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User: allsorts46

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  1. Re:Let them choose on Ask Slashdot: Should I Let My Kids Become American Citizens? · · Score: 1

    I understood why the decision must be made before they are 18. But the phrase 'the clock is ticking' usually implies that time is about to run out and there is a high pressure to make a decision quickly. My point is, unless they're already 17, that isn't really true; wait until they're old enough to have an informed discussion about this, then let them make the decision, before the deadline.

  2. Let them choose on Ask Slashdot: Should I Let My Kids Become American Citizens? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is 'the clock ticking'? You didn't mention their ages, but say that you have to make the choice before they are 18. Can't they make their own choice, long before their 18th birthdays?

  3. Re:I agree, except: on First Star War Episode 7 Trailer Released · · Score: 1

    Hey at least it still *looks* like an X-Wing and not an iWing, like what happened to the Enterprise...

  4. Re:Spoiled on Comet Probe Philae To Deploy Drill As Battery Life Wanes · · Score: 2

    Where those rovers made what?

  5. Re: Lol. on US School Installs 'Shooter Detection' System · · Score: 1

    Whilst I doubt it would trigger the 'gunshot detector', it does stand a good chance of getting the school shut down for the day anyway

  6. Book is better on Tetris To Be Made Into a Live Action Film · · Score: 3, Funny

    Eh, it'll never be as good as the book.

  7. Re: Is something being casually elided here? on Is Germany Raising a Generation of Illiterates? · · Score: 2

    This is something I've found as well. I've never received any formal instruction in grammar, but I like to think that my standard of writing is fairly high. A few years ago however, I started trying to learn a foreign language and found that my lack of understanding of the grammar of my own language made it much more difficult to relate to the rules of the foreign language.

  8. Re:My bank enforces stupid passwords on Top E-commerce Sites Fail To Protect Users From Stupid Passwords · · Score: 2

    Password reset process doesn't necessarily need it either. You can just tell the user '*if* you entered a valid username, we're sending you reset instructions', without revealing whether there was a match or not.

  9. Re:They're probably not hashing them. on Top E-commerce Sites Fail To Protect Users From Stupid Passwords · · Score: 1

    The only (non-technical) reason I can think of is that they think that longer passwords are more likely to be forgotten, and they don't want to deal with the support calls.

    On the other hand, the people I work with who constantly forget their passwords can't even remember a string of 3 or 4 numbers, so maybe the length doesn't really make a lot of difference there.

  10. Re:My bank enforces stupid passwords on Top E-commerce Sites Fail To Protect Users From Stupid Passwords · · Score: 1

    I think we have a winner!

  11. My bank enforces stupid passwords on Top E-commerce Sites Fail To Protect Users From Stupid Passwords · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I tried recently to change my banking password to something much longer, only to find there's a limit of just 14 characters. None of the several bank staff I asked about it could tell me why that is.

  12. Re:Dumb on A New Car UI · · Score: 1

    I can do this, no problem. It really doesn't take long to learn where a few knobs are. If they're designed well, the shape also tells you which direction they are pointing and therefore what their current setting is. There's no need to look in order to find or change any of their settings.

  13. What about 'it'? on Facebook Debuts New Gender Options, Pronoun Choices · · Score: 1

    I want them to refer to me as 'it'. Is there an option for that?

  14. Re:"lulzbot" on FSF Approves TAZ 3 Printer As Privacy Respecting · · Score: 1

    As someone trying to compete by building a 'Better Product'... unfortunately this is true.

  15. Re:Not with a bang, but with a Beta. on How To Take Control of a Car's Electronics, Cheap · · Score: 1

    What is $6.3 million of goodwill, anyway?

  16. Really wish I could believe this on Slashdot Tries Something New; Audience Responds! · · Score: 1

    I really do. I checked out the beta back in October. I felt, like now, that the front page and headers and stuff were alright, even quite nice looking, but that the comments section had been totally ruined. I said so in an email to the feedback address. I got a personal reply from Timothy agreeing that yes, comments were the most important part of the site, and that he understood the complaint about all the whitespace.

    Looking at it now, at least it's no longer fixed width, but there are still huge amounts of pointless padding and margins everywhere, and comments are still confined to a column of about 55% of the window width. Compared with the existing design, every comment takes up about 150% of the current vertical space whilst simultaneously providing about 10% of the current information.

    I quite like the new navigation, and the article list... don't really need such a massive font, but I could get used to it. But it still seems like nobody's really listening regarding the comments. They keep saying that they understand and agree, but still seem to be missing just how incredibly seriously they should be taking this. There's nothing special about the news on Slashdot. It's usually old, with a poor summary. What's special is the community of people who comment here. Without them, there is no reason to come here. Until the comments are fixed, the new design never stands the slightest chance of being accepted, no matter what they do to it.

    There's obviously no way the redesign is going to be cancelled. It's going to happen, so let's concentrate on fixing it. Here's what you need to do: drop everything else for now, it's not anywhere near as important. Polish all the shiny bits later. Work on the comments, right now, for as long as it takes, until the community approves.

  17. Re:You Anti-Beta Assholes on Is Intel Selling Bay Trail Chips Below Cost? · · Score: 1

    There won't be any relevant story comments in future if Slashdot doesn't start listening to its users.

  18. Re:iOS-exclusive apps on Is Choice a Problem For Android? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What? Their definition of 'Must-Have' is rediculous. You must be able to apply textures to your photos? You must be able to browse KickStarter without using their website? You must play Plants v Zombies 2? You must have information regarding airport lounges?

    Maybe these specific apps aren't available on Android, but suitable alternatives certainly are for most of them. I have absolutely no use for most of these, so I don't know, for example, the best Android twitter app or photo manipulation app. Cool Reader has a completely customisable interface, as a replacement for MegaReader. Also the main 'feature' of 'iA Writer' seems to be that it has punctuation keys on the main screen so you don't have to change keyboard modes - Android allows you to use a different keyboard anywhere you want, so just choose one with punctuation visible on the main screen and use it with any text editor you like.

    I can't be bothered to search for the rest, but I've seen many apps that can scan business cards like the LinkedIn one, and there are several KickStarter apps.

    The only thing on their list which offers something unique and novel seems to be IFTTT.

  19. Oh, hornets! on Asian Giant Hornets Kill 42 People In China, Injure Over 1,500 · · Score: 4, Funny

    First time I read this headline, I missed that 'hornets' was plural and imagined a single, huge hornet on a murdering rampage across China.

  20. Re:Sure, it's good today on EU Committee Votes To Make All Smartphone Vendors Utilize a Standard Charger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Don't think there's anything to stop manufacturers including both micro USB *and* wireless charging. But yes, eventually we should probably move on...

  21. Re:What does the age of the house have to do with on Toronto Family Bans All Technology In Their Home Made After 1986 · · Score: 1

    I was also wondering why the fact the house was built after 1986 has anything to do with their banning of technology. Why the hell would you construct that sentence in that way?

  22. Re:Why migrate to Turkey? on Germany Produces Record-Breaking 5.1 Terawatt Hours of Solar Energy In One Month · · Score: 1

    Burning all 783,562 square kilometres of Turkey would probably provide quite a lot of energy.

  23. Re:A hard time keeping on the forefront? on Why Can't Intel Kill x86? · · Score: 1

    'Fast enough' for any (user-oriented, not pure computation) application of computers is when the computer can do the work as fast as you're able to request it. If everything is done 'immediately' with no perceptible delay, there's no reason to do it any faster.

  24. Re:Neglect of big monitors by developers on Home Server Or VPS? One Family's Math · · Score: 1

    I don't know the details, but it obviously does. I've played Trine with three players on one computer - two sets of keyboard and mouse, and one gamepad.

  25. Re:No surprise there on After Weeks of Trying, UK Cryptographers Fail To Crack WWII Code · · Score: 1

    You're still missing something here. As parent says, "Given a ciphertext N characters long, there exists a one-time pad that will decrypt that ciphertext to ANY clear text message.". That's ANY, not A LOT, or VERY MANY. So yes, whilst you could easily dismiss a cookie recipe, you're still going to get an extremely large number of plausible results, plenty of which will contradict each other. Your example of a time for a drop is particularly bad - 01:00 is equally as likely as 02:00 as 03:00 as 04:00...