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Comment Re:Because (Score 1) 783

It's not the languages available. It's the accessibility of the ability to create and execute code.

Jumping through a few hoops to get your code running on the device or, at a minimum, distributed to a wide audience, gives the developer the feeling that someone is watching and therefore ... is supposed to... cut down on malware and generally increase code quality. If it actually works is yet to be seen in my opinion, and even if it does work, I'm not convinced it's worth the functionality loss- but it's where we are in the mobile space.

Comment Because (Score 3, Insightful) 783

IMHO, Apple (and to a lesser extent, Google) see any easily user-accessible build-and-run-able code as a potential security hole. Doesn't matter if it's compiled binary or interpreted script, in order for it to do anything interesting, it would need hooks into the OS. And, well, that means holes.

If users can copy and paste a script off a website and run it on their phone, they will. And when that script deletes everything on their phone just after sending everyone in the phone's contact list an SMS to go download the script, people will blame the OS vendor. By making it a bit less accessible, they are trying to make it a bit more 'secure' - and while that may work for a while, it's going to frustrate us who just want some BASIC (or Hypercard, or whatever else) to be available on our platform.

Comment The best thing that RIM can do- (Score 1) 55

I like this play. They've realized they have to open up in order to stay relevant at all. Managing other platforms is a great step one.

Step two, though, is to phase out BleakBerry OS and go to a modified Android for their handsets. They could bring a lot of good, missing functionality (and focus) to Android, and have a killer product. Perhaps they could provide some of the apps to all android users (for a small fee, of course).

Naturally the thing to do is to not announce this path, though. It will just make current users run away faster... but if they are able to bring it up alongside the current ecosystem and shift over to the new one cleanly, it could keep them around.

Comment Re:Finally! (Score 4, Insightful) 179

Unfortunately, that's what the majority of the news is these days.

Years ago, a kernel regression that didn't result in a lockup or massive data corruption would have been borderline slow-news-day material. Today, software quality as a whole has increased, and there's not as much of that (or as many groundbreaking new features) going on. There's still some interesting stuff going on in the mobile world, but PCs and Servers have largely been figured out for the time being. At least compared to what it was a while back.

As much as I'd like to jump on this "Blame slashdot, slashdot sucks now" bandwagon, they're just reporting what's happening, IMHO.

And if they aren't reporting what you think is newsworthy, blame yourself for not submitting 'real' stories and/or not drinking from the firehose.

Comment Powered Landings in Populated Areas (Score 1) 227

I don't know about you, but I live fairly near the cape- and the last thing I want is half a rocket returning to Florida with... well, anything... not working.

It's rather easy to miss your mark when re-entering. It's even easier to miss your mark when you can't maneuver freely after heating. Things get worse yet still if the booster has a guidance failure or gimpy motor.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of a reusable rocket and I'm excited they are willing to try something so very, very ambitious. But I am certainly beginning to feel a bit of the "Not in my back yard" syndrome.

Comment Re:Think of the possibilities! (Score 1) 175

Who cares if it is a broadcast only system;

I care. "Broadcast" is a very different with very different meanings "Network." Yes, an 800mbps light-based digital broadcast system is incredibly useful, but it's not being represented properly.

If we don't use the right terms and describe new technology properly, who will?

Comment It was time. (Score 2) 275

It was time to end it. Over 30 years the shuttle has done some great things, but NASA has failed to fix what was broken with the STS and failed to upgrade it properly. Privatization is the best thing we can do for space; government involvement has gotten to big, bloated, and stupid for real innovation.

Case and point- Mission Anomalies for STS-1- how many of these got properly fixed by the end of the program? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-1#Mission_anomalies

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