Comment Re:Well.. (Score 1) 397
And here I thought putting "Windows" in the name was all the negative they needed...
Comment Re:Wrong! (Score 1) 136
Maybe he just doesn't get any signal in his parents basement?
Comment Re:5.5 Billion? (Score 1) 217
Microsoft...you would have gotten a better ROI building a moon base.
Too late, Google already beat them to it: http://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html
Comment Re:Ok, I'm convinced (Score 1) 213
My Sig spits 40 cal lead...
You mean it's Short & Wimpy?
Comment Re:Props to Apple (Score 1) 504
Your comment referenced "laptops," not just the MacBook Air. Not surprising that a device designed specifically for maximum portability would be less flexible as far as upgrades.
As of the the choices, while I certainly was expressing my opinion it is backed up by not just strong sales but also by extremely (and extreme is no exaggeration here) customer satisfaction numbers.
Comment Re:Props to Apple (Score 1) 504
IBM's laptops WERE solid industrial designs, although I don't think they rose to the level of masterpiece. In general they traded at a bit of a premium over commodity WinTel laptops. But IBM hasn't made a laptop in many years.
Comment Re:Props to Apple (Score 1) 504
Funny, my 30-day old MacBook Pro included official Apple instructions for upgrading both the memory and the hard drive.
I think the difference though is that where Apple often makes choices (like no upgradable phone memory) they provide built-in capacities that satisfy the average consumer. Sony's choices, like memory stick, don't tend to satisfy the average consumer (any more).
Comment Re:Buying ARM for a leg? (Score 1) 695
Apple's gross margin is 41%, the average for their industry segment is 37.9% - nothing very startling (or monopolistic) there at all.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/compare.asp?Page=ProfitMargins&symbol=AAPL
Comment Re:Buying ARM for a leg? (Score 2, Insightful) 695
Exactly. Anti-competitive behavior would be Apple telling App submitters that in order to be approved you must agree not to write apps for other mobile platforms.
Cross-Platform Mobile Gaming Gaining Traction 43
andylim writes "Several mobile gaming companies are developing cross-platform multiplayer games allowing Android and iPhone users, for example, to play games against each other. Last month touchArcade reported on a cross-platform baseball game developed by Com2Us called Homerun Battle 3D. Unlike turn-based multiplayer mobile games, Homerun Battle 3D allows players to compete against each other instantly, but you don't see the other player — instead you only get to see your competitor's score being updated. Pushing cross-platform multiplayer games even further, a company called Bulky Pix has created a table-football-style game that displays the action as it happens — both players see the ball moving around. This hopefully suggests that cross-platform, multiplayer mobile shooters aren't far behind."
Comment Re:Unforgivable! (Score 2, Insightful) 398
While it's true that open class USPSA (IPSC) shooters use "space" guns there are plenty of very good USPSA shooters who shoot something that closely resembles stock guns (production, revolver). Jerry, for instance, shoots double action revolver. As just an average USPSA shooter I can draw and hit six separate steel targets, one shot each, in under 4 seconds. Equipment helps, but the top USPSA shooters have more going for them than just equipment.
The research is interesting, but if I had to draw against the guys I regularly shoot with I would not want to be the second guy clearing leather (well kydex actually).
Submission + - Defendant Sues RIAA for Malicous Prosecution (arstechnica.com)
Airmann_90 writes: "Former RIAA target Tanya Andersen has sued several major record labels, the parent company of RIAA investigative arm MediaSentry, and the RIAA's Settlement Support Center for malicious prosecution, a development first reported by P2P litigation attorney Ray Beckerman of Vandenberg & Feliu. Earlier this month, Andersen and the RIAA agreed to dismiss the case against her with prejudice, making her the prevailing party and eligible for attorneys fees. Read the full scoop here."
Submission + - RIAA uses local cops in Oregon fleamarket raid
newtley writes: "Fake cops employed by the RIAA started acting like real police officers quite a while ago, one of the earliest examples coming in Los Angeles in 2004. From a distance, the bust, "looked like classic LAPD, DEA or FBI work, right down to the black 'raid' vests the unit members wore," said the LA Weekly. That their yellow stenciled lettering read 'RIAA' instead of something from an official law-enforcement agency, "was lost on 55-year-old parking-lot attendant Ceasar Borrayo." But it's also SOP for the RIAA to tout genuine officers paid for entirely from citizen taxes as copyright cops. Police were used in an RIAA-inspired raid at two flea markets in Beaverton, Oregon. "Sgt. Paul Wandell, Beaverton police spokesman, said officers seized more than 50,000 items worth about $758,000," says The Oregonian. But this is merely the tiny tip of an iceberg of absolutely staggering dimensions, an example of the extent coming in a GrayZone report slugged RIAA Anti-Piracy Seizure Information."
Prof. Johan Pouwelse To Take On RIAA Expert 184
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Marie Lindor has retained an expert witness of her own to fight the RIAA, and to debunk the testimony and reports of the RIAA's 'expert' Dr. Doug Jacobson, whose reliability has been challenged by Ms. Lindor in her Brooklyn federal court case, UMG v. Lindor. Ms. Lindor's expert is none other than Prof. Johan Pouwelse, Chairman of the Parallel and Distributed Systems Group of Delft University of Technology. It was Prof. Pouwelse's scathing analysis of the RIAA's MediaSentry 'investigations' (PDF) in a case in the Netherlands that caused the courts in that country to direct the ISPs there not to turn over their subscribers' information (PDF), thus nipping in the bud the RIAA's intended litigation juggernaut in that country."
Submission + - RIAA Defends "Expert", says "everyone
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Arguing that "everyone in his field proceeds the same way that he did", and that "there is no other way to do what he did" (pdf), the RIAA opposes Ms. Lindor's motion to exclude the testimony of Dr. Doug Jacobson at trial based on Dr. Jacobson's deposition testimony in which he admitted that neither his work, nor that of MediaSentry, upon which he relied, had any of the ordinary indicia of "reliability" required of expert testimony in federal court."
