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Comment Re:It's usually a computer problem (Score 1) 279

Don't get me wrong, I use C++ both at the workplace and for hobby projects and love it, the point I'm trying to make is that the types of errors encountered during developing in C++ are very different to those encountered in say Java. So the comparison that C++ errors are easier to fix seems to be apples to oranges.

Comment Re:It's usually a computer problem (Score 4, Insightful) 279

Oh coding error? Well thats helpful. Misplace a semicolon in a non-trivial meta-program or dsl in C++, and just watch the errors that the compiler spits back at you. None of which, will have anything to do with semicolons. I suppose this is why the C++ errors are considered to be easy to fix. Mistype a word, and you get 15000 lines of errors. I suppose it's easy to fix all those errors too. Yes, but figuring out what exactly the coding error was is kind of the point.
Earth

How a 'Seismic Cloak' Could Slow Down an Earthquake 101

Daniel_Stuckey writes "The United States is currently gripped in a bout of earthquake mania, following a series of significant tremors in the West. And any time Yellowstone, LA, or San Francisco shakes, people start to wonder if it's a sign of The Big One to come. Yet even after decades of research, earthquake prediction remains notoriously hard, and not every building in quake-prone areas has an earthquake-resistant design. What if, instead of quaking in our boots, we could stop quakes in their tracks? Theoretically, it's not a crazy idea. Earthquakes propagate in waves, and if noise-canceling headphones have taught us anything, it's that waves can be absorbed, reflected, or canceled out. Today, a paper published in Physical Review Letters suggests how that might be done. It's the result of French research into the use of metamaterials—broadly, materials with properties not found in nature—to modify seismic waves, like a seismic cloaking device."

Comment Re:I can't join the free speech religion. (Score 4, Insightful) 70

If a government (or any other body) can disable sites/remove content at will for _any_ justification without due process, the same can be done for content that was not originally covered by the law. i.e.: political site, shut it down because it had porn on it. (regardless of whether or not there actually was any on the site). The problem with bans against subsets of speech is not that the actual subsets are considered to be valuable, but because the vagueness of what is considered pornographic means lawyers can just slap it on to anything.

Comment Re:A 'Downgrade' USB Stick? (Score 1) 66

What generally causes problems with the replacement of the motherboard beneath the operating system is generally the storage drivers. CPU you cant swap no problem, same goes for memory, video card, but the motherboard is tricky in that (generally speaking) it also is responsible for the communication with the hard drives, and behaves in a certain way depending on its make etc. If you can, install the appropriate drivers for the new motherboard before switching, and you'll be fine.

Comment Re:To much selling me shit. (Score 1) 295

Google Music is a serious contester I'll grant you, but because iTunes' only realistic lossless support is ALAC, which Google music for some reason doesn't support (even though there are FOSS decoders for it), I can't yet make the transition. I do hope ALAC support will be introduced down the line though.
Iphone

Submission + - Apple is getting pushed around by WhatsApp (bgr.com)

zacharye writes: Apple just dropped a fascinating data point: 300 billion iMessages sent since the system debuted in the autumn of 2011. This is certainly an impressive number, but it also gives us a sense of how far ahead the tiny messaging startup called WhatsApp is right now. In August 2012, WhatsApp announced it is handling 10 billion messages a day. That equates to roughly 300 billion messages every month...
Patents

Submission + - Slide to Unlock: The next invalid Apple patent? (hubpages.com)

netdemonboberb writes: "According to this article, Apple patents USPTO 7657849 and 8046721, regarding slide to unlock capabilities, are the next in the line of patents for technology that Apple didn't really invent but was just the only company brazen enough to file patents for. There are already four points that can invalidate the patent, described in the article, including prior art of another phone and an ACM Journal in 1992. Additionally, the patents are too general and cover almost any User Interface to unlock a phone. This is just another in a growing list of examples of how the US patent system is being abused, costing company budgets defending themselves from frivolous patents at the expense of innovation and technology growth."

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