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User: bazorg

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  1. Re:On OS to rule us all? on Microsoft Closes Gap Between Windows 10 and Xbox One With "Crossplay" Plans · · Score: 1

    The UX design "Modern" gets a lot of stick but is well aligned with everything that is widely accepted in present day applications. Just look at the Skype and eBay apps on W8 as good examples of what people can do if they leave "advanced settings" to be done on the website rather than on the standard UI. The Office ribbon was a change that also got a lot of criticism from old time users, but in actual fact works much better than having ALL UI elements on the screen with some grayed out.

    As for the App ecosystem, the top 10 apps are not different from the iOS and Android top 10. It's the long tail that is much richer for those 2 markets. Other than developing universal apps or forfeiting any chance of ever getting more than 5% of total PC market share, what is Microsoft to do? Listen to old grumpy people on slashdot?

  2. Re:Important information for TV producers on A Critical Look At CSI: Cyber · · Score: 1

    3. Hackers are capable of accurately predicting anything. The trajectory of a car going over an open drawbridge, the food someone buys at a grocery store, which entrance someone will use at a shopping mall - ANYTHING. Because they have computers.

    Spock could do much better. He'd say "this plan has a 4.56% change of getting us out alive" and everyone agreed.

  3. Re:Electronic White Boards on Ask Slashdot: Whiteboard Substitutes For Distributed Teams? · · Score: 1

    I've seen this one in action and it works really well. It's not a touchscreen like those on your phone, the screen edges work like a camera to find where your fingers and where the pens are. It works like a normal screen attached to your PC and then there's a Windows application that lets you make annotations beyond what the normal OCR and OneNote drawings allow. I'm trying to get my company to buy at least one of these.

    They also have smart whiteboards that scan their content and broadcast it to mobile phone apps. It's not bi-directional interactive like the big Smart screen but it's only £500 I think.

  4. Re:Drama queen on Firefox To Mandate Extension Signing · · Score: 2

    Developers! Developers! Developers! are obviously very important, but end users are also a stakeholder in this conversation. If today there are closed app markets and signatures it is in part because there are enough developers out there capable of producing malware that looks and behaves like something any buyer would download unless warned not to do so. It's an arms race of sorts, and if you're a developer who prefers to remain anonymous and unaccountable, then it's something that users should be warned of when they come across your applications/extensions.

  5. That would be the Macbook Pro keyboard, right? on Building the Developer's Dream Keyboard · · Score: 1

    So the perfect keyboard might be the Macbook Pro keyboard, as it seems to be the most common high end machine?

  6. yeah, you got us, it's the chemtrail thing on Mystery Ash Clouds Rain In Parts of Washington, Oregon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some of the sheeple I monitor on FB figured out that "they" are spreading thought control gas using airplane fuel. At the last meeting of the Illuminati board I asked if we could contaminate fuel supplies worldwide why weren't we doing that with regular car fuel instead... would reach more people rather than just those under flight paths. Then one of the guys came up with the idea of adding the thought control formula to erupting volcanoes so that it's harder to trace it to us. I still think it's a bit inefficient and too 007-super-villain way of doing things but the higher ups always know best. oh well. Back to fudging the lottery numbers for next weekend I guess.

  7. Not completely, IMHO... With expensive kit like this I think that starting with a thin case is necessary to allow for the bulk of the protective case. Imagine a Surface Pro with 3 or 4 mm more - way too fat.

  8. Re: The problem is apps on The iPad Is 5 Years Old This Week, But You Still Don't Need One · · Score: 1

    Look into music apps that pros and Semipros use. It's one of those niches that I think apple has always nurtured, and for good reason.

  9. Re:Crazy on Andy Wolber Explores Online Word Processors' ODF Support · · Score: 1

    There more than one reason behind this:

    1) everything that is online only has a potential to earn a rent at some point.
    2) cloud providers are better at keeping data backed up than the typical home user
    3) advertising revenue for provider.
    4) some features like the aforementioned teamwork do work well if applications and shared data are centrally hosted
    5) new features can be added and tested with minimal effort.
    6) customer retention. Even if there are no ugly tricks to prevent paying users from leaving, having to migrate 500GB of storage bundled with the word processor is a barrier to leaving.

  10. Re:Slashvertizement ... on Facebook Targets Office Workers With Facebook At Work Service · · Score: 0

    Every time I've seen a corporation trying to "leverage social media techologies in-house" my bullshit alarm bells go off

    Could it be your bullshit alarm is really sensitive? If you take the user-friendly UI and familiarity of Facebook, Twitter, etc and apply it to internal web applications like a document library, would you not get an easier adoption, and through network effect have more benefits for everyone? Would you not be steering users away from using email for everything?

    The way I see it, home computing and enterprise computing influence each other and that's not something that just happened when Facebook became big. There's terrible enterprise application UIs out there which would definitely benefit from copying good things from the properly design websites. In comparison, Yammer, Podio and Jive look like tools that people would actually use rather than accumulating local copies of every email and Office doc they've ever received, missing out on a good search function. "Enterprise social media" can work, let's not dismiss it just because it looks like something hipsters would approve.

  11. Re:Muslims? on Anonymous Declares War Over Charlie Hebdo Attack · · Score: 1

    I tend to agree with this. Until now, I have not seen any good reason to think of the islamic state of Iraq and Syria to be better or worse that the islamic state of Pakistan, or IS of Saudi Arabia or any other I'm not even aware of... It looks like there are important conflicts between being a devout muslim and a law-abiding citizen in a western Europe secular country. Following the Charlie Hebdo attack, this Amjed Choudary cleric chap explained things with little room for error - he is defined by media as "radical", but who's got a way of benchmarking a moderate religious guy?

    Where I'm getting is that it might not be that worse to treat the IS of Iraq and Syria as a country rather than a ... place where there are terrorists? ISIL seems to have strong appeal to some of the most undesirable Europe-based muslims, to the extent they actually pack up and go live there. Recognizing ISIL as a country would certainly have many effects I can't predict, but with optimism I'd say it would give some clarity about muslim's world view, while giving those unhappy to live in secular Europe a place to live according to the rules of their sect of Islam. Maybe the great power of having a new country would also give them the feeling of responsibility not to live in permanent war with Shia/Sunni/infidel neighbours.

  12. i'm going to the movies 2x a month at least on Box Office 2014: Moviegoing Hits Two-Decade Low · · Score: 3, Interesting

    These last few of years I was signed up for Lovefilm (DVD Delivery) and then Netflix. After a while the convenience was beat by the limited offering and the annoyance of Netflix UK trying quite hard to hide away what's available and what films will be on in the future. Last month, for the first time in years I watched 3 movies at the cinema and this year I'll sign up for a Cineworld £16/month subscription. There's a couple of months in 2015 that won't have very appealing releases but from the list I saw so far, there will be 2 worthwhile films every month, plus those that I will watch now and wouldn't if I had to pay extra. Yes, there will be road traffic to get there and noise from others eating popcorn but I'll be watching current films.

  13. Re:The one mistake Forbes keeps making.. on The One Mistake Google Keeps Making · · Score: 1

    Bringing new products to market is key, but don't underestimate the importance of being seen as innovative by the overall market. Whenever Google announces something about the driverless car, the wearables, the AI-assisted emailbox, etc., they are reinforcing that image of a company that is there for the long run, that is innovating, that will eventually bring revolutionary tech to the market. Owning a major brand with good reputation is worth a lot, and keeping up a stream of good news takes effort and investment.

    Look at other competitors and their efforts in keeping that brand value up, it's not easy. Apple is great at making their customers feel special and "niche" while selling millions of units of standardised products. When I look at Xiaomi knock-off phones on eBay I find it quite amusing that the iPhone knock-off sells at a premium compared to the Lumia and Galaxy knock-offs :)

  14. Re:Four Co-workers w/ Autistic Kids from MMR Vacci on Time To Remove 'Philosophical' Exemption From Vaccine Requirements? · · Score: 1

    So at what age did you expect the babies in question to display symptoms of autism? Before they learned to speak?

  15. Re:Knowledge is the solution on Time To Remove 'Philosophical' Exemption From Vaccine Requirements? · · Score: 1

    5 vaccines in Europe? Lies, dear AC. Here's the schedule of vaccination for the United Kingdom:
    http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/v...

    Same for Portugal:
    http://www.vacinas.com.pt/cale...

    Same for Spain (click on each part of the map for regional rules)
    http://vacunasaep.org/profesio...

    Hare's a handy comparison/search tool for vaccines for all of Europe:
    http://vaccine-schedule.ecdc.e...

  16. Re:Sometimes there are reasons on Time To Remove 'Philosophical' Exemption From Vaccine Requirements? · · Score: 1

    I do have issues with the rate and ingredients of the vaccines that our state requires us to give our children

    That sounds fair if accompanied by some serious analysis. What were the quantities that you found would be acceptable and what was the basis for that decision? Were there quantities you decided to be adequate based on analysis or was it a matter of opinion?

    I'm having important discussions with my wife about this matter and I feel there is significant FUD being applied by the proponents of no-vaccination. It would be good to settle on what are the objective criteria or to admit that "keep an open mind" is something that "alternative medicine" proponents only demand from those who disagree with them.

  17. Re:Lets not be lemmings here folks on Time To Remove 'Philosophical' Exemption From Vaccine Requirements? · · Score: 1

    Hey... can we have some sources and explanations for all that please? Looks like serious accusations. Got to keep an open mind, you know?

    I for one need to keep an open mind to the possibility that the companies selling vaccines are the same that would sell the treatment. I have an open mind to the possibility that "chemicals" and "toxins" are dangerous in the wrong doses rather than as absolutely dangerous in all circumstances.I have an open mind to the possibility of herd immunity and immunisation from vaccines being false would mean that doctors and nurses would need constant treatment.

    It would be easy to dismiss antivaccination proponents as being dumb, and fear that giving attention offers credibility when none is deserved, but I'm giving AC a chance. Offer some proper evidence instead of FUD and we can have a useful discussion. Then you can show if you have an open mind or if that's something that only applies to people who disagree with you!

  18. Ooops on Computer Error Grounds Flights In the UK · · Score: 1

    The user interface looks strangely similar to Galaxians.

  19. Re:Insurance? on Court Orders Uber To Shut Down In Spain · · Score: 1

    You ask why we force drivers to have insurance?

    no, actually I did not.

  20. Re:Insurance? on Court Orders Uber To Shut Down In Spain · · Score: 1

    However, it doesn't cover commercial use of the car. So if I drive a paying passenger, neither the car, nor I, nor the passenger, nor anyone I hit, will be insured. That's driving without insurance.

    I drive in the UK and I understand where you're getting. I would go a step further and say the law is not right and needs changing.

    After many comparisons, I find that in the UK the premium depends mostly of the home address of the person buying insurance. Rather than accepting the current state of affairs as being "normal" and trying to fit the Uber business case into the current laws, what we should be doing is challenging why current legislation forces people to have insurance and then lets private companies justify wild changes in prices with "market factors".

    For example, a Ferrari 458 with a paying passenger or a Kia Ceed with no paying passengers should not have different insurance premium for insurance covering damage to 3rd parties. Fully comprehensive insurance prices I can understand, but the current state of affairs is at least extortionate, and when it forces young people to walk or use 2 wheeled vehicles that aren't as safe as cars - much worse than extortion.

    If the growth of Uber and similar services forces law makers to open their eyes, it's a good thing that they are forced to act on the scandal of motor insurance.

  21. Re:Isn't that click fraud? on AdNauseam Browser Extension Quietly Clicks On Blocked Ads · · Score: 1

    5) Download the installer ***WARNING!! Do not run it unless you Enjoy Cleaning viruses for fun!***
    6) Go to virustotal.com, and submit the file for analysis
    7) Watch the detections go off the charts.

    that's a good heads-up. I think this kind of test is something to consider the next time that Microsoft releases a OS version that prevents users from getting applications outside of the Windows Store. Last time they tried, the rage against RT was loud on Slashdot and elsewhere.

  22. Re:Driverless cabs on Taxi Medallion Prices Plummet Under Pressure From Uber · · Score: 1

    well, no if Uber and Lyft have the right size to be early adopters of that technology as well and keep the commission that would be paid to drivers!

  23. Re: 16:9 on Eizo Debuts Monitor With 1:1 Aspect Ratio · · Score: 1

    Is that USA inches or UK inches?

  24. Re: in post-Soviet Europe... on In a Self-Driving Future, We May Not Even Want To Own Cars · · Score: 1

    My kingdom for a PC for with keyboard!!!

  25. in post-Soviet Europe... on In a Self-Driving Future, We May Not Even Want To Own Cars · · Score: 1

    In post-Soviet Europe I suspect it will be difficult to find differences between the car to and the stick usedvfor moving self driven cars out of the road.
    once I live in the UK some of my fears may be quite specific to the way things work here. Prediction 1: insurance will go up in proportions to the distance driven by the human. More risk= higher premium and since the first gen auto-automobiles will require a licensed driver, I don't expect the insurance requirement to go away nor the price to go down.prediction 2: in the same way the m1 has variable speed d limits today, some roads will become "fully managed" by a control tower that will run gulate speed for all automated drivers. When there's a human driver in the vicinity, everyone will slow down to a speed lower than the maximum permitted to the orchestrated traffic. Everyone will moan at poorer, antiquated drivers for preventing 100+ mph speeds.prediction 3: it will be the passenger trains that will become obsolete because of self driving cars. High cost of infrastructure and of running the service will be beaten by the convenience, cleanliness and flexibility of individual electric self driven cars. The USAans will have the last laugh while the UK city councils will charge load of money for parking and for empty cars running about while their owners work and shop.