Why treat mobile apps as a special case? All software applications, client-side or web based should be treated the same way.
They aren't treated as special cases. The rules apply to any online applications, which includes pretty much all mobile apps. It's just that mobile app makers have been very poor at following the rules, likely because so many of them are small fly-by-night companies that don't have a legal department telling them what they are supposed to be doing. So 100 companies get notices that they need to have privacy policies posted, it gets splashed all over the news, and hopefully this will wake the others up to the fact that they need to be doing this just like the big boys.
The controller raises a lot of interesting possibilities (though it's a little bulky for my tastes). And, unlike some, I think that the $300-$350 price tag is fine (compared to the $600 debut price tag of the PS3, that's a frickin' bargain bin price!). But I haven't been hearing a lot of buzz about it, considering it's supposed to be launching next month. I know it's supposed to be as powerful as the PS3/360. And, of course, I know about the controller. But I haven't heard much about the debut game lineup. And even gamer podcasts and shows don't seem to be giving it much attention.
Frankly I think Nintendo, for all their faults (most notably, their admittedly piss-poor online support), kind of gets the short-shrift in the gaming community. Their systems may not have the cutting edge CPU's and GPU's, but they do what they do pretty well. And they offer a pretty good bargain most of the time. I think they're underrated myself and wish they got more respect. Not every console and handheld has to cater 100% to hardcore gamers, you know.
I think you've kind of answered your own questions. $300-$350 for a console with the same power as consoles that have been out for five years (and that you can get for less). A focus on casual gamers for the previous console generation (or two), which doesn't exactly attract a lot of attention in the gaming world. A control scheme significantly different from the other main consoles, which means it will only really shine with games exclusive to that console - but a worrying lack of information on launch and first-party titles doesn't exactly instill confidence that there will be a decent library.
Now news that they are going to release an under-powered console, with a limited selection of games, at a loss. That doesn't exactly help me feel confident about the future of the console (or of Nintendo, for that matter). It will probably do just fine, but I don't really see much to get excited about. I know lots of people that bought a Wii, used it for a few months, and basically gave up on it because every game that was released that made use of the unique control scheme seemed to be more of a tech demo than a game. Maybe some really cool games did eventually come out, but if so it was long after interest had waned. The WiiU seems to be a repeat of that - interesting concept, great potential, but unless they have some full-fledged, finished games at launch that make good use of the controllers, it's not going to get much attention from the gaming community.
Neither there is scientific evidence that a wall will crumble or that an electric plant will cause an electric shock when engineers deny qualifications to buildings. Neither there is scientific evidence that you will be eaten by a shark if you dive into the sea of Tasmania, though there could be a "SHARKS no swimming" sign nearby. It's a matter of reasonable risks, often codified with technical rules, norms and laws.
There was an earthquake swarm going on for months when they said there weren't risks. In many Italian towns you cannot drive trucks, and oftentimes even cars, to the center of the city because vehicles produced vibrations can damage old buildings (and that's true), yet after months of strong vibrations they just reassured the population without considering a check-up of the many old buildings of the area, nor of the important buildings (e.g. hospitals, offices) that should work 100% in case of disasters.
If I, as an engineer, certify that a plant is safe when it may be not, I can be jailed. I can't see why the same can't apply to this case.
That simply isn't true. The scientific group didn't say there was no risk, they said that the earthquake swarm did not mean a larger quake would happen. That doesn't mean a larger earthquake won't happen, just that the swarm isn't evidence that one will - there is a history in that area of minor earthquake swarms leading to nothing (with occasional exceptions). Of course, the bureaucrat mentioned did issue a statement that said there was nothing to worry about, so he at least deserves his sentence.
As for the safety of buildings in the area, the group pointed out that building construction was not sufficient to withstand a moderate earthquake. Unless the local government was willing to force everyone living in such a building to vacate for an unknown (and unknowable) period of time, there wasn't that much they could do about it other than say building codes needed to be more stringent.
The pay-what-you-want is actually only for 20 games, and you have to pay more than the average. The 32 games you get for $35. Just pointing that out, still a pretty good deal. Played Castles last night - exactly as I remembered it, incomprehensible. Might have to read the manual to remember how to get my idiots to actually start building; the music transported me directly back to 1991, though. Love that awesome midi sound.
Hey, haz waste is getting expensive to dispose of!
Actually, I do kind of wonder if it is getting to the point where it would have been cheaper just to launch rad waste into space rather than pay for all the studies and eventual construction costs associated with building a permanent disposal site.
If Dyson Spheres exist, they promise to give off a very particular kind of heat signature, a signature that we should be able to see through our infrared telescopes. 'A Dyson Sphere would appear very bright in the mid-infrared,' says project leader Jason Wright.
Right, because there's no way a civilization advanced enough to build 282743338860000000 square kilometers of solar panels is going to be able to build solar panels capable of absorbing and using mid-infrared light (heat). If the supposition is that they inevitably build Dyson spheres to capture all of the available energy coming off their star, why would they let a whole bunch of it escape as heat?
Seems like a giant waste of time and money, but I suppose they will be generating useful data while they look. Still, their chances of finding one are likely ludicrously close to zero even if one does exist. I also find the whole premise to be rather poorly thought out, I have to admit; even if a civilization is capable of building a Dyson sphere, I'm not sure it makes any sense to actually do it.
By abandon do you mean rolling out an all electric RAV4?
Which they co-developed with Tesla...
Sounds like they just don't think they can do better than Tesla at the moment, and don't think electrics can be built at a price point that appeals to the massive numbers of customers they are used to catering to. Even at the 2500-3000 vehicles per month I've heard Tesla is targeting they will be a niche producer for the foreseeable future (assuming they survive).
Woo boy. A whole three states. Without even reading the article I can probably guess two of them (California, New York). And the third is most likely one where driving isn't a necessity, either. Boy howdy, is that ever going to help things. After all, who cares about the little people in the unpopular states where they actually need to drive? They never even invented a single iPhone there, amirite?
Driving isn't a necessity in California? Guess I know you've never been here before... that, or you are astonishingly unobservant.
Of course even just looking at the summary would tell you which states are involved, so clearly it is the latter. And I have no idea why I'm wasting time responding to an AC who didn't even manage to read the summary.
Actually, the Tesla model S seats 5 Adults + 2 children in rear facing seats. When you consider this, the Tesla looks very attractive. You'll be hard pressed to find a 7 seater car that gets respectable gas mileage. Also, 7 seater vehicles are often more expensive meaning that it makes the tesla even more competitive and appealing to certain market segments.
From what I've read it isn't clear that it will actually be available with the 2 rear-facing seats - apparently it is doubtful that these meet federal crash safety requirements. Elon Musk's personal Model S does have them, but I believe that is considered a prototype and doesn't have to meet the same requirements (he has 5 children, and wanted to be able to fit them all in his car).
Funny, but Wired just did a write-up and noted that it is available with 3G (no 4G though, lame). Though they did complain that the voice control won't be enabled at launch.
How do you think we learned it is safe? Besides, I'm sure this wasn't a central reason for the testing, more like an add-on since they were setting off the nukes anyway.
Now, now, nobody actually does an "Ask Slashdot" looking for advice, they do it to brag about the cool thing they have/are doing/are trying to do.
That said, it should be obvious that what Razgorov really needs is a yardarm attached to the mast so he/she/it has somewhere to hang all the pirates from.
Based on the fact that they have some sort of event scheduled for next week, I'd guess that they ordered what they thought would be enough units from manufacturing to hold them over until the KF2 is released, but ran out. Rather than order a whole new manufacturing run to tide them over for a week, looks like they just decided to wait for their new product launch.
You mean, those redundancies will be deemed unnecessary, and therefore eliminated. Hate to be a wording nazi, but that's bad.
This is a UK-ism... a 'redundancy' is a job that has been made redundant, and therefore terminated. It's a common phrase here.
It is a common expression here, too (US). But the parent is grammatically correct; HR means what he is saying, but generally just call these doomed jobs "redundancies" because it is obvious to them that any redundant job will be eliminated - no need to say it outright.
How much energy does it take to create these mats, put them in place, harvest, etc. Wouldn't this rather rapidly reduce the local concentration of uranium in seawater, requiring the mats to constantly be moved (or placed in areas with strong currents flushing new supplies through)? Seems like an interesting idea, but at only roughly $50 per pound (for uranium oxide) it really doesn't seem like this would pan out without massively increased demand for uranium. Maybe go after something valuable, like gold or platinum first (although I suppose they may be harder to extract from seawater)?
It is legal under international law. The UK, and any other country, can quite legally revoke the status of an embassy at any time they feel like it (though there may be a required notification period). Obviously this would have rather severe political ramifications, and the UK would have to balance what they think they might gain from it versus these consequences, but it would be quite legal. Very unlikely in this case, but if Ecuador persisted in using its embassy to shield accused criminals from trial it could happen at some point. Very unlikely they would do it for just one person, of course, but not necessarily out of line for the UK to point out to Ecuador that their diplomatic status can be revoked if they persist in flouting local laws.
Uh.... considering Glide was the first and only 3D api for quite a while and it was later followed by DirectX/OpenGL. That's quite wrong. Also, Microsoft went into a deal with SGI to create a 3d API based on OpenGL which Microsoft Cynically shitcanned/backstabbed SGI on.
Glide was based on a subset of OpenGL features specifically chosen by 3DFX for gaming. So I guess it may have been the first 3D API designed specifically for gaming (though I think Direct3D began around the same time, it just sucked), but it certainly wasn't the first 3D API.
400,000 people cut the cord, but that doesn't count the 275,000 subscriber increase for Verizon and AT&T's TV offerings. Doesn't change the overall trend, but it is misleading to say that overall 400,000 people cut the cord when it's really "only" 125,000.
Is it possible that this is a miniaturized Thunderbolt? Seems like that would offer all of the connectivity they want, although the pin count is off (by one). Just seems strange (although all-too Apple-like) to invent yet another connector that is different from everything else they use.
What makes it even more annoying is that there were *2* primary reasons for the Xbox Dash redesign:
1) make it 100% Kinect-accessible 2) promote content more (much of it paid) and increase advertising space
So, they changed the fairly decent previous Xbox Dashboard to something designed around products I don't want to see and a UI navigation mechanism I don't want to use. For the vast majority of users out there who just want to use a controller to play a game or watch a movie, it's a major step backwards in usability.
Hmm, reminds me of a certain other MS product... what's it called... oh yeah, Windows 8.
Hey, let's redesign our UI specifically for an interface that 95% of our customers don't use! Brilliant!
Platinum etchings sandwiched between two layers of sapphire. Like microfilm, but with etchings. So now we can write all sorts of shit down, but where do we put it so we know whoever is digging will stop and figure out what it says?
Personally I think the need for millions of years of survivability are stupid. We've been using atomic energy for what, 60 years? I think we might find a way to put the "waste" to use long before we have to worry about such long-term data storage. That, and we'll either be advanced enough to repair radiation-induced damage in the next couple of hundred years, or civilization will have fallen and our life spans will be so short that a little radiological damage won't really matter.
Slashdot Mirror
Why treat mobile apps as a special case? All software applications, client-side or web based should be treated the same way.
They aren't treated as special cases. The rules apply to any online applications, which includes pretty much all mobile apps. It's just that mobile app makers have been very poor at following the rules, likely because so many of them are small fly-by-night companies that don't have a legal department telling them what they are supposed to be doing. So 100 companies get notices that they need to have privacy policies posted, it gets splashed all over the news, and hopefully this will wake the others up to the fact that they need to be doing this just like the big boys.
The controller raises a lot of interesting possibilities (though it's a little bulky for my tastes). And, unlike some, I think that the $300-$350 price tag is fine (compared to the $600 debut price tag of the PS3, that's a frickin' bargain bin price!). But I haven't been hearing a lot of buzz about it, considering it's supposed to be launching next month. I know it's supposed to be as powerful as the PS3/360. And, of course, I know about the controller. But I haven't heard much about the debut game lineup. And even gamer podcasts and shows don't seem to be giving it much attention.
Frankly I think Nintendo, for all their faults (most notably, their admittedly piss-poor online support), kind of gets the short-shrift in the gaming community. Their systems may not have the cutting edge CPU's and GPU's, but they do what they do pretty well. And they offer a pretty good bargain most of the time. I think they're underrated myself and wish they got more respect. Not every console and handheld has to cater 100% to hardcore gamers, you know.
I think you've kind of answered your own questions. $300-$350 for a console with the same power as consoles that have been out for five years (and that you can get for less). A focus on casual gamers for the previous console generation (or two), which doesn't exactly attract a lot of attention in the gaming world. A control scheme significantly different from the other main consoles, which means it will only really shine with games exclusive to that console - but a worrying lack of information on launch and first-party titles doesn't exactly instill confidence that there will be a decent library.
Now news that they are going to release an under-powered console, with a limited selection of games, at a loss. That doesn't exactly help me feel confident about the future of the console (or of Nintendo, for that matter). It will probably do just fine, but I don't really see much to get excited about. I know lots of people that bought a Wii, used it for a few months, and basically gave up on it because every game that was released that made use of the unique control scheme seemed to be more of a tech demo than a game. Maybe some really cool games did eventually come out, but if so it was long after interest had waned. The WiiU seems to be a repeat of that - interesting concept, great potential, but unless they have some full-fledged, finished games at launch that make good use of the controllers, it's not going to get much attention from the gaming community.
Not exactly prominently displayed on their website. You can find it, but only if you're looking for it.
Neither there is scientific evidence that a wall will crumble or that an electric plant will cause an electric shock when engineers deny qualifications to buildings. Neither there is scientific evidence that you will be eaten by a shark if you dive into the sea of Tasmania, though there could be a "SHARKS no swimming" sign nearby. It's a matter of reasonable risks, often codified with technical rules, norms and laws.
There was an earthquake swarm going on for months when they said there weren't risks. In many Italian towns you cannot drive trucks, and oftentimes even cars, to the center of the city because vehicles produced vibrations can damage old buildings (and that's true), yet after months of strong vibrations they just reassured the population without considering a check-up of the many old buildings of the area, nor of the important buildings (e.g. hospitals, offices) that should work 100% in case of disasters.
If I, as an engineer, certify that a plant is safe when it may be not, I can be jailed. I can't see why the same can't apply to this case.
That simply isn't true. The scientific group didn't say there was no risk, they said that the earthquake swarm did not mean a larger quake would happen. That doesn't mean a larger earthquake won't happen, just that the swarm isn't evidence that one will - there is a history in that area of minor earthquake swarms leading to nothing (with occasional exceptions). Of course, the bureaucrat mentioned did issue a statement that said there was nothing to worry about, so he at least deserves his sentence.
As for the safety of buildings in the area, the group pointed out that building construction was not sufficient to withstand a moderate earthquake. Unless the local government was willing to force everyone living in such a building to vacate for an unknown (and unknowable) period of time, there wasn't that much they could do about it other than say building codes needed to be more stringent.
The pay-what-you-want is actually only for 20 games, and you have to pay more than the average. The 32 games you get for $35. Just pointing that out, still a pretty good deal. Played Castles last night - exactly as I remembered it, incomprehensible. Might have to read the manual to remember how to get my idiots to actually start building; the music transported me directly back to 1991, though. Love that awesome midi sound.
Nuggets the size of your fist! Don't tell anyone!
There. That always works to get the next territory settled.
What's the equivalent of jeans on Mars? Better start investing now...
Hey, haz waste is getting expensive to dispose of!
Actually, I do kind of wonder if it is getting to the point where it would have been cheaper just to launch rad waste into space rather than pay for all the studies and eventual construction costs associated with building a permanent disposal site.
Dammit, messed up the end blockquote tag....
I bet you're using a Microsoft keyboard, aren't you.
If Dyson Spheres exist, they promise to give off a very particular kind of heat signature, a signature that we should be able to see through our infrared telescopes. 'A Dyson Sphere would appear very bright in the mid-infrared,' says project leader Jason Wright.
Right, because there's no way a civilization advanced enough to build 282743338860000000 square kilometers of solar panels is going to be able to build solar panels capable of absorbing and using mid-infrared light (heat). If the supposition is that they inevitably build Dyson spheres to capture all of the available energy coming off their star, why would they let a whole bunch of it escape as heat?
Seems like a giant waste of time and money, but I suppose they will be generating useful data while they look. Still, their chances of finding one are likely ludicrously close to zero even if one does exist. I also find the whole premise to be rather poorly thought out, I have to admit; even if a civilization is capable of building a Dyson sphere, I'm not sure it makes any sense to actually do it.
By abandon do you mean rolling out an all electric RAV4?
Which they co-developed with Tesla...
Sounds like they just don't think they can do better than Tesla at the moment, and don't think electrics can be built at a price point that appeals to the massive numbers of customers they are used to catering to. Even at the 2500-3000 vehicles per month I've heard Tesla is targeting they will be a niche producer for the foreseeable future (assuming they survive).
Woo boy. A whole three states. Without even reading the article I can probably guess two of them (California, New York). And the third is most likely one where driving isn't a necessity, either. Boy howdy, is that ever going to help things. After all, who cares about the little people in the unpopular states where they actually need to drive? They never even invented a single iPhone there, amirite?
Driving isn't a necessity in California? Guess I know you've never been here before... that, or you are astonishingly unobservant.
Of course even just looking at the summary would tell you which states are involved, so clearly it is the latter. And I have no idea why I'm wasting time responding to an AC who didn't even manage to read the summary.
Actually, the Tesla model S seats 5 Adults + 2 children in rear facing seats. When you consider this, the Tesla looks very attractive. You'll be hard pressed to find a 7 seater car that gets respectable gas mileage. Also, 7 seater vehicles are often more expensive meaning that it makes the tesla even more competitive and appealing to certain market segments.
From what I've read it isn't clear that it will actually be available with the 2 rear-facing seats - apparently it is doubtful that these meet federal crash safety requirements. Elon Musk's personal Model S does have them, but I believe that is considered a prototype and doesn't have to meet the same requirements (he has 5 children, and wanted to be able to fit them all in his car).
No wireless. Lame.
Funny, but Wired just did a write-up and noted that it is available with 3G (no 4G though, lame). Though they did complain that the voice control won't be enabled at launch.
How do you think we learned it is safe? Besides, I'm sure this wasn't a central reason for the testing, more like an add-on since they were setting off the nukes anyway.
Now, now, nobody actually does an "Ask Slashdot" looking for advice, they do it to brag about the cool thing they have/are doing/are trying to do.
That said, it should be obvious that what Razgorov really needs is a yardarm attached to the mast so he/she/it has somewhere to hang all the pirates from.
Based on the fact that they have some sort of event scheduled for next week, I'd guess that they ordered what they thought would be enough units from manufacturing to hold them over until the KF2 is released, but ran out. Rather than order a whole new manufacturing run to tide them over for a week, looks like they just decided to wait for their new product launch.
"Some redundancies will be necessary"
You mean, those redundancies will be deemed unnecessary, and therefore eliminated. Hate to be a wording nazi, but that's bad.
This is a UK-ism... a 'redundancy' is a job that has been made redundant, and therefore terminated. It's a common phrase here.
It is a common expression here, too (US). But the parent is grammatically correct; HR means what he is saying, but generally just call these doomed jobs "redundancies" because it is obvious to them that any redundant job will be eliminated - no need to say it outright.
How much energy does it take to create these mats, put them in place, harvest, etc. Wouldn't this rather rapidly reduce the local concentration of uranium in seawater, requiring the mats to constantly be moved (or placed in areas with strong currents flushing new supplies through)? Seems like an interesting idea, but at only roughly $50 per pound (for uranium oxide) it really doesn't seem like this would pan out without massively increased demand for uranium. Maybe go after something valuable, like gold or platinum first (although I suppose they may be harder to extract from seawater)?
It is legal under international law. The UK, and any other country, can quite legally revoke the status of an embassy at any time they feel like it (though there may be a required notification period). Obviously this would have rather severe political ramifications, and the UK would have to balance what they think they might gain from it versus these consequences, but it would be quite legal. Very unlikely in this case, but if Ecuador persisted in using its embassy to shield accused criminals from trial it could happen at some point. Very unlikely they would do it for just one person, of course, but not necessarily out of line for the UK to point out to Ecuador that their diplomatic status can be revoked if they persist in flouting local laws.
Uh.... considering Glide was the first and only 3D api for quite a while and it was later followed by DirectX/OpenGL. That's quite wrong. Also, Microsoft went into a deal with SGI to create a 3d API based on OpenGL which Microsoft Cynically shitcanned/backstabbed SGI on.
Glide was based on a subset of OpenGL features specifically chosen by 3DFX for gaming. So I guess it may have been the first 3D API designed specifically for gaming (though I think Direct3D began around the same time, it just sucked), but it certainly wasn't the first 3D API.
400,000 people cut the cord, but that doesn't count the 275,000 subscriber increase for Verizon and AT&T's TV offerings. Doesn't change the overall trend, but it is misleading to say that overall 400,000 people cut the cord when it's really "only" 125,000.
Its what blizzard did, of course I no longer consider them a game developer after diablo 3.
I'm not familiar with that game; did you mean Auction House Tycoon?
Is it possible that this is a miniaturized Thunderbolt? Seems like that would offer all of the connectivity they want, although the pin count is off (by one). Just seems strange (although all-too Apple-like) to invent yet another connector that is different from everything else they use.
What makes it even more annoying is that there were *2* primary reasons for the Xbox Dash redesign:
1) make it 100% Kinect-accessible
2) promote content more (much of it paid) and increase advertising space
So, they changed the fairly decent previous Xbox Dashboard to something designed around products I don't want to see and a UI navigation mechanism I don't want to use. For the vast majority of users out there who just want to use a controller to play a game or watch a movie, it's a major step backwards in usability.
Hmm, reminds me of a certain other MS product... what's it called... oh yeah, Windows 8.
Hey, let's redesign our UI specifically for an interface that 95% of our customers don't use! Brilliant!
Platinum etchings sandwiched between two layers of sapphire. Like microfilm, but with etchings. So now we can write all sorts of shit down, but where do we put it so we know whoever is digging will stop and figure out what it says?
Personally I think the need for millions of years of survivability are stupid. We've been using atomic energy for what, 60 years? I think we might find a way to put the "waste" to use long before we have to worry about such long-term data storage. That, and we'll either be advanced enough to repair radiation-induced damage in the next couple of hundred years, or civilization will have fallen and our life spans will be so short that a little radiological damage won't really matter.