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User: AaronLawrence

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  1. Re:I am the Author on Book Review: Enyo: Up and Running · · Score: 1

    Hm. The very first paragraph on the home page says:

    Use the same framework to develop apps for the web and for all major platforms, desktop and mobile

    sounds like a focus to me!

  2. Re:I am the Author on Book Review: Enyo: Up and Running · · Score: 2

    Since it claims to produce desktop apps, it would be nice if the samples for Enyo actually included some desktop apps.

  3. Re:As a dentist who treats patients with Mt. Dew on Pepsi To Release New Breakfast Mountain Dew · · Score: 1

    But in addition to that, if you drank that one soda fairly quickly, it won't do a lot of harm to your teeth; if you sip it all day it will be terrible...

    So I think one soda, drunk in a few minutes, would probably be fine.

  4. Re:Applies to all outside software on Security Expert Says Java Vulnerability Could Take Years To Fix, Despite Patch · · Score: 1

    For the same reason, I'm nervous about all the new features being added to browsers such as WebRTC, video, and 3D support. All of those can and will have bugs and greatly increase the attack area. It seems tedious to have to repeat the cycle of "add awesome new feature, wait for exploits, exploits get serious, disable feature" for every brilliant new idea.

  5. Re:Safer than you think (I ran an Open AP before) on EFF And Others Push For Open Wifi APs Everywhere · · Score: 1

    So you'll only occasionally be accused of pedophilia. Good to know!

  6. Embarrassingly stupid question on Ask Slashdot: What Stands In the Way of a Truly Solar-Powered Airliner? · · Score: 1

    I would be quite embarrassed to have asked this on slashdot. Next up: why doesn't magic work?

  7. Re:Absolutely not. on Can Anyone Become a Programmer? · · Score: 2

    This sounds very interesting me, because in the last few years I had some major life changes, and afterwards found that I really quite dislike going into this state that makes for really productive programming. I now try to tackle it much more piecemeal and process oriented, and while I might be more thorough and thoughtful, I'm pretty sure it's much slower.

    So my conclusion is that this alpha state for programmers is something really unhealthy and maybe programming is quite damaging ...

  8. Re:Knife professional on Ask Slashdot: How Did You Become a Linux Professional? · · Score: 1

    You're right it's not black and white: but the problem is, even if you enjoy it, you probably don't enjoy doing it ALL THE TIME. At work, you have no choice; you've got to keep doing it, even if you don't currently feel like it or there's some aspect you don't enjoy.

    Yes, there really can be too much of a good thing.

  9. So they *really* can't let go of the Windows brand on Microsoft Unveils First New Company Logo In 25 Years · · Score: 2

    For years, Microsoft has been stuck on making everything "Windows". "Word for Windows". "Windows Live Messenger". "Windows Phone". Their marketing department seems convinced that it's their strongest brand and needs to be spread to absolutely everything, no matter how irrelevant.

    They clearly now have committed the whole company to it, building the Windows logo into the company logo.

    Personally, I think it's tedious and repititive and of little value. But they clearly aren't going to let go now...

  10. EReader ... but on Ask Slashdot: I Want To Read More. Should I Get an eBook Reader Or a Tablet? · · Score: 1

    I bought a cheap Kobo reader, and it's been a smooth transition from reading paperbacks - rarely - to reading ebooks regularly.
    The availability of a store for instant gratification is nice, although it's still severely limited in range (maybe a Kobo thing).
    The web browser is too crude to use daily, but I think shows that it would be quite nice to read web pages on an e-Ink device.

    The Kobo has a nice looking UI, but everything else is a bit clumsy; PC software was clunky, store is clunky, performance is patchy. I just got it because I had some vouchers and it was cheap. And for plain reading, it's fine.

  11. Re:I find this depressing on Neutrino-Powered Financial Trading In Our Future? · · Score: 1

    high frequency trading adds liquidity to markets that might otherwise be illiquid

    Does it really? Or is that just a hypothetical? I would imagine HFT is only worth doing in markets that are already liquid.

    quantitative trading has pushed the boundaries of the high performance computing market

    In other news, glaziers are experiencing a boom from the number of broken windows.

  12. Re:Wasn't there a time when... on What's Next For Superhero Movies? · · Score: 1

    Shoot Em Up was kind of in this vein, and a lot of fun

  13. Re:Mac vs. the Linux Desktop on OS X Mountain Lion Out Tomorrow · · Score: 1

    My impression was there was huge progress from 1995 to (say) 2005ish. But after that things slowed. Essentially the Linux desktop was good enough, but Linux as a platform is now held back by other non-technical things: the kernel "no ABI" philosophy, the fragmented distributions, Windows is now also "good enough", specific applications that businesses rely on (Office, Photoshop, etc) even if there are equivalents.

  14. Re:Well deserved on Facebook API Bug Deletes Contact Info On Phones · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and nobody would have expected even Facebook to fail this hard

    Huh? Facebook has pretty stated that their strategy is to try major, risky changes at high speed and retract them if necessary. A careful, backwards-compatible, regression tested release process is the opposite of what they do.

    So: I would say anyone trusting facebook with their critical data is a fool.

  15. Re:Good luck on Phoronix Confirms GNU/Linux Steam and Source Engine Clients · · Score: 1

    Yes, indeed that does answer the questions, but that's not really what Linux users probably have in mind :)

    Then it's a matter of "launching a new console", which is an extremely difficult problem (mostly - getting big game houses on board and marketing $$$ to be visible to consumers).

  16. Re:Good luck on Phoronix Confirms GNU/Linux Steam and Source Engine Clients · · Score: 2

    Perhaps I'm being naive, but Steam only solves one part of the "problem" of games on Linux. Many other difficult technical problems remain, such as the fragmentation of distros, poor 3D video drivers/performance, fragmented APIs such as audio.
    And then there all the "marketing" problems, such as that many Linux users are not interested in paying for games, or want open source, or also run Windows for games.

  17. Re:An x86 pocket PC on Review of the First Medfield Phone · · Score: 1

    imagine using all your favorite desktop apps on your phone

    No thanks, that would suck. The success of iPhone followed by Android shows that people want new software (or at least software with a new UI) suited to the form factor. In any case, my favourite desktop apps now consist of a web browser, and ... um. An IDE? Good luck using that on a phone.

  18. Re:Study shows... on Study: Online Dating Makes People "Picky" and "Unrealistic" · · Score: 1

    Well. I used to think the same too. But in reality I was just suppressing the pain, and it came bubbling back up eventually. Humans are biologically wired to be with a mate, just like most animals, and those instincts and desires don't really go away...

  19. Re:Optical? on What Microsoft Should and Shouldn't Do For the Xbox 720 · · Score: 1

    As a game artist myself, you can never have textures with too much resolution [...] or models with too much detail.

    As a player, I stopped caring about improved resolution some time ago. Current PS3 games have enough. It would be a minor nicety to have more resolution, but only if it was free (ie. didn't hurt framerates, load times, effort put into gameplay, etc).

  20. Hybrid works if the SSD is good, but ... on Is the Time Finally Right For Hybrid Hard Drives? · · Score: 1

    We are using Intel's "Smart Response Technology" which uses a small 20GB mSATA SSD on the motherboard in conjunction with a regular hard drive.
    It can cache both reads and [optionally] writes.
    In read/write cache mode, it gives about 80% of the performance boost of using the pure SSD, for our Visual Studio 2010 disk thrashing.

    However, these are good quality Intel SSDs, not the "cheapest flash chip I could find to bung in my hard disk" that the all-in-one hybrid drives seem to use.

  21. Re:Well... on Paywalled NYT Now Has 300,000 Online Subscribers · · Score: 1

    Exactly: the big "problem" with online advertising is that it can be tracked, and so it's obvious that people mostly ignore it. So it exposes advertising as much less valuable than it has been presented as before.

  22. No version control, or just nothing called that? on Ask Slashdot: Standard Software Development Environments? · · Score: 1

    Most places do have a rough form of version control, as simple as zips backed up to a server. These kinds of low-tech unofficial approaches seem ugly, but basically do the job for a single developer or several independents.

  23. Re:Deliberately behind the times on Ask Slashdot: Standard Software Development Environments? · · Score: 1

    I would also add that TFS feels a bit unfinished. The basic design is pretty good, but certain small but very useful things are missing in the UI, e.g.:
    the merge/compare tools cannot ignore case or whitespace (!)
    there is no rollback in the GUI (until a recent Powertools addon, which is flakey)
    In some places you can get to the history of a file, in others not
    There is no easy way to search your bugs (work items)!

  24. Search engine? on Book Review: Definitive Guide To Drupal 7 · · Score: 1

    1112 pages about web technologoy printed on paper? What a curious idea. How does the search engine work?

  25. Diginotar's responses: irritating on Rogue SSL Certs Issued For CIA, MI6, Mossad · · Score: 1

    On Diginotar's site you can barely tell anything happened, except for a small "security incident" press release.
    They are still trying to minimise it when it seems likely the whole company will be shut down for complete failure.
    Cowards.