Comment Re:Are you crazy if you rush out and install it? (Score 1) 647
Maybe, but that's not going to stop me from paying $10 for my upgrade right now.
Comment kanji input (Score 4, Interesting) 647
The only feature of Snow Leopard that looks at all interesting is the hanzi/kanji input on the trackpad. Probably hard to draw the twenty-stroke characters, unlike the five-stroke example screenshots. But since I rarely use my laptop OPEN (I run in clamshell mode to an external monitor most of the time), even that is not particularly useful to me.
Comment Re:new mac user here (Score 2, Informative) 647
Yes. Historically, there have been issues with each major upgrade of Mac OS X. I had kernel panics on a regular basis when I upgraded to 10.5 but now it seems fairly solid. I'm hoping that since the focus for 10.6 was speed and stability that it won't have these issues but I'm not holding my breath.
Comment Re:The Humanity! Think of the Children! (Score 1) 297
Actually it was possible before. That's what the 'Spawn an Instance' function was. One person with a legit copy and someone else without a copy could do a LAN against one another.
And, it's still possible now for 2 people to use the same game copy at different times. You just have to share an account.
If you're never going to be playing at the same time, and are in the same house, one would surmise that neither player is hard core, and sharing an account really shouldn't be a factor.
If the value of the reputation on that account is so personal to you that you don't think it appropriate to share, perhaps you might consider investing in something that obvious has such personal value to you.
And, it's still possible now for 2 people to use the same game copy at different times. You just have to share an account.
If you're never going to be playing at the same time, and are in the same house, one would surmise that neither player is hard core, and sharing an account really shouldn't be a factor.
If the value of the reputation on that account is so personal to you that you don't think it appropriate to share, perhaps you might consider investing in something that obvious has such personal value to you.
Comment new mac user here (Score 1, Interesting) 647
Picked up a mini first of the year. This will be my very first upgrade.
As I understand it, the version numbers here are pretty much on par with a Microsoft OS version number so 10.5 to 10.6 will be like going from 98 to Win2k and should be handled the same way, upgrading will make for an unstable system so I should backup everything and do a fresh install. Is this conventional wisdom still correct?
Comment Re:Binary blob ... eh? (Score 1) 461
I think people are missing the point here. It has very little to do with binary blobs and licensing, and everything to do with the amount of work involved (cost) and the potential sales (benefit).
How many people using Linux as a serious gaming platform?
It's a chicken and egg problem. I know a lot of people who would jump ship to Linux if their favorite 5 or so games had a native Linux port.
Comment Not the first (Score 1) 1
This was not the first observation of spin-charge separation: Lawrence Berkeley Labs, 2006.
Also, the spinon and holon are not particles, but quasiparticles (like holes - the absence of an electron in a semiconductor). The difference is important.
Comment Re:Questions for the savvy reader (Score 1) 225
Actually, I find it troubling that many people seem to believe that paper ballots cannot be compromised at all.
Paper ballots are not sufficient to prevent fraud. But with the proper procedures in place they can make it really really hard. Some of the points that are missing in the US (and many other places) are:
- Transparent ballot boxes
- Counting done right away in the very room used as the polling place
- Counting done by volunteers selected randomly throughout election day (note that it scales with the number of voters)
- Representatives from all parties watching all the proceedings (again it scales with the number of voters)
That's not all there is to it, but these are the key points that everyone seems to be missing.
Blizzcon 2008 Wrap-Up 173
This year's Blizzcon saw 15,000 gamers descend from 27 different countries to take part in two days of discussions, tournaments, and sneak peaks at upcoming releases. Several big announcements were scattered among a raft of new details about Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 and Wrath of the Lich King. The new information went a long way toward drumming up interest for what already appear to be worthy successors to old favorites. Read on for more.
Online Community For a Call Center? 138
kirkmacdonald writes "I work as an analyst in a small call center. There are about 200 on phone agents, but half of them work from home. About a month ago I submitted a Project Charter to create an online Community for the agents. The basic premise was something approaching the combination of a wiki application and a standard forum (phpbb and the like). We already have an online knowledge base for company policies, training and system documentation. This community environment would be intended to simulate being able to talk shop with the person next to you, along with the lunchroom and water cooler.
The Charter was well received but there were questions from upper management about how using this type of environment could affect the call center metrics (average handle time, after call wrap up, etc). Can anyone comment on other companies that have online communities for their staff? How did they mitigate productivity risks?"
Getting Hired As an Entry-Level Programmer? 540
An anonymous reader writes "I received a state university degree in Computer Science. After graduation, I immediately took jobs in QA to pay the bills while waiting for other opportunities, which of course turned out to be as naive as it sounds. I've been working QA for several years now and my resume does not show the right kind of work experience for programming. On the whole I'm probably no better as a a candidate than a CS graduate fresh out of college. But all of the job postings out in the real world are looking for people with 2-5 years of programming work experience. How do you build up those first 2 years of experience? What kinds of companies hire programmers with no prior experience?"
President Signs Law Creating Copyright Czar 555
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "President Bush has signed the EIPRA (AKA the PRO-IP Act) and created a cabinet-level post of 'Copyright Czar,' on par with the current 'Drug Czar,' in spite of prior misgivings about the bill. They did at least get rid of provisions that would have had the DOJ take over the RIAA's unpopular litigation campaign. Still, the final legislation (PDF) creates new classes of felony criminal copyright infringement, adds civil forfeiture provisions that incorporate by reference parts of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, and directs the Copyright Czar to lobby foreign governments to adopt stronger IP laws. At this point, our best hope would appear to be to hope that someone sensible like Laurence Lessig or William Patry gets appointed."
Microsoft Applies For Patent On Private Browsing 181
PhilDEE writes "Microsoft is in the process of applying for two patents for a private browsing mode in their next version of Internet Explorer — a feature already present in Safari, among other browsers."
US Broadband Won't Catch Up With Japan's For 101 Years 708
An anonymous reader writes "Internet speeds of users nationwide shows that the United States has not made significant improvements in deploying high-speed broadband networks in the past year, and if the average US Internet speed continues to improve only at the same rate it did from 2007 to 2008, the country won't catch up with Japan's current download speed for another 100 years, according to findings released by the Communications Workers of America's (CWA's) Speed Matters campaign." With enough statistical mangling, nearly anything can be presented as plausible, but that's not enough to cover up my envy of Asian broadband speeds.
DNS Attack Writer a Victim of His Own Creation 196
BobB writes "HD Moore has been owned. Moore, the creator of the popular Metasploit hacking toolkit, has become the victim of a computer attack. It happened on Tuesday morning, when Moore's company, BreakingPoint, had some of its Internet traffic redirected to a fake Google page that was being run by a scammer. According to Moore, the hacker was able to do this by launching what's known as a cache poisoning attack on a DNS server on AT&T's network that was serving the Austin, Texas, area. One of BreakingPoint's servers was forwarding DNS (Domain Name System) traffic to the AT&T server, so when it was compromised, so was HD Moore's company."
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