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CLIQ XT won’t get Android 2.1 upgrade, Motorola’s word as good as dirt

Posted on February 5th, 2011 at 13:05 by John Sinteur in category: Google

[Quote]:

Motorola’s dangled an Android 2.1 upgrade in front of CLIQ XT users for what seems like forever — now it’s putting away the bait indefinitely. In a statement released this morning, the company said that despite months of rigorous testing, the phone will remain on Android 1.5.

[Quote]:

That’s OK, because Android is open. Cliq XT owners can just type “mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make” and they’ll be all set.


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  1. Sue W on February 6th, 2011 at 1:23:

    Ok, I’ve worked on a farked-up product in my time…how hard can this be?

Introducing Nokia Bubbles

Posted on February 5th, 2011 at 12:29 by John Sinteur in category: News

I couldn’t help but think of this


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  1. Sue W on February 6th, 2011 at 1:18:

    lol…the sad part of this is that Nokia really dropped the ball with the N770/800 – great hardware, intern-standard software. Silly buggers didn’t didn’t take advantage of a really hungry open community. Apple FTW.

  2. Tom Forest on February 6th, 2011 at 2:07:

    “the sad part of this is that Nokia really dropped the ball with the N770/800″

    Recently? 4 years ago for the N800 and we’ve had the fantastic N900 since then.

  3. Mudak on February 6th, 2011 at 5:09:

    I honestly can’t decide if I like this bubbles concept. It seems … gimmicky. Maybe a good fit for teenagers if the price is right but I can’t imagine it being taken all that seriously in any other markets…

Protecting Life? New Bill Says Its OK to Let Women Die

Posted on February 5th, 2011 at 12:23 by John Sinteur in category: News

[Quote]:

One hundred members of Congress (so far) have cosponsored a bill introduced by far right Congressman Joe Pitts (R-PA) called the "Protect Life Act."

They want to "protect life" so much that they have written into the bill a new amendment that would override the requirement that emergency room doctors save every patient, regardless of status or ability to pay. The law would carve out an exception for pregnant women; doctors and hospitals will be allowed to let pregnant women die if interventions to save them will kill the fetus.


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Comments:

  1. Desiato on February 5th, 2011 at 12:47:

    Will the Protect Life Act do anything to reduce gun deaths?

  2. Mudak on February 5th, 2011 at 13:24:

    @Desiato, of course not! They only care about life before it’s born!

  3. John Sinteur on February 5th, 2011 at 13:27:

    Well, it’s probably not in this bill, but you know they’re trying to move from “gun deaths” to “unmanned drone deaths”, so they are making some progress in that area…

  4. Kharkov on February 5th, 2011 at 14:25:

    Well, after the pregnant mother is allowed to die, at least the fetus will have a chance to develop normally.

    Oh, wait…

  5. Sue W on February 6th, 2011 at 1:08:

    OK, so as a Canajun woman who believes that every child should be a wanted child, I’m gonna start a new underground railroad. Fuckers. Fuckers.

Julian Assange

Posted on February 5th, 2011 at 11:40 by John Sinteur in category: Quote

[Quote]:

For the internet generation this is our challenge and this is our time. We support a cause that is no more radical a proposition than that the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state.

The state has asserted its authority by surveilling, monitoring and regimenting all of us, all the while hiding behind cloaks of security and opaqueness. Surely it was only a matter of time before citizens pushed back and we asserted our rights.


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  1. Sue W on February 6th, 2011 at 1:13:

    ¡Viva la revolución!

Suit Alleges Mellon Created Fake Trades, Overcharged

Posted on February 5th, 2011 at 11:30 by John Sinteur in category: Robber Barons

[Quote]:

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. currency traders used a foreign-exchange system called "Charlie" to create fake trades and overcharge Virginia pension funds by at least $20 million, according to allegations in recently unsealed documents in a Virginia court.

The allegations, made by a whistleblower group, are part of a widening probe by state prosecutors into whether custody banks such as Bank of New York Mellon and State Street Corp. shortchanged public pension funds in executing currency trades used to complete financial transactions abroad.


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  1. spaceman spiff on February 5th, 2011 at 17:32:

    Why are we NOT surprised? Greedy people never change their stripes. Bankers are first and foremost amongst that group IMHO…

*how* many????

Posted on February 5th, 2011 at 11:08 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote]:

– People estimate that they use an average of 2,566 text messages a month. However, the average person uses 1,555 text messages a month.


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Comments:

  1. Desiato on February 5th, 2011 at 12:20:

    Mentioned this to a friend, who said roughly: sending 25/day and receiving 25/day gives you 50 * 30 days = 1,500/month.

    Of course many of us use roughly 0, so equally many must be using 3,000 messages per month.

  2. Sue W on February 5th, 2011 at 23:33:

    Crikey, that sounds like a heck of a lot of bytes! Surely the intertubularities canna take the strain!

Mẹ của bạn như vậy là chất béo mà cô ăn Shamu! Cô mất mười hai kg! Nhưng bên cạnh đó, cô là đàn bà tuyệt diệu.

Posted on February 5th, 2011 at 10:12 by John Sinteur in category: Intellectual Property


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Comments:

  1. Desiato on February 5th, 2011 at 12:24:

    Hey look, Consumerism has gotten to the point where people feel they have a RIGHT to consume products that aren’t being offered to them.

  2. SjG on February 5th, 2011 at 21:42:

    I’ve had similar conversations with both Microsoft and Adobe when their product’s DRM malfunctions. I have wasted many, many hours on the phone with call-center support where they start by accusing me of piracy, and grudgingly try to help me when I am able to prove that I bought their products.

    Whether or not it’s justified, that results in serious changes in my attitude towards those companies. If I had pirated/”shared”/stolen the products, I would not have had the problems (the cracked versions remove the offensive code). Instead, I try to replace the products with F/OSS equivalents, or buy from a company that treats me better.

    Now, I also realize that the problem is a chicken and egg problem. They put DRM on because people use the software but don’t acquire it legally.

    When it comes to artificial scarcity (like the Rosetta Stone example, or region codes on DVDs), it’s yet another issue. In the old days, publishers would print tech books in various places, and price them according to the local economy, so, for example, the same tech book would be US$75 in California and US$1 in India. This worked out well for everyone, since Californian wages wouldn’t make it worth my time to import the Indian versions. But with electronic distribution, that import cost goes to near zero. I can understand the need for publishers to prevent “leakage” of goods across those boundaries.

    Ultimately, that problem would be solved by wage equalization. Barring the emergence of an unexpected worldwide socialist utopia, however, I can’t see that happening.

    But when companies use artificial limitations in a way that makes the consumer feel screwed is (in the long term) bad business. If I have bought a movie on DVD in a country with rough economic parity to my own, I should be able to play it here or there. Instead, I have to buy separate copies in US, Europe, or Japan. Same with Rosetta Stone. While it’s the company’s right to charge whatever they want, it leaves me feeling misused — and might motivate me to think that the lack of respect should be bi-directional.

  3. Mr. N on February 6th, 2011 at 10:51:

    I agree with the Verne guy. They are screwing with me, and I won’t feel a bit of guilt to screw them.
    I can’t see a legitimate reason for not selling the new version in UK.

  4. Jim on February 8th, 2011 at 16:23:

    I’ve had a similar experience with a computer game I bought in the shops. The software came on a disk with special antipirating software (securom or something similar). The game worked fine for about a week, then suddenly told me my disc was illegal and refused to run. I called and mailed several times, asking them how to fix this. I was sent software to analyze my system, which would send back information about my computer to the company – but they refused to tell me what exactly it would send. They had me fax them the original receipt for buying the game, and told me to remove pirating software, because that would most likely be the cause. I didn’t have that kind of software, and didn’t change anything on my system either. When I said this, they told me I should be more cooperative, otherwise the problem couldn’t be fixed. I told them to go $^*#&( themselves, downloaded a pirated copy of the same game, which ran without a hitch.

    I truly understand it is annoying to see people use software, watch movies or listen to music without having paid for it. We have now come to the point where paying consumers are annoyed disproportionately to protect the intellectual property rights. And it isn’t effective, because those who refuse to pay still don’t, and still enjoy the benefits. And as those benefits rise due to the annoyances of anti-pirating-crap that comes with legit versions, the group of people chosing to go the pirated route will keep growing too.