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User: metalmonkey

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Comments · 53

  1. Re:WTF? on Theme Park Deploys Trained Crows To Collect Litter (theguardian.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    "There's an easier way to get rid of all the cigarette butts," suggests one anonymous Slashdot reader.

    Not in the discussion.

    I presumed they were the same anonymous Slashdot reader who submitted the story. They could also have been someone who was reading over the editor's shoulder.

    It's equally likely BS, but you haven't discovered a smocking gun.

    Maybe the comment they were referring to was from when the story was originally posted to Slashdot last year.
    https://news.slashdot.org/stor...

  2. Not a Social network on Google+ Photos To Shut Down August 1 · · Score: 2

    My use of G+ now caters for what slashdot provides. I hardly know anyone in person, but being subscribed to a few groups I get better tailored 'news for nerds' and a wider range of news too.

    Also, G+ isn't shutting down, just being separated with photos.

  3. Automate on Google Patents Fooling Friends With Snooping, Chatbots · · Score: 1

    Step 1 create a social network website.
    Step 2 Now, just hook the suggested comments together.
    Step 3 create a few billion user accounts.
    Step 4 IPO based on a few billion users.
    Step 5 profit.

  4. Protecting corporate interest on California Lawmaker Wants 3-D Printers To Be Regulated · · Score: 2

    Corporate need a way to limit peoples ability to cheaply manufacture their own products and replacement parts vs buying new plastic crap with high profit margins.
    This excuse will work fine thanks.

  5. Spaceship on Nanoscale 3D Printer Now Commercially Available · · Score: 1

    When reading the summary I thought - it would take a very long while to print a spaceship nano particle at a time (or micro particle as it turns out).
    Only on reading the article did it clarify its a 'model' spaceship.

  6. sifi clothing on Google Glass Will Identify People By Clothing · · Score: 1

    This is the real reason for those jumpsuits common in depictions of the future.
    If everyone looks the same they won't be as easily tracked.

  7. old solution on Ask Slashdot: Where Are the E-Ink Dashboards? · · Score: 1

    The old flipping character displays that were used in airports solved this problem long ago.
    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-flap_display

  8. Re:Someone has to pay on EFF Wants Ubuntu To Disable Online Search By Default · · Score: 1

    Is the EEF jumping on every other manufacture who SELL Windows with similar crapware?
    With a free OS it's not so much to for them to ask for some ad revenue, which can be turned off.

  9. 'Age of Mockery' on Einstein Letter Critical of Religion To Be Auctioned On EBay · · Score: 1
  10. Re:Hah! Take that, my bank! on Hotmail No Longer Accepts Long Passwords, Shortens Them For You · · Score: 1

    Well they technically did give feedback, the text input field in html had the character limit.
    I didn't notice it was truncated when typing - easy to miss as text box had characters beyond the max displayable characters. They probably were hashing probably a designer just put the limit on the text box.
    The input field in the login page did not have the same limit.

  11. Re:Hah! Take that, my bank! on Hotmail No Longer Accepts Long Passwords, Shortens Them For You · · Score: 4, Interesting

    americanexpress was the worst, the 'Set password' page input field was limited to the maximum number of characters however the 'Login' page was not.

    So if my password is: 'myreallylongpassword', it would appear accept my password. But it would be only only use 'myreallylong' as input.
    When I go to login and enter 'myreallylongpassword' it took the whole password as input and denied me access, since it didn't equal to 'myreallylong'.

    I went through quite a few password resets before I figured this out.

  12. Blackberry on Microsoft Patents Whacking Your Phone To Silence It · · Score: 1

    I have not looked into the spec - but I'm sure my blackberry stops ringing when I take it out of my pocket (not holster), pick it up or start shuffelling around in my bag for it. I have previously thought 'is this accelerometers or the ir detector' (same one that turns off the screen when i've got it at my ear).

    Maybe I'm just imagining it, however my thoughts were that it would be fairly obvious to use accelerometer for this job. Not exactly a 'whack' but a marked change in accelerometer patterns of movement shortly after ringing starts, which would include a whack.

  13. Re:Its all about latitude... on New Flat Lens Focuses Without Distortion · · Score: 1

    I haven't heard it referred to as lattitude but I think you are referring to dynamic range. For a sunset scenes where it is pretty much static this can be acheived with a tripod and multiple exposures taken seconds apart. This is quite a popular technique referred to as HDR photography. The remaining issue is how to display the captured data. LCD monitors are generally 24bits per pixel. The tone mapping required is a bit of an art to get right - there is plenty of software that can be used for this.

  14. Windows not 100% either on that hardware. on Linux Is a Lemon On the Retina MacBook Pro · · Score: 2

    Intel Thunderbolt drivers are particularly poor - not supporting hot-plug in windows yet.
    This is not really a problem with the hardware itself just Intel/Microsofts priorities are not aimed on thunderbold, considering it isn't on that much hardware at the moment.

    How would you then expect that it will work immediatly on linux - where typically the developers don't get pre-release hardware or even specs.

  15. Re:Paid for on Windows 8 RTM Benchmarked · · Score: 2

    What I'm dreading the most is remote desktop (or other remote access).
    1. sometimes the windows key is not forwarded to the remote machine - brings up the local start menu. If I'm using windows 8 then my whole desktop gets cleared out for the metro search. If the remote machine is running windows 8 I'll have to figure out another way to bring up the start menu search equivilant.
    2. if it is a slow connection, clearing and re-drawing the entire desktop area every time I need to open another app twice - once to bring up metro and again to go back to the application I just started.
    Yuck...

  16. Demonstration of successful anti-piracy business m on Mac OS X Mountain Lion Gets Three Million Downloads In 4 Days · · Score: 1

    This is the business model shows how to beat priacy.
    Really for $20 why bother to pirate it.

  17. Re: $2.5 billion a pittance to use rectangle on Apple Wins EU Ban of Smaller Samsung Tablet, Demands $2.5 Billion In Damages · · Score: 1

    Apple has already sued an major Australian grocery store/supermarket using an 'apple' in it's name - which looked nothing like the apple bite logo.
    http://www.woolworths.com.au/

  18. Re:This Announcement Hot on Heels of Bilderbergers on Earth Approaching Tipping Point Say Scientists · · Score: 2

    Once you accept that this is "Science" - they will present you the "solution".

    It is actually 2 different groups one group 'the scientists' do the science and another group 'society/politics' has to come up with the solution. It is not a valid argument to ignore the first group because you don't think you like what the second group may think (BTW: we are all in the second group).

    I suggest that if 1% of the planet's human inhabitants did not disproportionatley gobble and discard 90% of the wealth, resources and energy, that there'd be plenty to go around in a reasonably sustainable way - and quite comfortably.

    Good suggestion, fellow member of society, not a complete horror was it? This is pretty much what plan A is/should be. Once we accept the science we can then start to plan for solutions that are not 'complete horrors'.

  19. Re:That's not how science works on The Mercedes-Benz 'Cloaking Device' · · Score: 1

    Probably a better idea to put the 'beta-stage' tech into cars that are:
    1. less models sold - more effort and inspection can go into each model to make sure its done correctly, less cost if there are any issues for recall, some of the newer components may not be easily sourced in higher quantities as yet as production is being ramped up/perfected.
    2. luxury car has higher cost and margin so the additional costs of the new tech can be offset.

  20. Made up by RIAA on Man Barred From Being Alone With Daughter After Informing Police of Porn On PC · · Score: 1

    Another attack on music piracy. This is an attempt to put the fear of a ruined life into peoples minds when they are downloading music. Designed to increase the perceived risks involved, they have tried mass and high profile litigation to make people fear being fined. This approach seems a lot cheaper a few made up stories with some publicity would have a similar or greater effect. And the beauty of the link to child porn is that everyone is guilty no questions asked, and the associated stigma is much worse than a fine.
    If this is not the case I hope I haven't given them any new ideas...

  21. 1st address image manulpulation on Government Should Ban Skinny Models To Curb Anorexia, Say Researchers · · Score: 1

    1st ban or enforce disclaimers where images of the models bodies have been modified to shrink waist lines and exaggerate breasts etc. At least prevent from girls striving for the impossible.

  22. Re:Youtube on Microsoft's Anti-Google Video Campaign · · Score: 2

    The other day I found a message from google in my gmail spam box. However it was the notice that privacy policy was changing for my apps domain, I put this down to fair algorithm rather than intent since the privacy change was otherwise pretty well advertised. I guess I could have gone the other way depending on my temperament at the time.

  23. Block the screen on Engelbart's Keyboard Available For Touchscreens · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't be even better to have similar buttons on the back of the phone, you know where you hold the thing, with the added benefit of not blocking the screen. I guess phones would follow if this did eventually take off though.

  24. Re:Pictures on Samsung Lawyer Fails To Differentiate iPad and Galaxy Tab In Court · · Score: 2

    Samsung icons pre-iphone are black and white after iphone they are color, apple invented color now? Most are pretty generic representations of the task they perform. Yep, the green phone icon is the closest however, pretty much every phone has a green icon of a phone as a physical button performing the same function.
    Q1 box 'the Q1 is behind the paperwork' otherwise pretty similar. Is that worth injunction?

  25. Re:CPU Throttling on theSkyNet Wants Your Spare CPU Cycles · · Score: 1

    Oh yes the beauty of Linux (et al), giving you full control. I was aware of priorities but being in the Windows world the last few years and not heard of configurable frequency governor.