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User: C+R+Johnson

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Comments · 83

  1. Marginal privacy benefit on 'Why I'm Switching From Chrome To Firefox and You Should Too' (fastcodesign.com) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Google can track you just fine even if you are not using Chrome.
    Just by knowing the four or five web sites you visit most is enough to ID you.

  2. Re:Slashdot has changed over the 20 years on 20 Years of Stuff That Matters · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Dang Grandpa, I thought I was the old guy around here.

  3. Tasks, Effort, Complexity, and Risk. on Ask Slashdot: Are Accurate Software Development Time Predictions a Myth? (medium.com) · · Score: 1

    I have have pretty good success with this process:

    Tasks: write down all them thar software bits that need to be coded.
    Effort: How much time will each task take.
    Complexity: Complex things take more time - make up a coefficient. GUIs are always complex.
    Risk: How possible is it that something wont work? - another coefficient.

    Now put them all in Excel, and then adjust the complexity and risk coefficients till it matches with how much you want to charge the client.

  4. Re:An efficient robot to harvest fish? on Robots Could Solve the Lionfish Ecological Disaster (mashable.com) · · Score: 1

    I like the idea. Swarms of underwater lionfish hunting drones. Or Zebra Mussels in the great lakes. Or Asian Car in the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
    Or how about swarms of small farming robots scurrying around a cornfield picking pests off plants and digging up Gypsumweed.
    And Marching columns of robot ants marching over the mountains of West Virginia selectively pulling Wild Garlic Mustard.

  5. Re:If you want to stay anonymous on MAC Address Randomization Flaws Leave Android and iOS Phones Open To Tracking (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    And always visit different sites and use different services on separate devices.
    Advertising networks can identify you just by seeing you view ads on the few web sites you visit most often. And they can identify your phone in the same way.

  6. Re:How do I turn the telemetry off this time? on Microsoft Releases Visual Studio 2017 (visualstudio.com) · · Score: 1

    We work on a network which is isolated from the internets. No telemetry.

  7. Re:And just how will it know the difference... on US Regulators Seek To Reduce Road Deaths With Smartphone 'Driving Mode' (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    It may be possible to put some sort of device inside the "A" pillar on the drivers side and then have the phone automatically enter Driver mode when the car is in motion and within X distance, about 3 feet, of the device.

    Of course then people would be trying to operate their phones holding them at arms length over the passenger seat, which would be even more distracting.

    I have also seen research which involved cameras watching the drivers eyes and using that data to understand what the driver is paying attention too. Perhaps using that kind of approach would be possible to block specific phones but that would be very expensive I would think.

  8. Re:The question has to be asked: on Museum of Political Corruption Planned For New York (npr.org) · · Score: 1

    From a government grant of course!

  9. If the really want to add value for advertisers... on Targeting Tools Help Personalize TV Advertising · · Score: 1

    You don't even need to target me. Just let me choose between multiple commercial streams.

    For example, when I am watching a football game with my son, give me a way to not be subjected to Viagra, Video Games, and Violent, Scary, or sexually suggestive movie trailers.

    I'm not gonna buy a video game or go to a movie anyhow. And I don't need Viagra (yet). Give me the choice of a G-Rated stream where I feel like I have to cover his eyes and mute the sound.

  10. Project administrators held PRC passports! on Encryption Would Not Have Protected Secret Federal Data, Says DHS · · Score: 5, Informative

    Total and complete incompetence from the Obama administration where the only qualification that matters is political loyalty.

    From the article:

    "A consultant who did some work with a company contracted by OPM to manage personnel records for a number of agencies told Ars that he found the Unix systems administrator for the project "was in Argentina and his co-worker was physically located in the [People's Republic of China]. Both had direct access to every row of data in every database: they were root. Another team that worked with these databases had at its head two team members with PRC passports."

  11. Re:Teach the cyborg cockroaches a useful skill on What's the Business Model For Commercializing Cyborgs? · · Score: 2

    I am not sure cockroaches are the right insect because they are particularly filthy, eating their own poop and all.

    However a few years ago a friend of mine remarked how useful ants would be for such a role, for cleaning the floor of crumbs.

    I think if you could find a way to borgify insects the profitable sector would be in agriculture.

    Sell dragonflies and mantises programmed so seek out and destroy corn pests. Sell engineered grasshoppers who leave the corn alone but eat everything else.

  12. Re:Oh this is easy .... on Ask Slashdot: Living Without Social Media In 2015? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dab nag whippersnappers! Get off my lawn!

  13. Re:Laws of thermodynamics don't apply at GoodYear on New Concept Tire Could Recharge Car Battery · · Score: 1

    They are just making use of what is normally waste heat which would result is some small increase in efficiency of the total system.
    But of course the amount of waste heat energy they can recover is limited by thermodynamics. On a hot day you won't get much.
    It is a ridiculous idea. Cool looking tire however.

  14. POW Sabotage! on Vast Nazi Facility Uncovered In Austria; Purported A-Bomb Development Site · · Score: 1

    I remember hearing a story about POWs who substitued regular water for a shipment of heavy water and thus delayed the German program.

    Lucky for for all of us they were guarded by a blithering Sargent who would willingly ignore their shenanigans!

  15. Re:$32 million of greed. on Calculus Textbook Author James Stewart Has Died · · Score: 1

    It's not jealousy. It's envy.

  16. Re:3-digit /. UID? on Manufacturer's Backdoor Found On Popular Chinese Android Smartphone · · Score: 1

    Modem? Damn whippersnapper! Get off my lawn!

  17. unfortunately... on How the Rollout of 5G Will Change Everything · · Score: 2

    Your phone will have battery life of 18 seconds and will have a surface temperature of 245C.

  18. Comcast doesn't need to smooze on Comcast Executives Appear To Share Cozy Relationships With Regulators · · Score: 1

    They have MSNBC to do that.

  19. I would be suspicious of the hardware on Ars: Cross-Platform Malware Communicates With Sound · · Score: 2

    Just about every sound card ( and everything else ) in the last ten years had been made in a factory in China. What is to stop the PLA from slipping just this kind of malware into a sound card chip? Maybe they can even activate and update using sounds from a television.

  20. Re: Sales tax on State Technology Taxes Face Stiff Resistance · · Score: 1

    There are some big advantages to replacing the income tax with a sales tax: Cost of compliance and Personal Privacy. Your personal cost to comply now would be zero. You are no longer have to send a report to the government every year. Because it is none of their business how much you make.
    Yes if you are in a business which sells things, you have to pay the tax, but in most states you are doing that already. And your burden to report everyone's income is gone so you are saving time and money there.

  21. Re:No-Bid contract to cronies perhaps? on Why Can't Big Government Launch a Website? · · Score: 1

    I am pretty sure Apollo contracts were not awarded on the basis of friendships and winks and words unspoken.

  22. No-Bid contract to cronies perhaps? on Why Can't Big Government Launch a Website? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It is also called graft.
    They awarded a 700M$ contract without bidding to a company with ties to the Obama campaign and to people high up in the administration.
    As to be expected, the company was not competent and failed.

  23. Useful information sometimes costs money on Why Johnny Can't Speak: a Cost of Paywalled Research · · Score: -1, Troll

    $1000 does not sound like all that much for a professional with paying clients.

  24. 1 Hour of Recharging every 200 miles? on Elon Musk Lays Out His Evidence That NYT Tesla Test Drive Was Staged · · Score: 0

    Is nothing to be proud of.

    The electric car thing will never work until the power can be taken from the road. Like slot cars.

  25. Sorry, not so good on Experience the New Slashdot Mobile Site · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Every time I have tried the new mobile site my experience was not good.
    I can't even scroll down easily and when I do it jumps into an article that I didn't select.
    And it doesn't look good.
    Maybe it's opera mobile's fault. Maybe you need to think on this some more.