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User: Anne+Thwacks

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  1. Re:Instead... on 'Mobilegeddon': Google To Punish Mobile-Hostile Sites Starting Today · · Score: 1
    A change might make sense, perhaps, but this one stinks to hell. I modified one of my sites and it was impossible to use. if you want to know what your site will look like just go to news.bbc.co.uk: Oversized text, and masses of white space. You can no longer instantly see the itneresting bit and zoom to it. You wade around in the mass of white space for a bit, then go elsewhere.

    As has been pointed out elsewhere, the whole point of HTML is that the server says what to display, and the browser says how to display it - on the user's device. It is up to the user to zoom in or out. VT52's have been scrapped for a very long time. Specifying font sizes in pixels in CSS is strait from http://www.thedailywtf.com/.

  2. Re:You no longer own a car on Automakers To Gearheads: Stop Repairing Cars · · Score: 1
    Do not suppose that main dealers are more competent. I took my dad's Ford to the main dealer for some fix or other (I think it was a recall, but it was osme time ago, and I cant be sure).

    When I came to reverse out of the garage, the steering was unable to turn left!

    Some idiot had lost an original high tension steel bolt, and replaced it with a mild steel one that sheared when I turned the steering.

    I prefer to do the job myself if I have the facilities. At the local independent mechanics, there is a good chance the owner will look at the job after his junior has done it.

    I think it is at least as safe for a driver to repair his own car as an idiot on minimum wages in a main dealer's. and there is no chance at all that a main dealer can fix a microprocessor related problem. Hell, there is probably no one in the place that can even spell microprocessor.

  3. Re:and yet Norway on Does Lack of FM Support On Phones Increase Your Chances of Dying In a Disaster? · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The UK was going to switch off analog FM too, but then they discovered that

    1) Most FM listeners are in cars

    2) hardly cars have DAB radios

    3) DAB radios hardly ever work in cars

    4) If they switched off FM, the car drivers would NOT by DAB replacements.

    The current plan is to leave FM radio switch of "till after the next election".

    I have listened to FM on my phone twice in two years. I listen in the car all the time. If FM is turned off, I would probably listen to the pirate stations on FM. I surely won't by a DAB radio. My mum has three DAB radios. It is mostly a matter of life style.

    As other posters have said "Follow the money".

  4. Re:Valve needs to use their clout on NVIDIA's New GPUs Are Very Open-Source Unfriendly · · Score: 0
    Nvidia's drivers do work 100% with Linux.

    No they don't. Not even near to 5%. I have thrown all my Nvidia kit away. It DOES NOT work with Linux in any useful way.

    "Nouveau" does not boot to a sane state, and even the command line functionality is worse than a Lear-Sieger ADM3A dumb terminal on a bad day. As for their propriety drivers - they work sometimes, if the wind is blowing the right way, and you are prepared to forgo security updates.

    I would not touch Nvidia products with a barge pole.

    Disclaimer: The last game I played a game on a PC it was "Colossal Cave". My idea of fun with a PC is trying to win real money by writing PHP that works, not paying money to get pointless high scores. When I say valve, I mean a vacuum tube.

  5. Re:May as well be honest on Spain's Hologram Protest: Thousands Join Virtual March In Madrid · · Score: 3, Insightful
    A protest is not a riot.

    It is once the law enforcement agents start battering people with night sticks.

  6. Re:Who wears a watch these days on Report: Apple Watch Preorders Almost 1 Million On First Day In the US · · Score: 1
    the vogons aren't about to attack

    Damn - I was stock piling bottled water and Spam for nothing!

    Please Sir, can the Darleks attack instead? (As in SCO)

  7. Re:cheap? on 220TB Tapes Show Tape Storage Still Has a Long Future · · Score: 2
    If your data is worthless, dont bother to back it up.

    As for keeping H/Ss powered down - a good percentage will never spin up again, or mysteriously lose their servo tracks or something. How long have we had SATA? How much longer will we have it?

    Tapes can be read after 30 years (I know, I have done this myself). Over 30 years, the drive technology may change a bit, so you probably need to keep your old drives, and SCSI is more than 30 years old. One drive will write a lot of tapes. Perhaps a few thousand before the heads wear out, and then its down to Ebay for a replacement because it is a previous generation (3 tapes a day for 3 years - 1,000).

    If you were the compliance officer, where would you put the transactional data from your bank? On a USB stick under the bed is NOT the right answer. If your data is worth keeping. LTO is the way to go. Three copies, on 3 different tapes, in each of three different states.

    Has anyone ever managed to READ a terabyte of paper tape? With CRC checks?

  8. Re:Double the Outrage on AT&T Call Centers Sold Mobile Customer Information To Criminals · · Score: 1

    In this particular case, its pretty clear they were negligent. However, the fine was minscule in terms of impact on the company compared to the fine that would have been imposed on an individual for (say) jay walking.

  9. Re:Double the Outrage on AT&T Call Centers Sold Mobile Customer Information To Criminals · · Score: 1
    It is a terrible idea to make an employer responsible for everything an employee does.

    No, in most of the world, including the Mafia that is how life is. That is what company directors are paid for. They have the responsibility to see that these things cant and don't happen. In this case, they took no steps whatever to protect their customers private data which they had no legitimate reason to keep.

    A more reasonable approach to the crime would have been to determine that (a) the data protection law was broken by the company and (b) as the law was broken, the concept of limited liability, as provided by civil society does not apply (c) therefore the directors are personally responsible for the loss of data and are jailed.

    Disclosure: I am European.

  10. Re:RTFA on AT&T Call Centers Sold Mobile Customer Information To Criminals · · Score: 1

    I dont know, but they only need to keep on the computer the fact that they have verified it, not the actual verification process. Here in the UK, banks are in the habit of verifying your id by asking your mother's maiden name and your place of birth, which for most people are readily available from Facebook (probably how they verify the data).

  11. Re:Hand slap, LOL. on AT&T Call Centers Sold Mobile Customer Information To Criminals · · Score: 2

    The directors are very highly paid because of this responsibility. Allegedly.

  12. Re:Easy grammar on Ask Slashdot: What Would a Constructed Language Have To Be To Replace English? · · Score: 2

    I have tried writing in India Pale Ale, but I assure you - drinking it is more fun.

  13. Re:Did this really need demonstration? on Turning the Arduino Uno Into an Apple ][ · · Score: 4, Informative
    The 6502 was years before the 6802 or Z80. The 6800 was designed by the same people. After they designed the 6800, they realised that processing strings on a 6800 was hell's own job cos it only had one pointer (although it was 16 bit). The 6502 had two 8 bit pointers and could therefore do a string move or compare quite painlessly and any fool could write a Basic interpreter for it in a couple of weeks.

    There was a 6500 before the 6502 (I had one) but it used a weird technology that meant it drew almost all its power from the clock lines (two phase non-overlapping clock) and the interface voltages were also non-standard, so the 6502 was magnificently better. It was cheaper because of volume - the die size was almost exactly the same - the chip was almost exactly the same. (I think they got some major order before it was even available for general release), and there was a second source (Rockwell).

    The 6800 was a superior processor if you did not have much string processing to do. The 68000 was an entirely different beast.

  14. Re:Domestic Terrorism? on Watching a "Swatting" Slowly Unfold · · Score: 1

    Please can I have a couple of your flying pigs?

  15. Re:Patents SHOULD get harder to make on USPTO Demands EFF Censor Its Comments On Patentable Subject Matter · · Score: 2
    They do ... It is like bitcoins. The first few are big fat juicy coins, then later ones come along. They are tiny fragments of the original, but the old and the new are all worth more because of the total amount of digging for coins.

    All the new patents are for insignificant mods to already trivial inventions. However, they are worth huge amounts of money because [lawyers]. Or the books are cooked by accountants.

    Or I have drunk too much brandy. Not sure which, but I will know in the morning.

  16. Re:And where are the parents? on UK's Tories Promise To Enact Age Limits For Viewing Online Porn · · Score: 1
    My "Research" shows that 52% of 12-13 year olds don't actually understand the words "porn" and "addicted" and 86% of teenagers lie when answering questions about sex or violence.

    I have not conducted any research over whether politicians are stupider than they look. It appeared relatively pointless.

    A previous research project of mine showed 100% of heroin addicts ate cornflakes at lest once as children.

  17. Re:its not the apps, its the os I worry about on Google: Less Than One Percent of Android Devices Are Affected By Harmful Apps · · Score: 1

    Go back to your bedroom. Loads of people think five years is still a child. I am writing this on a ten year old laptop, and regularly use a 10 year old Nokia phone (I have a new Samsung, but quite often I need to be away from the mains for more time than 3 spare batteries allow.

    Electronics does not rot or rust, and in the absence of a hard disk or CDrom drive, should last 30 years.

    I see no reason why Google should have to maintain old devices. However, I do think that if a manufacturer EOLs a device, which might pose a security threat to others (by hosting malware) they should be required by law to release all the technical details that could possibly be required by third parties to support the device They cannot have it both ways.

  18. Re:Uh, Why... on UK Licensing Site Requires MSIE Emulation, But Won't Work With MSIE · · Score: 1
    Perhaps you or someone upstream is using some sort of NAT.

    You mean everyone else in the same Security Guard training school? Surely there is a good chance of that being the case!

    why do they care what browser you're using simply to logon?

    If they actually cared there probably would not actually be a problem.

  19. Re:Be careful of the term "terrorist attack" on Germanwings Plane Crash Was No Accident · · Score: 1

    Given house prices in Europe, it is fairly common here for single people to live wih their parents. That way they can save for a house when they do marry. (Though there are no laws against being gay either).

  20. Re:In a departure from tradition... on NASA's ARM Will Take a Boulder From an Asteroid and Put It In Lunar Orbit · · Score: 1
    I read it as "NASA's ARM will take a Boulder from Android and Put It In Linux"

    perhaps I should drink more coffee and wear my glasses.

  21. wtf is an axis of rotation? on NASA's ARM Will Take a Boulder From an Asteroid and Put It In Lunar Orbit · · Score: 0

    its like an axis of evil, but without GWB and the evil rotating about each other.

  22. Re: Don't worry, we'll just cut some other program on $1B TSA Behavioral Screening Program Slammed As "Junk Science" · · Score: 1
    the wealthy are wealthy because they have done something to deserve that wealth

    Maybe, but often for a questionable definition of "deserve". Do you include:

    Steal from tax payers? Join the local Mafia?

  23. Re:Training Your Competition on IBM Will Share Tech With China To Help Build IT Industry There · · Score: 1

    I bet importing canned air is more profitable than working for IBM China.

  24. Re:Hyped marketing on Boeing Patents Star Wars Style Force Field Technology · · Score: 4, Funny

    We urgently need a deflector that will shield us from click-bait. And look as good as Uhura in a miniskirt!

  25. Re:servers run on battery? on Ebola-Proof Tablet Developed By Google Set For Deployment In Sierra Leone · · Score: 1
    am I missing something?

    Yes. This is in Africa. Any AC supply they do have will be 240V.

    And will probably only work for 3 hours a day - most likely the 3 hours you least need it, and quite definitely the 3 hours you least expect it. However, you still have to pay for it for the other 21 hours you did not get it.

    This is a combined effect of the afterglow of the colonial era when all forms of organisation were the work of the occupying enemy, and to be resisted at all costs, and modern Islamic teaching that education is a Satanic American plot.