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Comment Re:Apple's activity is criminal here, Palm's is le (Score 2, Insightful) 656

"That would be because iTunes treats non-Apple devices differently and probably quite poorly. So in order to get the level of functionality out of iTunes, Palm has to "lie" to iTunes about what it is."

Isn't it odd that so many other companies have had no difficulty writing their own sync software without spoofing?

Comment Re:HP (Score 1) 557

I like my HP 2550n. Reliable, durable, inexpensive. $200 for the printer, $70 for the add on tray, and "expensive" but cheap (because they are long lasting) cartridges and imaging drum. It's nearly 10 years old and still going strong!
I suggest you pay close attention to your needs and factor in the cost of the consumables (toner, imaging drum, etc.) and desired optional features and HW (networking, trays, duplex, etc.) I bought my 2550n near the end of its active time on the market because it was discounted and the newer printers did not have affordable features (n for ethernet network-ability, affordable large capacity add on paper tray) and affordable renewables (the toner cartridges cost a little less on the new machines but printed only half the pages.) What you really want to avoid is paying less for the hardware while paying many times the savings on the "cheaper hardware" for expensive toner, etc.
Hopefully HP is still making their HW to last.

Comment Re:Put it on iPods (Score 1) 332

"I very much dislike the fact that the USB plug is a rectangle"
I agree, but for backward compatibility sake, I can see the arguement for using a USB compatible plug (possibly in a transitional manner?)
Its a typical Microsoft mess-up though. USB would have been far more usable if they had merely made the shape of the plug more obvious (a la FW400,) and/or standardized the orientation of the sockets, and provided tactile hinting on both the plug and socket. Better yet the present shape could have been used if they had made the plug symmetric so it could be plugged in whichever way is more convenient (although it would require some redundancy in the electrical contacts of the socket.)
Since one of the goals of this system seems to be a small form factor and quick and easy use, they should explore making the connector round with the optical in the center and the power coaxial or rectangular but symmetrical.

Comment Re:How has SV LLC done anything wrong? (Score 1) 319

I understand what you are saying, herojig, but a marketing campaign never claims to be anything but a marketing campaign.
Calling something a poll claims some scientific basis and rigor. A poll cannot claim to be a poll if its criteria, methodology, and data are secret.
Although I also blame news sources for swallowing the "poll's" results whole and without scrutiny, Its the liar who is ultimately responsible for their lies.

Comment Re:How has SV LLC done anything wrong? (Score 1) 319

Indeed.They seem suspect from the word go. Look at their name,
"Strategic Vision"
I haven't heard such an ironically prescient name since . . . uhm . . .
Bernie Made-off?
But really, if you claim to do polling, you sell your services, and you release results to clients and news organizations claiming the result are actual polling results; if they are actually made up or cooked isn't that fraud not to mention, unethical? Isn't that wrong? (or am I just another victim of a liberal, socialist, communist, pinko, agenda?)

Comment Re:doesnt matter to me (Score 1) 857

Agree with the point but not the sentiment.
NCLB is also putting the last nails in the coffin for composition, music, art, crafts, PE etc. never mind that these activities actually put into context and solidify the understanding of the more quantifiable parts of the curriculum. I think if I had kids I would home school them (for at least a portion of their day) rather than let them be "institutionalized" in the mostly crappy schools George Bush has created for us. I fear for our culture.

Comment Re:EMP? Impending poverty? (Score 1) 857

Pretty good actually. I studied Chinese in Taiwan and brush calligraphy is still taught throughout Asia. They see it as as an important part of the culture and essential to its continued good health. I have also done some western calligraphy. It's impossible to understand or create credible fonts if you have not studied calligraphy.

As I alluded to in my earlier post, here in the US schools are eliminating anything that has to do with art, music, performance, or anything that is not easily quantifiable and replacing it with "relevant" curricula, like "Powerpoint Presentation."

How are your Powerpoint skills? (Not nearly as good as they could be if you haven't studied story telling. )

Comment Re:EMP? Impending poverty? (Score 1) 857

@shutdown
"Neither pen, quill, nor brush go back "millennia"."

Perhaps you should do a bit of research before you make ridiculous pronouncements about the history of graphic communication.

I was indicating progressive technologies of writing instruments. Obviously pens do not go back millennia - they are a recent technology in western written communication that mostly replaced artificial and actual quills which mostly replaced brushes, etc.

However the letter forms of the ancient Greeks and Romans (yes the ones that are chiseled in stone) are brush forms (note the serifs and stressed strokes.) At that time most signs were painted (with a brush.) When letter forms were written in stone they were first painted, then the painted letter forms were chiseled. The same is true in Asia where brushes are still used quite a bit and the brushed characters go back uninterrupted for millennia.

Interestingly modern Chinese characters, long influenced by the use of the brush, evolved from forms that were previously evolved from the use of quills. Unlike western quills, Chinese quills were cut square and wrote without the stress inherent in western quills (like Rapidograph pens) producing a mono weight character. Even Phoenician letters and Egyptian Hieroglyphics evolved from the use of brushes.

Clearly your education is lacking since you appear to have never heard of Google or Wikipedia, so I assume that terms like serif, stroke stress, and letter form are lost on you anyway.

Comment Re:EMP? Impending poverty? (Score 2, Interesting) 857

Cursive is simply a form of quick legible handwriting. The value of cursive is it's speed and legibility which derive from linking the letters and it's standard form. Not teaching cursive is a decision stemming from perceptions of educational priorities (which are usually political decisions, not educational ones.) After all, typewriters were around for the better part of a century and yet they did not displace handwriting very significantly. My grandparents cursive hands were incredibly legible and beautiful. I'm in my late 40's and my own hand is nothing to write home about (ha!) but it is also quite legible. My own cursive training was probably no more than an hour or two a week for half a year or so -- hardly a huge investment in time for the skill I developed. Far more useful then the facile "computer training" they give grade schoolers now like "powerpoint presentation"!? Story telling and narrative development would be far more useful practice for group communication skills, Powerpoint or not. Anyway I still keep several letters from my Grandparents and parents because I enjoy seeing the writing. One of the only pieces I have of my Father's writing is a short list my father wrote to himself but I love it because it is such a personal reminder of him. I can see the slight tremor in his hand (he always shook a bit as he was a 'charged up' guy,) I can tell about how old he was when he wrote it because I saw his handwriting throughout my life (surprising how we subconsciously absorb these tiny observations,) and his character comes through in the letter shape habits and script stress he developed. I never look at old e-mails he sent me and they would not communicate anything more than the content. To me it seems a shame not to teach cursive since it extends our dependance on complex technology for basic communication. Its a tie that connects us to our ancestors (or at least our cultural forbearers) who used pen, quill, or brush that goes back millennia. More of a shame is that it deprives us of this personal artifact of communication that can convey far more than just the syntactical content we write.

Comment Re:Hmm (Score 1) 164

These two programs pretty much the same thing and look *very* similar. In fact one has taken image resources from the other in order, presumably, to look more like it. How could it *not* confuse people?
Just look at the two screenshots:
http://delicious-monster.com/images/librarypage/screenshots/iphonepublishing_BIG.png
http://iphone.netwalk.be/sites/default/files/01-main.jpg

Comment Re:Hmm (Score 1) 164

I think you are largely correct about what he means. But there is also a loss in that they are creating a somewhat similar competing product using his work product and potentially confusing customers that might have bought his product etc. Not easily quantifiable, but none the less, also an actual loss.

Comment Re:This does not help, Apple. (Score 1) 342

OpenMP is great but GCD is more flexible and goes a step further (despite the fact that the code looks very similar.)
GCD ends up being faster since it's system aware it can adjust for the actual resources available rather than depending on the developers best guess. GCD gains by avoiding over-producing threads which leads to wasteful thread swapping that is inevitable when trying to make optimal use of OpenMP.
Looks like a cool and sensible implementation to me.

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