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  1. "or any later version" on Ask Slashdot: Choosing the Right Open Source License · · Score: 1

    No business in their right mind would allow any such bull shit in any legal document that they were obligated to.
    Version 4 may grant the FSF free license to:
    * commercially redistribute and relicense the code as they see fit
    * grant unlimited patent waivers for all code using it
    * remove warranty disclaimers
    * require the developers to pay each user a huge sum of money
    * or whatever the hell the Fucking Stupid Fucks (or whatever FSF stands for) feel like

    Its like getting a job description that has a phrase like "additional duties as required"
    ... clean those toilets Mr. engineer.

  2. prototyping at a bar on Mob Programming: When Is 5 Heads Really Better Than 1 (or 2)? · · Score: 1

    If your like-minded gang of guys are out at a bar and come up with a great idea, this method is great for banging out the initial prototype on the one laptop that someone happens to have with them.
    ... but then its not called Mob Programming, but gang banging.

  3. Here we go again on New SOHO Router Security Audit Uncovers Over 60 Flaws In 22 Models · · Score: 1

    ... expecting all models to be flawless.

  4. Re:Question still remains on Google Adds Handwriting Input To Android · · Score: 1

    I still miss mine. The scheduling app they had was the most effective I've used.

  5. Re:What the hell is going on a the USPTO? on After EFF Effort, Infamous "Podcasting Patent" Invalidated · · Score: 1

    Yes, there should be a "public comment period" for all patents. EFF should start a kickstarter to "buy" a few senators.

  6. Re:NSA wants its baby back... on MIT May Help Lead Bitcoin Standards Effort · · Score: 1

    [sarcasm] Great!!! [/sarcasm]
    We need more standards like X11.

  7. Re: Not a huge change. on Chrome OS Receives Extreme Makeover With Material Design and Google Now · · Score: 2

    I honestly find the whole new color palate to be way too similar to the Windows8 start area crap. Companies will eventually figure out that we have diverse visual palates the way they did with taste in the 80s, unfortunately Google missed that opportunity on this go around.

  8. Re:I think it's already been used on Material Made From Crustaceans Could Combat Battlefield Blood Loss · · Score: 1

    They had it in a powdered form as far back as '05

  9. Re:It's quite simple really... on UK Licensing Site Requires MSIE Emulation, But Won't Work With MSIE · · Score: 1

    Sure, my US based company would be happy to do the investigating.

  10. lets do the math on Stanford Breakthrough Could Make Better Chips Cheaper · · Score: 1

    Pi * r^2 gives us 3.14 * (8in/2)^2 yields 50 square inches. Assuming each chip is 1 square inch that gives us $5000/50 or $100 of savings per chip, since the wafer can be reused.

    Now we need to make a few more assumptions for the rest. Assuming ~50% circuit density and similar cost, the remaining substrate would cost around $50. That's pretty significant, especially considering that many chips will be significantly smaller than a square inch.
    What is also significant is the additional weight savings.

  11. Re:Subject is an imperialist term anyway on Finland's Education System Supersedes "Subjects" With "Topics" · · Score: 2

    Now we see the violence inherent in the system.

  12. Then build static right on How To Hijack Your Own Windows System With Bundled Downloads · · Score: 1

    If you use libraries designed with static linking in mind like musl-libc and tinyxlib, then it's not really that much. You get similar benefits to shared libraries if the program is or has recently been running... Users run programs, not libraries and shouldn't have to wait for every unused function of every dependent library to load just to run a program. What's worse is when vendors distribute alternate shared libraries with a single program so that none of the library caching occurs from other programs and the overall size increases significantly. If you are distributing multiple programs that use the same libraries, you can always create a multicall binary like busybox, toybox, dropbear and mupdf do and still do a static build that will be smaller than the overall shared build.

  13. This is not freshmeat/freecode on Fluxbox 1.3.6 Released · · Score: 1

    If Dice wanted to track releases, they should have kept freshmeat viable. ... I guess they are missing that traffic now that we have freshcode.club.
    Pretty soon this site will just be randomly AI-selected tech news feeds and commenting will be disabled to reduce maintenance cost.

  14. Re:Any actual examples? on Tumblr Co-Founder: Apple's Software Is In a Nosedive · · Score: 1

    The simple act of text input in IOS

    Problem 1
    1. type something not in the dictionary and hit space
    2. ... IOS miscorrects ... fine I'll just backspace and select my actual input. 3. I select my actual input
    4. IOS doesn't replace it with the original that was just selected, but the same crap it just did
    (not a problem in Android)

    Problem 2

    1. I don't notice this till later, because I expect sane behavior
    2. Fine only the 1st letter is wrong, I'll just put my cursor after it, backspace and correct.
    3. Cursor goes before or after the word or the whole word is selected
    4. Have to delete the whole word and retype it
    5. Be careful not to let it autocorrect or rinse and repeat
    (Android puts the cursor where you tell it ... maybe off a letter or so with fat fingers)

    Problem 3
    You have to basically learn morse code to be effective.
    Seriously the single physical button is a hindrance to adding usability features like convenient back, settings, home....
    I don't want to navigate through 6+ different screens to change the settings in the app I am currently using
    When an app opens another app and I want to get back to the original, IOS is useless and you have to manually navigate back.
    This all techically _works_, and users only have to learn 1 (shitty) way of doing things

    If you want a phone that _just_ works get an Apple.
    If you want stuff to work effectively and efficiently, get an Android

  15. Why not make 5 1/4" hard drives again? on Seagate Bulks Up With New 8 Terabyte 'Archive' Hard Drive · · Score: 1

    I bought a Quantum Bigfoot back in the day just because I happened to have more 5.25" bays open. It did help that it was cheaper than the similar capacity 3.5" drives available at the time, but I still see new computers with multiple 5.25" bays.
    If they put the same technology into a larger form factor, it wouldn't be long before the petabyte is reached.

    (doesn't peta stand for the People for the Eating of Tasty Animals or something?)

  16. Violates Interstate Commerce Clause on Tesla Wants Texas Auto Sales Regulations Loosened · · Score: 2

    The Constitution reserves to Congress the power “to regulate Commerce [...] among the several States.” Art. 1 Sec. 8 Para 3. SCOTUS interpretation: * includes the power to preempt state law (express or implied) by the enactment of federal law * denies states power to unjustifiably discriminate against or burden the interstate flow of articles of commerce even if Congress has not enacted a preemptive federal law.

  17. Hah! Now tax it. on A Case Against Further Government Spectrum Auctions · · Score: 1

    $1Billion per year for every percent of the total area not fully covered.

  18. And a baby friendly version called googoo.com on Google Confirms That It's Designing Kid-Friendly Versions of Its Services · · Score: 2

    ... they'll have buy the domain name from the makers of googoo clusters though.

  19. Interactive tiles on Eizo Debuts Monitor With 1:1 Aspect Ratio · · Score: 1

    I wonder how well they stand up to mortar and grout?
    Put some gorilla glass on them and sensors and Wal-Mart could pester us with ads on every step instead of just the few annoying end caps.

  20. Can even be free service on Ask Slashdot: LTE Hotspot As Sole Cellular Connection? · · Score: 1

    Freedompop + ipkall + zoiper + Google voice

  21. Best news on slashdot since it got Dice'd on They Might Be Giants "Dial-a-Song" Returns, Online · · Score: 1

    I think I'll wear my dial-a-song T-shirt to commemorate the occasion.

  22. Re:Like Nikola Tesla... on Is Storage Necessary For Renewable Energy? · · Score: 1

    Actually he figured out the frequency at which the ionosphere would reflect most of it back. Basically the wave length needs to be such that it bounces back and forth off the earth and ionosphere. Some have postulated that his experiments with it in 1908 caused the Tunguska explosion.

  23. Like Nikola Tesla... on Is Storage Necessary For Renewable Energy? · · Score: 1

    Who said the same thing 100 yrs ago (about a wireless "grid") only to be faced with the reality that energy companies are in business to make money, not supply electricity (kind of hard to do when any good hacker can tap into it freely). A fully wireless "grid" could only work in a communist/socialist society where "the people" are the suppliers.

  24. Re:Too much surplus on Two Years of Data On What Military Equipment the Pentagon Gave To Local Police · · Score: 0

    I think he was referring to the war on school lunches, and the war on letting some children get ahead.

  25. Former construction/contract manager. on The Billion-Dollar Website · · Score: 1

    I used to work for NAVFAC, the U. S. Navy version of contract management for construction projects.  Though there was a lot of bureaucracy involved, the planning and design phase always had plenty of experts to ensure the specifications were above most commercial standards (LEED certifications, military requirements, utmost safety requirements, etc...)  Though many aspects of the process used archaic technology (lots of paper forms, area expert controlled word documents as best practices,...), the end result was that most projects ended up being completed on time and on budget (though the start sometimes got shifted so the review could be thorough ... unless October 1 was coming, but that is a different subject - or maybe not, this project had similar time deadlines).  A lot of this success was due to savvy construction managers doing appropriate "horse-trading" with contractors to avoid the lengthy change processes (which could delay anywhere from a day to 12 months).  When you have (non-technical) contract managers who don't know the reasoning behind the requirements, they have little recourse but to go through the official processes to resolve complex issues... _This_ is where you get your delays.  For the most part, a good hour spent in design/planning will yield ~10 in production, but it is important for the project manager to be intimately involved so this wisdom can actually be _useful_.  I can attest to my own anecdotal experience and my observation of others, that coming into a project at production phase is more than just a steep learning curve; some things just have weird historical issues.  Here are a few that I ran into after another CM was transferred elsewhere:
    - endangered species in the area
    - abandoned toxic waste in the soil
    - asbestos
    - this site used to be a WW2 bombing range and guess what?...We found a bunch of unexploded ordinance.
    - hurricane damage
    - tornado damage