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User: jwinster

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  1. Re:Advertising on Android vs. iPhone — Who Wins In 2011? · · Score: 1

    I agree with your rhetoric, but really the only difference you're citing between the iPhone and Android is the lack of flash, which Android doesn't even have to have installed. Android phones aren't subsidized by advertisements, advertisements are simply the reason Google broke into the market. Android phones are more pervasive simply because they want more people doing searches that feature phones can't/couldn't do. In the end they just want to present you the same text based advertisements that your iPhone will show you, and Android just opens more channels for it.

  2. Re:Why can't we have commercial software like this on Zeus Attackers Turned the Tables On Researchers · · Score: 1

    This.

    Money helps develop good software of course, but it doesn't change the fact that bad software engineering practices lead to bad software. No matter how much money is thrown at it, it won't make your teams do things in a manner close to "the right way."*

    * Definitions may vary

  3. Re:Where is the fun? on Are Games Getting Easier? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This reminds me of why I got addicted to Diablo 2 multiplayer. "PlayerX has joined, Diablo's minions grow stronger." Easy scaling and a lot of fun to play with friends.

  4. cool name on Julian Love, Lead Technical Artist for Diablo 3 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Anyone else think Julian Love is a really cool name? If only he were had a Ph.D. in the study of calendars.

  5. Re:The trick... on Bacteria From Beer Lasts 553 Days In Space · · Score: 4, Informative

    TFA mentions that these were not spores, spores have been known to live for years in space, but rather that these were cyanobacteria (photosynthesizing bacteria) that survived, and this is the longest that bacteria of this type have been known to survive.

  6. Re:The Great Thing About Android on 'Bloatware' Becoming a Problem On Android Phones · · Score: 1

    Incidentally this is exactly the reason that Android was able to take off. Cell phone manufacturers and wireless companies wanted to be able to put their own applications on your smartphone (similar to the way they behave with their feature phones), and they wanted something cheaper than paying for windows mobile licenses. Android filled both those requirements by being free, and they can install their own crapware to try and get you to continue to add to your monthly bill by paying for their services. Remember, cell phone companies are constantly trying to stay important by being content providers, rather than just being dumb data carriers like what happened to the phone companies.

  7. Re:Really? on Google's Free Satnav Outperforms TomTom · · Score: 1

    Well, that depends where you're driving.

    Google Navigation does cache images of the entire route -- but this can become problematic if you deviated from the planned route.

    This is actually pretty handy. I live in Colorado and as soon as I hit the mountain roads I lose my 3G signal, but I still have all the data cached to get to where I'm going which may be out of cell range, or at least to the cell tower where my maps can re-download if my destination has changed.

  8. Re:Bias on World Cup Forecasting Challenge For Quants · · Score: 2, Informative
  9. Re:Broken? More like fixed. on J. P. Barlow — Internet Has Broken the Political System · · Score: 1

    While I agree with most of your points, I disagree that small local governments are somehow inherently more well run. Even in smaller suburban towns like the one I grew up in, where most of the people think alike, the smallest issue can be extremely polarizing, and you end up with nonsense compromises (like the cutoff points for mandatory inclusion into sewer systems ending at places that don't make sense). Bad city councils suffer from the same problems that federal and state governments suffer from, "He may be an idiot, but he's our idiot," and the people who are there stay forever. Or, even worse, they voters don't know anything about their local government, so they stay forever.

  10. Re:Yes there are more Linux alternatives for these on Asus Budget Ultraportable Notebook Sold Sans OS · · Score: 1

    I've tried a few flavors of linux on my netbook, and so far the best performer has been mandriva running xfce4. Great power consumption, firefox runs pretty well (some slowdowns with video frames), but most flash sites run just fine. With NoScript and adblock I can do just about anything I need to. Although to be honest, I find my smartphone encroaching on the featureset I used my netbook fore these days.

  11. Re:Because that first step is a doozy on Why Computer Science Students Cheat · · Score: 3, Informative

    Please mod parent up. I agree wholeheartedly with this comment in that there is a really large barrier to entry in CS. I'm a CS grad, and I remember reading the introductory paragraph to my "Introduction to Programming" book stating that this is not a good book for first time programmers, only people with some experience should use it. Luckily I was able to keep up with the learning curve (despite that being my first time programming as well), but it's choices like that which lead to CS dropout rates of 50-60%, and inevitably, cheating.

  12. Re:iPhone - NOT on This Is Apple's Next iPhone · · Score: 1

    They're using it in the iPad 3G. Engadget article . It's actually kind of nice, because this way people may be able to use their iPhone microsims on their iPad, if that's truly how they're going to go.

  13. What on Garage Startup Develops "Personal Computer" · · Score: 2, Informative

    An onion article that I read IN PRINT yesterday is getting passed off as an April Fool's joke on slashdot? For shame.

  14. Re:Where are the technical people on /. on The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 Passes Senate Panel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was about to post this same thing, the only situation that makes any sense is that he could tell the ISPs what to do, who would promptly challenge the directive in court rather than shutting off traffic.

  15. Just went through this on Best Way To Land Entry-Level Job? · · Score: 1

    Having just gone through this myself, career services events are the biggest help. I went to a larger university that had semi-annual career fairs, while the drones that go there for corporations can't really do much but point you to a website, if you make a good enough impression you can often get on-campus interviews. I had about 15 interviews between september '08 and february '09, just by using all the resources career services had to offer. Good luck!

  16. Re:When do people get this on 86% of Windows 7 PCs Maxing Out Memory · · Score: 1

    I'd like to see some metrics comparing hit rates from XP to Win7... Just out of curiosity to see if their algorithms for disc caching have improved.

  17. Re:Who Should Decide Policy? on Google Rejects Australian Censorship Proposal · · Score: 1

    This is very easy question to answer. The people should decide their country's own policy. But in Australia, just as in America, the people elected by the people to make that policy don't always(ever?) have their people's best interests at heart, they have their own. Google's really just enforcing what is surely the popular opinion of the people. (citation needed)

  18. I wonder on House Overwhelmingly Passes Cybersecurity Bill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since this new body is designed to "represent the government in negotiations," I wonder if there's any relation to the ACTA treaty currently discussed behind closed doors.

  19. Re:It's not open space... on ESA Conducts Mars Terraforming Experiments On ISS · · Score: 1

    This whole thing sounds eerily similar to the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Great series if you enjoy SciFi books about Mars terraforming.

  20. Well on The Lancet Recants Study Linking Autism To Vaccine · · Score: 1

    Even if he loses his medical license, at least he'll be a budding star in any modern media corporation.

  21. Re:Weird on UMG v. Lindor Ends, No Fees, No Sanctions · · Score: 1

    Please mod up! Thanks for the informative post.

  22. Weird on UMG v. Lindor Ends, No Fees, No Sanctions · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Reading the judge's decision, he blames most of the court costs on the fact that the Lindors may have had a houseguest in 2004, and that she sold her computers sometime between 2004 and 2008, which was a loss of evidence for the RIAA. If they had disclosed their houseguest then a lot of this could have been averted, according to the judge. Talk about overcompensation for a small discrepancy, you effectively ruin a family because they didn't disclose a houseguest they had for an unknown amount of time. I am not a lawyer, but that seems like a pretty large case of overkill.

  23. I'd love it on Why Has No One Made a Great Gaming Phone? · · Score: 1

    I'd love a gaming platform that I could still voice chat on (maybe VoIP only, and just pipe a 3G data plan to the device?), but the telecos are a pretty large barrier to entry.

  24. Re:NFL soft on churches on Will Your Super Bowl Party Anger the Copyright Gods? · · Score: 1

    This is getting even closer to the UFC's pay-per-view model of TV. In order for bars to show these events they have to pay thousands of dollars, and in order to make it worth it they'd have to black their windows (to stop people just watching from the street) and charge everyone cover to get in. I don't think the super bowl organizers really want this because of the negative impact on ad viewership. Fact is bars are already paying for the content and for the super bowl they want to double dip for some bonus money without making it pay-per-view, which isn't really fair.

  25. Re:Oh, no... on Students Failing Because of Poor Grammar · · Score: 1

    While the term has been attributed to Latin per centum, this is a pseudo-Latin construction and the term was likely originally adopted from the French pour cent.

    To expand on this: 'pour cent' literally translated means 'for one hundred'.