Comment

He’s hoping the nickname will catch on.

about 12 hours ago on Samsung Galaxy S4 hits 10 million units shipped, new colors coming this summer 1 reply 4 recommends

Comment

about 16 hours ago on The world's first emergency face transplant a success, say Polish surgeons 5 recommends

Comment

The dream of the 1890s is alive in Portland . . .

about 24 hours ago on After heated battle, Portland residents reject bid to fluoridate city drinking water 6 recommends

Comment

Assuming RVKennedy is from the UK, burrrrrnnnnn!

1 day ago on Inventor of the GIF uses awards ceremony to remind us how it's pronounced

Comment

But “Lego” is not the plural of Lego. Lego Bricks is the plural of Lego. There’s a source link from Lego that I’m not nerd enough to dig up. So the pedants and the rednecks are both wrong. Can’t we all just get along?

1 day ago on Inventor of the GIF uses awards ceremony to remind us how it's pronounced 1 reply

Comment

Exactly. This is pedantry at its finest. Insisting on pronouncing it Jif is right up the there with criticizing someone for saying “Legos”.

1 day ago on Inventor of the GIF uses awards ceremony to remind us how it's pronounced 2 replies

Comment

http://mangoinyourmouth.com/

1 day ago on Green screens were necessary to film 'half' of new 'Arrested Development' season 1 recommend

Comment

I had no idea bout atlas obscura before this. Wow. Just . . . wow.

1 day ago on Space guns, boreholes, and biodomes: the lost dreams of 20th century science

Comment

Bingo! I really want to know this too. If this thing can roll up my DVR, Blu-Ray, and Apple TV into one, plus give me ability to skype from my TV, they’ve got me sold.

I saw an Xfinity logo, so perhaps certain cable providers will allow tight integration with this box? I know the standard Xfinity DVR comes with a 160GB drive, so 500GB should be plenty if it’s allowed to store and play back in whatever proprietary format the cable company is using. If it’s having to encode on the fly that’s another story.

Then again it could just be using the CEC feature that’s been used in HDMI 1.3a and up. Theoretically, a cable box could accept commands over the HDMI connection. Knowing how crappy the Xfinity DVR’s are, though, I’d be really surprised if any of them out there support CEC.

2 days ago on With Xbox One and PlayStation 4, Microsoft and Sony rekindle the war for your TV

Comment

Exactly. It seemed like it had some intelligence to it – like “watch CBS” or was that for internet content only?

2 days ago on Five years on from HD-DVD's failure, the Xbox One has a Blu-ray drive

Comment

Thank you. Maybe I’m a little sensitive (see my post above) because I’m actually working on globalization for a web app.

2 days ago on Watch our Microsoft Xbox event post-show now!

Comment

Well you could do like Nintendo with the Wii U, and create your own proprietary standard that has the exact same capacity as Blu-Ray but totally isn’t Blu-Ray ;-) and the box can’t play Blu-Ray movies. /s

Seriously, if the one can stream media from my computer, play blu-ray, and play netflix, it can kill my blu ray player and my Apple TV. If it can DVR TV from my cable subscription, it can replace all my set-top boxes.

2 days ago on Five years on from HD-DVD's failure, the Xbox One has a Blu-ray drive 1 reply 1 recommend

Comment

I’m not an american ignorant. Time zones bother us online too – ebay was founded nearly 20 years ago and is one of the world’s most complex web applications, but I still haven’t seen a preference to localize auction end times. They’re displayed in PST/PDT and 24-hour clock, which means for me in EST/EDT and not natively thinking in military time means two mental conversions. I (and everyone not in PST) deal with it.

Interestingly, I searched the Guardian, Telegraph, and BBC, and I couldn’t find one mention of the time of today’s event. One site had the date but none of them mentioned the time, in any time zone. Other articles mentioned times without any time zone. If I was reading those sites from the states on a regular basis, and I made comments about how they don’t post time zones or equivalent US time zones on their stories, how flamed would I get for being an idiot American that can’t do math?

Would it be better if the Verge’s timestamps were auto-sensed to your time zone? Yes. Is it a problem big enough to implement some complex code? I don’t know. Should they prompt us all to put in our location in our user account for correct time conversion? Should they auto-sense it via browser id strings? Should they just pander and put GMT in all their headlines?

There’s a simple solution that doesn’t involve complaining about free content: add a second clock to your taskbar.

2 days ago on Watch our Microsoft Xbox event post-show now! 2 replies 11 recommends

Comment

I applaud this thread. Not because I care. But because I hope that maybe we can get all the useless time zone griefing out of the main comment threads. Every single time there’s a timestamp in a post people start whining. People have to convert time zones all the time. The earth is round, deal with it. Here’s a protip: hook yourself up with an additional clock in windows vista or above.

2 days ago on GMT/BST/UTC times in articles 1 reply

Comment

Do you complain about times posted on all other US-based sites you visit?

3 days ago on Watch our Microsoft Xbox event post-show now! 3 replies 16 recommends

Comment

It needs to be at least . . . twice as big!

7 days ago on Pebble smartwatch apps are finally smart, can now talk to iOS and Android apps

Comment

Agreed. I refuse to buy a 1366×768 pixel device. Even at 11 inches, it’s not worth my money if it doesn’t even offer a 1600×900 option.

7 days ago on Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga 11S, the true successor to the Yoga 13, is finally on sale 1 reply 2 recommends

Comment

Funny story. I work for a company that introduced a terminal that was silver. Most terminals are dark grey or black. The reason for that is that the airborne grease and hand oils from the users will eventually stain any other color. Terminal looked beautiful in our offices, but the first question we were asked when shopping around the prototypes was “does it come in black?” We formulated a plastic that wouldn’t stain and could be cleaned, but people still asked for it in black.

9 days ago on Square introduces $299 stand aimed at replacing cash registers

Comment

Mind if I ask you what size your business is?
I think the issues with places like Starbucks, is that I would assume they are using an accounting package much more powerful than Quickbooks.

9 days ago on Square introduces $299 stand aimed at replacing cash registers

Comment

Bingo. The software is the key here, and there are some iPad based POS systems that are making progress, but it’s a monumental undertaking.

If you’re targeting the restaurant environment, you have to consider so many variables.

First of all, any software piloted at a new store has to interface to the enterprise’s accounting and reporting infrastructure in some way. Purchasing and upgrade cycles for some equipment in that industry can run into the decades. Restaurants, especially fast food, are a ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it kind of business. So you’re going to have to coexist with their existing environment, probably for years.

Companies continue to service 12-year-old terminals running 15-year-old software because it still works. Restaurants rarely upgrade their entire chain all at once, so someone always has outdated equipment and software.

The other thing about the restaurant environment is the bevy of peripherals and tie-in systems that this software has to support. Yes this says it connects to peripherals . . . you’ve got kitchen video systems, some of which run on the LAN, some on serial port, some on proprietary port, etc. You have cash drawers with different interfaces, drive through timers, and the list goes on. Then there’s software tie-ins loyalty systems with proprietary API’s (Starbucks point system for example), External Order Interfaces (it might surprise you to know that Five Guys pays a fee for every order you place using your iPhone).

Then the software itself does a lot. Most POS systems do inventory, labor scheduling with prediction, enterprise reporting, enterprise configuration management, and have to account for myriad business rules. You’d be amazed at how many types of Buy-One-Get-One offers you have to account for across maybe 3 fast food chains. Then you have shifts, menu changes, discounts, coupons, etc to deal with. You have enterprise accounting, 24-hour end-of-day management . . . there’s a lot that goes into a good POS system.

But the biggest issue restaurants would have with this is downtime. If the system goes down, you’re taking orders with pencil and paper and that’s a nightmare. If you have a hard crash more than twice in a month at the same store, you can expect to lose that account. POS companies employ a network of field engineers, sell hefty service contracts, and have multiple tiers of support with turnaround time in minutes, not days, because they have to.

What is Square’s support infrastructure?

I also have an issue with the ergonomics of a system like that. That iPad is being shown on a high counter. Most counter-service counters are a lot lower, and POS terminals are typically taller and have 15-17" screens, because they’re farther away than most people use an iPad. The menu being shown on that iPad is showing about 1/5th of a typical fast food menu. The main thing about POS is speed, and if you have to page through pages of items you’re wasting service time.

/former Point-of-Sale QA guy

9 days ago on Square introduces $299 stand aimed at replacing cash registers 1 reply 3 recommends