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Comment Re:How racism? (Score 1) 578

The concept of patriotism is in my opinion, absurd.

Somehow what you say makes sense, why should one feel pride when one was born in a place "by accident"... However, some have chosen to move out of "bad" places to go to "better" places (with, unfortunately, different definitions for better, sometimes it's "more freedom", sometimes it's something else entirely). Humans will feel strongly for their (chosen) "group" (family, tribe, nation, religion)...

I recently found this quote of Gen. Charles De Gaulle (French national hero icon and former president) : Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

I don't mind "patriotism", but I do have an issue with nationalism.

Comment Re: Oh yes (Score 1) 459

by Dushnock (#46034169) Attached to: Stop Trying To 'Innovate' Keyboards, You're Just Making Them Worse

You're only stuck with the keyboard layout on the laptop that you bought. In other words: you made your choice.

Furthermore, you had your choice. And that's the point.

You don't always have (much) choice...

I suppose you live in North America, I live in Europe.

Here we have (to chose between) several different "standards"... almost every country uses a different "standard"... The UK uses QWERTY (AFAIK), the French (and French-speaking belgians) use (variants of) the AZERTY keyboard, the Germans use QWERTZ, the Swiss use a variant of QWERTZ -- which is mostly used as "international keyboard" as it has both German and French accents. I must admit I have no idea what "standard" is used inSpain or Italy or...

I personally prefer the QWERTZ with the Swiss-FR layout. But I can work with almost no problem with the German or the US-QWERTY layout. I _cannot_ work with the French AZERTY (efficiently) even though I used it for 4 years at university.

When I buy a laptop, I have to see what I can get in the store(s)... I don't always have a choice of "this brand, this model... with this keyboard" !
Several years ago, I got myself a specific laptop, but it came with the French keyboard as there was a price difference of ~700 USD in buying the same laptop in France, Germany or Belgium (~50km or ~35miles distance). So ?
I ordered the keyboard layout from the manufacturer and replaced the keyboard. It only took 3 trials and 7 months to get the correct keyboard.

You're only stuck with the keyboard layout on the laptop that you bought. In other words: you made your choice.

Furthermore, you had your choice. And that's the point.

Right... Not always right... Serge

Comment Re:Isn't just the keyboards (Score 1) 459

by Dushnock (#46034127) Attached to: Stop Trying To 'Innovate' Keyboards, You're Just Making Them Worse
+1
(Hell I wish I could give a +100!)
How come I could get a quite good 1600x1200 screen on a basic good laptop (with a 15.4" screen) 7 years ago and I can't get more than 1080 pts vertical now ? (if even).
I've been looking for a good laptop since September and it's frustrating.

As you put it, "Some of us actually work with our laptop, not just use them..." to view DVDs (or blue-rays, or downloaded vids)
.

Comment Re:Flamebait in Headline (Score 1) 306

by Dushnock (#40684201) Attached to: SQL Vs. NoSQL: Which Is Better?

it depends on WHAT?! NoSQL people keep touting features, SQL people keep touting history, neither say "well, RDBMS is best suited for [insert descriptions here], while MongoDB is best suited for [insert descriptions here] and Lucene/Solr is best suited for [insert descriptions here]".

That's why you have to study.
Don't expect people to give you all the answers. Go forth and conquer, aks slashdot ;)
Alternatively, go to school (highschool, university, whatever) and study.

Read books.

"It depends" is true for any tool. And computers are tools, and software is tool (are tools?)
You, aka The User [tm] have to learn how to (best) use your tools and which tools are best for which task. (Perhaps here I might come close enough to accepting the limitation in the EULA that says a program may not be fit for just any use :] hmmm )

This is true for hammers, screwdrivers, books, cars... of course, it is also true for computers and such.

Comment Re:Why? (Score 1) 377

by Dushnock (#33380254) Attached to: Intel Buys McAfee
Hi,

I guess I've never used McAfee from a home end user perspective, but from a corporate perspective it is a pretty solid product. (...)
I don't see how any of this is a bad thing. (...)
Home computing is not the bigger market here.

Couldn't agree more. I'm getting tired of whiners who can't help complaining about McAfee... as you mention, I guess they're mostly home users. Last time I used (stopped using) McAfee on a home computer was about 1999.
Been using (managing) it at work for some years now and I'm quite happy. It does take 'some memory' not too much CPU (depends on the config) and it keeps computers are work (reasonably) safe. No software is perfect and this one is no exception, but it's definitely not worse than any other and better than many (or most). And it's definitely more manageable!
I guess this will bring mostly change in the embedded world and possibly in appliances.
Serge
PS: for the conspiracy theorists (help, they're gonna introduce special 'kill AMD feature') get a life (or a brain, or both).
Intel

The Big Technical Mistakes of History 244

Posted by kdawson from the seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time dept.
An anonymous reader tips a PC Authority review of some of the biggest technical goofs of all time. "As any computer programmer will tell you, some of the most confusing and complex issues can stem from the simplest of errors. This article looking back at history's big technical mistakes includes some interesting trivia, such as NASA's failure to convert measurements to metric, resulting in the Mars Climate Orbiter being torn apart by the Martian atmosphere. Then there is the infamous Intel Pentium floating point fiasco, which cost the company $450m in direct costs, a battering on the world's stock exchanges, and a huge black mark on its reputation. Also on the list is Iridium, the global satellite phone network that promised to make phones work anywhere on the planet, but required 77 satellites to be launched into space."
Communications

The Truth About Net Neutrality Job Loss 187

Posted by Soulskill from the watch-out-for-net-neutrality-death-panels dept.
snydeq writes "Robert X. Cringely investigates recent claims that passing net neutrality regulations will result in nearly 1.5 million lost jobs by 2020, finding the report at the center of these claims suspect. The report, put forward by The Brattle Group, conjectures that net neutrality adoption would curtail broadband growth by 16 percent, costing 342,065 jobs in that sector alone. The 'total economy-wide impact,' however, of such a policy would result in five times as many job losses by 2020, they say. The study is the latest of several weighing the economic impact of net neutrality, including those by law schools (PDF) and free-market think tanks alike. The Brattle Group report (PDF), however, should be met with skepticism, Cringely argues, in large part because the lobbying firm who paid for the report, Mobile Future, is anchored most notably by AT&T. Moreover, the report is 'based entirely on a single assumption: Regulating US telecoms in the late 1990s and early 2000s hurt them to the tune of about 15 percent per quarter, relative to the cable companies.' Yet, as he points out, regulation was not alone in causing this sector shrinkage. In fact, the Baby Bells' own bureaucratic intransigence was much to blame."
Robotics

The Best Robots of 2009 51

Posted by samzenpus from the best-of-show dept.
kkleiner writes "Singularity Hub has just unveiled its second annual roundup of the best robots of the year. In 2009 robots continued their advance towards world domination with several impressive breakouts in areas such as walking, automation, and agility, while still lacking in adaptability and reasoning ability. It will be several years until robots can gain the artificial intelligence that will truly make them remarkable, but in the meantime they are still pretty awesome."

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