I agree with you. As a developer, here are some of the things I cannot tolerate about iPhone/iPad/etc. as compared to my MacBook:

- No root access.
- Locked down "developer rights" (I have to pay Apple $100/year just to make apps for *my* own device).
- App store only gallery for apps (I cannot put my app on my own website, for example).
- Many others like limited APIs and restrictions on what I can use to develop apps.

So other developers scoff at you and claim that if Apple starts implementing these types of things for Macbooks, that developers will switch over to Linux, no big deal. But keep this in mind: we developers are outnumbered by a vast amount. Web developers grudgingly have to support Internet Explorer because it's the most used browser, and likewise we'll have to support Mac if it becomes this huge monster like iPhone has, whether we want to or not. That makes getting away from Apple and Macs difficult.

http://github.com/spinkham/skipfish

... if you're not prepared to be Slashdotted. What did you think was going to happen?

Internet Explorer is fastest only on Facebook and Yahoo!'s websites (both very popular websites and partners of Microsoft)? This is probably just a coincidence, but I've heard rumors before of MS inserting special code for, say, the Acid3 Test. Probably just paranoia ...

I did some freelance work for about $4k last Xmas and it ended up costing me $1,500 in taxes. That's higher than the tax on my salary. Plus getting insurance without the help from a corporation and its shared discount is unbelievably expensive.

I've been using that for a while now, it's great! I'm often googling for web development results, and I always always X w3schools.com (old, outdated into). I think Sark666 is saying it would be nice to remove results from entire domains. I'd love that too, because then I could just click once and be done with it.

Most of the US nerds like me probably have infinite data plans on their mobile devices, spending ~$80/month.

Personally I'm not just bored by regular news, I also often find it depressing. All I follow is technology news, because that's what I find interesting and what I want to occupy most of my time.

News is mostly entertainment anyway; you will hear about the *really* important stuff from friends or relatives.

I wouldn't be so sure that Apple is profiting at $200 per iPod. Maybe, but hardware manufacturers (see Sony's lower PS3 price) first need time to increase manufacturing efficiency to lower the price, and they are sometimes willing to take a hit because of the software (or songs, apps, etc.) that can then be sold on the device. So although Sony might not profit from each PS3 sold, they can make up the difference from all the games you buy.

I'd guess that's been how Apple sells their (handheld) hardware for decent prices.

Yup. We sometimes had some weird rules like that back in the midwest. But in Silicon Valley, engineers are king. If a manager of mine said that to me now, I'd laugh. If s/he was serious, I'd almost immediately move jobs.

To solve that problem, move somewhere that "gets" programmers (Boston, San Francisco and New York are other good places). After that, I highly recommend catchy, thumpy music without vocals. I listen to the house or progressive channels on Digitally Imported all day, personally.

I'm not bitching here, I promise: I am legitimately curious. I've played dozens of games like this and I know people who make games like this who would LOVE to get their game on Slashdot.

So what am I missing? How is this different or unique enough to justify a Slashdot posting? ... Anybody?

I've heard this argument before: I use music production software like Cubase that allows plugins called VSTs. They often are the cause for the entire application crashing and sometimes lots of work lost. The thing is, other applications (some would cite Apple's Logic) would not crash even when using the same VSTs, because they had more intelligent plugin architecture to help prevent crashes from 3rd party software. Firefox should do the same.

I'm a HUGE Firefox fan -- I've converted or tried to convert everyone I know that wasn't already a user in the last 5 years or so. I've got three Mozilla shirts, countless stickers, hats ... and I'm still losing my faith in the entire platform. Firebug is probably my biggest headache point right now, so those developers definitely need to get their shit together. But it could also be argued that Firefox is the source of truth and could provide improved crash prevention.

Most optimal answer! You win!

Srsly. Been there, done that. What's next?

Yup, Yahoo! did this for a long time when I was there; it was to help prevent naturally-occurring fires.

... But, it's Google, and anything they do belongs on the Slashdot homepage for some reason *yawn*