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User: dloflin

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  1. States trying to regulate Internet sites...riiight on IMDb Ignores New Law Banning It From Publishing Actors' Ages Online, Cites Free Speech Violations (betanews.com) · · Score: 1

    California has no business trying to regulate what sites on the Internet can/can't do. For that matter, neither do national governments.

    Let's say I operate a site similar to IMDb, from here in Texas or some freewheeling island country somewhere. If California (or Germany, or Russia, or whereever) tries to regulate the content of that site, I will cheerily ignore them. They have no jurisdiction.

    They're quite welcome to block my site, if they can get their ISPs to cooperate. But it's BS to specify what websites can/can't show.

    Now, maybe IMDb operates out of California, so that's where "jurisdiction" comes in. If that's the case, IMDb needs to move the site (& dba location, but not necessarily office/staff location) out of state. Too bad, CA, you just regulated a business out of your state entirely!

  2. I blocked when ads showed up in Subject list on Yahoo Denies Ad-blocking Users Access To Email (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 1

    I didn't mind the sidebar ads in Yahoo Mail, but when they started putting ads in the list of email looking like another email - that's when I'd had enough.

    So if they want to get rid of THAT one practice, I'll gladly turn off my ad-blocker.

    But I like Yahoo's email interface much better than Gmail or almost any others. Especially the ease of moving messages to folders.

  3. What an idiot on Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme Operator Pleads Guilty To $150M Fraud · · Score: 2

    He should have taken the money and run long ago - I mean, it's Bitcoin, he didn't even have to launder it!

  4. Crayon look strikes again! on Android 5.0 'Lollipop' vs. iOS 8: More Similar Than Ever · · Score: 1

    First Microsoft with Windows 8 - flattened UI elements, soft unshaded coloring, squared corners, etc. I dub it the "crayon look" - both because of the dumbed down simple look, and because of MS seemed intent to treat us like kids using crayons, instead of intelligent users who prefer a more polished look. It took years to finally get the sculpted, more-pleasing look of Windows 95 (remember Windows 3.1?..it was 'flat'). Now we're being regressed backwards.

    After Windows 8, many apps and websites began updating their own visual schemes to "the crayon look".

    Then Apple follows suit (essentially) with a similar style in OS X Yosemite - and iOS8.

    Now we're going to have the same thing in Android.

    It's like they've all become lemmings, rushing to trample off the edge of the usability cliff!

    I kept hoping this was a temporary trend and I could wait out these releases until sanity returned...but it's starting to feel like they've all drunk the same kool-aid and this isn't going away for a while. How long before most major Linux distros start adopting the 'flat' (crayon) look, too?

  5. Does EU law apply here? on Pianist Asks Washington Post To Remove Review Under "Right To Be Forgotten" · · Score: 1

    Why is this even an issue? Unless the Post is an International company with offices in Europe (maybe it is?) then this request should not apply at all. An EU ruling is not a worldwide mandate - much as they might like it to be.

  6. Treasure! on Northwest Passage Exploration Ship Found · · Score: 1

    More importantly, there was a clue to a treasure map found on board. Ben Gates is being called in to analyze.

  7. Re:Fuel Cells are Electric on Future of Cars: Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Or Electric? · · Score: 1

    EXACTLY. Was hoping someone had pointed this out - a Fuel Cell car IS an EV - it just uses a fuel cell to produce the electricity, instead of batteries. Everything else is basically the same. So let's get electric done right first, then worry about swapping out batteries for a fuel cell. And that's what the manufacturers should be aiming for - a module approach, make a battery-module and a fuel-cell module and make them swappable....there was an announcement of some small EV maker planning on just that...but what should happen is Tesla & Toyota get together on it...

  8. Re:Die, die, die, flat UI elements on Microsoft: Start Menu Returns, Windows Free For Small Device OEMs, Cortana Beta · · Score: 1

    > I consider it to be the UI equivalent of the Brutalist architectural style (those bare concrete box buildings from the 70s).

    I've been calling it the "Crayon Style". I consider it condescending...it's like MS decided we were all children (or old) and needed the "simpler" look to better use our computers. I prefer a more sculpted look - if that's "skeuomorphic" then fine, give me skeuomorphic.

  9. Sheldon FTW! on Amherst Researchers Create Magnetic Monopoles · · Score: 1

    Yes! Sheldon is vindicated!!

  10. WebOS on Google's House of Cards · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Also sounds like the dominant paradigm in WebOS...

  11. Re:Just withdraw from Germany. on YouTube Ordered To Remove Videos, Filter Future Uploads By German Court · · Score: 1

    Maybe the answer is, not to block Germany from accessing YouTube - but withdrawl all business presence from Germany. I mean, why can YouTube be taken to court in Germany, if it's not a German company? I suppose it's some international-corporation thing, but I'm not a businessman so I don't know. But I've never understood why Germany thinks it can regulate YouTube - at least, not youtube.com (vs youtube.de). So - get rid of youtube.de, and Germans will just have to go to youtube.com instead.

    If I were to open a US based site, as a US-only business (or not even as a business) and some users uploaded german-copyrighted material - could I be sued in Germany, just because Germans could reach the site? I'd think not! That would mean anyone putting up a site on the Internet could be sued in any country in the world. Of course, that's a lot of the impetus behind the SOPA and CISPA type laws. Essentially, publishing on the Internet will become like broadcasting before too long - regulated, licensed, and definitely not cheap. The "frontier" is ending.

  12. A La Carte will Cost MORE! on Canadian Telcos Lobby Against Pick-and-Pay TV · · Score: 2

    In the race for subscription dollars, rates for TV services across providers have risen sharply over the last decade as the number of specialty channels, each commanding its own fee, has soared.

    There's the real problem right there. The cost keeps going up. So, reduce the overall cost to the consumer, and we won't care if you "bundle" other channels. Get the specialty channels to reduce their fees, or to be included in "bundles" and so long as the overall monthly cost is kept low, the other channels can ride along.

    What I fear is everything becoming "specialty" - or charging like it - can you imagine paying $10/mon PER CHANNEL? e.g for SyFy - $10, Discovery - $10. Food network - $5. But that's basically what a la carte will do - eventually each channel will cost $5-$10/month, with "bigger" ones (HBO, Showtime) being $12-$15.

    So, for just a FEW channels, the cost is MORE than it would be now:
    SyFy $10
    Discovery $10
    HBO $15
    Food $5
    ABC $5
    NBC $5
    CBS $5
    FOX $5
    CNN $5
    COMEDY $5
    TBS $5
    USA $5
    -----
    $80/month!

    So, PLEASE, let's just go back to one flat rate per month for EVERYTHING - and let's keep it to say, $75/month. Any more for 'tv' makes me just want to kick the thing out on the curb and go back to playing card games, reading, etc.

  13. Pinballz on Slashdot Visits the Seattle Pinball Museum (Video) · · Score: 1

    Austin, TX has "Pinballz Arcade" - 13,000 sq ft of pinball machines old and new. They don't do the $10 entrance & unlimited games model - but a lot of the games are only a quarter. Oh and it's BYOB.

  14. Microsoft does it again on Firefox To Replace Menus With Office Ribbon · · Score: 1

    Sigh. Yet another case of "Microsoft does something, so we've all got to follow suit". Seems like any time Microsoft makes a UI change, no matter whether it's liked or not, all other Windows program UIs eventually adopt it.

  15. POSTPATH (except...Cisco swallowed it) on Cost-Conscious Companies Turn To Open Source · · Score: 1

    PostPath (http://www.postpath.com/) is supposed to be a drop-in replacement for Exchange - e.g no MAPI connector needed, they reverse-engineered the Exchange protocol.

    However, Cisco bought them recently, and unlike most Cisco acquisitions (which continue on nearly unchanged, e.g Linksys), PostPath seems to have been swallowed up. I hear their intent is to turn PostPath into an email-as-a-service product. Thus, not available as an in-house server any longer. Sigh.

    Cisco - make PostPath available for in-house (non-SAAS/cloud) servers again!

  16. Magnetic plasma bottle on The Science of the Lightsaber · · Score: 1

    I've always figured a light saber would be a high energy plasma generated from within the hilt and contained in a magnetic bottle. The tricky part is getting the bottle to take the long cylindrical shape - hence the skill of a Jedi being needed to construct one. But that explains cutting through things quickly, and why (magnetic) shields can block them. Or why they can deflect blaster bolts (ie charged blasts of dense plasma, imo).

    The article doesn't explain how *anything* about this "arc wave energy field" works or how it is shaped into a long cylinder or how it is kept to a certain length. At least with a magnetic bubble containing plasma, it's a little more explainable (except how to keep it a cylinder, not a round bubble...haven't quite figured out how that would work).

  17. Re:Don't use Track-IT! on IT Asset Tracking and Helpdesk Software? · · Score: 1

    How can you call $750, "insignificant"? That's a hefty chunk o cash there, for which I would have to get approval & justify spending - so if I turn out to not like the product, I'm screwed, it's all I'll get.

    It's attitudes like yours that are the reason software IS so expensive!!

  18. Re:The Dewey Decimal System on Solving the Home Library Problem? · · Score: 1

    I couldn't believe that was really true, so I went & found the OCLC site on Dewey and amazingly, they do claim to own it. Copyright really is forever...even if it's FROM 1870!!! Sigh.

    Found these two statements on that web page, which to my mind are contradictory, even with 100 year copyright terms (are they 200 years now??)

    The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system, devised by library pioneer Melvil Dewey in the 1870s
    --
    All copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification system are owned by OCLC.

  19. Make the background WHITE! on Slashdot Index Code Update · · Score: 1

    Several commenters have mentioned it already, but it bears repeating - the gray background on these sectional snippets disturbs the visual flow of the page, and makes it seem cluttered to me. And makes it harder to read. Especially because those boxes vary in height depending on how many snippets are included. Make it a white background & it'll be much better.

  20. The name may have something to do with it... on Why Doesn't the Itanium Get the Respect It's Due? · · Score: 1

    Why do we see so many disparaging opinions of the Itanium processor (all those 'Itanic' jokes, etc.)?

    Uhh, maybe because of the really stupid sounding name? It always sounds to me like something's been left off the name (ie the "Ti.." part). But of course they couldn't trademark "Titanium".

    Naming is important - IMHO, a big reason why many open source programs do not get used in corporate environments is due to odd/wierd names. Many otherwise worthy programs are never considered or evaluated, due to "silly" names, I believe.

    So if the name's a joke...maybe the processor is seen as a joke, too...I remember it was seen as the "next big thing" and there was lots of excitement & buzz about it, before it got the silly name...then it sort've dropped off the radar...

  21. Re:Trademarks on Hormel Back on The Spam Offensive · · Score: 1

    Standard Oil even went to considerable trouble and expense to make sure their Exxon mark didn't have negative conotations anywhere in the world.

    Oh, that's a lovely bit of irony then -- all that trouble to make sure it had no negative connotations, only to have the Exxon Valdez accident brand "Exxon" with 'connotations' such as "oil spill", "environmental disaster", "irresponsible corporate entity", etc. Awwww, so sad.

  22. Light saber = plasma in a magnetic bubble on How Lightsabers Work · · Score: 1

    Precisely why MY theory of how a light saber works has always been that it's not a laser or beam as implied by the name, it's really an elongated, cylindrical magnetic bubble enclosing superheated plasma...hence why it can block plasma bursts from blasters, and why two light-saber blades do interact (if if was just light/laser energy, why would they block each other?). Also explains why it doesn't just "flash" into existance, but extrudes from the hilt - that's the magbubble extending, filling w/plasma.

  23. Re:Only if software is ported both ways. on Open Source on Windows - Boon or Bane for Linux? · · Score: 1

    Does gnucash run on Windows? ie to start using it there first, then continue using it after switching to Linux. That's the idea above, anyway...

    What I really want is a complete Outlook replacement (with calendar & other exchange-like features) that runs on Windows, so I can switch my users over, and then maybe, eventually I could push a Linux desktop.

    Maybe the "if we build it, they will come" philosophy of the "no Windows" KDE camp will work for home users...but for corporate, starting with FOSS-equivalents on Windows is more viable...

  24. Re:First Heinlein Reference on Senate May Rush Copyright Legislation · · Score: 1

    "Geez, what has happened to Western Values?"

    You mean, "Get away with anything & everything we can get away with?" Kinda one of the quintessential Western Values, really...

  25. Re:WHAAAAAA! on EA Games: The Human Story · · Score: 1

    If you're so against socialism, why would you ever go stand in the unemployment line??? Or advocate anyone else do it? I would think your stance would be to get rid of such things, and hey, health (or any kind of) insurance while you're at it - I mean, if socialism of any sort is bad, so should not paying directly for any service you partake of, right?