Ok..so who made the phone? Samsung? LG? HTC? Or were you lucky enough to get a Google Nexus device?

Who sold it to you? Verizon? T-Mobile? AT&T? Sprint?

Oh..did you go to a box retailer to get your phone like RadioShack, BestBuy, or Walmart? Guess what, you still bought your phone from Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T or Sprint (US centric). The box retailers only get authorization to sell the devices from the Carriers and beyond a "service plan" for replacing the phone when it's broken, have no obligation for OS support. If a box store sells a phone in a manner against the contract agreement the store has with the carrier, even if the end purchaser keeps the phone and maintains good standing on contract he signed in the store, the carrier will bill the store for the full price of the phone that was sold "improperly" and a negation of whatever subsidies the Carrier promised the store for said phone/activation in a procedure called "Charge-backs." I know that at least with Sprint, these Charge-Backs will occur if the end purchaser winds up canceling his contract within 6 months.

The Carriers get and give authorization from/for the device manufacturers to build phones for them (it's a contract negotiation back and forth). Google pushes out an update to the Manufacturers who have to make the drivers for the update to work with their hardware, then the Manufacturers submit the updated OS to the Carrier, and from there it's up to the Carriers to decide (historically: ignore) whether or not the update gets pushed to the end devices.

At least this is how it was until KitKat (4.4). With KitKat Google took back a significant amount of control over how OS updates get pushed out by putting most of the core OS functionality into the GooglePlayServices.apk. Now the only time Google needs to submit an update to a carrier is if there's a major patch issue that needs to be addressed between the operating system and the hardware. All other operating system and security upgrades are pushed through the Play Store from here on, bypassing the Manufacturer and Carrier update process altogether. They did this simply because Fragmentation was becoming such a big problem and Google wanted to get a handle on it. Knowing this...why would Google want to try to push an update out to an OS that they have so little control over compared to the current versions, especially considering that it's more than likely the update wouldn't even be pushed out to the end devices? Fortunately or Unfortunately, the other side of this is that KitKat has become the rut for Google that XP was for Microsoft, and it may be a couple OS versions still before people move from KitKat to the new shiny.

BWAA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!! I needed that laugh! There's more likely a *possibility* that a large enough asteroid would strike mercury and push it into the Sun, causing a massive chain reaction that engulfs the Earth and ends its existence within the next 100 years, and Google knows it.

Seriously, we're talking about carriers take months to put out a minor revision as an update to the phones (Jelly Bean to KitKat), let alone even pay attention to a build revision. The affected devices are either new and powerful enough to run Kit Kat, and thus would more likely get that update as opposed to a minor build update; or they're old and weak enough that the carrier is going to try to push you into a new phone that can handle KitKat / Lollipop. There's no middle ground or incentive with them for pushing out a small build revision. So, why waste the manpower / devtime on a patch when the carriers' track record has already proven that they won't even consider rolling it?

Were you thinking of R.C. Pro Am instead of Rad Racer? The Rad Racer series was actually developed by Square before they came out with the better known game franchise that saved them from bankruptcy (and that they've milked to death and back ever since).

That again!

Why did I need your permission, exactly?

Slashdot posted 9/11. I was here for that. And while yes, I do concede that was an event that shook not just just the US but the entire World to its core and needed to be posted here, not every military/terrorist event since then that made its way to the pages of /. needed to. This was what I was afraid of, and even CmdrTaco had reservations about posting it: http://slashdot.org/story/01/0...">http://slashdot.org/story/01/09/11/1314258/world-trade-towers-and-pentagon-attacked. Most notably his line: "Normally I wouldn't consider posting this on Slashdot, but I'm making an exception this time because I can't get news through any of the conventional websites, and I assume I'm not alone." He had reason to make the post, even given his reservations. Unfortunately, the other editors of /. and even Mr. Taco himself began making more and more posts that weren't necessarily relevant to the geek culture.

Compared to the WTC event which was heard and felt around the world with the loss of 3,000 international lives in a single coordinated terrorist event, this is a minor event that has so far has taken 14 lives (not including the terrorists themselves). Even if these events were happening in the US, I'd still be groaning when this story hit the front page on /. This is already being covered by CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and others out there... I don't need to see it here too. There's plenty of "terrorist/counter-terrorist" activities that would qualify to make the front page here, as they involve the dark side of the tech we work with. There isn't anything here that can link back to this Tech...except for maybe the computers the Satirists used to publish their work...

One can hope that the trend would be gradual enough that the state could come up with an alternate source or revenue for education before a crisis (not holding my breath on that one). That said at the risk of getting flamed:

This is Georgia we're talking about. Home of Redneck Games, Honey Boo Boo (Christ I used to live not 5 minutes from the neighborhood she moved to), and the general mentality among the up-and-coming youth that Construction or other forms of manual labor is the best employer (still). Yeah, in larger metros like Atlanta, Athens, and less so in Savannah, you have some big growth in technical and commercial industry; but if you get out into more suburban areas (Albany, Brunswick, Macon, Waycross) this tech mentality drops off a cliff, though there's still a baseline that the office job allows for a certain level of convenience. If you go even further out into rural Georgia... tech? What's that? Well...except for the EMC situation we have which gave the "hicks" 2 benefits: Lots and lots of manual labor that they love, and fast broadband internet to enjoy in the downtime. You can go even farther out into the Georgia boonies and things will get survivalist surreal REAL quick. These are the areas where water is from wells, sewer is the outhouse, power is from waterwheels or windmills...and that's about it. Good luck even getting Phone service. There are some areas out in the boonies of Georgia that make "Deliverance" look like a light-hearted bedtime story.

Somewhat ironically, in the areas of rural (not boony) Georgia that the Cable/DSL companies have written off, the local regional Electric Membership Co-Ops have taken over the installation of Fiber to the Home and started feeding 10mbps + broadband to the homes bundled with Electric, Television, and Phone service. This is probably what scared the incumbent providers into upping the service level of their offerings in their territories the most: While EMC's aren't known for their great electrical service rates, the other services in the bundle were costing customers a fraction of what the cable providers were, for what amounted to twice as much bandwidth or more, and 600+ channels (all HD) for the price of what cable was providing for their 2nd lowest tier (abt 70 SDTV channels).

I also remember that under that model, I could pay the telephone company about $20 for basic service (the line connection), title II taxes included, and an additional $20 to my choice of about 14 ISPs who all had to compete to ensure they had the best uptime, largest modem banks, and most available services for the value. It wasn't fast by the standards of what we have today by any means, but damnit, I could run my servers from my house unhindered! I can do this with Cox now...but I'm also coughing up 4 times as much dough over it.. and I've got no one else to go to. Excuse me there's Windstream for 3/4 the price and 3/50ths the speed...and locked down where I can't run my servers without using non-standard ports and tunnels.

Nothing of what I said was to indicate a problem with C# itself. It was to showcase why HR departments would be hesitant to hire someone who presumably hasn't touched C# in a professional environment in the last 2 years; especially when you consider that going into an interview you are directly competing with people who have (supposedly) been in the thick of C# and rolling with its changes consistently for the past 5-10.

Also, you seem to misunderstand me. Just because my knowledge of the old and arcane gives me a little extra green to work with than most everyone else at my level on this side of the hall, and co-workers are more than happy to have me build a few (very few) small applications for the Mainframe to bypass some tape, doesn't mean that I am a COBOL or C++ developer. 97% of my code for the company is C#, and that's the way I like it (I'd like it better if they'd give me the 20% leeway like Google does where I can work on my own side projects...but luxuries notwithstanding). For my hobbies, that's where I like to get into the old and/or low level tech, playing around with assembly, building microcontrollers, building linux for the microcontrollers... using assembly to turn on LEDs using the microcontrollers... fixing/maintaining/accessorizing my bikes (using projects built with the microcontrollers)...building Arc reactors...robot armies. You know, the normal things for hobbies.

As far as my company's philosophies go, we tend to favor truly Legacy equipment. This is because upper IT management consists entirely of those who were promoted off of Mainframe development so they required a bit of convincing to approve of our team extending content management into a new paradigm (excuse the buzzword, but in this instance it fits best. The direction we advocated for, and now have the approval to move in, is a huge departure from the momentum and philosophy of the rest of the company). As such, as a team we decided to target the newest possible frameworks (at the time we started) for mostly brand new applications to mitigate the level of obsolescence we face when we come out of the gates with the new production systems that will still rely heavily on data stored and processed on our current(Server 2k8) and Mainframe(30 year old AIX) systems.

And I actually just got the chance to look at the code for the application (essentially a logger with email and database functionality) that we are porting from the current system to the R&D one. It turns out that it was a bad example to use in this case and for that I apologize. The application was written in VisualBasic for .NET 2.0. It was initially written at a time when the Windows side of the company had the requirements that everything had to be in VB. Our team convinced management to start permitting the use of C# and took initiative to start updating existing applications to use the language and incorporate additional features that weren't implemented in the current versions. Because the logger is stable and works perfectly to what's needed, it has thus far been overlooked, and we are probably going to re-write it to be a better fit to the new environment once everything else is in place and more time is available to put into it.

PowerBall
Mega Millions
Fantasy 5
Georgia Five
Cash4
Cash3
Keno
All Or Nothing
Numerous Scratch offs
Giant Redneck / Poor / Elderly Population / Hopeful Middle-Aged
Daily media of all sorts decrying that all these proceeds will go straight to the HOPE Scholarship program

I don't think this will be a problem in the foreseeable future. The beast must be fed; the beast knows how to get its food.

Bah. Cynical. I'm benefitting directly from this now, and I am no where's near the level of a CIO. The community at large here benefits in this college town because the bandwidth demands of the local colleges (3 within this town alone; 2 of which are part of the USG; and I'm not even including the campuses/offices for the local presence of Virginia Tech and University of Phoenix) as well as the demands of local students to be able to communicate large amounts of audio/video data (legitimate video conferencing, telephony, and video tutorial streaming for classes; not even accounting for frivolous use which pushes the demand even higher) has forced the local cable company (Cox Communications) to quadruple EVERYONE'S bandwidth allotment without raising rates (at least they haven't yet and we're going on the second month since the service upgrade). The base tier was getting advertised 6mb/s average with max speed rates roughly 12mb/s at low demand times. The base has been upgraded to 25mb/s advertised with 40-50mb/s burst/low demand. My own tier was the second best I could get for residential service: 25mb/s advertised, but because I live in an area where there's not many other people that use this tier, my average speed was in the neighborhood of 40-60mb/s (tested based on time it took to download a 16GB garbage file stored on a remote server owned and controlled by myself). After the upgrade my advertised has jumped to 100mb/s, though my average bandwidth using the same testing method above is only around 110-125mb/s. Now all they have to do is raise the soft cap and I can truly say that for a cable company they're pretty decent, at least compared to the horror stories from Comcast.

And if you want to hear about the students who benefit? If they use the campus network, or connect to it through their dorm connection, they are already benefiting from all the bandwidth available to the college... and it's only growing.

Oh, and all this bandwidth growth hasn't been paid for from the tax pool (income tax or sales tax). It's been paid for by Compulsive Gamblers and Students.

Also, considering that the Georgia Lottery profits goes to the HOPE Scholarship program that pays for the tuition of eligible students, and a good portion of Georgia Resident students are eligible providing a minimum performance level, as well as any surplus in the program that doesn't go into making a bigger pot is automatically deferred to projects such as this, means that at least a very sizable portion of this infrastructure has been paid for by the troves of compulsive gamblers here waiting to hit "the big payout." Thank you compulsive gamblers! Your vice has paved the way for better communications infrastructure for our state! So much so that Cox Communications just laid out a bandwidth boost to all its customers in this college town (if not throughout its Georgia Service Area) to try to compete (I now get 100mbits for the price I was paying for 25mbits last month).

Making certain assumptions and estimations about the size of the microSD (presuming 64GB), the number of microSD cards that could fit on the face of an average sized playing card (estimating a 10 by 7 grid of them), and basing the volume of playing cards WolframAlpha states can fit in a 5 gallon bucket (about 12k)... an estimation of the bandwidth is ~51.5 PB * speed/distance. So the bandwidth to go from one town to the next at the normal highway speed limit here is roughly 120 PB / hour or 34 TB/s

The fiber is paid for and managed/maintained by the Georgia Lottery and the "Technology Use Fees" which are in turn paid for by compulsive gamblers and Students attending University System of Georgia schools, respectively. Very little of this technology, if any of it, is paid for by taxpayers directly. Though, what I find funny is that while the high technology is provided for, teachers in public and private schools have to be the ones to purchase the Kleenex, pencils, paper, etc for the students to use during the year out of their own pockets.

There's nothing wrong with the high level stuff, reusable libraries, cut and paste from stack exchange, etc when you have deadlines on deliverables and just want to use programming as an income. If you want to actually learn and understand the underlying science of what you're doing, be it Computer Science, Electronics Science, or some blending between the two, there really is no substitute for the "bare metal" from scratch building. I agree that the "stop calling it programming" part is a disservice, because the high level quick stuff is still programming, by its very definition... but it's no where near the level of learning and understanding that comes from the core low level concepts.

Here I thought he meant the Americans with Disabilities Act...