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User: unfunk

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  1. Re:3.1 on Linux 3.1 Released With Support for the OpenRISC CPU · · Score: 1

    personally, I'm holding out for Linux 95. I reckon that'll be when it really starts gaining traction among the general public.

  2. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated on SUA Deprecated In Windows 8? · · Score: 1

    a traditional Windows desktop will be available (certainly on x86, perhaps on arm) for those who are determined enough to figure out how to reenable it

    You mean to say that clicking on the "desktop" tile that's conveniently located on the welcome 'Metro' screen requires determination and figuring out? It's not even re-enabling it. It hasn't gone anywhere that requires any trickery to get back - unlike the Start Menu.

  3. Re:Google on Android and the Linux Kernel Community · · Score: 2, Informative

    As I said, the only groups being hurt by this are Google and those dumb enough to rely on Android for their future, anyone else with a brain will take a look at the competition and more open platforms.

    Newsflash: Consumers don't care about whether Google's playing nice with the Linux community or not.

  4. Re:Wifi? on AU Mobile Operator Optus Blocking Paid Android Apps · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No. You need a valid SIM in your phone to access the market, and as far as I can tell (with my HTC Magic on Virgin), you can only download apps over 3G. You can queue them up over WiFi, but I've never seen an app start downloading until I've disconnected from WiFi.

  5. Re:Proxy? on AU Mobile Operator Optus Blocking Paid Android Apps · · Score: 3, Informative

    No. It's a network setting that Optus needs to change. You can get around it by using the "Market Enabler" app that's available on the net, but you need to root your phone* and void your warranty etc to use it.

    *and in Australia, this phrase is rather amusing because "rooting" something is usually vernacular for "have sex with"...

  6. Re:You can't pay a negative amount on Less Than Free · · Score: 2, Funny

    The billing system for a contract I was recently on tried to bill a customer for negative 33 pence. That is, it didn't try to credit him with 33p, and it didn't send him a notice saying "you owe us -£0.33" - it put through a request to his bank to deduct negative 33p from his bank account.

    Needless to say, when I discovered this, I immediately rang the customer and advised them to check if their bank was still there or not. Then I took two aspirin and lay down for a while.

  7. Re:Joro on HTC Dragging Feet On GPL Source Release For "Hero" Phone · · Score: 1

    Just because it runs on Android doesn't mean it's "based on" it or automatically open-source.

  8. Re:Missing essential sensors, usable screen on HTC Dragging Feet On GPL Source Release For "Hero" Phone · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure if this phone was running cupcake or donut, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it was cupcake (there are supposedly speed improvements in donut.)

    Yeah, it would have been 1.5 - the problem with the Hero is that because it's so heavily customised, you can't just update it to Donut and run with it, unlike the Sapphire/Magic/myTouch3G.
    Having said that though, there is a recent official firmware update that supposedly significantly speeds the device up. I don't actually have a Hero, but I've tried one of the backports to the Magic hardware, and it seems to work fairly well.

    However, I'll have to agree with the spirit of your post; the Hero's OS is biting off more than it can chew. Sadly, 1st-generation Android hardware is underpowered for such things.

  9. Re:Cue the Linux fanbois... on "Windows 7 Compatible" PCs Must Be 64-bit · · Score: 1

    As for backwards support (or abandoning it) that worked well for Apple.

    Lots of things work well for Apple, including;

    • Bundling their own media player
    • Bundling their own browser
    • Locking out competitors

    Let's see Microsoft try that and get away with it. Oh wait, they tried and didn't.

  10. Re:Maybe it'll meet its claimed speed on Apple Behind Intel's USB Competitor? · · Score: 1

    Maybe, like Apple's previous poster child Firewire, it will be freaking awesome but have absolutely no uptake in the consumer market, leading its own champions to drop support for it (see 5G iPod, recent Macbooks)

  11. Re:In Tune... on Maori Legend of Man-Eating Birds is True · · Score: 3, Informative

    by "natives" are you referring to the Maori people? Because they're not native to New Zealand

  12. Re:sounds like some rationalization going on on Former Sega Prez Discusses the Dreamcast's Failure · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sonic Adventure
    Sega Rally 2
    Virtua Fighter 3
    Dead or Alive 2
    Soul Calibur
    Resident Evil: Code Veronica
    Powerstone
    Head Hunter
    Phantasy Star Online
    Skies of Arcadia

    That's just a handful I can think of off the top of my head. The hype for the DC was ridiculous at the time for a console.

  13. Re:Nice move by Crytek... on Crytek Giving Away CryEngine To UK Universities · · Score: 1

    get yourself a copy of Far Cry or Crysis. They both come with world editors so you can see what it's like. Basically, it's a bit like that Terragen program, where you draw a greyscale map and it then generates a 3D world from it.

    ...only a bit more complicated...

  14. Re:X-Box controller on Classic Game Console Design Mistakes · · Score: 1

    No, he's talking about the huge controller that came with the machine at launch. That fucker was enormous.

    Incredibly comfortable though...

  15. Re:Flash memory in a keyboard? on Apple Keyboard Firmware Hack Demonstrated · · Score: 1

    all those macros are lost once the power is turned off. The only way to save them is to enter them into the driver software in the OS. This indicated to me that any RAM onboard is not flash. I did think before I posted.

  16. Re:What's next? on Apple Keyboard Firmware Hack Demonstrated · · Score: 3, Informative

    I feel somewhat obliged to point out that the Sony PSP is vulnerable to a battery hack. If you put in a certain battery, you can then downgrade the system's firmware and play pirated games etc

  17. Re:Flash memory in a keyboard? on Apple Keyboard Firmware Hack Demonstrated · · Score: 1

    I'm curious too. I'd be surprised if my Logitech G15 keyboard had read/write memory (all the programs for it run on the OS), so just why the hell does Apple feel the need to make a keyboard with that?

  18. Re:does it matter? on SFLC Says Microsoft Violated the GPL · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm giving up the opportunity to mod what will undoubtedly be a trollfest in this article's comments so I can post this.

    I think that this is a positive sign from Microsoft. For years they've been going on about how the GPL is a virus and communist and will be the death of us all.
    Now they've released code under it. It doesn't matter that they had to, it matters that they did it. They undoubtedly had a team of lawyers looking at their options before doing this. If they were of the viro-communist mindset toward the GPL before this, they certainly aren't now. The lawyers must have told Microsoft that if they decided to play the "GPL is invalid" card, it would have been a very long and hard battle for defeat.

  19. Re:Had This Problem Myself on AVG Update Breaks iTunes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The workaround is to disable the real-time scanner."

    Or switch to a better AV product.

    Or a better media player. iTunes on Windows is superior only to Quicktime on Windows. Both are (in terms of usability) inferior to... well, pretty much everything else.

  20. Re:Impossible on The Irksome Cellphone Industry · · Score: 1

    • Eliminate all forms of being locked into a contract. Make all cellphone service a monthly deal like any other utility so that the carrier has to earn your business each month. Y'know, by being competitive.

    Believe it or not, there is actually a valid reason for contacts. Here in Australia, the Nokia N97 costs $1100 out of contract (and I hear a similar price for the iPhone 3GS). Not that many people can afford to drop that kind of money on a new phone.
    Of course, it is a little ludicrous that the iPod Touch is a fraction of the total cost of an iPhone, given that there's not a lot of difference between the two. Perhaps anti-contract laws would force the price of handsets down, but I doubt it.

    Having said that though, there is a lot that needs fixing about the US cellular network, from what I gather. Are you really charged to receive calls and SMSes over there? If so, that's crazy shit.

  21. Re:100%? on Early Abort of Ares I Rocket Would Kill Crew · · Score: 1
    from that article;

    The findings are inconclusive. The impact of the crew compartment with the ocean surface was so violent that evidence of damage occurring in the seconds which followed the disintegration was masked. Our final conclusions are:

    • the cause of death of the Challenger astronauts cannot be positively determined;
    • the forces to which the crew were exposed during Orbiter breakup were probably not sufficient to cause death or serious injury; and
    • the crew possibly, but not certainly, lost consciousness in the seconds following Orbiter breakup due to in-flight loss of crew module pressure
  22. if this were done earlier... on Why Game Developers Should Shut Up About Used Games · · Score: 1

    can you imagine just how much money companies like Atari, Sega and Nintendo would be if this sort of thing were getting started in video games?
    If the publishers (and back then, the console manufacturer was the publisher) all got a cut of the profits each time the game was resold? They'd all be swamped with the income from eBay alone!

    Of course, we must also consider the opposite side of the scale - if by law, the publishers always had to have a cut of the money when the game was resold, then I suspect there would have been a lot less places willing to specialise in games, or at least accept used ones. It would become virtually impossible to discover games from previous generations.

  23. Re:Can a layman get an explanation in English? on New Binary Diffing Algorithm Announced By Google · · Score: 1

    I'd like to see a car analogy here, but it needs to involve the car's transmission diff

  24. Cheney Mason on Lawyer Offers $1M For Proof His Client Could Have Done It; Oops · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...combining the worst points of Dick Cheney and Perry Mason...

  25. Re:The times they are changing... on Despite New Owner, id Still Lives Or Dies By Their Engines · · Score: 1

    To this day I am amazed at just how many games the Quake 3 engine ended up powering. When I first saw Q3, I was pretty amazed by it, but I never thought it had what it took to power "full" games. Call of Duty just blew me away, and even more so when I found out it was the Q3 engine.

    I'm kind of disappointed they didn't see that level of success with the Doom 3 engine. There was plenty of potential, but nobody seems to have chased up on it.