It's true that politicians don't understand technology very well. They come from varied backgrounds, but rarely does that include IT. So they need people to explain technology topics in terms they can quickly understand. Otherwise, they'll listen to the people who are in their face most often - and that's usually the big lobbyists.
Do some research on software patents before you talk to your Senator or Representative. I often bring up the progress bar patent (which expired just a few months ago.) Start with "You know when your computer boots up, or you're loading a web page on your browser? Notice that progress bar at the bottom of the screen? That's patented, and technically someone would have had to pay a license for that."
Never fails to stun them into realizing that's stupid.
I honestly believe that if enough people go to their Representatives RIGHT NOW and talk to them about software patent reform, they'll listen.
I'm not saying software patents are good, I'm strictly saying that the 'put computer at the end of it' rationale actually has some basis in reason.
Okay, that's fair. But look at the examples I give, and tell me that doesn't seem like an abuse of the system. Honestly, assembling a flight plan on a computer is an example of going too far.
Yes. As cheesy as it sounds, your voice does matter.
Seriously, call their office, write them a letter (handwritten carries the most impact, but typed will do), or visit them in their office. Ask your Representative and/or Senator to push for "software" patent reform. Have some examples of "software" patents handy, and feel free to make a suggestion for how to fix the system. I think the citizen review method is a workable option. I've been discussing this topic with Sen. Franken's office for a while now, so if you don't have a particular suggestion to offer, ask your Senator to see what Sen. Franken is up to. I'm not kidding, they do listen to comments like that.
Well, that depends on whether we take action on this, or let it sit. As I've written here before, How will a Senator or Representative know what are the important topics their constituents need addressed? They pay attention to it when you direct their attention, but first you need to get their attention. And the way to get their attention right now is through writing letters, calling, and visiting them.
Right now, your congresscritter is paying attention to patent reform - albeit without software patents. Make sure they hear from you to do the right thing with software patents.
The Fun Theory does this from time to time. My favorite is the piano stairs in Stockholm. It's a classic example of a "nudging" effect, and yes - I do consider it "ethical".
Of course, the question is if the "nudging" effect lasts over the long haul. I wonder how many of these people would have used the piano stairs after a few days, or a week?
In the past, IT could only be delivered via the internal IT department. Need a PC? Need to use this new "email" thing? Want to get started with this new "web" idea? Need a custom programming job to automate your business transactions? Talk to IT.
But those days are gone. Much of IT has become a commodity. Common services like email and web can't be done in-house for less than an outside provider can do it for you. Look at email. Your organization might have 200,000 end-users that need email accounts. To do this internally, you'll need multiple servers in different servers, terabytes of storage (you are mirroring this, aren't you?), backup (for bare-metal disaster recovery), licensing and support contracts for all the servers, etc. Not to mention the staff to support all that. Compare that to outsourcing your organization's email to a provider like Gmail. Education can go to Gmail for free, businesses pay a fee. Do the math, and it's way cheaper for a company to outsource than to do email on their own. (Yes, some organizations might have contractual or regulatory reasons to run an internal email service - I'm looking at the broader use case, here.)
Cloud computing is here, more non-IT departments are going to use it. So IT needs to find new ways to bring value to the organization. As IT stewards, we need to understand when it's better to outsource "grunt work" (email, etc.) to free up internal staff time to focus on more important/valuable projects. Is it better for 2 sysadmins to babysit a dozen email servers and 20 web servers, when you could outsource that "commodity" service and have those same 2 sysadmins support servers for a new business database?
But IT won't always be the ones looking to external IT services. You'll have non-IT departments making their own decisions about outsourcing a particular project to an outside vendor. That's what the article is about. Be flexible, but make sure those non-IT departments don't get into trouble. If you can't provide more value than someone else, then at least help the project, do some of their "homework" for them. "Vet" the cloud vendor. Do you have a SAS70 statement on file? Any other certifications or paperwork that you in IT would think to ask for, but your non-IT folks might miss?
> [...] Why don't they come read these discussions on Slashdot? (Maybe they do already? Doubt it.) Here we have a group of people who are more closely concerned with the problems posed by patent law, having a good discussion full of good examples and covering many aspects and ramifications. Representatives could also participate, anonymously or not, as they please. They could even try us with an "Ask Slashdot" article.
On-line forums are the town halls of the 21st century.
I get what you're saying. Online forums are the townhalls of today, it's a great way to bring a large number of people together to discuss an issue. But you also need to understand that politicians don't have the time to attend every online forum to seek community input. There are simply too many things going on. How will a Senator or Representative know what are the important topics their constituents need addressed? They pay attention to it when you direct their attention, but first you need to get their attention. And the way to get their attention right now is through writing letters, calling, and visiting them.
Also keep in mind that politicians are busy, busy people. Don't expect to reach your Senator or Representative directly; you'll likely need to speak with a staffer, and that's fine. They delegate these things to their offices, and it's the staffers' jobs to stay in touch with the issues being brought forward.
The America Invents Act is already in progress, so the reality is that Congress won't have the appetite to pick up the patent topic again in the next few years. So I'm afraid that the window has closed to get a law to enact "software" patent reform. Temporarily, anyway. This is unfortunate, since AIA doesn't really address any issues related to "software" patents or patent trolls.
However, it is possible to have a procedural change made with the USPTO. So I'm working that angle now.
To do that, we need to build popular support, enough voices that the Subcommittee will hear. As cheesy as it sounds, that means we need your help to contact your Senator's office and voice your opinion. Seriously, call their office, write them a letter (handwritten carries the most impact, but typed will do), or visit them in their office. Ask your Senator to push for "software" patent reform. Have some examples of "software" patents handy, and feel free to make a suggestion for how to fix the system. I think the citizen review method is a workable option. I've been discussing this topic with Sen. Franken's office for a while now, so if you don't have a particular suggestion to offer, ask your Senator to see what Sen. Franken is up to. I'm not kidding, they do listen to that. You can reference Katie Topinka, in Sen. Franken's Minnesota office, as the staffer who's closest to this. I'm working with her on this (and hopefully she won't mind me mentioning her name.)
If you live in Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Utah, or South Carolina, note that your Senator is already on the Subcommittee for Privacy, Technology and the Law. This is a topic they will listen to.
The best advice I have heard in politics is that it's your politician's job to listen to you and to take that back to Washington to get it done. I'm lucky that my Senator actually does this. That's why if you don't feel your Senator will listen to you on "software" patent reform, you need to send them to Sen. Franken, because he will work on this. And Senators do talk to one another, even across the aisle.
>> Also, where are the other controls for that game? What controls the walking around? I didn't see the guy on stage with any kind of controlling device (other than Kinect "lightsaber, on!" and jumping about) so I'm left to assume this is a "on a rail" type of game? What if I don't want to be "on a rail" and follow exactly the path laid out for me? Maybe I want to check out the corners, look for hidden items, secrets, etc?
> Then this game isn't for you... and probably any Kinect game, since "you are the controller" and don't have much of a way to walk freely without being required to do something akward.
Wait, so every Kinect game is an "on a rail" type of game? No ability to explore levels in Kinect? And people actually like those kinds of limited games?
Might be me, but that Star Wars title seems to lag quite a bit whenever that guy jumped, or swung the 'lightsaber'. I don't know that I could play a game with that much lag.
Also, where are the other controls for that game? What controls the walking around? I didn't see the guy on stage with any kind of controlling device (other than Kinect "lightsaber, on!" and jumping about) so I'm left to assume this is a "on a rail" type of game? What if I don't want to be "on a rail" and follow exactly the path laid out for me? Maybe I want to check out the corners, look for hidden items, secrets, etc?
I think the 'Star Wars' titles are getting a bit stale. This looks like another game set in the Clone Wars. And they're back at Bespin? What about the expanded universe?
If we're going to re-tread old ground, I'd like to see someone do a really awesome remake of the Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 game. I think the PlayStation Move would be a great fit for that - very little lag, and it sort of feels like a lightsaber, anyway. With the Navigation controller, you can do FPS stuff, and use the Move controller as a point & shoot "gun" (similar to Killzone 3.) But personally, when I played that game, once I got the lightsaber I never used any of the other weapons.
67% of accounts on both Sony and Gawker use the same password.
Without a map of Sony accounts to Gawker accounts I don't know what this means... I take it to mean "The cardinalty of the set that is the union of password sets from Sony and Gawker is 67% of the cardinality of the set of Sony passwords."
IIRC, Gawker had their username/password database stolen a year or so ago? I read the "67%" as: for accounts on both Gawker and Sony, where the email address matched up, 67% of the passwords were also the same.
That is, 2/3 of the people who had accounts on both Gawker and Sony were using the same password, not a different one.
I don't think so. I just installed Opera 11.11, opened a Google spreadsheet, and navigated around. Navigating down seems to be ok now, but navigating to the right and the highlight no longer lines up!
swillden said someone else has reported this, so I'll wait to see in a few weeks if it's fixed then.
I think Chromebook & ChromeOS can work, but only for a specific subset of people. A web-only netbook is interesting to me, and while I didn't make it into the Cr-48 pilot, I looked into how to build one on my own based on what I saw in Chromebook & ChromeOS. Having actually built such a thing (Note: it's easier with Firefox and Openbox, than with Chrome) I can talk a little about a web-only netbook.
If all you need to do is access email, browse the web, maybe write some short docs and manage a few household spreadsheets, a "Chromebook" is perfect. My wife is one of those people. She's been using Linux since about 1999, and she honestly doesn't care what's loaded on Linux. She uses her laptop to check news sites, YouTube, Facebook, and Gmail. My wife's laptop lives on the web - when she boots, she's immediately online, does her stuff. She has a few "Word" docs, but they are simple documents that could easily be managed in Google Docs. She doesn't even manage photos from her camera - she may dump a copy to her laptop, but then they're posted up on Flickr or into Facebook.
I see the rest of her family, and most of my family, to be the same class of user. Lots of web browsing, Facebook, Gmail - and a few photos, and simple documents (Christmas letters, lists of what's in the attic, etc.) I don't see a lot of people around me using Thunderbird or MacMail anymore; most have moved to Gmail. So these people are already the target audience for Chromebook.
For myself, I do a lot more than what a web-only netbook can do. Yes, I use Facebook and Gmail. But I also manage a small music collection that I take with me (Rhythmbox) so I have something to listen to in the office. I write code in my off-hours. I manage & retouch photos (Shotwell & Gimp) and post only a few. So I'm not the target audience of Chromebook.
But I also recognize that I'm in the minority. Most of slashdot is in the minority. Most people do not need that much from a laptop. That's why netbooks sold so well. That's why people really like the iPad.
My biggest concern for Google is that the netbook is no longer a "cool" item. It's all tablet computing now. When's the last time you heard a friend or someone in the office say "I want a netbook?" When's the last time you saw a netbook? A guy in our office has one, that he brings to meetings sometimes. And how many people say "I want an iPad" or who already have an iPad? I see lots of them at my office, and about half my friends have one. Will people actually buy a Chromebook today?
> I'm using the latest (11.11) Opera right now and Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Documents, and Reader all work fine, with no warnings or errors. Which services are broken?
Try Opera with Google Spreadsheets. I could never get that to work reliably in Opera. Specifically, open a Google Spreadsheet, then navigate down a few dozen cells. Does the highlight still line up with the cell?
However, I've never had a problem with Firefox (Linux/Win), Chrome (Linux/Win), Safari(Mac), or Camino(Mac).
I experimented with the Beta, and I like the usability in Gnome Shell. I find it very natural. Yes, you have to "let go" of some things you learned on Gnome 2, but you need to "let go" of certain concepts whenever you switch from Windows to Linux, or Windows to Mac, or Mac to Linux. One feature that hooked me was how open windows (your "activities") are represented. It's sort of like MacOSX's Espose, move your mouse to "Activities", and it shows everything. From there, you can also open new "activities" (programs). It's an all-in-one menu that makes a lot of sense.
I had the Beta installed on a USB flash drive, and I'd boot into that sometimes. When I'd boot back to Fedora 14 (or Windows 7) I felt like the old desktops were primitive.
And I'll also add that the font rendering in Fedora 15 is awesome. Fonts looked great on earlier versions of Fedora, but they look smoother and easier to read in the new desktop. Not sure if I should credit a change in Fedora's preferred font rendering, or if this is an improvement in Gnome 3.
>> I love comments of massive depth where clicking on the reply textbox will simply expand the above comment and defocus the reply text box. Yes great feature that one.
> Oh, is that what it's doing? It was driving me crazy earlier because I'd click reply and it seemed like the page would jump back to the top and then I'd have to spend a few minutes trying to find my place again in the conversation so I could start typing in the editor.
I'm glad it's not just me, then! That behavior was really annoying. I thought I was losing my mind or something.
The sliders also don't seem to work for selecting what level to read at. Moving the slider up to "5" might say "10 full comments", but instead I get 5 or 6 comments. Sad.
And the mobile device support... this is 2011, man. Please send some love to the Android users, who read Slashdot from a smartphone about half the time.
I'm the same way. I joined Twitter about a year and some ago, because I was moving 3 hours away and thought it would be a good way to keep in touch. I immediately followed about 20 in-real-life friends. And almost as quickly, I unfollowed most of them.
There are 2 main issues I have with these people:
1. They thought it was cool to connect their Twitter feed to Facebook. So now I see exactly the same thing on Facebook as Twitter whenever they update their status.
2. They post completely random shit, all the fucking time. It's like listening to an ADD child without his Ritalin, on a sugar high. Every minor thought that runs through their head, every article they see (usually Lifehacker for some reason), every time they go out for a drink, that totally awesome burger, that bad-for-you dessert... it all ends up on Twitter. Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them Tweet "poop is coming out now."
The worst offenders are those that choose to live-Tweet things. I'm glad you're enjoying the game, but you've completely owned my Twitter feed, thanks. You're off the list now.
Not to mention the re-Tweets. I know the purpose of the RT is to share interesting stuff from someone else, and thereby maybe you'd want to follow that other person. But when it's used to excess, I just don't care. It is basically noise to me.
I've finally stabilized on how I use Twitter now. I have a small circle of people that I follow, and they don't update too frequently. Almost all of those people are actual IRL friends, too - but they post different stuff than on FB, so it's a different view.
Not only does that affectively marginalize anything they have to say, but it tends to end the conversation, which is convenient because, as we all know, deliberately invoking Godwin's law never works.
Apple is also one of the big notable companies which has support for the disabled at the forefront of its products.
Unless you have limited vision, and require a very sharp contrast on the screen - like my father-in-law. He's been an Apple fan for as long as I've known him, but complains bitterly about MacOSX and dropshadows everywhere. You can't turn off dropshadows in MacOSX, apparently. He says it makes things very hard to see. Even to do basic thinks like locate the mouse pointer, because it's too "blobby".
I know this is "News for Nerds", but you know what would have made this post better? A 1-sentence description of what ExtJS means. Sure, I figured it out from context that "JS" meant "JavaScript", but what's the "Ext" indicate? "Extended"? "Extensions"? Is ExtJS part of the JavaScript standard that every browser includes? Why should I care about ExtJS?
At the very least, include a link to the ExtJS entry at Wikipedia. (At least, I assume that's the right link?)
I read the article (it's not that long) but let me save you the trouble: it's not a great article. In fact, it's pointless. You don't need to read very far before he presents his conclusion:
While Google is still clearly riding high in the general consumer market, it seems to have lost its innovative edge, the one variable that always seemed to help it stay ahead of the market. But whether the company has peaked or not is still an open question.
Emphasis mine.
So the tech writer (Ron Miller) doesn't know either. He presents both sides, and seems totally unsure about what he's talking about. To summarize the article:
Facebook and Twitter got the tech attention during the Egypt riots, not Google. [Not sure what his point is, here.]
JC Penney's tampering with their search results
Google might lose ground to vertical search in the future
Google dropped 1% in comScore
But:
Google still controls 2/3 of the market, and 1% not a trend.
This item has only been up a few minutes, and already a lot of people are asking why this matters, why they should care. Here's why:
If you use a Mac, you should care about this.
Steve Jobs is unquestionably the driving force behind Apple. His return to Apple as the iCEO, followed by the introduction of new streamlined iMacs, the iPod,... all demonstrated that Steve had returned to make Apple's mark on the industry. How many of the general population - not to mention us IT geeks - have an iPod? I look around my office and see high level executives using iPads. Steve made these a success. The same technology in a different package - maybe even the same package but a different salesman - wouldn't be as popular.
Pundits, fans, and teh haters all pay attention when Steve makes a new announcement of any new Apple product. That's the presence Steve brings to the game. He's like a tiny god. Love him or hate him, you can't deny he understands the market, and how to drive new products to get at that "I want it" mentality.
But unfortunately, Steve's success is a double-edged sword. He's the driving force behind Apple. He's also the driving force behind Apple. There was no succession planning here. His second in command isn't well known. He's not the face of Apple. I wonder who will follow him.
I wish Steve the best, and if he's able to return as CEO, I think that would be great. But if he doesn't... look for Apple's stock to plummet. Even if the new guy has all kinds of bright ideas, I don't think he'll have the same presence as Steve, and won't be able to garner the same attention for the company. Apple has lots of new items in the pipeline, I'm sure, so the new guy's leadership won't truly be tested/visible for another 12 to 18 months. In that time, he needs to make his own mark, or Apple will quickly find itself on the sidelines trying to catch up to the rest of the market - rather than leading the market.
That's what has investors worried. And that is why you should care about this item.
Disclaimer: I am not an Apple fan, but I work in IT.
TFA isn't that long, so I read it. The girl said she saw the posting, and told police that she feared for her life. The best bit is what happened next:
At the preliminary hearing, West Chester Police Det. Stan Billie testified that he went to Adams’ home and that Adams agreed to meet with him at the police station. Less than 10 minutes later, Adams posted a second Facebook message that said he “needed this girl knocked off right now” Billie testified.
So the guy is even more of a douche. Let's see, post vague message on FB for a hit job. When police ask you to come down to the station (not arrest you and take you to the station, but you agree to meet them there) you post a followup that you really need this girl dead.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't believe this is really the case.
It's true that politicians don't understand technology very well. They come from varied backgrounds, but rarely does that include IT. So they need people to explain technology topics in terms they can quickly understand. Otherwise, they'll listen to the people who are in their face most often - and that's usually the big lobbyists.
Do some research on software patents before you talk to your Senator or Representative. I often bring up the progress bar patent (which expired just a few months ago.) Start with "You know when your computer boots up, or you're loading a web page on your browser? Notice that progress bar at the bottom of the screen? That's patented, and technically someone would have had to pay a license for that."
Never fails to stun them into realizing that's stupid.
I honestly believe that if enough people go to their Representatives RIGHT NOW and talk to them about software patent reform, they'll listen.
I'm not saying software patents are good, I'm strictly saying that the 'put computer at the end of it' rationale actually has some basis in reason.
Okay, that's fair. But look at the examples I give, and tell me that doesn't seem like an abuse of the system. Honestly, assembling a flight plan on a computer is an example of going too far.
Yes. As cheesy as it sounds, your voice does matter.
Seriously, call their office, write them a letter (handwritten carries the most impact, but typed will do), or visit them in their office. Ask your Representative and/or Senator to push for "software" patent reform. Have some examples of "software" patents handy, and feel free to make a suggestion for how to fix the system. I think the citizen review method is a workable option. I've been discussing this topic with Sen. Franken's office for a while now, so if you don't have a particular suggestion to offer, ask your Senator to see what Sen. Franken is up to. I'm not kidding, they do listen to comments like that.
For the better or worse ???
Well, that depends on whether we take action on this, or let it sit. As I've written here before, How will a Senator or Representative know what are the important topics their constituents need addressed? They pay attention to it when you direct their attention, but first you need to get their attention. And the way to get their attention right now is through writing letters, calling, and visiting them.
Right now, your congresscritter is paying attention to patent reform - albeit without software patents. Make sure they hear from you to do the right thing with software patents.
^^ Oops.
* To do this internally, you'll need multiple servers in different locations [...]
The Fun Theory does this from time to time. My favorite is the piano stairs in Stockholm. It's a classic example of a "nudging" effect, and yes - I do consider it "ethical".
Of course, the question is if the "nudging" effect lasts over the long haul. I wonder how many of these people would have used the piano stairs after a few days, or a week?
Agreed.
In the past, IT could only be delivered via the internal IT department. Need a PC? Need to use this new "email" thing? Want to get started with this new "web" idea? Need a custom programming job to automate your business transactions? Talk to IT.
But those days are gone. Much of IT has become a commodity. Common services like email and web can't be done in-house for less than an outside provider can do it for you. Look at email. Your organization might have 200,000 end-users that need email accounts. To do this internally, you'll need multiple servers in different servers, terabytes of storage (you are mirroring this, aren't you?), backup (for bare-metal disaster recovery), licensing and support contracts for all the servers, etc. Not to mention the staff to support all that. Compare that to outsourcing your organization's email to a provider like Gmail. Education can go to Gmail for free, businesses pay a fee. Do the math, and it's way cheaper for a company to outsource than to do email on their own. (Yes, some organizations might have contractual or regulatory reasons to run an internal email service - I'm looking at the broader use case, here.)
Cloud computing is here, more non-IT departments are going to use it. So IT needs to find new ways to bring value to the organization. As IT stewards, we need to understand when it's better to outsource "grunt work" (email, etc.) to free up internal staff time to focus on more important/valuable projects. Is it better for 2 sysadmins to babysit a dozen email servers and 20 web servers, when you could outsource that "commodity" service and have those same 2 sysadmins support servers for a new business database?
But IT won't always be the ones looking to external IT services. You'll have non-IT departments making their own decisions about outsourcing a particular project to an outside vendor. That's what the article is about. Be flexible, but make sure those non-IT departments don't get into trouble. If you can't provide more value than someone else, then at least help the project, do some of their "homework" for them. "Vet" the cloud vendor. Do you have a SAS70 statement on file? Any other certifications or paperwork that you in IT would think to ask for, but your non-IT folks might miss?
> [...] Why don't they come read these discussions on Slashdot? (Maybe they do already? Doubt it.) Here we have a group of people who are more closely concerned with the problems posed by patent law, having a good discussion full of good examples and covering many aspects and ramifications. Representatives could also participate, anonymously or not, as they please. They could even try us with an "Ask Slashdot" article. On-line forums are the town halls of the 21st century.
I get what you're saying. Online forums are the townhalls of today, it's a great way to bring a large number of people together to discuss an issue. But you also need to understand that politicians don't have the time to attend every online forum to seek community input. There are simply too many things going on. How will a Senator or Representative know what are the important topics their constituents need addressed? They pay attention to it when you direct their attention, but first you need to get their attention. And the way to get their attention right now is through writing letters, calling, and visiting them.
Also keep in mind that politicians are busy, busy people. Don't expect to reach your Senator or Representative directly; you'll likely need to speak with a staffer, and that's fine. They delegate these things to their offices, and it's the staffers' jobs to stay in touch with the issues being brought forward.
I am already working for "software" patent reform. I live in Minnesota, and this morning I visited with Senator Franken's office, discussing "software" patent reform. Sen. Franken is also the Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, so this is a topic he's paying attention to.
The America Invents Act is already in progress, so the reality is that Congress won't have the appetite to pick up the patent topic again in the next few years. So I'm afraid that the window has closed to get a law to enact "software" patent reform. Temporarily, anyway. This is unfortunate, since AIA doesn't really address any issues related to "software" patents or patent trolls.
However, it is possible to have a procedural change made with the USPTO. So I'm working that angle now.
To do that, we need to build popular support, enough voices that the Subcommittee will hear. As cheesy as it sounds, that means we need your help to contact your Senator's office and voice your opinion. Seriously, call their office, write them a letter (handwritten carries the most impact, but typed will do), or visit them in their office. Ask your Senator to push for "software" patent reform. Have some examples of "software" patents handy, and feel free to make a suggestion for how to fix the system. I think the citizen review method is a workable option. I've been discussing this topic with Sen. Franken's office for a while now, so if you don't have a particular suggestion to offer, ask your Senator to see what Sen. Franken is up to. I'm not kidding, they do listen to that. You can reference Katie Topinka, in Sen. Franken's Minnesota office, as the staffer who's closest to this. I'm working with her on this (and hopefully she won't mind me mentioning her name.)
If you live in Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Utah, or South Carolina, note that your Senator is already on the Subcommittee for Privacy, Technology and the Law. This is a topic they will listen to.
The best advice I have heard in politics is that it's your politician's job to listen to you and to take that back to Washington to get it done. I'm lucky that my Senator actually does this. That's why if you don't feel your Senator will listen to you on "software" patent reform, you need to send them to Sen. Franken, because he will work on this. And Senators do talk to one another, even across the aisle.
>> Also, where are the other controls for that game? What controls the walking around? I didn't see the guy on stage with any kind of controlling device (other than Kinect "lightsaber, on!" and jumping about) so I'm left to assume this is a "on a rail" type of game? What if I don't want to be "on a rail" and follow exactly the path laid out for me? Maybe I want to check out the corners, look for hidden items, secrets, etc?
> Then this game isn't for you... and probably any Kinect game, since "you are the controller" and don't have much of a way to walk freely without being required to do something akward.
Wait, so every Kinect game is an "on a rail" type of game? No ability to explore levels in Kinect? And people actually like those kinds of limited games?
Yeah, I guess I'm not a Kinect gamer, then.
Might be me, but that Star Wars title seems to lag quite a bit whenever that guy jumped, or swung the 'lightsaber'. I don't know that I could play a game with that much lag.
Also, where are the other controls for that game? What controls the walking around? I didn't see the guy on stage with any kind of controlling device (other than Kinect "lightsaber, on!" and jumping about) so I'm left to assume this is a "on a rail" type of game? What if I don't want to be "on a rail" and follow exactly the path laid out for me? Maybe I want to check out the corners, look for hidden items, secrets, etc?
I think the 'Star Wars' titles are getting a bit stale. This looks like another game set in the Clone Wars. And they're back at Bespin? What about the expanded universe?
If we're going to re-tread old ground, I'd like to see someone do a really awesome remake of the Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 game. I think the PlayStation Move would be a great fit for that - very little lag, and it sort of feels like a lightsaber, anyway. With the Navigation controller, you can do FPS stuff, and use the Move controller as a point & shoot "gun" (similar to Killzone 3.) But personally, when I played that game, once I got the lightsaber I never used any of the other weapons.
67% of accounts on both Sony and Gawker use the same password.
Without a map of Sony accounts to Gawker accounts I don't know what this means... I take it to mean "The cardinalty of the set that is the union of password sets from Sony and Gawker is 67% of the cardinality of the set of Sony passwords."
IIRC, Gawker had their username/password database stolen a year or so ago? I read the "67%" as: for accounts on both Gawker and Sony, where the email address matched up, 67% of the passwords were also the same.
That is, 2/3 of the people who had accounts on both Gawker and Sony were using the same password, not a different one.
> yes, all is ok, i guess (11.11)
I don't think so. I just installed Opera 11.11, opened a Google spreadsheet, and navigated around. Navigating down seems to be ok now, but navigating to the right and the highlight no longer lines up!
swillden said someone else has reported this, so I'll wait to see in a few weeks if it's fixed then.
I think Chromebook & ChromeOS can work, but only for a specific subset of people. A web-only netbook is interesting to me, and while I didn't make it into the Cr-48 pilot, I looked into how to build one on my own based on what I saw in Chromebook & ChromeOS. Having actually built such a thing (Note: it's easier with Firefox and Openbox, than with Chrome) I can talk a little about a web-only netbook.
If all you need to do is access email, browse the web, maybe write some short docs and manage a few household spreadsheets, a "Chromebook" is perfect. My wife is one of those people. She's been using Linux since about 1999, and she honestly doesn't care what's loaded on Linux. She uses her laptop to check news sites, YouTube, Facebook, and Gmail. My wife's laptop lives on the web - when she boots, she's immediately online, does her stuff. She has a few "Word" docs, but they are simple documents that could easily be managed in Google Docs. She doesn't even manage photos from her camera - she may dump a copy to her laptop, but then they're posted up on Flickr or into Facebook.
I see the rest of her family, and most of my family, to be the same class of user. Lots of web browsing, Facebook, Gmail - and a few photos, and simple documents (Christmas letters, lists of what's in the attic, etc.) I don't see a lot of people around me using Thunderbird or MacMail anymore; most have moved to Gmail. So these people are already the target audience for Chromebook.
For myself, I do a lot more than what a web-only netbook can do. Yes, I use Facebook and Gmail. But I also manage a small music collection that I take with me (Rhythmbox) so I have something to listen to in the office. I write code in my off-hours. I manage & retouch photos (Shotwell & Gimp) and post only a few. So I'm not the target audience of Chromebook.
But I also recognize that I'm in the minority. Most of slashdot is in the minority. Most people do not need that much from a laptop. That's why netbooks sold so well. That's why people really like the iPad.
My biggest concern for Google is that the netbook is no longer a "cool" item. It's all tablet computing now. When's the last time you heard a friend or someone in the office say "I want a netbook?" When's the last time you saw a netbook? A guy in our office has one, that he brings to meetings sometimes. And how many people say "I want an iPad" or who already have an iPad? I see lots of them at my office, and about half my friends have one. Will people actually buy a Chromebook today?
> I'm using the latest (11.11) Opera right now and Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Documents, and Reader all work fine, with no warnings or errors. Which services are broken?
Try Opera with Google Spreadsheets. I could never get that to work reliably in Opera. Specifically, open a Google Spreadsheet, then navigate down a few dozen cells. Does the highlight still line up with the cell?
However, I've never had a problem with Firefox (Linux/Win), Chrome (Linux/Win), Safari(Mac), or Camino(Mac).
I experimented with the Beta, and I like the usability in Gnome Shell. I find it very natural. Yes, you have to "let go" of some things you learned on Gnome 2, but you need to "let go" of certain concepts whenever you switch from Windows to Linux, or Windows to Mac, or Mac to Linux. One feature that hooked me was how open windows (your "activities") are represented. It's sort of like MacOSX's Espose, move your mouse to "Activities", and it shows everything. From there, you can also open new "activities" (programs). It's an all-in-one menu that makes a lot of sense.
I had the Beta installed on a USB flash drive, and I'd boot into that sometimes. When I'd boot back to Fedora 14 (or Windows 7) I felt like the old desktops were primitive.
And I'll also add that the font rendering in Fedora 15 is awesome. Fonts looked great on earlier versions of Fedora, but they look smoother and easier to read in the new desktop. Not sure if I should credit a change in Fedora's preferred font rendering, or if this is an improvement in Gnome 3.
>> I love comments of massive depth where clicking on the reply textbox will simply expand the above comment and defocus the reply text box. Yes great feature that one.
> Oh, is that what it's doing? It was driving me crazy earlier because I'd click reply and it seemed like the page would jump back to the top and then I'd have to spend a few minutes trying to find my place again in the conversation so I could start typing in the editor.
I'm glad it's not just me, then! That behavior was really annoying. I thought I was losing my mind or something.
The sliders also don't seem to work for selecting what level to read at. Moving the slider up to "5" might say "10 full comments", but instead I get 5 or 6 comments. Sad.
And the mobile device support ... this is 2011, man. Please send some love to the Android users, who read Slashdot from a smartphone about half the time.
I'm the same way. I joined Twitter about a year and some ago, because I was moving 3 hours away and thought it would be a good way to keep in touch. I immediately followed about 20 in-real-life friends. And almost as quickly, I unfollowed most of them.
There are 2 main issues I have with these people:
1. They thought it was cool to connect their Twitter feed to Facebook. So now I see exactly the same thing on Facebook as Twitter whenever they update their status.
2. They post completely random shit, all the fucking time. It's like listening to an ADD child without his Ritalin, on a sugar high. Every minor thought that runs through their head, every article they see (usually Lifehacker for some reason), every time they go out for a drink, that totally awesome burger, that bad-for-you dessert ... it all ends up on Twitter. Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them Tweet "poop is coming out now."
The worst offenders are those that choose to live-Tweet things. I'm glad you're enjoying the game, but you've completely owned my Twitter feed, thanks. You're off the list now.
Not to mention the re-Tweets. I know the purpose of the RT is to share interesting stuff from someone else, and thereby maybe you'd want to follow that other person. But when it's used to excess, I just don't care. It is basically noise to me.
I've finally stabilized on how I use Twitter now. I have a small circle of people that I follow, and they don't update too frequently. Almost all of those people are actual IRL friends, too - but they post different stuff than on FB, so it's a different view.
Not only does that affectively marginalize anything they have to say, but it tends to end the conversation, which is convenient because, as we all know, deliberately invoking Godwin's law never works.
Only a Nazi would say something like that.
Apple is also one of the big notable companies which has support for the disabled at the forefront of its products.
Unless you have limited vision, and require a very sharp contrast on the screen - like my father-in-law. He's been an Apple fan for as long as I've known him, but complains bitterly about MacOSX and dropshadows everywhere. You can't turn off dropshadows in MacOSX, apparently. He says it makes things very hard to see. Even to do basic thinks like locate the mouse pointer, because it's too "blobby".
I know this is "News for Nerds", but you know what would have made this post better? A 1-sentence description of what ExtJS means. Sure, I figured it out from context that "JS" meant "JavaScript", but what's the "Ext" indicate? "Extended"? "Extensions"? Is ExtJS part of the JavaScript standard that every browser includes? Why should I care about ExtJS?
At the very least, include a link to the ExtJS entry at Wikipedia. (At least, I assume that's the right link?)
Off-topic, but I have to say this is a great way to introduce your daughter to computers. Very cool!
I read the article (it's not that long) but let me save you the trouble: it's not a great article. In fact, it's pointless. You don't need to read very far before he presents his conclusion:
Emphasis mine.
So the tech writer (Ron Miller) doesn't know either. He presents both sides, and seems totally unsure about what he's talking about. To summarize the article:
But:
So yeah, this was a pointless article.
This item has only been up a few minutes, and already a lot of people are asking why this matters, why they should care. Here's why:
If you use a Mac, you should care about this.
Steve Jobs is unquestionably the driving force behind Apple. His return to Apple as the iCEO, followed by the introduction of new streamlined iMacs, the iPod, ... all demonstrated that Steve had returned to make Apple's mark on the industry. How many of the general population - not to mention us IT geeks - have an iPod? I look around my office and see high level executives using iPads. Steve made these a success. The same technology in a different package - maybe even the same package but a different salesman - wouldn't be as popular.
Pundits, fans, and teh haters all pay attention when Steve makes a new announcement of any new Apple product. That's the presence Steve brings to the game. He's like a tiny god. Love him or hate him, you can't deny he understands the market, and how to drive new products to get at that "I want it" mentality.
But unfortunately, Steve's success is a double-edged sword. He's the driving force behind Apple. He's also the driving force behind Apple. There was no succession planning here. His second in command isn't well known. He's not the face of Apple. I wonder who will follow him.
I wish Steve the best, and if he's able to return as CEO, I think that would be great. But if he doesn't ... look for Apple's stock to plummet. Even if the new guy has all kinds of bright ideas, I don't think he'll have the same presence as Steve, and won't be able to garner the same attention for the company. Apple has lots of new items in the pipeline, I'm sure, so the new guy's leadership won't truly be tested/visible for another 12 to 18 months. In that time, he needs to make his own mark, or Apple will quickly find itself on the sidelines trying to catch up to the rest of the market - rather than leading the market.
That's what has investors worried. And that is why you should care about this item.
Disclaimer: I am not an Apple fan, but I work in IT.
TFA isn't that long, so I read it. The girl said she saw the posting, and told police that she feared for her life. The best bit is what happened next:
So the guy is even more of a douche. Let's see, post vague message on FB for a hit job. When police ask you to come down to the station (not arrest you and take you to the station, but you agree to meet them there) you post a followup that you really need this girl dead.
Yeah, dumb.