Comment Re:wtf (Score 1) 116
Sounds like people have acclimated to Microsoft retail releases being more like public betas.
If Google made non-business users pay for Apps, would people be more tolerant of "beta testing"?
Comment Paedofinder General! (Score 1) 387
Comment VHS is a factor, too. (Score 2, Insightful) 685
I haven't even finished replacing all of the VHS tapes I own with DVD. The VHS tapes still work. What makes them think I want to be updating from two different working formats, simultaneously? To a format that is substantially compromised with DRM, and that they'll want me to upgrade from in about five to ten years?
Planned obsolescence is not a sustainable strategy, culturally, economically or environmentally.
Obama Proposes High-Speed Rail System For the US 1385
fantomas writes "The BBC reports that 'US President Barack Obama has announced his "vision for high-speed rail" in the country, which would create jobs, ease congestion and save energy.' Can rail work in the land where the car is king? Would you travel on the new high speed lines?"
Lose Your Amazon Account and Your Kindle Dies 419
Mike writes "If you buy a Kindle and some Kindle ebooks from Amazon, be careful of returning items. Amazon decided that one person had returned too many things, so they suspended his Amazon account, which meant that he could no longer buy any Kindle books, and any Kindle subscriptions he's paid for stop working. After some phone calls, Amazon granted him a one-time exception and reactivated his account again." Take this with as much salt as you'd like.
Comment This is not a solution. (Score 2, Insightful) 355
This is postponing the problem until some future generation has to fix not only the original problem, but also the problem created by this "fix".
I'd hate to be alive for that, and I have a feeling I will be. We're suckers.
Comment Re:I don't understand antitrust suits (Score 1) 241
I've yet to see a prompt to install Chrome, anywhere. I haven't seen a prompt for it when using Google Updater. Chrome is not currently on my computer. Chrome has not been tied to any Google services I use, so using Google does not obligate me to use Chrome. If I don't want to use some portion of Google's software and/or services, I remove the software from my computer and stop using the web based service.
I don't see the similarity to Microsoft and the way it used its desktop dominance to drive IE installs.
I, of course, may be wrong. Someone else may have experienced Google Chrome otherwise.
Might want to ask Dennis.
Microsoft Says Free Software Violates 235 Patents 1217
prostoalex writes "Microsoft told Fortune magazine that various free software products violate at least 235 patents, and it's time to expect users of this software to pay up patent licensing royalties: 'Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith and licensing chief Horacio Gutierrez sat down with Fortune recently to map out their strategy for getting FOSS users to pay royalties. Revealing the precise figure for the first time, they state that FOSS infringes on no fewer than 235 Microsoft patents.'"
Conservative Sarkozy Wins Presidency of France 962
Reader reporter tips us to a story just up at the NYTimes reporting that the tough-talking conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has won election as the president of France. His opponent, Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal, the first woman to get as far as the runoff in a presidential contest in France, has conceded defeat. The vote went 53% to Sarkozy and the turnout was a remarkable (by American standards) 85% of registered voters. Sarkozy is seen as a divisive figure for his demand that immigrants learn Western values (and the French language).
Submission + - Stop breathing save the planet
gingerbread-girl writes: Scientists at the University of Bristol have cracked climate change. Less than a month into Richard Branson's five-year competition, academics will take their winning idea to Virgin Earth and walk away with a cool $25 million.
The solution, published online by The Journal of Unlikely Science, is remarkably simple, requiring no technological wizardry or financial investment. It is quite simply, stop breathing; or at least breathe less...
"If we merely cut out one breath in three, we could decrease the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere each year by a staggering 0.63 gigatonnes. That's the same effect as saving 5 million acres of land (an area the size of Wales) from deforestation."
http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/science/strange-b ut-true/profs-probings/carbon_virgin_earth_climate _breathing
Submission + - World wide shutdown is early stages of planning...
zoftie writes: Many people are planning to shut their computers off for entire day on March 24th. Shutdown Day website already went over 25000 people who are committed to spending their day free of their electronic pacifier, feeding tube however you want to describe your relationship to your computer(s). Being in IT industry for a while this leads on to one question, what is the consequence of such act, and what does it ask of us beyond turning off the computer.
Feed Diebold Weighs Voting Unit Future (wired.com)
Submission + - Government gaffe helps NSA Wiretapping Case
titotitozzz writes: "Ryan Singel at Wired reports:
It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil.
Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked top secret.
And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls.
You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means.
Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.
The case has been added to the EFF's wiretapping suit against AT&T. It may circumvent the government's present circular argument that the current plaintiffs have no documentation which proves that they are being surveilled and that the government doesn't have to provide said documentation because it would be considered a 'state secret' (and therefore inadmissible in court)."
The case has been added to the EFF's wiretapping suit against AT&T. It may circumvent the government's present circular argument that the current plaintiffs have no documentation which proves that they are being surveilled and that the government doesn't have to provide said documentation because it would be considered a 'state secret' (and therefore inadmissible in court)."
Submission + - Copyright law used to shut down anti-coal site
driptray writes: The Sydney Morning Herald reports that an Australian mining industry group has used copyright laws to close a website that parodied a coal industry ad campaign. A group known as Rising Tide created the website using the slogan "Rising sea levels: brought to you by mining" in response to the mining industry's slogan of "Life: brought to you by mining". The mining industry claimed that the "content and layout" of the parody site infringed copyright, but when Rising Tide removed the copyrighted photos and changed the layout, the mining industry still lodged a complaint. Is this a misuse of copyright law in order to stifle dissent?
Submission + - Vista activation circumvented with BIOS emulation
Steve Kerrison writes: "If a brute force Vista product key-gen won't work, then a tool to exploit the volume licensing used by OEMs might. HEXUS.net reports that a toolkit has been produced that emulates an OEM BIOS to make the system appear as a pre-activated machine. Combined with the correct certificate and OEM key, Vista won't perform any further activation."
