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User: freeze128

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  1. Comparison on CIA Tested Primitive Chatbots For Interrogation In the 1980s · · Score: 1

    Analiza is an AI the same way that Babbage's analytical engine is an iphone. It probably just made the subject get mad and proclaim "I hate interrogators!"

  2. Re:Metal on Friendly Reminder: Do Not Place Your iPhone In a Microwave · · Score: 1

    That funky little HTC with the one-piece machined aluminium chassis is probably safe.

    I doubt it. Every cellphone has an antenna so it can send/receive signals, and by design, this antenna is not shielded by the case (otherwise your phone wouldn't work). You could put an HTC One M8 into the microwave, and it may not spark visibly, but I would gamble that you are cramming 1100 watts of energy into the circuitry and that would at lease make the phone release the smoke.

    Also, since the HTC One has an internal (non-removable) battery, heating that up would be exceedingly dangerous.

  3. Re:Dare to be stupid on Friendly Reminder: Do Not Place Your iPhone In a Microwave · · Score: 1

    Boy, I sure do miss 80's MTV....

  4. Re:Recent claims by whom? on Study: Chimpanzees Have Evolved To Kill Each Other · · Score: 1

    Yeah, Dolphins are jerks!

  5. Re:WTF is a pre-announcement? on IOCCC 2014 Now In Progress · · Score: 2

    A pre-announcement was made on twitter. Unfortunately, nobody could understand it.

  6. Collaboration on Interviews: David Saltzberg Answers Your Questions About The Big Bang Theory · · Score: 0

    I would ask that David please collaborate with the Writers of "The Amazing Spiderman 2", because it seems that they have no idea how real science works.

  7. Re:Perspective on Say Goodbye To That Unwanted U2 Album · · Score: 1

    Are you sure it was APPLE that decided that? I would guess that it would be more of U2's fault. U2 was releasing a new album, and wanted a little publicity, so they partnered with Apple. Apple could have just made the album available for purchase for $0, but that might not be enough to get people to listen to it. If you already don't like U2, then you probably wouldn't download their album even if it WAS free. However, if they cram it into your library, then there would be a higher likelihood of you hearing it (even if by accident). It's a brilliant marketing move, but Apple doesn't benefit from it, so I don't think they thought of it.

  8. Re:Got Burned by Titanfall on The Growing Illusion of Single Player Gaming · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Dear Game Developers,

    If you start to see diminishing returns on your sales of Multiplayer-Only games, then that is the problem. It's not that the market is collapsing. It's not that you didn't sign all those famous voice actors. It's that you insisted on a multiplayer-only experience. Not everyone has a low-latency high-speed internet connection, and with ISPs throttling netflix, in the future they may start throttling your games as well. In other words: Don't be stupid.

  9. Re:What sort of engine on 3D-Printed Car Takes Its First Test Drive · · Score: 1

    A plastic one.

  10. Re:Contradicted by the historical documents? on Original 11' Star Trek Enterprise Model Being Restored Again · · Score: 0

    "By Grapthar's hammer... What a savings."

  11. Money transfer services on Amazon Is Killing Off Its Free P2P Money-Transfer Service WebPay On October 13 · · Score: 1

    A few years ago, my primary bank (Wells Fargo) had a feature where you could log into your ebanking website and transfer money from your account to another account holder at the same bank. There was no fee for this service and it worked well. Recently, I checked again, and they have replaced that service with a "Transfer money to anyone with an email address" service. First you must "sign up". I don't know why I need to involve another party to transfer money to someone else at the same bank.....

  12. Re:Learning starts with engagement on The MOOC Revolution That Wasn't · · Score: 1

    Maybe the videos just weren't very good. For instance: Maybe the instructor did something that was not covered in the material, and failed to explain it... Or maybe the instructor failed to indicate WHY something was done.

    This takes me back to the old Computer certification courses where the makers said "engaging the student helps them learn better", so they would pepper the lesson with multiple choice questions on a certain topic BEFORE it was covered (just to gauge your knowledge). This was most infuriating, because you would often choose the wrong answer and be presented with a message like "NO, you're WRONG!!!!*!" even before you were taught anything about it. What a way to keep students.... No wonder many of them didn't finish.

  13. Re:What is wrong with people? on Turning the Tables On "Phone Tech Support" Scammers · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but SIX MONTHS in the future?!?!?! That should tell you right there that their help desk is worthless.

  14. Circular LCDs on Moto 360 Reviews Arrive · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Having a round LCD screen is stupid. There is just no reason for it. The image is displayed anyway as rows and columns, which is inherently rectangular. It's just a holdover from mechanical watches that rotate on a central axis. The circular LCD will never hold as much information as a same resolution rectangular LCD, plus the engineering to get it to work is a lot more complicated. I see round LCDs as a waste of perfectly good screen real estate, and technology. That engineering could be put to much better use than (almost literally) to cram a square peg into a round hole.

  15. Re:BT, DT... on The Frustrations of Supporting Users In Remote Offices · · Score: 1

    DEBUG?

    How about FDISK /MBR and SYS C:?

  16. "Best" users on The Frustrations of Supporting Users In Remote Offices · · Score: 2

    I disagree.

    For your company, remote users are the most expensive to support. It often takes several minutes to try to make the user understand what you want them to do, and to do it PROPERLY, where locally, you could just go to a user's desk and fix the problem in seconds.

    When dealing with local users, you get to use *ALL* of your senses to diagnose a problem. Does the computer feel abnormally hot? Does it smell like something burning? Can you see that the little tab on the ethernet cable is broken off?

    Likewise, users on the other end of the phone are trying to describe a problem to you using only their voice, and they don't know the jargon: "There is this THING on my browser and it won't go away."
    What is this THING that they are talking about? A window? An icon? A toolbar?

    All of these factors use up a lot of time, and time costs money.

    Also, isolating yourself from the users limits the quality of your work. If you work with them, and see how they use their computers, it will give you a better overall view which helps you support them even better in the future.

  17. Re:Seemed pretty obvious this was the case on Apple Denies Systems Breach In Photo Leak · · Score: 1

    Hey! That's *MY* mother's maiden name too! We must be brothers!

  18. Waitaminute... on Interview: Ask Christopher "moot" Poole About 4chan and Social Media · · Score: 2

    If he's such an advocate of online anonymity, then how do we know that it's really him?

  19. Ash 3D on New Computer Model Predicts Impact of Yellowstone Volcano Eruption · · Score: 1

    Ash 3D?

    "See this? This... is my BOOM STICK!"

  20. Re:fax machines on Ask Slashdot: What Old Technology Can't You Give Up? · · Score: 1

    The lawyers say no. They use FAX machines every day.

  21. Re:Remember these? on Ask Slashdot: What Old Technology Can't You Give Up? · · Score: 1

    I hate the fact that so many members of the older generation call USB "thumb" drives, "ZIP drives". They don't seem to understand that a ZIP drive is a completely different thing, and is pretty much obsolete because of its relatively low capacity. I think they just like the "zip" buzzword. It's makes them feel cool.

  22. Re:Simple on Ask Slashdot: What Old Technology Can't You Give Up? · · Score: 1

    ...except for users who don't have a ctrl key. Damn you Blackberry!

  23. Windows 9 update frequency on Microsoft Releases Replacement Patch With Two Known Bugs · · Score: 1

    How often will Windows 9 receive updates? I heard on the TWIT podcast that it would be once a month.

    ***NEWS FLASH***

    Windows is ALREADY updated once a month, so I don't see how that is any more frequent.

  24. Re:I live right next to a CenturyLink switch on CenturyLink: Comcast Is Trying To Prevent Competition In Its Territories · · Score: 1

    So that means they are "Not in this CenturyLink"?

  25. Re:seriously? on TechCentral Scams Call Center Scammers · · Score: 1

    I don't know if I would worry about personal threats from these types of scammers. A cursory check of the information that they even have on file for you would indicate that they don't really know anything except the phone number that they just dialed. When you get a call from "The windows support department", ask them all sorts of questions like:

    What is the name of the company that they work for?
    How do they know that my machine is infected with a virus?
    Which computer is infected? (I have multiple PCs...)
    Who has paid them to provide this service for me?
    If my PC has been sending internet packets because of spyware infections, and they have detected this, then certainly they would know the IP address of the machine that is doing it.

    If the caller cannot even answer these basic questions, then you know it's a scam.