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Comment Re:The App Dilemma (Score 1) 122

Not so much of a dilemma. They could adopt Android, and port their own apps to it. In exchange, it will mean they'll have access to, not just the Android on their hardware, but Android phones all over the world, a market hundreds of times bigger. This way, they can make their own hardware and software, two sources of money, which they can bundle for a reduced cost and rejuvenate the BlackBerry brand.

This. They could even make it go both ways, still release dedicated Blackberry phones, running latest Android versions plus their own UI on top of that. Have their own phones run premium versions of their apps, and sell basic versions on Google Play that run on all Android devices. Call it Business Android, or whatever.

Comment Re:I can see it now ... (Score 4, Funny) 100

You all too happily forget that Microsoft already had their own line of phones (yah, well, sorta...), the Kin! In order to re-invigorate that great tradition of (iirc) two weeks, the new MS phone should carry that name on to the future. May I suggest the KIN-KON, the DUN-KIN, and last but not least, the pumped up eight core cpu version, the PUMP-KIN (available in one color, and one color only).

Comment Re:Considering this is Windows... (Score 1) 471

13GB is bad enough because that is the OS footprint even *before* the /winsxs/ folder starts going berserk, assuming there is such a thing within the RT version as well. It should be avoidable, though. Apps don't hook so deeply into the system that you would need to cache all drivers and file versions all the time. But considering Microsoft's track record, I'd wager 64GB to be the absolute minimum.

Comment Re:To what end? (Score 1) 266

I'm fine with your 'middle of the road' selection, and yes, founding fathers and original trekkers sure relied on their faith a lot to help them endure whatever crossed their way. But each trek shared the same faith, while a modern, multinational trek to Mars would have to have quotas on how many of each faith were allowed on board, and automatically you would just export all the trouble that implies. Second or third generation might be in full fanatic mode once again (and one last time, most likely).

By the way, the absence of religion is not necessarily /nihilism/, it might just be /science/.

Comment Re:To what end? (Score 1) 266

Just the contrary, it's a very /concrete/ idea about preserving the human race. Considering how many tax dollars are being wasted year after year on stuff like saving private enterprises from going bankrupt, I figure some of that /abstract/ money might just as well be redirected towards this useful purpose. But that's just me then, and folks like Branson.

Comment Re:To what end? (Score 1) 266

Ultimately this is the problem with most Mars or Moonbase plans: there needs to be a compelling reason to be there. Something you can't do on Earth or in Earth orbit.

Surviving an impact that kills all sentient life on earth is all the reason I need. Earth orbit or a sprawling Moon base might serve that purpose just as well, but the existing ISS is far too small and way to fragile to ensure our species' survival. And while it's unthinkable right now, Mars shows at least some promise of eventually enjoying some degree of terraforming. Until then, set up domes and indoor greenhouses to nurture the colonists, don't forget to send all the heavy machinery needed for exploring and mining the natural resources of the planet so that they can survive and thrive on their own, and, most important of all, ban all (Terran) religion. Let them have a fresh start.

Comment Re:Quad core (Score 2) 989

You obviously misread that info, it's a retina *burning* display (that's why you are supposed to read the manual *before* switching on the device, ...). On a more serious note: speaking as an e-ink display device owner, I just don't get why people would buy iPads or other tablets specifically for reading ebooks. I get tired easily after reading more than a few pages of text on a LCD display, whereas I can consume some 200 pages a night on my Sony Reader.

But then, maybe the Retina display will read the books for me, who knows? ;)

Comment Re:jetzt (Score 5, Informative) 297

Morgen werde ich noch einen schreiben.

... and there you made your mistake. While that's a grammatically and semantically correct sentence, you're more likely to phrase it as, "Morgen schreibe ich noch einen.", actually using present tense to convey a future statement. I won't bother to RTFA, so I'll never know the argument it's proposing, but there might be some sense to it. There _is_ a tendency to melt present and future in German, and maybe that does re-program everyone's synapses accordingly, maybe not.

Anyway, the whole point would even be more valid for the Japanese who don't even know a future tense.

And here, dear children, are two sayings that might convey the article's thesis, one in German, and one in Japanese:

"Was Du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf morgen!"
"Ashita yarou wa bakayarou!"

Games

Submission + - Sony Could Face Developer Exodus on PSN (industrygamers.com)

donniebaseball23 writes: As the PlayStation Network outage continues, developers continue to feel the economic pinch. There's been no word from Sony on whether they'll compensate companies who produce games for PSN, but Capcom has already said it's losing potentially "millions" from the downtime. Worse yet, developers who rely on PSN revenues may jump ship if they aren't compensated, warns Dylan Cuthbert, creator of popular PSN game PixelJunk. "I have a feeling they [Sony] are thinking about doing something or they will lose developers which of course is pretty bad for them," he told IndustryGamers.

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