Slashdot Mirror

Mistake #1: He compares it to 32 GB iPad, yet fails to mention that Windows and Office alone eat up about 12GB. So in reality, Surface is 20 GB and not 32.

Obvious shill is obvious.

And if he compared it to the 16GB iPad that would not have been a fair comparison because the Surface has a lot more storage. The 32GB iPad does not have 32GB of usable storage either. 32GB iPad to 32GB Surface is the closest to a fair comparison.

The other day, MS's engineering team did an AMA on reddit where they answered the question of screen resolution:

Hey this is Stevie. Screen resolution is one component of perceived detail. The true measure of resolvability of a screen called Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), not Pixels. MTF is a combination of both contrast and resolution. There are over a dozen subsystems that effect this MTF number.. Most folks just focus on one number out of dozens that effect perceived detail. Without good contrast resolution decreases. Check out contrast sensitivity of the human eye graph (http://www.telescope-optics.net/images/eye_contrast.PNG) and if you want more see the links below. Basically, as resolution/DPI increases the eye has becomes less sensitive. So as a result, the amount of light in a room and the reflections off the screen have a huge effect on the contrast of the display. In fact, a small amount of reflection can greatly reduce contrast and thus the perceived resolution of the display. With the ClearType Display technology we took a 3 pronged approach to maximize that perceived resolution and optimize for battery life, weight, and thickness. First prong, Microsoft has the best pixel rendering technology in the industry (cleartype 1.0 and 2.0) .. these are exclusive and unique to Windows, it smooths text regardless of pixel count. Second, we designed a custom 10.6” high-contrast wide-angle screen LCD screen. Lastly we optically bonded the screen with the thinnest optical stack anywhere on the market.. something which is more commonly done on phones we are doing on Surface. While this is not official, our current Cleartype measurements on the amount of light reflected off the screen is around 5.5%-6.2%, the new IPad has a measurement of 9.9% mirror reflections (see the displaymate link: http://www.displaymate.com/iPad_ShootOut_1.htm). Doing a side by side with the new iPad in a consistently lit room, we have had many people see more detail on Surface RT than on the Ipad with more resolution.

Some more links to share if you want to know more (http://www.normankoren.com/Tutorials/MTF.html)... Also This is a great book to read if you really want to get into it: http://www.amazon.com/Contrast-Sensitivity-Effects-Quality-Monograph/dp/0819434965 or more here http://alexandria.tue.nl/extra2/9901043.pdf

So it seems that Microsoft has data that suggests that, despite the lower resolution, the Surface has greater precieved detail than the iPad. (although I find it annoying that they've muddied the waters by re-using trademarks - they've repurposed "Cleartype Display" as the MS equivalent of Apple's "Retina Display")

Mistake #1:
He compares it to 32 GB iPad, yet fails to mention that Windows and Office alone eat up about 12GB. So in reality, Surface is 20 GB and not 32.

Obvious shill is obvious.

Link to reddit mod post

They take about 6 months to a year from the pictures being taken to appearing on the maps.

Here's an AMA done by a google streetview driver. Pretty interesting read.
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/yzoft/iama_recently_employed_google_maps_driver_i_drive/

> "Ask a mason" would make an interesting /. interview

Been done, elsewhere.

http://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/10oa6u/slashdot_tackles_the_tough_problem_of_typing/

And graphs and everything. Love it.

Go Here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/GraphPorn/

Have an orgy :P

(there must be some cosmic rule, just like there is an xkcd comic for everything, there is a subreddit for everything...)

Post this to http://reddit.com/r/atheism and rally the troops. It's a huge, highly-motivated community that delights in challenging these sorts of offenses.

http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/100t7i/this_is_my_todays_newspaper/

Geez.. Slashdot is *just* now finding out about these? There's been an info page over on Reddit regarding these for literally months. Darned thing work fine for ham radio 2m and 440 repeater monitoring, plus covers like 64-1700mhz.. http://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR.. Sure, they have their problems, but for $20-$25, WHO THE HELL CARES??

The other day there was a reddit thread on the front page about a billionaire allegedly buying off Wikipedia to erase mention of his alleged incest. Oddly enough, the thread itself then also disappeared from reddit due to some questionable mod decisions.

http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/102qtm/til_that_wikipedia_deleted_a_page_about_a/

What happened to freedom of speech, Google? You are the one that always cites of freedom of speech when denying removing material, yet you now block access to videos? Or does freedom of speech only concern the U.S.?

Google has let itself go. They are no longer the freedom loving and defending company they once were. All went downhill after the failured product Google+.

Have you guys tried to use Google? They are constantly trying to guess what we want to search, up to the irritating point. They don't supply the search results we want, they supply search results for another queries they thought we wanted instead. We didn't!

What comes to Google+, they really did a bad choice there. There is a reason why pseudo-anonymity like nicknames is common in internet. There are people that are so against something you say that it gets you into trouble. That is when and why we use nicknames. But nooo, Google+ demands real names for everyone. It's Google's way or the highway.

Google is only little about openness while most of their stuff is actually closed source and closed ecosystem. They have both and in a way that always suits them better. There are in fact more closed systems than open, just see Google's search engine, adwords/adsense, youtube etc.. They only use and support open source when they can't be bothered to do all the work. In a way they steal from open source projects and hardly ever bring anything back.

So in fact this is old problem with Google's products. Other products too... Hell, just look at Google+. It's a perfect copy of Facebook and a product that greatly emphasizes closedness. They are even more closed than Facebook as currently they only allow very few developers to be make apps and games for Google+. I mean it's been like this for ages. It feels like they've given up all hope about Google+. They're just thinking how to phase it out now that they made the whole thing such a big thing, like including it in search results etc. But Google+ is dying.

Android is about the same shit Google has thrown at us multiple times. They only open it because they used Linux as the base. They wouldn't open it otherwise. In fact they've even ignored GPL multiple times when they've been late to open up their sources as required. Android is only open because it has to be.

Google tries to close it, be no mistaken. They require you to pay lots of money to Google if you want to use any of the Android trademarks, logos or name on your product. You don't get any of the Google apps if you don't pay up and stick to Google's "standards" (which are there to limit competition, like in this case). You don't even get to give your users access to Google Play so that they could buy and download apps and games. No, you don't get any of that. It's Google's way or the highway.

That being said, it doesn't surprise me at all that Google is doing like this. They are scared of the competition in China because they can't get Chinese people to like their products. Google China failed miserably too, and they tried to use "ok China is baad mmkay" as an excuse for leaving. The real reason for their escape was that Google China was failing miserably while Baidu was winning as search engine and other Chinese social networks and market places were winning as such. Google just didn't have anything to offer to Chinese people.

And you may wonder what they are afraid now? Well, of course the same Chinese companies. Both North American and European finances are going to shits and Asia just keeps growing. They are already much bigger than US and their GDP is only growing. Soon they are much larger market than we are and that is when things really start rolling and happening. Google is very afraid of that and tries everything it can to limit competition in China. Google is afraid of losing.

--------------
Corporate VP of Developer Division at Microsoft Reddit IAmA

I've spent most of my many years on /. just lurking.

Might be worth seeing how he worked in the game for some folk.

So much arrogance and bitterness.

Read the guy's story (yes, I'm re-linking to TFA in a comment) on Ars and the guy's AmA over on Reddit. You don't have to like the guy's game (which most certainly isn't a dinky flash app that he probably knocked out in a couple of weeks - it took him 10 months), but you have to admire his class, and if you inisist on letting the Internet know you don't like his game, you should definitely be more polite than "quite frankly it's crap."

Personally, I can't stand ANY multiplayer games. Not sure exactly why, I guess I prefer to compete against fixed challenges and at my own pace. I am probably in the minority, but I certainly can't be alone.

I like Multiplayer games, but I have noticed that the only multiplayer games I tend to stick with are the ones that have NO single player component attached.

Having said that, the multiplayer game I play the most is Team Fortress 2, and I'm a member of a community that tends to play together (Reddit's RUGC Midwest).

Yes, our 24-player server is a public server, but there are enough of us that when people are playing, most of them are server regulars or people those regulars know.

Sometimes, rude people do show up... and we tend to escort them out fairly quickly; one of the advantages to running our own server.

Isaac Asimov quote from a column in Newsweek - Jan 21st, 1980

'There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."'

Source:
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/c93xs/antiintellectualism_has_been_a_constant_thread/

White House releases home brew recipe

It really is a pretty beginning recipe, but all of you all-grain snobs (I am one) forget that you can make decent beer with extract. Once in a while you even get great beer. Very hard to be consistent though.

All grain is the way to go when you want more control, but who has 4 - 6 hours to brew? I couldn't do that every week.

Taste the freedom

Sour grape flavoured from Slashdot?

This recipe was fulfilling a promise made in a Reddit AMA by Obama.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/i_am_barack_obama_president_of_the_united_states/c60mom8

Is this as per Obama's response to his Reddit appearance the other night?

If you want to follow the whole thing yourself, ArenaNet has been very public about all of this, posting on Reddit with the information (they aren't posting on their own blog as they don't want to do anything else that will hammer their infrastructure with more traffic):

Initial posting announcing the bans
Follow-up posting that will let people undo the ban and make it a suspension

A lot of people agree with you on this topic. I think the only reason they are letting people undo the bans is because of the bad press they were starting to receive (and rightfully so). But at the same time, ArenaNet is sending a message to the community that they should play nicely.

Basically what happened was an item was priced at 21 karma (a currency that you get from doing quests/events and is not tradable). Items similar to that one item were normally around 600+ karma. People saw this and started buying hundreds of that single item to throw into the Mystic Forge (takes items as input, and outputs possibly higher quality items at random). So some people buy 1000+ of this 21 karma item for the sole purpose of using it in the mystic forge.

So the people that did this knew that something was possibly wrong (or greatly in their favor) and abused to get ahead in the game.

ArenaNet has now taught people, if you see something that is too good to be true, it probably is and should be reported.

If you want to follow the whole thing yourself, ArenaNet has been very public about all of this, posting on Reddit with the information (they aren't posting on their own blog as they don't want to do anything else that will hammer their infrastructure with more traffic):

Initial posting announcing the bans
Follow-up posting that will let people undo the ban and make it a suspension

A lot of people agree with you on this topic. I think the only reason they are letting people undo the bans is because of the bad press they were starting to receive (and rightfully so). But at the same time, ArenaNet is sending a message to the community that they should play nicely.

Basically what happened was an item was priced at 21 karma (a currency that you get from doing quests/events and is not tradable). Items similar to that one item were normally around 600+ karma. People saw this and started buying hundreds of that single item to throw into the Mystic Forge (takes items as input, and outputs possibly higher quality items at random). So some people buy 1000+ of this 21 karma item for the sole purpose of using it in the mystic forge.

So the people that did this knew that something was possibly wrong (or greatly in their favor) and abused to get ahead in the game.

ArenaNet has now taught people, if you see something that is too good to be true, it probably is and should be reported.

he had sex with a woman who was asleep, thus unable to consent.

Sorry, I don't give a flying fuck about that guy Assange but I have to intervene here: that idea that screwing a girl in Sweden who's asleep makes you guilty of rape is revolting bullshit that need to stop being thrown around. This entire thing has been discussed on reddit for instance here. As I wrote there:

The relevant part of the Swedish criminal code has been translated here and the wording makes it perfectly clear that what is punished as rape is the fact of having sex with someone, knowing that the person would not consent to it should this said person be aware of what was going on (e.g., said person was asleep, passed out, etc).

Basically this is a perfectly common and sensible definition of rape, that is probably valid in any western country, and does obviously not include things like making love to a girl you're in bed with while she's asleep, especially if she doesn't ask you to stop when she awakes. The Swedes are not crazy and it is ludicrous to attribute them insane laws like that.

Please for the love of the flying shit stop repeating such ridiculous nonsense this is hurting my gulliver.

he had sex with a woman who was asleep, thus unable to consent.

Sorry, I don't give a flying fuck about that guy Assange but I have to intervene here: that idea that screwing a girl in Sweden who's asleep makes you guilty of rape is revolting bullshit that need to stop being thrown around. This entire thing has been discussed on reddit for instance here. As I wrote there:

The relevant part of the Swedish criminal code has been translated here and the wording makes it perfectly clear that what is punished as rape is the fact of having sex with someone, knowing that the person would not consent to it should this said person be aware of what was going on (e.g., said person was asleep, passed out, etc).

Basically this is a perfectly common and sensible definition of rape, that is probably valid in any western country, and does obviously not include things like making love to a girl you're in bed with while she's asleep, especially if she doesn't ask you to stop when she awakes. The Swedes are not crazy and it is ludicrous to attribute them insane laws like that.

Please for the love of the flying shit stop repeating such ridiculous nonsense this is hurting my gulliver.

The idea that journalists should not cover findings reported at meetings because they're too stupid or the results are not ready for primetime is a little odd, specially in the heady days of the social web. The results are out on twitter - not because dumb journalists are writing about it but because scientists are tweeting about it, blogging it and so on.

You said stupid; I would use the word unqualified. And what does the social web have to do with centuries old traditions of scientific research? What, since everyone has an iPhone scientists should start having to worry about their "Klout score" or whatever? This is the same mentality that drives real-time Tweets about congresspeople taking votes--i.e., performing the most mundane part of their job--and that has ruined political journalism. I mean, what is the story here? "Scientists have good idea, prove concept, get funding." Wow, someone call Cronkite!

Here is the problem with so-called social medial. It is self-serving because it prioritizes being the first one to fill a web page with text regardless of the content of that text in an effort to fill not just the 24-hour news cycle, but the insatiable appetite of the Internet for real-time information. It creates so much noise that it becomes impossible for ordinary people--like myself--to separate out the signal of actual news. This is how social media should function; it is a nice example of how social media can add depth to news reporting and make people feel engaged.

There is nothing wrong with scientists blogging about their own results, on their own private blog--most of them are young and pre- or early-career and are understandably proud of their accomplishments. But blogging != reporting. And please don't take it personally--I have nothing against journalists and I sympathize with the tough transition Journalism is making from print to the Internet. If anyone is to blame here, it is the scientists themselves for indulging in the flattery of having someone write up something that just crossed the proof-of-principle threshold. (But they also have a lot of pressure put on them by the university to "Web 2.0, Social Media, exposure on the Internet, blah, blah.")

A more mature response might be to suggest that there should be more critical voices out there on the research as quickly as possible - so that by the time the research (slowly) reaches the printed page or is published online, it's had thorough external peer review. (Oh and journalists - good ones - we have many of those at Nature - do often provide a secondary peer review. Either questioning results or, more often, by choosing not to cover boring or incremental or simply wrong research that has reached the public domain). The reporter has an undergrad degree in chemistry by the way, as you'll see if you google his name.

No, more critical voices are absolutely not what is needed; the scientific communities take care of that themselves, internally, as it should be. If I follow your logic, the added value of this type of reporting is that someone with an undergraduate degree can add a layer of "external peer review" on top of that provided by the panel of referees selected by journal editors (who are themselves active researchers), the attendees of scientific conferences, grant review panels, and internal reviews done the department/faculty at their university--i.e., literally their peers..? I am not dismissing all reporting of science as useless--quite the contrary. Every effort should be made to inform the public of how their tax dollars are spent--even people like Alan Alda, who are not journalists, do a tremendous public service by making people aware of the amazing accomplishments of modern scientific research. I am making the argument that social media and real-time over-reporting is detrimental to science in general for myriad reasons, not the least of which is

See here for details. Or read any real history of the time - ignore self-serving crap from Gates.

Xerox was probably stupid to give Apple a license, and the actual researchers at PARC were livid, but they weren't the owners. Apple legally used Xerox IP. Note that Xerox did not take Apple to court over any of this,

Microsoft, on the other hand, was concerned about legal action from Apple on this subject, even as late as Jobs' return. One of the things exchanged between Microsoft and Apple at that time was Apple dropping the windows-copying lawsuits, which were still in the courts at the time, and would have been a world of hurt for Microsoft if any of them had succeeded.

Yeah, that has been a well known problem with that design. http://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/xgo9j/two_examples_of_why_i_question_reliability_of/ The HHKB is much better.

Try this site: http://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/ For example if you want to know about ALPS all the DETAILED info is there.

You know the republicans keep spouting this 700 billion dollar cut but does anyone actually know what was cut and why? I did some research and found a pretty well written post on reddit about it, and it has sources (amazing). To me it doesn't seem that bad, it certainly seems better than medicare turning into a coupon program. 60% off your next tumor ha!

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/y4afe/a_breakdown_of_the_gops_latest_talking_point/

Here is the reddit thread.

Are you allowed to do that here?

Absolutely not. All content posted on Slashdot must be entirely the original work of the poster, unless the linked content is unimportant, not insightful, related to business intelligence or involves videos of remote-control flying taxidermied cats. I would link to the relevant regulations, but then I'd be in violation.

Here is the reddit thread.

Are you allowed to do that here?

The reddit crowd already went over this one in detail... it wasn't pulled down...the petitions have a limited amount of time, and there was a standard maintenance window near the time this particular petition ended. So no big conspiracy...just normal network maintenance...

Here is the reddit thread.

On technology and civil liberties issues, Ryan has generally voted along party lines. Ryan opposed net neutrality bills; voted to extend the Patriot Act’s roving wiretaps and to immunize telecom companies from legal liabilities for cooperating with warrantless government surveillance. He co-sponsored a ban on internet taxes. Ryan initially approved of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which WIRED editorialized would “usher in a chilling internet censorship regime,” but backed down in the face of a pressure campaign from the internet-freedom supporters. Activists on Reddit cheered Ryan’s reversal on SOPA — and appear to have reactivated the Ryan thread now that Romney has tapped him to be vice president.

Source: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/paul-ryan-vp/

Voted YES on terminating funding for National Public Radio.
Voted YES on retroactive immunity for telecoms' warrantless surveillance.
Voted NO on establishing "network neutrality" (non-tiered Internet).
Voted YES on increasing fines for indecent broadcasting.
Voted YES on promoting commercial human space flight industry.
Voted YES on banning Internet gambling by credit card.
Voted YES on allowing telephone monopolies to offer Internet access.
Ryan co-sponsored permanently banning state & local taxation of Internet access
http://www.ontheissues.org/house/Paul_Ryan_technology.htm

I've been spending more time on /. because of the immature, inane, stinking cesspool that reddit has become.

Oh, replying to myself here...

Someone else pointed out in their AMA they said they'll allow side-loading of .apks

http://www.reddit.com/r/ouya/comments/xgy2f/im_julie_uhrman_founder_of_ouya_amaa/c5maszn

Q: Is sideloading separate .apk flies to install apps not in the ouya store something that is possible without having to root and lose access to the ouya store?
A: Yes, we will allow installation of your APKs.

I asked developers whether Ouya will run games sold outside the official store (without having to root the device, like with to Android's "unknown sources"), but they never replied.

They replied in Reddit's AMA.

Q: Is sideloading separate .apk flies to install apps not in the ouya store something that is possible without having to root and lose access to the ouya store?
A: Yes, we will allow installation of your APKs.

Made it to Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/xwez2/id_give_kfc_a_miss_over_the_next_few_weeks_if_i/

Why would you trust their TOS, when they can change it at a later date and disable your account if you refuse to the new terms? http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/xor0j/i_asked_steam_support_if_i_could_keep_playing_my/

Original story is an IAMA on Reddit

* As the MIT grad student that saved the Apollo 13 crew and was denied recognition, this hurts.
** As Apollo 13, I can confirm this.
*** As the moon, I don't give a shit, I've got some oceans to slop around.
*** As an ocean, I have nothing better to do.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/xove1/iama_97_year_old_that_worked_apollo_missions_1/c5obmwn

Check out Fibonacci35813's reply

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/xpy4w/ama_request_the_mit_grad_student_who_saved_the/c5op0dj

Old NASA guy trolls the entire internet.

So besides that what else has changed for Linux since RedHat gave up on the desktop and Loki fell?

Valve is now porting the source engine to Linux (Left4dead 2 first, but other titles are sure to follow).

Many indie games on steam have been offered via humble bundles (which require they provide a Linux version).

And here I compiled a list of Kickstarter games (Thanks to the Phoronix and reddit/r/Linux community) that got funded and are releasing with a Linux version.

And of course, with all the work they're doing porting steam and the source engine to Linux, it would make sense that Linux would be a strong contender for their 'Steam Box' .

Normally we try not to feed the trolls but since this has started to pop up in comments, here's Soulskills response to this tired accusation when it was brought up on Reddit last week. http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/wzmdu/censored_slashdot_post_describes_in_explicit/c5hzate. Or you could read the FAQ about why we don't post a story. The relevant part being:
Could you explain why my submission was declined?

This is harder than it sounds. We try to select the most interesting, timely, and relevant submissions, but can only run a fraction of those submitted; there are probably as many reasons for stories to get declined as there are stories. Think positive: read our submissions guidelines for some hints about increasing the chances that we'll run yours.

AFAIK the Slashdot editors didn't censor your posts, as they can still be seen on your user page, along with here and here. However, they might have decided that it wasn't good enough to be featured on the front page, as happens with countless other submissions. You might disagree, but that's just how Slashdot works: curated content.

As for the supposed impossibility to post that story anywhere, it was posted on Reddit and actually made the front page of the Technology subreddit. Soulskill even gave his point of view on the matter in the comments. I don't know where you see that conspiracy of yours, but I don't see it at all.

AFAIK the Slashdot editors didn't censor your posts, as they can still be seen on your user page, along with here and here. However, they might have decided that it wasn't good enough to be featured on the front page, as happens with countless other submissions. You might disagree, but that's just how Slashdot works: curated content.

As for the supposed impossibility to post that story anywhere, it was posted on Reddit and actually made the front page of the Technology subreddit. Soulskill even gave his point of view on the matter in the comments. I don't know where you see that conspiracy of yours, but I don't see it at all.

If you choose to believe Bin Laden - certainly his opinion holds just as much weight as people who think they know why he did it - you can get answers.

A Reddit user had a good rundown of Bin Laden's own talks: http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/wcpls/this_i_my_friends_son_being_searched_by_the_tsa/c5cabqo?context=2

Note these are reasons for 9/11 rather than why he turned specifically, but it is certainly the occasion in the public's mind.

In particular:

In conclusion, I tell you in truth, that your security is not in the hands of Kerry, nor Bush, nor al-Qaida. No. Your security is in your own hands. - Osama Bin Laden

It just doesn't seem likely that there are a million porn sites. I wouldn't have guessed 1 million in the world, and certainly not 1 million that the Indonesian government can block.

Reddit cableporn
chair porn
furrysex


That's a few billion right there. "It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." Also porn. George Bush saying "awesome", porn. You get the picture. If not pray to Mohammed for forgiveness or whatever he is offering this holiday season.

Hello AC. You seem to be lost. Let me help you: http://www.reddit.com/