Comment Re:Good! (Score 2, Informative) 450
Whatever happened to the new power grid that President Bush promised before and again after the great American blackout of 2003?
https://www.ferc.gov/eventcalendar/Files/20050608125055-grid-2030.pdf
Comment "School 2015" (Score 1) 375
The oldest file on my computer is a story I wrote for English class in junior high school, when I was about 14 years old. Entitled "School 2015," I describe a fantastic futuristic computerized world where all schoolwork and basic life tasks were accomplished with the help of computers. Not making this up -- when computers have something to say in this world I invented, they announce themselves by saying, "BING!"
Comment Re:Just to point out... (Score 4, Informative) 95
Separating friend lists on Facebook as you describe doesn't support all of the functions mentioned in the slideshow. For example, posting comments on Facebook photos goes out to all people with permission to see your comments on photos. The slideshow suggests allowing different comments to be seen by different groups of friends. In the current Facebook implementation, your friends either have permission to see all your comments on all photos, or none.
Submission + - New Google Research on Social Networks (slideshare.net)
mantis2009 writes: Paul Adams, a senior user experience researcher at Google has posted a slideshow from a recent presentation that gives insightful research into how people use social networking technologies. The presentation describes several shortcomings of existing technology, and it highlights specific modalities that current technology (ahem, Facebook) gets wrong. Adams concludes that social networking applications are a "crude approximation" of real-life social networks. "People don't have one group of friends," Adams research in several different countries shows that in reality, most people have between four to six groups of friends. He argues that social networking applications need to be built with that reality in mind.
Comment I guess those conflict minerals are bloody cheap (Score 1, Troll) 117
1. use conflict minerals to make playstations
2. fund warlords
3. ???
4. profit!
Comment This shows the uselessness of test scores (Score 4, Insightful) 278
What's more important in life? Computer skills or getting high test scores?
Comment Detroit's been doing this for years (Score 1) 328
Eight Mile Road and other major thoroughfares in Detroit, Michigan have traffic lights timed so that drivers traveling at the speed limit will almost always encounter green lights.
Comment Re:Interesting! (Score 4, Informative) 229
Just checked out the video feed. The chip already lasted longer than 1 million writes, which is the number of writes the chip is supposed to last over its lifetime. As of this writing, the chip has survived more than 1,600,000 write cycles and counting.
Still, since this test isn't on an actual, shipping solid state drive (SSD) product, the results will be discounted by a lot of critics.
Still, since this test isn't on an actual, shipping solid state drive (SSD) product, the results will be discounted by a lot of critics.
Submission + - Apple Facing New Anti-trust Investigation (nytimes.com)
mantis2009 writes: After recent complaints of anti-competitive behavior, the New York Times reports that the US Department of Justice has opened an inquiry into Apple's business practices for selling music. Investigators have specifically asked whether Apple colluded with record labels to thwart Amazon.com's music download store, according to the ever-present anonymous "people briefed on the situation." Allegedly, Apple threatened to retaliate if any music label participated in Amazon's "MP3 Daily Deal" promotion, which offered early access to some MP3 tracks. Apple refused to comment on the story, so no word on whether Bill Gates came up with the anti-competitive idea or if Steve Jobs thought of it all by himself.
Comment Re:Meh... (Score 2, Interesting) 178
I think worrying about webOS not working on a slate PC is exactly the wrong thing to worry about.
The much bigger question is whether moving webOS off of the smartphone will dilute and fragment the operating system too much.
I think webOS is the best designed OS for a phone because it's designed to work with both touch and a fully qwerty keyboard. Looking up contacts, searching for apps, sending a message -- webOS is optimized to do that in the shortest number of "clicks." Better than iPhone OS, better than Android, better than Blackberry. I like that. I want webOS to stay that way.
If webOS is moved to a slate PC -- with no keyboard and no phone -- I fear that webOS will lose its advantages as the smartest smartphone OS. And webOS developers would start writing more for slate apps, not smartphone apps. That would suck, especially for those of us who took the plunge and signed up for a 2 year contract with a Palm Pre.
The much bigger question is whether moving webOS off of the smartphone will dilute and fragment the operating system too much.
I think webOS is the best designed OS for a phone because it's designed to work with both touch and a fully qwerty keyboard. Looking up contacts, searching for apps, sending a message -- webOS is optimized to do that in the shortest number of "clicks." Better than iPhone OS, better than Android, better than Blackberry. I like that. I want webOS to stay that way.
If webOS is moved to a slate PC -- with no keyboard and no phone -- I fear that webOS will lose its advantages as the smartest smartphone OS. And webOS developers would start writing more for slate apps, not smartphone apps. That would suck, especially for those of us who took the plunge and signed up for a 2 year contract with a Palm Pre.
Submission + - BBC: Facebook about to "U-turn" on Privacy (bbc.co.uk)
mantis2009 writes: BBC News is reporting that an official Facebook spokeswoman hinted that the world's most popular social networking website will soon introduce yet another set of sweeping changes to its notorious privacy controls. From the article:
"Facebook looks likely to cave into pressure from users and simplify its privacy settings in the near future. It follows criticisms of its privacy policy from US senators, the European Union and civil liberty groups. The social networking giant told BBC News that it was listening to the message from users that it has 'made things too complex'. 'We're working on responding to these concerns,' a spokeswoman said. 'Watch this space,' she added."
"Facebook looks likely to cave into pressure from users and simplify its privacy settings in the near future. It follows criticisms of its privacy policy from US senators, the European Union and civil liberty groups. The social networking giant told BBC News that it was listening to the message from users that it has 'made things too complex'. 'We're working on responding to these concerns,' a spokeswoman said. 'Watch this space,' she added."
Submission + - Wikipedia offers a Book Creator (softpedia.com)
Kilrah_il writes: Wikipedia recently added an option to create a book from your chosen entries. “That's it, the book creator has gone live in the English Wikipedia! A few hours ago, the book creator has been made available to all users of the English Wikipedia. This feature, which allows all readers to create books from Wikipedia articles, has been until now only available to logged-in users. It has been available in other Wikipedias for a longer time, it's now available on the English Wikipedia, for all, without restrictions.”
You can either download the book in PDF format for free or have it printed and sent to you via PediaPress with 10% of the total going to the Wikimedia Foundation. Here's another step for the "paper-less office".
You can either download the book in PDF format for free or have it printed and sent to you via PediaPress with 10% of the total going to the Wikimedia Foundation. Here's another step for the "paper-less office".
Submission + - iPad is not "killing" netbook sales (winsupersite.com)
mantis2009 writes: Paul Thurrott, the prolific technology analyst and Windows expert, reacts strongly to an article highlighted on Slashdot. Thurrott takes numbers from IDC and the Wall Street Journal, indicating that netbook sales have not in any meaningful way been affected by sales of Apple's tablet computer, the iPad. Money quote: "...netbooks and sub-12-inch machines[] will sell 45.6 million units in 2011 and 60.3 million in 2013. If I remember the numbers from 2009, they were 10 percent of all PCs, or about 30 million units. Explain again how the iPad will beat that. Please. Even the craziest iPad sales predictions are a small percentage of that."
Comment Correlation. Causation. (Score 1) 911
Correlation != Causation.
Correlation is not the same thing as causation.
When two things are happening at the same time, it doesn't mean that they have a relationship with one another.
This coffee is hot, and netbook sales are down.
You're an idiot, and iPads are selling like hotcakes.
Correlation is not the same thing as causation.
When two things are happening at the same time, it doesn't mean that they have a relationship with one another.
This coffee is hot, and netbook sales are down.
You're an idiot, and iPads are selling like hotcakes.
Comment Re:Microsoft Office 2010, Dissected (Score 5, Informative) 291
I unfortunately don't have much experience with Visual Studio, so I won't be able to offer any shining insights on that, but I'll take your invitation to elaborate anyway.
The improvements in the core (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote) Office 2010 applications over their Office 2007 counterparts are very minor. The most notable change is a customizable "Ribbon," so you can move buttons around on the user interface. Also, the OneNote application is significantly improved with the addition of a "recycle bin" for recently deleted notes, enhanced notebook sharing, and a host of smaller improvements that really add up to a totally new experience. The rest of the improvements are incremental and unimaginative. Word has a new navigation and find/replace interface. Excel has slightly fancier charts. PowerPoint lets you edit videos. Outlook finally catches up to Gmail with "conversation view."
The other headline change in Office 2010 is the addition of the browser-based applications. But these web applications aren't even really ready for primetime yet, and you can get access to a browser-based Office without buying 2010.
These changes are all well and good, but does any of this seriously and significantly improve the daily workflow of an Office 2007 user? Probably not, unless you really need one of the new features. If you're looking for a "general upgrade," Office 2010 is way too expensive to justify. Wait for the next version.
The improvements in the core (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote) Office 2010 applications over their Office 2007 counterparts are very minor. The most notable change is a customizable "Ribbon," so you can move buttons around on the user interface. Also, the OneNote application is significantly improved with the addition of a "recycle bin" for recently deleted notes, enhanced notebook sharing, and a host of smaller improvements that really add up to a totally new experience. The rest of the improvements are incremental and unimaginative. Word has a new navigation and find/replace interface. Excel has slightly fancier charts. PowerPoint lets you edit videos. Outlook finally catches up to Gmail with "conversation view."
The other headline change in Office 2010 is the addition of the browser-based applications. But these web applications aren't even really ready for primetime yet, and you can get access to a browser-based Office without buying 2010.
These changes are all well and good, but does any of this seriously and significantly improve the daily workflow of an Office 2007 user? Probably not, unless you really need one of the new features. If you're looking for a "general upgrade," Office 2010 is way too expensive to justify. Wait for the next version.
