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User: Technician

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  1. Addressable Pixel LED strings on Anti-Piracy Firm Sends Out Wave of Takedown Notices For Using the Word 'Pixels' · · Score: 1

    This may be a problem when the people posting videos of their animated Christmas light shows with addressable pixels get taken down. The would be akin to Microsoft taking down cleaning services because they advertise washing windows and glass shops for selling Windows. This could backfire. Even flatscreen manufactures could get hit by advertising the warranty based on the number of dead Pixels. The term Pixel is not copyrightable by itself no more than Windows is and for the same reason.

  2. Re:WTF Not Prejudice, Discrimination. on Congressional Black Caucus Begs Apple For Its 'Trade Secret' Racial Data · · Score: 4, Informative

    Using the definition of Discrimination, that needs to be called out for what it really is.
    This Affirmative Action is by the action and expectations, is Discrimination based on race and gender. Get it right.

    We need to end all discrimination.

    All lives matter is correct.
    All black lives matter is discriminatory because it is race based discriminatory protection by race.

    United Negro College Fund is openly Discriminatory. It does by name and action, discriminate by race. Why are we allowing intentional race discrimination.
    Affirmative Action is openly Discriminatory. It does by name and action, discriminate by race and gender. Why are we allowing intentional race and gender discrimination.
    How long would a United Caucasian College Fund be allowed to exist if it's charter and campaign was exactly the same as the United Negro College Fund?

    Help call out and end All race and gender discrimination.

  3. Re:Read TFA, only some sensors affected on Sounds Can Knock Drones Out of the Sky · · Score: 1

    The test data from a variety of manufactures devices show most were not substantially resonant in the tests.

    Due to prop balance in drones, it may be a relatively safe assumption the ones with resonant issues are not used in drones but limited to low frequency applications such as Wii remote sensors.

  4. Re:Unpractical on Sounds Can Knock Drones Out of the Sky · · Score: 1

    I think enclosing the electronics package inside a re-purposed headphone to cut the sound and provide crash protection would greatly reduce the effectiveness.

  5. Re:Outdoor on Giving Up Alternating Current · · Score: 1

    I can tell you are not from the Pacific NorthWest. One or two days in winter won't keep the battery charged.
    Seattle has an average of 152 non rainy days per year. They claim 58 sunny days a year. Pacific Northwest is not a great place for solar.

  6. Re:Outdoor on Giving Up Alternating Current · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Due to the very poor selection of DC appliances and often their RV bloated price tags, I have opted to keep AC, but generate it locally. Instead of buying a DC to DC supply for a laptop to get 19V for about $100, I bought a 1KW inverter instead for about the same price. If I don't want all my lights to be Fluorescent Cool White in color, I can use the 9W 3K bulbs instead in a warm white with high Color Rendering Index >94%. Try it. Try to find 12V RV bulbs that are not Amber, Red, or Cool White 6K. Most of the outlets in my RV are running off the inverter. Only the kitchen and bath loop are still on traditional shore power or generator along with the AC. This limits the generator runtime where shore power is not handy.

    I have not trimmed my home use enough yet to cut loose from the grid. Heat pumps and long wet winters on solar just is not a match yet. They haven't fixed the solar when the sun doesn't shine problem yet.

    I don't have to mess around with trying to adapt everything to 12 or 24V. With a good size deep cycle battery, even normal microwave oven, blow dryer, other short duration high amperage loads are possible that is simply not an option on DC.

  7. Re:dry ink on Epson Is Trying To Kill the Printer Ink Cartridge · · Score: 1

    I had the same problem ever since the home printing had a high TCO for printing photos. Ever since traditional film processing locations switched to digital and prints are about a dime, I have the same problem. Most of the time the printer has no working ink and Laserjet has replaced the inkjet for most tasks due to economics.

    Epson has seen the handwriting on the wall. Adapt or die.

    Inkjet has become a nich market catering to either graphics artists, digital plotters and other commercial applications that use bulk ink for the most part due to the cost of supplies for volume printing.

    Epson has nothing to lose by trying this. The old market for high priced ink is following 35mm film. There is a market for it, but it is not competing with the cell phone camera for casual photography as it once was.

  8. Re:Oldest? on What's the Oldest Technology You've Used In a Production Environment? · · Score: 1

    You beat me on that one. I was going to go with incandescent lights for IR heating of process tanks. Didn't think of wheels. It did get me to thinking that in semiconductor manufacture, ceramics is used in robot arms. How far does pottery go? Is it older than wheels?

  9. Re:Proof of Security Risk from Portable Electronic on Ask Slashdot: Do You Use a Smartphone At Work, Contrary to Policy? · · Score: 1

    Citation needed.. Sorry Hillary's private server was scrubbed and not inspected. Citation for improper communications and back room deals is not found.

    Many IT departments know data is leaking as the effect is seen. The Edward Snowden type leak is what a lot of companies are afraid of.

    The big questions are if you have secure documents and data, are they on systems isolated from open USB ports, bluetooth, etc? Is all the devices on the secure network locked down for protection from unauthorized connections? Is the normal office IT secure?

    If I am on break and pull out a smart phone and look up the Slashdot headlines, there should be no problem. If I connect my Office Laptop to my personal hotspot so I can work at home, this is a serious security problem. Doing the latter should be grounds for immediate dismissal.

  10. Re:The reason is more simple on Why Electric Vehicles Aren't More Popular · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Battery life and cost are big factors only following range anxiety.

    Often the 10 year + life is cited for many of the hybrids such as the Prius. The long life is only obtained through battery maintenance. The state of charge is kept between 50 and 80% most of the time.

    In an electric, that would severely limit range to preserve battery life.

    To get maximum range, EV's often top off the battery (100% charge) which shortens the life and deep cycles them, also shortening the life. Think about other devices you deep cycle on a regular basis with the same battery technology. How long does your cell phone, laptop, tablet, etc last on a charge the first year and after 3 years of use. Do you expect an EV to get the same distance after 3 years of daily commute? Give me an EV with a guarantee of >80% capacity after 8 years or 100,000 miles and I am so on it. Making it only 60% of the way to work after 3 years is not going to cut it.

  11. Get involved too on Ask Slashdot: Making Donations Count · · Score: 1

    I have found getting involved is the best way to see how contributions are used. Have you considered joining a local civic organization that provides community services besides being a local bar for members only.

    I found VFW has some chartiable functions in addition to their more primary function as a social gathering place similar to a local bar. Lyons and shriners have specific goals for childeren's hospitals and community support. Forresters and Rotary International seem to be solid with local community support along with Kiawanas who are big on getting the youth involved such as Little League.

    I support Guide Dogs for the Blind and take an active part in their annual fundraiser and am a puppy raiser, a worthwhile volunteer project if you can commit the time nessarry to do it corrrectly.

    Best advice is to see who porvides what services and what you want to support. Youth spots, emergency services, senior services, veteran's social services,childeren's hospitals, childeren's eyeglasses and hearing aids, whatever. There are lots of non profits. Some are more a business such as the Girl Scouts.than we care for. I had become good friends with a guy who's job it was to produce cookies for the scouts and was shocked at how much the wholesale cost is for the cookies. The scouts only get a very small portion of the sale price. Most goes to the supplier of the promotional material.

  12. Re:Just take it in on Ask Slashdot: Dealing With Service Providers When You're an IT Pro? · · Score: 1

    A fast way is call on pretense of cancellation. Due to unreliable service and time lost on endless hold, I would like to cancel service.

    A quick transfer to customer retention end in accepting to try a replacement modem, a faster tier, and a $10/month discount for 6 months.

  13. This done right is a good thing. on Santander To Track Customer Location Via Mobiles and Tablets · · Score: 1

    I would love this if it was used as part of 2 part authentication. A card and phone must be present to make retail purchases. A stolen card would trigger red flags if it is used without detecting the phone nearby. Online purchases could be validated by SMS Pin. No phone, no Pin reply, red flag to the bank.

    Unfortunately it is open for abuse which is the main fear uncertanty and doubt on the system. Did a little FUD stop Linux? It's source code can be seen by hackers and may be abused. LOL FUD all over again.

  14. Re:Especially odd... on Microsoft's Skype Drops Modern App In Favour of Old-Fashioned Win32 App · · Score: 1

    I've moved to SIP long ago.

    SIP to SIP is free.
    With a free DID number inbound calls are free unlike Skype in.
    Outbound has many vendors and price plans unlike skype.
    3rd party hardware is common. Panasonic, Cisco/Linksys, Grandstream, Snom, unlike Skype.
    My free SIP account has free voicemail, multi presence, voice to email, conference calls, Skype gateway etc.
    An INUM is standard
    I have many PC & tablet softphones to choose from. Ekiga, Jitsi, Twinkle, etc. Some support video like Skype.
    I can choose codects such as GSM, G711, G722, etc for low BW to high fidelity.
    Not locked in to a single vendor.

    Skype is the AOL of VOIP

  15. My short list on Ask Slashdot: Your Most Unusual Hardware Hack? · · Score: 1

    I added a transistor in line wirh the voltage reference on a 24 to 12 volt power supply. With a zener diode and resistor that progressively brought the output up with input between 22 and 28V, I made it into a solar charge controller for a 60 cell 240 Watt panel for the motorhome. It worked great and closely matched the panel peak power curve keeping the panel voltage high for any input power. It has been running trouble free for a couple years now.

    Not electronics, but related. Converted disposable Freon tanks into high power t shirt cannons for an engineering challenge. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Klxqav_6NM Free tanks counted as part of the bill of materials, where cost was part of the contest. I'm in the blue shirt with the initial prototype at the end of the video.

    Salvaged a 0.001Mhz crystal osc to use in an electronics shop. Used it for a reference for adjusting tape decks for speed and wow and flutter. A free crystal audio reference was much better than a reference CD with a short tone track. It was mush more stable than any shop function generator we had at the time. In a pinch it doubled as a stable square wace source to use for TDR with a scope.

    A Hall sensor from a broken PC fan coupled with a 9V battery and a couple LEDs made a quick magnet sensor to check relay states in equipment for quick troubleshooting. Coupled with a scope, doubled as a tach for brushless DC motors.There is more I can't think of at the moment.

  16. Cable companies should offer value on Cable Companies Hate Cord-Cutting, but It's Not Going Away (Video) · · Score: 1

    Cable companies originally offered a larger seclection of channels which wre commercial free. I cut cable when they drove me nuts with time/life commercials and raised the reate from 12.95/mo. Haven't subscribed since. Netflix is eating their lunch for programming.

  17. Re:why do people get this wrong? on Cybersecurity and the Tylenol Murders · · Score: 1

    I guess I get the 3rd competing story for how it most likely happened..

    A man poisoned his cronically ill wife and placed more poisoned pills on store shelves to produce the doubt he didn't murder his wife.

    Who actually did the poisoning was not proven due to the number of cases.

    "As the tampered-with bottles came from different factories, and the seven deaths had all occurred in the Chicago area, the possibility of sabotage during production was ruled out. Instead, the culprit was believed to have acquired bottles of Tylenol from various supermarkets and drug stores over a period of several weeks, added the cyanide to the capsules, then returned to the stores to place the bottles back on the shelves. In addition to the five bottles that led to the victims' deaths, three other tampered-with bottles were discovered."

    Source Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

  18. Re:I remember when... on Netflix Is Experimenting With Advertising · · Score: 1

    Many of that generation have already cut the cable. High price and ads is causing retention issues in this age of internet choices.

  19. Knowing the targer and interested parties on Telstra Says Newly Acquired Pacnet Hacked, Customer Data Exposed · · Score: 1

    I immediately thought one of the intelligence orginizations, US, British, or Australian.

  20. Re:how do they account for alternatives? on Canadian Piracy Rates Plummet As Industry Points To New Copyright Notice System · · Score: 2

    With some services, movies can be captured. Streaming or saving look the same.

  21. Phones, tablets and micro SD cards. What big brother can't see..

    The ease of online file sharing has become risky. Other avenues are much less risky in a schoolyard.

    My kids had no problem loading their devices to the max without using the home internet connection.

  22. Re: $1 a month on How Spotify Can Become Profitable · · Score: 1

    Have you ever tried to work with their customer service over a dispute?

  23. Another explination on Anonymous Accused of Running a Botnet Using Thousands of Hacked Home Routers · · Score: 1

    This might not be an official function of the group anonymous.

    Say for example a user runs a botnet and participate in Anonymous. I don't want to be found when the feds hack the server. Some users could simply be using the routers as an anonymous proxy.

    This may have no official connection to anonymous. This could be the same as accusing Torr as being set up and run by anonymous as some of the exit notes log into the anonymous server.

    There is a possibility this is real, but at this point is is mostly speculation, and possibly a smear campaign.

  24. Re:$1 a month on How Spotify Can Become Profitable · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The endless list of horror stories of subscription cancellation woes has built up a very real online resistance to signing up for anything with a credit card. Even free as they often are a hidden free trial.

    Having had the honor of first hand dealing with online ordering without just as easy online cancellation, has firmly entrenched the once burned twice shy response.

    I can name names to be specific.

    AOL, Comcast, Viatalk...

    Until the industry fixes the locked in reoccuring billing subscription, all sign up proceedures no matter how small are potential fights in the future to cancell, and customers are burnt out dealing with it.

    Guilt by association appplies to any service without a contract expiration date.

    For spotify to leave the reputation, they should offer term subscriptions. 1 month, 3 month, & 1 year. No questions termination at end of contract. Then provide excellent service so I'll renew because they are great.

  25. Re:first, don't let them put their shit on YOUR ph on Worker Fired For Disabling GPS App That Tracked Her 24 Hours a Day · · Score: 2

    Some employers can require on call engineers. The question comes down to salaried or hourly. If salaried and mandentory on call, then the alternate solution is to leave the phone at work for privacy reasons and auto forward to your Google Voice number. My GV account can ring up to 3 phones at once. This can include a landline, cell, and google talk. A VOIP line with some providers can allow multi presence. This includes a VOIP phone at home, a VOIP app on a tablet, etc. I can be reashed, but I don't have to give out my personal cell number to be reached.

    My GV piints to a free IP Kall number, which goes to a free VOIP account on IPPI, which has free voicemail, free missed call notifications by email, and multi presence up to 3 phones. Solves my after hours contact number while exiting employer tracking. I can call in using Goolge Voice. I can be home, at a club, or in Disnyland and the origin does not show up, only the GV number.