readmine - Readlog

Linux App Finder

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 09:05:05 +0000

"Linux App Finder's mission is to catalog useful GNU/Linux programs and provide a great resource to discover new apps". The programs are organized in categories to browse the collection. It has an alternatives page to find an equivalent Linux app to replace your Windows or OS X app when you make that switch. The app's page has user submitted screenshots and a research section where links to reviews for that app is provided.

'Free Software' Scammers Fined $2.2 Million

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:45:57 +0000

We've seen various incarnations of the scam (often found in infomercials) where a company offers you something for "free," but in the fine print, you're really signing up for an ongoing paid service. For years, some of the biggest "ringtone" companies made much of their money this way, offering "free" or cheap ringtones that actually involved the user signing up for a monthly service without realizing it. The infamous "Video Professor" has been accused of running a similar system, though the company vehemently denies this.

Either way, it appears that the FTC is starting to crack down on some of these practices, fining a competitor to "Video Professor," called ThinkAll, $2.2 million. Apparently ThinkAll took this scam to a new level. It offered "free" software, where you simply had to pay for the shipping and handling -- though, it sounds like that was really just so the company could get your credit card on file. After receiving that first free CD, customers were offered 3 more titles totally free (not even any shipping). If you decided to accept that software (and why wouldn't you?) it made you check a box saying you had read the terms of service. Of course no one reads the full terms of service, which include (hidden down in the 7th paragraph) the fact that in accepting this "free" software, you're actually agreeing to sign up for a monthly fee-based service. Quite sneaky... until the FTC stepped in. Hopefully other businesses take notice and start avoiding these types of scams.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Are High School Newspapers Obsolete?

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:45:51 +0000

When I was in high school years ago, I was both an editor for the school newspaper and a co-founder/editor of an "underground" newspaper that a group of friends put together to compete with the official school newspaper (it probably won't surprise folks to find out my first article for the underground paper was an examination of why an underground newspaper is perfectly legal and can't be prevented by a school administration). Both experiences were quite useful (and fun), but with so much talk these days of the challenges facing the normal newspaper industry, is it worth it for high schools to still publish newspapers? After all, these days, students who want to report on what's going on in a school no longer need the "sanctioned" press, thanks to the internet.

What got me thinking about this was reading an article about a high school principal who decided to shut down the high school's newspaper (via Romenesko) after he got offended by an editorial on flag burning that included a photo of a student burning a flag. The whole thing seemed ridiculous -- because there's nothing to stop the students from taking the content, and putting it all online and not needing any stamp of approval from the school administration.

Obviously, there's something to be said for the learning experience that can be provided by working together on a project, and the potential mentoring of a school newspaper advisor (though if I remember correctly, our advisor didn't actually do much), but that could just as easily be done through other means, including classes/extra-curricular activities focusing on helping students create their own content for online purposes, rather than under the umbrella of any official school newspaper.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

ASUS Eee PC 901 priced, reviewed

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:45:38 +0000

Filed under: Laptops

We now have official US pricing for ASUS' new Eee PC lineup. The Eee PC 901 nabs a $599 MSRP for both Linux and Windows XP versions. The pricing for the 1000 and 1000H models is a bit more fluid (read: could change) but is currently pegged at $699 for an Eee PC 1000 (Linux or Windows XP) and $649 for the Windows XP 1000H (H, as in hard disk drive). We'll have to wait and see how that pricing works out for them with MSI's $399 Wind coming later this summer (the $499 XP version in a few days) along side Acer's $400 Aspire One. Oh, and then there's that pesky Dell E-series said to be starting at $299 by the time they ship in August or September. For now you can check the full reviews, which, as you'd expect, see the evolutionary jumps made by the Eee PC 901 universally commended -- especially the 6-cell, 6600mAh battery. Laptop managed to eke-out 4.38-hours (Stuff, well over 5-hours) of life with WiFi turned on -- well short of the 7.8-hours listed by ASUS but much better than previous Eees. Both reviews share our concern: price.

Read -- US Pricing
Read -- Laptop review
Read -- Stuff review

Permalink | Email this | Comments

A Closer Look at the Acer Aspire One

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:45:30 +0000

Here's more information about the Acer Aspire One - apparently the good folks at LaptopMag have managed to snag a pre-production version, and here's what they have to say about it.

Nevertheless, this mini-notebook is one of the thinnest and lightest we’ve tested, which also offers it a competitive advantage. The customized Linux interface is also one of the best we’ve seen, a worthy competitor to ASUS’s customized version of Xandros Linux. We look forward to putting the two custom Linuxes head-to-head.

Unfortunately, being unable to open it up and upgrade both the flash drive and RAM is quite the bummer.

Permalink | Comment | Uberbargain | Uberphones

Parallels Update Adds New Tools for Linux [OStatic]

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:45:23 +0000

There's a new version of Parallels Desktop for Mac available that adds more support for Linux users. According to MacNN, Build 5608 "adds support for guest Parallels Tools for Linux in the latest Linux distributions (including Ubuntu 8)."

Parallels is a popular virtualization tool for Apple computers that allows users to run additional operating systems under Mac OS X without rebooting. Parallels customers using Desktop 3.0 for Mac can download this build for free. New users can download a free trial or purchase Parallels Desktop for Mac for $79.99

Trackback URL for this post:

http://ostatic.com/trackback/165000

Related Activities

Related Software

parallels (add alternative, post review)
mac (add alternative, post review)

Meet the Dell E and E Slim

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:45:09 +0000

Dell has finally released a few glimpses on their upcoming Eee 900 competitor, called the Dell E (name subject to change). The Dell E sports an 8.9 inch display with three variations of configurations: Dell E, E Video, and E Video+, with one increasing the specifications respectively. Dell is also launching a second MID, the Dell E Slim, with a larger 12.1 inch display and two configurations: E Slim, and E Slim+. Both devices will run Linux and Windows XP.

Castle Crashers for XBLA "Completely Completed" [Castle Crashers]

Sun, 18 May 2008 10:21:00 +0000

The cartoony multiplayer side-scrolling brawler, promising one of the deepest gameplay experiences of any Xbox Live Arcade game, is finished. So says developer The Behemoth on its official dev blog. No release date as of yet — it will take "a couple months at the very least" to finish QA, certification XBLA bureaucracy, etc. etc.

Behemoth posted some new screenshots, and says the devblog will update with more character profiles even though the game's finished. Any guess what the points cost for this thing will be?

Castle Crashers is Completely Completed[Castle Crashers Development Blog, big thanks to GeorgeLiquor and Spade0013]

Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader [Book Release]

Sun, 18 May 2008 10:20:45 +0000

Looking for new reading material? A new book is out examining WoW, and is available from Amazon for the nice price of $19.77 (not bad for a book coming from an academic press!). I'm personally really fond of edited volumes, and this one sounds pretty interesting — both in the contents and background of the research. Scott Rettberg, one of the contributors, explains:

Hilde G. Corneliussen and Jill Walker Rettberg ... edited this volume, which is the first book-length anthology to carefully read the culture of the world’s most popular massively multiplayer online game. The anthology is the product of a unique collaboration. The volume’s contributors all played the game together for a year in a guild of academics known as “The Truants” before writing their chapters, each of which examines the game from a different theoretical/analytical bent. There are thirteen chapters in the book.

According to the publishing blurb, they're cutting a pretty wide swath here:

The contributors examine the ways that gameworlds reflect the real world—exploring such topics as World of Warcraft as a "capitalist fairytale" and the game's construction of gender; the cohesiveness of the gameworld in terms of geography, mythology, narrative, and the treatment of death as a temporary state; aspects of play, including "deviant strategies" perhaps not in line with the intentions of the designers; and character—both players' identification with their characters and the game's culture of naming characters. The varied perspectives of the contributors—who come from such fields as game studies, textual analysis, gender studies, and postcolonial studies—reflect the breadth and vitality of current interest in MMOGs

I'm currently up to my neck in reading on Japanese imperialism, but this is definitely on my list of to-dos this summer.

Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader [GrandTextAuto]

Gorgeous Shots Of Microwaved CDs [Images]

Sun, 18 May 2008 10:20:39 +0000

We haven't nuked a CD since the 90s either, but maybe that's only because we didn't have the right camera setup to capture the digital destruction in all of its glory. The Wacky Archives features a few remarkable shots of our ex-favorite pastime and we strongly recommend it as an opulently wasteful way to burn 3 minutes of your precious Saturday. To see the price a microwave pays for its art, hit the jump.

...like a robot exploded in there, its silver blood splattered with Pollockian imprecision. [Wacky Archives via MAKE]