Comment Re: Non Issue (Score 1) 261
More like 5 times too many--counting the original installation that sets them up as defaults to start with.
Comment Re:Common Examples (Score 1) 285
I think most true geeks would have looked it themselves before getting to comments, too?
Are you new to
He did say "true geeks."
Comment Pointless to Try the Search (Score 1) 213
My first and last name are both very common first names. So any search for me as firstname lastname and nothing else does not find me. Maybe I'm there somewhere in the 145,000,000 pages Google just found--but it really would not be worth the effort to try to find out.
Personally, I find this quite handy. I can be sure that without something else to add to it, a simple search for my name won't work. Even trying it on Facebook gives an absurd number of hits--many of them people whose first and middle names are my first and last names...
iTunes' Windows Problem 332
Hugh Pickens writes "Jean-Louis Gassée writes that iTunes is the best thing that has happened to Apple because without iTunes' innovative micropayment system and its new way of selling songs one at a time, the iPod would have been just another commodity MP3 player. The well-debugged iTunes infrastructure turned out to be a godsend for the emergence of the iPhone. But today, the toxic waste of success cripples iTunes: increasingly non-sensical complexity, inconsistencies, layers of patches over layers of patches ending up in a structure so labyrinthine no individual can internalize it any longer. 'It's a giant kitchen sink piled high with loosely related features, and it's highly un-Apple-like' says Allen Pike. 'Users know it, critics know it, and you can bet the iTunes team knows it. But for the love of god, why?' People naturally suggest splitting iTunes into multiple apps, but Apple can't, because many, if not most iOS users are on Windows. It's Apple's one and only foothold on Windows, so it needs to support everything an iOS device owner could need to do with their device. 'Can you imagine the support hurricane it would cause if Windows users suddenly needed to download, install, and use 3-4 different apps to sync and manage their media on their iPhone?' But help may be on the way with iOS 5. As iCloud duplicates more and more of iTunes' sync functionality, they can start removing it from iTunes. 'Apple is very explicit about it in their marketing materials: they call it "PC Free". They're not quite there yet, but they're driving towards a future where you don't need to manage your iOS device with a PC at all – Mac or Windows.'"
Good News: A Sustained Drop In Spam Levels 75
Orome1 writes "Industry and government efforts have dealt a significant blow to spam, according to a Commtouch report that is compiled based on an analysis of more than 10 billion transactions handled on a daily basis. The sustained decrease in spam over the last year can be attributed to many factors, including: Botnet takedowns, increased prosecution of spammers and the source industries such as fake pharmaceuticals and replicas. However, spam is still four times the level of legitimate email and cybercriminals are increasing their revenues from other avenues, such as banking fraud malware."
Comment Re:Attitude (Score 1) 722
Was wondering where to put this--so I'll hop in here...
Not everyone's cost is going up. With NO change to my plan (just accepting what Netflix does to get me the equivalent under the new plans) my price goes DOWN $4 a month.
Now, not everyone is on the high-level plan we use--but I have to wonder what the average price increase really is.
And yes, that attitude is problematic--the latte comment is very stupid.
Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Comment Re:Two words (Score 0, Flamebait) 3709
Emigration may be in order (if you're a U.S. subject--er, citizen).
