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Comment Re:Stupid question (Score 4, Informative) 306

Ability to tune for performance on know hardware; better permissions structures; ability to get support from the company; data security, replication, backup; clustering; not wanting to reinvent the wheel using man-hours when you can more easily pay for a known working solution that is well documented ...

etc. There are a lot of reasons.

Comment Re:Jesus, stop being pathetic! (Score 1) 518

This argument has been bandied about for almost a decade, now. Simply, the market base for Linux users is simply too small (and the subset of that contingency that uses Wine for gaming is even smaller yet) for any conglomerate consideration of that markets buying power to matter worth a damn to any of the large studios.

Small indie houses, maybe. But nobody is going to go out of business not selling to the Wine userbase.

The reality of the situation sucks, but given past trends, it's safe to conclude at this point that it will never change.

Comment Re:warranty in case of bankruptcy? (Score 1) 302

Laziness and complacency. Innovation is hard. It's long been show in the technological marketplace that copying someone else's ideas (and thus letting someone else spend their money on R&D), then selling a knock-off, is a financially viable business model.

RIM just hasn't made a good copycat, yet. If they're able to ride out the storm for long enough, they'll figure out the right balance of rip-off and shininess to produce a viable product again.

Comment Re:Distance (Score 2) 89

I don't think so. They've been under attack for a long time, and have always had an irreverent attitude to the Powers That Be. They've always seemed indifferent to how they are viewed by ISP's and governments.

I don't believe there's anything ulterior to this, they probably just don't like DDoS's. No reason not to take them at face value on this.

Comment Re:Incidentally... (Score 1) 488

So, are you advocating that we do nothing? We tried that, and it doesn't work.

Perhaps the point here is that it is recognized that this action will not cure the problem, but might help reduce it. Frequently, these type of complex issues can't be fixed by just one thing. But we can't do nothing. We have to at least try.

Government

Submission + - Who's Buying Your Congressman? (itworld.com)

itwbennett writes: "A new site called SopaTrack, created by ex-Googler Randy Meech, 'shines the light on whose votes are for sale, and for how much'. Blogger Dan Tynan spent some time poking around SopaTrack and found 'four US Congressfolk have perfect 100 percent records, which means they favor the bills that put more greenbacks in their campaign coffers every single time.'"
Iphone

Submission + - iPhone sales to continue declining until 'iPhone 5' launch (bgr.com)

zacharye writes: Sales of Apple’s popular iPhone line of smartphones will continue to decline until the next-generation model launches later this year according to one analyst. Mike Walkley of Canaccord Genuity on Thursday raised his price target on shares of Apple stock to $740, reiterating a Buy rating. Walkley believes that Apple will post strong results for the second fiscal quarter ended in March, however he lowered his EPS estimates for fiscal 2012 to $43.13 from $44.58...
Science

Submission + - Breast cancer may be 10 different diseases (bbc.co.uk)

UnknowingFool writes: A landmark study published in the journal Nature is classifying breast cancer as 10 separate diseases. This new classification system may help future patients in providing separate treatments that more effectively combat the cancers. Currently breast cancer is classified based on what the cells look like under microscope and tests on "markers".
Privacy

Submission + - Europe agrees to send airline passenger data to US (computerworlduk.com) 1

Qedward writes: The European Parliament has approved the controversial data transfer agreement, the bilateral PNR (passenger name register), with the US which requires European airlines to pass on passenger information, including name, contact details, payment data, itinerary, email and phone numbers to the Department of Homeland Security.

Under the new agreement, PNR data will be "depersonalised" after six months and would be moved into a "dormant database" after five years. However the information would still be held for a further 15 years before being fully "anonymised".

The PNR data will be stored in the US's Automated Targeting System (ATS). ATS is used to improve the collection, use, analysis, and dissemination of information that is gathered for the primary purpose of targeting, identifying, and preventing potential terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the US...

Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Plans Waste-Powered Data Centers (datacenterknowledge.com) 1

miller60 writes: Microsoft is going off the grid with its data centers. This week the company unveiled plans for "data plants" that will be housed at landfills or water treatment plants, and harness their methane output for use in fuel cells to power their servers. “Without a bold shift in strategy, our entire industry will become more dependent on a costly, antiquated, and constricted power grid,” writes Microsoft's Christian Belady. “Independence from the power grid will allow our industry to minimize its impact and ease some of the constriction already taking place."

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