Bander - Slashdot User

Comment: Choices... (Score 3, Insightful) 439

by Bander on Friday December 30, @06:51PM (#38543320) Attached to: Doctorow: the Coming War On General-Purpose Computing

The popular success of iOS and other closed systems doesn't mean there aren't choices out there. I have an easily-unlocked and rooted Android phone, and I love it. Would my wife appreciate the command-line access and Python scripting facilities? Probably not -- she didn't even want a feature phone -- even an iPhone would be overkill for her use cases.

HTC just announced that going forward, all their phones will have unlocked bootloaders. Not everything is going closed.

Comment: Re:What? (Score 1) 171

by Bander on Tuesday October 25 2011, @11:32AM (#37832050) Attached to: Analysis of Google Dart

is the slug compiled or interpreted?

In the case of Java, it's both.

Java: All the restrictions of a compiled language, plus the inconveniences of an interpreted one!

Oracle is welcome to contact me, my services as a slogan-writer are available and quite reasonably priced (by Oracle standards).

Comment: What are you calling a "flaw"? (Score 3, Insightful) 110

by Bander on Thursday June 11 2009, @10:14AM (#28293289) Attached to: Chinese Govt Spyware Puts Computers At Risk

I hardly consider the lack of Mac or Linux versions a "flaw". In fact, I consider that one of the few positive aspects of the software.

3D Realms Sued Over Failed Duke Nukem Forever Plans 180

Posted by Soulskill on Friday May 15 2009, @07:36AM
from the ponzi-would-be-proud dept.

Take-Two Interactive has now sued 3D Realms over the cancellation of Duke Nukem Forever . Take-Two did not provide continuous funding for the game, but they did pay $12 million for the publishing rights to the game. A Bloomberg report quotes Take-Two's complaint as saying that 3D Realms "continually delayed the completion date" and "repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing development of the PC Version" of the game. (The complaint refers to 3D Realms as part of Apogee Software, Ltd., not to be confused with Apogee Software, LLC, the publisher behind the still-forthcoming Duke Nukem Trilogy.)

Ender in Exile 507

Posted by samzenpus on Monday November 17 2008, @03:42PM
from the read-all-about-it dept.

stoolpigeon writes "Orson Scott Card's work Ender's Game began as a novelette, which he says he wrote as a means of leading up to the full story he had developed, Speaker for the Dead. Ender's Game was published as a full novel in 1985, and won the Hugo and Nebula awards (as did Speaker for the Dead in '86 and '87). I think it is safe to say that Ender's Game is ensconced in its position as a science fiction classic. Now, 23 years later, Card has finished the first direct sequel to Ender's Game in his new novel Ender in Exile." Keep reading for the rest of JR's review.

Open Source Killing Commercial Developer Tools 742

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 10 2008, @06:03AM
from the evolving-ecosystem dept.

jexrand recommends an interview with John De Goes in which he argues: "The tools market is dead. Open source killed it." The software developer turned president of N-BRAIN explains the effect that open source has had on the developer tools market, and how this forced the company to release the personal edition of UNA free of charge. According to De Goes, selling a source-code editor, even a very good one, is all but impossible in the post-open source era, especially given that, "Some developers would rather quit their job than be forced to use a new editor or IDE." N-BRAIN's decision is but one in a string of similar announcements from tools companies announcing the free release of their previously commercial development tools.

Comment: Re:Bookmark Sync? (Score 1) 356

by Bander on Thursday March 13 2008, @08:07AM (#22737638) Attached to: Mozilla Releases Firefox 3 Beta 4

I would mod you up... I signed up for the Foxmarks beta, waited for my e-mail, and now I'm happily using the beta. It does what it says on the tin. Thanks for the pointer!

In search of the honest demo

Submitted by

netbuzz

on Thursday December 28 2006, @11:48AM

netbuzz writes "Tough to argue with this bit of advice from Kathy Sierra as applies to demos: "How 'done' something looks should match how 'done' something is." Makes perfect sense and Sierra does a fine job of putting meat on the bone. But there's only one hitch: Seems that this unassailable advice is beaten to a pulp all the time, particularly in the technology sector. It's no secret why.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1011 3"

U.S. Gov't To Use Full Disk Encryption On All Computers 371

Posted by timothy on Thursday December 28 2006, @11:48AM
from the double-secret-probation-rot-13 dept.

To address the issue of data leaks of the kind we've seen so often in the last year because of stolen or missing laptops, writes Saqib Ali, the Feds are planning to use Full Disk Encryption (FDE) on all Government-owned computers. "On June 23, 2006 a Presidential Mandate was put in place requiring all agency laptops to fully encrypt data on the HDD. The U.S. Government is currently conducting the largest single side-by-side comparison and competition for the selection of a Full Disk Encryption product. The selected product will be deployed on Millions of computers in the U.S. federal government space. This implementation will end up being the largest single implementation ever, and all of the information regarding the competition is in the public domain. The evaluation will come to an end in 90 days. You can view all the vendors competing and list of requirements."