Dell has a long and well documented history of poor quality products and even worse customer service. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that they used the cheapest, shittiest speakers possible, and, due to their shit quality, cannot handle the power output of the laptop's amplifier when driven at high volume.
Also, the article mentions setting VLC's volume to 200%. This was changed some time ago (version 2.0 I think) and VLC only goes up to a maximum of 125% now.
The business of Admirals is to kill people and destroy their property. An Admiral won't mind smaller violence like breaking constitutional law, lying to the public, and spending taxpayer dollars on projects to make money for a few.
Which is exactly why they need to stop putting military people in these positions.
Yes civilians can do that stuff too, but at least there's a chance, however small, that things might change. Putting another Admiral or General in charge guarantees that nothing will change.
The OpenStreetMap people are trying to fix problems that don't actually exist.
"Who decides what gets displayed on a Google Map? The answer is, of course, that Google does. I heard this concern in a meeting with a local government in 2009: they were concerned about using Google Maps on their website because Google makes choices about which businesses to display.
So what? When I search an address, Google shows me where it is. By looking at the map i can see that I need to take street A to Street B and turn left on street C. I don't need a big label that says "LOLS HEREZ TEH PLACE UR LOOKING FOR".
"It seems inevitable that Google will monetise geographic searches, with either premium results, or priority ordering, if it hasn't done so already (is it a coincidence than when I search for "breakfast" near my home, the first result is "SUBWAY® Restaurants"?)."
If you're too stupid to look past the first search result, that's your problem.
Who defines where a neighbourhood is, or whether or not you should go? This issue was brought up by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) when a map provider was providing routing (driving/biking/walking instructions) and used what it determined to be "safe" or "dangerous" neighbourhoods as part of its algorithm. This raises the question of who determines what makes a neighbourhood "safe" or not – or whether safe is merely a codeword for something more sinister.
Yes, because god forbid we should actually tell the truth about something and admit that certain areas have much higher crime rates than others. If you don't like an area being designated as "unsafe" feel free to ignore it and go about your business. What happens after that is your problem, not mine.
OpenStreetMap is OK but is really just a pale imitation of Googol maps. In their attempt to justify OpenStreetMap they completely miss the point:
First they say:
in the 1800s clocks existed, but every town had its own time, "local time"
But then try to justify the need for OpenStreetMap by saying:
In terms of display (rendering), each person or company who creates a map is free to render it how they like
So now you're back to the same problem. But instead of clocks being different from one town to another, it's maps.
The other problem is:
OpenStreetMap is a wiki-like map that anyone in the world can edit. If a store is missing from the map, it can be added in by a store owner or even a customer.
In other words, if OppenStreetMap were to replace Googol maps in popularity, we can look forward to Wikipedia-like edit and delete wars.
The last four digits of your credit card are printed on pretty much every receipt, shown on every order confirmation page, every "My account saved credit cards" screen, and are usually shown in addition to an expiration date. That's information that's never been considered confidential - quite the opposite indeed. It's pretty much public information.
True, but irrelevant. Think about that for a minute -- you call PayPal and tell them:
"I have forgotten the last 4 digits of my credit card number, can you give them to me".
In what bizzaro parallel universe does that even make sense? There is no amount of "social engineering" that can explain why you need someone to tell you the last 4 digits of YOUR credit card.
PayPal needs to be reamed for such a major fuck up.
In the early 80s a friend of mine was really into Dungeons and Dragons. He was constantly trying to get me to play and I tried a few times but I found it to be boring and pointless.
What annoys me most about/. is the poor quality of many of the submissions that make it through, despite (or because of) the fact that it's curated. Sure, there's the almost mandatory trope of closing a summary with a rhetorical question. But often the whole summary, or even the news story, is crap -- FUD, nonsense, or obviously loaded rhetoric that wouldn't even make it over the radar on reddit.
But . . . but . . . . but . . . . but . . . . Cmdr Taco says "Slashdot combines editor quality control and insight"
Windows 98 -- Worked windows ME --Sucked Windows XP -- Decent Windows Vista -- Sucked Windows 7 -- Functional Again Windows 8 -- Sucks Again
It seems to take them one generation to flush the problems out of each new release so windows 8 is basically "windows 9 beta"
Unfortunately, Microsoft has broken the pattern. You can go from XP to Vista to Windows 7 and each one is only a slight change from the previous version. Windows 8 however, is a horrendous piece of shit that changed things that didn't need to be changed, fixed things that didn't need to be fixed and broke anything that wasn't already broken.
Relabeling Windows 7 as Windows 9 would be the best ting they could do.
This is something I've wondered about for a long time. All software has bugs. It's impossible to write non-trivial software that is absolutely 100% perfect. And that would include compilers. Especially compilers because they are very complex programs. I wonder how many crashes/bugs in software are actually the result of bugs in the compiler?
Unfortunately, we have become so mired in politically correct bullshit that it's now almost a crime to actually tell the truth about anything. A lack of women or minorities in a particular field is not a "problem" which needs to be fixed.
Fact: People who want to study CS will enroll in CS classes. People, regardless of race or gender, who have no interest in CS, will not enroll in CS classes or take CS tests.
In the 80s I read an article which claimed that cancer researchers were being overly conservative and rejecting many ideas because there was too much money to be made from private/government grants for cancer research. At the time I dismissed it as conspiracy theory. But 25 years later it appears that they may have been right.
As someone who has had cancer, I have learned a lot. Most importantly, all the various cancer charities are complete frauds. Despite taking in untold Billions of dollars, the number of people dying from cancer has increased, not decreased over the last 20 years. And nobody has ever had their cancer cured because someone wore a pink ribbon or yellow wristband or walked 10 kilometers.
If you are lucky, like I was, and the entire tumor can be removed surgically before it has a chance to metastasise, you'll be OK. But if the tumor is in an area where surgery is impossible, or if the cancer metastasises, in most cases you are fucked. And all the pink ribbons, yellow wristbands and 10k walks in the world won't save you.
But will it be cheaper or more expensive than using a credit card?
Accepting Bitcoins is surprisingly expensive. There's a volatility risk, and for a currency that can change by 10% in minutes, that's a real problem. Coinbase (which is a dealer, rather than an exchange) has a posted buying price, good for one minute, and some shopping cart systems use that. But that price is usually lower than the prices on the major exchanges; there's a conversion cost. So, as with retail money-changers, you pay a conversion fee. Also, like most money-changers, Coinbase will briefly stop buying during periods of high volatility or if they have trouble unloading their Bitcoins.
And there's the problem. Bitcoins aren't real money. Before you can spend them you have to convert them into something (dollars, euros, whatever). Meanwhile, the paper in my wallet doesn't need any conversion.
I think a healthy monetary system . . . . is based on something that they can't control
As fashionable as it is to be anti-government or anti-establishment, or Let's Stick It to "The Man", a monetary system not under government control is not the answer and Mr. Byrne is full of Libertarian bullshit. The recent article "Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire" says it perfectly. Our current monetary system sucks, but replacing it with Bitcoin would be even worse.
Yesterday I went to a store and bought some items. Today I went back to that store and everything was still the same price, and the dollars in my wallet were still worth exactly the same as they were yesterday, and the day before, and the week before and the month before. An unstable currency that changes value from one minute to the next is an unworkable mess.
And cherry picks the best units to send out to reviewers. Can't seem to care too hard. Unless this wasn't an industry standard way of doing things... But it is. Not just in computer related things either. The stuff sent to be reviewed is always the absolute best and pre-tested before the reviewers get it.
Video card manufacturers have been cheating for more than 20 years. Sending hardware and drivers to reviewers that has been tweaked and optimized far beyond what is available at retail.
A truly free social network would have no ads, no profit motive, no logs, no intrusion; just a way for people to share as much or as little with only those they wish to share with.
Is there really no true libre social network, and if not, why not?
Money.
Facebook and Google don't do the things they do simply because they are evil. They do it because that;s how they get the money to pay for those giant buildings full of servers that they run, which provide the services you use.
Maybe in the 24th century when The Federation is building starships, colonizing the galaxy and zooming around the universe, all without any apparent need for money, they can also build your "no ads, no profit motive" social network.
Slashdot Mirror
Dell has a long and well documented history of poor quality products and even worse customer service. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that they used the cheapest, shittiest speakers possible, and, due to their shit quality, cannot handle the power output of the laptop's amplifier when driven at high volume.
Also, the article mentions setting VLC's volume to 200%. This was changed some time ago (version 2.0 I think) and VLC only goes up to a maximum of 125% now.
I made the mistake of trying the Slashdot Beta. What horrid shit.
Seriously. What kind of retarded fuckwad thinks that it is a good design.
If you need physical access then it's not a hack and doesn't show lack of security.
The business of Admirals is to kill people and destroy their property. An Admiral won't mind smaller violence like breaking constitutional law, lying to the public, and spending taxpayer dollars on projects to make money for a few.
Which is exactly why they need to stop putting military people in these positions.
Yes civilians can do that stuff too, but at least there's a chance, however small, that things might change. Putting another Admiral or General in charge guarantees that nothing will change.
The OpenStreetMap people are trying to fix problems that don't actually exist.
So what? When I search an address, Google shows me where it is. By looking at the map i can see that I need to take street A to Street B and turn left on street C. I don't need a big label that says "LOLS HEREZ TEH PLACE UR LOOKING FOR".
If you're too stupid to look past the first search result, that's your problem.
Yes, because god forbid we should actually tell the truth about something and admit that certain areas have much higher crime rates than others. If you don't like an area being designated as "unsafe" feel free to ignore it and go about your business. What happens after that is your problem, not mine.
OpenStreetMap is OK but is really just a pale imitation of Googol maps. In their attempt to justify OpenStreetMap they completely miss the point:
First they say:
in the 1800s clocks existed, but every town had its own time, "local time"
But then try to justify the need for OpenStreetMap by saying:
In terms of display (rendering), each person or company who creates a map is free to render it how they like
So now you're back to the same problem. But instead of clocks being different from one town to another, it's maps.
The other problem is:
OpenStreetMap is a wiki-like map that anyone in the world can edit. If a store is missing from the map, it can be added in by a store owner or even a customer.
In other words, if OppenStreetMap were to replace Googol maps in popularity, we can look forward to Wikipedia-like edit and delete wars.
Why Paypal?
The last four digits of your credit card are printed on pretty much every receipt, shown on every order confirmation page, every "My account saved credit cards" screen, and are usually shown in addition to an expiration date. That's information that's never been considered confidential - quite the opposite indeed. It's pretty much public information.
True, but irrelevant. Think about that for a minute -- you call PayPal and tell them:
"I have forgotten the last 4 digits of my credit card number, can you give them to me".
In what bizzaro parallel universe does that even make sense? There is no amount of "social engineering" that can explain why you need someone to tell you the last 4 digits of YOUR credit card.
PayPal needs to be reamed for such a major fuck up.
In the early 80s a friend of mine was really into Dungeons and Dragons. He was constantly trying to get me to play and I tried a few times but I found it to be boring and pointless.
But . . . but . . . . but . . . . but . . . . Cmdr Taco says "Slashdot combines editor quality control and insight"
It must be true!!!
I wonder how many times he gagged and choked while writing that line?
Do you have an argument that either (a) ShapeShifter is not an important topic, or (b) that the analysis in the post is incorrect?
Yes
(a) ShapeShifter is digital snake oil
(b) Yes. as has already been proven by his writing in the past.
Fixed that for you
You joke but that's pretty much how it is:
Windows 98 -- Worked
windows ME --Sucked
Windows XP -- Decent
Windows Vista -- Sucked
Windows 7 -- Functional Again
Windows 8 -- Sucks Again
It seems to take them one generation to flush the problems out of each new release so windows 8 is basically "windows 9 beta"
Unfortunately, Microsoft has broken the pattern. You can go from XP to Vista to Windows 7 and each one is only a slight change from the previous version. Windows 8 however, is a horrendous piece of shit that changed things that didn't need to be changed, fixed things that didn't need to be fixed and broke anything that wasn't already broken.
Relabeling Windows 7 as Windows 9 would be the best ting they could do.
This is something I've wondered about for a long time. All software has bugs. It's impossible to write non-trivial software that is absolutely 100% perfect. And that would include compilers. Especially compilers because they are very complex programs. I wonder how many crashes/bugs in software are actually the result of bugs in the compiler?
Unfortunately, we have become so mired in politically correct bullshit that it's now almost a crime to actually tell the truth about anything. A lack of women or minorities in a particular field is not a "problem" which needs to be fixed.
Fact: People who want to study CS will enroll in CS classes. People, regardless of race or gender, who have no interest in CS, will not enroll in CS classes or take CS tests.
This wasn't a ruling.
It has the same effect. By refusing to hear the case, the Supreme Court has essentially agreed with the Appeals Court ruling.
I think monkeys just flew out of my ass.
However there is no universe where Java isn't a piece of crap.
In the 80s I read an article which claimed that cancer researchers were being overly conservative and rejecting many ideas because there was too much money to be made from private/government grants for cancer research. At the time I dismissed it as conspiracy theory. But 25 years later it appears that they may have been right.
As someone who has had cancer, I have learned a lot. Most importantly, all the various cancer charities are complete frauds. Despite taking in untold Billions of dollars, the number of people dying from cancer has increased, not decreased over the last 20 years. And nobody has ever had their cancer cured because someone wore a pink ribbon or yellow wristband or walked 10 kilometers.
If you are lucky, like I was, and the entire tumor can be removed surgically before it has a chance to metastasise, you'll be OK. But if the tumor is in an area where surgery is impossible, or if the cancer metastasises, in most cases you are fucked. And all the pink ribbons, yellow wristbands and 10k walks in the world won't save you.
When Google bought Youtube they converted all the videos to h.264 and made that the standard. Now all of a sudden h.264 is evil.
the $100 a month internet bill to go with it
You obviously don't live in the U.S. where decent speed costs a lot more than that.
Catching Wind
LOL
But will it be cheaper or more expensive than using a credit card?
Accepting Bitcoins is surprisingly expensive. There's a volatility risk, and for a currency that can change by 10% in minutes, that's a real problem. Coinbase (which is a dealer, rather than an exchange) has a posted buying price, good for one minute, and some shopping cart systems use that. But that price is usually lower than the prices on the major exchanges; there's a conversion cost. So, as with retail money-changers, you pay a conversion fee. Also, like most money-changers, Coinbase will briefly stop buying during periods of high volatility or if they have trouble unloading their Bitcoins.
And there's the problem. Bitcoins aren't real money. Before you can spend them you have to convert them into something (dollars, euros, whatever). Meanwhile, the paper in my wallet doesn't need any conversion.
.
I think a healthy monetary system . . . . is based on something that they can't control
As fashionable as it is to be anti-government or anti-establishment, or Let's Stick It to "The Man", a monetary system not under government control is not the answer and Mr. Byrne is full of Libertarian bullshit. The recent article "Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire" says it perfectly. Our current monetary system sucks, but replacing it with Bitcoin would be even worse.
Yesterday I went to a store and bought some items. Today I went back to that store and everything was still the same price, and the dollars in my wallet were still worth exactly the same as they were yesterday, and the day before, and the week before and the month before. An unstable currency that changes value from one minute to the next is an unworkable mess.
And cherry picks the best units to send out to reviewers.
Can't seem to care too hard. Unless this wasn't an industry standard way of doing things... But it is.
Not just in computer related things either. The stuff sent to be reviewed is always the absolute best and pre-tested before the reviewers get it.
Video card manufacturers have been cheating for more than 20 years. Sending hardware and drivers to reviewers that has been tweaked and optimized far beyond what is available at retail.
A truly free social network would have no ads, no profit motive, no logs, no intrusion; just a way for people to share as much or as little with only those they wish to share with.
Is there really no true libre social network, and if not, why not?
Money.
Facebook and Google don't do the things they do simply because they are evil. They do it because that;s how they get the money to pay for those giant buildings full of servers that they run, which provide the services you use.
Maybe in the 24th century when The Federation is building starships, colonizing the galaxy and zooming around the universe, all without any apparent need for money, they can also build your "no ads, no profit motive" social network.