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User: grangerg

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  1. Re:I feel a disturbance in the force.... on Bipartisan Internet Sales Tax Bill Introduced · · Score: 1
    Nevermind. I just became aware of the distinction. This is all about collection of a tax, not the existence of it.

    The state can impose whatever tax they feel like, but if there's no way to enforce/collect it, it's basically useless. This is a way to drop the "use" tax and replace it with one that can be enforced.

  2. Re:I feel a disturbance in the force.... on Bipartisan Internet Sales Tax Bill Introduced · · Score: 2

    Most people already owe these taxes, they just aren't paying them. Some don't know it, some do, but the fact of the matter is that most states already have a "use tax" that matches their sales tax, and is applied only to out-of-state purchases. This is just a way making the online retailers collect the current taxes, instead of the current "Yeah, pay your taxes after the goods ship. Wink, wink." system we have right now. And since it is being done on the federal level, it is entirely legal and constitutional.

    Except the "use tax" is completely unconstitutional; it has to be done at the Federal level or it's illegal. Still, the concept of taxing my personal property because the location I originally obtained isn't my current location is very underhanded. What happens when I move twice in one tax year? Two states expect to collect an additional tax on what I already own (& was taxed on)?

    Taxes should be assessed based on the location of the merchant. End of story. This whole "tax based on the assumed final destination" has some interesting corner-cases. Think about the possibilities with phone-in orders over state-lines (delivery vs pickup).

  3. Re:Purely out of curiosity on Apple's Siri As Revolutionary As the Mac? · · Score: 2

    Sorry, but Android has been doing that already for a while now. Isn't there anything better that Siri can do? So far, it sounds exactly like what I've had on my G2 for about a year now (press the Search button, start talking...). For example, I'd expect you can finally "text" by talking on your iPhone, now. Now, if it didn't require a data connection, *that* would be awesome. It feels like a let-down to have a feature that requires a data connection.

  4. Re:Other reason? on Patents Google Bought From IBM Are "Weak" · · Score: 1

    Sounds like someone ought to patent that! ...um, whatever that non-obvious thing is.

  5. View Children on Help Shape the Future of Slashdot · · Score: 1

    I just want the ability to drill down. Sometimes I just want to see how people may have responded to a particular comment. Having a "simple" link in opposition to the existing "Parent" link would be incredibly useful. All it needs to do is load the current immediate children of the comment, if there are any. If I want to see descendents, I can drill down from there if I care.

  6. Re:So don't cover it with tape on Big Brother Calls 'Shotgun' In Illinois · · Score: 2

    Instead of that (for reasons enumerated elsewhere), just get the lens dirty. A "well-placed" smudge makes the image all but useless for enforcement. Consider a "back-up camera" on a car after a good rain; same idea, different source of dirt. I bet if they implement a camera on the device, the lens will get dirty all the time, and rarely on purpose.

  7. Well, there's one thing they got right... on (Possible) Diginotar Hacker Comes Forward · · Score: 1

    a) No antivirus software was present on Diginotar's servers;

    This shouldn't have been listed; it should be considered a good thing. However, considering the rest of the things they did, I doubt they actually knew it was a good idea.

    Antivirus software on a production server should be the exception, not the norm; it's just one more attack vector. In the end, it's just a blacklist pattern matcher. If the exploit isn't on the list, it goes right in the front door---and it can't watch all the "doors" either. The AV companies have some really good marketing going on if the FUD has the security experts this paranoid.

  8. ...then ban the cell towers too! on Personal Electronics May Indeed Disrupt Avionics · · Score: 1
    If this is true, then why aren't cell phones AND cell towers banned in a 2 mile radius from all airports? You've got loads of working cell phones inside the buildings (and likely on at least a few workers outside where the planes are). There's enough "signal" to get to and from the cell towers in both directions, and all of it's going through the planes.

    So what's so special about the signal coming from a cell phone until it gets outside the plane as compared to the signal coming from the cell tower to your phone (also inside the plane)? That doesn't change if your cell phone is on or off.

  9. Re:Oh the Drivel You Will Spew on Anatomy of a Privacy Nightmare · · Score: 1

    And a lot of these things she didn't even put on the internet. Go to a site like Spokeo.com and put in your name. I know I didn't put my house value on the internet but yet there it is.

    Your house "value" is there because it's public information. Go to your county web site; they list the amount on your mortgage and a bunch of other stuff that gets the hapless person to believe that they have some sort of special, inside-track to sensitive information. They don't.

  10. Re:The nomination of Wikileaks on WikiLeaks, Internet Nominees For Nobel Peace Prize · · Score: 1

    The Nobel Peace prize has been a sad joke for a long time. Obama wasn't the first epic fail (e.g. Gore, Carter, Kissinger, etc.). They've got a long standing tradition over there with the Peace prize.

  11. Re:Can we get focus-follows-eyes? on Eye-controlled Laptop Presented At CeBit · · Score: 1

    What I want is a "snap-to/focus-on what I'm looking at" button on the mouse. I don't want focus following my eyes by default, but I do want to have a dedicated hardware button that makes it jump to what I'm looking at.

  12. Re:lesson (hopefully) learned... on Lessons Learned From Skype’s Outage · · Score: 1

    If you allow 443 outbound, you *are* wide open. The idea that blocking outbound connections somehow solves security issues is very naive.

  13. Re:I Can Only Hope This Keeps Fumbling on Huge Shocker — 3D TVs Not Selling · · Score: 1

    Exactly. I did the math once and at 15', the difference between DVD and HD is meaningless on a 46" screen. Pretty meaningless on a 55" screen.

    I have an Optoma HD20 pointed at a 120" screen and we sit ~13' away. My wife and I came to the conclusion that if you already have the DVD, don't bother "upgrading" to the Blu-Ray. While the difference is noticeable, it's not enough to justify the expense. However, if it's a newer release, we lean towards the Blu-Ray; it's all about whether the original footage is high-def. Every Blu-Ray we have spits out 1080/24p, but not all we've watched were actually filmed in that high a resolution (or the transfer sucked).

    In general, what HD (1080) gets you at 120" is that your picture looks "normal". You lose the "wow, that's sharp" feeling pretty quick. You just notice "hey, that's pretty fuzzy" on the standard-def stuff, and "that's not as clear as it could be sometimes" on 720p stuff. I've heard in many places that if you're going to sit further back than 5', you'd better have a screen larger than 50" or HD won't matter. I've personally witnessed that effect on my old 32" Trinitron and the DVD of Planet Earth; seemed to look as good at 10' as the Blu-Ray did on a 50" LCD at 10'.

  14. Dark Matter (Gravity); please explain on Mission Complete! WMAP In 'Graveyard Orbit' · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So Dark Matter was a theory invented to explain why stars orbit a galaxy's core like they were on spokes around the hub of a wheel ...instead of how we observe the motion of object orbiting our sun. So if Dark Matter exerts such a huge force to keep huge objects (stars) moving in such a manner, how come that same force doesn't affect the objects going around the star? Or, in other words, if it's powerful enough to keep the outer-most stars in a galaxy moving in the same period as inner stars, how come we can't detect it here? Or have we detected such tidal forces already?

  15. Re:Cygwin's package was updated, too on OpenSSH 5.4 Released · · Score: 1

    ...

    SFTP is not FTP over SSH if you did not understand, it is a proper FTP that happens to run over a secured link.

    No. SFTP isn't really "true" FTP at all---it's the SSH File Transfer Protocol. FTPS and FTPES, however are the encrypted forms of FTP; they're FTP over SSL.

  16. Like texting? on Standalone GPS Receivers Going the Way of the Dodo · · Score: 1
    The first thing I think of when someone uses their phone for directions is them squinting at the screen while holding it in their hand; that's been my experience watching others (iPhone & G1). It feels like it's right between taking a phone call w/o a hands-free set and texting (but closer to texting since it diverts your eyes).

    There's only so much that "voice guidance" can do, and it never seems to be enough to remove the need to see, or mess with, the map.

  17. Re:Remind me again... on Ink Breakthrough Heralds Bendy PC Screens · · Score: 1

    Because wrap-around screens would be really cool for games, if nothing else. I would like to see a "dry" version of what the ProtoType This guys did in their virtual sea adventure episode. A hemispherical screen (minus the projector of course) would be awesome.

  18. Masking tape works fine on Guitar Hero World Tour Equipment Problems, Subscription Possibilities? · · Score: 1
    Sorry you had such a bad experience. The masking tape fix worked great for our drums. We haven't had any problems with the guitars.

    I followed the instructions here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhF5noVUBN8

    Basically, put masking tape across the sensor and surrounding surface to increase its sensitivity. Of course, be careful about the points where the wires are soldered, but otherwise the hardware is pretty solid. It took a Philips screwdriver, scissors, masking tape, and about 10 minutes.

  19. Re:Finally! on Barack Obama Wins US Presidency · · Score: 1

    Newsflash: The last band of idiots is still in there. We just changed our lightning rod.

  20. Re:Hope and fear on Barack Obama Wins US Presidency · · Score: 1

    Hope because the idiots that have been running the country for nearly a decade are gone...

    Nope. The majority of Congress kept their seats. And if you believe that party matters (and most do), the party that lead us to where we are now has actually increased their control.

  21. Last time I looked... on What NAS To Buy? · · Score: 2, Informative

    I decided to get a Thecus (N5200B) over a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ (also a diskless). The Thecus is the fastest while the ReadyNAS appears to have the easiest method of expansion. It's been about a month, so things most likely have changed a bit. Up until recently, http://smallnetbuilder.com/ has been the most informative source I've found.

    You'll note that the 2 boxes are about $650 and $850, respectively, so you're easily in the range of a cheap computer. The reason I'm leaning towards these is power usage, size, and ease of use.

    If you want cheaper, you can do it. If you don't mind power/heat and a larger size, its very easy to accomplish.

  22. Re:Oil not equal to nuclear on McCain Backs Nuclear Power · · Score: 1

    Back to my point. Pushing nuclear energy has relatively very little do with our dependence on gasoline via crude oil. Please lets not confuse the two. There is no chance that there will be cars powered by "under the hood" nuclear reactors in the near future. Wind power will also do nothing for our dependence on oil for gasoline. I'm presently of the mind that electric cars are the most viable solution if for no other reason that we've already got a delivery infrastructure in place for the "fuel". In this regard, nuclear power would not only be a significant factor in weaning us off gasoline, but would also help get rid of our dependence on coal power.
  23. Re:let's upgrade it then on Is String Theory Really a Scientific Theory? · · Score: 2, Funny

    I believe what you meant to say was Intelligent String Design. That's a definite grand unification theory. Along with the String Theory scientists, you'll get the ID and FSM nut-jobs all in the same boat. =)

  24. Re:2 points on The USB Wristband · · Score: 1
    I've never misplaced my USB drive yet; it goes in my wallet. (If it wasn't for the credit-card style carrying "case", I'd definitely lose the thing, though.) Mine's 1GB, and cost about $70USD when I bought it about a year ago on NewEgg.

    PQI iStick

    I'm fairly certain they've got smaller things out now, but what I've got is small enough for me.

  25. Re:Easy fix, remove access to the usb ports on Sensitive Data Stolen Via Digital Cameras · · Score: 1
    I know its not realistic, but alot of security problems can be fixed if we give up convenience.

    ...sounds a lot like the present "War on Terror".