Tech News

PC Mags writer John C. Dvorak discusses the idea that Apple may dump OS X and 'switch' to running Windows in a recent column: "The idea that Apple would ditch its own OS for Microsoft Windows came to me from Yakov Epstein, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University, who wrote to me convinced that the process had already begun. I was amused, but after mulling over various coincidences, I'm convinced he may be right. This would be the most phenomenal turnabout in the history of desktop computing.""

From Slashdot
Ummm, yeah. No words......

Is it time to change? I've been using Mepis fro quite some time now, but have been encouraged to try this out. Let's see if I can squeeze in some time for it.

A great distro that makes Linux ready for desktop - PCLinuxOS

All of us have heard ''Linux is ready for desktop" time and over again to the point that users on the Microsoft side of the isle say 'yeah whatever...' . But this time its a dream come true, thanks to PCLinuxOS.

So what makes PCLinuxOS (PCLOS) stand out? To answer that, we need to sidebar a bit and understand the philosophy behind it. The philosophy is, keep it simple, user friendly with a centralized control. Towards that goal, PCLOS has a graphical PCLOS Control Center which makes configuring devices and settings a child's play. Every configuration from basic to the most complex can be done from this one place, by simple clicks (no more cryptic shell commands required). One has to see it to believe it, this feature in itself makes a hard core Windows XP user right at home. After PCLOS is installed its ready to use and no configuration is required to do all the basic tasks and most of the complex tasks, see examples below.
Continue reading " All things cool are considered" »

Indonesians make ATM sacrifices
By Rachel Harvey
BBC News, Jakarta

On Tuesday Muslims across the world are celebrating Eid al-Adha, the Islamic day of sacrifice.

Every Muslim who is rich enough is supposed to donate an animal to be slaughtered, and the meat is donated to the poor.

Sourcing the ideal beast can be time-consuming, but in Indonesia help is at hand.

There is now an easy alternative - you can buy an animal at your nearest ATM machine.
Continue reading "ATM sacrifices" »

Is it a car? Is it a computer? BOTH! It's Compucar! Pretty neat if you ask me.

Compucar has developed the world's FIRST and ONLY desktop computer that looks like a car. Compucars are smaller in length and width than an average keyboard. 7.5" wide, 18" long, and 7" tall. Compucars are roughly 1/3 the size of a normal desktop computer.

Compucars feature the best components available. Each car is cooled with a 80mm stealth case fan and a low profile copper cpu heatsink and fan.

Perty cool, if you ask me...but then again, did you ask?


In Kenya a trial project using handheld Pocket PCs could help reduce the costs of education in poor communities.

'Willing guinea pigs'

Classrooms are crowded, and the all-too-familiar scenario of children sharing outdated textbooks is still very much in evidence.

However, in Class Five, things are just a little bit different. Fifty-four 11-year-old students are willing guinea pigs in an extraordinary experiment aimed at using technology to deliver education across the continent.

In the Eduvision pilot project, textbooks are out, customised Pocket PCs, referred to as e-slates, are very much in.

They are wi-fi enabled and run on licence-free open source software to keep costs down.

"At the moment the e-slates only contain digitised textbooks, but we're hoping that in the future the students will be able to complete their assignments on these books and send them to the teacher, and the teacher will be able to grade them and send them back to the student."

Pocket PCs were chosen in place of desktops because they are more portable, so the children can take them home at night, and also because they're also cheaper, making them cost-effective alternatives to traditional methods of learning.

Read full story here at BBC...