Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Cheaper and a little more open might have worked.. (Score 1) 391

I think the RT has a place in the market, but MS priced it way too high to begin with. For $300 with keyboard and allowing installation of non-MS Store apps could make this device useful. It comes with MS Office with OneNote (albeit crippled without the ability to record meeting audio). This could have been a great, affordable tablet for business users and students.

MS didn't include Outlook; didn't include the killer sound recording feature of OneNote - instead recommending running a sound record app while taking notes - WTF?; made it difficult for PuTTY or apps like it to even consider porting to the platform - see http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/winrt.html

Other smaller issues like going with 16:9 instead of 16:10 makes trying to read a document in portrait orientation difficult. MS might have had a tablet for masses and students,but managed to fumble another opportunity by trying to out iPad the iPad.

Comment E-Ink Illumination (Score 2) 242

I love my e-ink reader and I love the idea of a large (color?) e-ink display, but it would require more than just the energy to update the e-ink. For example, in a darkened call center, you'd still need to shine a front light onto it which might not offer much savings over the LED back lighting of an LED LCD.

-Hovsep

Comment Re:RIM's Main Problem (Score 1) 180

Only BSOD's I ever got on my Windows 7 laptop were being caused by some bad RAM. It's been so long since I've see a BSOD, I can hardly remember what color they were :-).

I got a free WP7.5 device (my Treo "lost" the Smoked by Windows Phone challenge), which held some promise, but I've switched to Android for now. If Microsoft decides to give away WP8 phones via a Smoked by Windows Phone type challenge again, I may try one, but I'm not going to spend my money on one anytime soon.

Comment Re:EVIL-TOS: Not allowed to host any type of serve (Score 1) 263

Which puts anyone with a surveillance DVR at home, like me, in violation. Every ISP has this provision, but seem to turn a blind-eye towards low volume usage like me checking the home cameras occasionally. As long as Google doesn't block ports.

With home automation and monitoring devices coming into more homes, this condition will have to be revised by ISPs.

Comment Re:Improved Roaming (Score 1) 82

It, like the microcells for Sprint and Verizon, has a GPS radio. I've set several of these up and have had to always put the unit close to an exterior wall/window/door in order for it to pick up a GPS signal. Sprint in the very first AirRaves included an antenna with a 30' cord to allow placement of the unit further inside, but I never really saw a need for it. If I'm going to run the antenna cable that far, I can run the Ethernet that far too.

Recently a friend was complaining that his AT&T mico-cell wasn't working. I went over and saw it was placed towards the inner part of this condo. I moved the unit to the other side of the credenza it was sitting under, bringing it about 6 feet closer to the outside window, and the unit picked up a GPS signal and provisioned itself for service again.

Comment Buy your own laptop (Score 1) 671

I've always insisted on owning my laptop and always will. My employer recently offered to buy me a laptop and I declined for several reasons:

1. I don't want to worry about having to get my data off with short notice. Things are great now, but management changes and I could walk in to a layoff one morning, or I could get another job offer, or just decide to walk if things go bad. Regardless, it's my laptop and I leave it with.

2. I don't want to want to be faulted for using company resources for personal use. If I choose to use my laptop for company business (barring policy restrictions on such a thing), it cannot be held against me.

The above is worth investing $500 to $1,000 of my own money every two to three years.

Comment Re:again? (Score 2) 319

Switch to Tomato. It's far more stable and is perfect for what the OP wants to do. Though I've not tried any of their versions Tomato USB (http://www.tomatousb.org/) ads some of the features that DD-WRT has like VPN, etc. It's been stable on a variety of Broadcom routers it's compatible with (Linksys WRT[G|GS|L], Buffalo, Asus).

I seldom have to reboot my router (months of uptime) and the bandwidth tracking keeps 24 months of history. The start of month date is also settable to coincide with the users billing cycle. Give it a try.

Comment Re:BYTE (Score 1) 185

I agree with you. Pournelle was a long winded whiner and I never really understood what his "fans" saw in his column. While he did have some useful content, he sure took the long path to get to the it.

Really miss Micro Cornucopia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Cornucopia) more than Byte. Sadly they folded just little over a year after I discovered them.

Science

Inside the Lab of One of the World's Last Holographers 86

MMBK writes "In the heyday of holography, back in the 1970s, there were four schools dedicated to the holographic arts around the world, and five studios in New York City alone. Today, there are only a few left in the world. And no one is holding the candle higher than Doctor Laser."
Image

Need a Favor? Talk To My Right Ear 288

Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that scientists have found that if you want to get someone to do something, ask them in their right ear. Known as the 'right ear advantage,' scientists believe it is because information received through the right ear is processed by the left hand side of the brain which is more logical and better at deciphering verbal information than the right side of the brain. 'Talk into the right ear you send your words into a slightly more amenable part of the brain,' say researchers. The team, led by Dr. Luca Tommasi and Daniele Marzoli from the University of Chieti in central Italy, observed the behavior of hundreds of people in three nightclubs across the city where they intentionally addressed 176 people in either their right or their left ear when asking for a cigarette. They obtained significantly more cigarettes when they made their request in a person's right ear compared with their left. 'These results seem to be consistent with the hypothesized specialization of right and left hemispheres,' say researchers. 'We can also see this tendency when people use the phone, most will naturally hold it to their right ear.'"

Slashdot Top Deals

On the eighth day, God created FORTRAN.

Working...