Linked by David Adams on Mon 25th May 2009 21:22 UTC
Over the years, we've occasionally run an "Ask OSNews" feature, wherein a reader asks us a question and we answer it publicly. Lately I've really been enjoying Slate's Dear Prudence advice column and the ever-interesting Straight Dope, and I thought we should see if we can get more OSNews readers to submit questions, and turn Ask OSNews into a more-regular thing. If your question falls outside of our domain expertise, we'll try to track down an expert to help out. And of course, our responses will always be supplemented by further advice from OSNews readers in the comments. Questions are welcome on any topic ranging from OSes and computing to science and geek culture. Contact us with your questions. (Please include "Ask OSNews" in the subject). Today's question is from a young student in Hungary who's seduced by the faraway siren song of Apple's marketing and wonders, "should I switch?"
Thread beginning with comment 365442
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE[5]: hardware NOT more reliable
by kaiwai on Tue 26th May 2009 13:51
in reply to "RE[4]: hardware NOT more reliable"
Member since:2005-07-06
No, I can't take it back and get it fixed.
- It's not me who has the video card problem, it's my friend.
- It's not me who has the video card problem, it's my friend.
I wasn't even talking about him, I am talking about YOU and what YOU said:
My MacBook Pro doesn't have this problem, but it freezes from time to time. And with freeze I mean a kernel freeze - not even the mouse pointer works anymore.
Or am I making that up?
- There's nothing to fix unless they're willing to build Delete, Home, End, PageUp and PageDown buttons into the keyboard.
I grouped it all under the same heading, obviously you lack the intelligence to distinguish between things that can be fixed versus things that are part of the design by don't fit your preference.
- The freezes and unrecognized USB stick problems are software problems. The only way to fix this is through a software update, not by returning it to the store.
So you can fix it! oh, so it is a bug and Apple fixed it?! If it doesn't work you take it back; if it keeps freezing, take it back, keep taking it back until the damn thing is fixed. You think that sitting in the corner like an emo is going to fix it? good lord; you really aren't making it easy for yourself by refusing to actually do anything about it.
RE[6]: hardware NOT more reliable
by FooBarWidget on Tue 26th May 2009 13:57
in reply to "RE[5]: hardware NOT more reliable"
Member since:2005-11-11
Or am I making that up?
So you're saying that returning my Mac to the store will magically fix OS X kernel bugs? Yes, you are making that up.
I grouped it all under the same heading, obviously you lack the intelligence to distinguish between things that can be fixed versus things that are part of the design by don't fit your preference.
Don't care, broken is broken. The customer is the king.
So you can fix it! oh, so it is a bug and Apple fixed it?!
No, it isn't fixed. There is no update which fixes it: even after installing the latest updates it still doesn't work.
If it doesn't work you take it back; if it keeps freezing, take it back, keep taking it back until the damn thing is fixed.
Taking it back won't fix software problems. I know this because I'm a developer.
You think that sitting in the corner like an emo is going to fix it?
You think that personal attacks make your points more valid?
Edited 2009-05-26 13:59 UTC
RE[5]: hardware NOT more reliable
by dpmchris on Wed 27th May 2009 17:32
in reply to "RE[4]: hardware NOT more reliable"
Member since:2009-05-27
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 13:17 UTC
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 12:06 UTC
"According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.More News »
Sponsored Links
Member since:
2005-11-11
No, I can't take it back and get it fixed.
- It's not me who has the video card problem, it's my friend.
- There's nothing to fix unless they're willing to build Delete, Home, End, PageUp and PageDown buttons into the keyboard.
- The freezes and unrecognized USB stick problems are software problems. The only way to fix this is through a software update, not by returning it to the store.