Posted 11/10/2009 at 08:47:36am

"Like the thing that babies suck on?" WTH are you talking about? Some slang for a "pacifier" that most of us have never heard of?

nook
noun
Etymology: Middle English noke, nok
Date: 14th century

1 chiefly Scottish : a right-angled corner
2 a : an interior angle formed by two meeting walls b : a secluded or sheltered place or part <searched every nook and cranny> c : a small often recessed section of a larger room <a breakfast nook>

The name makes perfect sense in that a nook is where you can store your books.  And if they come through on all the promised features, I may just break my personal ban on e-readers.

Posted 09/09/2009 at 11:35:49am

Yes, the Cruis'n series were arcade games before they were ported to the consoles.  I can recall playing the first one when it came out and being wowed by it.  A quick Wikipedia search shows the first one released in '94.  Most arcade game enthusiasts would prefer to play the original instead of the stripped-down version that was available on the console.

Posted 09/02/2009 at 10:58:50am

A little bit of editing would have cleared up some confusion in the article here.  Number 5 is a bit unclear. The description given here makes it sound like Magic Folder just arranges the files by type instead of its actual function of automatically moving them to user-specified locations.  Also, Number 1 neglects to mention that Synergy requires the user to have a monitor plugged in to each PC, which does us users no good if we just have one monitor to share amongst the multiple PCs - we'd be better suited by using a KVM at that point.

While I agree that don'tforgetthemilk is very useful, it quickly turns into a moot point if you don't have a smartphone with web access.  I personally get by with a small notepad and a pen, but maybe that's just the luddite in me.

I also note that "Enso Launcher" is a closed-source app.  While I'm not an open-source zealot, I'd definitely have to agree with the earlier comment posted advocating Launchy.  It's open-source, has the same functionality, and is infinitely customizable.

Posted 08/20/2009 at 09:09:06am

Oh please... Anyone with half a brain (BRRRAAAIIIINNNNSSSSS.....) can see that Valve is trying to play spin control with that statement.  If they were working on new L4D DLC and it was nearly ready then they should have said something at E3.  In fact, it should have been the lead of their L4D press releases at E3 - something along the lines of, "We've got new DLC coming for L4D!  It's not ready yet, but it will be soon.  Oh and we've also got the sequel in the pipes as well!  Here's some generic info on the the DLC, and here's all the cool stuff we're packing in to the sequel!"  Instead, they just went 'damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead' with the L4D2 announcement.  We all saw what ensued from there: butthurt fans and gaming/enthusiast mags trying to play spin control on behalf of Valve.  It may not necessarily be 'too little, too late', but it's going to take a while for the fans to get rid of the bad feelings left behind by the way this whole scenario was handled.

Posted 08/18/2009 at 03:08:47pm

You neglected to mention that this extension was slipped in to the list by a previous Windows Update and installed without the users' knowledge or permission.  All it does is make it possible for the .net ClickOnce deployment technology to be used inside of Firefox, which is adds an inhernetly insecure vector of infection to what is a (mostly) secure and worry-free browser.  I, for one, went in and disabled the extension's ability to fire off the apps with one click by tweaking its options to essentially turn it into a ClickTwice install where it will warn me of anything that is about to be installed.

Shame on MS for trying to sneak this one past all the users of Firefox just to increase the installed base of their deployment software.

Posted 07/31/2009 at 04:57:04pm

I like the look.  Heck, I'd buy one of those over the iPod Touch just to be able to hoist a hefty middle finger in the direction of Apple.  If they can meet that $199 price point, they've got a sale right here!

Posted 07/10/2009 at 08:52:07am

I'm not surprised Murdoch bashed on Facebook and is trying to downplay Twitter.  After all, News Corp owns MySpace via Fox.  Why the heck would he encourage investment in a competing product?

Posted 02/07/2009 at 02:37:41pm

Discontent workers?  Seriously, WTF?  Does Ballmer really believe the PR crap he spews at these events?  Trying to get businesses to believe that the workers will rebel if they don't migrate to Vista/7 is just asinine. 

Businesses avoided Vista like it was some kind of plague-bearing leper because it wasn't ready for prime-time when it was first released.  The "Vista Experience" has improved for the consumer (well, somewhat... at least since the release of SP1) and consumer adoption of it has increased (but that's only because MS and their vendors (Dell,HP, etc.) have made it harder than hell to get a new PC with a copy of XP pre-loaded).

Most businesses haven't taken the time to overhaul their apps to work properly with Vista and have no reason to start migration.  Workers aren't going to bitch about the OS they're using, they'll adapt to whatever their company provides them.

MS needs to face facts that the only way they're going to get businesses to adopt the next-gen OS is to just flat-out cut XP off at the knees.  Obviously they can't do that without pissing off their customers, but they have no one but themselves to blame for the situation. 

Posted 02/04/2009 at 11:53:10am

...this amounts to EA saying "the games aren't done yet and we haven't had time to drum up enough publicity.  We're going to shove Sims back to a release window where its target demographic is likely to be nowhere near the computer and we're going to push Dragon Age to a release window in with the rest of the usual winter glut, so that way if sales of both of them are weak we can claim that PC gaming just isn't working."

 I swear, sometimes the decisions made by corporations make no sense...