Comment Maybe not in NY but it worked in QC (Score 1) 276
I was out of power for 27 days in Quebec's cold winter. I did not myself make kids at the time but there really was a baby boom in Quebec 9 months later.
Sharp Rise In Jailing of Online Journalists; Iran May Just Kill Them 233
bckspc writes "The Committee to Protect Journalists has published their annual census of journalists in prison. Of the 136 reporters in prison around the world on December 1, 'At least 68 bloggers, Web-based reporters, and online editors are imprisoned, constituting half of all journalists now in jail.' Print was next with 51 cases. Also, 'Freelancers now make up nearly 45 percent of all journalists jailed worldwide, a dramatic recent increase that reflects the evolution of the global news business.' China, Iran, Cuba, Eritrea, and Burma were the top 5 jailers of journalists."
rmdstudio writes, too, with word that after the last few days' protest there, largely organized online, the government of Iran is considering the death penalty for bloggers and webmasters whose reports offend it.
Copyright and the Games Industry 94
A recent post at the Press Start To Drink blog examined the relationship the games industry has with copyright laws. More so than in some other creative industries, the reactions of game companies to derivative works are widely varied and often unpredictable, ranging anywhere from active support to situations like the Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes debacle. Quoting:
"... even within the gaming industry, there is a tension between IP holders and fan producers/poachers. Some companies, such as Epic and Square Enix, remain incredibly protective of their Intellectual Property, threatening those that use their creations, even for non-profit, cultural reasons, with legal suits. Other companies, like Valve, seem to, if not embrace, at least tolerate, and perhaps even tacitly encourage this kind of fan engagement with their work. Lessig suggests, 'The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check with a lawyer.' Indeed, the more developers and publishers that take up Valve's position, the more creativity and innovation will emerge out of video game fan communities, already known for their intense fandom and desire to add to, alter, and re-imagine their favorite gaming universes."
Modded Xbox Bans Prompt EFF Warning About Terms of Service 254
Last month we discussed news that Microsoft had banned hundreds of thousands of Xbox users for using modified consoles. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has now pointed to this round of bans as a prime example of the power given to providers of online services through 'Terms of Service' and other usage agreements.
"No matter how much we rely on them to get on with our everyday lives, access to online services — like email, social networking sites, and (wait for it) online gaming — can never be guaranteed. ... he who writes the TOS makes the rules, and when it comes to enforcing them, the service provider often behaves as though it is also the judge, jury and executioner. ... While the mass ban provides a useful illustration of their danger, these terms can be found in nearly all TOS agreements for all kinds of services. There have been virtually no legal challenges to these kinds of arbitrary termination clauses, but we imagine this will be a growth area for lawyers."
Linux Kernel 2.6.32 Released 195
diegocg writes "Linus Torvalds has officially released the version 2.6.32 of the Linux kernel. New features include virtualization memory de-duplication, a rewrite of the writeback code faster and more scalable, many important Btrfs improvements and speedups, ATI R600/R700 3D and KMS support and other graphic improvements, a CFQ low latency mode, tracing improvements including a 'perf timechart' tool that tries to be a better bootchart, soft limits in the memory controller, support for the S+Core architecture, support for Intel Moorestown and its new firmware interface, run-time power management support, and many other improvements and new drivers. See the full changelog for more details."
Comment Despite what law says a company is not a "moral" (Score 1) 610
...I don;t necessarily agree with Apple's decision here, but I don;t think they were morally wrong to make it.
Despite what law says a company is not a "moral" person. I think what they did is legal and I think it's not very nice to the few people using OSX on an Atom. Then again those people were cheating the system and Apple is in there for making $$$, not happy feelings.
Also there is the possibility that the change was not meant to break Atom but just happens to do it. Just because something works out for you does not mean that you intended it.
Comment Re:What this shows (Score 1) 652
"It'd never go over in the more-educated United States."
This is the same United States where the majority of the population believes in angels and aliens, yes? And more to the point, a large number of people believe there's something to homeopathy?
Aliens? Really? I actually think that it makes more sense to believe in aliens than angels or homeopathy as long as you also believe that aliens are somewhere far away, not hidden here on earth.
Comment Re:Another reason why (Score 1) 652
Right, because we're so much smarter than the Iraqis. We have never had dumb/superstitious people in charge of our military.
With all the religion talk from both parties and the money that says "in god we trust" or something like that I would say that the whole USA is governed by superstition. Yes religion is superstition; being the most popular superstition does not make it any more real.
And just as in water witches maybe there is something we just can't see/test for/prove and that god indeed exists. But right now it's a superstition.
Comment I love to drive (Score 1) 432
If the hours and work conditions were not so bad I'd want to be a paramedic. Drive an ambulance all day and make a real chance in people's lives.
Comment Ability/desire to take risks may be the top factor (Score 1) 808
Ability/desire to take risks may be the top factor
Definitely. You can become a top programmer and earn a very good salary jsut by being bright. But to get rich you have to be willing to bet it all where other people won't.
Comment Re:Not surprising... (Score 1) 507
Society has been on a tear lately always looking to avoid personal responsibility and blame someone (or in this case, something else). For example,
--Kids aren't hyperactive or have too much energy. They have ADD and require Ritalin.
--Why isn't my kid cut out to do Algebra in 2nd grade? It's not that he/she might have a disposition for the arts, but that I need to blame the school and the teachers.
Especially bad since in some cases they will blame a biological process and in other cases society. whatever they can blame it on without sticking to a single ideal.
Comment The story here is not knowing if it is a joke (Score 1) 1146
We all know there are people out there who actually really think that way. We don't expect them to hang around on slashdot but maybe there are a few.
I have not owned many cars but enough to see good and bad floor mats designs.
Chrysler daytona '87 was terrible. Nothing at all to hold the mats in place and even winter mats with "spikes" under to hold them to the carpet would frequently move around.
Audi A4 2001 was great. Pin system that held really well and worked with both summer and winter mats. I can't see how they would move accidentally.
Acura MDX 2005 is also great. Different pin system but holds just as well.
And if the floormat is not too blame surely braking should help enough to prevent accidents in most situations unless you were already going too fast and too close to someone. And then after the braking helps with the initial panic you can turn the ignition off or go for neutral.
Comment All automatics I have seen "land" on N if you push (Score 1) 1146
You need to go slightly to the left or right or press something to get into reverse but pushing it straight all the way should land you on "N". Maybe some cars don't I have not driven all of them.
Comment Why try to fit the square piece in the round hole? (Score 1) 1012
If you really want to run OSX then maybe you should get Mac hardware. OSX runs that great not just becaused it has a good foundation(BSD I believe) but also because it only needs to perform on a restricted variety of hardware.
If you are looking for free linux is there and it's pretty good now even for the average user.
If you are looking for maximum hardware compatibility the market leader is still windows
Comment Apple and google are in two very different busines (Score 1) 230
..businesses.
Apple is a hardware company that makes software to add value to the hardware it sells. OS X is just a happy accident and the realization that people are looking for whole solutions, not just the best pieces.
Google is an ad company. Search results are one way to get eyes on the ads but they will use any other way(maps, email, social networking,
It's very hard to get real competition at any level in the whole computer/internet/OS/mobile markets.
Internet is very geography dependent and most people can only choose from 2 providers who often do not seem to compete at all.
Computers are now largely PC but still there is AMD and Intel and anyone else wanting to join would need serious OS support for the hardware to sell.
The OS is largely windows but somehow linux and OSX still find a niche to play in.
Smartphones are a mess. Tons of different OS, hard to find app stores/shareware, freeware, uselessware. I think that in the end Smartphones are going to be just one spectrum of the computerworld like a sub-subnotebook and will end up running linux, OSX or windows
As a consumer what you should really want is whatever makes you life better/easier as cheap as possible. And this is where Apple shines from its great integration of all layers of the solution(hardware, syncing, app store). Linux will shine from its low cost and easy portability. I quite frankly don't see why someone would want windows on its phone, I really can't see why you would want it on your laptop unless your software only works on windows.
Google throws a nice curve into all this from not being a company that should be involved in any of this except maybe the app store part. They obviously realized that smartphones are the laptop of the future just like laptops of today and the desktop of the past for a lot of people. They needed more control and decided to just grab the part they needed and outsource the hardware building part.
We'll see how all of this plays out but right now I can't imagine Samsung,Lg, Motorola and others not becoming predominantly linux based in the future and probably android based as long as google leaves it wide open. Nokia is going with Maemo but seems to want to keep symbian too. Apple still has the more polished solution and the best end to end control... they were even able to control distribution and part of the carrier network to get their visual voicemail working.
I predict that whoever gets the best app store(in quality and price, not quantity) will win in the long term. So it's up to Apple, Google and Nokia to make sure the good developers WANT to develop for them.
