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I hadn't heard he was sued (his site is still up), but I guess it's up to the various copyright holders. Nintendo still wants to keep Mario in the herd (they do need to release a Mario game for each platform, at least I think that's a law now), but I think the copyright holder for Lemonade probably doesn't have the money to open a lawsuit.
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TTFN - Kent
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Kent Sharkey wrote: they do need to release a Mario game for each platform, at least I think that's a law now
That's interesting! I wonder why? Where did you read this?
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 Sorry, just a joke. But it does seem true. Every time they release a new device, it seems they have to release "Mario Something" on it.
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TTFN - Kent
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Kent Sharkey wrote: Every time they release a new device, it seems they have to release "Mario Something" on it.
Truth be told, very few games are as interesting to me as the arcade games. 
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New research from Microsoft suggests that software development faces a number of hurdles as the IT world adjusts to new platforms and devices "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"
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When Android first launched, it was widely panned by critics and consumers alike. Five years later, it’s installed on more than half of all U.S. devices. Despite its initial struggles, Windows RT could still strike it lucky, according to two of the chipmaker's product executives. Maybe they can also win Miss Congeniality
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Your smartphone is your most portable computer. It’s also a treasure trove of personal information. You wouldn’t leave your laptop unlocked in public, so why leave your phone unprotected? Lock up that data and encrypt it. Before you leave it behind
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I recently had some close friends talk about their hesitation in adopting Git as opposed to continuing to work with Subversion. I’ve used Subversion for many years, and advocated for its use. I have since jumped wholeheartedly on the Git bandwagon, so I wanted to find a way to tell the story of why I made the switch and why I think so much of the open source community is now based around Git and Git-friendly sites like GitHub. I often feel better after a conversation with a git
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The only news you read about Microsoft these days is bad, so it may come as a shock to some that Microsoft just announced a blowout quarter of earnings, with revenue of $18.53 billion and net income of $5.24 billion, both well up from a year ago. Is this a one-time blip, or is the company proving the nay-sayers wrong? "Our weapons are useless against it!"
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Is all this devotion to fatty pig flesh merited? Does bacon truly make everything better, as some cookbooks have boldly declared? "Spoilers"
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More tips on how to make lots of money as a software developer But stop before you get too wet
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You would be much happier with one portable assembly language that could be generated by a front end and implemented by any of several code generators. Such a language should serve as the interface between high-level compilers and retargetable, optimizing code generators. Authors of front ends and authors of code generators could cooperate easily. C– is that language. This one goes to nine
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Or you could just use LLVM, which provides both a portable compiler backend and support for JIT compilation, and is widely used and supported.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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Contractors point fingers at each other and the government as they attempt to shift responsibility for healthcare website problems. We were just following orders
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It looks like Google has been working on an oversize secret project on San Francisco's Treasure Island. A water-based data center? Could well be. "You've seen a ship with black sails that's crewed by the damned, and captained by a man so evil that Hell itself spat him back out?"
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Doing this in SF Bay is almost certainly a mistake. The moment they go public about what they're doing at least 20 green groups will file lawsuits over their cooling system heat polluting the bay. Even money says at least one local govt joins in the litigationgo away money quest.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Mozilla, makers of the Firefox browser, has released an add-on called Lightbeam for Firefox which presents a visualization of your browsing history and analyzes which applications are tracking or monitoring you online and how they are connected. "Sunlight is the best antiseptic"
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After a few Google search users noticed that for certain web searches oddly large and unfamiliar banner ads were popping up on the results page, the Internet giant has now confirmed it is testing these ads with a small percent of its user base. A spokesperson for Google calls it "a small experiment." Not evil, just a "small experiment". That's what Frankenstein said.
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I see Google's Do Mo' Evil policy is still in effect. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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The term “web designer” is subjective and means different things to different people. To some, it equates to “designer” or “graphic artist”. To others, it’s someone possessing good front-end coding skills who can create an HTML and CSS layout with JavaScript interactions. There is an infinite variety between those two extremes. At least as much as the coders have design skills
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A story that makes me feel that I now have to buy hardware according to which OS sucks the least.
Microsoft Moving to Redefine Windows[^]
Paul Thurrott is an interesting commentator in that he can be particularly outspoken on stupidity and poor decision making (when it comes to the satisfying the consumer) in the IT industry. He's particularly vocal in his distaste in most things Apple, preferring to focus on the bad instead of the good, but on Microsoft he treads a very careful line in his criticisms - possibly to protect his cherished access to their inner circle - so it's hard to know where he stands on this one.
In a nutshell: Desktop mode in Windows will go and Metro will rule. Desktop will become the new Terminal Window: a tool for those who need deeper access than the Windows GUI can provide, and de-emphasised to the point of being hidden out of view.
There will be one Windows To Rule Them All: on phones, on tablets, and on (as he says) the increasingly archaic desktop. It will be the same Windows with the same apps and drivers across all devices.
Which is fine: The Holy Grail of Operating Systems (and software development) is the one platform on all devices, and it's obviously the direction the industry will, and must, go. However, does this mean that I will do all my input using touch? Does this mean that my PC - a tool I use to input and create - will have the same UI focus and experience as a phone that is primarily a device for consuming, not creating, content?
I need to get on my soapbox here.
I know this discussion has been had a million times since the release of Windows 8 but I am at a loss to understand how the Metro UI in its current form can be considered a sensible direction. Maybe I'm wrong, but I simply do not work with one (or at max two) windows open at once, taking up the entire screen. I find UIs where you have to hover carefully for a period in unmarked areas to get access to features to slow me down. Having to click (or drag) from the very the top of the screen all the way down to the bottom to close an app? Since when were 'close' buttons truly that awful?
Features such as usability, the frustration of confusion of feature discovery and the forcing of users into a window management paradigm that simply doesn't fit the way many need to work are issues easily addressed (regardless of whether there is the will to address them). My concern with moving to a touch centric, app-centric tablet style UI means we're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Sure we get consistency, but consistency that comes from supporting the lowest common denominator.
My 2c: Make Metro on keyboard enabled large desktop screens a rich, powerful tool that focuses on minimising distractions and maximising the ability to discover, work and create, that focuses on your data, not the cleverness of the OS's UI elements. Then for the tablet sensibly respond by hiding (or demphasising features to provide more of a balance of consuming vs creating, and for the phone have the UI respond further with more simplifications. Further, allow that responsive UI to be reversible: plug a keyboard and a large screen into your phone and definitely have it be as fully functional as a desktop setup. Different devices and do not need, nor are they expected to, support exactly the same functionality.
</soapbox>
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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Here in my Ubuntu household sir, we don't tolerate that sort of crap.
I can change from the Ubiquity(Unity) front end to a variety of different window systems,(at least for the time-being), but I don't.
Their Unity interface is obviously suitable for touch, yet I find it to be a convenient and easily usable desktop system.
Of course, the large amount of free, and very effective, software saved me having to try/buy and spew credit card details everywhere for windows programmes that may or may not do the job.
Negatives? Well for one thing, there is no 64-bit version of skype which is easily installable, certainly nothing in the standard store.
Another big worry is the new 'Mir' window system, currently it is the default but at the next release it will become the sole platform, which is not sensible considering both my Linux home-boxes have reverted to X underneath. If they haven't got the driver set sorted by April, it could be a real problem.
Two weeks may be a long time in politics, but 6 months is not necessarily a long time in open source software.
And of course, one must be prepared to be a little adventurous in tweaking your system by tracking down the (freely available) expertise online and solving any minor issues, although this latest cycle (13.10) has proved to be pretty much trouble-free.
I keep several Windows installations - a virtual Vista for i-Tunes(which is now unused as the DRM makes buying Apple songs futile) and a trusty XP native box which I fire up every few months. Last time I used that was to integrate my HP printer onto my home WiFi, but I've since discovered that it isn't needed anymore as HP Linux support is excellent.
If you ARE any kind of developer, or on a budget, Linux is well worth considering.(Hobby-to-job prospects etc)
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Microsoft releases a new version of it's OS and it puts users in a UI-shellshock, it breaks many of their current applications, it near-forces users to need a touch display (are there many touch displays for desktops out there?) and they expect everyone to be happy?
Apple releases a new OS and gives it a catchy name, adds tabbed-browsing to their version of Windows Explorer, integrates a map feature into the OS and makes only a few other minor changes, while strengthening the core of the kernel.
I use to be a hardcore Windows Developer and lover. I even blogged about it as a young developer and waxed philosophically of how the behemoth of Microsoft loved it's developers and equipped them to make wonderful software for the masses.
However, that era has past. I need consistency and nominal updates to the operating system that fix what's broken and, as a result, continues to empower me to make exceptional software for the masses. Sure, you can make the GUI prettier but don't break your OS, at it's core, to do it!
Goodbye Microsoft. Our relationship was a good one while it lasted. However, your obsession of breaking new ground at the expense of breaking important OS fundamentals has forced me to search for an alternative.
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