Comment My favorite quote from the movie "The Candidate" (Score 1) 726
They are supposed to teach and not to preach.
Comment Princess Leia + Kinect (Score 1) 112
Princess Leia + Kinect = red hot blob changing shape in real-time
Comment What's the problem? (Score 1) 729
If you think this is a bad development, just do your job and outbreed them.
Woman's Voice Restored After Larynx Transplant 246
mvar writes "A woman in the US is able to speak for the first time in 11 years after a pioneering voicebox transplant. Brenda Jensen said the operation, which took place in California, was a miracle which had restored her life. Thirteen days after the surgery she said her first words: 'Good morning, I want to go home.' It is the first time a larynx and windpipe have been transplanted at the same time (image) and only the second time a larynx has ever been transplanted. In October, surgeons at the University of California Davis Medical Center removed the larynx, thyroid gland and 6cm of the trachea from a donor body. In an 18-hour operation, this was transplanted into Ms. Jensen's throat and the team connected it to her blood supply and nerves. Thirteen days later, she was able to speak her first croaky words and is now able to talk easily for long periods of time."
FSF Announces Support For WebM 333
An anonymous reader writes "The Free Software Foundation has signed up as a supporter of the WebM Project. They write, 'Last week, Google announced that it plans to remove support for the H.264 video codec from its browsers, in favor of the WebM codec that they recently made free. Since then, there's been a lot of discussion about how this change will affect the Web going forward, as HTML5 standards like the video tag mature. We applaud Google for this change; it's a positive step for free software, its users, and everyone who uses the Web.' The FSF's PlayOgg campaign will be revamped to become PlayFreedom."
DSL Installation Fail 371
An anonymous reader writes "Here's an example of fine Qwest workmanship. In our business park, they just installed a DSL connection for our neighbors, for which we share an exterior utility space. They left: a DSL modem stuffed in a cardboard box, wrapped in a Wal-Mart bag, sitting outside in what will be below-zero (F) temps, on top of a bank of ten natural gas meters in some of the driest air of the year. They also left it plugged into an exposed exterior power outlet above a snowbank, with network cables running around the building, through snowbanks, coupled and protected by zip-lock baggies, and into our neighbors office. Not to mention the hack-job of patching the phone cable directly into the demarcation box. And if you're wondering — I was told upon calling them that this is not their problem, and I need to contact my primary phone service provider."
Open Source More Expensive Says MS Report 465
doperative writes "Much conventional wisdom about programs written by volunteers is wrong. The authors took money for research from Microsoft, long the archenemy of the open-source movement — although they assure readers that the funds came with no strings attached. Free programs are not always cheaper. To be sure, the upfront cost of proprietary software is higher (although open-source programs are not always free). But companies that use such programs spend more on such things as learning to use them and making them work with other software"
Comment Re:Two problems with flying wings (Score 1) 120
Another problem is that you need to be able to evacuate the airplane swiftly. If it wasn't for this, the Airbus A380 would have a wider body today.
Embedded Linux 1-Second Cold Boot To QT 141
An anonymous reader writes "The blog post shows an embedded device cold booting Linux to a QT application all in just one second. This post also includes a link which describes what modifications were made to achieve this."
Interview With KDE On Windows Release Manager Patrick Spendrin 116
paugq writes "Last week KDE 4.5.4 was released for Windows as a late Christmas present from the KDE on Windows team. Almost at the same time BehindKDE, the site for interviews with KDE contributors, has started a new series of interviews with the 'Platforms' theme. In the first interview, Pau Garcia i Quiles talks with Patrick Spendrin, the current release manager of KDE on Windows and asks about the current status of the project, challenges and difficulties. In future interviews, Mac, Solaris, BSD (it's not dead, after all!), Haiku, OS/2 and more."
Comment Re:This is why I refuse to buy apple products. (Score 1) 754
I'd rather recommend Kubuntu 10.04 (Long term release). I admit that it didn't work flawlessly out of the box. Also Canonical offers desktop support for 88.42£/year. And once your kids grow up they'll be able to fix your computer for free anyway
Comment Re:Spin much? (Score 1) 754
Why? I mean, it's not like they didn't know that as soon as they released their software under the GPL then anyone could modify and compile it for any platform they liked? If they wanted to retain control they should have picked a different license.
Porting VLC to another operating system is good for the project and that is not the issue here. The issue is that VLC should remain free software and it should not be controlled by anyone.
And: what 30% Apple tax? You mean the cut they take from paid apps (in case you missed it VLC is free) for providing all the services (payment, bandwidth, iTunes presence) you otherwise would have to get elsewhere?
Bandwidth? Give me a break. Have you looked at Amazon EC2 prices for hosting bandwidth recently? And they are not even the cheapest. If Apple's offering was so great, they wouldn't use DRM to technically lock out potential competitors.
That cut is small compared to what a J2ME developer has to live with for instance. Do you also consider the 50% of CD proce that the store gets to be a "record store tax"?
AFAIK GetJar charges 0% for hosting paid J2ME applications.
Comment Re:Nokia developer pulls VLC from AppStore (Score 1) 754
However, the spirit of the GPL software is that anybody should be able to get the source code, adapt it, and use the modified software. Here we have a developer who actively prevents people from doing just that. You can argue all you want about app store rules and walled gardens and so on, but this guy clearly does not want people to have the freedom to modify software that he participated in developing and to make it work on the device that they want it to work on.
What prevents you from just downloading the application from somewhere else? It's not as if the binaries are not available any more.
Comment What's the fee (Score 1) 12
for cursing the banks?
Comment Re:Spin much? (Score 1) 754
The developer requested compliance with the GPL. I.e. customers should have the same freedoms when Apple distributes GPL software to them. The problem is that Apple wants to be the sole distributor of software. If I where a software developer of VLC, I would be really pissed off about my work becoming the carrot to Apple's stick.
I understand Apple and why they are doing this. I think the company's survival instinct has turned to greed at some point in time.
What I don't understand is their customers. Why do they side with Apple when they are at the receiving end of a policy which is designed to prevent them from bypassing the 30% Apple-tax they are paying on every song, book, and piece of software? What do faithful customers gain from this? A job at Apple for one in a million? A simple life where somebody else makes decisions and takes their money? A sense of community by paying the bill together?
This kind of things make me think that mankind is doomed.
