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User: StuartHankins

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  1. Re:Who reads the manual? on The MPEG-LA's Lock On Culture · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Mod parent up. This is like a chainsaw manufacturer wanting a fee when you used a chainsaw to create art. The more I hear about their licensingpracticesthe less I like them. When I buy a camera I expect to be able the pictures to be used anywhere, anytime,for any reason without some bum coming out of the corner wanting a handout.Force the camera manufacturers to admit ON THE BOX that you're just purchasing the videocamera not the rights to use the results and see how quickly this gets straightened out.

  2. Re:Don't rely only on system restore on Win7 Can Delete All System Restore Points On Reboot · · Score: 1

    I can confirm that Acronis works. Twice I inserted brand-new drives and it set them up and restored everything, down to the files in the Recycle Bin. This was using v9 and v10.

  3. Re:Don't rely only on system restore on Win7 Can Delete All System Restore Points On Reboot · · Score: 1

    Let me second the idea of using Acronis. Before I converted my XP laptop to a VM it saved my ass twice from hard drive failures. Inexpensive for workstations but a little pricey ($800 last I checked) for servers.

  4. Re:System restore stinks. Image your disk on Win7 Can Delete All System Restore Points On Reboot · · Score: 1

    RHN lets you create a template and push it out. Also lets you patch a bunch of servers at once, reboot them etc. I can do it from my iPhone from anywhere in the world.

    Of course if you know scripting at all you can automate just about any task to any group of machines. RPM makes sure dependencies are not broken too. Ksplice lets you update the kernel without rebooting. I wish Windows had these kinds of tools.

  5. Re:ATTN: SWITCHEURS on The End of the PC Era and Apple's Plan To Survive · · Score: 1

    I'm a Hyundai owner, you insensitive clod!

  6. Re:P* on Apple on Microsoft Tips the Scale In Favor of HTML 5 · · Score: 1

    Actually if they enabled Flash, then got lots of support calls (which is definitely possible) then they would pay a price. Also if there were problems, the "Apple" user experience would be harmed. So there are business reasons why this was done as well as technical and even political / personal reasons.

    After all, if the experience is crap on Windows, you kind of expect it. If something doesn't work in Linux, you kind of expect it. If it doesn't work on an Apple product, people light things on fire and run through the streets naked.

  7. Re:Still a better named product on Microsoft's Touted iPad Rival Courier Becomes Less Than Vapor · · Score: 1

    I don't care what the name is so long as it works for me.

  8. Re:Cool! on Microsoft's Touted iPad Rival Courier Becomes Less Than Vapor · · Score: 1

    Amen brother! I didn't see your post when I replied in another thread.

  9. Re:On the other hand on Microsoft's Touted iPad Rival Courier Becomes Less Than Vapor · · Score: 2, Informative

    For all that is holy, I wish people would drop Comic Sans. It's like everyone got the same idea at once -- ten years ago -- and it's Groundhog Day every time I see it. It's overused and was one of the first things I changed when I jailbroke my Touch. People using Brush Script, using Cooper Black for body text, or Copperplate for anything other than titling should probably be shot.

    Oh, while you're at it, make sure you get those using Latin Wide and Marker Felt for any purpose -- because there's just no excuse. They might reproduce.

  10. Re:Speed is the deal-breaker on Free Remote Access Tools For Windows and Mac Compared · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The only things I have used that had reasonable speed for real work were RDP, Citrix, and LTSP.

    For GUI work, yes you have it nailed. But it depends on your needs I guess. Most of my work can be done via ssh, so PuTTY works great for my tasks. I use TouchTerm on my iPhone to check on things during meetings as needed... it makes quite an impression when they ask how many parts or customers we have or how much in sales over some period for some group of items and I just login and check instead of getting back to them later.

    I'm not against using a GUI, but most of my work is SQL or bash scripting or shell commands or whatever, and text works just fine for that.

  11. Re:MS should... on Dedicated Halo 2 Fans Keep Multiplayer Alive · · Score: 1

    Maybe I'm underestimating the complexity of this transition, but these are consoles which I think of (perhaps wrongly) as immutable boxes spread out all over the place. You can't really upgrade them or transition them and you try not to do something which renders them incapable of performing a basic function.

    I don't understand -- really, not trying to troll -- why not use the user-agent of the boxes (or whatever method is used to determine what's connecting to the Live service) to redirect these old boxen to a service that would work for them? Assuming these can accept an update, perhaps making a patch which changes the site they login to would make everyone happy.

    I guess if there were an income stream (or a larger income stream, not sure how this is setup financially) involved, this would be figured out quickly. I know if I thought about buying a product and heard that the previous model (or in this case the one before that) suddenly stopped doing an important function, I would think twice before buying it.

    And yes, your "backwards compatibility" comment certainly isn't lost on me -- not only did I have several PPC Macs before this Intel Mac, and I am a programmer which has gone through the gamut of languages from Commodore PET Basic, C64 Basic, all the spin-offs such as Apple ][c and e, then GWBASIC and QB45 onwards so I had to deal with language and API changes and all sorts of incompatibilities -- but of all things I think of consoles as something which should have more backwards compatibility and OS's less... maybe because I just think of a console as a "dumb box" that does its specified job without a lot of tinkering or special care.

  12. Re:Great excuse. on Facebook Is Transcoding Video For iPad · · Score: 1

    I think it was done because it was a fairly simple fix to allow the largest possible number of devices to communicate with their platform.

  13. Re:Were it not for Apple, on Facebook Is Transcoding Video For iPad · · Score: 1

    Apple has never tried to kill USB. They have always pushed it as the best way to connect low power peripherals like keyboards and mice. They deploy it in parallel with Firewire which they think is the best way to connect hard drives, video cameras, etc.

    I absolutely agree. FireWire is overkill and expensive for low-bandwidth devices. Who wants to pay more for a keyboard with a FireWire controller? But it is absolutely essential in high-bandwidth devices such as the ones you mentioned.

  14. Re:Were it not for Apple, on Facebook Is Transcoding Video For iPad · · Score: 1

    I think it was more of a decision to create products that were usable across all computers. At some point some hardware company had to make the plunge, and in these cases it happened to be Apple.

    I've heard people say that accessories for Apple products tend to be a bit more expensive than no-name accessories, or that more

  15. Re:sco still alive? on SCO Asks Judge To Give Them the Unix Copyright · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I suggest further reading, for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft . Sun's payments are irrelevant.

    If you truly don't understand the issues with a convicted monopolist (such as Microsoft) paying a 3rd party to attack their competition, then no amount of rational discourse will help you understand why that's wrong.

  16. Re:sco still alive? on SCO Asks Judge To Give Them the Unix Copyright · · Score: 1

    It doesn't really matter how much Sun paid them. Microsoft, a convicted monopolist, paid them.

  17. Re:MS should... on Dedicated Halo 2 Fans Keep Multiplayer Alive · · Score: 1

    And the incremental cost to continue providing the service is what? I'd like to think it's very small, especially if no one is playing the game anymore. What, you just have to keep a VM running? Big deal.

    But, OK, let's pretend it is a big deal and look at this another way. Why not create and release (even sell) a server version that allows others to connect? The community will find a way to post these private servers in a list so that others can connect. Of course the nicest solution is to release the source code for it -- you could have an ecosystem like the private-server WOW does. If no one is playing it, how could that hurt?

    Maybe I'm naive enough to think that (some) people would notice that the game was kept alive, and use that as a motivation to purchase more product in the future, and that for a very small incremental cost you could reap ($) in benefits in the future.

    Of course, if everyone just assumes that all online games will stop working within a few years of purchasing the game, and that's perfectly normal, and widely accepted, then we're screwed.

  18. Another way to play with the paranoid on Google Street View Shoots the Same Woman 43 Times · · Score: 1

    Wow, this must have really freaked her out. Not only the whole follow-her-around thing (which is just creepy enough to be hilarious), but imagine if she did a search and found her own likeness time after time.

    This should be done more often as a very excellent prank. Bonus points if you catch someone doing something embarrassing.

  19. Re:Look Around You, Look Around You, Look Around Y on Economy Tanked While Government Surfed Porn · · Score: 1

    We were at a point that the majority of our traffic was non-business related internet browsing. Something had to be done because it was affecting the business. We started with an executive mandate to do the right thing, then we policed the traffic and educated people who were noncompliant. That was messy and political but we were at the point it affected running the business.

    Move forward two or three years. We now subscribe to a content-filtering service on the firewall which also allows filtering by protocol. A very small number of people are allowed unrestricted access. Everyone else can't access a blacklisted site or a site which triggers the content filter. They get a "blocked" page along with the reason, with a link to email the help desk (which fills in the message, URL etc).

    On receipt we may outright approve or reject the request or investigate it depending on what we know about the site. If the site was blocked by mistake (rare but it happens), we whitelist it and it's instantly available for everyone. In many cases, the person just wants one-time access (perhaps they clicked on a DoubleClick advertisement rather than going to that vendor's page directly) so if the request is reasonable we visit the site and retrieve the item for that person.

    This policy was not easy to implement, but it's been very positive in the two or three years since. Bandwidth usage is way down and because it's a neutral third party it's no longer a polarizing political issue.

    We've had people request access for things that are obviously not business-related, such as sports sites. They are rejected and the reply email is cc'd to their supervisor. Doesn't take long for people to figure it out.

  20. Re:the hard lesson of photoshop and Acrobat on Adobe Stops Development For iPhone · · Score: 2, Informative

    Adobe left Mac versions of PhotoShop lacking new features they offered only on the Windows versions, and dragged their feet offering new Mac versions. What once was a blissful romance soured quickly.

  21. Re:Ready Pitchforks! on Steve Jobs Recommends Android For Fans of Porn · · Score: 1

    You do realize that an Xbox is just a PC with Palladium-styled DRM built in right? It runs Windows and there's no good technical reason you shouldn't be able to run the Xbox games on a regular PC.

    Going back in history, you might remember the comment "DOS isn't done until Lotus won't run" tactics (even if that quote has been debunked). Ever use Stac Electronics' Stacker? How about QEMM? Sidekick? If so you may remember some of the issues and workarounds to make Microsoft products work when they detected these utilities. Microsoft has been found guilty providing information to other internal software development teams -- the Office Team is one example -- that isn't / wasn't available to competitors. In those cases it was more of an issue of crushing the competition than preventing the software from running, but both are examples of a walled garden, which is the point of your post.

    Since Microsoft is largely responsible for the "Microsoft Tax" on almost all new computers sold, you could include that as walled / anticompetitive behavior. If the average consumer has to pay for the OS it in its own way prevents sales of competing OS's, which extends to suppressing sales of software designed for those competing OS's.

  22. Re:A Misdemeanor? Seriously? on Woman Tells State Judiciary Committee, "DoD Implanted A Microchip Inside Me" · · Score: 1

    Let's make all of those you mentioned (rape, murder, embezzlement $5 million and up) capital crimes. Problem solved... and I bet the crime rates would go down as a result.

  23. Re:AtariAge on True Tales of Tech Hoarding · · Score: 1

    Thanks for the links. Absolutely awesome collections, very well organized. I'm sure it took a lot of planning and thinking and moving things around for them to be displayed so well. If you're going to collect something this is the way to show it off.

  24. Re:Article premise is completely wrong on History Repeats Itself — Mac & the iPad · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To have success requires failure at some point -- you must have that experience or your success isn't complete. As a company, Apple picked themselves up and regrouped from failures, eventually releasing some stellar hits such as OS X, the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, and now the iPad. Don't forget along the way they picked up and helped a lot of other projects including CUPS.

    In many of these cases -- the Newton for example -- Apple was simply too far ahead of its time. It took decades for customers to understand why these products were needed and to be sophisticated enough to want them.

    There are other companies whose stock has been in doldrums for years, who haven't yet figured out that their business model can't continue forever and rely on upgrades instead of innovation for the majority of their income. Those other companies will be in for a rude surprise by the time the dust settles because they DON'T realize they're in trouble -- they believe they're succeeding so they can't fix the problem.

  25. Re:the ipad isn't a computer on History Repeats Itself — Mac & the iPad · · Score: 1

    Most people are consumers, not creators. For an extreme example I cite the movie Idiocracy.