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Comment Re:CmdrTaco drags big brass ones along the ground (Score 1) 750

by 16K Ram Pack (#31741602) Attached to: iPad Review

The problem isn't just the iPad. It's the whole question of tablet computing. Touch works on phone because it frees up space. It means you can get a decent size screen because you're not sacrificing space for the UI. But it is a compromise (albeit an acceptable one).

Once you go beyond pocket size, you're into competing with laptops. I know people think they'll walk around like Picard, but walking and touching a screen doesn't work like that.

For me, even the "sitting in front of a PC using Slashdot" doesn't work. A laptop gives me a hinge and a keyboard. I neither have to hold it up, nor crick my neck.

Comment Re:CmdrTaco drags big brass ones along the ground (Score 1) 750

by somersault (#31738950) Attached to: iPad Review

Except that the iPhone was technically shit, apart from its nice interface. Technically I think the iPad looks like a nice device again simply for the interface. I couldn't really see myself using it because I'd be taking 10 times longer to post to slashdot in my evenings like I'm doing just now.. but for simple browsing, facebook use, media viewing and maybe some light gaming I can see the iPad being pretty popular. There are a lot of wealthy casual users out there. Not saying it will be a great success, but Apple are gaining a lot of momentum and halo effect business with the iPod and iPhone. I wouldn't bet against it anyway.

Despite knowing myself that I would never have a use for it, I still want one just because it's the sort of device I've always wanted to have since seeing datapads on TNG. A jailbroken iPad would be one fun geek toy.
Data Storage

Windows 7 Hard Drive and SSD Performance Analyzed 248

Posted by timothy from the but-compared-to-the-old-one dept.
bigwophh writes "Despite the fact that Windows 7 is based on many of the same core elements as Vista, Microsoft claims it is a different sort of animal and that it should be looked at in a fresh, new light, especially in terms of performance. With that in mind, this article looks at how various types of disks perform under Windows 7, both the traditional platter-based variety and newer solid state disks. Disk performance between Vista and Win7 is compared using a hard drive and an SSD. SSD performance with and without TRIM enabled is tested. Application performance is also tested on a variety of drives. Looking at the performance data, it seems MS has succeeded in improving Windows 7 disk performance, particularly with regard to solid state drives."
Image

Burglar Nabbed By Backup Program Screenshot-sm 98

Posted by samzenpus from the stupid-is-as-stupid-does dept.
Bruce Perens writes "A Berkeley, California, burglar engineered his own arrest, and that of his girlfriend, when he stole a laptop and used it as his personal computer. He didn't realize that the laptop had an automatic backup program, and that the photos he took were being copied to his victim's backup repository. Berkeley police recognized him, and his location, from the photos."
Television

Rabbit Ears To Stage a Comeback Thanks To DTV 265

Posted by kdawson from the standing-on-one-leg dept.
Jeffrey Breen writes "Like Monty Python's Killer Rabbit, cheap indoor antennas seem harmless to satellite and cable providers. But with the digital TV transition in the US, rabbit ears can suddenly provide digital-perfect pictures, many more channels, and even on-screen program guides. Already feeling pressure as suddenly budget-conscious consumers shed premium channels, providers must now get creative to protect their low-end as well."
Hardware Hacking

Reverse Engineering a Missile Launcher Toy's Interface 118

Posted by Soulskill from the target-that-explosion-and-fire dept.
nitro writes "A fairly in-depth technical report by the security researchers at TippingPoint was released on how to reverse engineer the proprietary protocol for controlling a USB missile-launching toy system. They develop an iPhone application to control the device. 'The hardware is coupled with a simple GUI controller written in Delphi (MissileLauncher.exe) and a USB Human Interface Device (HID) interface written in C++ (USBHID.dll). The toys lost their allure within minutes of harassing my team with a barrage of soft missile shots. That same night I thought I would be able to extend the fun factor by coding up a programmatic interface to the launchers in Python. ... One interesting thing is that we have a lot more granular control of the turret movement now than we did with the original GUI. I wrote two simple loops to count the number of possible horizontal and vertical ticks and the results were 947 horizontal and 91 vertical versus 54 and 10 from the original GUI respectively. Granular control allows you to slowly and quietly reposition the turret for stealthy attacks.'"
Television

Submission + - NBC's Olympics - why only show USA's medals ? 1

Submitted by waterwingz
waterwingz writes: Once again, viewers of the Olympics in the USA are only able to see events where the USA has medal hopes. Especially if the USA hopes for a gold medal. While I can understand that NBC paid big bucks for exclusive coverage rights and that they cater to the desires of the masses for profit, it seems there has to be better way. For example, what if NBC (or CBS or ABC) got exclusive rights to any events they chose to show and a second tier channel (PBS ?) was allowed to show anything else for a much lower licensing fee. We might actually get to see some great Olympic moments where an American athlete was not involved. Imagine that. Do slashdot readers have any other ideas about how coverage could be broadened without hurting the rights that NBC purchased legitimately ?
Bug

MS Security Patch Blocks Net Access For ZoneAlarm Users 110

Posted by timothy from the oh-there-can't-be-more-than-a-handful dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Users of Check Point ZoneAlarm security products, including the extremely popular, free-of-charge software firewall, have discovered that a Microsoft security update released on Tuesday has blocked their internet access. The firewall manufacturer is 'investigating the issue,' and so far the workaround seems to be to uninstall the recent DNS spoofing vulnerability fix MS08-037 (KB951748), and not reinstall it until Microsoft or Check Point have come up with updated versions of their products."
Programming

Recruitment Options For a Small-Scale FOSS Project? 210

Posted by kdawson from the where-is-everybody dept.
thermian writes "I've been developing my open source project for several years now, and I've never found a solution to one fairly important issue. How can a small-scale project attract new members? My project is pretty specialist, (no URL, sorry, I can't afford to get my server nuked) and I find that while it gets a fair bit of use, most users come to my software out of a need to solve their problem, or use my tutorials to learn about the subject, and none seem inclined to stick around and help make the product better. This is a fairly serious problem for me now, because my software has recently been adopted by a university, and I'm just not in a position to manage the entire set of applications and update everything on my own. Just preparing a version for release to students has been especially hard. The open source maxim 'Many eyes make all bugs shallow' only works if those 'many eyes' are available. So do you have any suggestions as to how, and where, to find people who fancy joining open source projects?"

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Understanding is always the understanding of a smaller problem in relation to a bigger problem. -- P.D. Ouspensky

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