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User: GTRacer

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Comments · 978

  1. Re:New phones shipping with older versions of Andr on BadKernel Vulnerability Affects One In 16 Android Smartphones (softpedia.com) · · Score: 1

    An S5? Not an ON5? I *just* went phone shopping and settled on a refurbed S5 for $120 shipped. All the Galaxy phones I saw in stores and online at that price were ON5s. I'd have gladly bought from WalMart at $150!

  2. Re:Centrifuge therapy? on Roller Coasters Could Help People Pass Kidney Stones, Says Study (nbcnews.com) · · Score: 1

    If thrill rides were a practical solution to kidney stones (jury is still out wrt human trials), then I can tell you why I'd consider it, pain be damned.

    Cost. I have a cruddy high deductible health plan. I get a stipend from work but it's not as good as the old "$100 per inpatient day, $50-250 for many OP procedures" plans of yore. I'd wager my out-of-pocket in a lithotripter is far more than a SEASON pass to Disney. And after I recovered from the ride and subsequent blackout, I'd have 364 more days to forget it all!

  3. Re:New form of measurement? on Woman Faces $9,100 Verizon Bill For Data She Says She Didn't Use (dslreports.com) · · Score: 1

    As a former Verizon customer: I used about 15-20 gigs per month on a grandfathered unlimited high-speed LTE plan. Which I would have lost due to needed plan changes for other family members. So I went to T-Mobile. Have been with them three years now and get excellent value for dollar. I pay (out the door) $158 for 6 lines (all phones are already paid for) and my line has the full high speed unlimited add-on. I'm using around 25 gigs a month now.

    That said, our experience all over Florida and the east coast is that when you have service, T-Mo is fine. But they have far more dead spots for data than Verizon. Verizon truly has a top-notch network. And crappy policies.

  4. I can't imagine life without XPrivacy. Been using it for a few years now. I love the really really fine grained control it gives. Also fun busting apps asking for permissions they didn't declare in the Play Store page.

  5. Re: Stupid business model + stupid practices = ___ on ClixSense Suffers Massive Data Breach, 6.6 Million Users Compromised (digitaltrends.com) · · Score: 1

    And when thieves use this info for identity theft and credit fraud, these poor people are going to have that much harder a time getting out of poverty!

  6. How 'Bout Sci-Fi Romance? on Slashdot Asks: What Are Your Favorite Technology Books and Novels? · · Score: 1

    Silver Metal Lover, by Tanith Lee. Human and android fall in love and deal with that, and regular life in a typical urban setting. Lots of social-issue philosophising underneath the solid characters and romance.

  7. Greetings and many thanks for making such a great program, available on all my platforms!

    Besides Christmas/winter holiday time, are there other special VLC Cone icons I've not seen yet?

  8. Re: Verizon is smart to do this. on Once Valued at $125B, Yahoo's Web Assets To Be Sold To Verizon For $4.83B, Companies Confirm · · Score: 1

    It's worth noting that not everyone wants to search for everything. There was definitely a time and a place for curated news and lifestyle site sections. Being able to search in a literate fashion is likely the top needed computer skill for non-CS types, but after that, let people have fun!

  9. Not Just IT Power Players on Google CEO Sundar Pichai's Quora Account Hacked (thenextweb.com) · · Score: 1

    Ahhh I get it now. A few days ago, I saw weird messages from Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman. There were OurMine links in them (which I avoided).

    These guys sure are finding their way into a lot of accounts!

  10. Re:The Chrysler 200 had a differently weird shifte on J.J. Abrams Reacts To Death of Star Trek Actor Anton 'Chekov' Yelchin (hollywoodreporter.com) · · Score: 1

    Um, I thought the "Click Start to shut down" thing began with Windows 95?

  11. Re:Maybe I won't be buying a PS4 on Sony Confirms It's Making a 'High-End PlayStation 4' With 4K and Richer Graphics (ft.com) · · Score: 1

    Um, what? Are you saying FFXIV *requires* a controller? Why would you say that when Twitch is full of streamers playing KBM? Heck, the PS4 version supports KBM and, aside from the crappy mouse DPI support it's quite good!

    FFXI also supports KBM on PC but in a much more limited fashion.

  12. Re:PayPal does something for their 'vendors'? on PayPal Denies Twitch Troll $50,000 Worth In Refunds (ubergizmo.com) · · Score: 1

    I'm glad PayPal was proactive in your case of SSD fraud. They weren't so nice to me when I bought a "Clean IMEI Cellphone" which wound up on a fraud list less than 2 months after purchase, and within PayPal's purchase security/warranty window. Had to fork over good money after bad to get a new IMEI. Phone was otherwise perfect though!

  13. Re:Both awesome and sad on Password Re-user? Get Ready to Get Busy (krebsonsecurity.com) · · Score: 1

    I have no idea if I'm smart or dumb or both, but I have technically unique passwords for over 100 sites and work logins. I have a "core" password which I change rarely, plus 3-5 chars pertinent to that website. Have done this for years on the assumption that eventually a big enough site (like say, Slashdot in 2002) would get hit and the attackers would try my /. password everywhere.

  14. Re:That's just too damn bad. on Weary Homeowners Wage War On Waze · · Score: 1

    Riiiight... but how many speed bumps have you encountered that can be safely and comfortably taken at 30 mph?

  15. Re:That's just too damn bad. on Weary Homeowners Wage War On Waze · · Score: 1

    It really depends on the design of the speed bump. They can be made with enough curvature and height to require reducing speed to say 15mph and then be driven over smoothly. There are others that are too "peaked" and must be crawled over to avoid a serious jarring.

    But that's beside the point unless your street is posted for a lower than standard 25/30 residential limit. Why should anyone expect speed bumps on a 30-limit outside of a school or pedestrian crossing?

  16. Re:Meanwhile in America on 'Huge Wake Up Call': Third of Central, Northern Great Barrier Reef Corals Dead (smh.com.au) · · Score: 2

    I mean if I can go into the little girls room[...]

    The only reason you should be going into the ladies' room is if you are female by sex or identity. One assumes you are biologically male, so then we have to assume you've dealt with gender identity dysphoria and maybe are seeing a doctor or therapist.

    If you're walking up to the door with a camera crew in tow or a chip on your shoulder, then you might just be a misguided attention whore.

  17. Re:Great News on Adidas To Sell Robot-Made Shoes In Germany (dw.com) · · Score: 1

    Which meaning of "fag" did you have in mind? A cigarette? Bundle of sticks? A homosexual individual?

    Assuming you meant to equate drinkypoo with homosexual speech, can you elaborate? Which word choice or phrasing used by drinkypoo lines up with homosexual speech? What *is* homosexual speech? Do homosexuals use a different language?

    And you might want to stay out of their toilet. That's a terrible way to measure fecal intellect.

  18. Re:Two wrongs don't make a right on Iran Is Arresting Models Who Pose Without Headscarves On Instagram (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    *reads thread* *reads your response* *reads your sig*

    Define "ever" please ^^

  19. Re:love child on BakerHostetler Hires Artificial Intelligent Attorney 'Ross' (fortune.com) · · Score: 1

    Dang it, my points expired yesterday!!!

  20. I don't mind ad breaks in TV shows too much. It's when I watch a movie on TV that ad breaks make me mental. ESPECIALLY movies like Princess Bride, Star Wars, Breakfast Club, etc. where I know them by heart. The ads often ruin the flow.

  21. Re:oh crap on Windows 10 Updates Are Now Ruining Pro-Gaming Streams (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    Not necessarily true - as mentioned above Twitch subscriptions run $5 a month, with approximately half going to the streamer. I don't follow top-tier League or FPS streamers, but the folks I DO watch regularly have around 1 to 4k subs. That's about $2,500 to TEN GRAND a month, just from people directly supporting them. That doesn't include direct tips/donations or side revenue from ads (either on Twitch or YouTube).

    Most of my favorite streamers are on my list because of their personalities and their chat interactions. The gameplay is important too, but not the main driver. If I need to know what a game is like a canned Let's Play video would be better. I just like to see humans playing for fun, and sometimes making the same dumb mistakes I make.

  22. Re:We need to travel faster on Scientists Discover Three Potentially Habitable Planets (mit.edu) · · Score: 1

    Has anyone done a story wherein a civilisation launches a generation ship, expecting it to travel for a couple thousand years? But in the meantime, the group left behind develop FTL / wormhole generators / what have you and send a second group to the target planet to await the first?

  23. I deliberately chose to pay via PayPal, because I knew they have a good dispute process[...]

    Hahahahahahahaaaaa! I'm glad they've been good to you, but they refused to refund me when I purchased a used Galaxy Note 3 with "clean IMEI". Phone worked fine for about a month then stopped. Turns out someone got it from TMobile on installment and walked away from the payments (presumably got it using fraudulent paperwork/payment then sold it to a "refurbisher" to launder it).

    Here's the rub - CheckMend NEVER showed the fraud hold, even AFTER it was turned off. TMobile was happy to tell me why the phone was deactivated but eBay and PayPal bounced me back and forth and eventually said I'd waited too long to report it. Well duh, the fraud didn't manifest immediately. In the end I picked up a new IMEI and I'm good now, though I won't be recommending eBay or PayPal to anyone anytime soon.

  24. Re:Crying on the way out? on Volvo Engineer Calls Out Tesla For Dangerous 'Wannabe' Autopilot System (jalopnik.com) · · Score: 1

    All the cars I've bought myself or with my wife (that I can recall):

    1999 Nissan Quest (bought 2004?) - 16,000
    2005 Mazda RX8 (bought 2008) - 15,300
    1990 Chevy Lumina (new) - 15,200
    2005 Mazda Minivan (bought 2009) - 11,400
    1988 Honda Accord (bought 1992) - 6,650
    2001 Honda Accord (bought 2015) - 1,900
    1991 Honda Accord (bought 2005?) - 1,000

    I'm not saying $35,000 is expensive or anything. Just that I don't know very many people who have bought more than one (maybe two) new cars in the years I've known them. And I know the incentives are pretty good on ZEVs but "starting at $x" usually winds up adding thousands in options, fees and taxes.

  25. Re:But you need to upgrade on Smartphone Shipments Flat For the First Time, Says IDC · · Score: 1

    Can't comment on battery cos I replaced my S4's battery and got normal life back. I have had the "mystery dissapearing storage" issue - turns out there were files in a hidden directory not counted by the space cleaning wizard.

    Something you may want to consider, even though it's a bit of a pain - Do a full backup, then a total wipe + factory reset (if you can). Then reinstall.