Comment Re:I don't understand TFA (Score 1) 78
Seriously. The article might even be a half decent overview of things (I'm lying -- it's not), but the illiteracy of whatever idiot wrote it is horribly painful.
Comment Re:Notes on New Features (Score 1) 465
That's great and all, but does it still insist on using the horrendously ugly Apple text rendering engine when running under Windows? No point in being super fast and super standards compliant if the stuff on my screen is a blurry mess...
Comment Re:Classic Apple performance claim inflation (Score 2, Interesting) 465
That still doesn't explain why G3 and G4 based machines are so god awful slow. Is it become OSX is so absurdly RAM hungry?
Comment Re:less freedom if you're a monopolist (Score 3, Interesting) 479
I don't get it. It SOUNDS like this is alleging that Microsoft is behaving anti-competitive by suppressing their OWN product in favor of a newer one that people don't like. In other words, it appears that the suit alleges that Microsoft is conducting anti-competitive behavior against itself. Am I misunderstanding something? For that matter, why are they even required to give the older product at the same price? You can't frame Vista and XP as competitors and say Vista's anti-competitive behavior is destroying XP, because competition laws product companies, not products.
Again, let me know if I'm totally missing something here.
Again, let me know if I'm totally missing something here.
Comment Re:Overused & Abused (Score 1) 437
And who ever discovered analogue distortion by maxing the signal probably thought no one in their right mind would use that either. They were wrong. However, whoever discovered digital distortion by clipping probably thought no one in their right mind would want to use that
... and they have been for the most part correct.
I disagree with that somewhat. After all, nearly all of Queen's album recordings feature Brian May playing through his completely solid state amplifier. Okay, so it's not digital, but I think it's a little unreasonable all the same. How about Nine Inch Nails/Reznor for example? He certainly uses those sounds. It works well with a very different kind of music...but then, so did overdriven tube amplifiers.
Comment Re:'One-way' functions (Score 1) 125
Except that's totally irrelevant, because in most cases we don't CARE about regenerating the original input. You can usually create a useful attack simply by finding SOME input that generates the same output, and that's what you want to build a hash function to resist.
What Tax Software Do You Use? 202
r_jensen11 asks: "I know this topic has been asked at least once before, but seeing as how 6 years have passed, I figured the question is due again. It's about that time of the year again when we find out how much we owe Uncle Sam (or as in my case, how much Uncle Sam owes me). Software has changed drastically in the past 6 years, since the previous query I found on Slashdot, as well as many tax rules. Does anyone here use tax software other than TurboTax and TaxCut? I know that there are also online forms I can fill out, but which ones are accessible to people that use OSes other than Windows and Mac OS X? I'd preferably use a program that I can use off-line and store my information locally instead of using eforms, but if I have to resort to eforms, which ones should I investigate and which ones should I stay far away from?"
Submission + - How the Camera Phone Changed the World
theodp writes: "Ten years after the amazing Philippe Kahn married a cell phone and a digital camera to capture the birth of daughter Sophie, Slate takes a look at the impact of The Camera Phone, the gadget that perverts, vigilantes, and celebrity stalkers can all agree on. 'With this kind of device,' Kahn told Wired, 'you're going to see the best and the worst of things.'"
Sony and Universal Prohibit Sharing Via Zune 325
ack154 writes "Engadget has a story about Sony and Universal Music apparently denying Zune owners the ability to 'squirt' songs by certain artists to other Zune users. That's right, if you've actually purchased songs from the Zune marketplace and happen to run into another Zune owner, you're prohibited from sharing certain songs. From the article: 'In a non-scientific sampling of popular artists by Zunerama and Zune Thoughts, it looks like it's roughly 40-50 percent of artists that fall under this prohibited banner, and the worst news is that there's no warning that a song might be unsharable until you actually try to send it and fail.'"
Submission + - Universal and Sony prohibit Zune Music sharing
Maximegalon writes: "The title says it all (is anyone surprised?)
It appears Sony Music and Universal Music Group are marking certain artists of theirs as "prohibited" for sharing, meaning that just because you've paid for a song, and even managed to find another Zune user on the planet Earth, doesn't mean you'll necessarily get to beam that JoJo track to another Zune via WiFi magics. In a non-scientific sampling of popular artists by Zunerama and Zune Thoughts, it looks like it's roughly 40-50 percent of artist that fall under this prohibited banner, and the worst news is that there's no warning that a song might be unsharable until you actually try to send it and fail.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/19/universal-and-s ony-prohibit-zune-sharing-for-certain-artists/ [engadget.com]"
Submission + - T.J Maxx Hacked
wildman6801 writes: "What happens when you use your credit or debit card at a brick and mortar? Well, for T.J Maxx customers, it means checking your credit and watching your mail. On Wednesday, T.J Maxx told its customers to watch their credit and debit statements because their retail POS's were hacked! What does this mean? Well, a nightmare for many customers. The Press Republican reports about the impact on a small town in Upstate New York. http://www.pressrepublican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic le?AID=/20070119/NEWS/701190315/1027/NEWS01"
Submission + - Windows applications on XBox 360?
joschen writes: "As a developer I have watched on with interest at the latest free(as in beer) Microsoft development environment, XNA express. While thinking about how I could port some of my old directx code to xna, I had a thought about writing something to allow other windows applications to be executed. As I see it there are 2 viable approaches:
(1) A powerpc port of wine, targeting directx for the display.
(2) A complete x86 emulator running windows in a vm.
With the tri-core 3.2Ghz powerpc processors, it should be possible for both options to run at a useable speed. Does anyone have any useful ideas or advice? Both projects are pretty big and may benefit from other existing projects(e.g. Bochs, Xen)."
(1) A powerpc port of wine, targeting directx for the display.
(2) A complete x86 emulator running windows in a vm.
With the tri-core 3.2Ghz powerpc processors, it should be possible for both options to run at a useable speed. Does anyone have any useful ideas or advice? Both projects are pretty big and may benefit from other existing projects(e.g. Bochs, Xen)."
Submission + - R6RS second draft released
Watson Ladd writes: The Second draft of the Revised6Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme has been released. Formal semantics are included, along with a reworked IO system and a lot of other stuff.
RedOctane Speaks Out on Guitar Hero's Future 59
njkid1 writes "In the first published interview since the news broke that Neversoft would be taking over development, RedOctane is speaking out on the decision and what it means for the future of the franchise. From the article: 'Internalizing development allows for more control of the creative elements of the game and, in this instance, provides for a much more robust and feature laden franchise. We believe that having the talented group at Neversoft, with their unprecedented string of market success with the billion dollar Tony Hawk franchise, develop the next Guitar Hero game will allow us to vastly enrich the consumer experience. We are excited to further the music and rhythm-based videogame genre, and Neversoft has the full experience, knowledge, and talent to do this.'" As nice as it is to hear from RedOctane, I'd rather hear the fully skinny from Harmonix.
Submission + - Apple iPhone's (Supposedly) Insanely Great Profits
mustardayonnaise writes: iSuppli, a research firm known for analyzing hardware component costs, has run the numbers on the iPhone and concluded that at $499 for a 4GB iPhone, Apple could be making 50 percent gross profit margins. The $599 8GB model is an even better deal — for Apple. But the iPhone could be even more profitable for Apple — because it will only be sold with a two-year Cingular contract. Business 2.0's article briefly outlines why the iPhone has the potential for such massive profit margins, which, apparently, many other Apple products have also enjoyed. Is Apple pricing themselves out of the insanely competitive cell phone market?
