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Comment Re:Google map data, not app, supplier on iOS pre-6 (Score 4, Informative) 561

This is incorrect and refuted in TFA.

Apple did not request turn-by-turn in their original licensing agreement. When they realized they wanted to add it to their iOS app, they went back to Google and Google offered to add turn-by-turn but required additional branding in the app as part of the deal.

Apple refused.

Agree or disagree with whether or not it was a good decision, but it was APPLE's decision to refuse the terms. Google did not refuse to allow turn by turn - Apple just didn't get that it was important when they did original negotiations.

Posted from iPad, in case you thought I was a hater.

Comment Lafayette, Louisiana has 1 GB across entire county (Score 2) 165

Of course, we call it a 'parish' but there's no need to split hairs. I'm incredibly proud of my community and local government. They saw an opportunity decades ago when fiber was cheap and ran a lot of it wherever they had rights of way for electrical...turns out it was a brilliant strategy as we have just become self-sufficient - that's right, there's enough customers purchasing Internet, TV, Voice through the new fiber to be self-sustaining at this point. I've got the 50 / 50 mbps plan at home, and it's unbeleivably fast. Even better, whenever you connect directly to someone else on the local fiber ring, you get m,ax 100 / 100 mbps speeds. Which is nice since my office uses it as well as my home....X sessions and rdp back and forth from office to house are about as fast as I can ask for... Of course, we just rolled out 1 GBPS for all homes and businesses in the parish, which gives everyone even more bandwidth. It's one of the reasons my wife and I moved back to Lafayette from Austin. I really beleive these kinds of investments are what are going to differentiate communities who want to attract the best and brightest to build and grow the businesses of the future. Our available consumer plans can be seen here - http://lusfiber.com/index.php/internet/pricing-guide
Java

Java Web Attack Installs Malware In RAM 98

snydeq writes "A hard-to-detect piece of malware that doesn't create any files on the affected systems was dropped onto the computers of visitors to popular news sites in Russia in a drive-by download attack, according to Kaspersky Lab. 'What's interesting about this particular attack is the type of malware that was installed in cases of successful exploitation: one that only lives in the computer's memory. ... It's ideal to stop the infection in its early stages, because once this type of "fileless" malware gets loaded into memory and attaches itself to a trusted process, it's much harder to detect by antivirus programs.'"
NASA

NASA Considers Privatizing GALEX Astrophysics Satellite 71

hogghogg writes "The GALEX spacecraft (surveying the Universe in ultraviolet wavelengths at which the atmosphere is close to opaque) is coming to the end of its budget life, but it hasn't finished imaging the entire sky and is still (fairly) functional. A group at Caltech wants to keep it running, so NASA is considering transfer of ownership under the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act, which 'allows the transfer of government-owned excess research equipment to educational institutions and non-profit organizations.' Many NASA missions are terminated for budget reasons at the end of a prescribed period, even while the hardware is still highly functional. Although this is the first-ever transfer from NASA of a functioning satellite, maybe this is just the start for a class of privately run astronomical and Earth-observing facilities in space?"
News

Submission + - Beware The Mobile Tech Jobs Bubble (infoworld.com)

snydeq writes: "A recent study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics sheds light on the business cycle for the tech industry, and if the dot-com bust is any indication, we may soon witness the implosion of today's mobile tech jobs boom. Venture capital firms are drastically reducing investment in the mobile industry, a trend that could render many mobile ventures unable to meet their rapidly increasing payrolls in the near future. And while the dot-com era is remembered for its profligate excess and perks, 'the real destroyer of the balance sheet was the payroll' — so much so that U.S. BLS chief regional economist Amar Maan suggests that many tech entrepreneurs would be better off opening a restaurant."
Google

Submission + - How to turn Google back to normal? 6

An anonymous reader writes: Google has rolled out instant searches and previews, apparently because it makes searching easier. However, the instant search is annoying and I actually searched faster before it was introduced. Now that the preview option is not the little magnifying glass anymore, it always gets on my nerves because my mouse too often lands on one of the preview buttons and the autoloaded previews pop up.

Google says that "In our testing, we’ve found that people who use Instant Previews are about 5% more likely to be satisfied with the results they click." (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/beyond-instant-results-instant-previews.html). What good are those 5% when it makes me 100% annoyed at the search engine?

Is there any way to disable both "features"? Logging into Google is not an option, because I don't want them to track me constantly. Or is the only option switching to another search engine?

Submission + - Reference for SQL data types

bob3940 writes: I am starting to use MySQL databases and have found a lot of reference material related to setting up and administering databases but I can not find a good reference (online or book) concerning appropriate data types. I would like to find something that explains each of the data types and some of the best uses for them.

Just one example I would like to find a suggestion for is storing a zip code. I know that in the U.S. that it is either a 5 or 9 digit number and that it is not necessary to store the "-" but in several countries (I'm look at you Canada) they have postal codes which contains alpha-numeric postal codes. So should I store all of my zip codes in text format and perform testing based on the Country?

I would love a reference that covers best practices for storing a lot of the common data that I will run into (zip code, social security, phone number, etc) as well as a general overview of the different data types. any Suggestions?
Data Storage

Submission + - OCZ Releases First 1TB Laptop SSD (digg.com) 2

Lucas123 writes: OCZ today released a new line of 2.5-in solid state drives that have up to 1TB of capacity. The new Octane SSD line is based on Indilix's new Everest flash controller, which allows it to reduce boot-up times by half over previous SSD models. The new SSD line is also selling for $1.10 to $1.30 per gigabyte of capacity, meaning you can buy the 128GB for about $166.
Classic Games (Games)

The Legend of Zelda Turns 25 98

harrymcc writes "The Legend of Zelda originated 25 years ago today, when Nintendo released the original game for its Famicom console in Japan on February 21st, 1986. Benj Edwards is celebrating with a look at some of the franchise's odder sidelights, from a version broadcast by satellite to the unexpected true story of where the game got its name." If you're in the mood for more nostalgia, 1Up has a collection of articles delving into the past two and a half decades of Zelda. And since it's cool, here's a link (sorry) to a guy who hacked an oscilloscope to display Gameboy games, using 1993's Link's Awakening as a demonstration.
Science

Why the First Cowboy To Draw Always Gets Shot 398

cremeglace writes "Have you ever noticed that the first cowboy to draw his gun in a Hollywood Western is invariably the one to get shot? Nobel-winning physicist Niels Bohr did, once arranging mock duels to test the validity of this cinematic curiosity. Researchers have now confirmed that people indeed move faster if they are reacting, rather than acting first."

Comment Re:A quick idea for patent reform (Score 1) 191

This argument:

"The whole "software is math" argument is old and debunked. Anything which requires creativity and careful analysis, and the investment therein, is a potentially valuable addition to human knowledge. In exchange for investing in such a thing, there should be the potential to protect your investment from copycats without resorting to keeping it a secret."

seems to support using Copyrights instead of Patents. Knowledge shouldn't be patented, right? Perhaps copyrighted (if published), but not patented.

I'm not sure that "software is math" is really debunked anyways, but honestly, I never found that argument that compelling in the first place. I've always like "software is speech" - it is a literal series of 1's and 0's representing language, right? Just because both humans and machines can interpret that language doesn't make it any less a language. And NO language is patentable - expressions created within that language are COPYRIGHTABLE, but ought not be patented. It seems to me that we can still encourage creativity and innovation without allowing people who truly don't grok what software even is (voodoo magix?!?!?) to completely mis-classify what software actually is.

I know not everyone will agree with me, but for those of us that actually spend all day / night writing in programming languages, how do you view this interpretation?

Comment Re:Wireless? You've already ruled me out (Score 1) 569

I know I may get blasted by the MS haters that lurk here, but I have to say the MS / Razer Habu I picked up at the local Fry's on sale (1/2 price!) has served me well. It's "technically" a gaming mouse (or that's how they market it, anyway), but I've found it works really well at high resolutions on my dual displays in both Windows XP & Ubuntu. I had to do a little bit of configuration in Ubuntu to map all of my keys, but it has 6 programmable keys, great resolution (1600 DPI) and the programmable keys are in positions (IMHO) that really are useful to me whether I'm fraggin zombies in Left 4 Dead or banging out code in Eclipse / VS.

The one thing that DID bum me out was that the firmware update utility only runs on Windows (or at least it did when I bought it a year or so ago), but I mean, this is a MS product, so I kind of figured that. Once I updated the FW, though, Ubuntu detected it fine, so I'm not complaining too loudly.

It's a wired mouse (I'd hate to think how heavy it would be with enough batteries to get that high of a laser DPI), but it does have a really nice long cord and is pretty ergonomic. YMMV, but that's my 2 cents.

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