Comment Newsflash: Linux users install fonts, too! (Score 2, Insightful) 252
What about everyone who installs msttcorefonts for compatibility? Not to mention all the other random fonts you have to accumulate to open documents?
Comment Former Best Buy tech ... (Score 1) 504
I used to run an in-store tech department, back in the day when we wore black shirts and were "Techs" not "Geeks." I never had a moment's pause about selling my customer a $9.99 set-up service or $29.99 optimization. We gave a good service for the money, and spent quite a bit of time helping the customer learn a bit about their new computer. Which, for them, was a very big deal.
The customer was paying for 10 minutes of my time -- and the 15+ years of experience that let me do a job in 10 minutes that would have taken them four hours of reading directions and waiting on hold.
The biggest mistake is assuming a service isn't worth good money to the general public just because it's easy and fun for you.
The customer was paying for 10 minutes of my time -- and the 15+ years of experience that let me do a job in 10 minutes that would have taken them four hours of reading directions and waiting on hold.
The biggest mistake is assuming a service isn't worth good money to the general public just because it's easy and fun for you.
Comment Re:HP (Score 2, Informative) 430
Which is far better than huge, bloated printer drivers that constantly *need* updating (cough ... Canon!).
Comment Re:Both game developers and artists need money (Score 1) 325
So do strippers
Samsung Enters Smartphone Wars With Bada OS 175
MojoKid writes "Samsung is betting there's room for more in the smartphone market and has unveiled its new bada OS. The name 'bada,' means 'ocean' in Korean and was chosen to convey the 'limitless variety of potential applications which can be created using the new platform.' Samsung claims the OS is extremely simple for developers, saying that bada was built to be extremely interactive with its users — including flash control, motion sensing, fine-tuned vibration control and face detection. Samsung is hoping developers will take this user interface and create a variety of applications focused around it, and thus provide different types of apps than exist for the iPhone and Android OS. The bada OS has a variety of sensors, including accelerometers, tilt, weather, proximity and activity. Samsung will be hosting a series of Developer Days in Seoul, London and San Francisco, among other cities, throughout 2010."
NASA Tests Flying Airbag
118
coondoggie writes "NASA is looking to reduce the deadly impact of helicopter crashes on their pilots and passengers with what the agency calls a high-tech honeycomb airbag known as a deployable energy absorber. So in order to test out its technology NASA dropped a small helicopter from a height of 35 feet to see whether its deployable energy absorber, made up of an expandable honeycomb cushion, could handle the stress. The test crash hit the ground at about 54MPH at a 33 degree angle, what NASA called a relatively severe helicopter crash."
Jetman Attempts Intercontinental Flight
140
Last year we ran the story of Yves Rossy and his DIY jetwings. Yves spent $190,000 and countless hours building a set of jet-powered wings which he used to cross the English Channel. Rossy's next goal is to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, from Tangier in Morocco and Tarifa on the southwestern tip of Spain. From the article: "Using a four-cylinder jet pack and carbon fibre wings spanning over 8ft, he will jump out of a plane at 6,500 ft and cruise at 130 mph until he reaches the Spanish coast, when he will parachute to earth." Update 18:57 GMT: mytrip writes: "Yves Rossy took off from Tangiers but five minutes into an expected 15-minute flight he was obliged to ditch into the wind-swept waters."
Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child
331
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Chinese Court Rules Microsoft Violated IP Rights 237
angry tapir writes "A Beijing court has ruled that Microsoft violated a Chinese company's intellectual property rights in a case over fonts used in past Windows operating systems. The Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court ordered Microsoft to stop selling versions of Windows that use the Chinese fonts, including Windows XP. Microsoft plans to appeal the case. Microsoft originally licensed Zhongyi's intellectual property more than a decade ago for use in the Chinese version of Windows 95, according to Zhongyi. Zhongyi argues that agreement applied only to Windows 95, but that Microsoft continued to use the intellectual property in eight versions of Windows from Windows 98 to Windows XP. Vista and Windows 7 are not involved."
Comment Re:Do people on a jury have to pay $200 as well? (Score 2, Insightful) 411
Juries are triers of fact, not of law. Jurors are not supposed to interpret the law as they see fit -- they follow the instructions given them by the judge. This is why lawyers make lousy jurors.
IANAL but I play one on TV
Comment Re:So what... (Score 1) 174
Your little brother?
Comment Re:CiviCRM (Score 1) 186
I built a customized Drupal/CiviCRM deployment for our small (11 staff, 45 volunteers) nonprofit. Written in PHP, it is a very flexible system. However, you will spend a lot of time chasing bugs and dealing with a poorly documented codebase. For my next project, I'm staying away from CiviCRM until the project matures a bit more.
CiviCRM doesn't integrate with Outlook. It does have it's own web-based mail client, but it's clunky and no one in your shop will want to give up Outlook for it.
It does integrate nicely with PayPal. Needed to hack at it a bit to get it working, but once it was set up, worked like a charm.
If you're on Drupal or Joomla anyway, and you have a development server available for testing, I say go for it. If you want something that will work "out of the box," look elsewhere.
Comment Wireless Winprint Server (Score 1) 544
My old Toshiba A215 developed a funky screen, but it found new life as a network interface for a couple of cheapo winprint-only printers.
Load XP-Pro so you can access via RDP. Use ghostscript and Redmon to serve Linux or Mac workstations, and plain old SMB print sharing for Window users.
Best part is, it works fine over wireless so I can put it and the printers on a cart and move them anywhere. And, built in battery backup!
Comment Re:pirate repellents (Score 1) 830
"Is this gonna be a stand up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?"
"I just need to know one thing. Where. They. Are."
"I just need to know one thing. Where. They. Are."
Race Car Made With Veggies And Powered By Chocolate
83
IS4110 writes "A new racing car made with potatoes and carrots and powered with chocolate waste has been developed by the Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre of the University of Warwicks in the UK.
The university's vehicle, called WorldFirst F3 project, has a steering wheel made of curran, a material derived from carrots, that is expected to replace glass fiber and carbon fiber. It also has a racing seat made of SoyFoam, a soybean oil-based, flexible foam material. Wing mirrors incorporate materials derived from potato starch, a bib made from flax fiber, and lubricants based on plant oils."
