This is news worthy and all, but is it really 'news for nerds'? What about the BBC article on reversing evolution in mice that showed up a couple of days ago? Didn't anyone submit anything like that? I never saw that show up here.
Honestly, between this and the 'slashback' nonesense (talk about feeding on your own byproducts), I have to wonder how much influence 'mainstream media' is having on/.
I've had 32-bit colors turned on with font smoothing turned on, and various screen resolutions. In all cases, I can see windows trying to smooth fonts. It just does a poor job, particularily with letters which have slanted lines. Jaggies are still very obvious. In addition to jaggies, the subpixel hinting for vertical and horizontal lines appears much more inconsistant in the same letters from place to place than in OSX and Xwin, especially with smaller fonts, but noticable in all font sizes.
What I've done to improve windows font smoothing is to install bitstream vera, and configure windows and outlook to use that font. For whatever reason, in windows font smoothing for that font is almost as good as font in smoothing in general in OSX or Linux Xwin.
That said, I think in the screen shots in the article, XP doesn't have font smoothing turned on, and its either turned on for the XWin shots, or they're just using a better looking font than the default for windows. That is the other problem with the windows interface, especially in outlook. You can install a good looking font like Vera, and then set up windows and outlook to use that font - except for RTF messages received in outlook. Back to irritating fonts, with windows noticably poor job of smoothing.
I guess if you're used to decent fonts and decent font smoothing, using windows will just be irritating.
Or does Windows not do any anti-aliasing? Looking at the screen shots side-by-side, it doesn't look as though anti-aliasing is turned on for windows. On the windows box I use at work, I've tried turning on 'font smoothing', and it in many cases makes fonts look worse. Has anyone else noticed this?
That said, it would have been nice to see a features side-by-side. Also, one thing Outlook has on its side is how many things out there syncronize with it, like yahoo contact/calendering, for example. Does Evolution syncronize with palms? Just curious.
Refering to 'conscious' computers, Pearson says:"'It would definitely have emotions - that's one of the primary reasons for doing it. If I'm on an airplane I want the computer to be more terrified of crashing than I am so it does everything to stay in the air until it's supposed to be on the ground."
Just what I wanted - the computer flying the plane to be terrified. Panic is so useful for that task.
Also FTA: 'You can also start automating an awful lot of jobs. Instead of phoning up a call center and getting a machine that says, "Type 1 for this and 2 for that and 3 for the other," if you had machine personalities you could have any number of call staff, so you can be dealt with without ever waiting in a queue at a call center again.'
Once again, the thought of talking to a computer with an attitude so appeals to me.
And, of course: "PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human brain."
I think he must have experimented on his own brain - "This is your brain. This is your brain on windows."
Surprised this didn't happen earlier. The reasons are pretty obvious:
1.) US Govn't invades countries it doesn't like, makes up/morphs reasons later.
2.) US Govn't hates all things communist. Hates, hates, hates.
3.) Separatist sentiment in Taiwan rising
4.) Microsoft is a US company, with a govn't relationship so cozy that its allowed to violate US antitrust and trade laws.
It's hard to make the argument to other countries that Microsoft wouldn't collaborate with the US government to get inside the information systems of another country, if the all-critical cause of fighting terrorism was invoked. After, its common knowledge that Microsoft hides parts of its API to competitors to make money, however unethical that is. Who's to say it wouldn't hide things in its OS to fight terrorists? That, combined with how the US government has demonstrated that its more than willing to sacrifice its own democratic principals to fight terrorism makes using windows a not-so-good prospect for most non-US governments. I can't believe more governments haven't done this already.
If you were China, would you want Windows running your government's computer systems?
The more often USTPO does things like this, the less US patents will be respected around the rest of the world. Meaning, if someone in another country infringes on a legitimate patent held in the US, the less likely the US patent holders have recourse in that other country. Currently, the infringed upon victim might convince the US government to prevent the foreign parties infringing on the patent from selling/doing buisness in the US, but that's not likely. After all, if for example, the party infringing on a US patent is in China, for example, it is not likely the the US will want to get into a trade conflict with a country that holds nearly 50% of our government's foreign debt instruments.
So, the current direction the USTPO is taking us with nonsense like this is to make it easier for people in other countries to simply copy our intellectual property.
I recently heard about a study on NPR where they compared people fiddling with car gadgets like radios, cd players, etc with people who were drunk - both groups drove a simulator of some kind. The drunks drove better than the gadget-involved drivers. This sounds like more gadgets to distract somebody with while driving. Or more like mindless market-hype-drool to get Ford to buy more copies of windows/office. There's one born every minute.
Seems fair to me. I'd rather software ventors make it clear when they're fixing a problem versus adding a feature. Cisco's pretty good about it with their operating systems. You can tell by the versioning whether or not its a fix, feature introduction, backport, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
We here at AT&T are commited to -.0a;ls&)(*^
[error: all disks everywhere full]
[shutting down now]
This is news worthy and all, but is it really 'news for nerds'? What about the BBC article on reversing evolution in mice that showed up a couple of days ago? Didn't anyone submit anything like that? I never saw that show up here.
/.
Honestly, between this and the 'slashback' nonesense (talk about feeding on your own byproducts), I have to wonder how much influence 'mainstream media' is having on
I thought that's what ICANN was...
The more they stay the same.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
--Benjamin Franklin, 1759
The fact that a faulty and insecure technology underlies an obvious grab for power is perhaps a good thing.
I've had 32-bit colors turned on with font smoothing turned on, and various screen resolutions. In all cases, I can see windows trying to smooth fonts. It just does a poor job, particularily with letters which have slanted lines. Jaggies are still very obvious. In addition to jaggies, the subpixel hinting for vertical and horizontal lines appears much more inconsistant in the same letters from place to place than in OSX and Xwin, especially with smaller fonts, but noticable in all font sizes.
What I've done to improve windows font smoothing is to install bitstream vera, and configure windows and outlook to use that font. For whatever reason, in windows font smoothing for that font is almost as good as font in smoothing in general in OSX or Linux Xwin.
That said, I think in the screen shots in the article, XP doesn't have font smoothing turned on, and its either turned on for the XWin shots, or they're just using a better looking font than the default for windows. That is the other problem with the windows interface, especially in outlook. You can install a good looking font like Vera, and then set up windows and outlook to use that font - except for RTF messages received in outlook. Back to irritating fonts, with windows noticably poor job of smoothing.
I guess if you're used to decent fonts and decent font smoothing, using windows will just be irritating.
Or does Windows not do any anti-aliasing? Looking at the screen shots side-by-side, it doesn't look as though anti-aliasing is turned on for windows. On the windows box I use at work, I've tried turning on 'font smoothing', and it in many cases makes fonts look worse. Has anyone else noticed this?
That said, it would have been nice to see a features side-by-side. Also, one thing Outlook has on its side is how many things out there syncronize with it, like yahoo contact/calendering, for example. Does Evolution syncronize with palms? Just curious.
Hmm... surfing for porn - passion or hobby?
Actually, it probably wasen't a sith. A true sith would have used the force to insure a darwin award entry:
"These aren't the burn victims you're looking for"
"Police say a third person present at the incident was questioned."
Who found the cops' lack of faith disturbing...
I hadn't checked out google maps until MS announced that they're going to crush google maps. Maybe google should send a $1 to MS for advertising.
Refering to 'conscious' computers, Pearson says:"'It would definitely have emotions - that's one of the primary reasons for doing it. If I'm on an airplane I want the computer to be more terrified of crashing than I am so it does everything to stay in the air until it's supposed to be on the ground."
Just what I wanted - the computer flying the plane to be terrified. Panic is so useful for that task.
Also FTA: 'You can also start automating an awful lot of jobs. Instead of phoning up a call center and getting a machine that says, "Type 1 for this and 2 for that and 3 for the other," if you had machine personalities you could have any number of call staff, so you can be dealt with without ever waiting in a queue at a call center again.'
Once again, the thought of talking to a computer with an attitude so appeals to me.
And, of course: "PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human brain."
I think he must have experimented on his own brain - "This is your brain. This is your brain on windows."
Every time someone starts to look like a real competitor, MS says they are going to die.
... that's actually a threat.
Image if any kind of sporting competition were like this - "The Packers won't win the SuperBowl this year because they are going to die"
Oh, wait
((invasion-happy US Govn't) * (API-hiding OS vendor)) ** (US Govn't allows OS Vendor to violate it own laws) = (run forest run)
I can't stop the flood of Far Side images coming from this one....
Surprised this didn't happen earlier. The reasons are pretty obvious:
1.) US Govn't invades countries it doesn't like, makes up/morphs reasons later.
2.) US Govn't hates all things communist. Hates, hates, hates.
3.) Separatist sentiment in Taiwan rising
4.) Microsoft is a US company, with a govn't relationship so cozy that its allowed to violate US antitrust and trade laws.
It's hard to make the argument to other countries that Microsoft wouldn't collaborate with the US government to get inside the information systems of another country, if the all-critical cause of fighting terrorism was invoked. After, its common knowledge that Microsoft hides parts of its API to competitors to make money, however unethical that is. Who's to say it wouldn't hide things in its OS to fight terrorists? That, combined with how the US government has demonstrated that its more than willing to sacrifice its own democratic principals to fight terrorism makes using windows a not-so-good prospect for most non-US governments. I can't believe more governments haven't done this already.
If you were China, would you want Windows running your government's computer systems?
Can anyone interest Linus is sharks with lasers on their heads? Real estate inside a volcano, perhaps?
Hang on, MiniMac! If you were to go down, I don't know what I'd do.
I'd be inconsolable for
The more often USTPO does things like this, the less US patents will be respected around the rest of the world. Meaning, if someone in another country infringes on a legitimate patent held in the US, the less likely the US patent holders have recourse in that other country. Currently, the infringed upon victim might convince the US government to prevent the foreign parties infringing on the patent from selling/doing buisness in the US, but that's not likely. After all, if for example, the party infringing on a US patent is in China, for example, it is not likely the the US will want to get into a trade conflict with a country that holds nearly 50% of our government's foreign debt instruments.
So, the current direction the USTPO is taking us with nonsense like this is to make it easier for people in other countries to simply copy our intellectual property.
"inexpensive processing units"
Except leave out the republicans, to get more cpu per brain
Brains....
Hulk smash puny lead batteries!
Namewars - So now Blackberry needs to come out with Xavier.
I recently heard about a study on NPR where they compared people fiddling with car gadgets like radios, cd players, etc with people who were drunk - both groups drove a simulator of some kind. The drunks drove better than the gadget-involved drivers. This sounds like more gadgets to distract somebody with while driving. Or more like mindless market-hype-drool to get Ford to buy more copies of windows/office. There's one born every minute.
Dr. Denise Fastman has reversed diabetes in mice
She's trying to raise money for human trials, but has run into a few bumps
"In simple terms and sans any military jargon, the unit could best be described as the world's most formidable hacker posse. Ever.
I've got a picture of R. Lee Ermey giving somebody shit for going into army 'hacking'...
"Hacker core?! You gotta be shitting me private! You're not a geek, you're a killer!! "
As for "most formidable", I wonder how often it comes down to "join us, or be labeled a terrorist
Seems fair to me. I'd rather software ventors make it clear when they're fixing a problem versus adding a feature. Cisco's pretty good about it with their operating systems. You can tell by the versioning whether or not its a fix, feature introduction, backport, etc.