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User: mrjb

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  1. Of course bankers are pissing themselves. on Central Bankers Warned Of Possible Economic 'Robocalypse' (seattletimes.com) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On a radio program today someone stated money was ultimately a way to transfer debt. If I have money, ultimately that means someone owes me work. To a degree I can randomly choose who that someone is depending on my needs. If, in an extreme case, all the work is being done by robots, nobody would owe anyone any work, money would no longer represent anything and banks would go out of business, which is not something bloody likely for them to let happen.

  2. "Let me ask you something." on Publisher Is Pretty Sure Google Could End Piracy (techdirt.com) · · Score: 1

    Let me ask you something. If a store sells knockoff designer handbags, why is it okay for police to come in, confiscate the illegal merchandise, and arrest and fine the store owners? It’s because the store is profiting from the sales of these illegal goods, in the same way Google can increase its advertising rates because these illegal sites increase the number of users it attracts.

    Fan of analogies, is he. The question is, if a store sells knockoff designer handbags, why do you want the police to go after the store, rather than after the people who publish the Yellow Pages and the phone book?

  3. Lack of ASLR is not a bug on AVG, McAfee, Kaspersky Antiviruses All Had a Common Bug (softpedia.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Lack of ASLR is not a bug. It's a lacking feature. Arguably, it's the compiler's responsibility to make it happen. Having said that, I find it real hard to get virus infections nowadays. There might be something to this "common sense" thing about not running any software from untrusted sources. That, and user/kernel space separation.

  4. Sounds like a lot of methane. on How Much Should You Worry About an Arctic Methane Bomb? · · Score: 3, Funny

    Anyone got a match?

  5. Re:stupid on Campaign To Kill CAPTCHA Kicks Off · · Score: 1

    More bitching. Got a better idea to prevent bots from signing up?

  6. Re:Fun Fact on Campaign To Kill CAPTCHA Kicks Off · · Score: 1

    Fun fact 2: To ensure the "scanned" word is read correctly, multiple identical matches need to be given by multiple users. In the example, the correct "scanned" word is likely to end up being "wtf?"

  7. Captcha is necessary. on Campaign To Kill CAPTCHA Kicks Off · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Captcha fulfills a need - it is, as the name implies, a test to completely automatically tell computers and humans apart. It's necessary to keep spambots from registering accounts and spamming the hell out of us. Granted, the "type this wobbly word" may not be the most practical (nor safe) solution. It's easy enough to come up with alternatives- Perhaps show four photographs and ask the user to click on the one that doesn't belong (maybe the kitten out of a picture of 4 cats). Coming up with good ideas? Much harder. Complain about it all you like. Come back if you have a better alternative.

  8. Re:Pre-consumer waste, maybe on 3-D Printable Food Gets Funding From NASA · · Score: 1

    It has already been invented. It's called pancakes. Your toddler will still get all the nutrition that the egg has to give. Put some freshly made strawberry sauce/jam on top and nutritional content will be better than that of just scrambled eggs. If you're worried about blood glucose spikes, use xylitol instead of sugar.

  9. Re:Complex geometry on 3-D Printable Food Gets Funding From NASA · · Score: 1

    Finally someone here that seems to grasp the potential. The point is not to simply pop a powder in a 3d printer and squeezing out a paste in an interesting shape. The point is that ultimately permits us to cook "note by note" - a future discussed by Hervé This ("The man who uncooked an egg") in this excellent lecture:

  10. Re:If money is no object on Ask Slashdot: Linux Friendly Video Streaming? · · Score: 3, Funny

    You are aware that you can build a decent multimedia system for about 400$US, right?

    Not everyone has 400$ to spare.

  11. That's you're view. on Ask Slashdot: Linux Friendly Video Streaming? · · Score: 1

    Syaing "I've already got [whatever platform], how do I make it do what I want?" is often not a helpful approach."

    Sure. But saying "Swap to Windows" isn't exactly any more helpful, is it? I'm not going to shell out for a Windows license and I'm not going to install it illegaly. If I can't play netflix on the operating system of my choice, they're not having my business, simple as that. Besides, at the price I would pay for a netflix movie, I'll get the DVD instead; sometimes at a car boot sale, sometimes at the thrift shop, sometimes at poundland, and I even pay full price, at times. It might score slightly lower on the "instant gratification" scale, but at least I'm watching the films on my own terms.

  12. Re:ROT13 on Remote Island Adopts Dothraki Language · · Score: 1

    Personally, I find it less annoying than those ponies a few years back.

  13. The interesting bit is this: on Google Publishes Zopfli, an Open-Source Compression Library · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Zopfli is a compression-only library, meaning that existing software can decompress the data." (source: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/294495_Google_Compression_Algorithm_Z). As long as the compression can be done on cached pages, hey- that's another 3-8% more people served with the same amount of bandwidth, without any additional requirements on the client side.

  14. This could be a hit. on We Aren't the World: Why Americans Make Bad Study Subjects · · Score: 3, Funny

    "We aren't the world! We aren't the children! We aren't the ones who make a better day..."

  15. Rubik's cube on Ask Slashdot: Really Short Time Wasters? · · Score: 1

    ... Just learn to solve it first. From then on, it won't take you much more than 2 minutes.

  16. Features for watch on Ask Slashdot: What Features Belong In a 'Smartwatch'? · · Score: 1

    Walkie talkie to call self-driving car Feature to make wearer invisible Laser beam No sharks please Please make this watch. Thank you.

  17. Here we go again. on Microsoft Going Its Own Way On Audio/Video Specification · · Score: 1

    So MS will be publishing their own standard. What will happen?

    1. Looking at VBscript and Silverlight/Moonlight, it will essentially fail - alternatives exist (Javascript, Flash) that are equally viable and more widely supported.

    2. Some idiots will use MS-only tech ANYWAY, breaking support for anything but the Windows platform and alienating a substantial user base.

    3. If the spec is open (looking at dot net), some open source group will produce their own version to permit interoperability with other platforms.

    Wasn't it netflix that required Silverlight to be installed?

    4. However, this doesn't guarantee that code written for Windows-based products will actually work out of the box on the other platforms.

    An example of this once again is dotnet: Even with the whole CLR available on Linux, some idiot will tie their source code into a proprietary Windows API, e.g. to have SharePoint interoperability.

    5. Eventually (looking at CSS and MS' implementation of JavaScript and the document object model) MS will have to give in and better support the actual official standard, but by that time the damage will have been done. Remember the original HTML spec only permitted writing JavaScript in the HTML header - just think for a moment how many cross-site-scripting issues that prevents. But NOOO, MS decided people should be allowed to litter script tags all over the document body. Great going, MS.

    6. In some cases, an MS spec will end up sufficiently well-documented that it becomes the de-facto norm across platforms. The .wav file format is a good example of this; it's pretty much always supported. That doesn't mean it's not brain-dead (Why on earth is the length of a WAV file a SIGNED integer?)

    Anyway, I'm not exactly looking forward to the implications.

  18. Re:Death by kitty on Japanese Cops Collar Malware-Carrying Cat · · Score: 1

    <CanHasDIY> Do I look like a cat to you, boy?

    Yes.

  19. Re:Put badge in microwave for 10 seconds. on Student Refusing RFID Badge Now Fights Expulsion Order · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Destroy badge, get expelled for destruction of school property.

  20. Dear Andrea, on Student Refusing RFID Badge Now Fights Expulsion Order · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thank you for fighting for our freedom. Too few people do. Best regards, mrjb

  21. Get with the times on Ask Slashdot: How To Make a DVD-Rental Store More Relevant? · · Score: 1

    DVD-watcher here.

    Your friend may have to get with the times, because let's face it: the days that physical media were a requirement for distribution are over. It's so much more convenient for people not to have to leave the comfort of their own home when they want to watch a movie. It's for a reason that rental places have now started mailing out the media and accepting them back by mail: It's far more convenient than having to go to a DVD store.

    I don't rent movies, but I do buy them on DVD. However, I'm cheap; I rarely ever pay full price for them. For the most of it, I either get them refurbished or from the thrift shop. Very sorry but I'm no longer willing to sponsor the thugs that call themselves "the movie industry". Also, I still like having the physical item, which allows me to watch them at my convenience (rather than being forced to watch them within 24 hours from paying), in reasonable full-screen quality. To me, there's still some added value to physical media. If your friend wants to remain in business, he'll have to either switch business model to media-less distribution, or provide significant added value that downloadable movies cannot offer.

    In the end, it's not about watching moving images but about entertainment. If your friend provides a one-stop no-hassle solution for that, he might draw people to his shop. In addition to DVD, he might consider selling various snacks and beverages. For rom-coms, perhaps he might provide candles, essential oils or whatever else sets the mood. Perhaps it's worth considering making a deal with a local restaurant and provide dinner vouchers at reduced price.

    Now the above isn't new. The media business has been doing many of the above already for a good number of years. If your friend insists focusing on selling or renting out physical media, he'll have a very, very tough time ahead.

  22. Re:How about you pay them? on Airlines Face Acute Pilot Shortage · · Score: 1

    In other words, teflon-coat a 747 for reduced drag, make more money.

  23. Re:Why did they change the requirements? on Airlines Face Acute Pilot Shortage · · Score: 0

    I'm aware of those crashes. Some rich people died in them, were left without next of kin and now some kind fellow is offering me a big bunch of cash if I help him to get the money outside of his country. Guess he was afraid to fly it out himself after the fact, but sheesh, how hard is it to wire out money these days?

  24. Re:Room Reverb on Mike Storey and His Plate Reverb (Video) · · Score: 2

    If you have a good sized garage that is "bouncy", you can get a nice short verb out of that.

    Yes, you can, but since you don't have control over the positioning of the walls, they'll be likely to be parallel and thus cause standing waves, which will sound pretty nasty in reverb. To counter that, it helps to randomly scatter the sound waves. Given the choice, a garage with a car parked in it will probably sound better than an empty one. Most impressive live reverb I ever heard in my life was an underground parking lot. I made a point out of slamming my car door shut with the windows open, just to enjoy the sound and long tail of it. Probably useless for most recordings. But man what a sound it was. 12-storey stairwell in my apartment building wasn't bad either... I liked playing acoustic guitar in there quite a lot. Always wondered if occasional passers-by thought I was mad though.

  25. Re:What's all this "purity of vinyl" crap? on Mike Storey and His Plate Reverb (Video) · · Score: 1

    Joining in on the popcorn. The fireworks should start any moment now.