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Comment Re:The relevant piece of so-called "IP" (Score 4, Interesting) 314

by Ster (#37358278) Attached to: German Court Upholds Ban On Samsung Galaxy Tab

I came across this yesterday and found it interesting (comparisons of what Samsung's tablets looked like before and after the iPad came out):

It seems like it's not quite as silly as it's usually been presented. (Don't get me wrong, I do think it's silly.)

-Ster

Comment Re:move to GUI was step backwards (Score 1) 567

by Ster (#37154912) Attached to: Most People Have Never Heard of CTRL+F

Now - type something, move right (or left) hand to the mouse - highlight - move mouse to menu - select - press mouse button - find "home" row again and start typing.

While that's certainly one way to do it, I've never seen anyone actually do it that pessimally.

'Cmd-B' to start the bolding (or 'Cmd-I' for italics), type whatever you need, and then 'Cmd-B' again to end the bolding. Hands never leave the keyboard. Or if you need to italicize something that's already there, select the text (keyboard is usually faster if it's just a few words away, mouse is often faster if the target text is far from the text-cursor location), and hit 'Cmd-I' (though if your hand is already on the mouse because you used it to select distant text, then it might be faster to pick from the menu).

Short version: TMTOWTDI; the "right" one might depend on the context.

-Ster

Comment Re:I use a Mac you insensitive clod! (Score 1) 567

by Ster (#37154770) Attached to: Most People Have Never Heard of CTRL+F

At least you have a good reason not to use the feature, since Command (and even Ctrl) are in very impractical places on Apple keyboards.

I'll grant you Ctrl (but the keyboard that came with my old Apple //gs had Ctrl and Caps Lock swapped compared to most keyboards), but what's impractical about Cmd? Just slide your thumb over to either side of the spacebar.

-Ster

Comment Re:Damn, this feels like Firefox. (Score 2) 209

by Ster (#37090358) Attached to: Linux Kernel 3.1 RC 2 Released

... Honestly the only thing holding me to linux at this point is a lack of desire to have to repartition my disks using bsd slices, ...

Don't let that stop you - FreeBSD at least has supported GPT partitioning for some time, so you don't have to mess around with slices if you don't want to.

-Ster
Medicine

Submission + - Doctors Are Creating Too Many Patients 2

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "H. Gilbert Welch writes in the LA Times that the threshold for diagnosis has fallen too low with physicians making diagnoses in individuals who wouldn't have been considered sick in the past, raising healthcare costs for everyone. Welch, a a practicing physician and professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, says that part of the explanation is technological: diagnostic tests able to detect biochemical and anatomic abnormalities that were undetectable in the past. "But part of the explanation is behavioral: We look harder for things to be wrong. We test more often, we are more likely to test people who have no symptoms, and we have changed the rules about what degree of abnormality constitutes disease (a fasting blood sugar of 130 was not considered to be diabetes before 1997; now it is)." Welch says that the problem is that low thresholds have a way of leading to treatments that are worse than the disease and while clinicians are sued for failure to diagnose or failure to treat, there are few corresponding penalties for overdiagnosis or overtreatment so doctors view low thresholds as the safest strategy to avoid a courtroom appearance. "We are trained to focus on the few we might be able to help, even if it's only 1 out of 100 (the benefit of lowering cholesterol in those with normal cholesterol but elevated C-reactive protein) or 1 out of 1,000 (the benefit of breast and prostate cancer screening)," writes Welch. "But it's time for everyone to start caring about what happens to the other 999.""
Open Source

Submission + - Eclipse Foundation has much to lose in the Hudson (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
GMGruman
GMGruman writes: "InfoWorld columnist Savio Rodrigues notes that Oracle's hand-off — or perhaps dumping — of the open source Hudson project could be bad for the Eclipse Foundation by making Eclipse appear to be merely a dumping ground for unwanted open source projects, rather than as the central location for vibrant open source activities."

Submission + - Last major US record label is sold (google.com) 1

Submitted by
jmanforever
jmanforever writes: "Several sites are reporting that Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik has agreed to buy Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion. The deal means that every one of the big four record label groups will be foreign owned.
Can the RIAA explain again why it is in the best interest of the United States to collect performance royalties from American radio stations and internet streaming sites, then send the money to Tokyo, Paris, London and now Moscow?"

Submission + - Is Sugar Toxic? (nytimes.com)

Submitted by a_hanso
a_hanso writes: From the NY Times: On May 26, 2009, Robert Lustig gave a lecture called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” which was posted on YouTube the following July. Since then, it has been viewed well over 800,000 times, gaining new viewers at a rate of about 50,000 per month, fairly remarkable numbers for a 90-minute discussion of the nuances of fructose biochemistry and human physiology.
Businesses

Submission + - This Tech Bubble is Different 3

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Tech bubbles happen, writes BW's Ashlee Vance, but we usually gain from the innovation left behind. But this one — driven by social networking — could leave us empty-handed. Math whiz Jeff Hammerbacher provides a good case study. One year out of Harvard, 23-year-old Hammerbacher arrived at Facebook, was given the lofty title of research scientist and put to work analyzing how people used the social networking service. Over the next two years, Hammerbacher assembled a team that built a new class of analytical technology, one which translated insights into people's relationships, tendencies, and desires into precision advertising and higher sales. But something gnawed at him. Hammerbacher looked around Silicon Valley at companies like his own, Google, and Twitter, and saw his peers wasting their talents. 'The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads,' he says. 'That sucks.' Silicon Valley historian Christophe Lecuyer agrees: 'It's clear that the new industry that is building around Internet advertising and these other services doesn't create that many jobs. The loss of manufacturing and design knowhow is truly worrisome.'
Sony

Submission + - Sony Stores closed due to Anonymous protest. (psgroove.com)

Submitted by
j0ey2069
j0ey2069 writes: "Today is the day of the "Sony Boycott" that was organized by the underground online group known as "Anonymous". However, the photographs below suggest that Sony is not taking the demonstrations lightly.
Reports are coming in that Sony stores across Europe are closed for the day and it can be speculated that the closings are in anticipation of the demonstrations. Shoppers are being greeted with signs which state: "We are sorry the Sony Centre is closed" "We will be open as soon as possible" and "CLOSED DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES". Some of the stores are even being guarded by local Police and security guards. One can only imagine the amount of lost revenue due to these store closings."

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