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Comment Re:That sucks (Score 3, Insightful) 63

Take a look at https://simplenote.com/ instead. It's free, multi-devices supported incl Linux and just does text (very well). Markdown is also baked in if you're after some formatting. I'd love them to have a donate or subscription option just to ensure they keep on keeping on. The text only nature of it all makes it sustain-ably cheap to run on cloud and free to users I guess!

Comment Re:Tech Chief role is useless (Score 1) 21

Our CTO exists only to dash madly toward the next shiny thing to appear in tech news. This allows the company to save costs as we're not able to implement anything at all as a result. The old stuff just keeps chugging away doing the job whilst the next new shiny sucks up any free cash/resources that might have gone into updating or improving the existing infrastructure. The business is still under the impression the CTO is doing them a favour because they only interact with IT via him at levels high enough to see change. When it all comes tumbling down we expect to see outsourcing (ala cloud) trotted about to save the day, until of course it doesn't and costs quadruple, again, just like last time. I think I've been here too long omg...

Comment Re: encrypted file on flash drive (Score 1) 208

Setup automated "are you still alive?" checking with http://www.deadmansswitch.net/ Have it email your password if you don't respond to a few checks in a few months. In lieu of the password, enough clues for family to reconstruct it if you're worried about these guys seeing it should do the trick. E.g First pet name + second pet name + wedding anniversary + favourite color etc etc.

Comment Re:I have a better idea (Score 2) 645

I'm amazed someone hasn't organized a Survivalist Cruise Ship of some sort and loaded the boat up with a bunch of trigger happy types who will pay hard cash for a chance to be shot at and return in kind (and then some). A few innocent looking luxury ships that suddenly bristle with well armed "sports fishermen" itching to test out various high-powered ballistics would no doubt go a long way towards curbing the problem in a pay-for-itself kind of way. Insurance would be an issue, but perhaps at this rate it already is if you say where you're planning on sailing. Perhaps a deal could be cut there anyway given how beneficial the insurers may see this activity...

Comment Re:Did the author completely overlook,,, (Score 1) 289

The problem with Nokia is that their customer is my Telco, not me.

Apples customer is me.

My Nokia E51 is skinned with the Telco's branding and for a non-techie is pretty hard to remove. It's menu/button arrangement results in me spending money/credit with my Telco if I hit the general "exit" button one time to many getting out of the sub-menus.

It still crashes after a few days and won't show the main menu until after a reboot. Is there a firmware update? Probably, if I go hunting for it. Have Apple been auto-distributing firmware updates since day one? Yes.

The infrastructure is not only provided by Apple to do so, but it's slanted towards the customer not the Telco in what it delivers.

Comment Re:Apple "It Just Works" (Score 1) 595

I reckon you're on the right track.

Throw in the infrastructure in place in Apple OS and their willingness to let any application use that infrastructure.

An address book in windows that all apps can interact with because they know it will always be there and comply with a set standard? Hell no, Microsoft Only ftw!

Apple isn't reliant on competing over software so they leave the welcome mat out.

Image

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:Hmmmm. (Score 1) 835

I usually recommend friends spend the extra AU$40 and go for 4GB even though they're running XP. It'll make the improvement that much more pronounced when I throw Ubuntu on there a year or two when XP becomes (more) unusable.

Strange, no hits here searching for McAfee, that's usually the source of sudden performance issues on any machine I've had the misfortune to be running it on...

Quickies

Submission + - Ceiling height affects problem-solving skills

An anonymous reader writes: A recent study at the University of Minnesota suggests that ceiling height affects problem-solving skills and behavior by priming concepts that encourage certain kinds of brain processing. According to researcher Joan Meyers-Levy, "When people are in a room with a high ceiling, they activate the idea of freedom. In a low-ceilinged room, they activate more constrained, confined concepts." The concept of freedom promotes information processing that encourages greater variation in the kinds of thoughts one has, while the concept of confinement promotes more detail-oriented processing. From the article: "Managers should want noticeably higher ceilings for thinking of bold initiatives. The technicians and accountants might want low ceilings." There could be consequences in the world of health care as well, she said. "If you're having surgery done, you would want the operating room to encourage item-specific processing."

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