Comment Re:FFV1, you insensitive clod! (Score 1) 392
> What else could possibly be needed?
Sane quality/bandwidth ratio, perhaps?
Sane quality/bandwidth ratio, perhaps?
Comment Re:You forgot (Score 3, Funny) 301
You forgot a few:
[--]VI vs. EMACS [--]
etc.
No, he didn't forget that. You see, he wrote:
(...Or is this an eternal, undecidable holy-war question along the lines of ATI/nVidia, AMD/Intel, Coke/Pepsi, etc...?)
... and it's quite clear that VI is the winner.
Submission + - Finnish Court Throws E-Voting Results Out
tommituura writes: Elections to be rebooted in three municipalities where e-voting was piloted.
As noted some time earlier, the recent Finnish foray into e-voting went not so much as planned (nefarious conspiracies notwithstanding), but very much like everywhere else, in other words, like a fiasco. Now, after Helsinki District Administrative Court decided that 2% vote loss and other problems in the system were acceptable and did not warrant any real measures, appeal to Supreme Administrative Court seems to have brought about some sanity into situation. In short, the Court decided that votes were not counted as they should have been, and since there was not any kind of paper trail and a meaningful recount is therefore impossible, the whole voting process must be done again to make sure that those three municipalities where e-voting was piloted get council that actually represents the wishes of voters. I guess it's a good thing this decision was made now, when it effects "only" few tens of thousands of people... a press release from Turre, a legal firm assisting sanity is also available.
As noted some time earlier, the recent Finnish foray into e-voting went not so much as planned (nefarious conspiracies notwithstanding), but very much like everywhere else, in other words, like a fiasco. Now, after Helsinki District Administrative Court decided that 2% vote loss and other problems in the system were acceptable and did not warrant any real measures, appeal to Supreme Administrative Court seems to have brought about some sanity into situation. In short, the Court decided that votes were not counted as they should have been, and since there was not any kind of paper trail and a meaningful recount is therefore impossible, the whole voting process must be done again to make sure that those three municipalities where e-voting was piloted get council that actually represents the wishes of voters. I guess it's a good thing this decision was made now, when it effects "only" few tens of thousands of people... a press release from Turre, a legal firm assisting sanity is also available.
Comment Today is a good day for... (Score 1) 187
pining for the fjords.
Comment Re:No Pity/Sucks to be them. (Score 1) 146
There is NOTHING preventing people from selling music that plays on the iPod, UNLESS you want DRM - then you're stuck with Apple.
No DRM, no Apple control.
It really is not that simple... Because, for most people, the iTunes integration as both the place people can buy music and the only tool that can reliably sync and interoperate with iPods' music directory/database is the killer feature. Yeah, there are opensource projects trying to sync with iPods in order to let oss people use iPods, but Apple is notorious with breaking them with iPod firmware/iTunes updates. Why? Apple is using their dominance with portable music players to keep the competition away from the downloadable music market. Or vice versa. YEAH YEAH, I KNOW you can import non-drm music from any source into your iTunes Music Library and put that into iPod. But it is an additional hassle. And when it comes to the masses, they will not put up with the hassle unless they have a really good reason to do so. And no, having their music in FLAC or cutting down the price, like 30-50 cents apiece, is just not worth it for most consumers.
If the other digital music retailers really want to have any hope of beating Apple, they really need to figure out how to beat the end-user experience while working with the iPod. That would mean they have to somehow magically hook into iPod and probably into iTunes music library for most people.
It really is not that simple... Because, for most people, the iTunes integration as both the place people can buy music and the only tool that can reliably sync and interoperate with iPods' music directory/database is the killer feature. Yeah, there are opensource projects trying to sync with iPods in order to let oss people use iPods, but Apple is notorious with breaking them with iPod firmware/iTunes updates. Why? Apple is using their dominance with portable music players to keep the competition away from the downloadable music market. Or vice versa. YEAH YEAH, I KNOW you can import non-drm music from any source into your iTunes Music Library and put that into iPod. But it is an additional hassle. And when it comes to the masses, they will not put up with the hassle unless they have a really good reason to do so. And no, having their music in FLAC or cutting down the price, like 30-50 cents apiece, is just not worth it for most consumers.
If the other digital music retailers really want to have any hope of beating Apple, they really need to figure out how to beat the end-user experience while working with the iPod. That would mean they have to somehow magically hook into iPod and probably into iTunes music library for most people.
Anyone Besides Zune Owners With New Year's Crashes? 480
aputerguy writes "My Fedora 8 Linux server crashed sometime between 18:59:40 EST (GMT -5:00) and 19:00:00 EST (GMT -5:00) on Dec 31, 2008 which remarkably corresponds to within at most 20 seconds of the New Year in GMT. I have been running this same hardware non-stop for more than six years and other than the occasional reboot for kernel (or distro) upgrades, it has not crashed more than 1 or 2 times in 2237 days of cumulative uptime. Nothing other than background processes were running at the time of the crash. Could this be a coincidence or was there some 2008/2009 rollover issue going on here? Has anyone (other than Zune 30GB owners) noticed similar year-end issues with their computers or electronic devices?"
Comment Re:$30? Seriously? (Score 1) 216
Isn't the R4 out of production now?
I'd buy a DSTT or Acekard2.1
And don't these things some how suck up more battery life? (but how much are we talking, and what about things like the M3 Perfect?)
As an AK2.1 owner, I have found it somewhat does. OTOH, I also found that remembering to set the light into dimmer in AK menu helps quite a bit. I felt little dumbfounded when I realized AK menu always defaults the background light into max regardless of what was set up in the DS main menu. I haven't even searched, really, for a way to set it to default at other settings. Anyway, since I always remember to set the light to lowest or second-to-lowest setting, I have not had any real problems with battery life. Of course, I'm not that mobile a person so YMMV. I also live in Finland and it's dark here now in winter so it's easy for me to use low light levels. Come summer and sunshine, and this might be a problem.
Obama's "ZuneGate" 608
theodp writes "Barack Obama supporters were left shaking their heads after a report surfaced that the president-elect was using a Zune at the gym instead of an iPod. So why would Mac-user Obama be Zune-ing out? Could be one of those special-edition preloaded Zunes that Microsoft bestowed on Democratic National Convention attendees, suggests TechFlash, nixing the idea that the soon-to-be Leader of the Free World would waste time loading Parallels or Boot Camp in OS X just to use a Zune."
Submission + - "Bob's Game" - Huge indie DS game made by (youtube.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: I'm surprised this isn't on Slashdot already!
Check out this massive Nintendo DS homebrew, a 20-hour-long retail quality adventure game, single-handedly created by 25 year old independent developer Robert Pelloni.
Picked up on several gaming news outlets within days, the YouTube page has been flooded with views and comments over the past few days, despite being a simple tech demonstration of assets and feature.
So what's so interesting about it?
Tentatively titled "Bob's Game," Robert says he's spent 15,000 hours on it over 5 years, starting on the GBA in 2003 and working full-time ever since.
The game concept is described as "a simple 2D adventure game- like an RPG, but without the repetitive battles. instead, there is more focus on story, puzzles, and communication- many characters have deep personalities that evolve, and many events depend on the in-game time and day."
The dedication Robert has put into the project seems to captivate with its serene atmosphere and quirky personality, and the viewers of his demo are almost rabidly backing the project, demanding for publishers to pick it up.
Robert's main page can be found at http://www.bobsgame.com, where he sums it up himself in a single sentence: "It's the game I wanted to play when I was younger, a vision I've been following since then."
Check out this massive Nintendo DS homebrew, a 20-hour-long retail quality adventure game, single-handedly created by 25 year old independent developer Robert Pelloni.
Picked up on several gaming news outlets within days, the YouTube page has been flooded with views and comments over the past few days, despite being a simple tech demonstration of assets and feature.
So what's so interesting about it?
Tentatively titled "Bob's Game," Robert says he's spent 15,000 hours on it over 5 years, starting on the GBA in 2003 and working full-time ever since.
The game concept is described as "a simple 2D adventure game- like an RPG, but without the repetitive battles. instead, there is more focus on story, puzzles, and communication- many characters have deep personalities that evolve, and many events depend on the in-game time and day."
The dedication Robert has put into the project seems to captivate with its serene atmosphere and quirky personality, and the viewers of his demo are almost rabidly backing the project, demanding for publishers to pick it up.
Robert's main page can be found at http://www.bobsgame.com, where he sums it up himself in a single sentence: "It's the game I wanted to play when I was younger, a vision I've been following since then."
