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Comment: Re:No, that's good news for corporations (Score 2) 109

by mitzampt (#42849201) Attached to: Judge Invalidates 13 Motorola Patent Claims Against Microsoft
Yeah but besides that, why did this piece of thread (didn't mean it, honestly) get to be about Apple anyway? Does this world have only three tech giants? And why do we perpetuate that illusion? Shouldn't it derail to something a little more interesting such as impact on small players on the market? Innovators? Anyone?

Comment: Are they really? (Score 1) 99

And besides the point: let's say you specify in your will that you want daisies on your grave and you leave a sum of money in order to do that, then afterwards your relatives get the money and use part of it to buy a marker to draw a daisy on your gravestone. Breaking a agreement, a license or a contract like that doesn't translate to revenue loss in most cases ("he doesn't mind, he's dead and the goose is in the bag now"), but it still feels like a d**k move.

Comment: Re:Poor wording (Score 1) 99

Actually the answer is merit. In order to have profit with an open source project it needs to be reasonably good and damn useful. Also always expect poor donations until enough people get to know your product.

My projects (and I believe most open source projects) started by scratching an itch. In each case developer's itch... Commercial products usually start by attempting to scratch a known itch for the intended audience. The transition to open source from closed source is successful when the project in question successfully scratches an itch, by the aforementioned 'damn' amount, and it draws (and allows, by design) people with the itch scratched to contribute.

Comment: If it is to be compatible as... (Score 1) 1

by mitzampt (#42010497) Attached to: Computer Science vs. Software Engineering
...OS releases to existing application then none of them should really do.

Joke aside, if we are completely pragmatic then a team of any sorts could do better with more Software Engineers than with a majority of Computer Science graduates. But in any team I would work with, there must be at least one Comp Sci graduate, as we Engineers may lose focus of best practices in our field.... Some advisory about when to not bend the rules is welcome, but most of the time the need is for more practical people.

$0.021

Comment: Re:Come on! (Score 1) 207

But many lost the need to taste it. This is not a virtual loss, it's actually a lost potential probable income. Think of the taxes that would have gone to the Government from that income. So many statistical orphans skipping lunches, being denied the dream of making hard-earned money from music. It's murder, i tell you!

Comment: Re:VMware is very easy (Score 2, Informative) 361

by mitzampt (#41940873) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Which Virtual Machine Software For a Beginner?
And I disagree with you. I've been using VirtualBox a lot in the last 3 years and it's come a long way but it has a lot of rough edges. I agree it's really useful for a beginner, especially when you're unsure about an investment, and a good path to specialized solutions, but you can't ignore the fact that it crashes more than VMware. Take my word for it.

Comment: Re:Well, do it, but... (Score 1) 503

by mitzampt (#41745601) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Securing a Windows Laptop, For the Windows Newbie?
I got really pissed when I found flash working better in a windows virtual machine than on a native Linux setup. I know the downsides of Windows so I use it only when I need it, as opposed to enjoying the bittersweet experience of my Linux machine. I didn't question your point, thank you for your concern, I just added to my arguments to get back to the initial point.

Comment: Re:Well, do it, but... (Score 1) 503

by mitzampt (#41728597) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Securing a Windows Laptop, For the Windows Newbie?
An how is this acceptable in comparison to the Windows experience? TBH the (heavy) stuff I run on my Linux are my personal reason to prefer it as a platform. It isn't seamless, it isn't consistent, far from easy, but it lets me do my things better. I dislike having flash influenced by resource-hogging processes or even by ads, given that in similar circumstances the Windows version works better. It's not the same thing having a Linux version of a product as enjoying it's features in Linux terms and that is bugging people. And I'm hopeful that standards will occur in a seemingly natural form for Linux to replace the Flash experience. Until then I can ignore the issues.

Comment: Re:Registry cleaners are useless (Score 1) 503

by mitzampt (#41720291) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Securing a Windows Laptop, For the Windows Newbie?
You could understand the usefulness of CCleaner when it cleans. A gaming rig means installing games, playing them, then uninstalling them to free space. Usually installs and uninstalls leave dangling classes in registry that point to nothing, file associations, temporary files and stuff.. After two or three of these cycles you may notice slowdown. This is why CCleaner is useful, it was created for that. Also, browser cache usually stores files for sites you aren't planning to visit anymore whis is sometimes the bigger part of the cache, or files for older version of a page. Periocicly cleaning that up saves space and allows the browser to restart caching instead of comparing file versions. This also reduces chances of resident malware in cache.
NASA

+ - NASA Prepares for Space Surgery and Zero Gravity Blood

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Draining an infected abscess is a straightforward procedure on Earth but on a spaceship travelling to the moon or Mars, it could kill everyone on board. Now Rebecca Rosen writes that if humans are to one day go to Mars, one logistical hurdle that will need to be overcome is what to do if one of the crew members has a medical emergency and needs surgery. "Based on statistical probability, there is a high likelihood of trauma or a medical emergency on a deep space mission," says Carnegie Mellon professor James Antaki. It's not just a matter of whether you'll have the expertise on board to carry out such a task: Surgery in zero gravity presents its own set of potentially deadly complications because in zero gravity, blood and bodily fluids will not just stay put, in the body where they belong but could contaminate the entire cabin, threatening everybody on board. This week, NASA is testing a device known as the Aqueous Immersion Surgical System (AISS) that could possibly make space surgery possible. Designed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Louisville, AISS is a domed box that can fit over a wound. When filled with a sterile saline solution, a water-tight seal is created that prevents fluids from escaping. It can also be used to collect blood for possible reuse. "You won't have a blood bank in space," says James Burgess who came up with the concept for AISS, "so if there is bleeding you want to save as much blood as you can.""
Censorship

+ - The Philippines' Cybercrime Prevention Act makes SOPA look reasonable->

Submitted by silentbrad
silentbrad writes "From Forbes: "The dark days of SOPA and PIPA are behind the US, at least temporarily as copyright tycoons reground and restrategize, attempting to come up with measures that don’t cause the entire internet to shut down in protest. But one country has already moved ahead with similar legislation. The government of the Philippines has passed the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which on the surface, as usual, sounds perfectly well-intentioned. But when you read the actual contents of what’s been deemed “cybercrime,” SOPA’s proposed censorship sounds downright lax by comparison. Yes, there’s the usual hacking, cracking, identity theft and spamming, which most of us can agree should be illegal. But there’s also cybersex, pornography, file-sharing (SOPA’s main target) and the most controversial provision, online libel."
Link to Original Source

+ - Researchers Create First All Optical Nanowire NAND Gate->

Submitted by mhore
mhore writes "Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have created the first all optical, nanowire-based NAND gate which paves the way towards photonic devices that manipulate light to perform computations. From the release, " The research team began by precisely cutting a gap into a nanowire. They then pumped enough energy into the first nanowire segment that it began to emit laser light from its end and through the gap. Because the researchers started with a single nanowire, the two segment ends were perfectly matched, allowing the second segment to efficiently absorb and transmit the light down its length."

The gate works by shining light on the nanowire structure to turn on and off information transported through the wire. The research appeared this month in Nature Nanotechnology."

Link to Original Source

Mystics always hope that science will some day overtake them. -- Booth Tarkington

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