Comment Re:Ok, but (Score 0) 580
Over 50 and straight edged boy scout
So only pederasts, then?
Comment Re:Ban the Bible and the Quoran (Score 1) 410
Certainly, but books never killed anyone, it's the shelves. Or is that the other way around?
Comment There are still banned books? (Score 1) 410
What kind of country bans books? Sounds kinda repressed to me, like the kind of country a certain country likes to bomb now and then. Anyway, I'd recommend The Trial by Kafka. Also quite topical.
Why You Can't Manufacture Like Apple 408
HughPickens.com writes Medium reports that although many startups want to design something that mimics the fit and finish of an Apple product, it's a good way to go out of business. "What happened when Apple wanted to CNC machine a million MacBook bodies a year? They bought 10k CNC machines to do it. How about when they wanted to laser drill holes in MacBook Pros for the sleep light but only one company made a machine that could drill those 20 m holes in aluminum? It bought the company that made the machines and took all the inventory. And that time when they needed batteries to fit into a tiny machined housing but no manufacturer was willing to make batteries so thin? Apple made their own battery cells. From scratch." Other things that Apple often does that can cause problems for a startup include white plastic (which is the most difficult color to mold), CNC machining at scale (too expensive), Laser drilled holes (far more difficult than it may seem), molded plastic packaging (recycled cardboard is your friend), and 4-color, double-walled, matte boxes + HD foam inserts (It's not unusual for them to cost upwards of $12/unit at scale. And then they get thrown away.). "If you see a feature on an Apple device you want to copy, try to find it on another company's product. If you do, it's probably okay to design into your product. Otherwise, lower your expectations. I assure you it'll be better for your startup."
Comment Huh? (Score 1) 106
That show hasn't been about science since around season 3, what has he been doing other than eating donuts in the catering truck? :)
Comment Re:Lucky Them (Score 1) 127
What does that have to do with MSN, which has been free to use?
Comment Re:merger with Skype (Score 3, Interesting) 127
"Isn't MSN and Skype supposed to be merged??"
Indeed, however, it was possible to keep using the MSN client, if you - like myself - loathed the Skype client for the buggy, cumbersome, un-intuitive piece of poo that it is. I'm not sure if the Skype and MSN infrastructure was merged, though, but since they're now announcing a shutdown I suppose it wasn't.
Comment Short list (Score 1) 635
Mostly I just can't throw tech that works perfectly well away. So I end up with X graphics cards, processors, etc in closets everywhere and a ton of old IDE drives with "backups" on them.
Plus I actually own a stereo that doesn't stream from the network, isn't surround, doesn't have have any USB ports or anything else digital, simply because the amplifier is the first major purchase I ever made in my life and it (still after 20+ years) has completely unrivaled sound.
I guess printers should be on that list, too, since they see use like twice a year maybe and I could just print at work.
Plus I actually own a stereo that doesn't stream from the network, isn't surround, doesn't have have any USB ports or anything else digital, simply because the amplifier is the first major purchase I ever made in my life and it (still after 20+ years) has completely unrivaled sound.
I guess printers should be on that list, too, since they see use like twice a year maybe and I could just print at work.
Apple Says Many Users 'Bought an Android Phone By Mistake' 711
mrspoonsi (2955715) writes "Apple CEO Tim Cook during his keynote said that around 130 million customers have purchased their first Apple device in the last twelve months. He states, 'Many of these customers were switchers from Android,' he said. 'They had bought an Android phone by mistake, and then had sought a better experience and a better life.' He added that almost half of those who have purchased an iPhone in China since December have switched from Android. However, it is worth noting that iPhones were not actually available in China until December, when pre-orders began, so it is unclear how much of the device's popularity there is simply down to the novelty factor, rather than a burning desire to flee from Android."
They're Reading Your Mail: Microsoft's ToS, Windows 8 Leak, and Snooping 206
After the recent Windows 8 leak by recently arrrested then-Microsoft employee Alex Kibkalo, Microsoft has tweaked its privacy policies, but also defended reading the email of the French blogger to whom Kibkalo sent the software.
"The blogger in question, who remains unidentified, happened to use Hotmail—the investigation began in 2012 before Hotmail's Outlook.com transition—as his primary email account. So as part of its investigation, Microsoft peeked into the blogger's email account to read that person's correspondence with Kibkalo. ... Microsoft says it was justified in searching the blogger's email account, because it had probable cause to believe Kibkalo was funneling trade secrets to the blogger.The company also pointed out that even with its justification for searching the account, it would have been impossible to gain a court order."
"The legal system wouldn't have let us" seems a strange argument to defend any act of snooping.
Apple Launches CarPlay At Geneva Show 264
An anonymous reader writes "Apple announced today a system called CarPlay, which integrates your iPhone with your car, with Siri voice control. CarPlay will be offered in Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo vehicles this year, and others 'down the road.' From the press release: 'CarPlay makes driving directions more intuitive by working with Maps to anticipate destinations based on recent trips via contacts, emails or texts, and provides routing instructions, traffic conditions and ETA. You can also simply ask Siri and receive spoken turn-by-turn directions, along with Maps, which will appear on your car’s built-in display.'
UK ISP Adult Filters Block Sex Education Websites Allows Access To Porn 227
toshikodo writes "The BBC is reporting that Internet content filters being rolled out by major ISPs in the UK are failing to allow access to acceptable content, such as sex education and sexual abuse advise sites, while also still allowing access to porn. According to the article, 'TalkTalk's filter is endorsed by Mr Cameron but it failed to block 7% of the 68 pornographic websites tested by Newsnight.' The ISPs claim that it is impossible for their filters to be 100% accurate, and that they are working with their users to improve quality. I wonder how long it will be before one of these filters blocks access to the Conservative Party's website, and what will Cameron do then?"
Comment What he actually said (Score 3, Insightful) 78
Nowhere does it say that Nokia cannot leverage it's patent portfolio and make a business out of that. The operative word in the Commission statement is "illegal". Being a patent-owning business (and nothing else) is not illegal, nor is licensing the property for considerable fees. Heck, suing for profit isn't either. So the actual value of this statement is minor.
Even the Author of the Patriot Act Is Trying To Stop the NSA 322
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner will introduce an anti-NSA bill tomorrow in the House, and if it makes its winding way to becoming law, it will be a big step towards curtailing the NSA's bulk metadata collection. Wisconsin Rep. Sensenbrenner, along with 60 co-sponsors, aims to amend one section of the Patriot Act, Section 215, in a bill known as the United and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet Collection, and Online Monitoring Act — also known by its less-clunky acronym version, the USA Freedom Act."
AMD's Radeon R9 290X Launched, Faster Than GeForce GTX 780 For Roughly $100 Less 157
MojoKid writes "AMD has launched their new top-end Radeon R9 290X graphics card today. The new flagship wasn't ready in time for AMD's recent October 8th launch of midrange product, but their top of the line model, based on the GPU codenamed Hawaii, is ready now. The R9 290 series GPU (Hawaii) is comprised of up to 44 compute units with a total of 2,816 IEEE-2008 compliant shaders. The GPU has four geometry processors (2x the Radeon HD 7970) and can output 64 pixels per clock. The Radeon R9 290X features 2816 Stream Processors and an engine clock of up to 1GHz. The card's 4GB of GDDR5 memory is accessed by the GPU via a wide 512-bit interface and the R290X requires a pair of supplemental PCIe power connectors—one 6-pin and one 8-pin. Save for some minimum frame rate and frame latency issues, the new Radeon R9 290X's performance is impressive overall. AMD still has some obvious driver tuning and optimization to do, but frame rates across the board were very good. And though it wasn't a clean sweep for the Radeon R9 290X versus NVIDIA's flagship GeForce GTX 780 or GeForce GTX Titan cards, AMD's new GPU traded victories depending on the game or application being used, which is to say the cards performed similarly."
