Re: Bah!

No, if you read the Adobe release, it only requires an internet connection once every 30 days. And if it can't get one, it switches into 30-day evaluation mode. So you can go 60 days without a connection without losing anything.

Re: Too much in too small a space

No problem: just use depleted livermorium.

(Just make sure you can get that round fired quickly!)

@Simon 49:

Can you please point me to a free SaaS which calculates sales tax for me that is both free and easy?

Oh, and make sure that it takes type of goods into account, since different items are often taxed differently.

The ones I know of are quite costly.

Re: how much use would you or I get from that?

Because what you or I get out of it is the sole measure of anything's usefulness.

Let me guess, you consider yourself a libertarian, right?

Re: US Sales Tax - you think EU VAT is tricky?

There's no Federal sales tax in the US, so it's really rate = special district + city + county + state.

And that leaves out the special incentives offered by some states, like for "teleproduction equipment" (in California) which can reduce the state portion of the tax calculation by 50% if the buyer and seller fill out the right paperwork, or the exemption of all "pre-programmed (non-custom) software delivered electronically" from any sales tax (in California).

I'm all for making all net transactions (including interstate) subject to sales tax, but only if there are common rates established so I don't have to pay a fortune for some service to calculate the tax for me.

Still trying to unload that RIM stock, are we?

Hey, Have Some Respect

We all have our opinions, but calling Windows "fermented cat piss" is a bit over the top.

Re: Next week in the register: Apple to support colour monitors!

Sophos gets all it's Mac information from Lewis Page.

As long as...

As long as the shutdown button is easy to find I'll be happy.

Re: "Foxconn-rebrander"

And it remains as lazy as it was the first time.

Complain about Apple's policies, products, and pricing as much as you like, but the fact that they use contract manufacturing for their designs doesn't really set them apart from any other high-tech company.

If the Reg really needs the clicks brought on by Apple-bashing, at least assign someone with some creativity to the job. Like maybe Lewis Page. He just makes up a lot of what he writes, so he's clearly a creative guy.

I do that sort of thing all the time

What? Why's everyone staring at me?

Re: Awesome

Near as I can tell, David Emm's qualifications as a "serious and skilled security professional" consist of being employed by Kapersky.

There will be security flaws in OS X that will get exploited. But the anti-virus salespeople have been screaming that the (Mac) sky is falling for a lot of years now with not much evidence that they *aren't* just hawking their software.

The most recent Mac event was (another) hole in Java. That doesn't make me all that upset, except at the people (still) touting Java as safe and secure.

Gratuitous?

It's been awhile since I've seen episode 1, but nudity is common when bathing, as is sex in a brothel.

I'm certain the marketing value of bare boobs has not been lost on the producers, but it's more realistic in those contexts than the artfully arranged wisp of steam or locks of hair glued to the breasts. I think your sense of "gratuitous" has been warped by the normal prudishness we see on TV, particularly in the US.

On first viewing I did think the Daenerys Targaryen nude bath scene went on a bit, but it bookended perfectly with the final scene in series 1.

Re: I mean Really

You must fly in and out of a better class of airports. I want to use my iPad while waiting the hour between pulling away from the gate and getting to the end of the runway so we can take off.

Or the 2 hours spent waiting for a gate to be available after landing.

I'm not that worried about the plane crashing when we're already sitting on the ground.

Re: Oh come on, please.....

Oh, I dunno. I met this guy in the bar last night who is willing to sell me Poland for just $10,000 cash. And that includes all their bridges!

Re: VAULT 2 of 2

Or, they implemented things as you describe, did some usability testing, and found that people not only object strongly to having to click through repetitive security warnings (hello, Vista!), but after awhile the warning does no good as users stop reading them.

Apple should re-word the dialog text, but that's about all that's needed if they want to keep their phone usable. But they'll probably succumb to the "Oh noes!" of people who don't even own an iPhone but like to complain on the net.

Re: Sanity Prevails (for a change)

You can't make changes to the way the current GPS system without changing the constellation of satellites and all the millions of receivers.

I'm not sure what you'd hope to gain with bidirectional GPS (an ACK/NACK response?) but there is no way to put a suitable transmitter in all GPS receiving devices. Everything would end up looking like--and having the cost and battery life--of a sat phone.

LightSquared just figured they could push the cost of adapting the GPS infrastructure to their presence onto everyone else. It's the conservative/Wall Street/City mentality: privatize profits and socialize costs.

There's always next time

MS and Nokia may not have commissioned this report, but after such an excellent blowjob, don't you think they might be first in line when the next batch of "favorable report dollars" are dished out?

Actually...

The version of THX1138 available today is hugely revamped from the original. New set extensions, new effects, re-edited in spots.

I found the new version to be very disappointing, as I saw the original so many times (I was briefly a projectionist) I pretty much have it memorized shot-for-shot.

Let me guess...

...you work in real estate.

Tout the "entry so long it takes forever to get in!" but not make any mention of the tidal forces.

Really?

It's the lack of new sounds that's holding music back?

I thought it was the lame idea that sampling someone else's music was "creative."

That and those hippity-hop kids with their baggy pants and backward caps and no respect for the great crooners like Rudy Vallee.

Perhaps

Perhaps he is under the impression that the wax cylinders were in QuickTime format? After all, Steve Jobs did invent the recording industry.

Funny!

I love how this site pretends that there are places outside the USA! I guess it's a running gag or something.

I think they meant successful products

In which case, phones, tablets, and the cloud from Microsoft are all straight out.

And Apple has never made a serious effort at "IT domination" unless you count the lackluster XServe line.

Which isn't to say that those are original ideas with Apple, just that it's success that counts, not who did it first, at least in business.

It's a US space probe so....

...it will be asked to remove it's shoes before proceeding.

> These are not "geek" things, they are essentials.

Thank you for proving you're a geek. (Note that I use the term lovingly, being one myself.)

The lack of those features is what keeps the iPad selling. The "lock-in" that you complain about is what guarantees app quality. The lock-in leads to no browsable file system, which is a non-issue if the apps are designed for a document-centric model.

USB ports, removable batteries, keyboard just make the device bigger, heavier, and give you more crap to carry around.

The iPad is a completely self-contained, locked-in, no worries, hardware and software ecosystem at an acceptable price. That's what everyone needs to compete with. Leave any part out and watch sales stay small.

But keep hoping that someone will build a tablet that fits your needs. If the manufacturers were more focused on building a sustainable tablet business model than on "iPad killers" then I believe they could make money building "geek" tablets that you might like. But it's a mistake to believe that your needs line up with the larger market that Apple is tapping into.

So Carmack rigged the challenge by including a requirement that can't be met unless one has access to a military GPS unit?

Here, I fixed that for you

Stick to <strike>writing</strike> copying software.

Stallman has made a career of copying other's work in the name of "creative" freedom, usually subsidized by the people he was complaining about (DEC, Sun, Microsoft). The man's never had an original thought; no wonder he feels threatened by Jobs.

Liberty is (supposed to be) cheaper

Liberty uses the Ariane 5 upper stage, but the ATK (Shuttle-derived) 5-segment solid-fuel rocket first stage. The solid ATK is much cheaper than the regular liquid-fuel Ariane 5 first stage. Or so they tell us.

It's really the Ares I with the J-2X upper stage swapped out. Which has to do with where ATK could raise money (by spreading the pork to Europe) as much as any technical merits.

WTF happened?

Carly happened. That's what.

She took a company which prided itself on the way it treated its employees and pillaged it through layoffs, benefit cuts, and morale-destroying "pep talks." The short-term increase in profit was cheered by Wall Street and she was considered a genius.

But after those gains were used up, she never could come up with anything else, thus becoming paranoid enough to bug her board of directors.

HP will never recover, but slowly drift downwards. It's an engineering company taken over by bean counters. They'll die the same way DEC did, one spin-off at a time.