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User: The+Cisco+Kid

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  1. Sure, very significant on 25 Years Today - Windows 3.0 · · Score: 0

    That, coupled with 3.1's release, were what initially drove me away from MS (DOS) and to embrace linux instead.

    And 30 years later, I still have little use for anything from MS. I can use it when forced (library kiosk, etc) but its like playing with a toy tractor when you are used to driving the real thing.

  2. Re:Talk about creating a demand on Why Our Antiquated Power Grid Needs Battery Storage · · Score: 1

    I suspect we probably have sufficient resources to build a sufficient number of solar panels to nearly cover the entire globe. If/when we get that far, we really don't need to build anymore.

    I'm not an expert, but I've got a gut feeling that solar panels don't really "wear out" at least not as a result of generating electricity.

    At the very least, I think if we manage to get enough of them and harness them efficiently enough, solar power could provide more power, and for a longer period of time, than gas and oil have/can, combined.

    But it can only happen if it makes economic sense. Very few people are going to lie down big bucks, only to then PAY even more for electricity. If I spent thousands of dollars on solar panels and a storage (batteries, etc) system, I'd damn well expect my recurring power bill to plummet if not disappear entirely.

  3. Re:Talk about creating a demand on Why Our Antiquated Power Grid Needs Battery Storage · · Score: 0

    If it costs more, most people aren't going to buy it, or even be able to buy it.

    If you can't make the net cost less, it will fail.

    Even if initial cost is more, if it can be financed, and it reduces costs over a decade by a majority of what it costs to repay the loan, that would be good.

    But huge upfront cost, only to then mean paying MORE for electric, will go over like a lead balloon.

    Give me a motorhome-sized nuclear reactor a block or neighborhood can all pitch in on and buy for 25K ($1000 each across 25 homes, or $500 each across 50), that will then provide electric power for everyone at NO additional cost for two decades. The technology exists.

  4. Re:Talk about creating a demand on Why Our Antiquated Power Grid Needs Battery Storage · · Score: 3, Insightful

    To be fair, solar is pretty much effectively infinite.

    When it runs out, we're gonna be dead anyway, unless we've managed to colonize other planets by then.

  5. "Need more info" on Audi Creates "Fuel of the Future" Using Just Carbon Dioxide and Water · · Score: 1

    And how much energy does it take to create this fuel? How much does it cost?

    Would a tank full of it allow the car to travel a comparable distance and speed as a similar-sized tank full of gasoline or diesel fuel?

    Unless it is or can be economically comparable to CURRENT costs, its useless.

  6. Re:Interstate Water Sharing system on William Shatner Proposes $30 Billion Water Pipeline To California · · Score: 1

    "other people's water"

    Really? You claim ownership of *rain*?

  7. Re:A great way to transport it... on William Shatner Proposes $30 Billion Water Pipeline To California · · Score: 1

    I suspect that the recurring/operating costs of a pipeline, once built will be FAR less than the recurring/operating costs of a desal plant.

  8. Seriously. on Nokia Networks Demonstrates 5G Mobile Speeds Running At 10Gbps Via 73GHz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    faster cellular networks aren't all that interesting. It will take forever for them to be deployed, and

    Now give me an 802.11ZZZ or something that can do just 20Mb/s or so at 10 miles NLOS with non-directional antennas, and you've got something useful.

  9. this has any appreciable range, and instead of reserving the band for cellular towers, they put this stuff in consumer available gear, we can all interconnect wirelessly and tell comcast, verizon, et-al to go to hell.

  10. The entire article could have been replaced with on Has Google Indexed Your Backup Drive? · · Score: 2

    a one liner: "If you've made your private files available publically (either intentionally or through ignorance) then your private files are available publically."

    Removing them from google results is far less important than making the files themselves no longer available.

    Looking on google to see if they are available is sort of silly - if you're using one of these silly commercial "automatic backup" packages that came bundled with an external drive, read its manual and documentation, and review its configuration, as well as that of your router.

  11. Re:still ? on Did Natural Selection Make the Dutch the Tallest People On the Planet? · · Score: 1

    Exactly. I was going to post noting that I hadn't seen any credible claim from anyone qualified to speak on the issue, that humans were NOT still subject to selection...

  12. Re:NYC != Alaska on Russian Official Proposes Road That Could Connect London To NYC · · Score: 1

    London to "avtodoroga Kolyma, Magadanskaya oblast', Russia" (which is the furthest East I could get google to give me driving directions to from London) is just shy of 8000 miles.

    Fairbanks AK, (furthest West google would recognize) to NYC is just over 4000 miles.

    I was able to estimate the distance between Fairbanks and that Russian location at 2000 miles.

    So, 8000+4000+2000 = 14,000 miles.

  13. Somethings not right on Google Chrome Requires TSYNC Support Under Linux · · Score: 1

    I'm on Debian 7 Wheezy, running Google Chrome 40.something

    Is that supposed to not work?

  14. Re:Yes. What do you lose? But talk to lawyer first on Ask Slashdot: Should I Let My Kids Become American Citizens? · · Score: 1

    Uhm.. Only if they specifically identify themselves as such.

    And since they would be dual-citizenship, if some terrorist demands their passport, they could provide their other passport and be Belgian or Swedish, etc.

  15. The fact that ONE fiber cable cut on Vandalism In Arizona Shuts Down Internet and Phone Service · · Score: 1

    would completely cut off an entire region as large as that, shows that whoever is in charge of engineering this stuff simply doesn't understand how the Internet is supposed to work, and has no motivation to ensure it keeps working.

    Any pipe carrying traffic for that large an area, should have had multiple alternate/redundant paths - miles away, in different pipes, connecting via different peering points. The Internet is not meant to be a hierarchy or a pyramid - its supposed to be a spiderweb.

  16. Well, there's a good reason to skip the S6 then on Report: Samsung Replacing Its Apps With Microsoft's For Galaxy S6 · · Score: 1

    .. unless it comes fully rom-unlocked and you can trivially replace the factor MS crap with a AOSP load or something.

    I wonder how much MS had to offer to PAY samsung to do this. (I'm sure they've agreed to strict confidentiality on that)

  17. As far as a button on Ask Slashdot: Panic Button a Very Young Child Can Use · · Score: 1

    I'd get a raspberry pi, and write some code to use one of its GPIO pins as an input. (which would then send your chat/text/email message, etc)

      Then you can connect whatever kind of button or switch to it that you find most appropriate for your toddler to puch.

  18. Re:Automatic Activation on Ask Slashdot: Panic Button a Very Young Child Can Use · · Score: 1

    It sounds like the OP here *already* has video monitoring set up, he's just looking for some way to getting an alert that he should look at it.

  19. A better option you might not have considered on Ask Slashdot: Panic Button a Very Young Child Can Use · · Score: 1

    Perhaps your wife could wear some sort of device (bracelet, etc) that itself would be capable of detecting that she was having a seizure, that could be setup to trigger whatever notifications were desired. Here are a few things I found alone these lines:

    http://www.epdetect.com/
    http://www.healthline.com/heal...
    http://www.gizmag.com/embrace-...

  20. Re:bank I use ... allows (weak passwords) on Why Gmail Has Better Security Than Your Bank · · Score: 1

    I have a somewhat related issue.

    Google has my cell number anyway (they forward google voice calls to it), but they INSIST that the initial verification to setup 2factor be by SMS/text, which I have blocked on the cell itself. Maybe that is to verify its a cell, and not a landline.

  21. Re:bank I use ... allows (weak passwords) on Why Gmail Has Better Security Than Your Bank · · Score: 1

    And aside from my other reply, what if you don't HAVE a cellphone?

    There is a disturbing trend toward providing a cellphone number being a requirement to obtain various kinds of goods or services, especially in various online forms, without any allowance for an individual to specify that they do not own a cellphone (or perhaps any phone) and therefore do not have a number to provide. The form designers seem ignorant of the fact that sometimes the 100% accurate and valid answer to "What is your cell phone number?" is "I do not have one" and design the forms to be incapable of accepting and processing that answer.

    Even in cases where someone DOES have a phone, sometimes the 100% accurate and valid answer to "what is your number?" is "none of your damn business, its private, you don't need to call me and even if you think you do I don't authorize or enable you to do so".

  22. Re:bank I use ... allows (weak passwords) on Why Gmail Has Better Security Than Your Bank · · Score: 1

    Yeah? And what if the reason you lost both your phone and computer is because they were in your house which burned down, as did your printed out pre-generated codes?

    How do you log back in after that?

  23. Re:bank I use ... allows (weak passwords) on Why Gmail Has Better Security Than Your Bank · · Score: 2

    Can't work for me.

    I have a celI rarely use text, so paying $15 for a chunk of texts I'll never use is stupid.
    I'd allow pay-per-text, but only if I only had to pay to SEND - I refuse to pay per-message for someone ELSE (perhaps spammers) sending to me.
    As a result, I have texts/SMS through my cell carrier BLOCKED.
    Instead, I use google voice for the one or two people I *occasionally* have to send or receive a text from.

    Heck, I don't even use my direct cell number for calls - I consider the number disposable, and use the google voice number instead. If I have to switch cell carriers, no mess giving people a new number - only one or two direct family members, for use in the very rare instance where there was an emergency AND google voice was down.

    So this is completely useless to me - trying to use the GV number for the 2-factor would be problematic since I have to have access to my google account to be able to see those text anyway.

    Something which helps protect against someone else accessing my account is great, but it absolutely has to first have an absolutely failsafe way of ensuring that *I* never lose access to it. Printed-out codes can be lost, as can cellphones and dongles.

    Right now my solution is to have a very good password which I absolutely remember. I suppose if I were to ever lose my memory that could be an issue too.

    I don't know what the solution is. Clearly neither does google or anyone else.

  24. Re:Too bad google's own search doesn't turn up any on Google Adds USB Security Keys To 2-Factor Authentication Options · · Score: 1

    Oddly, while it still does not find any security keys, that same search now gives me two results - one for a pet door, and another for a pet carrier. I doubt either of those is compatible with google's authentication system.

    If something is ONLY available through amazon, its not available.

  25. Re:Too bad google's own search doesn't turn up any on Google Adds USB Security Keys To 2-Factor Authentication Options · · Score: 1

    Your search left off the necessary -"amazon.com".

    Amazon's order process is broken in a manner which precludes me from ordering anything from them.