Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 16th Oct 2009 19:48 UTC
For a very long time now, OSNews' comment sections were governed by a set of rules that dated back to the very early days of OSNews. This set of rules has been amended a number of times over the years, but we were never really comfortable with such a dry, silly list of arbitrary rules that nobody read anyway. They were too much like an... EULA. So, we decided a change was in order, and I started work on a completely new approach.
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RE: How about raising the quality ?
by Thom_Holwerda on Fri 16th Oct 2009 23:30
in reply to "How about raising the quality ?"
Member since:2005-06-29
Thom, you claim to be a journalist,
I do? Where? Please provide links.
yet everything you publish is peppered with malapropisms
Where?
hyperbolae
For someone who accuses me of bad English, you might want to look up the correct plural of "hyperbole". But yeah, I use a lot of hyperboles in not only my writing, but also my speech. Is that a crime?
redundancy
Examples?
and grammatical errors.
How many languages do you speak?
Look, OSNews is a news blog where each editor has his or her own style. My style is indeed wacky, and more playful than that of the other editors. I'm sorry, but for that's just who I am. I like acting silly, and if you don't like that, well, there's little I can do for you.
There are enough websites out there that you could visit that are dry and boring, and if you like that sort of thing better, then by all means, go there! OSNews can't be everything to everyone.
This post is way too dry. Sparkly unicorns! Pink roses! Fairy dust! Tinkerbell! Ponies!
Edited 2009-10-16 23:33 UTC
RE[2]: How about raising the quality ?
by sbenitezb on Sat 17th Oct 2009 00:00
in reply to "RE: How about raising the quality ?"
Member since:2005-07-22
RE[2]: How about raising the quality ?
by mounty on Sat 17th Oct 2009 02:24
in reply to "RE: How about raising the quality ?"
Member since:2005-12-12
"Thom, you claim to be a journalist,
I do? Where? Please provide links. "
You regularly publish articles of topical interest on an internet forum. http://www.osnews.com
" yet everything you publish is peppered with malapropisms
Where? "
The most recent example is http://www.osnews.com/story/22342/Borland_in_the_1980s_Treat_Softwa... in which you write contrary to where you mean in contrast with.
"hyperbolae
For someone who accuses me of bad English, you might want to look up the correct plural of "hyperbole". But yeah, I use a lot of hyperboles in not only my writing, but also my speech. Is that a crime? "
This has already been responded-to by sbenitezb.
"redundancy
Examples? "
"For a very long time now, [...] that dated back to the very early days of OSNews."
"and grammatical errors.
How many languages do you speak?
" Ich kann auf Deutsche auch sprechen, und mann hat mir gesagt dass meine Spraeche is fast perfekt; aber ich bin kein Journalist.
Look, OSNews is a news blog where each editor has his or her own style. My style is indeed wacky, and more playful than that of the other editors. I'm sorry, but for that's just who I am. I like acting silly, and if you don't like that, well, there's little I can do for you.
That's just an excuse Thom.
There are enough websites out there that you could visit that are dry and boring, and if you like that sort of thing better, then by all means, go there! OSNews can't be everything to everyone.
I do subscribe to several such sites. However, regretably, the standard of English in technical journalism generally is disappointingly low.
Are you claiming that the characteristics about which I complain are actually expected or required ? that people actually want you to write bad English ?
It seems to me that the underlying problem is that you wish to draw attention to yourself, and your writing, rather than being content to report on matters of interest in a clear and natural style. This is a characteristic of almost all newspapers nowadays, most of which I regard as unreadable fish-wrappers; but there is no need for you to follow their lead.
This post is way too dry. Sparkly unicorns! Pink roses! Fairy dust! Tinkerbell! Ponies!
OK, fine.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 23:02 UTC, submitted by M.Onty
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 22:28 UTC
"A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."More News »
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Member since:
2005-12-12
For a very long time now, OSNews' comment sections were governed by a set of rules that dated back to the very early days of OSNews.
Thom, you claim to be a journalist, yet everything you publish is peppered with malapropisms, hyperbolae, redundancy, clîchés and grammatical errors. How can you expect the site to be taken seriously when this is so ? It is within your ability to change it and it will cost nothing to do so.
Edited 2009-10-16 23:28 UTC