Posts by Rock Lobster

Top Facebook exec begs students: 'Click on an ad or two'

I think the original poster's intention was not to say "people are from now on viewed as cash cows", but "people are from now on AWARE they're viewed as cash cows"

AMD to dump ATI brand

poor graphics

those logos look as if they got designed by some 14 year old

Stick a fork in floppies - they're done

Visual Basic 1.0

I have once managed to copy Visual Basic 1.0 onto a floppy, that was pretty cool. The only thing that had to go onto a second disk was the help file, but apart from that, it was directly runnable from the first floppy.

Recently used them

I got back to floppies a few days ago... I even bought an external floppy drive on eBay for 10 euros ;)

I use them with musical instruments, and somehow it was a great feeling to use floppies again. They were pretty reliable, I can't remember many failures. It got worse with CDs, and it was a shame with DVDs. The only thing that I always disliked about floppies was their speed, and of course, their capacity by someday. But for MIDI files they're still great of course ;)

I wish there would have been a good successor to the floppy drives, maybe even with compatibility, but instead we got about 20 different SmartCompactMediaFlashCards... and USB keys, which are the only alternative that I really appreciate.

Opera alerts EU to hidden Windows browser-ballot

Dear Opera-Bashers

I don't like Opera's whining either, but don't forget one thing: In the end it might be helpful to your favorite's browser as well.

Google Buzz leaves privacy concerns ringing in ears

Evil Google Icon

I'd vote for the %) -icon in the screenshot ;)

Thai firm flies in early-80s style keyboard PC

mouse

The only thing that seems to be missing is a mouse replacement... so you could use it on your lap when sitting on the sofa. Something like a ThinkPad trackpoint would be cool.

What I really like about it is that it has a "real" keyboard, not a laptop keyboard (in terms of key heights). Of course, that alone doesn't say the keyboard is good, though.

Revolutionary triangular-key keypad out on Android

@Fred & @fluffy

@Fred: I'd say it's a different idea with a different goal. Just the fact that both keyboards have triangular keys doesn't mean it's the same they're after. The crocodile keyboard helps hitting virtual keys on a touchscreen, while the Neoi 809 keyboard uses real keys with real feedback, but they were just trying to save space. The difference should become even obvious when you look at the key positioning.

@fluffy: It is NOT just the skin that is important, so just tweaking the skin won't do any good. See my other post...

@fluffy again

Sorry, I didn't mean to say "it won't to any good", I meant "it won't be as good" compared to the "real" crocodile version.

the looks are important

"though you could just as well have a triangular sensitive area with a normal graphic"

This is wrong, the visible shape is extremely important. If it was just the sensitive area, you might be able to learn the "strange behavior" of the keyboard after a long while, but with the looks, you automatically tend to put your finger to the point with the highest possibility of success - which is above the center of each triangle. So you're doing it right immediately, and automatically.

Actually, the other way round it could be a little bit more true - having a circular or rectangular sensitive spot, but only showing triangles. This wouldn't be perfect either, but it should be still a tiny improvement over a normal keyboard (though the sensitive rectangles would have to be a little bit displaced upwards, compared to where the triangles would be displayed)

Transparent OLEDs demoed

Finally transparent!

This brings the whole transparent-glossy-GUI-stuff to a whole new level. I often said "one day, every GUI will look so transparent that you can see the wall behind your monitor". I always thought I was just joking, but...

Blazing laptop of death claims one

@Indomitable Gall

You can't remove the battery of a Macbook.

Open-source .NET seeks touchy iPhone developers

@ Martin 6

@ Martin 6:

read the article

Opera slams Microsoft's Windows 7 E move - again

Opera...

For me personally, Opera is really the best browser, and I love using it. However, I think it's sad how ridiculous the company behaves, it's really a shame.

And I love Microsoft's decision to simply include no browser at all, that's what I'd have done as well.

Office 2010 tech preview: Expect the expected

menu screenshots

@ MrT:

Just hold down Alt, open the menu with the keyboard shortcut, select your menu entry with the arrow keys, and then press print screen (while still holding Alt).

a screenshot button

wow

Coming soon: clothes that take photographs

PP

Paparazzi Paradise

4K by 2K resolution, Ethernet-equipped HDMI 1.4 announced

don't be so nit-picky

Nobody claimed that it's enough resolution to ONLY transmit 2 pictures.

An unthinking programmer's guide to the new C++

@ Ken

imagine if someone couldn't tell an ordinary comment apart from a joke comment

Microsoft SKUs Windows 7 clarity

Re: Successor vs Service Pack

@ John O'Hare

Well, first of all, you could call every new Ubuntu or Fedora a "service pack", since it always uses the older version as a basis. But here, nobody has a problem with calling it a successor.

And even if Windows 7 is really only a "service pack", then it is still understandable that MS won't call it that way, because Vista's reputation is already as low as it can get. No wonder that they'll use a new name for it.

Maybe people want to call it a service pack because of its shorter development time. But if they'd need another 5 years to develop it, only to justify it being a really new release, people would be unsatified as well.

Silverlight to follow Obama into US presidency

Very clever actually

Just think about it:

Everyone has Flash, nobody has Silverlight.

Everyone wants to see that stuff, so now everybody will install Silverlight.

That's a very clever move from Microsoft.

Russian's emoticon trade mark won't wash with EU

the prior art thing

"Doesn't the concept of 'prior art' apply to trade marks as it does to patents?"

No, obviously not. Just think of trademarks like e.g. Apple or Sun, those words might be even a little bit older than the first use of emoticons ;) so how would anyone have been able to use register those as a trademark then, if there was such a thing as "prior art" for trademarks?

Before Pong, there was Computer Space

this is the future

@ Bob Merkin:

Well the funny thing is that the makers of Soylent Green (which is set in 2022), couldn't have known what the future of gaming would be like. So they used "Computer Space" and maybe thought "yeah, in the future people will have such cool games for their homes" :) and now just imagine where we are today in 2008, and what the games already look like :) I'm sure they wouldn't have imagined that (think of Crysis etc)

Man trademarks ;-) emoticon

Why...

Why is this on "reg hardware"?