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User: barryfandango

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  1. ULTRA! on Real Nanotechnology Getting Closer, Says Drexler · · Score: 1

    Is it really necessary to prefix "diamond nanorods" with "ultrathin"? Is this to differentiate them from superfat diamond nanorods?

  2. still on 2.0 on Firefox 2 and Gecko 1.8 End of Life · · Score: 1

    nooooo! I'm still hooked on 2.0 for Google Browser Sync (only supports 2.0, development has stopped.) Why can't another browser incorporate such a feature?!

  3. Fox Force 5 on Best Terrestrial/OTA HDTV Setup For an Apartment? · · Score: 1

    Jules: You know the shows on TV?
    Vincent: I don't watch TV.
    Jules: Yeah, but, you are aware that there's an invention called television, and on this invention they show shows, right?

    When Tarantino wrote those lines, he gave a voice to what so many of us were thinking: why do people who abstain from television need to inform everybody about it?

  4. Have you seen Open Source Software UIs? on Software, Tools, Or Techniques For UI Review? · · Score: 0

    You might be asking in the wrong place.

  5. Other purpose of UAC on Coding Around UAC's Security Limitations · · Score: 1

    In defense of Vista (never thought I'd write that!) It's my understanding that UAC is actually aimed at developers. There's a large ecosystem of Windows developers of varying quality, and Microsoft wanted to force them to write programs that behave correctly. Developers who were used to doing all sorts of system-level actions without considering security now have to contend with an inconvenient UAC warning, so they're forced (at least nominally) to try and find a way to do things within userspace as much as possible.

  6. Re:My Review on Cloverfield Discussion · · Score: 1

    The lack of explanation is the whole point. It's not some colossal mistake by the filmmaker. This is an action/romance story set against the backdrop of a kaiju. Since they went with the "blair witch" concept, we're bound to the camera-holding characters for the length of the film and we experience the same mystery and terror that they do, of not knowing what the hell is going on. They could have revealed more details through dialogue picked up by the camera in our heroes' journey, but I think that would have been too expository. I liked not knowing.

    To put it another way: would you have found the film more satisfying if there was a title card shown before the end credits? "The monster was from mars. Eventually they killed it. Conventional bombs don't hurt it because of... adamantium. The girl who escaped in the helicopter went on to find happiness, The End."

    Finally: handheld is not a "new popular technique," google the french new wave.

  7. Re:Where is that world of you without ideology? on MS To Push Silverlight Via Redesigned Microsoft.com · · Score: 1

    If we are to debate the merits of a technology, we are fools to overlook the technology itself. I do not embrace Apple's products because "Mac is cool." I do not dismiss Microsoft's products because "Microsoft is evil." If we are to discuss the larger impact of adopting a technology, I think that's fantastic. But let's tuck away for the moment the usual zealotry and emotion that always blinds those who have truly "drank the kool-aid."

    In this case, rich media technolgoies for the web, all of the candidates are provided to us by private, for-profit corporations. I do not imagine for a second that Adobe is somehow more benevolent that Microsoft, nor would I consider their public relations and branding strategy when making a business decision about which technology to use. Perhaps you think we should all be using JavaFX, since the Sun Corporation Is Good.

    A danger to society indeed! Contain your venom. Your passion is naive and entirely misdirected.

  8. Re:History repeating on MS To Push Silverlight Via Redesigned Microsoft.com · · Score: 1

    Well, I like to know that the guts of my work is not too "Magical" - if I build a project using a particular tool, I don't want it to be locked to that tool.

    Also, you'd be surprised how many people prefer coding interfaces by hand instead of a WYSIWYG editor. I develop ASP.NET applications using Visual Studio but I don't touch the Web Forms editor, I just write the ASP.NET markup myself cause I like making nice readable markup and having that level of control over the output. Similarly, lots of folks (myself included) still like to write HTML themselves.

    It sounds like both Adobe and MS have got it right here - documents are not tightly bound to tools in Silverlight or Flex.

  9. Re:History repeating on MS To Push Silverlight Via Redesigned Microsoft.com · · Score: 1

    .NET and Silverlight apps can be developed in any text editor. I'm no expert on flash so I don't know what you need to make flash applications by comparison.

  10. Re:Silver Light is actually pretty damn cool on MS To Push Silverlight Via Redesigned Microsoft.com · · Score: 1

    mod_mono on apache renders asp.net pages.

    And let's face it, as much as 10,000 knees jerk on this website every time MSFT is mentioned, Silverlight is more open than Flash. The 1.1 version (still in alpha) IMO is exciting to me as a programmer. You can write your rich media web application in any supported .NET language, and as an example there's already a thriving Silverlight/Python community on the go. What does Adobe offer us? ActionScript and nothing.

    OTOH, Silverlight isn't as multi-platform as Flash. So that's a strike against, they've got some catching up to do on that front. See what I did there? I'm rationally examining the features of the technologies without flogging my political, economic or philosophical ideologies. Give it a try, Slashdot!

  11. Re:Literally? on USA Today's Sensationalist Take on Manhunt 2 · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I was literally blown away by the whole article.

  12. Re:Because we can on WebOS Market Review · · Score: 1

    All these things are true, and I'm all for web applications. But none of what you're describing necessitates a DHTML windowing system to replace that which is provided by your OS. You can have Writely, Gmail, GDrive and god knows what else open in separate browser windows or tabs.

  13. Because we can on WebOS Market Review · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A few years ago JavaScript was considered a toy language. Now that it's been "discovered" the pendulum has swung the other way, and people seem to think that JavaScript plus a browser is a suitable platform for writing a windowing system.

    We've been able to do a remote terminal like this for years, using more appropriate network protocols and faster execution environments. If we rebuild it on a completely absurd applpication stack:

    • Actual OS (hardware interface level)
    • Fast, mature windowing system
    • Web Browser w/JavaScript
    • Slow, buggy Windowing System inside Web Browser

    How does this bring any more value to the concept? The ability to hit the "Back" button and lose my entire session? Having two taskbars at the bottom of my screen?

    It seems like this is an idea being pursued just becasue we can; because we're excited about JavaScript and the Web 2.0 hype machine is working overtime.

  14. Re:A better web page scripting language? on Why Microsoft and Google are Cleaning Up With AJAX · · Score: 1

    Everybody wants JavaScript to grow into a robust object-oriented language, but we shouldn't forget that there are other paradigms out there. Although JS' syntax closely resembles Java it's actually a functional, list-based language with some prototype-based OO goodies thrown in. It more closely resembles Python or even LISP than Java.

    Part of the reason that JS is underappreciated is that we're all taught primarily to work and think in OO - I know I was. After geting into the world of functional programming by learning Python and Haskell, I am much more attuned to JS' charms. If you solve problems in JavaScript with a function-oriented approach, you may find the same thing.

    For more information: "JavaScript: The World's most Misunderstood Programming Language" is a good start.

  15. Re:Why so many stories about mono? on Creating .NET C# Applications for Linux · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Why does Mono show up so many times on slashdot?

    • Mono is a large, free and open-source software project.
    • It's run by Miguel de Icaza, also responsible for KDE, a well-known personality in the open source world.
    • It implements an open platform that allows us to use Microsoft-created technology on Linux and there is much debate as to whether it faces legal trouble in the future.

    So, why would mono show up often on a discussion site about the world of open source software, linux, and politics? Can you see no reason we might like to discuss this?

    In addition - ruby, perl, php and python are all interpreted languages while C# is compiled to bytecode. Java would be a much better question. Personally, I develop in C# for microsoft platforms. The idea that I could install a linux distro and start coding in my favourite language might very well tempt me into doing so.

  16. misunderstood on Is The Firefox Honeymoon Over? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "the facade that Firefox is the cure to the Internet Explorer security blues [...]"

    It's not a product specific issue. Diversity is the cure to monoculture security blues. The more mainstream a product becomes, the more malicious users will target it. And if it's the only game in town it might as well have a big bullseye pinned on it.

  17. solutions on Accessibility for People with Limited Mobility? · · Score: 2, Informative
    • Mouse driver with wobble correction. They're out there.
    • Eye-tracking hardware lets you use your eyes as a mouse pointer. That might work for her.
    • A helper monkey could take dictation, prepare light meals and take out the trash.
  18. Too much money! on Amazon's 1,082-volume Classics Collection: $7,989 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Most (all?) of these titles are in the public domain, so the publisher's only cost is printing. And they're paperbacks. Penguin is making a pretty good margin on these.

  19. Smarter: Avoid Computers Altogether on World's Biggest Hacker Held · · Score: 1

    A smarter person would gather information by physically breaking into government sites rather than using the internet. If you're caught trespassing in the pentagon you're going to jail, but you won't get seventy years. With the way the government inflates the punishment for computer related offenses, they make the physical crime more attractive than the virtual.

  20. no! on Al Gore Invents Internet TV · · Score: 4, Funny

    "...a generation that thinks nothing of plugging into more than one media outlet at once."

    Maybe in my college days, but never again!

  21. Re:IMHO DS is far better and the review is compari on PSP And DS Duke It Out · · Score: 1

    So you're asserting that:

    • The comparison is inherently flawed, like comparing apples and oranges, and that
    • In your estimation the victor of the inherently flawed comparison should be Nintendo.

    You just blew my mind.

  22. Re:religious fundamentalists on Imax Theaters Demur On Controversial Science Films · · Score: 1

    On the other hand, the pilgrims who settled in New England were fleeing to America so they could be free to practice the most puritanical form of Christianity in the western world. So perhaps things haven't changed too much.

  23. Slightly Misleading on Media Organizations Join Forces to Fight Canadian Ruling · · Score: 1

    Note that there is no "Ruling" as suggested by the article here. The only decision that has been made is that the man's case can be heard in an Ontario court. Hold those knees back for now, folks.

  24. Close to Home on Student Killed Driving Solar Car · · Score: 3, Informative

    The convoy was supposed to stop here at our company this afternoon because we helped the McMaster University team build "Fireball II." I just found out this morning that today's stop, along with the rest of the tour had been called off due to the accident. Looks like it was a mechanical failure of some kind in U of T's vehicle, and what a tragedy. The engineering student who died was only 21.

    The tour was planned to coincide with the one year anniversary of the 2003 blackout, to remind people that we ought to be looking into alternative energy sources. These young engineers are really passionate about these projects and our thoughts are with them at what must be a really tough time.

  25. Gaming Now More Popular on Doom 3 Hardware Guide Debuts · · Score: -1, Redundant

    "With the prospect of so many new people being brought into gaming by DOOM 3[...]"

    This could be the event that brings video games into the mainstream!