NerdFencer - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Use GIT (Score 1) 343

by NerdFencer on Tuesday February 17, 2015 @03:19PM (#49074551) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Version Control For Non-Developers?

GIT also falls down when the project gets large enough, which is why it's not used by Google/Microsoft/Amazon for their larger projects. For that you'll want something like perforce (which is admittedly a bit painful). Though somehow I doubt they're making nearly enough documents for that to matter.

Comment Re:I don't think we are giving anything up. (Score 2) 554

by NerdFencer on Thursday October 02, 2014 @02:23PM (#48048955) Attached to: Lost Opportunity? Windows 10 Has the Same Minimum PC Requirements As Vista

For some areas in the minimum spec, that is certainly true (EX: RAM), but for compute resources, that is not necessarily the case. You could easily raise the hardware requirements by requiring more functionality out of the hardware instead increasing utilization. Some good examples of this would be DirectX 11 support on your GPU and SSE4 for x86 and NEON for ARM. Requiring DirectX 11 could conceivably reduce the memory required by the window manager by using tessellation for some details instead of storing static geometry. This in turn could allow for a prettier interface while keeping utilization numbers the same. Requiring SSE4/NEON to be available could make the OS smaller and faster. It could be smaller because optimized portions wouldn't need to support multiple code paths for legacy hardware and faster because of compiler optimizations that can be done to existing code using the newer instructions. Obviously it's not all that much, but we're all paying a price for the low hardware functionality requirements.

Apple Reportedly Buying Beats Electronics For $3.2 Billion 198

Posted by Soulskill on Friday May 09, 2014 @08:50AM from the making-it-rain dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Multiple publications report that Apple is undertaking its biggest acquisition ever, buying Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion. The deal would give Apple control over the popular 'Beats by Dre' headphones as well as a new music streaming service. Analysts suggest the headphones will open up a new series of product lines for Apple, while the streaming service will jumpstart its efforts to compete with Pandora and Spotify, as iTunes' growth slows. 'If Apple wanted to, it could certainly have built a streaming subscription service itself; the company had been floating the notion of one with label executives in recent months. But it's possible that Apple's most recent attempts to extend its music business beyond the iTunes store helped convince Cook that he was better off getting outside help.' The deal hasn't been completed yet, but a candid video of Dr. Dre was posted to Facebook in which he appeared to confirm it."

Submission + - UK police will have backdoor access to health records

Submitted by kc123 on Friday February 07, 2014 @11:20AM

kc123 writes: David Davis MP, a former shadow home secretary has has told the Guardian that police would be able to access the new central NHS database without a warrant as critics warn of catastrophic breach of trust. The database that will store all of England's health records has a series of "backdoors" that will allow police and government bodies to access people's medical data. In the past police would need to track down the GP who held a suspect's records and go to court for a disclosure order. Now, they would be able to simply approach the new arms-length NHS information centre, which will hold the records. The idea that police will be able to request information from a central database without a warrant totally undermines a long-held belief in the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship.

Submission + - 5 Year Mission Continues After 45 Year Hiatus (hackaday.com)

Submitted by Okian Warrior on Wednesday October 23, 2013 @02:09PM

Okian Warrior writes: Hackaday brings us news about a continuation of the original Star Trek series. The Kickstarter-funded project is attempting to complete the original 5 year mission, which ended after only three seasons on the air. The fan based and fan supported reincarnation is cleverly titled “Star Trek Continues” and has CBS’s consent.

Check out the first episode "Pilgrim of Eternity". For being fan-made, it's actually pretty good.

Submission + - Owner Of Battery Fire Tesla Vehicle: Car 'Performed Very Well, Will Buy Again'

Submitted by cartechboy on Friday October 04, 2013 @05:41PM

cartechboy writes: The Tesla Model S fire that, to date, is either electric car Armageddon or 'no big deal' has been fun Internet theatre combined with a dose of crowd-sourced battery-pack pseudo-exepertise. Now the actual car owner (and Tesla investor) weighs in with his take, which is, basically, "nothing to see here and yes, I can't wait to get back into a Tesla." Owner Robert Carlson Owner wrote an email in response to contact by Tesla's vice president of sales and service, Jerome Guillen, saying he found the car had "performed very well under such an extreme test. The batteries went through a controlled burn which the Internet images really exaggerates." Carlson had no comment on the guy who videoed his car fire, who is now Interent infamous for shooting video in portrait mode.

Submission + - Nvidia Removed Linux Driver Feature Due to Windows

Submitted by RemyBR on Friday October 04, 2013 @04:49PM

RemyBR writes: Softpedia points to a Nvidia Developer Zone forum post revealing that the company has removed a specific Linux feature as of the v310 drivers due to the Windows platform. A BaseMosaic user on Ubuntu 12.04 noticed a change in the number of displays that can be used simultaneously after upgrading from the v295 drivers to v310.
Another user, apparently working for Nvidia, gave a very troubling answer: "For feature parity between Windows and Linux we set BaseMosaic to 3 screens".

Submission + - Existing Drugs Fight Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @03:59PM

sciencehabit writes: Medical experts have been powerless to stop the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and are increasingly desperate to develop novel drugs. But a new study finds that smarter use of current antibiotics could offer a solution. Researchers were able to keep resistant bacteria from thriving by alternating antibiotics to specifically exploit the vulnerabilities that come along with resistance—a strategy that could extend the lifespan of existing drugs to continue fighting even the most persistent pathogens.

Feed Techdirt: Time Warner Cable Systematically Looking To Shut Down Parodist's Accounts (techdirt.com)

From feed by feedfeeder on Friday April 05, 2013 @06:32PM

Well, this won't come as a huge surprise. Twice this week we've written about a pair of parodists who have been mocking Time Warner Cable and its customer service, first with a video in which they pretend to be TWC Customer Service reps asking people how they can make service worse for customers, and then involving a recording with a customer service rep who suggested that you weren't allowed to record your phone calls with TWC Customer service, even though they were recording you. The efforts were part of a parody campaign for a website called TWCCustomerService.com. For what it's worth, Time Warner has since said that there is no corporate policy saying that callers cannot record their calls, and that was merely a case of one rep overreacting.

That said, Time Warner Cable has apparently decided that the duo at TWCCustomerService have gone way too far in their parody attempt and have been going after their various social media accounts one by one. Already killed are their YouTube account and a bunch of Twitter accounts. The latest is that TWC's legal department has approached GoDaddy, seeking to have the TWCCustomerService.com domain name taken away. According to Kevin Collier at DailyDot, the guys are actually Jason Selvig and Davram Stiefler of the comedy duo The Good Liars, and they have a history of doing similar types of pranks. In this case, TWC claims that the duo went too far in using the real name (and image) of Time Warner Cable's CEO, Glenn Britt.

As we noted in our first post about them, some might think that their website and efforts pushed some boundaries, since nowhere do they state directly that they're a parody account, but any human being with a few functioning brain cells should be able to tell within seconds that these guys clearly do not represent Time Warner Cable at all. I can understand why TWC decided to try to shut down the various accounts, but, in the end that's probably exactly what Selvig and Stiefler wanted, as it merely serves to call that much more attention to their antics.

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Submission + - The Internet is a surveillance state (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 16, 2013 @05:31PM

An anonymous reader writes: Bruce Schneier write in an opion piece for CNN.

The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we're being tracked all the time. Google tracks us, both on its pages and on other pages it has access to. Facebook does the same; it even tracks non-Facebook users. Apple tracks us on our iPhones and iPads. One reporter used a tool called Collusion to track who was tracking him; 105 companies tracked his Internet use during one 36-hour period.

Comment Yes (Score 1) 1

by NerdFencer on Tuesday February 26, 2013 @01:58PM (#43016143) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Time for Optional Pay Business Models?

I've been wanting this for a long time, but I think that it could go even further. I would like to, for example, be able to pay Google for all of the ads they post on 3'rd party websites that I don't want to see. That way I could support the websites that I visit without seeing the ads and without having to donate explicitly to any of them.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Time for Optional Pay Business Models? 1

Submitted by eegad on Tuesday February 26, 2013 @01:15PM

eegad writes: I've been thinking a lot about how much information I give to technology companies like Google and Facebook and how I'm not super comfortable with what I even dimly know about how they're handling and selling it. Is it time for major companies like this that offer arguably utility-like services for free in exchange for info to start giving customers a choice about how to "pay" for their service? I'd much rather pony up a monthly fee to access all the Google services I use, for example, and be assured that no tracking or selling of my information is going on. I'm not aware of how much money these companies might make from selling data about a particular individual, but could it possibly be more than the $20 or $30 a month I'd happily fork over to know that my privacy is a little more secure? Is this a pipe dream or are there other people who would happily pay for their private use of these services? What kinds of costs or problems could be involved with companies implementing this type of dual business model?

Submission + - Microsoft says Google trying to undermine Windows Phone (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Bent Spoke on Wednesday January 02, 2013 @10:20PM

Bent Spoke writes: In a bit of delicous irony, Microsoft laments Google is not playing fair by excluding access to meta-data on youtube, preventing the development of the kind of powerful app readily available on Android.
Microsoft panting on the sidelines of the mobile arena after it laid to waste all competitors on the destktop.

Submission + - The Copyright Battle Over Custom-Built Batmobiles 3

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens writes

on Wednesday January 02, 2013 @03:45PM

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Eriq Gardner writes that Warner Brothers is suing California resident Mark Towle, a specialist in customizing replicas of automobiles featured in films and TV shows, for selling replicas of automobiles from the 1960s ABC series Batman by arguing that copyright protection extends to the overall look and feel of the Batmobile. The case hinges on what exactly is a Batmobile — an automobile or a piece of intellectual property? Warner attorney J. Andrew Coombs argues in legal papers that the Batmobile incorporates trademarks with distinctive secondary meaning and that by selling an unauthorized replica, Towle is likely to confuse consumers about whether the cars are DC products are not. Towle's attorney Larry Zerner, argues that automobiles aren't copyrightable. ""It is black letter law that useful articles, such as automobiles, do not qualify as 'sculptural works' and are thus not eligible for copyright protection," writes Zerner adding that a decision to affirm copyright elements of automotive design features could be exploited by automobile manufacturers. "The implications of a ruling upholding this standard are easy to imagine. Ford, Toyota, Ferrari and Honda would start publishing comic books, so that they could protect what, up until now, was unprotectable.""

Submission + - China Says Its Internet Policies Are Open and Clea (itworld.com)

Submitted by

itwbennett

on Thursday October 20, 2011 @12:54PM

itwbennett writes: "Responding to a US request to explain China's policies regarding blocking us websites, China's foreign ministry said the country's Internet policies have been open and clear. 'The Chinese government encourages and actively supports the Internet's development and we also protect the freedom of expression of citizens in China,' said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu. 'We welcome foreign companies to invest and develop here, and we will continue to foster an open policy market.' The request, filed under World Trade Organization rules, is an effort to understand the trade impact of such blocking after a number of U.S. businesses have made complaints about access to their websites in China."

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