Comment Re:Cue the fanbois (Score 1) 427
Except that I have to hold my phone in an unnatural position for me to even get a one-bar reduction in the signal.
Comment Re:Coding in your spare time shows an interest.. (Score 1) 619
So mechanics should never restore a classic car in their garage?
Comment Re:Bingo! (Score 1) 789
"given the current state of our economy"
Funny thing: Not everyone is out of a job, worried about losing their job, or hurting for money. If folks like us don't spend money the economy gets worse. Idiots like you spouting lines like that and making people feel bad or second guess themselves are making the problem worse not better.
Comment Re:Unrepresentative sample (Score 1) 122
I went from WoW to WAR back to WoW for the expansion but now I'm back playing WAR and I've canceled my WoW account.
Comment Re:If doctors were that bad, it would be manslaugh (Score 1) 1057
While they're at it maybe they can bring in Tinker Bell as a consultant so the precious snowflakes that are interviewing there can learn to fly as well.
It's called work for a reason. Show me a company that's free of pressure, I'll show you a company that's not trying hard enough.
Comment Re:Oh Noes! (Score 2, Interesting) 725
That's a very interesting stance. Especially considering that visitors to the US have to fill out that weird sheet which has the following question:
"Do you intend to do anything illegal or immoral while in the US?"
It's a yes/no question, which is rather annoying. While people in New York might find it immoral for me to use the services of a prostitute in Nevada, it's not illegal. So
Flaws In a BSA Software Piracy Report? 288
Ian Lamont writes "The Business Software Alliance has just released its state piracy study (full PDF also available). The BSA says that one in five pieces of software in use in the United States is unlicensed, and notes that piracy rates are highest in Ohio (27%). However, as noted by the Industry Standard, there are problems with the state study, and the way the BSA is presenting the data: the study only includes eight states, and it is making some questionable connections, including the claim that lost state and local tax revenue from piracy would have been enough to 'hire nearly 25,000 experienced police officers.'"
Feed Techdirt: eBay's Core Auction Business Is Looking Like A Drag (techdirt.com)
eBay has reported its latest quarterly earnings, and like Intel's latest results, they offer something of a mixed bag. eBay's revenues and profits are up strongly, but its auction business is stagnating. While it showed revenue growth in the quarter, that's attributed to currency effects and increased commissions for sellers, rather than growth in the number of listings or the value of goods sold. eBay's been able to generate growth by expanding its scope of operations, which is certainly helpful, but the weakness in its core auctions business remains a concern. Questions still remain about some of those expanded operations: for instance, though Skype's earnings grew, usage is flat. But perhaps the bigger problem for eBay is that it's struggling to get the new units to feed off of each other. Buying PayPal was a masterstroke for the company, since a simple and comprehensive payments system delivers benefits to (and derives benefits from) the auctions business. But other new businesses don't integrate so well. Part of the justification for buying Skype was to ease communications between eBay auctions' buyers and sellers, but that hasn't panned out, or turned into a money-spinner. Similarly, some observers say the US launch of its Kijiji classifieds site will drive usage of Skype and PayPal, but judging by the Skype acquisition, that's far from being a sure thing. Clearly eBay's got the ability to get some MA work done, but its ability to meaningfully integrate its purchases to spur growth among its other businesses still isn't so clear.
Feed The Register: Wall Street forks over Intel's future (theregister.com)
How gross were the margins?
Intel told the best possible second quarter story, and few investors listened.
New Review Compares MythTV to Vista MCE 234
Parkus writes "There's a nice review on AVS forum of MythTV (Ubuntu) and Windows Vista MCE. The author tried both back to back and explains the pluses and minuses of each system after using them for a month. Helpful if you're thinking about setting up your own home theater rig."
Microsoft Applies To Patent DRM'ed OS Modules 134
wellingj writes "Microsoft has applied for a patent that sounds on the face of it like it ought to improve OS stability and reliability: the patent proposes to modularize device drivers much like Linux does. But, going further, Microsoft would apply DRM to these modules — as Groklaw puts it, 'using modularity plus DRM to restrict and contain and enforce.' The net result is that you might have to pay extra for OS hardware support. Things like USB keys, DVD-ROMS, Raid drives, and video cards might not be supported out of the box. LXer indulges in some dystopian speculation."
Submission + - Remote Exploit of Vista Speech Control
An anonymous reader writes: George Ou writes in his Blog that he found a remote exploit for the new and shiny Vista Speech Control. E.g. Websites playing soundfiles can trigger arbitrary commands. As he reports Microsoft confirmed the bug and suggest as workarounds that either "A user can turn off their computer speakers and/or microphone." or "If a user does run an audio file that attempts to execute commands on their system, they should close the Windows Media Player, turn off speech recognition and restart their computer.". Well, who didn't see that coming?
FSF Launches "BadVista" Campaign 607
FrankNFurter writes to note the launch yesterday of the FSF's BadVista campaign against Microsoft's new operating system. BadVista's aim is to inform users about the alleged harms inflicted by Vista on the user and about free software alternatives. Quoting program administrator John Sullivan: "Vista is an upsell masquerading as an upgrade. It is an overall regression when you look at the most important aspect of owning and using a computer: your control over what it does. Obviously MS Windows is already proprietary and very restrictive, and well worth rejecting. But the new 'features' in Vista are a Trojan Horse to smuggle in even more restrictions. We'll be focusing attention on detailing how they work, how to resist them, and why people should care."
US Releasing 9/11 Flight 77 Pentagon Crash Tape 1098
Robotron23 writes "The BBC is reporting that the US government has decided to release the videotape depicting the crash of Flight 77 into the Pentagon building, nearly five years after the 9/11 attacks. The government had previously withheld the tape due to 'ongoing investigations' into al-Qaeda's Zacarias Moussaoui. A government representative commented that they 'hope that this video will put to rest the conspiracy theories.'"
TiVo vs EchoStar - TiVo Wins 256
ssuchter writes "A jury just ruled in favor of TiVo in their suit against EchoStar, awarding TiVo $73M of the $87M they asked for. From the article: 'TiVo had sought $87 million in damages from the Dish satellite-TV network in a patent dispute that TiVo lawyers said could be "life or death" for the company that sold the first box for pausing and rewinding live television.'"
