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User: robertl234

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  1. Re:Like an election, doesn't matter who wins on Oracle Ordered To Lower Damages Claim On Google · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's where you are wrong. In a common law system, which US civil law is largely based on, law is created by the decisions of judges rather than the legislature.

  2. Re:Like an election, doesn't matter who wins on Oracle Ordered To Lower Damages Claim On Google · · Score: 1

    Actually it is the court's job to decide what is and isn't patentable. See the NPR story that was posted earlier today. It was the result of two court rulings in the 90s that allowed the patenting of software.

  3. Re:Sun on Oracle Ordered To Lower Damages Claim On Google · · Score: 2

    It cost Oracle $5.6 billion to buy Sun. I guess Google thought it was cheaper to deal with the lawsuit.

  4. Re:Language on Oracle Ordered To Lower Damages Claim On Google · · Score: 2

    Google had no choice. They needed applications to be able to run on different types of hardware.

  5. Collision on Bullet Train Derails In China · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to reports, a lightning strike caused the first train to lose power and was subsuequently rear-ended by a second train.

  6. Re:MS can fix that easily... on Windows Phones Getting Buried At Carriers' Stores · · Score: 1

    Both the iPhone and Android are marketed towards consumers who don't care about Exchange support. This isn't like the adoption of the PC where businesses bought the machines before consumers did. In fact, it's exactly the opposite and it's also why RIM isn't doing so well.

  7. Re:Failing because microosft isn't advertising? on Windows Phones Getting Buried At Carriers' Stores · · Score: 2

    There were some TV ads last year when WP7 was first announced. I think they went something like, "People use their smartphones too much, we're the phone that is so intuitive that you don't have to use it". There's your brilliant MS phone marketing for you.

  8. Re:Verizon won't roll them out to kiosks. . . on Windows Phones Getting Buried At Carriers' Stores · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The product that Verizon is selling is a monthly data plan contract. It doesn't matter what the phone attached to it is.

  9. Android on Apple Eases Rules For Subscription Apps · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Having a strong competitor will do the most amazing things :) I'm so glad that Google didn't let Apple achieve the >75% marketshare that they did with the iPods. Can you imagine the iPhone being the only credible smartphone in the market?

  10. Re:If we all live like Thomas Friedman, sure on Have We Reached Maximum Sustainable Population Size? · · Score: 0

    We're not in a debate club and I couldn't care less what Wikipedia says. In the real world, the situation is this: Friedman makes a series of logical arguments based on a set of premises that require considerable time to verify. If the situation is as dire as he makes it out to be, then why is his behavoir inconsistent with his conclusions? The only conclusion is that he doesn't really believe what he says so why should I waste my time trying to verify his premises.

  11. Re:If we all live like Thomas Friedman, sure on Have We Reached Maximum Sustainable Population Size? · · Score: 1

    No, it's like this: if you tell me the world is going to end if I don't do X and you don't do it yourself, then I'm going to be inclined to believe that you don't believe your own arguments.

  12. Re:Paywalls a failed business model? Ask Blizzard. on Newspaper Execs Hold Secret Meeting To Discuss Paywalls · · Score: 3, Informative

    The New York Times ditched its paywall a couple of years ago. Apparently people would rather read Yahoo News.

  13. Re:OK, dumb question after reading the article on Richard Stallman Warns About Non-Free Web Apps · · Score: 0, Troll

    Insects aren't animals? Wow, I knew vegans were delusional but I didn't realize how much.

  14. Re:quality on Chinese Automaker Unveils First Electric Car · · Score: 1

    If they can make an affordable, practical, electric car, more power to them, and if they really sell 10,000 next year, I guess we'll find out.

    Let's see. From the article, it'll cost $22000, have a range of 62 miles, and be available outside China in 2011.

    This doesn't look like it'll meet your expectations.

    Yeah cause you know things never get better or cheaper with time.

  15. Re:Why the hostility? on Chinese Automaker Unveils First Electric Car · · Score: 1

    All china-related posts are like this. Some people don't like the idea that their country is in decline while another is rising. Some people also don't remember their own history very well.

  16. Re:Why this anti-chinese winds? on Chinese Astronauts Complete First Spacewalk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Slashdot is always anti-Chinese. It's a symptom of a people whose country is on the decline desperately grasping at any excuse to convince themselves that they will remain on top forever. 150 years ago, the Chinese still thought that they were the most advanced country in the world. Now it's the Americans' turn.

  17. Re:Most needed in poor rural U.S. on Negroponte says Linux too 'Fat' · · Score: 1

    Computers don't educate people, teachers do. Believing that giving computers to kids, especially young kids, will somehow make them better students is naive at best and a criminal waste of resources at the worst. American schools have spent billions of dollars in the last decade buying computers and all they have to show for it are typed reports plagarizing some website instead of handwritten reports plagarizing an encyclopedia. This is money that could have been spent hiring more and better teachers or fixing up crumbling school buildings.

    If Negroponte was really serious about helping to educate children and not using this "$100 computer" thing as a way to glorify himself, he should cancel all development and figure out a way to let every child in the world be able to attend school.

  18. Give them a cellphone instead on Negroponte says Linux too 'Fat' · · Score: 1

    Instead of bickering about how to build this "$100" computer, give them a cellphone and a keyboard to plug into it. This combination will do everything the computer claims to do and has the added benefit of letting people call each other. Unlike computers, a cell phone can easily be built for under $100 and because the cellphone market is so much bigger than the computer market, economies of scale will drive down the price of such a phone much faster than computer prices could hope to fall.

  19. Re:Why even bother? on Halo 2 Only on Vista · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's not the speed but rather the accuracy of a mouse that makes it superior. You can set the sensitivity setting in Halo 2 to 10 and turn just as fast as on any PC game but the clumsiness of the controller joystick makes it impossible to aim. With a mouse, on the other hand, you can play at the highest sensitivities and still be able to shoot.

  20. Re:Woohoo! on GnuCash 1.9.0 Released · · Score: 1

    GNUCash is most definitely not the equal of its commercial equals, which in your case would be QuickBooks or PeachTree. GNUCash is decent if all you want is to keep track of your transactions but it's noticeably deficient in its online, printing, and report generating features.

  21. Re:Not happy with any of them on GnuCash 1.9.0 Released · · Score: 1

    Quicken 2006 automatically renames the Payee for you based on a set of rules that you provide. Alternatively, if you enter the transaction manually, Quicken can learn those rules automatically.

  22. Re:Good to hear. on India's Road To The Future · · Score: 1
    To quote:

    CPI 2005 Score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people, and country analysts, and ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

    Just admit you are wrong. It's not that hard.

  23. Re:Good to hear. on India's Road To The Future · · Score: 1

    Why is it fairly likely? China also produces "top-notch engineers, mathematicians, physicists, economists, researchers & business executives". Just go to your nearest university and look around. Historically, India has never been the equal of China. The country is too divided for it to happen. There is no reason to think that this will change in the future.

  24. Re:Good to hear. on India's Road To The Future · · Score: 1

    China is ranked 78. India is 10 places lower, at 88. You are the one that should look again.

  25. Re:Rephrasing the Story Description on Creating Artificial Proteins · · Score: 1

    Um, it's spelled "protein". Kinda weird that one can misspell it so consistently.