Comment Hello computer! (Score 1) 362
Keyboard? How quaint.
Comment Re:Apparently Obama knows not Grigsby & Cohen (Score 1) 763
In my experience, 50-year-olds spend more like 90% of their time on Facebook. Sheesh, mom, we don't care what you ate for lunch!
Comment Re:McDonald's undercuts parental authority? (Score 1) 145
Yeah, exactly.
There's this little thing that parents seem to forget these days called "saying no".
When my daughter would ask to go to McDonald's, I would say no. She may have thrown a fit the first few times, but I didn't let it get to me. Eventually, she stopped asking.
I see so many parents say something like "Well I don't think that's a good idea..." the kids then throw a fit and they give in to avoid the screaming. All this does is teaches them that screaming gets them what they want. It's bad for you and them in the long run.
Say no when you mean no, let them have their fits but NEVER give in. In the long run, they'll give up on the fits, and you'll both be happier.
Comment Re:yeah and (Score 1) 620
I'd do that, except that it's been my experience that anyone who asks that question doesn't know which is which. So I usually just answer with "the one under the question mark"... it's easier that way.
Google File System Evolves, Hadoop To Follow 53
Christophe Bisciglia, Google's former infrastructure guru and current member of the Cloudera start-up team, has commented on Google's latest iteration on their GFS file system and deemed its features well within the evolutionary capabilities of open-source competitor Hadoop. "Details on Google's GFS2 are slim. After all, it's Google. But based on what he's read, Bisciglia calls the update 'the next logical iteration' of the original GFS, and he sees Hadoop eventually following in the (rather sketchy) footsteps left by his former employer. 'A lot of the things Google is talking about are very logical directions for Hadoop to go,' Bisciglia tells The Reg. 'One of the things I've been very happy to see repeatedly demonstrated is that Hadoop has been able to implement [new Google GFS and MapReduce] features in approximately the same order. This shows that the fundamentals of Hadoop are solid, that the fundamentals are based on the same principles that allowed Google's systems to scale over the years.'"
Comment Re:Saving a few bucks (Score 1) 964
If they changed it back... how do we know it wasn't a defacement hack intended to get some cheap laughs at the idea that Microsoft is racist in Poland?
I mean, that photoshop was bad enough that I could expect it from a 14 year old script kiddie... but not even the most rushed "pro" job.
Strange New Objects Seen In Saturn's Rings 113
Every 15 Earth years, Saturn has its equinox — the time during which its rotational axis is perpendicular to the rays from the sun, so that the sun is always directly "overhead" of Saturn's equator. This is significant because Saturn's rings orbit over the equator, so during the equinox, light from the sun hits them edge-on. This means that any objects wider than the rings, or orbiting above or below them, cast long shadows and are much easier to see. For the first time, we're able to get detailed images of these objects, thanks to Cassini. A moonlet, perhaps 1,300 feet in diameter, has been discovered in the B-ring, and the Bad Astronomy blog points out another object that seems to be bursting through the F-ring. Quoting: "The upward-angled structure is definitely real, as witnessed by the shadow it's casting on the ring material to the lower left. And what's with the bright patch right where this object seems to have slammed into the rings? Did it shatter millions of icy particles, revealing their shinier interior material, making them brighter? Clearly, something awesome and amazing happened here.
Comment Re:OMG?! How much is that in miles?! (Score 1) 216
I will not be impressed until a robot wins "So You Think You Can Dance"
Comment Re:Mouse? (Score 1) 569
Your G5 has two side buttons?
Yours must be newer.
Mine only has one.. I keep finding myself wishing it had a forward button. Despite that, this is the best mouse I've ever owned.
Comment Re:Page 1: Find the programming language in Window (Score 3, Interesting) 111
It's not like it's that hard to *get* a programming language for Windows, though.
Just download a copy of Visual [C++|C#|VB] and you can do all kinds of fun stuff.
Windows doesn't have a programming language at boot because it's an OS for the masses, and the masses would get confused by a "READY." prompt.
Comment Re:Obscurity (Score 1) 828
Unless you're being attacked by mind flayers...
Grad Student Project Uses Wikis To Stash Data, Miffs Admins 268
Anonymous writes "Two graduate students at the Ivy League's Brown University built a P2P system to use abandoned wiki sites to store data. The students were stealing bandwidth from open MediaWiki sites to send data between users as an alternative to BitTorrent. There was immediate backlash as site operators quickly complained to the University. The project appears to be shutdown, but many of the pages still remain on the web. The project homepage was also taken down and the students posted an apology this afternoon." The same submitter links to two different forum discussions on the project.
Comment Re:Whoa boy... (Score 1) 501
Haven't you read Heinlein's The Door Into Summer?
People will do this because their life sucks and they want to marry an 11 year old girl.
Yeah.. that was a weird book.
"Minority Report"-Like Control For PC 138
An anonymous reader writes "A startup named Mgestyk Technologies claims that they have an affordable solution for 'Minority Report'-like PC control. They have released a video in which they use hand gestures to play games like Halo and Guitar Hero, as well as perform 'multi-touch' interactions for applications like Google Earth. Engadget and Gizmodo discuss the potential of the technology but point out that the system has visible lag when used for gaming. Will camera-based interfaces ever meet the low-latency demands of gaming? For how much longer will we still be using keyboards, mice and joysticks?"
Motorola Moving to Android, Windows Mobile for Smartphones 136
nerdyH writes "Motorola will ditch its MotoMAGX Linux stack and UIQ Symbian stack in favor of Google's Android Linux/Java stack and Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7, it announced today. The news comes after five years selling millions of Linux phones in Asia, and after a year during which many of Motorola's top US phones used the homegrown Linux stack. Motorola's current Linux phones in the US include the RAZR2 v8, E8, EM30, U9, ZN4, and ZN5."
This also comes alongside news that Motorola's financial hardships are causing them to cut 3,000 jobs. It also puts into perspective their recent plans to hire hundreds of Android developers.
