Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:You mean even Hef (Score 0) 140

What utter bollocks you spew: this idea of 'safely' doing business is bizarre and new to me. Tell me about your 'safe' business practices, and I'll listen and nod, then let you loose into the lions' den. Go for it, Mr. Safe Business: I'm going to be charging to sweep up your remains.

Comment Re:FUD! (Score 1) 580

I agree totally - I don't want Steve deciding what applications I can and can't install: currently bittorrent-related apps, those which run interpreted code and various other excitingly niche apps are banned from the iPhone and iPad store.

I'm guessing they will also be banned from the Mac store. But can you see Transmission disappearing overnight? KOLMafia is another favourite, which won't get on the app store but isn't going to simply vanish. It'll always be out there, and even if the entire system becomes locked down, there'll be jailbreaking for macs just like for iPhones and iPads.

But listen to that - the locking down of an entire, unix-based system. How? Restrict root access? And how long is that going to last - physical access pretty much means all access. And then there are other things like Parallels Desktop or Boot Camp, all of which allow users to execute various bits of code that Apple hasn't sanctioned. The road to hell is paved, tile by tile, it's true, but it's a hell of a long way from 'shiny app store' to 'locked down mac'.

Comment Re:Nothing but a Murdoch hit piece. (Score 1) 240

How did he become this rich? How did he attain this wealth? What is wrong with a guy who attained this level of wealth and power using it?

What if somewhere along the line, people stopped thinking for themselves and started following any messiah who strayed into their path? What if that was Murdoch?

What if people began to think for themselves? What if people realised that the only real choice they have is to think or not to think? What then?

Comment Editing (Score 1, Informative) 184

He speaks of missing out the editors, as though they're not necessary. Sure, they hold up the project, but they also avoid the obvious typos and editing mistakes that J.A.Konrath's independent work is littered with. Littered sounds needlessly over-descriptive, right?

Oh, well maybe it is. But even one or two typos or mis-spellings or mis-attributions of speech mars a novel for me. Perhaps I've been spoilt, but what is it by - edited works, that's what.

Comment Re:Power user? (Score 1) 107

A power user, if I may take you seriously for a moment, is generally people who populate slashdot. They are people who know more than ctrl-c and ctrl-v to copy and paste. They might be aware they're using a Macintosh, and therefore substitute a command key for the control. If you ask them to press the 'print screen' button they don't look at you blankly. They've heard of it, even if they've never seen it. If they're a Macintosh user, they'll never see it, but nevertheless they know enough to tell you they have no such thing.

To check if you're a power user is quite simple. Do you control the computer or does the computer control you? Does the machine before you bend to every whim you have, or must you constantly think before daring to press return? Do you even know what return is?

When someone says captcha, do you jump?

Enough with the jollity. Power users are people who control the computer. The computer is their tool. They make it do their whim. Ruthlessly. That's being a power user. I'm one, and I guess you are. Your Mom isn't.

Comment I'm a Mac user - this is news to me (Score 2, Interesting) 142

Okay, I'm no troll, but this is news to me. How does this happen? You all run antivirus software, and yet somehow actually *visiting* a site can infect you. So how does this work? Can you visit a site wearing a 'condom', or do you know, somehow, that you shouldn't click on something.

No trolling, but as a Mac user I click what I like. How do you know what to click or not click?

Comment Colourblind people get it, too. (Score 1) 426

I'm colourblind. Welcome to my world.

My hobby is nagging iDevice developers to include colourblind-friendly options in their colour matching games. Sometimes, like with the wonderful Marblenauts, the developer will actually work with you to sort the problem out. I like those kind of developers. The Trism guy also took steps to sort it out. Sadly, some developers don't care. (Face, meet this knife - it'll be cutting your nose off shortly, but the spite will be wonderful.)

Comment Re:I would have fired her too (Score 1) 147

Actually, that's why I said it's clumsy. If you want to browse through Earnest Gowers' 'The Complete Plain Words' you'll find he's quite unworried about the use of apostrophes for contractions, and goes so far as to only list three cases where one needs to worry unduly about apostrophes. He does, however, go to great pains to explain that the whole point of writing is to communicate without ambiguity, and in the case quoted above there's clearly ambiguity - is it an unconventional contraction of 'assistant has' or is it a possessive apostrophe? Both acceptable, but arguably ambiguous, hence my opinion of it as clumsy.

You wouldn't happen to have a Strunk and White handy, would you? My own library only extends as far as Sir Earnest Gowers on the grammatical front, and it would be interesting to see what an American guide has to say on the matter.

Comment I Don't Like These Figures (Score 2, Interesting) 795

A few things about me: I originally pirated World Of Goo as someone had ported it to the Mac before 2D Boy got round to it. When the Mac version appeared, I bought it. In fact, I own four copies now - I purchased it, and it was also featured in three separate bundles of software I've bought, and a friend also sent me a download for World Of Goo as they didn't want it in their bundle. Also, I don't have a fixed IP address, so every time I play World Of Goo it looks as though another (and why not assume it's pirated?) copy has been stolen...

Is it so unthinkable that other people may be in a similar situation - how are these developers so sure of their figures that they can proudly spurt that only 10% of their users are honest? This is nonsense...

Comment Re:Sony lost money on my PS3 since it sucks for de (Score 1) 348

I love the 'So I gave it to my nephews and they'll never get their subsidy back Buwahahaha!' bit. Rest assured that any and all involved grannies will be instructed in no uncertain terms what games to purchase for Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah and Imbolc, and they'll cough up cold, hard pension cash in the process, undoubtedly ignoring the advisory warnings in the process. All you've done is help the evil console makers and the people who want to corrupt our American youth!

Giving a console to your nephews and rambling about it in public isn't just saying 'I have so much money I use a dollar bill to mop up after a wank', it's actually *helping* the terrorists. Aaargh!

Comment Your cell phone's data plan (Score 1) 555

If I don't have phone service at home and don't have cable because I use a cell phone and TV bores me, then good luck finding Cable or Telco that will install internet service

If it's just for checking e-mail, then it won't eat much of the 5 GB per month that you get with your cell phone's data plan.

Should they try to fire me, for my private life choices then they'll be ripe for a huge class action lawsuit.

Such a suit will not succeed in any state whose employment law is remotely at-will.

Comment SF-JUG organizing HTML5 discussion at Microsoft! (Score 1) 325

On a related subject, San Francisco Java User Group (www.sfjava.org) is hosting a 4-hour event on May 11th at Microsoft-SF on HTML5, with speakers from Google, Microsoft, and Kaazing. People seem to be excited about this because it will give them a chance to ask Microsoft about their commitment and plans for HTML5 in IE9. The event will be recorded and streamed. http://www.sfjava.org/calendar/12296585/ (Disclaimer, I am one of the organizers)

Slashdot Top Deals

Scientists will study your brain to learn more about your distant cousin, Man.

Working...