Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment No USA sites in the international list? (Score 0, Troll) 106

From TFA: "Scientists from research institutes in Australia, Canada, Japan, China and the UK will today release the first DNA profiles of some of the most prevalent types of tumours."

Note that the USA isn't in the list. Are the US folks are too busy patenting their discoveries so they can monetize them?

Or is the USA falling behind because of the asinine science related policies of previous administration?

Or is there another reason?

Comment It's all about the User Experience (Score 1) 293

It's actually quite funny to see how similar and in some aspects even better it is (and for a product 12 years ago!). Apart from the obvious (larger price and more weight), the older product actually has 12-16 hour life compared to iPad's 8 hour life. There's also dial-up modem (remember how bulky those were?), more apps, syncing software, and multitasking. 640x480 resolution and touch display.

Pretty awesome for a product in the 1998, considering it even beats iPad at some aspects. Oh and Windows CE also let you install any app you wanted (there was a lot of freeware apps too), not just something Apple didn't block from AppStore or where you have to pay for every app you want, no matter how simple task it does. And you also could program your own apps to it.

It hardly matters how much better it is if it's frustrating to use. Greatest app X doesn't matter unless it's easy to use, which is what apple has really done well (partly by restricting the things us nerds love- hardware specs and openness).

Comment Re:I'll play Devils Advocate here (Score 1) 547

It's not a micromanaging style though. The project managers only get access to the team rollup, not to the individual stats, and recoding the time has actually made the team better at estimating and better at seeing date slippage earlier. The stats of 'on task time' are personal, not compared between employees, and only ever brought up if there's a problem. As an added bonus, it's gotten us more 'work at home' days and 'no meeting days', which has lead to happier developers and more productive use of my time. I'm not saying it can't be abused, butt if used properly, it can be good tool.

Comment Re:Shut Up, Former Astronaut! (Score 1) 508

Let's see. You have a PHD and you don't have a chance of understanding that an ARM mortgage will bite you in the ass financially when interest rates rise, if you're left to your own devices.

We didn't get an ARM. We insisted on a flat-rate mortgage, to be held by the institution from which I received it for the length of the loan. We put down 20 percent. We have not missed a pyament; in fact, we are making overpayments (towards principal). Besides the house, we have no debts outstanding.

None of that means that I can personally parse the agreement I signed. We had to rely purely on the honesty of the credit union representative and our realtor throughout the whole process. They could, for all I know, show up tomorrow and tell us that our agreement says we have to move out and wander the streets, a pitiful subset of our belongings in a stolen shopping cart. Do I think that likely? No. But let us remember, the various native tribes also signed agreements, relying on the honesty of the other party. Look at their housing situation.

I'll bet you're a liberal or progressive and think debt can do our country no real economic harm, and that the government can spend us out of a depression too.

It was the last administration who had a vice president who said OUT LOUD "Deficits don't matter." That and the ability to compare the debt uptake between the administrations of the two parties in the modern era is indicative of why I, as a deficit hawk, vote the way I do.

And since you mention it, only the government can spend us out of a depression, because in a depression the commercial paper market has become completely dysfunctional. That speaks not at all to the issue of structural deficits.

Comment Re:Same conclusion I reached... (Score 2, Insightful) 240

This is the problem with Linux...an application should not be controlling the interface above the rules if the platform. Telling confused users to "use it the way it's meant to be used" turns people off. Not standarizing interface guidelines ruins user experience. This is why the iPhone is doing well. This is why it is 2010 and still not the year of the Linux desktop. Apple has a standard guideline for human interfaces. Opera Mini did not comply. Opera Mini has lost. The end user has lost. But you get to feel a few seconds of self satisfaction :)

Comment Re:How many issues caused by Apple's restrictions? (Score 1) 240

This is because they are selling a product to the end user demographic and it is a demographic sick of being rootkitted and virused and having their tech-savvyish friend come over and reinstall their OS again. Seriously, is it that hard to figure out why Apple doesn't want arbitrary code execution? If they allowed that, how quickly would you jump on them for it when it broke on Slashdot that an application had successfully stolen PII from the iPhones it was installed on and began a rant in how we should regress technology because you think Facebook is stupid?

Comment Re:Old news. (Score 1) 976

If you change the roles of the lanes, you'll create mass havoc. In particular, you'll have the freeway shifting to make room for the ramps - making that traffic do two small jogs left and right - and taking up a great deal more space to do so than the ramps would (due to speeds involved). That space is expensive in urban areas, and the construction itself would be expensive in rural ones.

Comment Re:The unlocked phone comes at quite the premium. (Score 1) 568

So, the "turn around and cancel" option is $179 + $350 ... for a net price of $529. Identical to the "just buy it unlocked" price.

Seems like a 100% reasonable ETF to me (far moreso than Verizon's ETF of twice the phone "discount" to cover "phone assistance" and "network upgrades" per their statement to the FTC).

Comment Re:Does Kurzweil get the idea of an e-Reader? (Score 1) 168

>For a guy that is supposed to be a step ahead tech-wise, apparently he doesn't understand that people want a portable device that is easy to read.

Early in the computer revolution, the idea of a centralized application on dedicated hardware was popular. People envisioned computers that just ran word processors or just ran whatever stand alone application. For a little while this worked but it turns out what people want is to be able to break away from expensive dedicated hardware and just run software on a commodity machine.

Whats going on now is that people are just asking "Why must I pay $400 dollars, cant I just run this on my laptop?"

Unfortunately for nutty McFuturist, Amazon has already beaten him to the punch. You can read a Kindle book on a Kindle, on an ipod/iphone, or on a PC. I suspect the Nook will be doing this soon. Essentially, these companies are just competing on DRM formats. Not much else.

Slashdot Top Deals

Love may laugh at locksmiths, but he has a profound respect for money bags. -- Sidney Paternoster, "The Folly of the Wise"

Working...