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User: Jamlad

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Comments · 47

  1. Were you born in a barn? on Small Leak Discovered on Russian Side of International Space Station, NASA Says (go.com) · · Score: 1

    C'mon guys! Who left the door open? Were you born in a barn? You're letting all the heat^H^H^H^Hoxygen out!

  2. This won't end badly on VC Market Is on Pace for Strongest Year Since Dot-Com Era (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    So we've an international trade war heating up on multiple fronts *and* another dot-com boom 2.0 on the horizon. Wonderful. We are hitting that ~10yr mark again, so it's starting to look about time. Again.

  3. From what I read skimming through the paper they used software to analyze software.

    I'd initially hoped they'd done it on the hardware level; monitoring the mic voltage and tapped the ADC channels.

    I'm not surprised that shitty app devs are monetizing their users' data for a few extra cents. My particular concern is alphabet soup agencies and a creeping Staasi state doing it on some sort of fundamental level that bypasses permissions (and morality). Yes, I like my windows to have curtains, my mail to have envelopes, and my conversations to be private.

  4. None on Slashdot Asks: Which Smart Speaker Do You Prefer? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why the hell would I want something so Orwellian in my home? Cellphones are bad enough.

  5. It's probably more a testament to the creaking educational system that most people don't know the difference between electromagnetic radiation from a lightbulb and nuclear byproducts from fission.

    My electromagnetism professor did a safety study for the PTA of the local elementary school of where the operator should put their new mast. The PTA didn't appreciate that the optimum location was on top of the school since the worst place to receive a signal is on the axis of oscillation of a dipole emitter.

    I do wonder how the intensity of blackbody radiation of a 100W lightbulb in the microwave compares to cellphone throughput.

  6. Now try having visual acuity problems on Apple Has Ruined Its Podcasts App (slate.com) · · Score: 2
    The current horrible trends in UI/UX design are exacerbated by the fact that these designers are invariably young with good eyesight. They should be forced to use their own interface with a blurred color filter cos heaven forbid any of their endusers be colorblind or old.

    I'll admit this had never even occurred to me until my grandmother started developing glaucoma and other visual issues. She's legally blind now, but perhaps clearer UIs would have enabled her to learn podcasts/audiobooks while she still had some decent sight.

  7. Re:I bet she wasn't on Laika, the Pioneering Space Dog, Was Launched 60 Years Ago Today (space.com) · · Score: 1

    Oh don't be a pedantic ass. You know what he meant.

  8. Poor Laika on Laika, the Pioneering Space Dog, Was Launched 60 Years Ago Today (space.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The goodest of dogs.

  9. customers often resist the technologies on Why Are We Still Using Passwords? (securityledger.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful
    because as everyone with half a brain realizes that biometrics are a fucktarded method of authentication. A keyword gets exposed, fine. Change it. Your fingerprint gets exposed? How are you going to revise that?

    The best method of authentication, as far I I've experienced, is a physical token (keycard). Worst case scenario, I don't notice it's missing after two days (Friday evening till Monday morning). Chances are I've dropped in a city centre rather than haven it exploited by an unknown agency. Even still, they;ve only got the physical credentials of a low-tier employee. On-site physical access is still required.

  10. UX engineers should be shot on What Comes After User-Friendly Design? (fastcodesign.com) · · Score: 2

    Maybe I'm getting old but I'm finding more and more "modern" UXs simply confusing and frustrating. I tried to book a plane ticket last week and found the entire experience undermining. Heaven help my grandmother try the same process.
    Modern UX "designers" seem to have confused shiny with usable.

  11. Free as in beer on The Oculus Rift Still Isn't Selling, In a Worrying Sign For VR (technologyreview.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They could offer it to me for free and I still wouldn't take it because of the FB affiliation.

    I'm waiting out for my hardware to catch up and the Vive II.

  12. There seems to be a relative good correlation but I have to wonder how many women under 30 go seeking IVF. And how many of those women have husbands >10 years old than them?

    Furthermore, given the assumption that most people have in that male age plays little role in fertility, why would their doctor then recommend IVF unless they already had some pre-existing fertility-related medical condition?

  13. Don't UPSes also act as surge protectors? on British Airways Says IT Collapse Came After Servers Damaged By Power Problem (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    How big a current spike was this? Don't UPSes act as surge protectors and filters too?

  14. I had a Sony-Ericsson W800i back in the day. When on IRC men were men, women were men, etc. 3G, SD card, the whole nine yards.

    The thing never worked properly. It ate flash memory like crackers. Crashed while receiving phone-calls. I haven't trusted Sony since. Do they actually make good, trustworthy devices?

  15. Training mathematicians then? on University Offers Course To Help Sniff Out and Refute 'Bullshit' (engadget.com) · · Score: 1

    So they're going to do a grounding in statistics and graphing then? I've seen both regularly used to deceive the public.

  16. Is this really a wonderful win-win thing?

    Won't the panels have to be continuously replaced every (other?) decade as they degrade? Aren't we just shifting the pollution from coal to the panel production plants and rare-earth mining? What do we do with all these panels at their end-of-life? I presume there is some inclusion of heavy and rare-earth elements in the panels. Where does that go?

    Don't get me wrong, I applaud the greater efficiencies at which we run our world, but how much of this is virtue and virtue signaling?

  17. There are still Win7 compatable power laptops? on Microsoft Stops Selling Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 To Computer Makers (venturebeat.com) · · Score: 1

    After the Apple MBP hardware debacle I'm seriously considering switching back to my Win7 license, but I'd just assumed all the power (16gb, GTX) laptops were Win10 by now. Any recommendations?

  18. Re:No (well, almost) Glare on newer MacBook Pro on New MacBook Pros Max Out At 16GB RAM Due To Battery Life Concerns (macrumors.com) · · Score: 1

    In the same way the market has already responded to the iPhone 7's lack of 3.5mm jack by producing cases with implanted jacks (Fuze) there are equivilent USB-C:magsafe adaptors available. I've seen a few people link the Griffin BreakSafe adaptor, which might be a valid replacement. I've not yet seen it in reality. Also still clinging on to my 17" 2011 MBP (8Gb, 256Gb SSD). Although I recently discovered the 17" form factor is too large for comfortable use on trains/planes, so I am considering shifting down to 15" and just using a monitor at home. However, I'm concerned with being shoeboxed into win8/10 with any new laptop (Apple or otherwise) as I'm quite fond of boot(camp)ing with win7.

  19. Re:Mirroring the population on Facebook Makes Little Progress in Race and Gender Diversity (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    Your ridiculously sexist off-the-cuff statistics are *surprise*, completely wrong. Women actually make up 47% of the workforce. If only you had bothered to do 2 seconds of googling before you made yourself look like an idiot.

    And if you adjust for hours worked per week? Women tend to work more part-time, men tend to take more overtime. How would this skew the normalized figures?

  20. Waste not want not on Researchers Find Game-Changing Helium Reserve In Tanzania (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    Then stop pissing it away by undercharging and wasting it on frivolous shit like balloons!

  21. Perhaps the Staasi^H^H^H^HDHS would also like a copy of my library card? You know, just in case. I might be accessing forbidden knowledge, and remember citizens, unregulated knowledge is pornography.

    Satire and hyperbole aside, they already have your CC details from the ESTA so they probably already have access your your Amazon purchasing history. Which in this day an age is almost the equivalent.

  22. ...deceptively tracked locations of hundreds of millions of people, including children.

    Is the implication I'm meant to take from this statement that it's okay if they deceptively track the location of hundreds of millions of people as long as it excludes children?

  23. Anecdote time.

    I spilt a glass of red wine on my 2011 17" Macbook Pro a few years ago. Annoyingly enough, it was the first, untouched glass. I was stone cold sober, but I digress. Luckily it had a silicon keyboard cover which caught most of it. Except for the one drop which ran down the LVDS cable and shorted across the cable pins on the board.

    It still booted, I could ssh in, there was just no video signal.

    I took it to the local "authorized" Apple repair dude. 'Nope. It's fucked. You need a new mobo. ~$1,000.' Fuck that.

    I chanced my arm and tried replacing the LVDS cable on the off-chance is was just a damaged cable. It wasn't. Using a little Google-fu I turned up a local "unauthorized" dude with a soldering iron. He quoted me $100 to take a look, and an estimate of $400 to try with no guarantee of success. He managed it with a few replaced transistors and diodes, and charged me $300 for the work with a three month warranty.

    Fuck Apple and their wasteful, profit maximizing behavior. If it weren't for the underpowered Radeon on this thing I'd easily keep it for another 5+ years.

  24. Re:Math doesn't work out on Former McDonald's USA CEO: $35K Robots Cheaper Than Hiring at $15 Per Hour (foxbusiness.com) · · Score: 1
    Is it disingenuous?

    I concur with your math, 35k/(365days*16hours*0.9duty) = $6.65/h, but it also leaves out other factors. You have to pay a guy to maintain those bots, you have the initial outlay, and replacement parts. Then you have the unquantifiable factors like public backlash, rollout issues, safety issues, legal issues, and any other unknowns with rolling out a new system.

    From a cost-benefit standpoint all these factors combined may make it only marginally profitable (and an unpalatable arse-ache) to replace workers at $8/h, but it may be a much different case at $15/h.

    You can hardly take a corporation to task for trying to make/maintain/protect profits.

  25. Re:I really liked Windows 7 on Microsoft No Longer Allows Admins To Block Windows Store Access In Windows 10 Pro (zdnet.com) · · Score: 1

    The only reason I'm dual-booting my Macbook Pro is gaming. I left Windows for day-to-day affairs five years ago and never looked back. I didn't find OS X particularly better or worse. Just different. Given the increasing gaming support, and hopefully a final push from Valve with SteamOS, and I may never use Microsoft products at home again.