Linux.com | One small business’s year without Windows

Linux.com | One small business’s year without Windows: “My company, Adams-Blake Co., started its business life on a Macintosh platform and moved to Windows in 1995. By late 2001, administration had gone from a chore to a nightmare. When it was again time to upgrade we decided to change to Linux. We began with Mandrake, then tried Slackware, and now run a few machines with Mepis. We’ve always had a challenge to see if we could not use Windows for an entire year. We’ve never been able to do it — until now.

All of our other business functions are covered with Linux. On the desktop, we use Moneydance for accounting. We use Microsoft Word under the CodeWeavers CrossOver Office, and OpenOffice.org for spreadsheets and presentations. We use the GIMP for graphics and Quanta and Bluefish for editing Web pages. We prepare our payroll with PayCycle. On the server side we keep media lists on MySQL using the phpMyAdmin front end. We wish we had an Access-like front end to MySQL so we could quickly write more complex apps. Finally, we use our own Jaya123 Web service to run order entry, reporting, and invoicing.

However, there was no acceptable way to do taxes on Linux. The software we tried did not run well under CrossOver Office, Wine, or Win2Lin.

This year we did our personal taxes online using TaxAct. For our corporate 1120 forms we used the IRS fill-in forms with the new Adobe Reader 7.0 for Linux. This was not as optimal as using tax software, but small corporate taxes are easy, and preparing them via fill-in forms was not difficult. Maybe next year there will be an online service for small business 1120 forms that works with Firefox under Linux; today most require Internet Explorer.”

MercuryNews.com | 05/12/2005 | Worldwide `spam gang’ is shut down

MercuryNews.com | 05/12/2005 | Worldwide `spam gang’ is shut down: “Worldwide `spam gang’ is shut down

MICROSOFT AIDED PROBE BY MASSACHUSETTS OFFICIALS

By John Boudreau

Mercury News

A Massachusetts judge Wednesday ordered what authorities are calling one of the world’s largest “spam gangs” to shut down.

The move followed a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, which alleges the operation broke the federal anti-spam law, “CAN-SPAM,” enacted in 2003.

The nine-month investigation, which was assisted by Microsoft, uncovered a worldwide operation that sends out hundreds of millions of illegal spam pitches a month, as well as advertising for fraudulent products, said Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly.

It was another example of Microsoft teaming up with law enforcement to crack down on illegal e-mail activities, which Microsoft sees as a threat to consumer confidence in its products. Spam accounts for at least 50 percent of e-mail, by some estimates.

The targeted organization is “one of the largest spam gangs in this country, if not the world,” Reilly said.”

Xbox specs revealed | CNET News.com

Xbox specs revealed | CNET News.com: “Xbox specs revealed

By CNET News.com Staff
http://news.com.com/Xbox+specs+revealed/2100-1043_3-5705372.html

Story last modified Thu May 12 18:30:00 PDT 2005

A 20GB hard drive, high-def game support and a 500MHz ATI graphics processor: Glimpse the Xbox 360’s system performance specifications as provided by Microsoft.

Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU
• Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
• Two hardware threads per core; six hardware threads total
• VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total
• 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
• 1 MB L2 cache

CPU Game Math Performance
• 9 billion dot product operations per second

Custom ATI Graphics Processor
• 500MHz processor
• 10 MB of embedded DRAM
• 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines
• Unified shader architecture

Polygon Performance
• 500 million triangles per second

Pixel Fill Rate
• 16 gigasamples per second fill rate using 4x MSAA

Shader Performance
• 48 billion shader operations per second

Memory
• 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM
• 700 MHz of DDR
• Unified memory architecture

Memory Bandwidth • 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
• 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
• 21.6 GB/s front-side bus

Overall System Floating-Point Performance
• 1 teraflop

Storage
• Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive
• 12x dual-layer DVD-ROM
• Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB

I/O
• Support for up to four wireless game controllers
• Three USB 2.0 ports
• Two memory unit slots

Optimized for Online
• Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features with broadband service, including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, gamer profile for digital identity, and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching movies or listening to music
• Built-in Ethernet port
• Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g
• Video camera ready

Digital Media Support
• Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/R”

Senate approves electronic ID card bill | CNET News.com

Senate approves electronic ID card bill | CNET News.com: “Last-minute attempts by online activists to halt an electronic ID card failed Tuesday when the U.S. Senate unanimously voted to impose a sweeping set of identification requirements on Americans.

The so-called Real ID Act now heads to President Bush, who is expected to sign the bill into law this month. Its backers, including the Bush administration, say it’s needed to stop illegal immigrants from obtaining drivers’ licenses.

If the act’s mandates take effect in May 2008, as expected, Americans will be required to obtain federally approved ID cards with ‘machine readable technology’ that abides by Department of Homeland Security specifications. Anyone without such an ID card will be effectively prohibited from traveling by air or Amtrak, opening a bank account, or entering federal buildings.

After the Real ID Act’s sponsors glued it to an Iraq military spending bill, final passage was all but guaranteed. Yet that didn’t stop a dedicated cadre of privacy activists from trying to raise the alarm in the last few days.”

Power Supply Trouble Shooting

“Troubleshooting The Case And Power Supply is easier than you think

The Case?

Yes, I said the case, this doesn’t require much troubleshooting nor does it go bad that often. The most common problems is just its ugly and maybe out of style. One component of the case that will and does go bad is the power supply. So what can you do when it goes bad? Replace it, or buy a new case with a new power supply installed.

-Common Problems, this can confuse you if the power supply does go bad. One of the most common things to happen is just strange errors with your computer. You may have software glitches, hardware, and any other act’s of Satan. So how can you evaluate what the problem is and narrow it down to a power problem? This is done mostly by trial and error. Checking something as simple as a power problem can save you money down the road simply by not having to replace hardware to see if the problem is fixed. Never underestimate the value of your power supply! Here are some common symptoms of power supply problems.

-Flickering and Dimming Lights

-Keyboard or System lock-ups (Don’t Blame Windows)

-Random Shutdowns and Reboots

-Again, don’t underestimate the power supply. Who is to say its not the Operating System that has caused you failures? Check some things out before spending money on parts. If you know and have identified this as a problem think about a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies). This can also solve under powerment. Also think about how many devices are hooked up to one circuit in your system. If you have some power hogs taking up the juice you need this could be a problem. For the most part power problems can be caught if it just flickering or dimming lights. We all know this one, but random shut downs can really throw you for a loop.

-Now what are some very common signs of the power supply is going to fail on you? This is pretty much common sense and you can miss it.

-Fan Noise has become excessive

-No Fan Noise

-The Power Supply Chassis is extremely hot

-This power supply being extremely hot to the touch is not a good sign. It wont be long before you have some potential problems. I would start to worry about this one. You don’t want a fire hazard on your hands anytime soon.

-Another thing, do not attempt to mess with the insides of a power supply. This can kill you and does not need repair! Replace it! Even if the fan is bad, simply replace the whole supply. They are cheap enough so don’t put yourself through a bunch of heartache.

-In these modern times power supplies aren’t something you ignore. I’ve had a few bad experiences with power supplies blowing up on me and taking out my motherboard with it. With new graphics cards requiring a power source from the power supply I would recommend a 480w minimum.

-One more thing , do not buy a cheap unbranded power supply, you will only regret it later on (hint from above power supplies blowing up). Some quality well known manufactures of power supplies are as follows: Antec, Tagen, Enermax, OCZ, or another brand with a good reputation.