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User: gilesjuk

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  1. Compromised on Lenovo To Offer $200 Budget Tablet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Except it's a 7 inch tablet with a widescreen ratio screen. So when holding in portrait it looks silly, too narrow and too tall.

    These compromises are why they get overlooked.

  2. Re:None of it ever happened. Marketing Hype. on Did Apple Impersonate Police To Recover the Lost iPhone 5? · · Score: 1

    It's one way of announcing the product without announcing it. It lets people know it is nearly ready without having a formal announcement where all the specifications are laid down and dissected by the media.

  3. Logo on How Do You Explain Software Development To 2nd Graders? · · Score: 1

    Logo was my first experience (alongside BASIC) of programming.

    It's quite a simple thing to pick up and it shows them how to make shapes.

    It was designed for education too:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)

  4. Re:Again Apples business on Apple's Chinese Suppliers Accused of Causing Significant Environmental Damage · · Score: 1

    People name check Apple because they are doing well. It would be Microsoft if they captured the peoples imagination.

    It's not like Apple don't audit these people. But they can't be there 24/7 and 365 days of the year.

  5. Re:If HP really wants to re-invent themselves on Ex-Board Member Says HP Is Committing 'Corporate Suicide' · · Score: 1

    Great, so what HP needs to succeed is an inferior hardware product that costs twice or three times as much as the competition?

    As much as people like to think that their own country can assemble and produce a better product, places like China and Taiwan are geared up to doing such work. The chips are made near by, the boards are made near by and there's plenty of people to do the work.

  6. Re:I'll save some time for everyone on The Latest Web Browser Grand Prix · · Score: 0

    They ran their tests on a hackintosh from what I can see. They mention the OSX tests were not run on Apple hardware.

    Now that probably doesn't make a huge difference, it just depends how good the hardware is and how they've make the hackintosh version of OSX.

  7. Track record? on Ex-Board Member Says HP Is Committing 'Corporate Suicide' · · Score: 1

    Do they have any track record in enterprise software?

    It seems like HP is just another tech firm looking for the next bandwagon. But ultimately they don't have the courage and conviction to stay on it until it gets where they want it to go.

    This is hardly encouraging for customers who don't like their platform investment to be wiped out by scatter-brain CEOs.

  8. Re:Better Idea on SignalGuru Helps Drivers Avoid Red Lights · · Score: 1

    We have both in the UK. The roundabouts work until the roads get to a certain level of traffic and then they put traffic lights on the roundabouts which are often full time lights. Nothing more irritating than stopping at traffic lights at 1am on empty roads.

  9. Wrong way around on SignalGuru Helps Drivers Avoid Red Lights · · Score: 3

    Put more sensors and "intelligence" in the traffic lights and let people drive around as normal.

    Traffic light systems are really stupid, last night I was driving home at 2am and came to some traffic lights, they changed to red and there was no other cars around.

  10. Re:I hate running on Tribute To Steve Jobs: a 21km Apple Logo in Tokyo · · Score: 2

    I think you're getting running mixed up with Golf.

  11. Re:Fever? on Acer CEO Declares a Tablets Bubble · · Score: 1

    Wrong. Tablets were around for 10 years but they were without a touch screen friendly OS.

    The iPad has a UI designed for the touchscreen. It is why you never really feel the need for a mouse or keyboard.

    The reason the mouse and keyboard feel most comfortable when using Windows is because that is what Windows was designed for. Also, you tend to have the screen further away when using a PC or laptop and therefore touching the screen isn't ergonomically friendly.

  12. Re:Brilliant idea! on The Press Reacts To Steve Jobs' Departure — in 1985 · · Score: 1

    Look at Microsoft under Ballmer, the creative spark has gone.

    When Jobs left Apple in 1985 they bumbled along producing revisions of Macs and Mac OS that added very little. It took until 2001 and 4 years of Jobs to get a new OS with proper multitasking. OSX was based on all the work done at NeXT. Some of that work could have happened while he was at Apple and OSX (with a different name) could have been released in the 80s or 90s.

  13. Mobile and server OS on Linus' First Linux Post, 20 Years Ago Today · · Score: 1

    I bet he didn't see that it would be a popular embedded and server OS either.

    Many seem to think Linux will grow on the desktop but that's unlikely to happen. It's easier to move into new markets.

  14. Rewarding laziness on Atari Targets Retro Community With Cease & Desist · · Score: 1

    Such long copyrights and brand names being traded around is pure laziness. The people buying brands and capitalising on IP created nearly 30 years ago.

    Personally I see that there's a case for having all patents, copyright and other IP die with the company when they go bust. It offers an incentive to be creative and not take massive risks.

  15. Drivers do more than one thing on Patent Applications Hint Apple Wants To Eliminate Printer Drivers · · Score: 1

    Drivers are more than just translating printer data into print outs. They have control panels for features in the printer. Multiple trays and the like.

    Getting rid of printer drivers would mean having to handle these device specific features and even if you added facilities to handle these unique features there may be a situation that can't be handled.

  16. Re:Sounds pretty easy on What's the Carbon Footprint of Bicycling? · · Score: 1

    I know someone who did 162 miles in one go, off road on a mountain bike. It was a 24-hour endurance event.

    Pretty much everything on a bicycle is simpler, lighter and more efficient than a car. Although the lifespan of some of the parts can be lower, bearings, chain and so on.

    But the biggest advantage is everything is user repairable given some knowledge. Unlike the increasingly complex car engines and ECUs.

  17. Re:Never been a problem... on The Death of Booting Up · · Score: 1

    Well, it was more that there was no resource tracking on the Amiga. So if an application crashed it would not then deallocate its memory. There was also no memory protection.

    But this was down to the CPUs not having memory management units (MMU), even when you did have an MMU the OS wasn't written to use it. It would have required a rewrite of the kernel and applications.

    Of course, an MMU was handy for debugging purposes.

  18. Funded by who? on Bing More Effective Than Google? · · Score: 2

    Who funded the research?

    It does often tend to skew the results in the favour of the person who commissioned the report.

  19. Re:This was proposed in Oregon on Dutch Government To Tax Drivers Based On Car Use · · Score: 1

    We've looked at similar things in the UK.

    Surely this system will track where you are and at what time you drive?

    A fuel efficient car isn't efficient if it is sat idling in a traffic jam in the rush hour. Yet a car that is less fuel efficient will be emitting less pollution if it is driven at night on a clear road.

    It's about trying to reduce traffic queues by making it more expensive to drive at peak times.

  20. Re:Come again? on New Serial ATA Standards Target SSDs, Tablets · · Score: 2

    It's for tablets. You simply don't have room inside for big bulky connectors that nobody is ever going to get access to.

  21. Re:"Walmart will keep its DRM servers online" on Walmart To Close Online Music Store · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who knows. But really they should be forced to unlock all the music from DRM.

  22. Business on Ask Slashdot: What OS For a Donated Computer? · · Score: 1

    Businesses are almost totally Windows based. It is only when you get into the server room that you'll find Linux. So if you're setting someone up to work with Windows in later life that would be the choice. But there may be a lot more tablet use in 10 years.

    But I used an Amiga up until about 1998 and on that I learned how to program C and other things. It's not held back my knowledge of Windows.

  23. Re:Technology Blamed For Helping UK Rioters on Technology Blamed For Helping UK Rioters · · Score: 1

    Disaffected? that would explain people going out and smashing things up, but these are people who are well organised:

    See quote from a Facebook group I'm on about it:

    150-200 rioters were involved, armed with crowbars and baseball bats. Smashed windows, about 30 grand worth of stock got nicked from a jewellery shop, £70,000 from an electronics shop.

    Sounds more like criminals to me.

  24. Re:Technology Blamed For Helping UK Rioters on Technology Blamed For Helping UK Rioters · · Score: 1

    Rubbish. These are criminal gangs being organised by a ring leader using phones to alert each other of Police activity. There's a lot of goods being stolen.

    The Police used to have the upper hand with their radios but now the rioters have the same sort of capability.

    Also, what would you do if you were under attack, give in and hope they go away? of course not, you'd get the biggest gun you could find and fire back.

  25. Re:Gaming + laptop = contradiction on External Thunderbolt Graphics Card On Its Way · · Score: 1

    People who are fanatical gamers but also have a job where they are on the road a lot?