Comment Re:Touchscreen? (Score 1) 155
Seconded. The NDS XL would be easier to grab, see, and use (it comes with a bigger stylus).
And it's cheaper than an iPad...
Comment Re:how much damage can an iPhone take (Score 1) 422
A simple fall is not the same as a projectile from a kid's tantrum. To be fair though, it survived several other accidents like that before. This one must have been an unlucky landing right on the screen; the phone had a protective cover that would have cushioned any other angle of impact.
Comment how much damage can an iPhone take (Score 1) 422
The iPhone has a glass screen that is very prone to cracking. I imagine it's a case of form over function, since glass looks nicer than plastic. It's not so pretty if ever the phone falls on a hard surface flat on the screen. This means an iPhone won't survive the ninja powers of a 2-year old who managed to grab your phone when you least expected it, to use as a hand grenade...
Also, for some stupid reason the screen was designed in such a way that changing it means also replacing the digitizer (the touch pad - glued to it) so you end up paying quite a pretty penny for repairs (between 1/3 and 1/2 of the price of the phone!).
Comment comics reader (Score 1) 684
One feature that I don't see mentioned in this discussion is the ability to read graphics files out of
Comment Looking at the criteria he used... (Score 1) 538
I know the whole thing is probably not to be taken too seriously, but looking at the paper I would say there are at least a couple of shaky assumptions.
First he's defining a rate of people who live in London. That ignores people moving in or out, or even people willing to move closer. So the figure should be higher I think.
Then he mentions he will only find 5% of "physically attractive" candidates. In other words, he is limiting himself outside of 2 times the standard deviation of the population. That's a really sample of the population. In other words, guy's too picky
Comment What are the odds? (Score 3, Informative) 538
He should try lottery or SETI@Home next. From TFA:
But in the end Backus defied the odds. Asylum reported that Backus has a girlfriend of about six months. "She's from London," he told the Web site. "And she meets all my criteria."
Good for him, but not very good for his theory...
Comment Re:Active glasses? (Score 1) 419
Actually that's a great point. If pixel resolution can be made fine enough, why bother with one big LCD panel + active glasses, when you could just stream to a couple of small displays in front of your eyes?
Some of those already exist (they can also serve as portable DVD players), but they're quite pricey. I guess once there is a lot of 3D media available, those players they will become more common. They can't be too difficult to manufacture to existing small LCD resolutions (perhaps not full HD but good enough for SD).
Comment "Serbian Comic" (Score 1) 36
The comic in question is "Cold Equator" (Froid Equateur) from Enki BIlal. He's French comic book artist and filmmaker of Serbian origins.
At least in the World Chess Boxing organization website, they give proper credit to the guy (with photos and all).
The comic is very good too, part of the Nikopol trilogy. Check it out.
Comment Obligatory (Score 1) 246
I for one welcome our no evil doing overlords.
Submission + - Jack Thompson sues for Omaha shooter videogames (ketv.com)
KlomDark writes: "Omaha's KETV reports that our "good buddy" Jack Thompson is suing Omaha's police chief in connection with the Von Maur shootings. Attorney Jack Thompson said he wants to find out whether Robert Hawkins, 19, played any violent video games. Hawkins shot eight people to death, then killed himself at Von Maur on Dec. 5.
Well, he definitely played the ultimate first person shooter."
Well, he definitely played the ultimate first person shooter."
Submission + - Emulated Mac OS X (csgraf.de)
Alexander Graf writes: "Have you ever been in the position of running Linux as main Operating System on your Intel Mac and you were in dire need of an OSX only program? This is no longer a problem, as I modified Qemu and KVM to run Mac OS X, so you can just boot Mac OS X in a virtual machine, just like you did with Windows anyway.
If you don't have a Mac though, don't despair. This works for non-Macs too.
@staff I don't think this is enough of a description. Please ask me something I can answer directly your readers would like to know and visit the project site, especially the FAQ section.
http://alex.csgraf.de/self/?qemu/"
If you don't have a Mac though, don't despair. This works for non-Macs too.
@staff I don't think this is enough of a description. Please ask me something I can answer directly your readers would like to know and visit the project site, especially the FAQ section.
http://alex.csgraf.de/self/?qemu/"
Submission + - Vista Runs on Eee PC (google.com)
eldavojohn writes: "With the addition of an 8 gig flash card, some clever folks have gotten the massive operating system that is Vista to run on Asus' Eee PC. Considering the hilarious resource requirements for Vista that we are all used to, it's quite impressive."
Submission + - Office 2003SP3: Old file formats, now unavailable! 3
time961 writes: "In Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, Microsoft has disabled support for many older file formats, so if you have old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents, watch out! They did this because the old formats are "less secure", which actually makes some sense, but only if you got the files from some untrustworthy source.
Naturally, they did this by default, and then documented a mind-bogglingly complex workaround (KB 938810) rather than providing a user interface for adjusting it, or even a set of awkward "Do you really want to do this?" dialog boxes to click through. And, of course, because these are, after all, old file formats, many users will encounter the problem only months or years after the software change, while groping around in dusty and now-inaccessible archives.
One of the better aspects of Office is its extensive compatibility mechanisms for old file formats. At least the support isn't completely gone—it's just really hard to use. Security is important, but there are better ways to fulfill this goal.
This was also covered by the Windows Secrets newsletter, although I can't find a story URL for it."
Naturally, they did this by default, and then documented a mind-bogglingly complex workaround (KB 938810) rather than providing a user interface for adjusting it, or even a set of awkward "Do you really want to do this?" dialog boxes to click through. And, of course, because these are, after all, old file formats, many users will encounter the problem only months or years after the software change, while groping around in dusty and now-inaccessible archives.
One of the better aspects of Office is its extensive compatibility mechanisms for old file formats. At least the support isn't completely gone—it's just really hard to use. Security is important, but there are better ways to fulfill this goal.
This was also covered by the Windows Secrets newsletter, although I can't find a story URL for it."
Submission + - Is Adobe spying on CS3 users? (uneasysilence.com) 2
henrypijames writes: For months, users of Adobe Creative Suite 3 have been wondering why some of the applications regularly connect to
192.168.112.2o7.net which looks a lot like a private IP address but is actually a public domain address belonging to the web analytics company Omniture. Now allegations of user spying are getting louder, prompting Adobe Photoshop product manager John Nack to respond, though many remain unsatisfied with his explanation.
Submission + - Convincing the Military to Embrace Open Source (linuxinsider.com)
drewmoney writes: Misconceptions about open source software have made many U.S. Defense Department sectors reluctant to employ this technology. Although a 2003 department policy allows its use, many still believe that open source software poses an increased security risk to networks and that it is not supported as well as commercial products.
