Author Topic: Interesting Software and System News  (Read 2811804 times)

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Offline .: Mac :.

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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #735 on: May 29, 2008, 04:13:58 AM »
Samsung Chooses Safari for their L870 Phone.

They do not mention wither they got permission from apple to use the Safari name but either way they have chosen Safari's rendering engine, WebKit (Which is OpenSource so they could use it but call it something other than safari)

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/05/28/samsung.l870/
"People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." - Alan Kay

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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #736 on: May 29, 2008, 04:25:32 AM »
Windows 7 to Feature Multi-Touch Technology

Windows 7 will feature a touch screen like technology much like what apple has heavily patented (Apple calls their technology "MultiTouch" and is in use on the iPhone and planned to be used in future Macs)

Apple and Microsoft have some kind of Cross licensing agreement on their patents now. So its likely that The technology in use in windows 7 is already covered by their agreement.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/05/28/windows_7_starts_race_with_apple_to_full_multi_touch_desktop_os.html
"People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." - Alan Kay

CharleyO

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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #737 on: May 29, 2008, 04:41:47 AM »
***

World Wide Telescope

This works great on my 3 year old computer with a dial-up connection. Great program!

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

Quote
The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe. WWT is a single rich application portal that blends terabytes of images, information, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a seamless, immersive, rich media experience.

WorldWide Telescope is created with the Microsoft® high performance Visual Experience Engine™ and allows seamless panning and zooming around the night sky, planets, and image environments. View the sky from multiple wavelengths: See the x-ray view of the sky and zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then crossfade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a thousand years ago. Switch to the Hydrogen Alpha view to see the distribution and illumination of massive primordial hydrogen cloud structures lit up by the high energy radiation coming from nearby stars in the Milky Way. These are just two of many different ways to reveal the hidden structures in the universe with the WorldWide Telescope. Seamlessly pan and zoom from aerial views of the Moon and selected planets, as well as see their precise positions in the sky from any location on Earth and any time in the past or future with the Microsoft Visual Experience Engine.



***

Offline bob3160

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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #738 on: May 29, 2008, 03:12:01 PM »
Quote
Apple and Microsoft have some kind of Cross licensing agreement
Now if they would only come up with a cross platform agreement, we would all be happy.
The best from both in one system.  :)
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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #739 on: May 29, 2008, 11:04:36 PM »
Quote
Apple and Microsoft have some kind of Cross licensing agreement
Now if they would only come up with a cross platform agreement, we would all be happy.
The best from both in one system.  :)

Microsoft tries to do that with every Windows release. (Copying features from Mac OS X and Linux, and now Google). Windows 7 will even have a Mac OS X like Dock  ;)

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/94115;_ylt=Aq15fTDJLyVv0CS2z9GqQOjxMJA5
Quote
As one of his final duties as Chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates demonstrated an early beta of Windows 7 at this week's D6 tech conference, its first real public demo, to attempt to show us how it's different. His answer: A multi-touch screen inspired by the Surface table and, er, the iPhone. Neat demo, but will all Windows 7 computers have to have touch-sensitive screens to use these features? There's a mapping system that looks like Google Earth. And it's said there will be an OS X-like dock, though current demos have the usual taskbar as we've known it since Windows 95.

So Microsoft has expanded its photocopiers to include Google as well as Apple this time Around. ::)
« Last Edit: May 29, 2008, 11:08:10 PM by .: Mac :. »
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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #740 on: May 31, 2008, 03:24:49 PM »
In one blogger's opinion, the best anti-virus for Windows is Avast!

I've been recommending avast! for a long time in my weekly FreeWareCollectedFromTheWWW series.  :)
 
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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #742 on: June 05, 2008, 04:28:55 AM »
This Article is from August of Last Year, but its so good I had to  post it ;D

About how Macs are much more cost effective than PCs. It examins this by looking at the Total Cost of Ownership and not just the retail price.

Eight Financial Reasons You Should use Mac OS



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Offline FreewheelinFrank

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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #743 on: June 05, 2008, 11:08:22 AM »
Quote
Among many other findings, the authors concluded that Mac creative professionals were producing $26,000 more each in annual revenues for their employers than their Windows counterparts.

Although creative professionals buy Macs, buying a Mac wouldn't turn me into a creative professional, so that part of the plus side disappears in a puff of logical fallacy.
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Offline Vladimyr

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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #744 on: June 05, 2008, 04:25:00 PM »
For those using PC Tools Firewall who dare to dabble in their betas ::) 4.0.0.23 is available.
There is a way that seems right to a man,
       but in the end it leads to death
.” - Proverbs 16:25

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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #745 on: June 05, 2008, 05:01:18 PM »
Free Security Seminar: https://bit.ly/bobg2023  -  Important: http://www.organdonor.gov/ -- My Web Site: http://bob3160.strikingly.com/ - Win 11 Pro v22H2 64bit, 16 Gig Ram, 1TB SSD, Avast Free 23.5.6066, How to Successfully Install Avast http://goo.gl/VLXdeRepair & Clean Install https://goo.gl/t7aJGq -- My Online Activity https://bit.ly/BobGInternet

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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #746 on: June 05, 2008, 05:28:51 PM »
Technology is really amazing, isn’t it? Most of us are able to freely use it on a regular basis without the wink of an eye because it’s just second nature. Unfortunately, the same technology the majority of us are able to use freely, often times isn’t created with people that have disabilities like deafness or blindness in mind. Over the years things have slowly gotten more accessible for them thanks to assistive technology but there are still some people who are “left out.”

One man, John LeSieur felt as though his six year old grandson wasn’t able to take advantage of computers because he is autistic. Without going into too much detail, Autism is a brain development disorder that impairs communication, social interactions with others, and more. it’s considered a spectrum disorder meaning that there’s a range of impairments and some people are considered low-functioning while others are high-functioning. No one person with autism is going to function exactly the same as another which can make things tricky. LeSieur set-out to simplify the experience of using a computer for his grandson and felt one way he could do this was to create a web browser.

This new browser is called “The Zac Browser” in honor of his grandson and it’s free to anybody. Because as we mentioned, not all Autistic children are the same, not everybody will benefit, but a lot will. Here’s what he did with the browser:

    * Hand-picked sites that could be visited and enjoyed by autistic children and included some that were educational, others that were visually stimulating, and some that had appropriate music and videos
    * To keep children from getting overwhelmed with multiple buttons and keys to press, keys that wouldn’t be necessary to a child like “print Screen” are disabled, the right-click mouse button is also disabled he says doing this “eliminates commands most children don’t need anyway, and it reduces the chance an autistic child will lose confidence after making a counterproductive click
    * Icons are much larger than normal and large symbols are used like a soccer ball to signify games or books to signify stories
    * No advertisements or flashing distractions appear which could cause the child to lose focus

Essentially what LeSieur did was limit the distractions an autistic child will come across as much as possible so that they won’t get frustrated, and it gives them the opportunity to be independent. As we mentioned, it’s not going to be the perfect solution for every autistic child out there, but it will probably help many.

The Zac Browser is an interesting concept, isn’t it? Assistive technology is so expensive and in some situations, simply creating a customized web browser could be of tremendous help to those with disabilities. Perhaps this will be the start of a new trend and we’ll see more customized browsers out there that cater to different groups of people?
   http://www.zacbrowser.com/
« Last Edit: June 05, 2008, 05:31:43 PM by drhayden1 »

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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #747 on: June 05, 2008, 05:32:39 PM »
Quote
Among many other findings, the authors concluded that Mac creative professionals were producing $26,000 more each in annual revenues for their employers than their Windows counterparts.

Although creative professionals buy Macs, buying a Mac wouldn't turn me into a creative professional, so that part of the plus side disappears in a puff of logical fallacy.
While creative pros will get the most benefit, everyone gets benefit if you read the article, due to the Macs Ease of use, UNIX Core, lack of malware, etc.


AMD makes its notebook move.


Hmm i see that in their Graphics benchmarks they show their new system as about twice as fast as the Nvidia 8400M. Sorry thats just a little hard to believe. They even claim a 1.7x improvement over their own RadeonHD 3200. Thats just a huge jump in graphics performance that im not going to believe untill I see some 3rd party tests.

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Offline FreewheelinFrank

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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #748 on: June 05, 2008, 07:57:38 PM »
Quote
While creative pros will get the most benefit, everyone gets benefit if you read the article, due to the Macs Ease of use, UNIX Core, lack of malware, etc.

I get that already with Ubuntu.  ;D

And I can use cheap hardware.  ;D ;D

£950 for a 20" Mac.
£500 for a 20" similar spec. PC, and Ubuntu free if I don't want Windows.

Unfortunately it's only the creative professionals who can and want to pay the extra £450 for the brushed aluminium and Mac OS.

Even with the supposed long term advantages of the Mac, I can still get two PC's for the same price.

As an afterthought, it just occurred to me that I have not actually seen a Mac in the wild since about 1992 (in the home of a journalist). I always wanted one of those Macs! Since then the only Macs I've seen (apart from in PCWorld) have been on TV, either in American TV (Fox Mulder, Gill Grissom) or UK TV, in the hands of overpaid show-offs (Nigella Lawson, Stephen Fry).
« Last Edit: June 05, 2008, 08:27:52 PM by FreewheelinFrank »
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Re: Interesting Software and System News
« Reply #749 on: June 06, 2008, 04:22:41 AM »
Quote
While creative pros will get the most benefit, everyone gets benefit if you read the article, due to the Macs Ease of use, UNIX Core, lack of malware, etc.

I get that already with Ubuntu.  ;D

And I can use cheap hardware.  ;D ;D

£950 for a 20" Mac.
£500 for a 20" similar spec. PC, and Ubuntu free if I don't want Windows.

Unfortunately it's only the creative professionals who can and want to pay the extra £450 for the brushed aluminium and Mac OS.

Even with the supposed long term advantages of the Mac, I can still get two PC's for the same price.

As an afterthought, it just occurred to me that I have not actually seen a Mac in the wild since about 1992 (in the home of a journalist). I always wanted one of those Macs! Since then the only Macs I've seen (apart from in PCWorld) have been on TV, either in American TV (Fox Mulder, Gill Grissom) or UK TV, in the hands of overpaid show-offs (Nigella Lawson, Stephen Fry).
950 Pounds for an iMac? Yep in the UK (or anywhere outside of the USA) apple has the systems priced much higher than the same system in the US.

The pound was worth almost $2 last time i checked so you are paying almost $2,000 for the same iMac we pay $1,100 here in the USA. In the US Macs are not much more expensive (if at all) than similarly speced PCs but outside of the us for some reason apple has no idea how to properly convert currency :-\

The People at the New York Apple Stores say that they get people from the UK that come to buy Macs there while on vacation due to the huge price difference in the two countries.
« Last Edit: June 06, 2008, 04:26:20 AM by .: Mac :. »
"People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." - Alan Kay