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Comment Re:The reasons don't matter (Score 5, Informative) 227

Well, if I *do* have to justify it: the latest release from 2013 is for Windows, Mac and Linux. I can't get it to compile on recent Linux distros, it won't run on new Mac OS versions, there are features I have to avoid to workaround crashes on Windows. Features that I'd like will never be added and problems I encounter will never be fixed.

Comment Re:Post Its (Score 2) 227

This! This is a key reason why I tell everyone to keep notes. There's a saying in healthcare: "If you don't write it down it didn't happen" and it applies to so many spheres. Even if your notes aren't recognised as an official record, you're most of the way to winning an argument if you've got contemporaneous notes to fall back on. Yes a VP might not accept them but other parties will quickly flounder when eyes turn to them in an awkward meeting...

Comment Re:Vi (Score 2) 227

Vim's great (and it's still actively developed). But Amaya gives me a WYSIWYG-ish layout so I can have indented bullets, quoted text, etc. I can also include images, so easier to include a screenshot or a graph (a picture paints a thousand words -- no matter how good the text editor!).

Comment Re:Change just because? (Score 4, Informative) 227

Submitter here. It's got a crash bug I can work around to avoid and I think XHTML is a dead end. And yes, I wondered what else was about. I normally have one file per year so I thought if I was going to change for 2016, it was time to see what the options were. Thanks all for suggestions so far!

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Logbooks and note-taking

leonstr writes: I'm a sysadmin and I like to record my daily work in a logbook: technical notes, work progress, actions from meetings, etc. I started with the word processor on the venerable Psion Series 3a but for about 10 years I've been using Amaya (http://www.w3.org/Amaya/). It's FLOSS, cross-platform and uses an open file format (XHTML).

Amaya has its quirks but I really like it, unfortunately it's no longer being updated and I feel it's time to change.

So I wondered: what do other people use for recording their work? What works well and meets your requirements?

Comment Re:For "serious health freaks/competitive athletes (Score 1) 201

Open Source advocate Dr. Richard Stallman for one.

Eeek! I think you mean "Free software advocate Dr. Richard Stallman...". The distinction is important as the term emphasises the social benefits as well as the engineering benefits of being able to inspect and improve such systems. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html

Comment Re:A long list of reasons (Score 1) 744

Anyway: there is definitely need for a more "fair" and equal approach to manufacturing of IT goods.

I've been wondering for a while why there's been no attempt to create a "Fairtrade" phone. E.g. built by workers with fair pay, union recognition, healthcare, etc., materials (esp. coltan) that have been sourced in an ethical/auditable way, etc. I bet that wouldn't increase the price by more than $50 (perhaps much less) and there's surely enough of a market. Presumably the electronics industry want to suppress such thinking as it would draw attention to their dubious (at best) manufacturing practices...

Earth

Breaking the Squid Barrier 126

An anonymous reader writes "Dr. Steve O'Shea of Auckland, New Zealand is attempting to break the record for keeping deep sea squid alive in captivity, with the goal of being able to raise a giant squid one day. Right now, he's raising the broad squid, sepioteuthis australis, from egg masses found in seaweed. This is a lot harder than it sounds, because the squid he's studying grow rapidly and eat only live prey, making it hard for them to keep the squid from becoming prey themselves. If his research works out, you might one day be able to visit an aquarium and see giant squid."

Comment Re:This news is from the 16th (Score 1) 382

Offtopic, British lords are so hilarious. There's a secretary of transport called Lord Adonis. Had to chuckle at that.

Adonis is his real name (formerly Andrew Adonis, he's of Greek descent) and has the ironic nickname "Muscles". In fairness however he's doing a great job (unlike Mandy aka The Sinister Minister). The really rubbish thing is that both Adonis and Mandleson are key government ministers and neither are elected. The pretense of democracy is looking pretty thin now...

Comment Re:What about time? (Score 1) 1137

"Private companies are always better"??? The private sector only works effectively when there's competition which rarely exists in infrastructure-type services. So you end up with a contrived competition mechanism and the lowest bidder. For major infrastructure services the government can't afford for the companies to go bust so often ends up subsidising them in some way. And if the contract needs renegotiating in the future due to changes in circumstances not allowed for originally the company is under no obligation to provide any change in service typically requiring renegotiation with extraordinary increases in cost. Is this really better than having a (well run) public body that is accountable directly to the government and the public?
Operating Systems

Submission + - Talking to Torvalds (bcs.org)

leonstr writes: "He hates cell phones, but thinks that acceptance of the open source concept is now taken for granted — in a good way. BCS managing editor Brian Runciman interviewed Linus Torvalds after he received the BCS Lovelace Medal."

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