Re:call me when apple approves it
by rwa2 (4391)

For all of their "think different" ads, Apple is a very traditional vertically-integrated engineering firm... like the old "big iron" unixes: Cray, SGI, SUN, IBM, where they sold the entire platform: hardware, software, custom interfaces, etc.

For all the Microsoft-bashing we do around here, they were really the ones that separated hardware from software on the PC (and then Linux came around and offered the even more of the same).

But now we have vertically integrated smartphones again. And for all the Google vs. Microsoft that we do, Android is pretty much Google's effort at doing to the smartphone what Microsoft did to the PC.

So don't take your freedom of hardware abstraction for granted! But in the end, we pretty much know how this dance should turn out.... just look at what Cray, SGI, SUN, IBM are doing now :-P

Re:What?
by im_thatoneguy (819432)

Whether you believe in God or not is not the point. The point is that this country was founded on religious freedoms. Those same freedoms that allow you to post on boards like this. Without those religious fundamentalists fighting and dieing for their beliefs you would still be stuck under the rule of the Anglican church.

For those who didn't take 14 years of church history here is a little refresher on religious freedom. The people fleeing England weren't fleeing some oppressive conservative organization. They were mostly people who thought that religion has become to liberal.

Are bands/labels dumb?
by Shihar (153932)

Why would ANYONE charge to be in Rock Band? If you want a sure way to boost your sales, get yourself featured in Rock Band. Thousands of people discovering or re-discovering your music is a pretty fucking obvious way to scare up some sales. Hell, for any game where music is featured a band is only screwing themselves by putting up barriers for being selected. If I had a band, I would murder my way into getting put on a GTA music station. Even for big name stars, reminding hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people that you still rock isn't going to hurt. It is even more important if you are an older band whose original followers are in the process getting jammed into nursing homes. You should be fighting over the privilege to introduce yourself to the younger generations via Rock Band.

The music industry has its head jammed so firmly up their ass that is a minor miracle and a testament to monopoly power that they continue to exist each year.

Re:My god.
by girlintraining (1395911)

What the fuck is it that you american's live in such state of paranoia?

Relentless public announcements that we should accept our neighbor and be considerate of each other's differences. It's to the point now where people can't even make self-deprecating comments about their own race or sex without being fired for being racist or sexist. Jokes have become illegal. We've made negative feelings essentially taboo -- you can't express anger, dissatisfaction, or anything but sunshine and kittens.

Re:TWO DAY OLD NEWS
by wizardforce (1005805)

Slashdot has never really been the place to come for the latest news. It is however, the best place to discuss news.

Security theater
by Animats (122034)

The front entrance is very impressive. But it's security theater. Google StreetView shows the entrance to the loading dock [google.com], where the gate has been left open.

Re:Criticize the Numbers Not the Presentation (Score:5, Interesting)
by CodeInspired (896780) Alter Relationship on Wednesday September 02, @12:56PM (#29287521)

Having never done this before, the government is bound to have problems. All of them do when they try new things.

Like a public health care option?

These people are creating new rights for themselves, by locking up their content in a way that was never intended by those who invented copyright.

Re:DRM
by ShieldW0lf (601553)

Can you try calling them entitlements? When you call them rights, you play into the hands of those you philosophically oppose. Telling someone you want to take away a group of peoples rights always sounds bad and closes the discussion before it's begun. Tell someone you want to take away a group of peoples entitlements and suddenly they want to discuss the merits of your proposal.

Re:No it doesn't
by p0tat03 (985078)

If someone like Apple did develop a good 3D API, it might do well. However nobody seems interested.

Sadly, won't ever happen. Apple's "commitment" to gaming on their platform doesn't extend far beyond 3D chess and Tetris clones. Hell, having a working Flash client is probably Apple's idea of supporting "gaming" for their users.

Apple appears to be quite content with OpenGL in its current state, and haven't even gotten close to pushing its limits.

Re:Some basic rules to follow.
by mrvan (973822)

You hear this argument on slashdot a lot:
Post A) I disagree with copyright and therefore I download; not out of personal profit but as an act of protest
Post B) You should not break the law: obey it and meanwhile try to change it through political process

A essentially calls for civil disobedience, which is a relatively ethical way to change laws and society when poltical process is exhausted or futile. A burglar stealing my TV, however, is not a political protester trying to change property law, he is just a criminal stealing my shit. The essential difference between a crime and an act of civil disobedience is not breaking the law, however, but the manner in which this is done.

The Dutch sociologist Kees Schuyt formulated a number of rules for something to classify as ethical disobedience (rather than eg anarchist revolt or petty crime). Gandhi formulated a similar set of rules for his non-violent protest.

Let's have a look at Schuyt's rules:

Re:Surprise surprise!
by wstrucke (876891)

This anti-republican dogma has really got to stop. First of all, if you are going to believe in the myth of the "two sided democracy", then you have to at least admit that there are both good or bad eggs on both sides of the aisle. If that weren't true, then there would be no way we would be in the constitutional mess we are in today -- as soon as the "right" side got the majority, everything would have been fixed. Since that's obviously not the case, you have to assume that each majority has its' own agenda and the entire contemporary political machinery exists solely to maintain the existing power base in Washington and the elite of the U.S. Only when we as a society can get beyond the Democrat versus Republican myth will we truly start dismantling the subterfuge that is destroying our liberties, our Constitution, and our democracy. If we start looking at every politician based soley on his or her merits alone and ignore his or her political affiliation we would see the enormous "change of course" that we have been promised oh-so-many times and never actually seen.

Seriously people...
by fuzzyfuzzyfungus (1223518)

Default Deny makes good computer security; but profoundly dangerous public policy.

Re:What the hell?
by Belial6 (794905)

An American police officer is a very risky job and comes with shitty hours, high divorce rate, and a paycheck that doesn't match.

The same could be said of the guy working at the QuikyMart. Do you treat them with the same 'respect' that you do the police?

Re:Leave it the hell alone
by notnAP (846325)

You are still innocent until proven guilty. What's changed is what they do to innocent people.

Re:Wow! Who ever would have guessed that!?
by fm6 (162816)

I basically agree with you, but I think your description of the problem is oversimplified and misleading. People are not monolithically "smart" or "stupid". Everybody's smart and stupid about different things. Like those wizards in the Harry Potter books that can master complicated magic spells, but can't mail a letter. What turns smart people into assholes is when they assume their smartness in one field automatically transfers to another.

I think computer techies are particularly bad this way because they tend to be self-taught. Often the most effective strategy for learning a technology is to just sit down and fiddle with it. Or they read a book that was probably written by another self-taught techie that often gets details wrong (how many of you can correctly define "ASCII"?) but gets enough essentials right to get the job done.