Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 5th Apr 2012 20:30 UTC
It had to be said. It had to be said because no one else in the technology industry had the guts to say it. "I think it's time to stop giving Windows Phone a pass." Thanks, Joshua Topolsky. He's right. A few weeks ago I went back to my HTC HD7 for a few days while I was getting acquainted with the Android ROM scene, and to my utter surprise, most of my problems with Windows Phone 7 from when the platform was just released were still there.
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Member since:2005-11-29
RE[4]: Comment by kovacm
by shotsman on Fri 6th Apr 2012 19:45
in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by kovacm"
Member since:2005-07-22
If you mean that Windows is frustrating then I'm 100% behind you.
Windows 7 is just in your face seemingly all the time.
PErmission to do this, permission to do that....
A script might create a directory yet have no rights to write anything to it.
I had to download RealPlayer (I didn't want to install Slitherlight). Not only was the wrong version downloaded (32bit instead of 64) the frigging thing installed some bit of crud called Norton in the background.
My main dev system is CentOS. It is a breath of fresh air to go back to the sanity of Linux.
Member since:2005-07-06
Well, that depends. I'll defend WP7, but I'll also defend 'Linux' on the desktop. I run FC16 on my laptop, which I use more than my tower (which is running win7 for phone syncing and various other things), and I absolutely love it. I've run various linux distros for years, though, so I might be a bit biased 
And, yes, I'm a *nix nut yet I still use WP7. 
RE[4]: Comment by kovacm
by Soulbender on Sat 7th Apr 2012 05:37
in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by kovacm"
Member since:2005-08-18
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
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.More News »
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Member since:
2005-09-16
Well, Microsoft are a convicted monopolist. And I think they've done much more wrong they haven't been convicted for. Go ask Jean-Louis Gassée. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
What is more important is that they make crappy products. I have to admit, WinXP was a solid working horse for more than a decade. And Windows 7 is very fast and stable. But it's still crappy. Ok, that's just a personal opinion but I'm entirely entitled to it. Just today I wanted to change some notification area settings in Win 7. The list of different system tray apps is too long to fit in the windows that opens. And you know what - the mouse scroll wheel doesn't work in this window. WTF?! And when shall I be able to use Ctrl-Backspace to delete the word to the left of the cursor. It works in most text editing applications. Why doesn't it work in a file rename in Windows Explorer, for instance? What is the meaning of the small rectangle that it generates? And I have many more examples. You can argue that these are small things or they don't concern you. Great! But that's just your opinion, man! Mine is different. I wonder how is it possible for the biggest software company in the world to be so clueless?! The only possible answer is that they are indeed M$. They don't care for you if this doesn't bring them more money. Presumably that's what companies exist for. But I don't have to like to be treated like a cash cow.
Yes, my beloved Linux has its problems too. But I still love it. For me it's easier to use, more logical, more discoverable and, dare I say, cheaper. It may not be for everybody. So be it. I'll take it over everything M$ has to offer. I'm talking from experience here.