Slashdot Mirror


User: deadhammer

deadhammer's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
176
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 176

  1. Hear the silence on Chrome To Introduce Timer To Throttle Background Pages (ghacks.net) · · Score: 1

    According to the article (yes, I RTFA), here's the criteria:

      -Each WebView has a budget (in seconds) for running timers in background.
    - A timer task is only allowed to run when the budget is non-negative.
    - After a timer has executed, its run time is subtracted from the budget.
    - The budget regenerates with time (at rate of 0.01 seconds per second).

    This suggests a few ways around this.

    - Play a 0.1 second silent audio sample on page load, throwing the page into "non-throttle mode".
    - If "playing audio" itself only keeps the page's budget from decaying for a short time, play a 0.1 second silent audio sample before every timer call.
    - Change your timer code to record its own runtime and set the next refresh to (runtime(ms) * 10). Ie. if your tracker call took 310ms to execute, set the refresh to 3100ms, or 31 seconds. If nothing else this would force ad trackers to write some efficient code for once.
    - "HEY WEB SURFER WE'D JUST LIKE TO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY YOU OUR AMAZING JINGLE AND YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!" ::90 second extended cut::

    I'm not exactly sure how to mitigate that. Silent audio detection? (solved by playing a 40khz tone that you won't hear but will drive your pets bonkers) Option to turn it off? (disables your music streaming app after a while) That option with whitelists? (manual intervention == annoying your customers)

  2. Create an expensive version of a product that does something that's been done just fine for decades, with big glaring problems, and sell it by calling it revolutionary.

    Then, create another product that solves the problems the first product created.

    Apple's still got it.

  3. Re:Don't forget on South Carolina Bill Wants To Put Porn Blocks On New Computers (zdnet.com) · · Score: 1

    You don't think this is a censorship play, do you? I guess you'd like to think that everyone who goes online is a tech-savvy tech savant who, while certainly not as brilliant as you, possess enough interest in the minutae of the software installed on their phones/laptops/IOT toasters that how they're set up is a perfectly informed choice.

    Alright then, next time you talk to your most computer-illiterate relative (no judgements here!) ask them when the last time they changed their Facebook password was. Or reviewed their Facebook privacy settings. Or ran Windows update. Or ran a virus scan.

    Most people don't change the default passwords on their routers. Or uninstall the shovelware that comes with a new PC or laptop. Or do anything more with their phones than change the background and ringtones. Do you think most people would be scanning down the list of blocked domains looking to see if it's blocking non-conservative political sites or sites for gay teens or pregnancy health information or whatever? Yeah, it's censorship alright. Defaults matter. Default is permanent.

  4. Re:The ultimate first-world problem. on Next Big Thing From Elon Musk? It Could Be 'Boring' (usatoday.com) · · Score: 2

    Also, people who think that everyone would rather spend time in a driverless car or a tube pod rather than with their hands on the wheel and their foot on the accelerator are mis-judging up to a third of the travel population.

    Please. In real life, you're not driving with your hands on the wheel and your foot on the accelerator and the top down on your new convertible through a wide open road through endless rolling hills in the warn friendly sun with the wind blowing through your long luxurious hair while women swoon and men seethe in jealousy and the supermodel sitting beside you gently caresses your leg and YES THIS IS YOUR FANTASY JUST ADMIT IT!

    In real life, your foot is shuffling back and forth between the accelerator and the brake as your hands are on both the horn and raising a middle finger in the air as everyone man and woman alike lurches through bumper-to-bumper traffic in a thin brown haze as your broken air conditioner fails to keep the sweltering heat from turning you into a sweaty disgusting mass and everyone is late for work and miserable and nobody knows how to drive except for me so could everyone please JUST GET OFF THE FUCKING ROAD AND LET ME GET TO WORK!!!!!

    Honestly, I'd rather not have to worry about that and just sit with my coffee and phone until my stop.

  5. "Sin free". Sure. on Brazilian Evangelicals Set Up a "Sin Free" Version of Facebook · · Score: 1

    As someone who attended a Catholic school, a supposedly more morally safe choice than the public school system, I can assure you: there will be plenty of sinning going on here. Get your repression on enough, and you're going to see some backsliding.

    And I mean, you're calling it "faceglory". That's a porn title if I ever saw one.

  6. Re:The real question is... on Snowden Offered Asylum By Venezuelan President · · Score: 1

    Because abusive monopolies or oligopolies have *never*, ever happened.

  7. Re:The important word is "should" on Draft NASA Funding Bill Cancels Asteroid Mission For Return To the Moon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Asteroid capture and mining is potentially lucrative but completely unknown in terms of economy, safety, proper technique, etc. Generally what governments excel at is exploration of unknowns. You think there would BE private space flights and planned space stations if NASA and the USSR hadn't gone up first to see if, oh, people could even survive in zero-G, let alone get up there and back? Is it inefficient? Sure. But governments can take risks that private agencies, with shareholders that demand risk prevention, can't. Once the maps have been made, so to speak, then you can get the massive influx of private sector enterprise.

    In other words, it's an investment.

  8. Bum Wine on Chemists Build App That Could Identify Cheap Replacements For Luxury Wines · · Score: 3, Insightful

    BumWine.com lists the only wines you'll ever need.

  9. Re:Money is nothing on Interviews: Ask James Randi About Investigating the Truth · · Score: 1

    So take the challenge, easily beat it, and donate the money to the charity of your choice. A million dollars can feed a lot of starving orphans.

  10. Re:I think I saw Halo? on Microsoft's Future of the Living Room Starring SuperTuxKart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes they are. And that's a huge problem if you want to look at their source code, as in Microsoft departments tend to be incredibly clannish and intra-competitive. So Microsoft Research has the following choices:

    A) Spend weeks or months bickering back and forth with the gaming division for access to the Halo source code, or
    B) Just grab some open source code and get on with it.

  11. What you need, sir, is Pen15. on Ask Slashdot: Digital Pens On Linux? · · Score: -1, Troll

    Pen15 fits easy in the hand, interfaces well with both sides, and works well digitally.

    You might not want to whip it out at the local coffee shop though.

    (time to burn through all that excess karma I guess...)

  12. Re:On Earth? on Craig Venter Wants To Rebuild Martian Life In Earth Lab · · Score: 1

    I agree. A xenogenetics lab on Earth is not a good idea, especially if they decide to work with 'hot' DNA. Better to put it on the Moon, or even better, in a free orbit between Earth and Mars so that if something does go wrong, the solar wind will blow the bugs out of the solar system.

    Nonsense.

    Xenogenetics labs working on tiny fragments of alien DNA (or equivalent) would be of no danger whatsoever. How do I know? Bacteria. Millions of species of hardy, survivalist badasses that have survived through more globe-spanning apocalypses than you've had hot dinners. So let's say there's an accident and some tiny sequenced fragments of alien genetics fall into a pond somewhere. Assuming A) the environment doesn't immediately kill them and B) they're complete enough to form autonomous life, they'll have to contend with the fact that they're competing for survival against creatures that are built to survive the shit that Earth throws at them. Not a chance in hell.

  13. Honesty is your best policy on Ask Slashdot: How To Clean Up My Work Computer Before I Leave? · · Score: 1

    Barring some situation where you've got incriminating stuff on the drive, your best approach to this problem is just to be honest. Approach the IT department and state the following case:

    -I've been here for ten years. While I didn't squander my time on personal crap, there's bound to be a personal email or credit card number somewhere in a browser cache or temp file.
    -I've got (X instant message/skype/whatever) account running on login, and I don't want to leave that hanging around.
    -What can we do to protect both myself and the company?

    Suggest a drive wipe and reimage. It's a bit overkill, so if that's an issue suggest you be given supervised admin privileges to wipe temp folders, uninstall software, wipe leftover program and document folders, delete your old user account, etc. Ask about a place to back up all your work files in case anyone needs them.

    Of course, your IT might not be retarded, but it doesn't hurt to ask. And if you've got admin privileges, do all that stuff yourself.

  14. Re:Dear D&D Designers on Slashdot's Rob Rozeboom Interviews D&D Designer Mike Mearls (video) · · Score: 1

    You just have to be more creative. For instance:

    Not as much as the Rolemaster elementalist with first level spell "boil water",

    If that was me?
    Boil your waterskin, throw it in your opponent's face.
    Boil your opponent's saliva.
    Boil your opponent's urine.
    Boil the sweat inside your opponent's armor.
    Boil the aqueous jelly in your opponent's eyes.

    Shitty starting spells and low hitpoints only sucks if you don't consider it a challenge.

  15. Re:It's easy to lie on linkedin on LinkedIn Profiles Contain Fewer Lies Than Resumes · · Score: 2

    I wouldn't have made it to the end of that meeting. I'd have left and been out the door the very second this douchenozzle opened his mouth. Well, at least the very second he mentioned the whole thing about the bad references.

    Of course, I do recognize that there are good economic reasons for not being able to do so. But hell, telemarketers are always hiring and will give you a million times more job satisfaction than working under someone like that.

  16. Re:Firefox - Too little, too late on Firefox 9 Released, JavaScript Performance Greatly Improved · · Score: 1

    Sadly you're probably not going to get a response from the advertroll. He's quick-posted his ad in response to a keyword in the article ("Firefox" probably) and will disappear afterwards. Honestly, I've learned just to ignore the first post/thread in the comments of Slashdot articles now.

  17. Delay tactic on No SOPA Vote Until 2012 · · Score: 1

    A delay! Just what all those whiners... err citizens wanted, right? Well, this will serve one purpose at least - to wait until the opposition's momentum has died down before going to a vote. They learned their lesson from the Occupy movement well: wait until people are sick of hearing about the issue, then move to squash it.

  18. Re:Real Question on The Myth of Renewable Energy · · Score: 1

    "Windmills do not work that way!"

    -Morbo

  19. Re:Hmm... on Shady Reshipping Centers Exposed · · Score: 1

    Still somebody's property you're profiting off of. And will do you little good when Ivan The Problem Solver tracks you down and introduces your testicles to high voltage.

  20. Re:Will somebody PLEASE think of the... on Shady Reshipping Centers Exposed · · Score: 1

    You're obviously intentionally misunderstanding his point. Easier to make fun of the "bleeding heart librul" than to confront the issue head on, I suppose. OP isn't excusing crime or criminals. What he's saying is that the low-level low-lifes are the symptom, not the cause. Don't go after the hooker or the drug delivery kid, go after the ruthless pimp and the drug cartel. Sure, it involves actual work, but as anyone who's ever seen a huge drop in spam after a botnet takedown will tell you, doing the work and going after the source will get you FAR better results than trying to shut down a million easy to hit endpoints.

  21. Re:Catalyst or not? on Does Italian Demo Show Cold Fusion, or Snake Oil? · · Score: 1

    Sagan's retort: [T]he fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

  22. Re:Containment on Alloy Could Produce Hydrogen Fuel Using Sunlight · · Score: 1

    So electricity AND a waterslide on the other end!

  23. Re:If only those parents... on Measles Resurgent Due To Fear of Vaccination · · Score: 2

    Dr. Bob, is that you?

  24. Re:And while they're at it - they should... on The End of the Gas Guzzler · · Score: 4, Informative

    Clearly you must think that the continent of Europe is a mystical fantasy land that doesn't actually exist. The Europeans manage to regularly sell vehicles with fuel economies in the high 40s/low 50s of MPG. No flying cars or mandatory ponies. Oh wait, Europe is a commie pinko dystopia, so the laws of physics must work differently over there.

    Also notice how GM, Ford and Chrystler are the ones who recommended 54.5 mpg as opposed to the 56.2 that the administration wanted and the 60 that environmentalists wanted. Oh wait, that must mean that GM, Ford and Chrystler are part of the hated Obama administration! Source of all evil! The truth is out there, man!

  25. The best part - they can't do shit about this. on Fake Apple Stores Mushrooming In China · · Score: 1

    I mean, what's Steve Jobs going to do about this? Cancel his contracts with Foxconn? Bwahahaha!

    When you move all of your manufacturing to China to save a buck, eventually they'll take what they learned building your shit and build their own. If that means stealing your name, logos, store designs etc., so be it. That design stuff seems to be working for Apple, after all. And Apple can't do anything about it since their business is entirely dependent on China's electronics manufacturing base. What, you mean build factories in America? With all those expensive labor laws and safety standards and environmental regulations and such?