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It’s funny to me because before Windows 8 launched, they made a point of saying you can make a “native” Windows 8 application using HTML5 and JavaScript. In other words, they already have everything they need to create a complaint YouTube application.

2 days ago on Microsoft responds to YouTube demands, 'more than happy' to include ads if Google allows it

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Perhaps I’m misinformed because I haven’t seen follow up discussion, but that is what I’ve seen reported.

5 days ago on Supreme Court rules in favor of Monsanto, says farmer violated seed patents

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Monsanto already does that… just not in this plant apparently. They are supposed to be one generation only to prevent cross pollination, whereby a genetically altered plant can’t pass on those genes to natural crops.
There was a case a decade or so ago, if my memory serves me, where a farmer not using Monsanto seeds had his crop altered from pollination of an adjoining field, and Monsanto sued him for not purchasing the seeds from them. Even though the farmer had nothing to do with the process, he lost the suit because they could show their genetic markers in his crop.

6 days ago on Supreme Court rules in favor of Monsanto, says farmer violated seed patents 2 replies 1 recommend

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Yes!

Chrome apps are poised to break out of the browser and will operate just like any “native” application. This has already been done for ChromeOS and Windows. Soon there won’t be any significant difference, and the apps won’t clutter your browser…

That being said, there is something to be gained by having Chrome applications live as a tab in the browser. If such as on a ChromeBook, every application is just a tab, your tabs become how you switch applications, just like the task bar on other operating systems. If the “browser” is the OS, then tabs are the perfect way to surface app switching, and it will work alongside any other non-app web browsing.

9 days ago on Google adds push alerts to Chrome for more efficient apps 1 reply

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Assuming you are talking about the desktop extension, the only advantage it additionally provides is handling the mailto: protocol. Platform independent notification, that any app can potentially hook into is a completely different beast. Sure you can have Gmail notification without the extension too, but that isn’t a universal tool.

9 days ago on Google adds push alerts to Chrome for more efficient apps

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The music video by… something to do with Mars or Martians, I guess I could look it up if I wanted, that was viral. I still paraphrase a quote from that meme when I’m using voice navigation on my XBox, “XBox, main screen turn on!” It never works for me unfortunately.

10 days ago on Body Message: GI Joe and the invention of the viral video 1 recommend

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Wow, the Verge didn’t like my accent in Mexico apparently.
I had posted more about the pronunciation of Bexar County in Texas. Unlike Texas, it is pronounced by locals as Bear, effectively dropping the ‘x’ sound altogether.
The only place I’ve heard ‘x’ pronounced as a /sh/ sound is on the Yucatan peninsula, hence why I thought Spanish influence may have been a factor. The language itself isn’t Spanish, but if Spanish explorers helped create the modern written form, that might explain the high number of words that use it.

10 days ago on Watch this: how the letter 'x' came to represent the unknown 1 reply

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I’m sure we have some words that should be spelt differently. Possibly words that existed before the great vowel shift, but I’m no expert in that. Some words like knight have the same spelling as they’ve had, but pronunciation has a silent ‘k.’ I don’t believe the ‘k’ has always been silent. There are obvious regional differences too. I don’t know if you get to travel, but those folks over in the UK sound funny. ;-)
Interesting about the spelling of M

10 days ago on Watch this: how the letter 'x' came to represent the unknown 1 reply

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Interesting. You obviously have more knowledge about the historical development of the language than I do, so I’ll concede that I may be wrong. I was basing my response on my limited (high school) education and what I thought I understood from the video.
I wonder if the ‘X’ in the “modern” Aztec writing had its origins from early Spanish roots then as well? The early Spanish priests made most of the translations for the indigenous Yucat

10 days ago on Watch this: how the letter 'x' came to represent the unknown 1 reply

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Mathematical notations as we know them are very recent. The use of ‘x’ to mean multiply, derives from “cross.” Oughtred also disliked using ‘x’ for multiply for the same reason you dislike it.

http://www.math.neu.edu/~bridger/U201/History_of_Math_Mathematical_Symbols.htm

10 days ago on Watch this: how the letter 'x' came to represent the unknown

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I think you’re saying the same thing.

What native Spanish words use the /sh/ sound? As the Moors pushed into what is now modern Spain, they brought with them their culture and language. Spanish, being a Romantic language, didn’t have an /sh/ sound, and so borrowed the older Greek ?.

? was (re)introduced to facilitate transliteration from a script language, Arabic, into Spanish. The transliteration of the Arabic word for “something unknown” eventually became shortened to X.

So while you argue that Spanish had an /sh/ sound, it had that /sh/ because it was borrowed from Greek, for the purpose of transliteration.

10 days ago on Watch this: how the letter 'x' came to represent the unknown 1 reply

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Agreed. See my other comment earlier in the discussion.

10 days ago on Watch this: how the letter 'x' came to represent the unknown

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I want to get rid of the ‘u’ that follows ‘q.’ Other than a handful of borrowed words, such as “Iraq,” English only uses ‘q’ when it is followed by a ‘u.’

There are certainly times where we use ‘u’ on its own, but not ‘q.’ Why don’t we then just use ‘q’ on its own and know that it is pronounced with the ‘qu’ sound it represents. Doing so, we’d have words like “qestion,” “qery,” “qart,” but it certainly wouldn’t prevent existing borrowed words like “Iraq” or “Koyaanisqatsi.”

10 days ago on Watch this: how the letter 'x' came to represent the unknown 1 reply

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Even if someone wanted to record a movie wearing Google Glass, would you want to watch it? Not a snipe at Google Glass mind you, but even good cam recordings are crappy. If it is a movie worth watching, this isn’t the way to see it.

11 days ago on Caesars Palace confirms ban on Google Glass-wearing gamblers 2 replies 7 recommends

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The Sunseeker couldn’t fly 24 hours. The difference here is that not only can the plane use solar power to keep it aloft, but it has a surplus of power that it can use to charge batteries for night time flight. Adding heavy batteries to the plane so that it not only can carry them, but can charge them as well is why this is significant.

15 days ago on Flying forever, one day at a time: solar-powered airplane embarks on coast-to-coast voyage 4 recommends

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I think I can make a case for the American date system.
In an agrarian culture, the most important date information would be the month.
You plant your crops in March, you harvest them in September. The day of the month is more specific. John is loaning me his tractor on June 5th. The most critical detail, the month, is still first. Now as long as your time span is within a year, the year is actual meaningless. It means very little for daily work.
European dates are written by more specific to more general. This also acknowledges that the year is less meaningful in daily conversations, but it loses the general practicality that the American system has.
I prefer the ISO form myself for a lot of tasks. But this is largely because it makes sorting easy and unlike my ancestors, I need to consider larger spans of time. I work on projects that span much longer than the time it takes for the Earth to orbit around the Sun. However, that is in a written context only, and usually when I’m working with something that will be processed by a computer.
In general, if I’m filling out a form, I use a Military format, 3 May 2013. This eliminates any confusion about what day I mean regardless of who is reading it; language translation confusion notwithstanding.

15 days ago on Scientists are building a better kilogram 1 reply

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For the same reason we can measure gravity’s effect over most distances. It breaks down when we look at things at a quantum level, but it is consistent for the scales that we are measuring.
If at the extremities you need more exacting measurements, and the model you are using doesn’t work, you use a different benchmark. For practically all measurements we care about, it is valid.

15 days ago on Scientists are building a better kilogram 1 reply 3 recommends

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But when the scale was created, I’m saying that was hard.
I would prefer that everything was metric today, but there is a very good reason the units were sized as they were. Base 12 units simplified things considerably. Miles being equal to 5280 feet, not so much, but being that a twelfth of a mile is 440 feet means that it is also easy to segment into rational lengths.

15 days ago on Scientists are building a better kilogram

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Actually it is very good. A third of a foot is 4 inches… a third of a meter is immeasurable precisely. Dividing a line segment into 12 units means it has a precise measure of 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/12, and any combination of those units. It only lacks 1/5… which is need less often.
Calculators make decimal calculations simple, but there is a very good reason why feet, hours, minutes, etc. are divisible by 12. You don’t need a calculator.

16 days ago on Scientists are building a better kilogram 1 reply

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Thumbs up for PA from me. I’ve had custom ROMs since JF, but when ICS hit, I’ve been sticking with stock for awhile. I didn’t even root for several months. Then when I finally decided to unlock my Nexus 4, so I could run backups, I gave PA a try specifically for the different customizations I could make for applications, telling them to show tablet, phablet, and phone UIs. Amazing what a difference it made for some things, especially settings. It has been rock solid.
Facebook messaging has been interesting, but chat heads hasn’t completely won me over yet. Sure you can move them, but there is something to be said for the notification shade, it keeps notifications out of my way until I want to address them. I ditched Facebook Home because they were completely hidden. PA with Facebook Home might actually work for me.

16 days ago on Custom Android software turns every notification into a Facebook-style Chat Head 1 reply

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Did cause. I’ve read reports of soldiers that were killed by IEDs at security checkpoints while using these “devices.” At the volume that these devices were sold, I’m surprised this charlatan wasn’t found out sooner.

16 days ago on Fraudster jailed for 10 years after earning millions through sale of fake bomb detectors 1 reply

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They seem different to me.

While I have a problem with the fact that he collected that data, I would never have considered the AT&T guy to be guilty of cracking… he might have been in violation of TOS.

The video poker players also should not be found guilty of cracking, but they may be guilty of stealing.

17 days ago on Federal court questions whether using a bug to beat a video poker machine is hacking

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That must have been in the Wired article.

I think the argument can be made that the element of chance has been removed. The fact that the game had a glitch that they were able to capitalize on is pretty slick though.

My personal take is that this wasn’t hacking, but I’m torn. How much money must they have spent before they figured this out? How much more did they gamble on this being a repeatable pattern? While this may have been a glitch, it wasn’t a payout that cost them nothing.

I knew of a vending machine as a kid that was rumored to sometimes give you more than one type of drink if you could press the buttons at the same time. I never scored an additional beverage, but the rumors persisted, and any time I was buying one drink, I always tried my hand at two. If I, or anyone else for that matter, had discovered a completely fool-proof way to trick the machine to give two sodas, I wouldn’t hesitate to call it stealing.

The glitch in the video poker machine strikes me the same way. They found a way to make their “vending machine” dispense more than it was supposed to dispense… and it can probably be proven that they knew they were winning more than they should have. I think that they would have known the odds at which they should have been paid, and when they realized that they were awarded more and on a condition for which they shouldn’t have won, they took advantage.

I think a case could be made that this was stealing, but hacking seems to be a bit of a stretch.

17 days ago on Federal court questions whether using a bug to beat a video poker machine is hacking 1 recommend

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It gets complicated because it isn’t really the casinos responsibility either. I know in Nevada, machines are certified by the gaming commission, and cheating a game or gaming system falls under their jurisdiction. Whether or not exploiting a vulnerability in one of these systems constitutes cheating probably comes down to whether or not they’ve eliminated the element of chance.
I don’t know the video poker machines in question and don’t know the technique they employed, but if I had to guess, they probably discovered that the random number generator wasn’t random and was predictable. If they discovered this secret, it would no longer be considered a game of chance.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, and as far as I know, previous “cheaters” have been stripped of their winnings. It is a new spin that this might be considered “hacking,” with different charges levied against them.

17 days ago on Federal court questions whether using a bug to beat a video poker machine is hacking 1 reply 1 recommend

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Seeing as I already picked it up in XBL, I probably will too.

17 days ago on Xbox Live Arcade hit 'Fez' finally arrives on PC for $9.99

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If you are only financially motivated, you have the wrong job. Art should be inspiring, and if you’re fortunate your art should also be financially rewarding – but that is secondary. Art, much like other disciplines, is collaborative process. Ideas grow from other ideas, and if you aren’t allowed to create derivative works, things will stagnate.
I believe attribution should be made in reference to the original work, but it would be impossible to fairly assess monetary obligation.

18 days ago on A legal victory for 'appropriation art' expands when artists can remix each others' work

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My initial thought was bearings, until I saw what was being described. I can’t imagine those round things (certainly not spherical) would be load bearing for long.

18 days ago on Hundreds of strange metallic spheres found in ancient Mexican temple

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I was hoping for better. Smith has sat on the committee for years, so it isn’t too surprising that he became Chair. I had hoped that his years of experience would have him serve more conservatively in this post… meaning that he wouldn’t radically alter the process, not that he would inject his political agenda.

19 days ago on SOPA author Lamar Smith wants congressional guidelines to replace peer review for federal science research

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Netscape 2.0 tried to recapture that idea… in a way, I guess .cgi changed the idea that web content need to exist as documents. Once the entire page became rendered by code, there was little need to have an editor built into the browser.

19 days ago on First ever website brought back to life at its original URL

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ChromeOS?
In 5 years, I can see Chrome, or something like it being the dominate OS. The best part about it, is that it isn’t tied to a specific platform type. You don’t have to have Chrome applications only running on ChromeBooks, they can run on any platform that has Chrome. Laptops, tablets, smartphones, wearable PCs…
Tablets won’t be dead, they just will be another way to access the next generation of software. There may be a demand for some native applications still when you want to extract every last bit of computational power, but with NaCl even that demand will be reduced.

19 days ago on BlackBerry's Thorsten Heins thinks tablets will be dead in five years 1 reply