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User: John.Banister

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  1. I think the problem isn't the photography so much as the photography in combination with having a database of who owns which license plate. With the combination, then you have people's vehicle trip metadata, and the problem is much like the problem with having their phone call metadata.

    People might be able to protect themselves a little bit by having the vehicle owned by a trust (especially if the trust owned vehicles for several different people), but that would be an extra burden and could have serious shortcomings if joint owners of the trust decide they don't like one another anymore.

  2. Rather see an XPS 18 with M6800 guts on Dell Precision M3800 Mobile Workstation Packs Thunderbolt 2, Quadro, IGZO2 Panel · · Score: 1

    If I'm paying for computing power, I don't want it under the keyboard where stuff can spill on it more easily. I doubt they'll actually ever make an XPS 18 with a graphics card, so I'll probably wait for one having a Skylake w/ GT4e Iris and hope it won't be too horribly slow at CAD.

  3. Re:They're bums, why keep them around on Greece Is Running Out of Money, Cannot Make June IMF Repayment · · Score: 1

    Why not Peru?

  4. Re:Mortar Forker on Biologists Create Self-Healing Concrete · · Score: 1

    What do you think of waterproofing admixtures like Krystol Internal Membrane that are claimed to exhibit similar behavior only using the mechanism of crystalline growth rather than bacterial growth?

  5. Might help if they're not all fake on The Best Way To Protect Real Passwords: Create Fake Ones · · Score: 1

    There exist a number of entries in my password manager that wouldn't cause me concern if someone learned the password, mostly login-to-comment stuff, but also a few merchants that don't have any payment information stored. If a password manager is going to give out fake passwords, it might help to have a "keep it secure" check box for making a new database entry. Then, those passwords would be available and pass a test when login to the password vault program fails, and also, if I'm using the vault to look up one of those passwords, I don't have to use my real password to the vault in order to gain access to them.

  6. Re:How hard will this break Corp Intranet apps? on Microsoft Is Confident In Security of Edge Browser · · Score: 1

    Sounds like management backed the wrong horse.

  7. Re:Safest country on Interactive Map Exposes the World's Most Murderous Places · · Score: 1

    So long as lack of women's rights and inbreeding don't bother you. There's also the Mutaween and the executions for sorcery. When a woman who converted to Christianity was burnt to death after having her tongue cut out by her father, it didn't count as a homicide in that country.

  8. Re:Outsourced homicide on Interactive Map Exposes the World's Most Murderous Places · · Score: 2

    It's not just making things illegal, it's making the concept of recreational drugs illegal. If recreational drugs that aren't physically addictive were legal, pharmaceutical researchers could have those imported agricultural products replaced in short order, and with the FDA checking up on the manufacturers' quality control.

  9. Re:US South on Interactive Map Exposes the World's Most Murderous Places · · Score: 1

    That list is alphabetical. When you look at the rate, none of the African counties comes close to Venezuela or Honduras.

  10. Jones Act jobs can't be outsourced on Ask Slashdot: Moving To an Offshore-Proof Career? · · Score: 1
  11. Could be nice for cars on Intel Showcases RealSense 3D Camera Applications and Technologies In New York · · Score: 1

    Something like this could be nice for making an aftermarket automatic highway driving module. The freeway is an immersive 3D environment having numerous environmental variables.

  12. Re:Rugged Smartphone dock on Optical Tech Can Boost Wi-Fi Systems' Capacity With LEDs · · Score: 1

    I thought it might be better for privacy, as the one object using the connection could block the line of sight.

  13. Rugged Smartphone dock on Optical Tech Can Boost Wi-Fi Systems' Capacity With LEDs · · Score: 2

    I've often thought connectorless optical data would be a nice docking technology for a water resistant smartphone.

  14. So this is why everything says 'made in China,' on Robot Workers' Real Draw: Reducing Dependence on Human Workers · · Score: 1

    because of all the robots. The nice thing is, we needn't be concerned about robot overlords. Our machines will make better slaves.

  15. Re:Help me out here a little... on Utilities Battle Homeowners Over Solar Power · · Score: 1

    The price increase would be borne by both solar and non-solar customers, and in my opinion, it's the sort of thing that ought to appear on a ballot initiative. If the growth of solar power outpaces the increase in power consumption so that the utility actually has to decrease generating capacity, then another method (eg, a utility connection fee, or a higher price for the power returned back at nighttime) for paying for the infrastructure would be necessary. But, when people install solar on their home, they're buying infrastructure that they hope to use to improve their lives. If you have such a large majority of people understanding the value of infrastructure that they're buying if for themselves, then I don't think it will be too hard a sell to get them to pay for power grid infrastructure, especially since the price of power grid infrastructure alone would be significantly cheaper than the current price of power grid infrastructure + fuel for power generation, especially in Hawaii where they're bringing the fuel in a long distance on tankers.

  16. Re:Help me out here a little... on Utilities Battle Homeowners Over Solar Power · · Score: 1

    Similarly, utilities have to increase capacity to deal with increasing population, but building the additional capacity costs money. Someone has to cover the cost of the new equipment. The thing is, they're utilities. They don't exist to make their investors wealthy. They exist to serve their customers.

  17. Re:I hope he doesn't build wood frame. on George Lucas Building Low-Income Housing Next Door To Millionaires · · Score: 1

    I'm sure it's preferred by lots of people who make buildings in order to sell them for a profit. ICF construction makes a better building, and lots of people and entities who plan to occupy the building they're constructing prefer it, even for buildings under 5 stories in CA.

  18. Open Peer Review exists on How Publishing Upstart Mendeley Weathered Revolt and Became Part of the Paywall · · Score: 1

    It wasn't hard to find. I knew scientists could figure this out.

  19. The problem is the companies who make the drugs do not allow them to be used for executions.

    Here's something I haven't understood about that. It's my understanding that the most common death for people's pets in the USA is now euthanasia. Someone is making a drug that causes mammals to die an easy death and is allowing large quantities of it to be used for that purpose. Since the objective is death, who cares if the drug hasn't passed the regulatory hurdles that would allow it to be used to treat humans? I'm opposed to the death penalty, but as a practical matter, being unable to figure out how to humanely kill people in 2015 seems idiotic.

  20. I hope he doesn't build wood frame. on George Lucas Building Low-Income Housing Next Door To Millionaires · · Score: 0

    Better construction methods are available, and the cost/benefit ratio on building a house that is better in consideration of the infrastructure aspects is much better than it is building a house that is better in consideration of the decoration aspects.

  21. Re:Help me out here a little... on Utilities Battle Homeowners Over Solar Power · · Score: 1

    I was thinking about linked community micro-grids when I was thinking about a situation where an accommodation couldn't be reached with the larger supplier, and I have a feeling that extra personal local politics would spring up and be a total PITA in a situation like that. I've been on the sidelines of some of the politics relating to Blue Lake Hydro in Sitka, AK and it's nothing fun.

  22. Re:Help me out here a little... on Utilities Battle Homeowners Over Solar Power · · Score: 1

    Mine's ~$300/year, when I hassle my landlord into reading the meter, and I don't buy natural gas.

  23. Re:Help me out here a little... on Utilities Battle Homeowners Over Solar Power · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Couldn't the giant utility have a giant flywheel into which they dump any excess power during peak times? Then customer overproduction isn't such an issue, and the entire community benefits from having one large energy storage instead of thousands of small ones. If Japan can magnetically levitate their trains, surely Hawaii could manage to lift a big flywheel.

  24. Re:Varies, I suppose on Utilities Battle Homeowners Over Solar Power · · Score: 2

    what about a massive, hazardous flywheel?

  25. In the Southern Hemisphere on Google Ready To Unleash Thousands of Balloons In Project Loon · · Score: 1