Comment Only one solution... (Score 1) 86
Dear me, that's quite the goof. They should have used a Microsoft Access database to keep track of which OS to install on each device.
Comment My full survey responses (Score 1) 763
>5 year history on the site. (Actually, >10 year.) Currently a daily visitor after a few years of inactivity.
best:
The moderation system lets high quality comments be identified by the community, and the viewing software lets the user choose between highly rated comments and a broader range of comments.
I understand the site's source code is free somewhere, but people are on their own to implement a clone. (As opposed to, say, StackOverflow actively sponsoring additional sites using the code base.)
worst:
The moderation system should extend to the selection of articles, as with Reddit. Too often, editors allow poorly written, confusing, unimportant, irrelevant or ranting screed packed articles to be featured. The community should be able to prioritize which stories are featured. I don't object to continuing to have a page that would show the choices of editors. If readers are not convinced that the editors add value by selecting the best stories, than the editors would ultimately fade away into irrelevancy.
Also, there needs to be basic housecleaning. For example, the home page sidebar features links to Cringely's PBS site which has been out of service for three years now, but not to Cringely's current blog which has ongoing updates. Why this utterly careless indifference towards obsolete links?
recommend:
No, I would not recommend the site. I occasionally forward individual articles. The combination of zealousness, arrogance and ignorance amongst the most obnoxious of the basement-dwelling or college-age Linux zealots is tremendously unappealing for anyone who has a life, or who even aspires to have a life. I would not want to suggest that anyone subject themselves to that on a regular basis. Quite frankly, there is plenty of "news for nerds" here but very little "stuff that matters."
contact info:
You really mean that you can't automatically look up who posted survey answers while logged in with their user account at the site? C'mon, that's the kind of thing that open source is supposed to make easy!
Comment the ultimate implication... (Score 1) 121
With speeds this fast, now Grandma can easily download all the user-friendly bits to make this the Year of the Linux Desktop!
Submission + - Windows 8 PCs May Not Boot Other Operating Systems (infopackets.com) 1
nandemoari writes: Microsoft is planning to introduce a rule by which most Windows 8 computers will be unable to run any other system.
It should improve security, but could be bad news for users that prefer to have more than one operating system installed on their PCs.
It should improve security, but could be bad news for users that prefer to have more than one operating system installed on their PCs.
Submission + - Monkeys Control Virtual Limbs With Their Minds (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: When it comes to prosthetic hands, you can't beat the one Luke Skywalker receives in The Empire Strikes Back. Not only did that robotic limb allow him to wield a lightsaber with great dexterity, each of his fingers twitched when a robot poked them. Although real-life brain-controlled prosthetics that enable a person to, say, pick up a pencil continue to improve for amputees, limbs that can actually feel touch sensations have remained a challenge. Now, by implanting electrodes into both the motor and the sensory areas of the brain, researchers have created a virtual prosthetic hand that monkeys control using only their minds, and that enables them to feel virtual textures.
Submission + - After Six Days of Outages, BofA Claims It Hasn't B (computerworld.com)
Lucas123 writes: After six days of spotty service and outages with its online and mobile sites, Bank of America today said it has not been the victim of a denial of service attack, hacking or malware. Yet, the bank has set up a new homepage that it says will help customers navigate to the proper online service. Internet monitoring service Keynote said the outage is unprecedented in banking. 'I don't think we've seen as significant and as long an outage with any bank. And I've been with Keynote for 16 years now,' said Shawn White, vice president of operations for web monitoring service Keynote Systems. In the meantime, a BofA spokeswoman continued to devulge what might be happening, saying 'We're not going to get into the technical details. We're not going to comment on the technicalities of what we do.' Speculation among experts has been that the site is under attack.
Comment Suppose this becomes a business (Score 1) 190
Would you like to live next to a pigeon dairy? Would that be better or worse than living next to a cow dairy? I lived just up from a cow dairy a few years ago. At least the cows didn't fly up to my house, pooping all the way.
Comment Not just cause for concern... (Score 1) 566
... I think this mistreatment would keep any conscientious vampire up all night with worry.
Comment may non-frequent flyers also survive? (Score 1) 155
I'd like to see this training video on KhanAcademy.org. Non-frequent flyers might also like to learn how to survive. If they survived, maybe they would even go on to become frequent flyers. Profit!
Comment a CMS-free CMS? (Score 1) 1
Looks like the original poster wants a content management system, except for the part that includes the content management system. I find the request incomprehensible.
Comment Here's a translation into plain English (Score 1) 47
The Scheme programming language began as a research and teaching project at MIT in 1975. Since then, it has become very influential among advanced researchers and designers of programming languages. It's also had some successful use in industry. Scheme is defined by a Report on Scheme; this is the 7th Revision of that report, thus R7RS. This hour long talk about the latest revision will be of interest to three groups of people:
1. Those who already familiar with Scheme, Lisp, or functional programming, and who want a preview of the just-about-finished new version of Scheme.
2. Those who would like to get a nice overview, which gives a taste of the mindset and software tools that comprise the world of Scheme. Compare & contrast with how your favorite language works! Learn something new! Whee, what a rush!
3. Those who would like to see a nicely done technical talk, which gives a little bit of history, a little bit of politics, and quite a few technical explanations and examples in context.
If you're not interested in any of these three things, then this isn't the talk for you.
The video can be followed without any prior understanding. I think that just the slides will be totally confusing for those who are not already familiar with Scheme.
Submission + - Playing Snake inside a MIDI Controler (Akay APC40) (youtube.com)
eyepersonic writes: Play Snake where you never should play anything but music...inside a MIDI Controler ! (Akai APC40)
Submission + - David Caminer, creator of the first business compu (reghardware.com)
linatux writes: Chris Bidmead at reghardware.com has written a fascinating article on "LEO" — the first business computer.
"A programming language, even at assembly level, would have been a help. LEO came with no such luxury. But it took Caminer's team only two years to tame the beast, and in November 1951 it was proudly running "The Bakery Valuations Job" to track and cost the labour and material of cakes, biscuits and bread moving through Lyons various profit centres."
"A programming language, even at assembly level, would have been a help. LEO came with no such luxury. But it took Caminer's team only two years to tame the beast, and in November 1951 it was proudly running "The Bakery Valuations Job" to track and cost the labour and material of cakes, biscuits and bread moving through Lyons various profit centres."
