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User: BenjyD

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Comments · 2,151

  1. Re:All that is left on London Council Dumping Windows For Chromebooks To Save £400,000 · · Score: 1

    Isn't that what everyone said about Nokia back in 2007?

  2. Communicators on Nokia Insider On Why It Failed and Why Apple Could Be Next · · Score: 1

    Nokia went with devices like the Communicator, which opened out to give a big screen for web browsing with a computer style keyboard, with much of their pre-iPhone touch screen developments still on the drawing board when Apple pounced.

    That makes it sound like Nokia's Communicator only failed because it missed the "next big thing'" of touchscreen. The real reason they failed was because they were awful phones. Even without the touchscreen iPhone around to compare to, they were terrible. Slow, buggy, poor UI, heavy, bad hardware design.

    Nokia may have lacked courage and vision, but they also lacked technical ability.

  3. Think of the future on Ask Slashdot: Old Dogs vs. New Technology? · · Score: 1

    At some point in the future, you are going to screw up badly at work. It's inevitable: you do something every day for years, you're going to make a mistake. When that day comes, do you want to be known as the arrogant one in the office that's always complaining?

    Or do you want to be the one that everyone remembers for patiently helping them out with their work, so that you can rely on colleagues to help you out, minimise the fallout and defend you to management?

  4. Re:airplane? on iPhone, Apple TV Headline MacWorld Keynote · · Score: 1

    Almost all smartphones have a "Flight Mode" which allows you to use the PDA functionality, but keeps all the radios off and clearly displays an icon showing this for you to show to the cabin crew.

  5. Re:WTF is the point, though? on GM Working on Feasible Electric Car · · Score: 1

    Isn't it unfair to directly compare diesel MPG values with cars running on petrol, because diesel is denser? Isn't grammes CO2 per km is a fairer measure?

  6. Re:Bully on Oblivion Sequel, Wii Sims, No Bully 2 · · Score: 1

    Agreed, I managed about two hours before giving up from boredom.

  7. We don't on Why Do We Use x86 CPUs? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We don't really use x86 CPUs, they're all RISC with an x86->RISC decode stage at the front of the pipeline. As far as I understand it, we use the x86 ISA because there has always been too much x86 specific code around for people to switch easily, which gave Intel huge amounts of money to spend on research and fabs.

  8. Evidence on UK Teachers Say Censor The Internet · · Score: 1

    Yes, how terrible that vandals are allowed to post video evidence of their crimes to the internet for the police and school authorities to use as evidence against them. Clearly we should ban Youtube for encouraging self-incrimination.

  9. Re:Rick Sanchez is special on Why Bother With Episodic Games? · · Score: 1

    Exactly, of course *game* consoles owners buy more games, most PCs are just email/web/word processing machines, probably with a crappy integrated graphics card and limited memory.

  10. Re:lights on Appliances Hog More Energy Than High-Tech Gadgets · · Score: 1

    I've noticed that too: people who have them installed often end up just leaving the light on. I wonder what effect that has on overall power consumption?

  11. Re:Read the article. It's clerks at a random retai on Demo PS3 Units freeze on Purpose · · Score: 1

    My Wii has frozen twice and one of the remote controls has version 1 of the battery compartment which allows some AA batteries to break contact with the springs.

  12. Sun on Apple Closes iSight Security Hole · · Score: 2, Funny

    I guess this kind of thing is why Sun put a mechanical lens cover on their webcams.

  13. Re:Ban bad thoughts too on UK Wants To Ban Computer-Generated Child Porn · · Score: 1

    Exactly, I doubt this will ever get beyond committee stage in Parliament, it's just too hard to define. That, and the lack of any clear victim.

  14. Roald Dahl? on UK Wants To Ban Computer-Generated Child Porn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I expect they'll be arresting Quentin Blake for his illustrations of child abuse in Roald Dahl'sMatilda then.

  15. Re:What is going on? on Sony Behind Fake YouTube Viral Campaign · · Score: 1

    Is it really that hard for people to see the difference between paid advertising, clearly labelled as such, and advertising masquerading as unpaid content?

  16. Re:What is going on? on Sony Behind Fake YouTube Viral Campaign · · Score: 1

    Seriously, what is the line between advertising and lying?
    In most countries, the difference is that adverts have to be clearly distinguished as adverts.

  17. Re:Also in the news on The Wii Hits the UK · · Score: 1

    It looks like most Wii remotes in Europe shipped with the new thicker strap string. Unfortunately only one of my two remotes has the new strap.

  18. Re:I don't think the Wii NEEDS online. At all. on Wii Games Go Online, Lose Happy Clouds · · Score: 1

    While playing games socially is always more fun, there are times when I just want to play a competitive game and no one else is around.

    Playing against even an anonymous human opponent is very different from playing against an AI. Take Mario Power Tennis, for example - against the computer all the human factors of reaction time, bluff and strategy are missing. Online multiplayer in the Mario Kart DS style provides the game with the equivalent of very good AI.

  19. Re:Another way to predict crime on Software Used To Predict Who Might Kill · · Score: 1

    It's not so much that they're let out of prison early, it's that the prisons are so overcrowded and under-resourced that they can't provide the kind of training that might actually help cut reoffending. That, and the fact that they're being used as an overflow from our mental health system.

  20. Re:A Better Windows Than Windows? on Parallels Beta Adds Boot Camp, Desktop · · Score: 1

    If I understand it correctly, this is hardly running Windows apps natively, it's still got all the overhead of a virtual machine. In my experience, that means no 3D support, slower performance and large memory overheads. On my 1Gb RAM iMac, I get a lot of swapping if I use both Parallels and large Mac OS X apps at the same time.

  21. Re:I'm actually a probation officer on Software Used To Predict Who Might Kill · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was thinking that: my gf works for the local probation service and they use a software package that gives them a risk score of some sort based on the offender's history.

  22. Re:progress and variation on The Importance of Game Length · · Score: 1

    The problem is that the developers have a limited budget for development and testing, and the designers have a limited number of good ideas. If they aim for a 40 hour game, those are spread out more thinly.

  23. Re:More choices, less length. on The Importance of Game Length · · Score: 1

    Yeah, what the hell was going on at the end of Tales of Symphonia? The story just went completely crazy. That said, I normally hate overly long games but I really enjoyed Tales.

  24. Ideas on The Importance of Game Length · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I agree with the second answer - within reason, cost is not an issue. I'd rather pay $40 for 10 really good hours of gaming than 40 quite good hours, I can always buy another game. Very few single player games have enough variation and interesting content to justify more than about 15 hours of gameplay.

  25. Re:Interestign numbers on PSP, PS2 Sales Skyrocket · · Score: 1

    The PS2 is at the bottom in terms of performance, in fact.