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Comment Internet Explorer (Score 1) 324

by malus314 (#32881488) Attached to: Ballmer Says Microsoft Is 'Hardcore' About Tablets
I'm scared for MS to be 'hardcore' about anything.

As I recall, the last time they were really 'hardcore' about something, they gave us Internet Explorer.
Rarely do good things come from this company, and when they get serious about it, it just makes it all the worse.

Of course, I could be wrong, but they've been slacking off hardcore in the area of UI design for a while now, Win7 is a vast improvement but I still find the UI frustrating for some simple tasks and they've been doing GUI desktop OSs' for over 20 years. (Of course, my distaste for the Windows interface is likely just a byproduct of me being on Linux so long, and thus little more then a personal preference instead of being an actual criticism...)

What I'm trying to say, I suppose, is that I don't trust them to develop a UI that takes advantage of the unique form-factor of a tablet, and given the lackluster desktop UI that they seem to think is the best around even if they get 'hardcore' about this, I don't expect them to ever understand why they shouldn't just warm-over their normal Windows UI like they always do for tablets. Furthermore, they're still essentially the same 'design by comittee' culture that things like 'Clippy' and 'MS Bob' originated from. I'd be glad to see them get creative with a tablet UI, but I'm also frightened and (maybe slightly nauseated) to think about what would result if they did. But, to their credit, I'm really fascinated with the 'Tiles' concept they've come up with for Windows Phone 7.
So maybe it won't be so bad, maybe they've realized the need to get creative if they want to compete. Nevertheless,I think I'll just wait and see where this 'Android-on-the-tablet' idea is going...
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - OpenSolaris or FreeBSD?

Submitted by Norsefire
Norsefire writes: I am in quite a predicament. I decided a while back to branch out and use a new operating system (currently running Debian), after a bit of searching (trying Gentoo, Gobo and Arch along the way) I decided to use something that isn't Linux. Long story, short: I narrowed the choice down to OpenSolaris and FreeBSD but now I'm stuck. OpenSolaris is commercially backed by Sun, has nice enterprisey tools in the default install and best of all, a mature implementation of ZFS. FreeBSD is backed by a foundation, has a minimal default install and a rather new (but recently improved in the 8.0 release) implementation of ZFS, however it offers the Ports Collection (I quite like the performance boost from compiling from source, no matter how small it might be) and a bigger community than OpenSolaris. That is just a very minimal mention of the differences, I would be interested to see what the Slashdot community thinks of these two operating systems.
Apple

Submission + - Scientist 100% confident of finding Higgs boson (cnet.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: CNet has interviewed a particle physicist based at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN who gives some insight into what it's like to work there. The place smells of gamers and there's no chance of black holes wiping us out or time travel, plus he's convinced they will find the Higgs boson. All the scientist use Macs too, while computers in the control room are Linux-based.

Submission + - Fear Mongering Against the ACTA?

Submitted by brit74
brit74 writes: The past few weeks have seen a lot of commentary on the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement). But, other voices are accusing Geist of using "fear mongering and misinformation" to stir-up moral outrage against the ACTA. Similarly, Doctorow claims that, under the ACTA, "it would be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger", yet Google (owner of YouTube and Blogger) has had input on the document. Given that Geist and Doctorow have been in favor of legalized filesharing and against copyright, are we being strung along by voices trying to build opposition to copyright in general?

Submission + - Final piece of quantum simulation puzzle found (arxiv.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new paper on the physics preprint server arXiv.org today announced the development of a quantum version of the Metropolis algorithm. Richard Feynman's vision for quantum computers to solve arbitrary quantum simulation problems is the most important application of quantum computers, and this paper presents a final and crucial piece of the puzzle for theoretically enabling efficient quantum simulations. Until now it was unknown how to efficiently prepare a state with realistic starting conditions for a large physical system. The Quantum Metropolis Algorithm solves this problem using inspiration and ideas from the classical Metropolis algorithm that was invented in the 1940's to solve the same problem in classical simulation, and has become a crucial part of computational physics and statistics ever since.
Government

Submission + - Backdoor worries with NSA's help on Windows 7 (computerworld.com) 2

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: The National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Microsoft on the development of Windows 7, an agency official acknowledged yesterday before Congress. Alarmed? Same story with Vista. Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronics Privacy Information Center (EPIC), says the NSA's involvement with OS development goes back even farther. "This battle goes back to at least the crypto wars of the early '90s," said Rotenberg, who remembered testifying about the agency's role in private sector computer security standards in 1989. But the NSA's hands on Windows raises a red flag for Rotenberg, who heads the public interest research center. "When NSA offers to help the private sector on computer security, the obvious concern is that it will also build in backdoors that enables tracking users and intercepting user communications," Rotenberg said. "And private sector firms are reluctant to oppose these 'suggestions' since the US government is also their biggest customer and opposition to the NSA could mean to loss of sales." But Andrew Storms, the director of security operations at nCircle Security, didn't put much credence in the idea that Microsoft would allow the NSA to build a hidden entrance to Windows 7. "Would it be surprising to most people that there was a backdoor? No, not with the political agenda of prior administrations," said Storms. "My gut, though, tells me that Microsoft, as a business, would not want to do that, at least not in a secretive way."

Submission + - Red Hat's Virt Manager for Linux Requires Windows (internetnews.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: You run an all Linux environment and have supported Red Hat's vision of Linux and open source. So you go to check out their new Virtualization Manager tool to continue the loyalty and Linux love right? WRONG. Red Hat wants you to buy Windows. No joke. The new Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtualization Manager requires users to run Windows.

"The Windows Server could be running as a virtual server in RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), but you would require a Windows machine for the management system," Andy Cathrow, product marketing manager for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, told InternetNews.com. "We spent a lot of time talking to customers to see what their view was on this and I think with the possible exception of Red Hat, everyone has some Windows in their datacenter."

Comment Re:2220? (Score 1) 600

by malus314 (#29877681) Attached to: "2012" a Miscalculation; Actual Calendar Ends 2220

Why would you think 2217 would be different than any other year?

Well, I for one was hoping that the MPAA and the money-grubbing, "milk it for all it's worth", "pander to the lowest common denominator" mentality for making movies that it supports would be gone by then.

*sigh*

We wishful thinkers can be even more naive than the conspiracy theorists sometimes....

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