_Simon

> This is not correct. You're thinking of the Novell patents. Google did make a bid on the Nortel patents, but was not offered a place within Rockstar.

This is not correct. See http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/google-had-opport...

Sorry, I don't, because where does it end? IMHO, it's nothing more than a token gesture. Financial compensation won't change the wrong that has been done. It's superficial and ever so slightly patronising. It's symptomatic of the vile litigious happy culture that we find ourselves in.

"If it was my tax pound I'd support this."

Well that's easy to say when it isn't. It is my tax pound and I don't. I don't support the posthumous pardon at all, and those calling for the posthumous knighthood are getting ridiculous.

Everyone recognises the value of Turing's input to both the war effort and greater modern life, but sadly the man took his own life. Arguing over whose fault it was it pointless. Pardoning him now does nothing for him. It won't change the impact of his work and it won't produce the work that we lost because of this. Yes the law in the 1950 by todays standards was an ass, but that was the law at the time and the punishment was the punishment. Yes, through 21st century eyes it is abhorrent and I'm extremely glad that the law has changed and what happened to Turing doesn't happen any more, but... It's time that we move on.

Reading the article, it sounds like it should carry an "Advertising Feature" sub heading. I've long thought Scofield is a hack. This piece confirms it.

This is so tiresome. The 30% is a service charge. It covers hosting, distribution and credit card processing to name but a few things. Before the AppStore, entities such as handango we're charging more than double as a percentage. It's not an arbitrary figure that you seem to think they plucked from their collective asses when instigating the store. So please. Drop the fucking trite meme. It's vapid.

The legality of the currency isn't confirmed either.

>""piece of glass encased in plastic/metal, with maybe a button underneath"" That isn't what the design patent says. It's far more nuanced.

By 'people like you' I mean those that continue to perpetuate the meme in an incorrect and dismissive manor.

No. The argument re "rounded rectangles" (actually a meme invented by people like yourself) is about trade dress, which in the US is covered by a design "patent", which is not the same thing as a technical patent. This is not difficult to understand. To this day the level of denial around Samsung blatant imitation of the iPhone is staggering.

Getting a little bored of RMS now. He's becoming increasingly like chicken little rather that the boy that tells the emperor he's naked.

3) That is just meaningless anecdote. Conversly, I'm seeing as many (possibly more) shattered S3 and S4 devices as iPhones. I've owned a 3Gs, a 4s and a 5 and not had to replace the glass ever.

4) So if there is a market for keyboards, it would suggest that there is a problem with the default one! I totally accept the point that Android has the benefit of selecting which keyboard the use wishes to use, but to use a term you seem obsessed with, you are moving the goalposts.

You don't have to use the desktop (I assume that is what you mean) version now. But hey, you keep on rattling out those 2007 memes...

Fanboyism? Oh please. How old are you? Paraonid jerk.

Bullshit.

Too much faith in the Guardian around these parts at the moment.

Yet more intelligentsia bullshit from the Guardian. No. Economics is categorically not a science. It's not even a social science. It is, at best, one of the humanities.

It's worth pointing out that Kiplin lost his only son, Jack, to the Great War.

> One way of getting it is by donation to the British Legion.

It the only way.

I personally find this deeply offensive. This polemic is featured in the Guardian practically every year and its just more of the same sanctimonious bullshit we're becoming accustomed to from them. There is a lot of good feeling toward the guardian here because of their involvement with the Snowden affair, but I'd warn you all to treat them with the cynicism that you treat any other news agency with. This individual, who by all means is entitled to his view, is no better than the politicians he is complaining about by further politicising d deliberately misrepresenting what the appeal represents. That he served in the WWII is merely an example of an appeal to authority fallacy. The Poppy Appeal is a charitable fund that is operated by the Royal British Legion (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_British_Legion) and exists to help veterans and the dependants of service men and women that are injured or killed in action. Wear a poppy is showing support for those affected, not existing troops nor the wars that they fight in. It isn't showing any kind of agreement with any kind of foreign policy. Conflating the two is disingenuous to say the least and does nothing other than harming families that care for or have lost members to military action.

EDIT: Not wearing a poppy is an individuals right in the UK. It's a right that I absolutely stand by. I have no issue with anyone choosing not to partake in the act of remembrance. I take issue with it being misrepresented by both sides of the political spectrum. The irony of course is that the people who they are choosing not to remember gave their life for that right.

>Don't let the fragmentation FUD scare you.

But we should all just accept that Google does no wrong by listening to a perennial Apple troll? Do me a favour! That's the problem with you open source terrorist; it all black and white. Google as just as bad as everyone else. They are not doing this out of altruism! If they were, we'd have the source for the Google apps on android, the search algorithms and web apps and they'd all be BSD, not the cancerous GPLv3! They really don't care about your silly ideologies. They care about revenue. That comes from advertising, which requires spying! For fuck sake man, THEY WORKED WITH THE NSA!!! They are pulling the same trick that Microsoft did with nascent IT departments; they convincing you that they are your friends. Hell, they already fucked consumers by giving power back to mobile companies. What is with you people? I frankly cannot believe the utterly childish language I'm seeing; especially from the likes of pg! I suppose you'll be telling me that Samsung are an example of a morally upstanding company next.

Article's author is Dan Goodin. I'd take everything he says with a quarry full of salt. This guy is symptomatic of all that is wrong with Ars these days.

I have a Nexus 4. Had a Nexus S. I find it irritating, in a papercut kind of way.

Considering how many people end up with it by default because it's the cheap (or free) option would suggest otherwise...

To pretend that for the majority this isn't annoying is disingenuous.

You fandroids are just ridiculous. The author is an Android developer who blogs an awful lot about how much better Android is than just about anything else. He criticises one aspect and you lot (usual suspects) come out and ardently defend the fail with the typical snarks and passive-agressiveness. They irony of this is that you project this behaviour onto 'Apple nuts', derogatorily describing the author as such. Seriously. It really needs to stop. There are a lot of things wrong with Android, and the sooner the community talks about them, the greater the chance Android has of becoming what you all want it to be.

What a prig...

Get over yourself. Your glib dismissal (incorrectly) assumes that Jobs' contribution was merely financial and therefore completely without merit. My comment was that his bankrolling of Pixar, as well as the foresight not to meddle where he wasn't needed, helped them achieve great things, for which he deserves some credit. He also handled the business end - negotiations with Disney etc - that gave Pixar the audience. Since Lassiter has pretty much said that without Jobs the would be we're they are today says it all. Too many are far too quick to dismiss what he man achieved in a relatively short time.

He gets and is due some credit. To insinuate that Jobs had nothing to do with Pixar's success is wide of the mark.

If what Jobs achieved is so easy, go and do it...

But he had the sense to bankroll and not meddle. He had the courage to let Lassiter, Catmull and Co. to run things their way, which has produced some of the finest story telling and animation of the last 100 years. Did he assemble the team? No. Did he help them achieve greatness? I think Pixars portfolio speaks for itself...

Th idea of WIMP really wasn't "invented" at PARC. That organisation gets way too much credit. They amalgamated several concepts that had been developed since the late 1940's. I'm not suggesting that PARC's work wasn't important, but to blithely dismiss Apple's contribution and suggest that it all started with PARC it ridiculous.

Go and learn about Vannevar Bush and Memex, Ivan Sutherland and Sketchpad, Doug Engelbart and his contributions like the the Mouse and his oN-Line System. The history of modern computing is simply not as black and white as you are trying to portray.

Finally, anyone that has used both Windows 1.0 (and 2.0 for that matter) will tell you just how awful it was, especially when compared to the Macintosh. Microsoft didn't come close to the ideas presented in the Mac until 1990 with Windows 3.0, and arguably it was the 3.1 release in 1992 that was useable.