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Comment This is what's going to doom FF OS (Score 4, Insightful) 407

This is one of major flaws behind these Web based Mobile OS’s, you think that after WebOS, beautiful as it was, Mozilla would have learned their lesson. Instead, they’re trying to drive underpowered hardware with a HTML/JS. All the web technologies are being shoehorned into areas they were never designed for. From DOM being used for Applications to the lightweight scripting language, JavaScript, being used for Apps, to a bloated HTML render as the platform's UI toolkit.

JavaScript is a nice little scripting language that’s got some nice functional programming features. When you need to need to write heavy applications that require performance, low memory usage, and multithreading, it’s the wrong choice.

Comment Re:Where are the BSD/Linux Distros? (Score 1) 220

I think BSD/Linux is a brilliant idea. I started off with SOLARIS and various flavors of BSD and have gradually moved over to GNU/Linux for hardware compatibility. Linux has finally reached BSDs rock solid stability, but I still miss the rc scripts, logical parameters, and well written man files of the BSD userland. Have you tried Starch Linux?

Comment Re:Windows update (Score 1) 58

While these "successful takedowns" are great PR, the dirty secret is that by only taking down the C&C servers, the zomie machines just end up under different servers. MS has no issue applying updates without user permission to healthy PCs, so why not clean these infected ones? That would actually do some long term damage to these bot nets.

Comment Re:Hypocritical (Score 4, Insightful) 102

Apple are hypocritical thieves, nothing more, nothing less.

The real Hypocrisy is the government and legal system of China. As someone who's lived in China. they have ZERO respect for IP laws. Just downstairs from my apt I had a better selection of western and Chinese pirated DVDs than blockbuster, DVD's of Movies that are still playing in the Cinema. I'd often see the local cops come in to BUY DVDs. This is not some backwards city. This is Shanghai and Shenzhen I'm talking about.

They only reason this law is being enforced is that it's Apple and the government is trying to "send a message". Any Chinese owned store, especially with Communist connections, these violations would be ignored.

Comment Re:He has a point, no? (Score 3, Interesting) 231

Say what you will about Ubuntu, of all the Linux distros, it has the most polished out of the box experience. In my career, I’ve probably installed close to a thousand Linux images and Ubuntu has consistently provided best hardware compatibly and least issues over the years. When Unity was started, the Gnome 2.x panel, was completely broken and useless in vertical mode, necessary for 720p netbooks and widescreen monitors. Gnome 3.x was looking to be the next KDE 4.0.

So I can understand Shuttleworth's desire for something like Unity, but what I disagree with is how he went about it. Instead of going off on his own with Unity and Mir forks, He should have worked with Gnome and Wayland to fix what was broken. See the Mint MATE project for how Ubuntu should have proceeded with Unity. All of these unnecessary forks just weaken and already stretched thin open source development efforts.

Comment All hobbyist should consider using hydrogen (Score 5, Insightful) 90

"Where I live helium is ridiculously expensive. So I went with the much cheaper alternative, hydrogen. It’s also more buoyant, about 8% more. Which means a higher burst altitude as you can use less gas."

Bonus points for using hydrogen instead of helium. Hydrogen is not dangerous if handled properly and helium is a scarce resource needed for many medical uses like MRIs.

Comment Real Patent Reform (Score 3, Insightful) 180

Wow! Back in 1999 after I purchased my first cellphone, one of the first things I did was to investigate how to connect it to my laptop to give me a mobile modem. Sure enough there was serial cable I could buy for it.

I don't care how early Nokia was to enter the mobile phone market. There is no way they should be able to patent any part this process. I'd rather have no patents at all than grant a 20 year monopoly to some company for tacking "on a mobile device" to some obvious idea like tethering.

We need real patent reform like:
* Eliminating Software patents
* Fix the "obviousness test" and throw out all the existing ones that fail to meet this standard.
* No patents granted to logical evolution of current technology like tethering
* Grant a theoretical patent (i.e. where invention has not yet been realized) for no more than 7 years
* Allow a patent extension/modification upon successful invention
* Mechanical and physics-technology patents should last no more than 15 years

Comment Re:Small but helpful parts (Score 1) 356

I worked in an office that did a trial to migrate from MS Office to OpenOffice. Every issue we had was either a missing feature like lack of the ability to resize images or a bug in the import/export filters. Of the 7 bug reports I filled out, all of the were cross platform and cross versions. The problem with OO is not related to difficulty in verifying bugs. If someone did fix some of the interoperability issues, it would go a long way to making OO more appealing to small businesses that want to use open source software.

Comment Not enough info (Score 2) 467

I'm an IT pro, and I have flashed thousands of devices in my career. Hundreds of MB'a and countless HDs, cd-roms, RAID controllers, and amd network devices like WAPs. The only time I have bricked a device is when I lost power in the process. Even then, I was able to recover the device with some googling.

Maybe I've been lucky or maybe just buy H/W from good manufactures like Cisco, Dell, and HP.

Comment Native Android! (Score 2) 93

As someone who suffered with a laggy HTML5 based WebOS Pre, then loved his silky smooth 3GS, but left the walled garden for a Galaxy S2, I am thrilled about this. My S2’s H/W by all accounts blows my old 3GS out of the water, yet I still find the experience more laggy than my 3 year old 3GS. I’m sure much of this is the Java VM holding Android back.

Also, I really like the idea of a gesture based UI. So far the reviewers have loved the Blackberry gesture based UI.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/02/review-blackberry-10-is-better-much-better-late-than-never/

If there is a build for the S2, I will definitely flash it. The chance to have the open platform of Linux/Android with the native speed of IOS is worth at least trying out.

Comment Re:Abolish the DMCA (Score 1) 241

1. How do you judge 'making money on it'? Tax returns? What if you are a Not-For-Profit? What if your intellectual profit manifests as a not-yet-produced product the first year?

The current system gives copyright protection for the life of author plus 70 years. I would propose that after 10 or 15 years, you would have to file for extensions that would be treated like a property tax. And limit these extensions to another 10-15 years.

2. Why should my IP go to the state? JUST EXPIRE THE COPYRIGHT.

That's exactly what I meant. If you don't renew and pay taxes, it would go to the public domain.

Publishers and the recording industry want people to think of IP like real property. If that's the case, then if they want extensions in perpetuity to their IP, it should be taxed or it should enter the public domain.

Comment Abolish the DMCA (Score 4, Informative) 241

This is another good example of abusive DMCA take down requests circumventing due process. RIAA and MPAA abuse the law to suppress our creativity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk862BbjWx4
  and are destroying our cultural heritage.
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/11/48625?currentPage=all
To top it off, their outdated business model unfairly reimburses the artists for their hard work.
http://www.salon.com/2000/06/14/love_7/
Copyright needs to be reformed. Some changes that I'd like to see are:

  * Abolish the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
  * Intellectual property should be taxed like real property. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-weaver20feb20,0,1675278.story It is an asset with a value, right? If you no longer make enough to pay your taxes on it, it goes to the state.
  * Copyrights are supposed to be an incentive to create. One that lasts unto your grandchildren are a dis-incentive, because not only are you not creating any more once you are dead, neither are your descendants. Copyright should last half a working lifetime (20 years), so that you have to get off your ass and make new stuff.
  * Someone who makes copies without permission should pay a fine, but it should be at the regular royalty rate for the item x copies made. So upload a song, it's iTunes price x number of downloads, with perhaps a factor of 3 penalty to discourage doing it, not $150,000 per copy.

If you feel the same way, you can make a difference by donating to the EFF
https://supporters.eff.org/donate
or at least signing this petition urging reform.
http://www.fightforthefuture.org/fixcopyright

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
-Abraham Lincoln

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