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User: gstoddart

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  1. Re:Should be interesting ... on RIM's BB10 Campaign Requires Some Serious Work · · Score: 1

    But even you are saying that it's business oriented, and we've established over the last few years that the consumer market is much more significant.

    But if the majority of people buying phones aren't looking for business oriented, they'll go elsewhere. People want Angry Birds and Facebook, not Exchange and Outlook.

    I'm not sure a phone targeted to business users is going to give them anywhere near the chances of getting people to be interested.

    It really is like those "I'm a PC/I'm a Mac" commercials where the PC is talking about spreadsheets and powerpoint slides; if you;'re selling functionality most people don't need, then you're pretty limited in who wants it. Native ability to view an Excel spreadsheet is going to appeal to a fairly small percentage of the market.

  2. Should be interesting ... on RIM's BB10 Campaign Requires Some Serious Work · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'll be interested to see how this plays out.

    I suspect a lot of people have mostly decided RIM is a dead horse and moved on. You could offer me a BlackBerry for free, and I'm not sure I'd care. And the dirty looks I still get from the wife when her Playbook is crashing tells me she's not someone who would recommend any of their products.

    If what they release is business-centric with a focus on connecting to an Exchange server, then I predict that the consumers who buy most smart phones nowadays will decide they're not offering anything of value.

    It's become like the Amiga or SGI ... a couple of the die hard fans still saying how awesome it is and how we're all missing out, and a huge amount of people not interested.

  3. Re:Please include flash! on Mozilla To Enable Click-To-Play For All Firefox Plugins By Default · · Score: 1

    Quite a few pages have hidden flash elements that are vital to the operation of the page. Most web music players, for instance. Blocking flash by default would break quite a few sites.

    I consider that a feature ... any site I hit that whines it needs Flash gets the back button, and subsequently ignored.

    Except for my work machine which I periodically need Flash for something annoying but required, I pretty much don't even have it installed.

    As a user, if your site requires Flash, you'll likely never see me again.

    In the 10 or more years I've been avoiding Flash, there hasn't been a single compelling thing which made me think otherwise; and while I'm sure there are people who think it's awesome, I think it's complete crap.

  4. Re:Best Yet on Office 2013: Microsoft Cloud Era Begins In Earnest · · Score: 4, Funny

    Right, I can see from my window the droves of users moving from Windows to Linux (or even Mac).

    No, those are the homeless people.

    The people switching to Linux are all in their basements, so you can't see them.

  5. No thanks ... on Office 2013: Microsoft Cloud Era Begins In Earnest · · Score: 1

    Subscription software has no interest for me, and neither does storing stuff in the cloud.

    If you can't sell me stand-alone software that works and doesn't require on-going fees and access to your servers ... well, I'll just use someone else's software.

    I can't imagine most organizations wanting their Office docs in the cloud.

  6. Re:Uh yeah on With 128GB, iPad Hits Surface Pro, Ultrabook Territory · · Score: 1

    So if you need to type that much get a bluetooth keyboard, they've been supported since the first version. You can get one for about $40-$50.

    I can type just fine on screen, but I'm not doing huge amounts of typing on it. I can type out emails just fine, but I seldom create large documents with it.

    The same would be true if it was from Microsoft, Samsung, or any other tablet.

  7. Re:Also decided in favor of restrictive firewalls on 10 Years After SQL Slammer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My guess is it's far more common than you'd think. A lot of software is really awful when it comes to security, and a lot of places don't do much better.

    I ran into a piece of software about 3-4 years back which lived in the DMZ to provide access to internal servers. The software in question stored passwords in plain text in the registry -- we're talking the admin password for the production database. I screamed bloody murder at how big of a risk that was, but eventually got told to STFU. Thankfully, it was a short contract and I wasn't around much longer.

    You might be shocked to find out how often security is secondary to cost and convenience. I'm betting loads of people here on Slashdot have encountered things like this.

    Look at all the stories we've seen about SCADA devices being on the internet -- people are regularly putting mission critical stuff directly onto the internet with no good security.

  8. Re:So, that means ... on Mystery of the Shrunken Proton · · Score: 0

    So, what does a slightly smaller photon translate into?

    Doh, I mean proton of course.

  9. So, that means ... on Mystery of the Shrunken Proton · · Score: 0

    I'm going to demonstrate my own stupidity (and lack of willingness to RTFA) ...

    What changes with this measure? I'm sure it has loads of things which it might affect, but I have no idea.

    So, what does a slightly smaller photon translate into?

  10. Re:Dr. George Costanza theorizes on Mystery of the Shrunken Proton · · Score: 2

    Not so sure ... most of my kilts are wool, my winter hats and scarves are wool, my suits and ties are all silk.

    Polyester has its place, but nor for "good" clothes.

  11. Re:here we go on Lego Accused of Racism With Star Wars Set · · Score: 2

    I can't speak for the rest of those countries, but Cuba was most definitely colonized by the Spanish.

    In fact, since the US injected the Platt Amendment into the Cuban constitution, and maintains Guantanamo there against the will of the Cubans ... you could argue they're still colonized.

  12. Re:No It Doesn't on Lego Accused of Racism With Star Wars Set · · Score: 1

    Too bad Lego responded to this nonsense and even offered an apology.

    Why? Your way just antagonizes and pisses people off.

    LEGO saying "we're not being racist, we're just copying something from a movie" deflects the entire thing from them, re-affirms that they had no racist intentions, and they're just making kids toys based on pop-culture references. It costs them nothing, and establishes that if they have any beef they should look to Lucasfilm.

    If a company issued a statement like you suggest, they'd just be inviting more problems. If you were in charge of the company, you'd have a whole raft of lawyers and PR people telling you the exact same thing.

    My guess is if the Turkish Cultural Community of Austria now tried to go to court, the court is going to tell them what you suggested in the first place -- but it would be the courts doing it, not LEGO.

  13. Re:Ironic on Lego Accused of Racism With Star Wars Set · · Score: 2

    In USA the word Asian is reserved only for people you know the different eye

    I believe the word you're looking for is epicanthic fold.

    But, that forgets the fact that many Russians are Asian, because that's the continent they're on.

    Which mostly just shows that these categories aren't always obvious, because ... well, because it's complicated and doesn't match up with our neat little boxes.

  14. Re:Sorry to see Symbian go on Nokia's 808 PureView Officially the End of the Symbian Line · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm betting you'd only get the core OS, but most of the stuff related to actual telephony would be patented/proprietary.

    I'd be surprised if you could fully operate your phone with the open source bits -- but admittedly, that's mostly just a guess.

  15. No no no ... on Samsung Amps Up Its Multi-Window Android Upgrade · · Score: 2

    wireless carriers who offer Android smartphones to their customers, need ways to differentiate their products

    In my experience when carriers try to 'differentiate' their phones, they install shitware, cripple the device, and sometimes even modify it to cost you more money.

    Years ago when phones which could surf the web were new, a friend spent an entire weekend trying to reconcile his charged bandwidth with what he believed it should have been -- in the end, the way the carrier had injected themselves into the process ended up sending twice as much data. It could have been innocent, or it could have been a cash grab. The end result was the same, a slower more costly data plan.

    In my experience, the carrier specific stuff installed on a phone makes it worse. On my current Android phone, I disabled everything specific to the carrier and ended up with a *far* better phone, because they want to stick themselves into everything or sell you ring tones and other shit.

    Carriers usually aren't qualified to do a good job of this, and they're only looking out for their own profits.

  16. Re:Man, my head is reeling on Samsung Amps Up Its Multi-Window Android Upgrade · · Score: 1

    Not as long as it's plural, which "grammar Nazis" is. /End Pedantry

  17. Re:Which on Interviews: Ask What You Will of Paleontologist Jack Horner · · Score: 1

    Well, unless you live in Japan, you mean Wagyu, not Kobe.

    It's like Champagne and Parma ham ... only stuff which comes from that area gets that name (despite the US tendency to let people call it that).

  18. Re:FIghting the system is a mental health issue on Clay Shirky On Hackers and Depression: Where's the Love? · · Score: 1

    I have an even more radical solution: Go outside and/or be near a window during the day.

    And what would your clever solution do for people living at high enough latitudes that it isn't an option? My guess is nothing at all.

    I'm not even that far north, but in December by about 4:30pm it's dark, so in the winter months it's not uncommon for someone to drive to work in the dark, and drive home in the dark. I can't imagine some place where you got about 2-3 hours of daylight in the winter.

  19. Re:Which on Interviews: Ask What You Will of Paleontologist Jack Horner · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't it depend on what it ate?

    Your carrion eaters are going to be nasty, and your herbivores tastier -- at least, that's how it generally works.

    And then you can get more specific, like grass, corn or grain fed.

  20. What's it like to be proved right? on Interviews: Ask What You Will of Paleontologist Jack Horner · · Score: 1

    I seem to recall that years ago when people questioning if birds evolved from dinosaurs, you met a fair bit of skepticism.

    Recognizing the similarities between them has changed how we think of them as big, lumbering cold-blooded beasts.

    How's it feel now that acceptance of that idea has turned around the other way and you were right all along?

  21. Re:Good ... on Sony Fined In UK For PlayStation Network Hack · · Score: 1

    I don't know is this a good thing? What about small companies that just want to sell something?

    If you live in a place which has data protection laws like Europe, then you need to comply with them.

    Incompetent isn't a reason to not be adhering to the data security laws in the first place. Neither is "too hard".

  22. Good ... on Sony Fined In UK For PlayStation Network Hack · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If companies start to realize they're legally on the hook for data security maybe they'll start trying harder.

    So many of these security stories sound like they had a co-op student do it in an afternoon with no consideration for anything other than getting it done quickly.

  23. Re:It's all good and interesting... on Announcing Adafruit Gemma – Miniature Wearable Electronic Platform · · Score: 1

    In a way I'm glad this stuff isn't too popular... womens sweatpants flashing out morse code "juicy" isn't all that appealing.

    Speak for yourself ... me, I'll be in my bunk.

  24. Re:So what kind of "ban" is this? on Pakistan Boycotting Call of Duty, Medal of Honor Games · · Score: 2

    Contrary to popular perception, the average Pakistani probably hasn't even *seen* a gun.

    Based on what? Their constitution allows for gun ownership, and "There are an estimated 20 million firearms in public ownership, of which 7 million are registered among the country's population of 180 million.[8] The rate of private gun ownership is 11.6 firearms per 100 people".

    How could they have possible not at least seen a gun? The military tends to keep them on display from what I can tell from any news footage I've ever seen.

    I more get the impression that firearms are a daily thing you'd see instead of something rare.

  25. Re:Let's Make a Deal? on Have a Wi-Fi-Enabled Phone? Stores Are Tracking You · · Score: 1

    Of course not, he clearly operates purely on sarcasm.

    I've found things run a little lean on pure sarcasm -- a small amount of bitterness added makes for better fuel economy.