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Submission + - Android Compatibility and Fragmentation (blogspot.com)

Submitted by tbray
tbray writes: Here are the details on the "Android Compatibility Program", which combines the software itself, a formal compatibility spec, an open-source test suite, and access to the Android Market as reward for good behavior. People like to rant about this subject, so here's TFM that they should be R'ing first.
It's funny. Laugh.

Hilarious Antique IT Advertisements 219

Posted by Zonk from the now-that-is-spooky dept.
PetManimal writes "Computerworld has gone back through forty years worth of magazines, and came up with some entertaining IT-related advertising gems from decades past. Highlights include The Personal Mainframe, an image of the earliest screenless briefcase portables, and Elvira hawking engineering software. From the article: 'Remember Elvira, Mistress of the Dark? Besides appearing on TV in features like Elvira's Movie Macabre Halloween Special, Elvira also invited Computerworld readers to "cut through paper-based CASE [computer-aided software engineering] methods with LBMS" software. "The scariest thing about CASE is the several hundred pounds of books that land on your desk and for which you've paid fifteen gazillion dollars, when you buy off on a CASE development methodology," she writes. Can you guess what year Elvira appeared in this Computerworld ad? Headline hint: "IBM delays notebook arrival in U.S."'"

Tim Bray Says RELAX 180

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the holy-war-schema-2.7 dept.
twofish writes to tell us that Sun's Tim Bray (co-editor of XML and the XML namespace specifications) has posted a blog entry suggesting RELAX NG be used instead of the W3C XML Schema. From the blog: "W3C XML Schemas (XSD) suck. They are hard to read, hard to write, hard to understand, have interoperability problems, and are unable to describe lots of things you want to do all the time in XML. Schemas based on Relax NG, also known as ISO Standard 19757, are easy to write, easy to read, are backed by a rigorous formalism for interoperability, and can describe immensely more different XML constructs."

Comment Re:I felt... naked (Score 1) 1792

by ShootThemLater (#15883391) Attached to: BBC Reports UK-U.S. Terror Plot Foiled
I've heard the same complaints... From (pro bono) clients who were in prison.
That's a very good point. I'd say that my situation today was a taster of such a situation - although with the crucial disctinction that it was only my desire to make my journey keeping me there; I could have walked at any point (or at least after I'd retrieved my checked hand luggage)

BBC Reports UK-U.S. Terror Plot Foiled 1792

Posted by timothy from the england-prevails dept.
j823777 was one of several readers to point out a BBC report that "A terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the U.S. has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said. It is thought the plan was to detonate up to three explosive devices smuggled on aircraft in hand luggage. Police have arrested 21 people in the London area after an anti-terrorist operation lasting several months. Security at all airports in the UK has been tightened and delays are reported. MI5 has raised the UK threat level to critical — the highest possible." spo0nman adds a link to the Associated Press's coverage. Update: 08/10 12:57 GMT by T : Several readers have pointed out new restrictions imposed as a result of this plot on passengers' carry-on luggage. In the UK, nearly all possession (including laptop computers) must be carried in the cargo hold; while their rules don't yet go quite as far, U.S. airlines are stepping up their enforcement of carry-on-restrictions, including banning substances like toothpaste.

Bluetooth Headset Roundup 194

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the comfort-is-king dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Here is an interesting comparison of four of today's best Bluetooth headsets. These devices are becoming increasing popular, both as a gadget and accessory, but despite how stylish they get, performance and comfort are still serious issues. Joe Selim takes a look at four very different products, two from Jabra and two from Plantronics, in order to make some sense of things."

Cutting Off an Over-Demanding End-User? 466

Posted by Cliff from the gently-saying-"no" dept.
SpaceNeeded asks: "Numbers of you will probably recognize the start of the situation. Because I work with systems, I perform occasional builds. This occasionally crosses over to support (especially where it's my kit I'm asked to support). This isn't a problem, nor is it a problem when I get the occasional support query from someone I haven't supplied a system to, but who needs assistance. This is all well and good, but I've had pretty poor year personally. I've lost two relatives and a third is in a pretty bad way in hospital. An eleven year relationship ended a couple of months back, and I'm now having to perform _all_ the domestic tasks that used to be shared. Between these few things and my regular job I'm finding I have a whole lot less time to allow to support calls. What methods do you know of for gently cutting off someone, support-wise?"

Comment Re:Not that bad... (Score 1, Offtopic) 705

by Boing (#14251188) Attached to: Apple Holding Back the Music Business?
<Derail>

or should I say Holiday gifts, is the word Christmas allowed anymore?

Are you a school administrator who's gotten in trouble for pressuring kids to celebrate the birth of another religion's deity? No? Then have you ever experienced a situation where someone told you not to use the word "Christmas" during the Christmas season? Seriously, I'm not just being snarky, I'm actually curious.

If not, please don't fuel the fake "war on Christmas" flamewar that only serves to demonize disestablishmentarians. We're not trying to steal Christmas from any of the Whos in Whoville. We promise.

Watches his karma go up in smoke...
User Journal

Journal Journal: Journal?

Journal by tbray

Gosh, I have a /. journal? This Must Be Important. Stand by for serious and Extremely Big thoughts (but be warned that I only have these three times per decade) but time is nothing really, isn't it? If I had any big thoughts they'd be
here but mostly I don't.

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