imnuts’ Home

I'm not sure how many people out there are apart of the Folding@Home project, but I run it on my desktop and server systems. I started running Linux on my main desktop a little bit ago and wanted to have a way to run the clients on my machine before I logged in. Usually, it would get me another few seconds of folding in, but if power ever goes out when I'm away, it could potentially be hours of folding I wouldn't otherwise get, so I wanted an init script to startup the client for me. There are a few different scripts out there to accomplish this, and I've tried a few, and they work. I wanted something different though. Gentoo has an init script, but it can only be used properly if you use the ebuild associated with the build. I found another script, but it didn't shut the client down properly. So, I combined the two scripts and came up with a better one, at least I think it is. The only issue with it that I have is when you stop a client, it will essentially terminate any other clients you have running. Since you usually let it go on its own, this shouldn't be a problem. I haven't found a way around this though, so I guess it's just something to deal with. So, if anyone else would like to use this script, here it is. Read more »

Microsoft said Friday that it was going to start testing a subscription service that combines its OneCare anti-virus package, the home version of its Office suite, and some other features in one package, called Albany, to be sold by subscription. Microsoft already sells OneCare in the form of annual subscriptions, but it represents the first time it will sell Office that way.

This seems like a useful experiment, but dreadfully late. And I’m not sure it confronts the major questions of value in the marketplace. Consumers are used to getting so much free these days that I wonder what they will be willing to pay for. Microsoft won’t answer the biggest question about the bundle: how much it will cost? So let’s think about the options. Right now OneCare has a list price of $50 a year, and Microsoft Office Home and Student lists for $150 in the version you can use forever. (Amazon is currently selling a one-year OneCare subscription for $30 and the home Office version for $120.) Read more »

Opera on Thursday added Google's Android to the list of platforms that can run its mobile browser. Opera released a technical preview of its Opera Mini browser for Google's mobile OS and middleware on its Web site, the company said Thursday. The company also released a software development kit for the platform.

Developers can test the browser and share feedback about it that will be considered before Opera releases a beta version, which it will do once it collects feedback from the community. In a company blog posting, Opera's Developer Relationship Manager Chris Mills explained why the company decided to create a version of its mobile browser for Android and the particulars and challenges of writing the code. According to the post, Opera considered the "cool factor" in providing a browser for Google's much-ballyhooed mobile platform, but also wanted to give users and developers the broadest possible choice for deploying its browser. Read more »

Microsoft on Thursday plans to introduce a Web-based service for driving directions that incorporates complex software models to help users avoid traffic jams. The new service’s software technology, called Clearflow, was developed over the last five years by a group of artificial-intelligence researchers at the company’s Microsoft Research laboratories. It is an ambitious attempt to apply machine-learning techniques to the problem of traffic congestion. The system is intended to reflect the complex traffic interactions that occur as traffic backs up on freeways and spills over onto city streets.

The Clearflow system will be freely available as part of the company’s Live.com site (maps.live.com) for 72 cities in the United States. Microsoft says it will give drivers alternative route information that is more accurate and attuned to current traffic patterns on both freeways and side streets. A system for driving directions that Microsoft introduced last fall was limited, because without Clearflow there was no information available about traffic conditions on city streets adjacent to the highways. Because the system assumed that those routes would be clear, drivers were on occasion sent into areas that were more congested than the freeways. Read more »

Microsoft on Tuesday will resume automatic distribution and installation of a software update that nearly two months ago was reportedly causing technical headaches for Vista users looking to download service pack 1. The so-called Servicing Stack Update (KB937287) is one of two updates that Microsoft requires Vista users to install before downloading service pack 1, and includes tools that handle the installation and removal of software updates, language packs, and service packs.

Microsoft in mid-February stopped offering the Servicing Stack Update through Windows Update after several users complained that their PCs were entering an endless reboot cycle during the installation process. The problem with the Servicing Stack Update stemmed from "a few unknown and rare events" during the installation process, and not the actual update files, which means that users who've already successfully installed it won't need to re-install the updated version, according to a Monday blog post on the Windows Update Product Team blog.

"The [Servicing Stack Update] has special code to check whether there are any pending reboots or other updates to install. If it sees either of these circumstances, it prevents the install from starting," according to the blog post. In a separate Monday blog post, Chris Flores, a director on the Windows Client team, said Microsoft remains on track to begin distributing the English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese versions of Vista SP1 through its Automatic Update system in mid-April, the same time it plans to roll out the initial release of Vista SP1 in the remaining languages.

Source: ChannelWeb