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Comment Porting to Windows RT (Score 1) 308

I was excited about WinRT (not to be confused with Windows RT...yeah, I know) during Windows 8's development and was considering porting a project, but after evaluating Windows 8, the lack of features in the APIs, annoying interface decisions, and confusing hardware fragmentation made it an easy decision not to bother. Microsoft's alleged refusal to promote ARM-only apps, when it needs all the apps it can get, re-affirms that decision. Windows 8 is a non-starter as a development platform.

Comment Re:Stallman bitches, film at eleven (Score 2, Insightful) 597

It's one thing to have some Larry Wall style eccentricities, but Stallman hurts any movement he attaches his name to because of his extremist views. He believes, for example, that programmers should not expect to be paid for their work and that it's more important that non-free software disappear than it is for someone's children to be fed (he also believes nobody should have children). He's also made vile statements about what he calls "voluntary pedophilia", claiming that it should be legalized.

The annoying part is that in nearly every Stallman discussion, people will say things like, "You may not agree with everything he says, but we sure need someone like him who always sticks to their guns!" No, we don't. He's hurting the movement.

GNU was an interesting philosophy when it was started, but it's not as if it was the only open source ideology or that other open source movements wouldn't have taken hold. This isn't to diminish GNU so much as it is to diminish Stallman's glorified role in history among computer geeks and lessen the movement's reliance on a crazy person.

Comment Doesn't help (Score 1, Insightful) 308

I don't take issue with the shutdown since Megaupload was being used as a gigantic, unregulated store for pirated content, and that does take money away from content creators. Instead, I go out of my way to purchase independent content to support artists outside of the mainstream system, and any mainstream content I do want gets purchased digitally, which ultimately contributes to a lessening of relevance for the traditional distributors represented by the MPAA. Home film releases come out out sooner and sooner after their theater runs, and streaming services like Netflix are so popular on living room devices that Microsoft claims video streaming surpasses game-playing in terms of hours of usage on the Xbox 360. Whatever traditional structure the MPAA is protecting has already been supplanted by legal mediums.

In other words, Megaupload isn't necessary--the fate of the traditional movie industry has already been sealed by companies who embraced the internet.

Comment Re:Like who again? (Score -1) 446

How is this countersuing or fighting back? This is an outright offensive move. The only "consensus" otherwise is among Slashdot posters who are STILL trying to portray Google's acquisition of Motorola as purely defensive. For some reason, Google can absolutely do no wrong here, whatsoever, at all, ever. Why? Because they use Linux?

Technology

Submission + - Nuclear Fusion Nears Break-Even Point For Efficiency (tgdaily.com)

bonch writes: Nuclear fusion is close to emitting nearly as much energy as expended. Using a combination of magnetic fields and pre-heated lasers, special tubes called liners successfully fused nuclear fuels under test conditions. Computer simulations predict the possibility of high-gain fusion conditions, in which the fuel's energy output exceeds what was put in by more than a thousand times.
Google

Submission + - Motorola Seeks Ban On Macs, iPads, And iPhones (arstechnica.com)

bonch writes: Google-owned Motorola is asking the International Trade Commission to ban every Apple device that uses iMessage, based on a patent issues in 2006 for "a system for providing continuity between messaging clients". Motorola also claims that banning Macs and iPhones won't have an impact on U.S. consumers. The ITC has yet to make a decision.
IOS

Submission + - iOS 6 review: Refining the world's most refined mobile OS (bgr.com)

zacharye writes: Like OS X Mountain Lion is to Lion, iOS 6 is a refinement of a mobile operating system that Apple had in place in iOS 5, with a few new changes that might raise your brow. Available for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2, new iPad (third-generation) and iPod touch (fourth-generation), the changes Apple made in iOS 6 are subtle, but add to Apple’s endless pursuit of iOS perfection. It’s an update chock-full of features, as has been the case with every other major iOS update, and best of all: it’s free for all devices. iOS 6 will become available to the public in about an hour so in the meantime, let’s take a look at all of the most important new features Apple’s latest OS has to offer...

Comment Re:FB and Google are NOT in the same situation. (Score -1, Redundant) 215

One is the designer and developer of the most popular smartphone + tablet OS.

Huh? The most popular tablet operating system is iOS. Android has very little presence in the tablet market. Having smartphone market share won't mean much if Google doesn't make money from Android, according to their own quarterlies.

Comment That is cool, but... (Score 4, Insightful) 194

That search result display is actually really cool. I'd love to see that in other browsers (including desktop browsers). The problem is Yahoo's track record is poor when it comes to updating their products. For instance, Yahoo Mail is embarrassingly behind other web mail services. If Yahoo treats this like they treat their other products, I can't help wondering if it will just become another obsolete Yahoo thing.

Submission + - RIAA Claims Losses In Excess Of World's Wealth (businessinsider.com) 6

bonch writes: Prior to setting with Limewire earlier this month, the RIAA had pressed for a $72 trillion verdict, greater than the $60 trillion of combined wealth on Earth. The RIAA arrived at the figure by multiplying $150,000 for each download of 11,000 songs, a figure federal Judge Kimba Wood called "absurd". No word on how much of the money would have gone back to the artists.
Technology

Submission + - Nanotech Solar Cell Minimizes Cost, Toxic Impact (phys.org)

bonch writes: Researches at Northwestern University have developed an inexpensive solar cell intended to solve the problems of current solar cell designs, such as high cost, low efficiency, and toxic production materials. Based on the Grätzel cell, the new cell uses millions of light-absorbing nanoparticles and delivers the highest conversion efficiency reported for a dye-sensitized solar cell.
Botnet

Submission + - Botnet Creator Receives Four Years Jail Time (theregister.co.uk)

bonch writes: Georgy Avanesov, creator of the infamous Bredolab botnet, has been given four years jail time in Armenia. Avanesov rented out access to the botnet to spammers and DDoS attackers, netting him $125,000 a month in revenue. Bredolab spread through malicious website scripts and phony email attachments and was thought to have infected 30 million computers. Dutch police arrested Avanesov in 2010, using the botnet's control servers to warn infected users.

Comment Re:Choose one (Score -1, Troll) 188

This condescending attitude toward non-techies is off-putting and needs to die. You don't have some unique brain power that others lack. You just choose to spend your free time on computers. Other people choose to spend their time on other things that you lack knowledge in.

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