That's the thing though, it doesn't work. At least not particularly well.

XP was fundamentally a transitional OS. It's half-way between the bad old days of Win9x/DOS where there was no security and practically everything ran in the kernel, and Win Vista which institutes a proper security model along with evicting most drivers to the user-mode. The stability improvements alone made XP a vast improvement over Win9x, but it's still not a secure operating system.

The reality of the situation is that users (business and consumer alike) need to suck it up one more time and move to Win6.x. Yes it's painful, yes it's expensive, and yes, learning is hard. But Win6.x is the first Windows OS that implements a modern (and dare I say *nixy) security model. It's the first Windows OS with good 64bit CPU support. It's the first Windows OS with a graphics stack worth half a damn. Heck, it's the first Windows OS that doesn't run IE as Admin.

We must make the transition now, just one more time. After that, if users want to stop on Win6.x, that's okay. Even Vista perfectly fine since it implements all the major security features that make Win6.x necessary. Like any other OS there will come a time when Win6.x grows old and tired, but unlike XP Win6.x was built to last. It was built to be secure and even now, more than 6 years after its launch it doesn't have any significant faults. It's built to withstand the world that comes with the age of the always-on Internet.

But we can't stop on XP. XP is fundamentally broken and was never meant to be used like this for this long. Use Win 8, use Win 7, hell, use Vista, but please don't stop on XP.

The second that ABC called my number they were in violation of the DNC legislation. That makes them liable.

Unfortunately that's not how it works. You engaged with the telemarketer, and now you have a business relationship with ABC due to the fact that they essentially purchased that relationship by purchasing that lead. Now in theory you could hold them responsible for telemarketing, but you'd have to prove they knew it was what amounts to an illegal lead, and that may as well be impossible.

MS needs to release a docking station for the Surface that lets it act like a desktop, of course they'd prefer to keep people buying both as long as possible.

I'm not sure why a docking station would be necessary. All there is to plugin is a keyboard, a mouse, and a display. Even Thunderbolt would only reduce this by 2 cables. Or you can add a touch/type cover and it becomes a de-facto laptop.

We really do live in the future. I'm looking at a panoramic, high definition landscape of another planet from my couch. How can you not get excited about it?!

People spend all of this time bitching about all the things that are wrong in the world, and they only half-realize all the awesome things that go on such as this. We live in the future and I wouldn't have it any other way.

P.S. Not all of us are male, you insensitive clod. Though the realization that I'm now wetter than Mars from looking at Mars has a certain tinge of irony to it

Respectfully, I don't know why this was modded up. There's a lot of bad information in here.

On the one hand, you're right that NVIDIA can't get into the x86 CPU market. Intel controls that lock and key. Though NVIDIA does have things to share (they have a lot of important graphics IP), but it wouldn't be enough to get Intel to part with an x86 license (NVIDIA has tried that before).

However you're completely off base on the rest. Cost has nothing to do with why NVIDIA is out of the Intel chipset business. NVIDIA's chipset business was profitable to the very end. The problem was that on the Intel side of things NVIDIA only had a license for the AGTL+ front side bus, but not the newer DMI or QPI buses that Intel started using with the Nehalem generation of CPUs. Without a license for those buses, NVIDIA couldn't make chipsets for newer Intel CPUs, and that effectively ended their chipset business (AMD's meager x86 sales were not enough to sustain a 3rd party business).

NVIDIA and Intel actually went to court over that and more; Intel eventually settled by giving NVIDIA over a billion dollars. You are right though that there's not much to chipsets these days, and if NVIDIA was still in the business they likely would have exited it with Sandy Bridge.

As for Stacked DRAM. That is very, very different from PoP RAM. PoP uses traditional BGA balls to connect DRAM to a controller, with the contacts for the RAM being along the outside rim of the organic substrate that holds the controller proper. Stacked DRAM uses through silicon vias: they're literally going straight down/up through layer of silicon to make the connection. The difference besides the massive gulf in manufacturing difficulty is that PoP doesn't lend itself to wide memory buses (you have all those solder balls and need space on the rim of the controller for them) while stacked DRAM will allow for wide memory buses since you can connect directly to the controller. The end result in both cases is that the RAM is on the same package as the controller, but their respective complexity and performance is massively different.

Did large eyes lead to Neanderthals' Demise?

No. But perhaps if they had stuck around the large eyes would help the Slashdot editors spot their dupes.

http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/03/13/1247255/manga-girls-beware-extra-large-eyes-caused-neanderthals-demise

The problem with the S3 Mini is that it had almost nothing to do with the S3. It was a redressed version of one of Samsung's midrange smartphones. Even the Galaxy S2 was more powerful/capable in most situations, never mind the S3.

A quick look on Amazon and there is at least one ad blocker available

Indeed. Thankfully we have the Amazon store, as that's really the only other widely trusted Android repository right now. If not for Amazon I don't think there's any other repository most geeks would trust for paid apps, due to the complexities of properly handling/securing payment details.

But this still bites. Play is the de facto Android store; most users don't have immediate access to other stores, and as for Amazon they have some really weird developer-unfriendly practices for handling paid apps (primarily how pricing works). Geeks will be fine, but for the layperson this would seem to push ad blockers out of their reach.

Prove it.

Okay. http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/The-Benefits-of-Live-Service

GlassBox does more than just segregate computing tasks, it also allows us to make it so that you can create specialized cities that are visually unique and personalized, and that can be economically integrated into a larger region. Youâ(TM)re always connected to the neighbors in your region so while you play, data from your city interacts with our servers, and we run the simulation at a regional scale. For example, trades between cities, simulation effects that cause change across the region like pollution or crime, as well as depletion of resources, are all processed on the servers and then data is sent back to your city on your PC. Every city in the region is updated every three minutes, which keeps the overall region in sync and makes your decisions in your city relevant to any changes that have taken place in the region.

You don't seriously think that modern Intel processors are actually CISC, right? The underlying instruction set is closer to a DEC Alpha than it is to an 80x86 processor....

And that's really why the story question is misguided. The underlying architecture has nothing to do with the ISA; Intel can build whatever they want and throw an x86 decoder frontend on it and have a suitable x86 CPU. Killing the x86 ISA doesn't do anything for Intel or their customers.

It's the backlight necessary for the color screen. They probably could have done a reflective display, but that's almost self-defeating from a color standpoint.

As far as calculator technologies go, you're going to be hard pressed to beat a monochrome LCD. Which is also why all of the complaining about the TI calculator line still being monochrome is silly. Sure it's outdated, but it's a calculator, not a phone. The intended purpose and operational requirements are entirely different.

More to the point, VP8 doesn't make any sense here. All modern hardware comes with H.264 hardware decode capabilities, and it has for some time.

For that matter, virtually every piece of new hardware comes with a real-time H.264 hardware encoder too, specifically designed for recording video and real-time teleconferencing.

I like the open ideals of VP8, but just like WebM, this ship has long since sailed. Using VP8 means no one has hardware support for it at a time when the quality-equivalent H.264 codec can be done in hardware at both ends.

It doesn't deprive the carrier of their investment, which is why these days your carrier would unlock it for you anyhow. Unlocking is no longer a DMCA exception because carriers now regularly unlock phones that are paid off.

Nothing more than H.264 had. DRM is implemented at the container level, not the bitstream level.

Mega doesn't know what you're uploading... but they definitely care. Ad impressions will pay regardless of whether content is legitimate or not, but just like Megaupload their paid subscriptions (starting at 10EUR/month) will only sell if there's illegal content on the service.