JENNIFER HOLLETT
Globe and Mail Update

Can you go without a computer for a day?

No e-mail. No Google expertise. No Mapquesting. No MSN. No YouTube or MySpace, or Facebook. No access to your brain’s external drive.

Saturday, March 24, 2007 marks Shutdown Day, an online experiment that aims to find out how many people can go without a computer for 24 hours. Two young men from Montreal set up the event. The purpose is to get people thinking about how the home computer has changed our lives, society, and culture.

The idea evolved from a lunch conversation between Denis Bystrov and Michael Taylor. Bystrov, a computer programmer, expressed that he was spending too much time on the computer, and not enough time with his family. He said he always had to be by the computer, and couldn’t even leave it for the day.

A challenge was born — leave the computer for a day, 24 hours, on March 24.

“We thought it would be great if we have one day where hopefully nobody uses their personal computers, and we just see what happens” explained Michael Taylor, co-founder of Shutdown Day. “If people stop and really think — Are we too dependent on computers? Are we living in the virtual world too much? Or are we OK?”

Source: Globe and Mail

Oh darn, I didn’t see this soon enough, guess I’ll have to do Shutdown Day next year. I know I could do it if I wanted to, I could quit anytime, really!

~LC

A variant of the Warezov Trojan horse has again been programmed to spread through the instant-messaging feature in Skype.

Source: Trojan horse targets Skype users

rustalot42684 writes “The CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] has posted an article on its website promoting the use of Ubuntu Linux to the ‘average computer user’. ‘With the exception of gaming, which is limited, almost all of the average person’s basic computing needs are well looked after with this package. I’ve used the last three versions of Ubuntu on my main portable web-surfing computer for years just to avoid viruses and spyware (as the vast majority of these nasty programs are written for Windows), and I have yet to be disappointed.’ The author seems to have made some sweeping generalizations about the development of GNU/Linux, but that aside, will mainstream media coverage help more people switch?”

I knew those folks were smarter than they act.

Source: CBC Recommends Linux To Average User

Free software fans of YouTube jumped for joy last week when developer Benjamin Otte announced on his blog that the free Swfdec Flash player has reached the point where it can play YouTube’s Flash video content. At that time the feature was only working in the project’s Git repository, meaning only those users willing to clone the Git sources and automake their way to a binary could enjoy it. That, too, has now changed: Otte released updated packages to the public yesterday.

Source: Swfdec officially adds Flash 7 video support (but not 8 or 9)

Don’t dispose of your old computer Throwing away a PC really is a waste, re-use or recycling are always preferable options. Usually an old PC still work well but many think that is obsolete and a computer outdated is annoying and it must be replaced. We can recycle our computer !! We can donate our computer !! We can get new life our PC !! How can I recycle it ? What software have i to use ? Operating System ? Well , Linux breathes new life into old hardware !!!!!

Source: Resurrect your old PC

SimplyMEPIS 6.5 Release Candidate 3 (RC3) today was uploaded to the MEPIS subscribers’ pool and propagated to the public mirrors — only nine days after RC2 was released. It features a 2.6.15 kernel, a KDE default desktop, and Beryl 0.2.0 Final.

And Warren has added support for the Broadcom wireless cards and has cured the problem with the older cards that has been a bug a boo since a earlier release. The darn thing is fast and smooth and the Beryl gives the user a lot more reasons to play with settings now, eye-candy but darn I waste a lot of time watching things spin and twirl, Baldy.

Source: Third SimplyMEPIS 6.5 release candidate adds Beryl

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the beta release of Ubuntu 7.04. Ubuntu 7.04 is the most user-friendly Ubuntu to date and includes a ground-breaking Windows migration assistant, excellent wireless networking support and improved multimedia support.

Source: Ubuntu 7.04 Beta Released

ICANN is to terminate Registerfly’s license to sell domain names, cutting off its main revenue stream and leaving its customers victorious but nervous, after months of scandal which have rocked the company. The domain name industry overseer chose to exercise its so-called “nuclear option” of de-accrediting Registerfly, saying it was “frustrated and distressed by recent management confusion” that has left so many customers bitter and angry recently. The New Jersey-based registrar has been torn apart by a feud between chief executive Kevin Medina and vice president John Naruszewicz. The two men were business partners and had a 10-year romantic relationship that ended in October, according to court documents.

Naruszewicz temporarily seized control of the company with a preliminary court injunction in February, over claims that Medina was pilfering cash from the corporate kitty in order to fund an extravagant lifestyle involving expensive apartments and escorts. This was putting the company and its customers at risk, according to Naruszewicz. Complaints of customer domain names being lost or misappropriated and of money being taken for services not rendered were mounting, and continue to mount, at the customer activist site Registerflies.com.

View: Full Story

Source: ComputerWire

 

Technorati tags: News

Source: Registerfly Gets Terminated

Netcat or nc in short can be aptly described as one of those two letter command-line tools that have all of legendary UNIX magic and power.nc however is a new program and does not share the age of well known programs like cat or dd. However its power and versatility make one think why no one came up with this before.

Source: Having Fun With Netcat