a 320-by-320-pixel display. This is 30% brighter and has 40% better color saturation. This handheld has 32 MB of NVFS memory, with 26 MB available to the user. NVFS memory holds information without a charge or power. It runs at 200 Mhz, it has a headphones-in jack, but it lacks a microphone. It uses PalmOS Garnet 5.4.7 and sells for $249. Reviews here, here and here.
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