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User: RJFerret

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Comments · 485

  1. Re:The new version is terrible! on Google Sunsetting Old Version of Google Maps · · Score: 1

    Yay for OpenStreetMap.org!

    Bonus it's often more accurate, and can be fixed where not.

  2. Old concept. on Ask Slashdot: Living Without Social Media In 2015? · · Score: 1

    Wastebook? Isn't that right in with MyFace?

    I don't know any using either anymore. Folks have moved on.

    People also seem to be interacting more, instead of avoiding each other and lying online.

    Life has also gotten simpler again, instead of needing to try to contact someone on Twitter, SMS, email and phone, you can just shoot them a message on Google+ and whichever way they prefer to keep notified is what gets pinged.

    Ivory towers are useless, all these things had their shelf life.

  3. Re:I don't get it on Strange Stars Pulse To the Golden Mean · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Actually most systems are chaotic, not like this star, or the other stars also exhibiting this behavior. In fact researchers had been seeking such behavior somewhere, and produced it in a lab just to see it happen at all.

    One theory is that it's inherent stability is the result of self selection.

    I just skimmed the article as nighttime reading so forgive (and correct) misinterpretations please.

  4. Re:to pull a weed, start at the root. on Ask Slashdot: Gaining Control of My Mobile Browser? · · Score: 1

    AdAway is more convenient, but you can also copy your Hosts file from your Windows box to block ads in Android, you do have to convert appropriate LFs for *nix obviously. I have custom items in my Hosts file, so this is what I did.

    A side benefit is it functions in all the browsers on my 'droid, Firefox, and any of the others that I never use.

  5. Re:Firefox on YouTube Ditches Flash For HTML5 Video By Default · · Score: 1

    I've been using HTML5 w/Firefox for a while now, and I also have Flashblock, which I have to click first to get the vids to play (despite their caching, which gets discarded upon clicking the flash to play).

  6. Re:Pay up and quit whining on Ask Slashdot: Where Can You Get a Good 3-Button Mouse Today? · · Score: 1

    I don't see anyone else mentioning the VerticalMouse, which not only is more comfortable but also has three actual buttons plus the wheel button and others, all customizable.

  7. Re: Because it sucks on Tracking Down How Many (Or How Few) People Actively Use Google+ · · Score: 3, Informative

    Heck no, the whole benefit of G+ is the privacy, not spamming people you care about with things they don't, control.

    it's great there isn't a ton of useless public content there, there is no noise, all signal. I post multiple times daily, but nobody knows that since only the relevant people can see the message.

    It's replaced email, texting, twitter, phoning, become an actul useful communication medium with nothing to complain about.

  8. Re:Adobe hasn't been updated for 5 minutes. on Adobe Patches Nine Vulnerabilities In Flash · · Score: 1

    Erm, I just updated both (Firefox & IE) without even restarting browsers happily.

  9. Silence on Ask Slashdot: Sounds We Don't Hear Any More? · · Score: 1

    When planes were grounded for Sept. 11th, I went out hiking in the largest natural area around (to get away from road noise) and heard something I'd never heard my entire life, the closest I'd come was underground caving.

    I currently hear the whine of LED lights, hum of fans, the fridge, a plane, road noise, not counting neighbors' direct noises (car doors, thankfully not too many pets, and the like).

  10. Re: Simplest is best on Ask Slashdot: Best Software For Image Organization? · · Score: 1

    In my case that would be trips/Hawaii_grandma-2013-03-04 as I wouldn't have a clue when. Most OS folder sorts help there though, some more than others.

  11. Re: Simplest is best on Ask Slashdot: Best Software For Image Organization? · · Score: 1

    This. Structure based on how you tend to look for things. For example, I put trip photos in their own folder as I associate them with a trip. Photos that fit a subject go in an appropriate main folder. I'm an ISTx MBTI type so name things literally which also helps search. Not only do I have pics dating back to the 80s but also was a professional video editor starting with one of the first broadcast quality non-linear editing systems, meaning being able to find a visual by name from scrolling, as no search. So I give everything a descriptive name and iterate based on revisions, a habit from my image editing days. This makes easy to find what you are looking for in specific resolutions or treatments.

  12. Re:You're Doing It Wrong on The Case For Flipping Your Monitor From Landscape to Portrait · · Score: 1

    Regardless though, unless your monitor is filling your entire field of view those limits are irrelevant.

    *facepalm

    I guess this reinforces you couldn't see the first point. And yes, the width of my screens is greater than my possible vertical view. No, my monitor can't be too close, I'm old--thanks for that reminder. Also, physically there's a keyboard, touchpad, mouse, edge of desk, between me and any display. In the future, reading glasses could technically permit a closer monitor, but further reduce the vertical range of vision, especially bifocals.

    Note, this all presumes you are human, if you are a spider, with some eyes above others rather than side by side, you'd still have a greater horizontal field of view than vertical, although fewer issues with your carapace physically obstructing your view.

  13. Re:You're Doing It Wrong on The Case For Flipping Your Monitor From Landscape to Portrait · · Score: 1

    LOL, really? Seriously? *smh. Block one eye, measure the linear distance you can perceive with a single one top to bottom. Compare and note how much more periphery you have side to side. (Note, variations to this would be impacted by how prominent your nose is, as well as your brow ridge, really puffy/protruding cheeks could minimize top to bottom too.)

  14. Re:You're Doing It Wrong on The Case For Flipping Your Monitor From Landscape to Portrait · · Score: 2

    Also my eyes are side by side, so my field of view is "landscape" in nature. Even were I blind in one eye, my single eye field of view is wider than tall.

    Back in the 90s is was popular for desktop publishing to use portrait monitors, until they found they could simply have as much vertical resolution with more space on the side...higher res landscape monitors.

  15. Ignore, false mod on The Sony Pictures Hack Was Even Worse Than Everyone Thought · · Score: 0

    Ignore, undoing a stray bad mod click.

  16. Cash on The Cashless Society? It's Already Coming · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You won't be playing badminton at the clubs without cash.

    Most people who pay me don't have bank accounts, it's either cash or money orders.

    Gas for the car? Cheaper via cash. This becomes all the larger when gas prices are higher.

    Car repairs? You'd be a fool to pay electronically, when the discount for cash gives you $20 back for small services, and multiples of that for large.

    Drinks at the bar? Cash means faster service, more value to your tips, less problems/complaints on tabs.

    Meanwhile, every other month I know folks who have dropped phones in the toilet, lost, broken, had their phone stolen, or the person paying for their phone service doesn't, so it gets shut off. Only once in my dozen years of doing my job has a client lost her purse.

    I laugh every time these articles get posted here, as there are entire segments of society for whom this would not function.

  17. Nematode brain in machine on Alva Noe: Don't Worry About the Singularity, We Can't Even Copy an Amoeba · · Score: 2

    Meanwhile a week ago nematodes reached the singularity, when folks mapped the roundworms' 300+ synaptic connections into a Lego robot, which proceeded to react to moving toward a wall in similar fashion to biological nematodes.

  18. Jumped the shark... on Discovery Claims It Will Show a Man Being "Eaten Alive" By an Anaconda · · Score: 1

    I'd say Discovery has now truly jumped the shark, except snakes can't exactly jump, and aren't sharks.

  19. Re:Article comments on A Smart Electric Bike: Taking the Copenhagen Wheel Out For a Spin · · Score: 2

    *nods... "I took the bike for a ride at the Cambridge office and offer this review."

    That's factually untrue. This is nothing more than a promo, there is one line that it took longer for a ten minute trip (but not how much longer) or why.

    Where's the review? Where's the experience? Comparisons? Where's anything that gives any idea of what it's like other than how much it weighs? (Simply declaring it'll feel different because they are tweaking it doesn't count.)

    Were this "review" on Amazon I'd answer, "no, this purported review was not helpful at all".

  20. Against it getting dark at 4:00pm on Ask Slashdot: Where Do You Stand on Daylight Saving Time? · · Score: 1

    I've always wanted to stay on DST year round. I've never seen the point in getting up to go to work in the dark, and it getting dark before leaving the office. Why not go to work in the dark and have some time outside at the end of the day? Why have "high noon" occur way before noon? (Admittedly, if you live on the tail end of a timezone, it'll be closer to noon when the sun's highest.) OK, so there were some farming rationals back when we were an agricultural nation, or energy saving theories and stuff, but nowadays, let's just be practical.

  21. G+? on Ello Formally Promises To Remain Ad-Free, Raises $5.5M · · Score: 2

    So it's trying to be Google+ without the popularity? Oh, but pay for aspects of it directly?

  22. Re:Simple solution on Technology Heats Up the Adultery Arms Race · · Score: 1

    This, you can't "cheat" on me since I give you permission. (Of course, that doesn't mean my trust can't be betrayed in other ways, or attempts to manipulate me, etc., but there's less emotional agita.)

  23. Re:People on Is an Octopus Too Smart For Us To Eat? · · Score: 5, Funny

    Although some aren't capable of opening jars.

  24. Re:People on Is an Octopus Too Smart For Us To Eat? · · Score: 1

    Cannibals obviously don't draw the line there. Of course from a disease prevention basis, it's frowned upon. I'd eat non-toxic aliens that were smarter than humans if tasty, affordable, nutritious and convenient to prepare. Other beings on this planet happily eat humans regardless of whether we're more intelligent or not. What does intelligence of food have to do with sustenance? I've never heard of such a debate.

  25. Re:Do no EViL(tm) on Google To Require As Many As 20 of Its Apps Preinstalled On Android Devices · · Score: 1

    Yes, Apple is way overpriced, considers itself fancy, likes to dictate what you can do, likes to secretly track what you do, and have you pay for it.

    M$ is overpriced, but lets you do what you want.

    Google has no price, they ask if you wish to trade info for useful services.

    Apple is like a wife; lets you think you'll get some for all you're paying, but you end up badly screwed.
    M$ is like a girlfriend; you actually get some for what you pay.
    Google is like a lover; you not only get some, what you give is less, and they are honest about it.