Comment Re:Lies! (Score 2) 164
Sounds like another instance of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
Ask Slashdot: Most Secure Mobile OS? 291
Lexta writes "So I'm contemplating my next smartphone purchase, and I've been a little put off by all of the security exploits posted on Slashdot over the last few months, particularly for Android. So, what's the most secure stock standard (not jailbroken) mobile OS?"
What's Not To Like About New iPad? 617
Hugh Pickens writes "With 3 million sold over the last week what's not to like about the new iPad? Michelle Maltais at the LA Times does a good job of putting together a compendium of gripes about the new device, justified or otherwise. Most people thought that Siri on the new iPad was a gimme; instead it has a scaled back version — dictation. 'If you want Siri, buy an iPhone. Plain and simple.' The new iPad is a little heavier than the iPad 2, thanks to the better graphics processor and more powerful battery. At one-tenth of a pound heavier that really doesn't sound like much, but it can start to matter if you hold your iPad in one hand for long periods or have any kind of repetitive stress injury. Apps designed for Retina display can be up to five times bigger and it's not just a problem for owners of the new iPad. Legacy owners of the original and iPad 2 who have these apps get to feel the pain too, since updates aren't device specific." The list continues, below.
Schmidt: Google Once Considered Issuing Currency 189
itwbennett writes "In his keynote speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said the company once 'had various proposals to have [its] own currency [it was] going to call Google Bucks.' The idea was to implement a 'peer-to-peer money' system, but it was squelched by legal issues."
Ask Slashdot: Making JavaScript Tolerable For a Dyed-in-the-Wool C/C++/Java Guy? 575
DocDyson writes "I'm a dyed-in-the-wool C/C++/Java developer with over 20 years of experience. I'm making a good living and having fun doing back-end Java work right now, but I strongly believe in being a generalist, so I'm finally trying to learn the HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript future of the Web. However, I find JavaScript's weak typing and dynamic nature difficult to adapt to because I'm so used to strongly-typed, compiled languages with lots of compile-time error-checking and help from the IDE. Does anyone out there who has made this transition have any tips in terms of the best tools and libraries to use to make JavaScript more palatable to us old-school developers?"
Comment Re:In works within the EU... (Score 1) 949
EU members have passed extensive tax harmonization over the years. Rates are set by country and the details of what's taxable where and for how much has been made consistent throughout the union. No such thing has happened or is practical in the US. Every state has its own rules for what's taxed at what rate. For example, in most states you don't have to pay sales tax on food items bought at the grocery store, but in others you still have to pay sales tax on those items fully or in some states at a lower rate than you would for non-food items. In New York, you don't have to pay sales tax on clothing. North Carolina has an annual sales tax holiday where certain items like books are sales tax free for 3 days a year.
What really makes it complex though is that the rates or rules are not consistent across an entire state because local governments can also have their own taxes. Where I live in Seattle, we pay the base 6.5% Washington state sales tax plus 3% in local taxes. Some of those local taxes go to the city where the item is purchased, some to the county where the item was purchased and yet some goes to the regional transit authority spanning multiple counties. On top of that, if you're buying food and beverages in a restaurant, there's an additional 0.5% which goes to pay off debt for stadiums.
There are tens of thousands of different individual jurisdictions just like this across the country. Harmonization would mean elimination of dedicated funding sources for local governments which is just very unlikely to happen any time soon.
Comment Re:I'm not too good for code reviews (Score 1) 495
A few years ago, I took a training course on something or other (I think it was object-oriented design patterns). The instructor brought up an excellent example from outside the software world--germ theory and hygienic medical practices. Ignaz Semmelweis had shown that doctors washing their hands dramatically reduced mortality of patients in hospitals. At the time, his contemporaries thought he was crazy and many were offended by the implication that their hands were unclean. Even after Pasteur proved the biological mechanism of germ theory many years later, it still took years for handwashing to become a completely accepted medical practice because many doctors felt they just didn't have time for it.
Good software engineering practices like code reviews, source control, bug tracking, unit testing, etc. are generally no different. If applied correctly, they should reduce the overall time to release a product.
Comment Re:I've been there (Score 2) 136
That's not just Prineville. All gas in Oregon must be pumped by an attendant. It's illegal to do it yourself.
Minnesota School Issues iPad 2 To Every Student 456
tripleevenfall writes "Thanks to a federally-funded grant for magnet schools, every student at Heritage Middle School in West Saint Paul, Minnesota, now has an iPad 2." Why in my day, we had to buy our own graphing calculators — in the snow, both ways, uphill!
Comment Re:Should have been 3 Baby Microsofts (Score 3, Insightful) 176
Don't forget the implications of the BSD/AT&T lawsuit in the early 90s on the rise of Linux. Even Linus himself has admitted that had 386/BSD been available to him (i.e., not caught up in a major lawsuit which delayed development and release of other BSD derivatives), he probably would have never written Linux.
Comment Re:FTW! (Score 1) 141
Many years ago I worked for a small startup that pirated pretty much every piece of software we used. This wasn't light piracy of not keeping track of licenses or something of that nature. People there had literally had downloaded programs like Word and Photoshop from warez sites. As a startup, we were broke and felt somewhat justified in not being able to afford software.
Eventually we were acquired by a mid-sized company (maybe 500 employees or so) that was reasonably profitable. When my boss went to ask for budget to actually buy the software to replace illegal copies, he was told that employees are expected to buy their own tools and that no budget would be provided. Literally, we were probably talking about the equivalent of Adobe CS for 3 or 4 people--not a ton of money for something that's critical to doing your job. So did our designers go out and buy Photoshop? Hell, no! We all just kept using the pirated versions and muttered about turning them into the SBA some day.
That management didn't even respect us enough to buy us the tools we needed to do the job was pretty detrimental to the morale. Like many startups, we all left within a year or so of acquisition. I'd have turned them into the SBA in a hot minute after leaving, but I just wanted to move on with my life at that point and just didn't want to bother with figuring out how to report them.
A few years ago, I was searching for the company's information while updating my resume. The first page of search results were all about an SEC filing against the CEO for some sort of insider trading and securities fraud. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of people.
Comment Re:Get rid of state-recognized parties. (Score 1) 416
This is pretty much already the case in Washington State (and probably others too). You cannot choose party affiliation when you register. Candidates just state what they want listed on the ballot for their party (it can be anything they want) which lead to weird situations like Rossi choosing "GOP Party". For most offices, the two candidates with the most votes in the primary (regardless of party) advance to the general election. When it comes to presidential elections, there is a separate traditional primary but it's fairly worthless. Republicans determine half their delegates by the primary and half by caucus whereas the Democrats determine all their candidates by caucus thereby making it a government funded straw poll.
Rushkoff Proposes We Fork the Internet 487
Shareable writes "Douglas Rushkoff: 'The moment the "net neutrality" debate began was the moment the net neutrality debate was lost. For once the fate of a network — its fairness, its rule set, its capacity for social or economic reformation — is in the hands of policymakers and the corporations funding them — that network loses its power to effect change. The mere fact that lawmakers and lobbyists now control the future of the net should be enough to turn us elsewhere.' And he goes on to suggest citizens fork the Internet & makes a call for ideas how to do that."
Paris To Test Banning SUVs In the City 509
thecarchik writes "Paris may be the first city to experiment with such a policy. Next year, it will begin to test restrictions on vehicles that emit more than a certain amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer — the measure of a car's contribution to greenhouse gases. An official within the Parisian mayor's office, Denis Baupin, identified older diesel-engined cars and sport-utility vehicles as specific targets of the emissions limit. Residents and travelers have responded by buying thousands of electric cars, including the low-speed fiberglass G-Wiz — despite major safety concerns with the vehicle."
Anti-Smartphone Phone Launched For Technophobes 437
geek4 writes "A Dutch company has launched what it calls 'the world's simplest phone,' targeting users who are sick of new-generation models. Only capable of making and receiving calls, John's Phone is dubbed the world's simplest mobile phone, specifically designed for anti-smartphones users. It does not provide any hi-tech features. No apps. No Internet. No camera. No text messaging. All you have to do — in fact, all you can do — is call, talk and hang up."
