The real appeal of the Kindle Fire and the Nook are their inexpensiveness and availability without a contract.
The hardware is the only thing that counts, the operating system is irrelevant since it would be wiped out with a Cyanogen mod.
I don't think you understand what the Cyangen mod is. It is only a modification of Android. The quality or lack there of in the OS is extremely important but I guess that you really don't give a crap about that since you chose Android in the first place.
Mod or no mod, Android has problems with UI latency and audio latency which is one of the reasons why you don't see high quality music creation software on Android whereas you do on iOS.
Looking at the zoomed-in screen shots in TFA, I can't help feeling that Apple's font rendering was better even allowing for their higher DPI.
Apple has worked hard on having "accurate" font rendering/smoothing which has in the past been criticized as being more blurry than Windows cleartype but with a retina display, you don't notice any of the softness and it just looks as smooth as a printed page even up close.
On a high DPI display, that ATSUI technology can really shine especially with scripts like Kanji and Hiragana.
How the hell is this insightful? With the original CRT iMac going forward, you could take any third party USB mouse, plug it in and have your two or more mouse buttons.
Although I both loved the idea of the courier (details here: http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet) and understood the idea of cancelling the project, I'm not really sure I understand your reasoning. Why would a tablet, or the double-screened-courier for that matter, not fit in directly with the Windows and Office cullture?
Bill Gates did not like the concept. It was too different from his concept of what a tablet should be.
Projects like the Courier were killed because the MS Office and Windows divisions felt threatened. Microsoft is afraid of having products that do not somehow directly tie into the Windows and Office culture and because of that, they will not have a successful product beyond the XBox and their Windows PCs and servers.
Microsoft needs to dump Ballmer and reorganize into several organizational units like Sony so that they can have products that do not necessarily interoperate and sometimes even fight each other in the market.
Why is it that Microsoft can't seem to do anything until some one else does it and it's usually Apple?
You seem to be under the impression that Apple do things first themselves. MP3 players, tablets, smart phones, personal computers, set top TV boxes, routers, online music services operating systems.... there were products in all of these categories before Apple introduced their offerings. In some cases Microsoft had products in these categories before Apple! I think you are missing the point. Apple did not invent those categories, they reinvented them. Apple made them accessible to the common man which is something that Microsoft is incapable of doing. Microsoft is focused on corporate customers which is why they price their OS upgrades too high and why they release operating systems often years apart. Microsoft would have to replace their CEO and other leadership in order to compete.
MSFT could try emulating Sony for example. They have various division that sometimes compete with each other and at other times even team up with competition against another division. Because of Microsoft's monolithic structure, products like the Courier never made it to market because the Windows and Office teams felt threatened by it.
I think the point is, someone always did something like your product before. It doesn't matter if you're Apple, Microsoft, Google or whoever else. There are practically no new ideas out there. You'd be hard pressed to point to any product, without me being able to point to a similar predecessor. Microsoft had tablets before Apple did. Sure Apple's were more successful and better designed, but Microsoft was in the space before them. Same with smart phones.
The iPod Touch wasn't just a media player. It was a portable computing device that was also a media player, internet browser, email application, etc.
A.K.A. a PDA.
Except that PDAs were designed for business people and this one is designed for consumers. I function, it might be a PDA but the form is different. It is a evolution of the concept.
want an integrated user platform that they can manage from a single console. What they can save on support engineers, management tools, training and other expenses they perceive are associated with running multiple platforms might just be enough to justify and extra few hundred bucks a seat.
Fixed that for you. The executives really don't give a crap about what platforms are used. What they care about is security, availability and being able to run the software they need to get the job done. Security does not require AD integration of every device. You can use VPN, device provisioning and solutions like Citrix receiver and Xen desktop. The IT people are afraid of change and fear for their jobs. I would know because I used to be one of them before I became a developer.
shareholders have been waiting patiently for a decade to see some share appreciation on MSFT
How is this necessary? Why can't shareholders just treat MSFT as a value stock that pays dividends instead of a growth stock, like in other mature markets?
Why is it necessary? Inflation for one, and the fact that historically, the stock has had gradual depreciation that cannot be made up by any amount of stock. Even for billionaires, it is not a money maker if you factor in inflation.
A value stock has to at least keep up with inflation or the dividends must more than offset that depreciation based on inflation. However, if the stock depreciates in value of actual current dollars then you are losing money hand over fist when you factor in inflation.
I don't know about you but I keep my money either in a wallet or money clip in my pocket. I also keep my passport at the hotel in a safe if I'm not required to carry it with me within the country. If I have excess cash then I try to keep that cash in a safe at the hotel again and only carry what I will need for the day.
When I visited Cancun, I had my passport, a money clip and a set of credit/bank cards in elastic in my front pockets along with the room keycard. You should alway try to limit your exposure when you are out and about.
If the government insists on collecting income tax and sales tax from me then I demand that they start representing me. Here is what I want them to say to the Canadian IP Council: GTFO.
I not only pay my taxes but I buy music and TV shows from iTunes. However, I have no interest in seem more laws. I want smaller government, not a larger welfare state for the corporations or individuals. Corporations should be forced to use civil courts for their grievances for copyright. It should be considered breach of contract or license and not a criminal act.
I think the double standard come from the simple fact that no "serious" GPL advocate has ever tried to sue or extort money from mere users of GPL programs. On the other hand, the "evil" studios or their henchmen (army of lawyer types) appear hellbent on making every freeloading downloader pay. Typical targets of GPL "threats" tend to be companies not individual users.
The GPL is not a EULA (End User License Agreement) which is funny because I have seen several GPL'ed products display the GPL on the installation screen. What am I supposed to do with that license? The installer does not install the source code and I am not compiling anything. The GPL is a "source" license, not an end user agreement. While the GPL might try to impose conditions on the original compiler and distributor of the binary derived from that code base, I am under no obligation to follow the GPL since I will not use the source code. I think it's fine to include the GPL as a separate file and references to the GPL in the program about screen but it is not an agreement that I should have to agree to on the installer wizard.
I may have a compiler on my computer and know how to use it but GPL advocates should pretend that any recipient of a binary has no interest in the source code.
Why would a "God" need to perform an experiment, when He already knows the outcome?
For the same reason a freshman chemistry lab instructor does. God knows that Satan is wrong, but Satan is being given a chance to have it his way so that people can ultimately realize just how wrong Satan is.
...and condemning anyone who dare believe what they see to an eternity of torture, right? Wow, God sure is a sadistic fuck.
A couple of problems here. First, you obviously don't believe in or understand the concept of free will. How much of a paradise would heaven be if you were forced there against your own will? Second, you seem to have a lack of understanding how "relationships" work. You cannot force someone to love you.
Also, what people in hell will be tortured with is a form or what they took pleasure in while on earth. Glutenous people for example, will be forced to eat themselves to death for all eternity. They are getting what they sought in life.
Selfish people in life did not give a damn about anyone but themselves in life or consider how their actions could affect others so they will be deprived of the love of others.
Seriously, are you expecting god to force people to love him after they die or something? The people who are saved did not "earn" salvation, all the did was accept the gift offered to them. What condemns them is pride which is what caused the downfall of the devil. If you think that you are the centre of the universe then you will be left without god's love.
Do you like unsolicited mail? Wouldn't you rather be given the option to receive a gift rather than having it forced into your hands?
We should all take a look at how estimates of the earth's age http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_Earth and go from there. Notice how scientists started with estimates of up to 100's of millions of years without a shred of evidence? They were based on "models" and current estimates are also based on assumptions and models. They are based on meteorite samples which were being bombarded with a lot more cosmic radiation than what we would see on earth which would throw off any estimates based on radioactive decay significantly. There is also the concern about how most models assume that the moon and earth formed around the same time and yet the moon appears to be much younger than previously thought.
Most people don't have a problem with classical science and the scientific method but they do have a problem with the apparent "moving of goal posts" that seems to be happening with regularity in modern science.
There is nothing wrong with adjusting your view point but fudging the numbers by adding new variables such as "dark matter" and "dark energy" should not be allowed. You should be forced to create a new model if they existing one does not work. In any other field, you are forced to go back to the drawing board. A lot of people see "dark matter" and "dark energy" as nothing more than a more scientific for names for invisible pink unicorns and fairy dust.
Why do people on the internet believe scientist without question? They are human beings first and scientists second which means that they can lie and cheat like anyone else. They are not beyond reproach.
I think the IOC has strayed way too far from the original principles of the olympic games and it might be time to reboot the games.
We all have a responsibility to "vote" with our wallets and eyes by refusing to buy anything related to the olympics and to not watch the games. Stop the madness and save the original spirit of the games. The games were supposed to be about amateur sport, not money.
Sorry, what? When I write an email or text on my Android the entire text gets sent to Google? Even if I decide not to send it?
That would depend on what your settings were for your gmail account. By default, iCloud email settings have drafts stored on the IMAP server but you can set the drafts folder to reside on your iPhone but then you defeat the purpose of IMAP which is to use your client as a cache for what is on the server. If you use the Google voice recognition features to dictate an email or text on your Android device then, yes, the entire text will be stored on Google servers regardless of whether you decide to send it.
The issue is that, when using Siri, the full recording is sent back to Apple's servers where they perform processing. This could allow them to do spy stuff with what people falsely assumed was privat einformation, since a lot of people don't realise that anything you tell Siri you also tell Apple HQ.
Now, are Apple doing evil with what Siri sends them? Probably not. but when you're the CIO of a billion dollar tech company you probably don't want to base your company's technological future on "it's probably fine".
Voice dictation software on Android does the same thing. It will have to store that text on their servers for a period of time regardless of whether you send the message or whether or not you have configured your IMAP or exchange account to store drafts on the server.
Don't forget that Google is an advertising company and they have openly admitted to scanning gmail for keywords for targeted ads.
Or maybe the fact that Apple knows WHO is doing the queries, and also that Siri collects a bunch of other stuff like names from your address book and 'other unspecified user data' makes it MUCH less secure.
Uh, same with Android. Google knows everything you do.
The purpose of an API is to allow "your" code to interoperate with "their" code. They were never meant as a means for you to "clone" their product. API stands for Application Programming Interface. It describes how to call functionality within the other codebase.
I'm kind of on the fence on this one. It seems to me that if you own a license of a product that then deliberately "clone" the API of that product to replace it with your own that you could be violating the license of that product. Google knowingly created a "clone" of the Java JVM rather that creating their own language like MSFT did. While C# is arguably heavily influenced by Java, it is still its own distinct language with its own API calls where you cannot directly port java code without modification.
Google not only cloned Java but continues to refer to "Java" throughout their documentation and call the language that you code against Dalvik "JAVA". That is my mind crosses the line.
Perhaps you should re-read it again. Take a look at Genesis chapter five. It is the genealogy from Adam to Noah. If you look up the meaning of each name in that progression you will see that there is a hidden message for the world. It was a kind of "spoiler" encoded in the names. Keep in mind that Genesis (first book of Moses) was written many centuries before christianity came on the scene. Also keep in mind that the Jewish people living in the first century Judea were looking for a messiah who would drive out the romans and rule as an earthly king.
Genesis Chapter 5 names and their meaning:
Adam = man
Seth = appointed
Enosh = Mortal
Kenan = sorrow
Mahalalel = the Blessed God
Jared = shall come down
Enoch = teaching
Methuselah = his death shall bring
Lamech = The despairing
Noah - Rest, or comfort
It describes a messiah who is both man and the blessed god coming down to teach and die to bring forth rest/relief/comfort for a fallen humanity.
Slashdot Mirror
The real appeal of the Kindle Fire and the Nook are their inexpensiveness and availability without a contract.
The hardware is the only thing that counts, the operating system is irrelevant since it would be wiped out with a Cyanogen mod.
I don't think you understand what the Cyangen mod is. It is only a modification of Android. The quality or lack there of in the OS is extremely important but I guess that you really don't give a crap about that since you chose Android in the first place.
Mod or no mod, Android has problems with UI latency and audio latency which is one of the reasons why you don't see high quality music creation software on Android whereas you do on iOS.
Looking at the zoomed-in screen shots in TFA, I can't help feeling that Apple's font rendering was better even allowing for their higher DPI.
Apple has worked hard on having "accurate" font rendering/smoothing which has in the past been criticized as being more blurry than Windows cleartype but with a retina display, you don't notice any of the softness and it just looks as smooth as a printed page even up close.
On a high DPI display, that ATSUI technology can really shine especially with scripts like Kanji and Hiragana.
How the hell is this insightful? With the original CRT iMac going forward, you could take any third party USB mouse, plug it in and have your two or more mouse buttons.
Although I both loved the idea of the courier (details here: http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet) and understood the idea of cancelling the project, I'm not really sure I understand your reasoning. Why would a tablet, or the double-screened-courier for that matter, not fit in directly with the Windows and Office cullture?
Bill Gates did not like the concept. It was too different from his concept of what a tablet should be.
See:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20128013-75/the-inside-story-of-how-microsoft-killed-its-courier-tablet/
Projects like the Courier were killed because the MS Office and Windows divisions felt threatened. Microsoft is afraid of having products that do not somehow directly tie into the Windows and Office culture and because of that, they will not have a successful product beyond the XBox and their Windows PCs and servers.
Microsoft needs to dump Ballmer and reorganize into several organizational units like Sony so that they can have products that do not necessarily interoperate and sometimes even fight each other in the market.
Why is it that Microsoft can't seem to do anything until some one else does it and it's usually Apple?
You seem to be under the impression that Apple do things first themselves. MP3 players, tablets, smart phones, personal computers, set top TV boxes, routers, online music services operating systems.... there were products in all of these categories before Apple introduced their offerings. In some cases Microsoft had products in these categories before Apple!
I think you are missing the point. Apple did not invent those categories, they reinvented them. Apple made them accessible to the common man which is something that Microsoft is incapable of doing. Microsoft is focused on corporate customers which is why they price their OS upgrades too high and why they release operating systems often years apart. Microsoft would have to replace their CEO and other leadership in order to compete.
MSFT could try emulating Sony for example. They have various division that sometimes compete with each other and at other times even team up with competition against another division. Because of Microsoft's monolithic structure, products like the Courier never made it to market because the Windows and Office teams felt threatened by it.
I think the point is, someone always did something like your product before. It doesn't matter if you're Apple, Microsoft, Google or whoever else. There are practically no new ideas out there. You'd be hard pressed to point to any product, without me being able to point to a similar predecessor. Microsoft had tablets before Apple did. Sure Apple's were more successful and better designed, but Microsoft was in the space before them. Same with smart phones.
The iPod Touch wasn't just a media player. It was a portable computing device that was also a media player, internet browser, email application, etc.
A.K.A. a PDA.
Except that PDAs were designed for business people and this one is designed for consumers. I function, it might be a PDA but the form is different. It is a evolution of the concept.
IT MCSE drones
want an integrated user platform that they can manage from a single console. What they can save on support engineers, management tools, training and other expenses they perceive are associated with running multiple platforms might just be enough to justify and extra few hundred bucks a seat.
Fixed that for you. The executives really don't give a crap about what platforms are used. What they care about is security, availability and being able to run the software they need to get the job done. Security does not require AD integration of every device. You can use VPN, device provisioning and solutions like Citrix receiver and Xen desktop. The IT people are afraid of change and fear for their jobs. I would know because I used to be one of them before I became a developer.
shareholders have been waiting patiently for a decade to see some share appreciation on MSFT
How is this necessary? Why can't shareholders just treat MSFT as a value stock that pays dividends instead of a growth stock, like in other mature markets?
Why is it necessary? Inflation for one, and the fact that historically, the stock has had gradual depreciation that cannot be made up by any amount of stock. Even for billionaires, it is not a money maker if you factor in inflation.
A value stock has to at least keep up with inflation or the dividends must more than offset that depreciation based on inflation. However, if the stock depreciates in value of actual current dollars then you are losing money hand over fist when you factor in inflation.
Or a bit more than one, with displays pushing at least as many pixels and SSDs that large.
Link please. I have yet to see a desktop display with a resolution like that.
Seriously, it should support Wifi in this day in age and there should be an obvious "buy" link on the about page.
I don't know about you but I keep my money either in a wallet or money clip in my pocket. I also keep my passport at the hotel in a safe if I'm not required to carry it with me within the country. If I have excess cash then I try to keep that cash in a safe at the hotel again and only carry what I will need for the day.
When I visited Cancun, I had my passport, a money clip and a set of credit/bank cards in elastic in my front pockets along with the room keycard. You should alway try to limit your exposure when you are out and about.
If the government insists on collecting income tax and sales tax from me then I demand that they start representing me. Here is what I want them to say to the Canadian IP Council: GTFO.
I not only pay my taxes but I buy music and TV shows from iTunes. However, I have no interest in seem more laws. I want smaller government, not a larger welfare state for the corporations or individuals. Corporations should be forced to use civil courts for their grievances for copyright. It should be considered breach of contract or license and not a criminal act.
Stop using my tax money for your crap.
I think the double standard come from the simple fact that no "serious" GPL advocate has ever tried to sue or extort money from mere users of GPL programs. On the other hand, the "evil" studios or their henchmen (army of lawyer types) appear hellbent on making every freeloading downloader pay. Typical targets of GPL "threats" tend to be companies not individual users.
The GPL is not a EULA (End User License Agreement) which is funny because I have seen several GPL'ed products display the GPL on the installation screen. What am I supposed to do with that license? The installer does not install the source code and I am not compiling anything. The GPL is a "source" license, not an end user agreement. While the GPL might try to impose conditions on the original compiler and distributor of the binary derived from that code base, I am under no obligation to follow the GPL since I will not use the source code. I think it's fine to include the GPL as a separate file and references to the GPL in the program about screen but it is not an agreement that I should have to agree to on the installer wizard.
I may have a compiler on my computer and know how to use it but GPL advocates should pretend that any recipient of a binary has no interest in the source code.
You can use the Monodevelop IDE to develop on windows using the .NET framework. While it might not be VS, it is free.
Why would a "God" need to perform an experiment, when He already knows the outcome?
For the same reason a freshman chemistry lab instructor does. God knows that Satan is wrong, but Satan is being given a chance to have it his way so that people can ultimately realize just how wrong Satan is.
...and condemning anyone who dare believe what they see to an eternity of torture, right? Wow, God sure is a sadistic fuck.
A couple of problems here. First, you obviously don't believe in or understand the concept of free will. How much of a paradise would heaven be if you were forced there against your own will? Second, you seem to have a lack of understanding how "relationships" work. You cannot force someone to love you.
Also, what people in hell will be tortured with is a form or what they took pleasure in while on earth. Glutenous people for example, will be forced to eat themselves to death for all eternity. They are getting what they sought in life.
Selfish people in life did not give a damn about anyone but themselves in life or consider how their actions could affect others so they will be deprived of the love of others.
Seriously, are you expecting god to force people to love him after they die or something? The people who are saved did not "earn" salvation, all the did was accept the gift offered to them. What condemns them is pride which is what caused the downfall of the devil. If you think that you are the centre of the universe then you will be left without god's love.
Do you like unsolicited mail? Wouldn't you rather be given the option to receive a gift rather than having it forced into your hands?
We should all take a look at how estimates of the earth's age http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_Earth and go from there. Notice how scientists started with estimates of up to 100's of millions of years without a shred of evidence? They were based on "models" and current estimates are also based on assumptions and models. They are based on meteorite samples which were being bombarded with a lot more cosmic radiation than what we would see on earth which would throw off any estimates based on radioactive decay significantly. There is also the concern about how most models assume that the moon and earth formed around the same time and yet the moon appears to be much younger than previously thought.
Most people don't have a problem with classical science and the scientific method but they do have a problem with the apparent "moving of goal posts" that seems to be happening with regularity in modern science.
There is nothing wrong with adjusting your view point but fudging the numbers by adding new variables such as "dark matter" and "dark energy" should not be allowed. You should be forced to create a new model if they existing one does not work. In any other field, you are forced to go back to the drawing board. A lot of people see "dark matter" and "dark energy" as nothing more than a more scientific for names for invisible pink unicorns and fairy dust.
Why do people on the internet believe scientist without question? They are human beings first and scientists second which means that they can lie and cheat like anyone else. They are not beyond reproach.
I think the IOC has strayed way too far from the original principles of the olympic games and it might be time to reboot the games.
We all have a responsibility to "vote" with our wallets and eyes by refusing to buy anything related to the olympics and to not watch the games. Stop the madness and save the original spirit of the games. The games were supposed to be about amateur sport, not money.
We know you are there. We just don't care.
And they should be thankful for that. When it comes to foreign countries, we've only got two modes: Apathy and Ass-kicking.
You don't like being ignored? Ok, how about we teach you to know your place? It's ass kicking time.
War of 1812, Vietnam war, Bay of Pigs... shall I continue?
Sorry, what? When I write an email or text on my Android the entire text gets sent to Google? Even if I decide not to send it?
That would depend on what your settings were for your gmail account. By default, iCloud email settings have drafts stored on the IMAP server but you can set the drafts folder to reside on your iPhone but then you defeat the purpose of IMAP which is to use your client as a cache for what is on the server. If you use the Google voice recognition features to dictate an email or text on your Android device then, yes, the entire text will be stored on Google servers regardless of whether you decide to send it.
The issue is that, when using Siri, the full recording is sent back to Apple's servers where they perform processing. This could allow them to do spy stuff with what people falsely assumed was privat einformation, since a lot of people don't realise that anything you tell Siri you also tell Apple HQ.
Now, are Apple doing evil with what Siri sends them? Probably not. but when you're the CIO of a billion dollar tech company you probably don't want to base your company's technological future on "it's probably fine".
Voice dictation software on Android does the same thing. It will have to store that text on their servers for a period of time regardless of whether you send the message or whether or not you have configured your IMAP or exchange account to store drafts on the server.
Don't forget that Google is an advertising company and they have openly admitted to scanning gmail for keywords for targeted ads.
Or maybe the fact that Apple knows WHO is doing the queries, and also that Siri collects a bunch of other stuff like names from your address book and 'other unspecified user data' makes it MUCH less secure.
Uh, same with Android. Google knows everything you do.
I will renounce my citizenship if this goes through.
The purpose of an API is to allow "your" code to interoperate with "their" code. They were never meant as a means for you to "clone" their product. API stands for Application Programming Interface. It describes how to call functionality within the other codebase.
I'm kind of on the fence on this one. It seems to me that if you own a license of a product that then deliberately "clone" the API of that product to replace it with your own that you could be violating the license of that product. Google knowingly created a "clone" of the Java JVM rather that creating their own language like MSFT did. While C# is arguably heavily influenced by Java, it is still its own distinct language with its own API calls where you cannot directly port java code without modification.
Google not only cloned Java but continues to refer to "Java" throughout their documentation and call the language that you code against Dalvik "JAVA". That is my mind crosses the line.
Perhaps you should re-read it again. Take a look at Genesis chapter five. It is the genealogy from Adam to Noah. If you look up the meaning of each name in that progression you will see that there is a hidden message for the world. It was a kind of "spoiler" encoded in the names. Keep in mind that Genesis (first book of Moses) was written many centuries before christianity came on the scene. Also keep in mind that the Jewish people living in the first century Judea were looking for a messiah who would drive out the romans and rule as an earthly king.
Genesis Chapter 5 names and their meaning:
Adam = man
Seth = appointed
Enosh = Mortal
Kenan = sorrow
Mahalalel = the Blessed God
Jared = shall come down
Enoch = teaching
Methuselah = his death shall bring
Lamech = The despairing
Noah - Rest, or comfort
It describes a messiah who is both man and the blessed god coming down to teach and die to bring forth rest/relief/comfort for a fallen humanity.
See:
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0105.htm#1
The majority of people do not overclock their CPUs so this is not an issue for the majority.