Re: resolution up to 2560 by 1700

OK, and still - what is the point? I'm not sitting here using my 1280x1024 screen thinking that text is blurry or hard to read.

Given that Chromebooks are cheap computers geared to web browsing, it just seems a weird direction to go in.

Re: Charge card plus twitter

Though it would be fun when spam-bots re-tweet you.

Re: The "new hotness"?

Tablets existed before iPad too. Apple are good at turning hype into hype people will pay for.

Re: No Dave!

I thought there were valid technical reasons Dave wasn't on Freesat due to not being able to limit it to the UK?

Anyway it's not just TopGear... Red Dwarf and Man V Food too ;)

Re: Analogue?

They can keep them?

Re: A watch to make calls through your phone? How i-nnovative

Power is an issue but given how long an iPos nano/shuffle can last on a charge, maybe not an insurmountable one, depending what the device actually has to do.

Is self-winding technology applicable here? Any solution needs to be super-slick especially if it's Apple... no trailing wire or big clunky watch to fit the battery.

Re: What a cluster

Hmm, who is going to pay for issues in Linux? Torvalds?

@Lee & Paul et al

Thanks for the informative answers.

Re: Glad I don't work for the firm that developed the original software

Generally, from having taken part in these contests before, they are designed so you can't just find an algorithm and use it. You can find ideas from certain areas of CS but then have to figure out how to use them. Algorithms designed in these contests tend to be HUGELY tied to the very specific way input data is provided... e.g. the random distribution used in generating test cases will affect the solutions posted.

The top guys really are VERY smart.

Re: All your IP rights are belong to... everyone

People compete on TC largely for the sheer fun of it. Most problems have no prizes at all so the potential of a prize (most members are not in the West) and some recognition are just juicy bonuses.

This is proper all-night-coding-session-and-then-going-to-school nerdery, real stereotype stuff other coders here will no doubt identify with - I know I do (I used to compete but ran out of time).

Re: This is a standard tactic...

Your average user would not want to install a different OS even if it was made very easy so the point is moot... the kind of person interested in putting a new OS on their mobile device is the kind of person happy to jump through hoops to do so.

MS on the other hand have a reputation for producing low quality gear

They do? Even with ring-of-death issues, XBox is a premium product in that it is even matching the PS3. Kinect is seen as pretty cool and on the business side, MS peripherals have a great reputation.

To the average punter though, I don't think MS really HAS a reputation on the hardware side.

Re: All your IP rights are belong to...

The entire point is that you're creating an algorithm for someone else to 'exploit'. If you don't like the terms, don't invest your time.

Re: I'm not even going to pretend to care.

Yes theodore that's what all the nerds say. Nobody is buying it.

Re: Steve Jobs

I don't believe he gave a toss after reading his biography.

Re: Steve Jobs

I don't think he tried to look cool, I think he just wasn't going to wear what someone else wanted him to.

Re: Hacking ?

Social engineering is hacking. The best hack is the one that doesn't take much work.

Re: hacking?

Well done, it only took you a few weeks of teaching to reach the level of an 11-yo.

Re: "11-YEAR-OLD code wizard"

How is their security 'idiot' if someone puts an app on FaceBook which users download and enter their details into?

Still, you managed to get a few plus votes by following the usual tactic of insulting someone with an argument which appears on cursory glance to seem sensible. Quite the heights of Reg debate then really...

@Oliver

Typical software geek response... it's not about the end result, only how technically good the implementation.

Whereas to the rest of the world... the guy sitting on a beach drinking champagne with your money for example,,, it's the exact opposite.

Re: Shock asset stripper thinks his shares should be worth more!

By 'very few' you mean the tiny majority who work in an office or attend school/university?

Re: £375,000?

Mmm, 3.5 man-years of work sounds absolutely crazy. Even re-writing from scratch using the source code as a guide shouldn't take so long!

Clearly this is due to Android being crap... nothing to do with her developers. Perhaps she got quotes and they simply tried to rip her off.

It's foolish to suggest that simply because an ingredient is good, it couldn't be improved with other EQUALLY GOOD good ingredients.

Re: It's just a penis.

Unless you're saying beauty is objective than you're talking rubbish!

Re: Schools should be using LibreOffice

You can't really list "open source" as a reason it's better, because that opens up the whole argument if OSS is better. To the average user it makes not an iota of difference.

Re: Party like it's 2007

@Eadon... all the Office files I work with work fine in Office. Every SINGLE time I've tested in OO, it's been useless. Note, I have tested more than once, just tried for 2min once so I could bitch about it for the next N years.

When I send contracts to people who use OO, they send back signed copies with an apology that OO messed it up a bit.

From someone who has actually used both... OO fail.

Re: The first Sim City was the best

It's probably just his rather limited brain.

Re: SimCity

Unless you've played the beta, how do you know an offline mode makes sense? It's presumably a new game, not just a rehash with newer graphics - since SC2000 the audience has changed massively - literally a whole generation of new gamers have been born and reached an age to buy games.

Re: So,

>> The parent poster posted useful information.

No, he posted rhetoric based on information that by his own admission a decade out of date.

Re: Schools should be using LibreOffice

Please define better? And also list your credentials as a UX expert.

Re: Not a great outlook

It Outlook takes 5min to start up, the problem is your sysadmins. I work remotely on a VM and it takes ~2s - and this isn't a tiny setup either, it's been ongoing for 10+ years so the dataset on the server must be pretty horrific!

Re: Party like it's 2007

>>Why should LO (or OO) be judged by a standard that MS don't meet?

Because they are the ones trying to steal market share, not hold onto it. If you want to win MS users you need to make the transition absolutely super slick.

If LO's main goal is to win users from MS (is it?) then 100% perfect support for MS docs should be their absolute #1 priority. Otherwise it doesn't matter how good LO is, people won't switch.

Re: LIbre Office good, MS Office is dying.

>>if you use a closed MS format...

Um, unless you're still using .doc it's not closed.

Hard to see the Linux community liking the "use LO because of PDF" argument either. They hate PDF too.

Re: The more MS pushes people to rent their software

So you admit you can't come up with a good counter argument then? You eat cheese and it's gone... you use software and it's still there.

Most of the world's software is going service-based implicitly simply by going web-based after all... gmail, dropbox, Jira, github, etc - the question is only if you pay for them or not.

Re: Am I the only one who likes the Ribbon interface?

>>Maybe that's because "IT types" have some notion of efficiency and how to lay out a helpful user interface.

No they really don't. The last person you want developing a user interface is a software developer... that leads to "well just learn these 100 keyboard shortcuts and then it's easy". Crap UX is one of the only real failings of traditional FOSS offerings... Blender, GIMP, Vi, etc.

Re: Am I the only one who likes the Ribbon interface?

>>Anything that takes 5 years to become less difficult shouldn't have been released in the first place.

It doesn't. Except to the kind of person who finds menus difficult to start with.

Re: Am I the only one who likes the Ribbon interface?

I don't know if I like it but I have no problem with it... it appeared and within a week I was happy using it. Sometimes I have to google where to find a specific feature I haven't used before or for a long time, but I don't think that's different than the old system.

The wife loves Ribbon, says it's way better.

Re: It's just a penis.

Most human bodies are not that beautiful.

It works for Kindle...

Re: Not only can't MS sell tablets...

I see loads of adverts on Amazon, but then they also did a special feature why the iPad wasn't any good... probably in their interests.

The problem with ChromeOS is it's shit. Windows is shit too you might say, but at least it's still shit when you don't have wi-fi.

Hmm, a tile-based interface. That doesn't remind me of Android and iOS at all. Oh, it does.

Re: Actually...

>>Remember this point, the public now want computers (mobile and even desktop) that do not run MS operating systems.

The public don't know what an operating system is. They just want something they have heard of, and in the phone/tablet market that isn't something MS is able to achieve.

Re: Contempt!

Jobs rebuilt Apple based deciding what people should have, listening to nobody even other Apple people.

But of course, he also pretty much ran it into the ground by deciding what people wanted.

I'd rather MS made bold moves and got it wrong.. we can always leave MS products... than that everyone sat there doing nothing.