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Comment Re:Let's get C99 right first (Score 1) 378

The Win8 VS preview is actually one of the "Express" versions (like the existing C# and VB Express versions). In other words, it will be a free download for anybody who wants to build Win8 apps for the Win8 store. You can get the full version of VS 11 here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27543.

Google

Submission + - Google Buzz buzzing away. (blogspot.com)

MrCrassic writes: "It looks like the glory days of Google Buzz have finally come to an end. Google has formally announced the termination of this service to concentrate their efforts on Google+. From the article:

In a few weeks we’ll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+. While people obviously won't be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout.

Other products, such as the Google Labs website (http://labs.google.com) and Jaiku, will also be on the chopping block. Makes you wonder."

Comment Re:Nope (Score 1) 661

Windows 8 does not have a different UI on different hardware. Based on the hardware being demoed this week, I think the lines between different kinds of hardware will be too blurry for that kind of distinction. The tablet given out to BUILD attendees has a docking station and supports HDMI output and a keyboard and mouse. You would likely stick to touch-friendly apps while using it as a tablet, but at home/work you could use things like Visual Studio and Photoshop.

Comment Re:Why is it sneaky? (Score 1) 348

Yes, I was referring to 64-bit binaries. Pointer alignment was what I was thinking would be the biggest issue for porting typical apps to ARM. I found a couple spots in the compiler documentation that suggest misalignment is already a warning on x86 with a note that it will be an error when compiling for a RISC processor. So hopefully most instances of this would show up as build breaks rather than runtime errors.

I think the IA-64 port of Windows forced any alignment issues in the OS (and SDK) to be addressed.

Comment Re:How does some guild get authority (Score 4, Interesting) 234

The issue here is that it isn't possible for anybody else to negotiate the same deal Google was going for with this settlement. Google was trying to reach a deal with an entire class, not a specific group of authors. So while a competitor could negotiate a similar deal with specific authors or groups of authors, they would be unable to create a deal with the entire class of authors (unless faced with a class action lawsuit and able to negotiate the same settlement).

It sounds like the judge agreed with this objection and indicated that the deal might work if authors needed to opt-in rather than opt-out. Under an opt-in system, authors could opt-in to a competitor's service as well as Google's. Alternatively, Google could try to get copyright law changed so that their opt-out system would be allowed by law (and competitors could set up similar systems without facing infringement lawsuits).

Comment Re:Standards people! (Score 1) 184

The approach the IE team has started taking for unstable standards is to release prototypes independently of the main browser. For example, the websockets prototype is here: http://html5labs.interoperabilitybridges.com/prototypes/available-for-download/websockets. My understanding is that there have been breaking changes in the websockets protocol spec fairly recently (to resolve security issues), so shipping an implementation for widespread use isn't a good idea until the spec stabilizes.

Comment Re:Wow! (Score 5, Informative) 280

The 30% is the cut that Microsoft takes from every app on the WP7 marketplace (same as Apple does with their app store). Employees get the same 70% that third party developers get.

The people I work with had the opposite reaction from what you suggest. The policy removed the uncertainty around moonlighting in this case and encouraged people to start developing apps. I don't think this would have been against policy in any case, but most employees aren't going to spend the time talking to their manager, legal, and HR just to get approval to release a $0.99 app.

Comment Re:But Worse Than Distributing on Android? (Score 1) 381

The bigger issue is that some subscription services have less than a 30% profit margin already. This policy would mean losing money on every iPhone user that signs up through Apple. The obvious solution is to raise prices, but Apple's policy is that the iTunes price cannot be higher than the price available anywhere else. So prices go up for everybody, whether or not they are an Apple customer.

For example, Amazon gives publishers ~70% of the purchase price of a book. If they have to give the 30% to Apple, that leaves no profit for Amazon. Apple would end up with a huge ebook store with none of the overhead of actually negotiating with publishers (the guidelines require that Amazon provide the content for sale through the app store). When it becomes impossible to profit on Apple platforms, I'd expect Amazon to put their money behind Android and any other platforms.

Comment Re:Broke a few things so far (Score 1) 80

Here's the documentation for what is in 3.5.1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977683. This list appears to include all publicly documented bugs that were fixed in 3.5.1 (in other words, bugs in earlier versions that warranted a hotfix and KB article).

I would guess that there were other bugs in 3.5 that didn't meet the hotfix bar (for example, low severity issues or ones that no customers had reported). Fixing these kinds of bugs on their own would require lots of testing. Instead, 3.5.1 included fixes for these issues and got to piggyback on all the testing that happens as part of a Windows release anyway.

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