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User: Jeff+DeMaagd

Jeff+DeMaagd's activity in the archive.

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  1. Re:Someone call the cops, animal cruelty! on Why Aren't People Abandoning Windows For Linux? (slashgear.com) · · Score: 1

    Agreed on all points. The network effect is a big factor in a lot of those points, it's hard to justify switching platforms as a lot of things have to be there to make that work and to have people buy into it.

    It's been the "year of Linux on the desktop" for at least the 20th straight year, with the occasional hand-wringing about how the clueless user* isn't playing ball with their ambitions of global Linux domination. Meanwhile the user can be smart or not, but at the root of it, I think they would rather spend their spare time and energy on other things than try to figure out how to fit Linux and free software into their lives. When they do use Linux, it's been obscured in different ways such that they don't know what's really under the hood, such as the router, their phone, tablet or even the occasional Chrome book.

    * sometimes they're outright called demeaning things, sometimes it's implied

  2. Re:Dearly departed ? Good riddance is more like it on Palm Is Back With a Mini Companion Android Phone That's Exclusive To Verizon (droid-life.com) · · Score: 1

    I get the impression that it's a startup that only bought the brand name. Nothing else about the old company, good or bad, was brought in. So you're right to be wary.

  3. Re:It's the economics that matter on Boeing CEO: First Operational Self-Flying Cars Are Less Than 5 Years Out (geekwire.com) · · Score: 1

    It could also be in their best interest to market pie-in-the-sky dreams in the hopes of growing the market beyond their conservative internal estimates. They probably still benefit six different ways even if "self-flying cars" don't catch on the way the marketing suggests.

  4. I won't say it won't happen. It's probably going to be super expensive though.

    We don't even have meaningfully self-driving cars. As yet, AFAIK, full collision avoidance still isn't available in UAS, even the super high dollar systems. UAS have a pretty poor accident record too.

  5. Re:Google responds... on Google's Data Collection is Hard To Escape, Study Claims (cnn.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think it's telling that they attack the messenger instead of pointing out any of the supposed errors. I mean the problems of the messenger may be valid but if it just turns out to rest on the ad hominem against a lengthy report, then there's not much weight to their response.

  6. Re:The only problem here I see... on 'Calculators Killed the Standard Statistical Table' (sas.com) · · Score: 1

    Do they only allow the TI-84? My school allowed either a Casio (model # forgotten) or a TI-84. I used the Casio for a while but I realized the coin cell batteries to keep them going was going to add up over the years. I know HP had some good calculators that some college classes allowed.

  7. Re:Size of notch not dealt with... on Google Bans Android Phones From Having Three or More Notches (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    It is all silly but there's a method to the madness. It's a simple continuation of the push for "bezel less" devices. Eventually the notches won't be needed but for now there's no great way around it. I don't think there's a display that is good for shooting a front-facing camera through it (yet). I doubt a phone without a front-facing camera would succeed. The phones with a pop-out camera are sillier than the notches.

  8. Netflix didn't do that at the start, they licensed a bunch of existing content. I don't know if they intended to make their own shows from the start, it seems like they decided they needed to do that because the incumbent content owners started making their own streaming platforms and wouldn't license to Netflix as much anymore.

  9. Re:The problem with the Ultra plan on Netflix is Testing a New 'Ultra' Tier of Service (cnet.com) · · Score: 1

    Four screens in a household really doesn't seem unrealistic.

    > In which case this is really Netflix lowering rates...

    Lowering rates of *what*? They added the 2 screen / HD tier at a higher price, a 4 screen / 4K tier for even more money, and base tier is a one screen SD tier at the legacy HD price. Notably, the title selection has gone down a lot too.

    Maybe lowering rates of account sharing? If so, I haven't seen or heard that happen yet. I'm surprised they haven't cracked down on that, maybe they're smarter than I give them credit.

  10. Re:More like caught with their hand in the cookie- on Nvidia Shuts Down Its GeForce Partner Program, Citing Misinformation (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    Telling people that they "misunderstood" when they understood perfectly well is gaslighting. If that's really what's happening then it's really sad that they stoop to that level.

  11. Re:This is why we need net neutrality on Piracy Notices Can Mess With Your Thermostat, ISP Warns (torrentfreak.com) · · Score: 1

    I wonder what this alleged thermostat is, if it exists because even a poorly designed connected thermostat should still operate with lower bandwidth. The wording in the paperwork suggests that you might have problems accessing it remotely and that only makes sense if the internet is disconnected. Well, maybe if you have a saturated link combined with a shitty router.

  12. Re: This is why we need net neutrality on Piracy Notices Can Mess With Your Thermostat, ISP Warns (torrentfreak.com) · · Score: 2

    Yeah that seemed pretty confusing. Of all the things a bitrate reduction would harm, a connected thermostat should be pretty low on the list. Reduced video stream quality & reduced download speeds make sense as consequences of lower bandwidth.

  13. As opposed to its money-losing ride hire business? on Uber Is Selling Its Money-Losing Car Lease Business (engadget.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wonder if Uber is making money on anything because the numbers I saw say they lost nearly three billion dollars last year and I doubt this does much to improve the situation.

  14. Re:eyeroll on Cash Might Be King, but They Don't Care (nytimes.com) · · Score: 4, Informative

    I agree. The "right" rests on a misunderstanding of "legal tender". It means it's valid for exchange, accepting it is not compulsory for a private business. The US Treasury has a page on the topic:

    https://www.treasury.gov/resou...

    "There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services."

    This ignorance leads people to assume they can pay in buckets of pennies and they think they can legally force the receiver to accept it as payment.

    I'm not a fan of going cashless, I just don't think faulty arguments should be used to stop businesses.

  15. Linked story unrelated to post blurb on Coinbase Wants Wall Street To Resolve Its Bitcoin Trust Issues (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 2

    The headline seems pretty inflammatory and off-base. I'd look at TFA but the link goes to some other story that doesn't mention Coinbase.

  16. Re:Doing The Same Thing Over And Over... on Destiny 2 Misrepresented XP Gains To Its Players Until the Developers Got Caught (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    The way you say it makes sense but their opacity about it seems pretty weird. I don't understand why it doesn't just display the correct adjusted value in the first place.

  17. Re:Supply and demand on Nearly 4 Million Bitcoins Lost Forever, New Study Says (fortune.com) · · Score: 1

    It worked pretty well for that length of time because more was being mined to make up the difference of increasing wealth and it's still being mined at a thousand tons a year. Once bitcoins are mined out the parallel stops working on a far shorter time scale.

  18. The original decision to develop the RD-180 in the first place was because of a government cooperation with US and Russia. General Dynamics was paid to integrate the engine into their Atlas rockets. Maybe they weren't forced but there might be nuances that imply some level of pressure.

    Despite what the press release implies, no RD-180 engines were made in the US. ULA had revived the idea a couple years ago but that has taken a back seat to BE-4 and AR-1 programs.

  19. Doesn't seem realistic on Netflix Co-Founder's Crazy Plan: Pay $10 a Month, Go to the Movies All You Want (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They're hoping to collect marketing data. I am skeptical that the marketing data is worth that but even so it strikes me as a bad deal for everyone.

  20. Re:Why Indeed... on Can Elon Musk Be Weaned Off Government Support? (thehill.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Also, I'll believe the author is earnest about killing subsidies, I would have expected a mention of the fossil fuel subsidies too, including sweetheart resource extraction deals on federal lands. Or say Ford's still-unpaid bailout loan from the US government. Or ULA's expensive military satellite launch business. It just strikes me as an easy hit piece rather than an honest means to do away with subsidies.

    Elon's gone on record several times saying he'll give up subsidies if everyone else gives up theirs.

  21. Re:Why Indeed... on Can Elon Musk Be Weaned Off Government Support? (thehill.com) · · Score: 5, Informative

    All car companies can access the subsidies for electric cars. You can say Elon benefits more since he's only building electric cars, most of the big automakers have only been building half-assed compliance cars. Because Elon didn't start out with a huge car company he couldn't start out building a cheap car because it takes an enormous amount of money to develop a vehicle and everything needed to build it. Roadster proved an electric car can be interesting. Model S & X was needed to help scale up and develop the next thing. Model 3 is not *cheap* but it's getting closer to what the "average person" can afford. I suspect whatever follows Model Y will be even more accessible. He needed the Gigafactory battery plant to help push the cost of batteries down faster.

    The article saying the same about SpaceX is pretty fuzzy if you're talking about subsidies. NASA contracted companies to ship cargo and (soon) people to the space station rather than developing it in house. The original commercial cargo contract was helpful for developing SpaceX's commercial satellite launch business. If it weren't for the Commercial Cargo & Commercial Crew programs, all the US ISS launch business would have gone to ULA's even more expensive rockets and Russia for expensive rides to the space station.

  22. What's daft is the gaming talk when it's an average *two hours* a week out of 60 hours of leisure time. Watching TV rates at 17 hours on the same chart. The charts don't show hours worked so it's like either assumptions on gaming taking away from working hours or they didn't bother to present the information they're working from.

  23. "live stream" on Twitch Announces Six-Day Marathon Of Classic MST3K Episodes (betanews.com) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It really seems wrong to use the internet and a livestream platform to make a linear broadcasts. I liked the Internet because it helped break the linear "timeslot" format for entertainment. And twitch doesn't seem to have a way to go to the beginning of a show either.

  24. Re:So... yay? on Amazon Sues Former AWS VP Over Non-Compete Deal (geekwire.com) · · Score: 1

    They pretend to eat each other but send big bills to their clients instead. Sharks win.

  25. If you consider Slashdot to be reporting. TFA does have a much better headline.