I don't think these sites are building good search engines. Even when I know the information is on Wikipedia or IMDB, I'd rather use Google to search them.
To give an example - I just tried "site:imdb.com Gyllenhaal secretary" on Google. Unsurprisingly it led me to the IMDB page for the movie Secretary in which she (very sexily) stars. On the other hand, putting in the search terms "Gyllenhaal" and "secretary" in the IMDB search box, gives me a lots of info on... Kofi Annan. (Nothing against the man, but I'd be surprised if he was in *any* spanking movie, yet alone a really good one.) There is a link to Maggie Gyllenhaal on the page as well, but nothing leading directly to the movie.
Even if I don't know much about the advanced features of Google, just putting in the search terms into Google - without the "site:imdb.com" part - would give me a full page of relevant results, a youtube clip of the intro to the movie, the IMDB page, the wikipedia entry etc.
Essentially if people are using the IMDB search engine to look for stuff on IMDB, then they are not using the full potential of that site. If Google's share of the search market is shrinking because of that, then they should try and make people aware just how much better they are at searching.
From TFA "Germany's cyber security agency today recommended that Windows 7 users run Google's Chrome browser". They didn't write the summary, you can't really blame them for that.
The BSI has only a supporting role, their recommendations do not have the force of law and don't need to be followed by anybody. They have in the past recommended Firefox as well, if tomorrow there is an exploit found in Chrome, then they'll recommend Firefox or IE again, and might change the recommendation right back when Google rolls out the fix.
Well, the grass is always greener elsewhere, I suppose.
Germany also lost out on the tech boom the US had - when the US was importing engineers from all over the world and grew an impressive internet sector, Germany just had a trickle. It was only at the very end of the tech boom that Germany finally managed to introduce a green card program. All the important internet technology was build in the US, Germany only did well in niche markets.
Germany is successful now in the areas where it was traditionally strong - automotive, mechanical engineering, optics, chemical engineering. The US had more of the internet boom, and consequently now has more of the bust. So I think you are complaining on a relatively high level there.
Not to knock Germany - it has a well-functioning democracy, health insurance, social security, decent education system and a thriving manufacturing sector, but it didn't get as big of a slice of the internet market as it might have.
Depends, in Germany the injunction was only against Samsung's German subsidiary. So all the shops happily continued selling their stock, people could order tablets online and have them shipped etc. Merely Samsung Germany couldn't import and distribute the devices anymore.
However it certainly would have been possible for Apple to get similar bans against importers and retailers. They just didn't bother to do so. Of course retailers would have been pissed at Apple if they had done that - so maybe they didn't want to harm their relationship with them or maybe they figured it wouldn't be worth the effort to try and stop sales completely rather than just reducing them.
It's a shame Flash is not ready yet, because with the sync feature I can access my desktop bookmarks on my smartphone which is really useful. Also the way firefox mobile handles tabs (swipe the main window to the right to see the list of tabs) is quite nice - with the stock browser I need to select Menu -> Tabs and only then can I choose between windows.
According to this Flash is targeted for Firefox 11 though.
Apart from the censorship angle, this redirection stuff is pretty annoying when traveling. Just because I'm in Korea this week, doesn't mean I can read Korean. I didn't enter the URL for the Korean page either, so why do they insist on giving me what I didn't ask for?
Actually Florian has no legal training, he just finished high school, that's all. So his formal qualifications are probably well below Slashdot average.
He doesn't know you. He might assume you saw the latest HTC ad somewhere and otherwise have no specific knowledge of smartphones. In fairness: he probably gets lots of customers for which that applies.
Then again, if you are one of the rare customers who really want specifically that phone, you'll still want it after he showed you the Android phone. Or did you not end up buying it because he showed you the other one first?
Well he is not likely to do that, just because he hates the HTC Titan, is he? He wants to make a sale and get a commission. So his assumption must be, that if he shows you the Titan you are less likely to buy that than if he shows you the SGS2. Quick search indicates that SGS2 is slightly less expensive than Titan, so he probably wasn't trying to get the sale with a lower price.
[...] engineers incapable of finishing any of their new OS projects.
But is that actually true? After all they did release the N9, and it seems to be doing well where they sell it. They even had that before the Lumia, so by now they could have already had a successor for the N9 on the market. I'm not arguing that they weren't late, but it seems they were actually in a good position to recover.
So what are the fundamental differences between a WP7 live tile and an Android widget? Is there anything you can do with a tile which a widget couldn't implement as well?
My start screen on the SGS2 shows: weather/clock combo, next few calendar entries and notifications for emails/calls/G+/Pulse/etc are in the status bar (if there are any). Seems very similar to the examples given by the GP.
Also apart from the utility of the tiles (which might be great) - they look a bit plain and old fashioned compared to the sleek and flashy appearance of Android and iOS. Might be one of the reasons why people aren't giving them a second look.
And Apple's not alone on this. Dell, HP, Sony, Microsoft ( Xbox360 ) all use Foxconn as well.
That's true, but boycotts don't have to be fair to work. If a boycott is organized against manufacturer A, it might cause people merely to switch to manufacturer B, and B might be just as bad. However that wouldn't reduce the pressure felt by A, and A could be moved to improve their workers' conditions because of that.
Once that's been successful the boycott could be switched to manufacturer B.
And boycotts can definitely work, we've seen that happening.
This is why real name policies are evil. Some people seem to believe they increase civility (though Usenet had a real name policy from the start, and it never had that effect), but even if that were true it would not compensate for the loss of freedom. Sure theoretically we could use other services, but social networks only work as long as they are popular, so for practical purposes we are stuck with just a few options.
Xerox got payment (stock) from Apple for the right to get a look at their products. Apple didn't invent the GUI elements they got from Xerox, but there was an implied understanding that they had the right to use them.
I think the relationship is way off. A very original piece of art, still draws on thousands of years of art history. The actually original part of a breakthrough work is probably less than 5%, while a very derivative work might be in the 1% range. Think of all the stuff people have learned about picture composition, the use of light, all the techniques to apply paint to some sort of substrate etc. The contribution of an individual artists - however valuable - is still miniscule in comparison.
In the case of photography there is usually also the reliance on objects which have been placed in the physical world by someone else. Even if the photographer spent a month in setting up that shot, that's still insignificant compared to the amount of work which went into the design of a bus tire.
Obviously it can't be ok just to copy the script, but I don't think Waterworld is infringing on Mad Max, even though there are many common ideas.
There need to be very tight limits on copyright, otherwise we won't be able to create anything anymore, and the photographer will be sued by the designer of that bus and the architect of the bridge.
2 - people discussing their complaints, making others aware of the problem
3 - people deciding to switch to an alternative in significant numbers
Telling people not to complain as the market will take care of it, basically advocates skipping the step which would make the market take care of it. It really makes no sense.
I really wish they'd bring back the Smart Roadster. Maybe even as an electric car. That thing should be really fun to drive. Of course by now I need three seats in the car at least, so even if they would restart production it wouldn't make sense for me anymore.
As for why anyone would buy the standard models: they are meant to be city cars and really easy to park. The low mileage is a US "feature" - the US version has a more performance-oriented transmission etc, so the mileage comes out pretty low. The EU version seems to have quite good mileage.
So, I agree - I can't imagine anyone buying the Smart as a performance car. (Well, unless it's the Roadster.) And with low mileage it's not an economy car either - so who is it meant to appeal to?
So if someone in a foreign country accused you of having violated a law of that country, would you consider it ok if you were extradited there? So you have to defend yourself far away from your friends and family, in a legal system you are not familiar with, maybe even with a court which operates in another language.
I think this is an extreme burden on the accused, and can only be justified in rare cases, it should not be the normal case.
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I don't think these sites are building good search engines. Even when I know the information is on Wikipedia or IMDB, I'd rather use Google to search them.
To give an example - I just tried "site:imdb.com Gyllenhaal secretary" on Google. Unsurprisingly it led me to the IMDB page for the movie Secretary in which she (very sexily) stars. On the other hand, putting in the search terms "Gyllenhaal" and "secretary" in the IMDB search box, gives me a lots of info on ... Kofi Annan. (Nothing against the man, but I'd be surprised if he was in *any* spanking movie, yet alone a really good one.) There is a link to Maggie Gyllenhaal on the page as well, but nothing leading directly to the movie.
Even if I don't know much about the advanced features of Google, just putting in the search terms into Google - without the "site:imdb.com" part - would give me a full page of relevant results, a youtube clip of the intro to the movie, the IMDB page, the wikipedia entry etc.
Essentially if people are using the IMDB search engine to look for stuff on IMDB, then they are not using the full potential of that site. If Google's share of the search market is shrinking because of that, then they should try and make people aware just how much better they are at searching.
Maybe switch to Thunderbird instead. I always had problems with kmail maintaining large databases of files, so I changed mailtools a few releases ago.
From TFA "Germany's cyber security agency today recommended that Windows 7 users run Google's Chrome browser". They didn't write the summary, you can't really blame them for that.
The BSI has only a supporting role, their recommendations do not have the force of law and don't need to be followed by anybody. They have in the past recommended Firefox as well, if tomorrow there is an exploit found in Chrome, then they'll recommend Firefox or IE again, and might change the recommendation right back when Google rolls out the fix.
Well, the grass is always greener elsewhere, I suppose.
Germany also lost out on the tech boom the US had - when the US was importing engineers from all over the world and grew an impressive internet sector, Germany just had a trickle. It was only at the very end of the tech boom that Germany finally managed to introduce a green card program. All the important internet technology was build in the US, Germany only did well in niche markets.
Germany is successful now in the areas where it was traditionally strong - automotive, mechanical engineering, optics, chemical engineering. The US had more of the internet boom, and consequently now has more of the bust. So I think you are complaining on a relatively high level there.
Not to knock Germany - it has a well-functioning democracy, health insurance, social security, decent education system and a thriving manufacturing sector, but it didn't get as big of a slice of the internet market as it might have.
Depends, in Germany the injunction was only against Samsung's German subsidiary. So all the shops happily continued selling their stock, people could order tablets online and have them shipped etc. Merely Samsung Germany couldn't import and distribute the devices anymore.
However it certainly would have been possible for Apple to get similar bans against importers and retailers. They just didn't bother to do so. Of course retailers would have been pissed at Apple if they had done that - so maybe they didn't want to harm their relationship with them or maybe they figured it wouldn't be worth the effort to try and stop sales completely rather than just reducing them.
It's a shame Flash is not ready yet, because with the sync feature I can access my desktop bookmarks on my smartphone which is really useful. Also the way firefox mobile handles tabs (swipe the main window to the right to see the list of tabs) is quite nice - with the stock browser I need to select Menu -> Tabs and only then can I choose between windows.
According to this Flash is targeted for Firefox 11 though.
Apart from the censorship angle, this redirection stuff is pretty annoying when traveling. Just because I'm in Korea this week, doesn't mean I can read Korean. I didn't enter the URL for the Korean page either, so why do they insist on giving me what I didn't ask for?
Actually Florian has no legal training, he just finished high school, that's all. So his formal qualifications are probably well below Slashdot average.
What are those things? Just curious to know.
Well, it could be good for Google if they are the only entity on the internet to which copyright doesn't apply.
He doesn't know you. He might assume you saw the latest HTC ad somewhere and otherwise have no specific knowledge of smartphones. In fairness: he probably gets lots of customers for which that applies.
Then again, if you are one of the rare customers who really want specifically that phone, you'll still want it after he showed you the Android phone. Or did you not end up buying it because he showed you the other one first?
Well I don't like to work for free either. Why don't they give commissions for WP7 phones then?
Well he is not likely to do that, just because he hates the HTC Titan, is he? He wants to make a sale and get a commission. So his assumption must be, that if he shows you the Titan you are less likely to buy that than if he shows you the SGS2. Quick search indicates that SGS2 is slightly less expensive than Titan, so he probably wasn't trying to get the sale with a lower price.
[...] engineers incapable of finishing any of their new OS projects.
But is that actually true? After all they did release the N9, and it seems to be doing well where they sell it. They even had that before the Lumia, so by now they could have already had a successor for the N9 on the market. I'm not arguing that they weren't late, but it seems they were actually in a good position to recover.
So what are the fundamental differences between a WP7 live tile and an Android widget? Is there anything you can do with a tile which a widget couldn't implement as well?
My start screen on the SGS2 shows: weather/clock combo, next few calendar entries and notifications for emails/calls/G+/Pulse/etc are in the status bar (if there are any). Seems very similar to the examples given by the GP.
Also apart from the utility of the tiles (which might be great) - they look a bit plain and old fashioned compared to the sleek and flashy appearance of Android and iOS. Might be one of the reasons why people aren't giving them a second look.
The problem with refusing to choose the lesser of two evils, is that then you then get the worse of two evils.
And Apple's not alone on this. Dell, HP, Sony, Microsoft ( Xbox360 ) all use Foxconn as well.
That's true, but boycotts don't have to be fair to work. If a boycott is organized against manufacturer A, it might cause people merely to switch to manufacturer B, and B might be just as bad. However that wouldn't reduce the pressure felt by A, and A could be moved to improve their workers' conditions because of that.
Once that's been successful the boycott could be switched to manufacturer B.
And boycotts can definitely work, we've seen that happening.
This is why real name policies are evil. Some people seem to believe they increase civility (though Usenet had a real name policy from the start, and it never had that effect), but even if that were true it would not compensate for the loss of freedom. Sure theoretically we could use other services, but social networks only work as long as they are popular, so for practical purposes we are stuck with just a few options.
Xerox got payment (stock) from Apple for the right to get a look at their products. Apple didn't invent the GUI elements they got from Xerox, but there was an implied understanding that they had the right to use them.
I think the relationship is way off. A very original piece of art, still draws on thousands of years of art history. The actually original part of a breakthrough work is probably less than 5%, while a very derivative work might be in the 1% range. Think of all the stuff people have learned about picture composition, the use of light, all the techniques to apply paint to some sort of substrate etc. The contribution of an individual artists - however valuable - is still miniscule in comparison.
In the case of photography there is usually also the reliance on objects which have been placed in the physical world by someone else. Even if the photographer spent a month in setting up that shot, that's still insignificant compared to the amount of work which went into the design of a bus tire.
Obviously it can't be ok just to copy the script, but I don't think Waterworld is infringing on Mad Max, even though there are many common ideas.
There need to be very tight limits on copyright, otherwise we won't be able to create anything anymore, and the photographer will be sued by the designer of that bus and the architect of the bridge.
Even if the market did work, it would do so by:
Telling people not to complain as the market will take care of it, basically advocates skipping the step which would make the market take care of it. It really makes no sense.
I really wish they'd bring back the Smart Roadster. Maybe even as an electric car. That thing should be really fun to drive. Of course by now I need three seats in the car at least, so even if they would restart production it wouldn't make sense for me anymore.
As for why anyone would buy the standard models: they are meant to be city cars and really easy to park. The low mileage is a US "feature" - the US version has a more performance-oriented transmission etc, so the mileage comes out pretty low. The EU version seems to have quite good mileage.
So, I agree - I can't imagine anyone buying the Smart as a performance car. (Well, unless it's the Roadster.) And with low mileage it's not an economy car either - so who is it meant to appeal to?
So if someone in a foreign country accused you of having violated a law of that country, would you consider it ok if you were extradited there? So you have to defend yourself far away from your friends and family, in a legal system you are not familiar with, maybe even with a court which operates in another language.
I think this is an extreme burden on the accused, and can only be justified in rare cases, it should not be the normal case.