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User: Evro

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Comments · 1,238

  1. This looks terrible. on New, Canon-Faithful Star Trek Series Is In Pre-Production · · Score: 1

    If this trailer is any indication, count me out.

  2. Re:McDonald's too? on Google Replaces AT&T At Starbucks · · Score: 1

    Are McDonalds and Starbucks affiliated somehow? Why would something at Starbucks affect McDonalds?

  3. Re:Unless you have a 1st gen iPad ... on iOS 7 Beta 3 Now Available For iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch · · Score: 1

    And if you decide to write your own private apps for your own iPad, you have to buy a Mac, pay Apple $99 a year, and keep provisioning every 3 months.

    Around when the 3GS came out I had some good app ideas and was really excited to make them real. Then I found out you had to have a Mac. Not to be dissuaded, I found a Mac Mini for $400 at Microcenter. Unfortunately, the thing was so underpowered it was practically useless. Having already wasted $400 and still unable to get started, coupled with having to learn Obj-C, the idea basically died out. I know Apple's in business to make money, but the Mac requirement is a pretty big hurdle.

  4. No consumer demand for cars in the 1800s on Time Warner Cable: No Consumer Demand For Gigabit Internet · · Score: 1

    There's no demand for what people don't know exists. Tivo was a great example - amazing product, people who have it love it, but Tivo couldn't explain why it was good so they had lots of problems. Now most people who have DVR can't imagine living without it. 5-10 years ago, there was no demand for it - Tivo had to create the market and the demand.

  5. Re:Thanks alot.... on NTLM 100% Broken Using Hashes Derived From Captures · · Score: 1

    Another thing about XP - any computer purchased in the past ~3 years is going to come with Windows 7. You can get Core i5 Lenovo laptops with 8gb ram for ~$600-$700. Yes, it costs money, but if your org is running computers from 2005, it's probably worth upgrading anyway, unless you have a valid reason for sticking with XP (e.g. your users run software that requires XP and won't run on Win7).

    At my last job, cost was one of the barriers to upgrading to Win7. But we pitched it as a hardware upgrade - moving from slow Core Duo 1.8 ghz desktops with 2 GB ram to the Lenovos I described above. It was a huge win for us all around - we migrated to Win7 and upgraded the hardware in one shot, while improving everyone's workflow by moving from desktops to laptops.

  6. All software will expand on Mozilla Makes Prototype of Firefox OS Available · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I had a professor - an Emacs fan - who had a saying, "all software will eventually expand until it can send and receive email." It seems that needs to be amended to "all software will expand until it becomes an operating system."

  7. Only over wifi on RIM Offering Free Voice Calling In Attempt to Remain Competitive · · Score: 1

    Only over wifi, so this isn't much of a feature. And it's only to other Blackberry users who also happen to be on wifi, making it even less useful. And in general, voice is on the decline which is why some carriers are moving to unlimited voice & tiered data. Personally I've had over 4,000 rollover minutes from AT&T for 3-4 years, and that's with many expiring each month and with my wife and I sharing their smallest plan (500 shared minutes/month).

    So this is cool, but I can't imagine this will sway anyone's opinion about buying a Blackberry or not.

  8. Bizarro world? on Advertisers Blast Microsoft Over IE Default Privacy Settings · · Score: 2

    How is there opposition to this? Shouldn't "don't track me" be the default for all browsers? How is the FTC against this? Chamber of Commerce I could see... but the FTC is supposed to protect consumers, no? Personally, I think the setting should be inverted to a checkbox that says "Allow advertisers to track my online activities," with it unchecked by default, and inviting people to check it if they want. Let's see how far THAT gets. Stupid.

    I guess it's like the logic that US food sellers use to prevent "country of origin" information from being included on meat and other food products. If a pack of chicken breasts was labeled "grown in China" Americans wouldn't eat it, so they leave that information out, even though it's pretty important.

    In summary: profit.

  9. Just do it. on Ask Slashdot: Explaining Version Control To Non-Technical People? · · Score: 1

    This is a clear instance where the right course of action is simply to go ahead and set up what you need. You don't need to ask permission. Just do it. Once it's done and all code has been moved into git/svn/whatever, you can either tell the supervisor what you've done, or not. If the supervisor isn't technical then there's no need for them to be troubled.

    The closest analogy I can think of is: you started your job and found spilled milk on the floor. The correct course of action would be to clean up the spill, not to ask for permission to clean up the spill, or ask your supervisor how best to clean up the spill. You know what needs to be done, so just do it.

  10. Mystery? on A5 Mystery Solved (Why Siri Won't Run On iPhone 4) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I always assumed the answer was something to the effect of:


    boolean siriEnabled() {
        return (system.cpu.version >= 5.0);
    }

    Is anything else really needed? They don't want to support it on older models so you have to buy the new one. Conversely, if you really want the feature, buy the latest phone. Personally I find Siri an overhyped piece of junk. I have a 4S and I disabled it because it kept getting activated randomly and rarely understood my commands. Plus for the basic stuff like weather, I can just open the app. The anecdotal crap like "Will I need an umbrella today?" is just a dumb gimmick to me. But anyway, the fact is that the 4S is really an incremental improvement over the 4, and Siri is the one feature Apple can point to on the 4S as a differentiator, so they enforce that differentiation.

  11. NASDAQ TV on WikiLeaks Cable: NASDAQ Folded To Chinese Pressure · · Score: 2

    It seems like a major omission that the writeup doesn't mention that this is referring to kicking the TV network out of the NASDAQ TV studio, not the NASDAQ stock market.

    I mean, why even have editors?

  12. Re:SOPA on Reddit Turning SOPA "Blackout" Into a "Learn-In" · · Score: 1

    SOPA provides for deep packet inspection, so they can in fact block IP addresses.

    Issa says he's planning to offer amendments to SOPA that would "reduce" the discretion of the U.S. attorney general, who under the legislation would be allowed to seek a court order to make allegedly piratical Web sites virtually vanish from the Internet, including through Internet Protocol address blocking and deep packet inspection. In a separate statement, Issa said SOPA v2.0 "retains the fundamental flaws of its predecessor." (See CNET's FAQ on SOPA.)

    http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57342716-281/rep-issa-sopa-wont-be-approved-unless-fixed/

  13. Re:Umm, how about a little context? on Duqu Attackers Managed to Wipe C&C Servers · · Score: 1

    No, the first link, http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/11/16/1810231/experts-convinced-duqu-work-of-stuxnet-authors , talks about Duqu being related to Stuxnet, but offers no indication about what Duqu is or who it's affecting. Yes, I can google it and look it up on Wikipedia. The point is that an editor should do that. A simple sentence like "Duqu, the recently-discovered malware that's related to Stuxnet, which researchers believe is being used to log Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's porn collection...", or some other 10-word summary of what it is, is what editors are supposed to provide.

  14. Umm, how about a little context? on Duqu Attackers Managed to Wipe C&C Servers · · Score: 5, Informative

    Editors, your job is not simply to click "post." Read the submission and see if it makes sense. I have no idea what Duqu is or what this is about. I had to dig down 2 links deep to see that this was related to an attack in India. Context: provide it.

  15. Why didn't she set a limit? on Baker Has to Make 102,000 Cupcakes For Grouponers · · Score: 1

    Why didn't she simply limit the number of coupons that could be sold? I've seen other Groupons with limits. Sounds like she fucked up.

  16. Wrong, not a phone on Nokia Unveils OLED Phone You Control By Bending · · Score: 1

    The thing that was demoed was not a "phone," but a bendable screen & chassis. They still need to develop bendable motherboards, processors, batteries, etc.

  17. Approved app? on Dolphin, a 3rd Party Android Browser, Relayed URL Data · · Score: 0

    Was this app approved by the Android app store?

  18. Re:Did it stand for X-Perience or for Chi-Rho? on 10 Years of Windows XP · · Score: 1

    If you remember the late 90s and early 2000s there was an obsession with branding everything with an X. X-games, Gen X, Xbox. Also keep in mind XP was announced shortly after Mac OS X.

  19. Missing the point of currency on Value of Bitcoin "Crashes" · · Score: 2

    The point of currency in general isn't as a store of value, but as a way to facilitate transactions. Currencies are traded as a proxy for trading "stock" in a particular country's economy. When Japan does well and the USA does poorly, the dollar gets weaker against the yen. Bitcoin doesn't represent any country, so trading it seems even stranger. But until and unless there are merchants who accept Bitcoin for purchases, it doesn't seem like the system itself has much value, since as I said, the reason for the existence of currency is as a way to facilitate trade.

  20. Just block the cookies. on Facebook Files For a Patent To Track Its Users On Other Sites · · Score: 1

    Block cookies in your browser from *.facebook.com. Problem solved.

    (Note that this will prevent you from using Facebook as well.)

  21. Re:Why does this happen? on HP Spent Over $80M To Get Rid of Its CEOs · · Score: 2

    Probably because the severance is agreed upon when they're hired, not when they're fired. After firing one, it may be hard to find someone willing to lead - maybe they assume the board is prone to firing CEOs, so they're reluctant to take the job? - and the huge severance is considered insurance against that outcome?

    I'll agree that it's sickening to think that a CEO who tanks his company and fails at his job gets a severance many times more than the lifetime earnings of probably 50% of the US workforce.

  22. Re:Crappier Link on Google Acquires Zagat · · Score: 1

    And removing the / shows that it's behind a paywall.

  23. Main competitor? on Apple's iCloud Runs On Microsoft Azure · · Score: 1

    I'd argue Microsoft hasn't been Apple's main competitor for 4+ years now.

  24. Thanks, Rob. on Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot · · Score: 1

    I started college in fall, 1997 and somehow discovered Slashdot around that time. I read and posted for a while, anonymously, and then finally created an account. Linux was new and exciting then, and I didn't really know anything about it, but I knew I wanted to play with it. Slashdot has been with me through it all. My posting fell off precipitously over the years, but I remember some good times, good memes. Signal11 karma whoring (did the term karma whoring originate here?)? Natalie Portman? Hot grits down your pants? Ascii art goatse? The controversies around moderation, karma, metamoderation, etc. The various "redesign Slashdot" contests, and Slashdot finally getting all Ajaxy.

    For years, in the beginning, I took a sick pride in browsing at -1 and reading everything -- some of the trolls of yesteryear still stick out in my mind vividly as some of the funniest things I've ever read. But, as time progressed and I got older and more crotchety I bumped my threshold up to 1, 2, 3, and finally 4. I still check Slashdot often, though rarely contribute anymore. I don't know what "the community" is like, but Slashdot seems to have aged just as Linux has; become more mature and stable, more accepted, less weird. Like me, I guess.

    Anyway, thanks Rob. Good luck.

  25. The $250 price was a big mistake on Nintendo Slashes Profit Forecast and 3DS Price · · Score: 1

    In a world where a $200 phone is smaller, lighter, already ubiquitous, and has games for $1 to $5, pricing a new mobile system at $250 seemed out of touch with reality. Plus, 3D seems like a gimmick, though admittedly I haven't tried a 3DS.

    $170 is better than $250; however, the DSi XL currently retails for $170, so presumably that system will get a price cut as well, which may simply drive more customers to the cheaper system.