Your remark begs the question whether my country would actually extradite someone for a copyright infringement or something of the sort.

Actually, I seriously doubt any country would, unless it's an excuse to extradite someone who cannot be extradited on other grounds. So, no, U.S. law does not apply everywhere and most people get by fine without ever visiting the U.S.

Actually, the Dutch water defenses can take quite a bit and do so regularly when storm surges occur. Of course, when a storm surge would come on top of a sea level increase of 1m overall, that would cause flooding sooner, at least temporarily.

However, this lame website simply colors every bit of land that just happens to be below the set level and ignores any defense that would keep the water out, even at the lower settings. It's utter bollocks and I'm betting it's only there to generate ad revenue. Oh /., how sad to see you slip into senility.. (not directed at parent, but at the so-called editors that decided this should run)

It's not a fair comparison, unless the point is that it is more profitable to sell the OS and the brand as well as the hardware. No surprise there, if you can make it work and Apple deserves the credit for pulling it off - though I still won't have any of their stuff. A fair comparison would be to make an estimate of the profit made by HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Asus, etc. on the sale of Android devices, combined with the profit made by Google off the platform. Looking at it that way, Android is likely to generate a lot more profit than iOS, just not for a single company. If Apple were to split into a hardware and a software and services company, which one would generate the most profit: the hardware one, or the software and services one? I would bet the hardware part, assuming that nothing else changes and they maintain a closed platform between the two. Google is on the software side of things, though that is slowly changing since their acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

... did James Cameron fund some research to get the marketing machine for Titanic 3D going?

.. because you picked web development as a field. So if you're willing to work for a little less (or nothing) for a bit, you can get a decent portfolio of good looking websites out there. The portfolio will speak for itself if you document used technology and interesting background on your own website.

And I'm saying you're lucky because if you were a Java developer writing middleware or working basically any other development job out of immediate view, you'd have a hard time showing off your work without it being free and open.

.. is to create a properly reference-able and searchable log of your communications. A "paper trail" so to speak. And having worked with Atos on several projects, I can see why scrapping email makes sense for them in this light.

If my brain is only 80% sure that a remembered fact is accurate, I'm glad the result is "I don't know" when I try to remember it. People don't "remember more than they think", but the brain apparently stores a lot of junk that doesn't meet it's built-in (or trained) criteria for proper remembrance. Big surprise there...

What would be interesting is to see how the level of certainty needed to remember something changes over time and whether it is actually something that is taught or inherently built into the brain's structure.

I would like to thank you and most of the other people in this thread for demonstrating that programmers are still uncool (at least the ones you're likely to find posting on /.)

I think the flaw in this plan lies in getting that app to run on a million iPhone's whilst maintaining your anonymity as a developer...

Unless you consider yourself the digital equivalent of a digital suicide bomber and considering getting sued into a hole in the ground is worth it if it gets a few million iPhone IDs out there. Even though Apple will be selling all those iPhone owners the next model in a year or so.

What's keeping me on on Windows myself is the same as many people here: games. The fact that consoles are a decent alternative for some games and other games are now available on Mac or Linux-based alternatives is inconsequential. Some games I really like to play are Windows-PC only. And besides, I have a lot of older games on that platform that I don't feel like throwing out yet, nor do I feel thrilled at trying to get them to work in another environment. Games are for exactly those moments in which I do not want to be bothered with system administration issues.

But apart from that obvious one, my wife is also on Windows and I don' t like the added overhead from having different OSes in the same network, requiring me to keep different types of systems up to date and working. I know it can all work nicely together and in the past I've put in the effort, but right now ease of use is a serious factor.

And then there's customers. Since my customers use Windows on the desktop almost exclusively, I will always need to be able to develop for Windows and test on Windows; so the laptop I use for work runs Windows. I also like the fact that I can quickly identify with problems they have and use everyday experience to help solve their problems instead of having to turn them down with a smug "I don't have that problem because I am on Linux/Max OS" (which is what I see colleagues do and which is why my phone rings when the customer needs someone for whatever).

As far as licensing goes, it's not so bad. I only have two boxes that I paid a Windows license for (a gaming rig and a media center). All the other devices either come with pre-configured Linux-versions installed (like my NAS and a firewall/webserver/mediaserver as well as my routers) or our bosses paid for the proper licenses.

I used to regret not being able to use some of my favorite software on Linux, but free solutions for virtual machines and the maturity of CygWin have solved that problem as well. With stuff like Gimp, InkScape, etc. etc. working just as well on Windows, there is little or no practical reason to switch, just ideological ones.

More like making Europe a hostile place for hostile social networks. Keeping everything around forever, or at least until they decide it's no longer in their interest to keep it around, is the standard mode for social networks. Makes sense, since this is valuable data to mine or sell and implementing features that allow you to clean up after yourself isn't exactly free either.

But given the choice, I'd prefer something like Google+ that puts me in control of my own data - say Diaspora? Sure, companies like Google can still mine the data while I have it out there and I think that's fine. If I didn't, I'd put it somewhere more private. But when I decide I've had enough, I would like to have the freedom to quietly disappear.

I'm not sure if it won't be a problem for sites like the internet archive though. I mean, it's trivial for them to exclude the big ones, but what about smaller community sites that are automatically included? Whose responsibility is it to remove that information and how are users supposed to know something is even on there? Seems to me like the problems starts as soon as a site gets a copy of the data and starts making it available...

I don't know if this is global or local parlance, but over here "unlock" generally refers to removing the SIM-lock from a locked phone, enabling the use of SIMs from any service provider. This is in most cases a breach of contract with the original service provider, unless the contract has since expired.

Jailbreaking refers exclusively to the removal of any restrictions to the installation of applications. Granted, in most cases one has to jailbreak the phone to unlock it, since the unlocking software is generally nowhere to be found in app stores supported by the service provider - for obvious reasons. Whether or not jailbreaking is a breach of contract is up for discussion in some cases and clearly no breach in others.

It seems to me that 'jailbreak' is the term to use here.

I own and regularly use a Xoom and at work several colleagues use other Android tablets - some iPads floating around as well. They all have one thing in common and that's the weight that gets uncomfortable after more than a few minutes of use. Most people feel the need to put it down on the table, or rest it on their lap. If someone has poor eyesight and frail arms, I can see this being a real problem - the weight will be even more of a problem, while the need to hold it closer to one's face is greater.

You have an invention you're convinced could make money, but yet you do not succeed in convincing anyone with the means to develop it that it will make money? (Rossi apparently did and although I don't believe he is a genius physicist or chemist, I do think he is a clever businessman)

You're allowed to publish whatever you like, where I come from, so what totalitarian state are you living in? Or did you mean you were unable to get it published in the peer-reviewed publication of your choice? (Rossi was and so he found publicity in another way, since you can always find people who are willing to print outrageous claims)

Getting ideas to the public is trivial since we have the internet. Making money off of a good idea is not trivial, but really good ideas tend to find investors or get ripped off with lawsuits ensuing soon after. If you're withholding a really good idea for 15 years because of the chance of yourself not making 100% of the proceeds, you have to ask yourself who exactly is in the wrong here... also, it's not very good business on your part, choosing the certainty of no profit for anyone over the uncertainty of great profit to yourself (apart from the ethics of willfully withholding a good idea).

Yes, because if the authorities had not taken his actions seriously, the way he acted would have been just fine? It's not like it's about the whole affair being morally reprehensible to begin with..?

You don't get punished for being caught, you get punished for being wrong/or and breaking the rules. The fact that they need to catch you to be able to deliver punishment shouldn't figure into the decision making process.