Yes, because it's much too difficult to actually put the link to the story in the fine summary. They've tried it for 15+ years and it's been obvious that the technique didn't work so we need to come up with something new. Something edgy, like making the link obscure.
Oh, for those that are reading challenged, the above was sarcasm.
My guess is that the problem lies in the fact that the OP is using a garbage TLD. I've configured our mail server to silently drop all traffic from many of the new garbage TLDs, including.xyz. It does wonders for cutting down the spam levels. Sadly it's just a new version of Whack-a-Mole. Neither I, nor any of my users, appear to have gotten a legitimate email from any other these domains. I'll bet if the OP were to use a more traditional TLD, like.com,.uk, etc. there wouldn't be problems.
I grew up in a small town with a lot of old money people and some Nouveau Riche. The old money people, almost invariably, were friendly comfortable real people. Yes they lived in large fancy houses overlooking the water, and yes they had expensive toys, but they were also welcoming and positive people. The new money people, again, almost invariably, were snobbish conceited and seemed otherwise ill at ease within society. They drove fancier cars too fast on our residential side streets, lived in the 70's version of McMansions, and flouted their wealth in the face of others. It seemed to me that they were trying to convince everybody around them, and perhaps themselves as well, that they had "arrived" and that they were "somebody".
I now live in small rural somewhat isolated community with mostly blue collar and a mix of old money and new money people. Forty years later I still observe similar differences between the old money and new money. The new money seems much more to have a sense of entitlement. They want things their way regardless of societal rules.
If you're going to make out of the ordinary purchases for overseas, or travel overseas, you always want to call your bank ahead of time. This is a standard operating procedure, and nothing to complain about on Slashdot.
Even that doesn't ensure that you don't have problems. We used to use HSBC. As we found out, their fraud detection algorithms are terrible. I returned from a trip to Mexico to be greeted by a flurry of voice mails from them telling me to call them and that my card had been shut off. I called them to straighten things out and was told that I should have called them before travelling to Mexico. I asked them where they would look to find this information and he responded that he would look at my customer account and in the comments section it would say..... Oh. I see you called us to tell us you'd be traveling in Mexico.
That wasn't the first major fubar on their part and a week later I cancelled the account.
No. They are intentionally not selling the _devices_ manufactured by their two biggest competitors. Big difference.
I think Amazon is acting like a spoiled three year old, but it doesn't strike me as antitrust. People can get Chromecast and Apple TV lots of other places. It's not like Amazon was the only outlet.
Sadly, this isn't always an option. For users who's only use of a computer is watching cat videos, doing email, etc., sure this option is a good one. But some of us have Windows forced down our throats due to applications we are required to run. I'm a marine electrician and virtually all of the diagnostic and configuration tools that various vendors provide require Windows. As a side line I do vinyl graphics work and the only reliable and realistic solutions run on Windows. I'll admit that I haven't tried Wine in a few years, but last time I tried it Wine still wouldn't run outlier applications and even some that it would run didn't run reliably. If you're futzing around on your desktop, or working on hobby use, that's fine. But if you are doing professional work in an industry with predominantly Windows only tools, and you are billing for your time, you need to be cost effective and reliable to be competitive. That means that you must have at least one machine, or VM instance, which runs Windows.
Unfortunately many users just click on the ok button, or whatever button they think will make the dialog box go away. They are more intent on consuming the content then on what is actually happening on their system. My wife is a perfect example; despite years of my trying to get her to ask about dialog boxes that pop up that she doesn't understand, she still just clicks ok and moves on. Sometimes she'll comment about why does this keep happening, but generally she just wants her Faceballs access to continue without interruption. Sadly, this is most likely the norm.
5G? I'd settle for reliable 3G.
on
The Promise of 5G
·
· Score: 4, Informative
The subject kind of says it all. Around here we have pockets of LTE, larger areas of 3G, but the bulk of our geographic area has no service or just barely enough to send and receive an SMS message. I don't see where 5G means a thing to us here.
At roughly 10% of the population left handed people are a minority. Watch designs have historically been designed for right handed people. When watches were mechanical devices that made sense. It didn't make economical sense to manufacturer two different designs of watches and it would have been to complex, and therefore expensive, to provide a stem and/or buttons on both sides of the watch. But with purely digital watches most of those barriers go away. What is the cost per watch to provide an additional button? Or even more simply, what about a configuration option that changes the orientation of the display. In the case of the Moto 360 that would mean that the button would be at the 7 o'clock position if worn upside down by a leftie. The button would be easily pushed by the thumb instead of the forefinger, but at least your hand would be out of the way.
Written, I sure, by somebody under 40. I'm 57. If the adverse affects may manifest themselves in 30-50 years then I would start being at risk at 87. Given my health, my genes, and medical science, barring any accident, I fully expect to live into my late 80's or even into my 90's. To blithely dismiss the risks to people in their 50's or 60's is pretty calloused. Perhaps you'll view your longevity differently once you're in your 50's.
You're thinking is along the lines of my desire to own the Heathkit robot when it first came out. I wanted one with the "arm" so I could program it to chase the cats around the house all the while yelling out "Danger Will Robinson. Danger!"
Great idea, in theory. I used to use HSBC and got tired of telling them that I'd be traveling to a foreign country only to have them put a security hold on my account when I used my card in that country. One priceless conversation with a support droid went like this: Me: Why is there a security hold on my account? Droid: We noticed an attempt to use the card in Mexico. Me: I called and notified the bank that I would be traveling in Mexico. Don't you record and track that information. Droid: We certainly do. It would be right here in your customer.... Oh. I see it says you'll be traveling in Mexico. Me: (heavy sigh)
Even the foreign country thing isn't a valid measure. HSBC put a security hold on my account because we used the card in Canada. They told me that I should have notified them that I would be traveling in Canada. (This was before the Mexico incident.) When I pointed out that the city I was in was right next door to us, but they had no problem with me using my card in Seattle which is quite a ways away, their response was that I was in a foreign country.
Needless to say we no longer use HSBC. HSBC was also the bank that put our account on hold for suspicious activity because we'd used it to buy something on the internet.
So the issue isn't whether the bank knows where you are, it's whether they can effectively utilize the information for the stated purpose. Some may be able to do so, but I'm willing to bet that for others the request comes from the marketing department instead of the fraud department.
My guess is that this is intended for people who have no idea what preferences are, where to set them, or what they do. I don't think the average Slashdot user is the intended audience.
Without knowing how the questions were phrased, the survey is pretty much meaningless. For example:
1) The pilot's association believes that drones present a real and tangible threat to air safety. Do you think they should be permitted to fly in areas where airplanes may be flying?
2) Do you believe that drones which have been proven to be safe should be allowed to be flown by trained individuals in urban areas?
Those two questions essentially ask the same question but will illicit opposite answers from most survey takers.
1) Exact string matching. As an example, if I search for " 'x.25' " don't give me hits for something with dimensions of 45mm x 25mm. 2) Allow more complex search constructs . For example I'd like to be able to specify the search term " 'x.25' near protocol -handbook ". You can sort of do that with Google's Advanced Search, but it's extra steps and you still don't get terms like 'near' or exact match. 3) Bonus points for boolean constructs such as " (lions or tigers or bears) near woods ".
In short, provide a robust search engine that will support meaningful search terms that can be used for more than shopping for a new TV or figuring out who stars in your favorite reality tv show.
My point is that if a large company establishes "standard" pricing there will be areas where it works well, and areas where it doesn't. The big problem, which I guess I didn't touch on, is that the sheeple will just spout whatever price they are fed by a big company without thinking about the realities of the areas in which they live. "What do you mean that you won't install my bathtub for the Amazon price just because I live up a 100' flight of beautiful artistic rock stairs and the house has the original lead plumbing in it."
But like so many other things, the service is tailored to densely packed cookie cutter regions and will be force fit to areas that are outside the norms.
What caught my eye in the fine summary was "One of Amazon's goals is to help standardize the price for various services, so there aren't any surprises when the bill comes due." We live on a rural ferry served island. It is considered a destination for tourists and rich retires alike. The result is that the cost of living is significantly higher than on the other end of the ferry. The ferry consumes several hours for a round trip and is $40-$50 depending on the season so even if you commute from the mainland it is still quite expensive. So is Amazon going to tell a service person who registers here that they must charge the same amount as somebody on the mainland?
I can understand trying to normalized rates at a macro level like a greater metropolitan area or a large region, say "southern California", but to break it down detailed enough to take care of micro regions is going to be pretty tough, or expensive.
My biggest fear of this technology is that people may be investigated for no reason other than that their car was seen in close proximity to where a crime was committed. Police and district attorneys have been found to fit the evidence to match an individual. This has lead to, at a minimum an extended "interview" at the police station, and at a maximum being put to death. Was your car parked at the entrance to an alley while you picked up a pizza at the same time somebody was raped in the alley? How much money do you have for an attorney?
I don't know about most, but I'm sure many do. I know I do. My normal vehicle is my work E250. Occasionally I drive my wife's Subaru and frequently notice that I'm driving 10 or 15mph over the limit. While the Subaru can certainly handle corners and stop a heck of a lot quicker than the van, it doesn't make up for the one constant, human reaction time. We live in a rural area with narrow roads and a lot of twists and blind driveway entrances. Being able to easily keep one's speed reasonable would be a handy feature.
After all, aren't we punishing them for supposedly killing in the first place? What makes the government morally right for taking an action that they condemn in others.
Interesting comment to post as an Anonymous Coward. If you feel that strongly you should be posting from a username which is your true legal first and last name and include your phone number as well. Oh, and to prove you really believe what you are saying, post a compromising nude photo of yourself as well. Umm, on second thought skip the photo.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, because it's much too difficult to actually put the link to the story in the fine summary. They've tried it for 15+ years and it's been obvious that the technique didn't work so we need to come up with something new. Something edgy, like making the link obscure.
Oh, for those that are reading challenged, the above was sarcasm.
My guess is that the problem lies in the fact that the OP is using a garbage TLD. I've configured our mail server to silently drop all traffic from many of the new garbage TLDs, including .xyz. It does wonders for cutting down the spam levels. Sadly it's just a new version of Whack-a-Mole. Neither I, nor any of my users, appear to have gotten a legitimate email from any other these domains. I'll bet if the OP were to use a more traditional TLD, like .com, .uk, etc. there wouldn't be problems.
I grew up in a small town with a lot of old money people and some Nouveau Riche. The old money people, almost invariably, were friendly comfortable real people. Yes they lived in large fancy houses overlooking the water, and yes they had expensive toys, but they were also welcoming and positive people. The new money people, again, almost invariably, were snobbish conceited and seemed otherwise ill at ease within society. They drove fancier cars too fast on our residential side streets, lived in the 70's version of McMansions, and flouted their wealth in the face of others. It seemed to me that they were trying to convince everybody around them, and perhaps themselves as well, that they had "arrived" and that they were "somebody".
I now live in small rural somewhat isolated community with mostly blue collar and a mix of old money and new money people. Forty years later I still observe similar differences between the old money and new money. The new money seems much more to have a sense of entitlement. They want things their way regardless of societal rules.
If you're going to make out of the ordinary purchases for overseas, or travel overseas, you always want to call your bank ahead of time. This is a standard operating procedure, and nothing to complain about on Slashdot.
Even that doesn't ensure that you don't have problems. We used to use HSBC. As we found out, their fraud detection algorithms are terrible. I returned from a trip to Mexico to be greeted by a flurry of voice mails from them telling me to call them and that my card had been shut off. I called them to straighten things out and was told that I should have called them before travelling to Mexico. I asked them where they would look to find this information and he responded that he would look at my customer account and in the comments section it would say..... Oh. I see you called us to tell us you'd be traveling in Mexico.
That wasn't the first major fubar on their part and a week later I cancelled the account.
No. They are intentionally not selling the _devices_ manufactured by their two biggest competitors. Big difference.
I think Amazon is acting like a spoiled three year old, but it doesn't strike me as antitrust. People can get Chromecast and Apple TV lots of other places. It's not like Amazon was the only outlet.
Sadly, this isn't always an option. For users who's only use of a computer is watching cat videos, doing email, etc., sure this option is a good one. But some of us have Windows forced down our throats due to applications we are required to run. I'm a marine electrician and virtually all of the diagnostic and configuration tools that various vendors provide require Windows. As a side line I do vinyl graphics work and the only reliable and realistic solutions run on Windows. I'll admit that I haven't tried Wine in a few years, but last time I tried it Wine still wouldn't run outlier applications and even some that it would run didn't run reliably. If you're futzing around on your desktop, or working on hobby use, that's fine. But if you are doing professional work in an industry with predominantly Windows only tools, and you are billing for your time, you need to be cost effective and reliable to be competitive. That means that you must have at least one machine, or VM instance, which runs Windows.
Unfortunately many users just click on the ok button, or whatever button they think will make the dialog box go away. They are more intent on consuming the content then on what is actually happening on their system. My wife is a perfect example; despite years of my trying to get her to ask about dialog boxes that pop up that she doesn't understand, she still just clicks ok and moves on. Sometimes she'll comment about why does this keep happening, but generally she just wants her Faceballs access to continue without interruption. Sadly, this is most likely the norm.
The subject kind of says it all. Around here we have pockets of LTE, larger areas of 3G, but the bulk of our geographic area has no service or just barely enough to send and receive an SMS message. I don't see where 5G means a thing to us here.
Cool. Thanks for the tip.
At roughly 10% of the population left handed people are a minority. Watch designs have historically been designed for right handed people. When watches were mechanical devices that made sense. It didn't make economical sense to manufacturer two different designs of watches and it would have been to complex, and therefore expensive, to provide a stem and/or buttons on both sides of the watch. But with purely digital watches most of those barriers go away. What is the cost per watch to provide an additional button? Or even more simply, what about a configuration option that changes the orientation of the display. In the case of the Moto 360 that would mean that the button would be at the 7 o'clock position if worn upside down by a leftie. The button would be easily pushed by the thumb instead of the forefinger, but at least your hand would be out of the way.
People, just think of the lefties.
Written, I sure, by somebody under 40. I'm 57. If the adverse affects may manifest themselves in 30-50 years then I would start being at risk at 87. Given my health, my genes, and medical science, barring any accident, I fully expect to live into my late 80's or even into my 90's. To blithely dismiss the risks to people in their 50's or 60's is pretty calloused. Perhaps you'll view your longevity differently once you're in your 50's.
But that wouldn't be a sensationalistic headline that would grab eyeballs and case people to click on the link to see the ads.
Oh for mod points. You sir would get a +1 funny.
You're thinking is along the lines of my desire to own the Heathkit robot when it first came out. I wanted one with the "arm" so I could program it to chase the cats around the house all the while yelling out "Danger Will Robinson. Danger!"
I was wondering the same thing. I don't know if I'd want the dreamscape images or more disturbing images. Both make me stop and think about the image.
Great idea, in theory. I used to use HSBC and got tired of telling them that I'd be traveling to a foreign country only to have them put a security hold on my account when I used my card in that country. One priceless conversation with a support droid went like this:
Me: Why is there a security hold on my account?
Droid: We noticed an attempt to use the card in Mexico.
Me: I called and notified the bank that I would be traveling in Mexico. Don't you record and track that information.
Droid: We certainly do. It would be right here in your customer.... Oh. I see it says you'll be traveling in Mexico.
Me: (heavy sigh)
Even the foreign country thing isn't a valid measure. HSBC put a security hold on my account because we used the card in Canada. They told me that I should have notified them that I would be traveling in Canada. (This was before the Mexico incident.) When I pointed out that the city I was in was right next door to us, but they had no problem with me using my card in Seattle which is quite a ways away, their response was that I was in a foreign country.
Needless to say we no longer use HSBC. HSBC was also the bank that put our account on hold for suspicious activity because we'd used it to buy something on the internet.
So the issue isn't whether the bank knows where you are, it's whether they can effectively utilize the information for the stated purpose. Some may be able to do so, but I'm willing to bet that for others the request comes from the marketing department instead of the fraud department.
My guess is that this is intended for people who have no idea what preferences are, where to set them, or what they do. I don't think the average Slashdot user is the intended audience.
Without knowing how the questions were phrased, the survey is pretty much meaningless. For example:
1) The pilot's association believes that drones present a real and tangible threat to air safety. Do you think they should be permitted to fly in areas where airplanes may be flying?
2) Do you believe that drones which have been proven to be safe should be allowed to be flown by trained individuals in urban areas?
Those two questions essentially ask the same question but will illicit opposite answers from most survey takers.
Yes, but his was the first first post, which for first posts was a first.
1) Exact string matching. As an example, if I search for " 'x.25' " don't give me hits for something with dimensions of 45mm x 25mm.
2) Allow more complex search constructs . For example I'd like to be able to specify the search term " 'x.25' near protocol -handbook ". You can sort of do that with Google's Advanced Search, but it's extra steps and you still don't get terms like 'near' or exact match.
3) Bonus points for boolean constructs such as " (lions or tigers or bears) near woods ".
In short, provide a robust search engine that will support meaningful search terms that can be used for more than shopping for a new TV or figuring out who stars in your favorite reality tv show.
Not really my point.
My point is that if a large company establishes "standard" pricing there will be areas where it works well, and areas where it doesn't. The big problem, which I guess I didn't touch on, is that the sheeple will just spout whatever price they are fed by a big company without thinking about the realities of the areas in which they live. "What do you mean that you won't install my bathtub for the Amazon price just because I live up a 100' flight of beautiful artistic rock stairs and the house has the original lead plumbing in it."
But like so many other things, the service is tailored to densely packed cookie cutter regions and will be force fit to areas that are outside the norms.
What caught my eye in the fine summary was "One of Amazon's goals is to help standardize the price for various services, so there aren't any surprises when the bill comes due." We live on a rural ferry served island. It is considered a destination for tourists and rich retires alike. The result is that the cost of living is significantly higher than on the other end of the ferry. The ferry consumes several hours for a round trip and is $40-$50 depending on the season so even if you commute from the mainland it is still quite expensive. So is Amazon going to tell a service person who registers here that they must charge the same amount as somebody on the mainland?
I can understand trying to normalized rates at a macro level like a greater metropolitan area or a large region, say "southern California", but to break it down detailed enough to take care of micro regions is going to be pretty tough, or expensive.
My biggest fear of this technology is that people may be investigated for no reason other than that their car was seen in close proximity to where a crime was committed. Police and district attorneys have been found to fit the evidence to match an individual. This has lead to, at a minimum an extended "interview" at the police station, and at a maximum being put to death. Was your car parked at the entrance to an alley while you picked up a pizza at the same time somebody was raped in the alley? How much money do you have for an attorney?
I don't know about most, but I'm sure many do. I know I do. My normal vehicle is my work E250. Occasionally I drive my wife's Subaru and frequently notice that I'm driving 10 or 15mph over the limit. While the Subaru can certainly handle corners and stop a heck of a lot quicker than the van, it doesn't make up for the one constant, human reaction time. We live in a rural area with narrow roads and a lot of twists and blind driveway entrances. Being able to easily keep one's speed reasonable would be a handy feature.
but how about if we don't kill people?
After all, aren't we punishing them for supposedly killing in the first place? What makes the government morally right for taking an action that they condemn in others.
Interesting comment to post as an Anonymous Coward. If you feel that strongly you should be posting from a username which is your true legal first and last name and include your phone number as well. Oh, and to prove you really believe what you are saying, post a compromising nude photo of yourself as well. Umm, on second thought skip the photo.
Yeah, yeah, I know, don't feed the trolls.