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User: phorm

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  1. We *ALL* have to take responsibility on The College-Loan Scandal · · Score: 1

    * Have to go to community college for the first two years
        This assumes CC offers the necessary courses, and that the destination accepts credits from the former.

    * Have to live with mommy and daddy for a few years
        This assumes that mommy and daddy will take you, and are located somewhere you can live/work

    * Have 6 roommates
        Try to find a place with 6 reliable roomates that's conducive to good studying

    * Have a job (yes I am aware that isn't as easy as it sounds)
        Not only difficult to find a job, but how about finding one that works with your student hours

    * Wait a few years to attend college so you can save money
        While trying to get by on a minimum-wage job that basically lets you save nada

    * Join the military so you can get the GI Bill
        And die in some godforsaken desert, that way you never have to worry about education.

    * GO TO A CHEAPER IN STATE SCHOOL!
        Assumes there is such a school that offers quality for price, and will land you a job.

    How about this. How about we stop treating education and student loans as the next great cash-cow bubble. How about we all take responsibility for the future by offering those who can demonstrate good learning (attendance/grades) a good education... instead of leaving students scrimping for the few scholarships that aren't related to a religious/ethnic/sports/etc affiliation. There was a day where the US and Canada were well respected for their innovation and intelligence, now we're just selling ourselves out. Education is an investment that can pay back for the whole country.

  2. Change VS swap on Studying the Slow Decay of a Laptop Battery For an Entire Year · · Score: 1

    This is one of the reasons I've avoided iDevices (or others with hardwired batteries).
    Yes, with some work you can change the battery, but being able to drop in a fresh battery on-the-fly is a very useful thing - especially if you travel - and any product which requires disassembly to do so is crippled IMHO.

  3. Re:A drop in growth! on Have eBooks Peaked? · · Score: 1

    That's about it. Even if you're making $10,000,000 of profit every years and handing out dividends, it's not enough unless you're making $11,000,000, $12,000,000 etc on consecutive years.

    Greed.

  4. Application data on Londoners Tracked By Advertising Firm's Trash Cans · · Score: 1

    Banking information might be less a problem as at least if somebody is actively using the device he/she can see it's connected to wifi.
    However, if you're auto-connecting to various open wifi networks, then data may jump between the cellular network and random snoopy wifi AP's. Any apps that leak or have vulnerabilities are going to be a real concern in this case.

  5. F2P games? on Ask Slashdot: Best/Newest Hardware Without "Trusted Computing"? · · Score: 1

    What's wrong with F2P games? Are long as you can access the core game functionality without needing to buy "items" then it's actually a good model. Much better than shit like EA crams out where you pay for the game for $60, which turns out to be cut-down with 0-day paid DLC for the rest of the content or item-buys required to avoid the getting ganked repeatedly because you don't play 24/7 and/or grind to stay competitive.

    I've been enjoying games like DOTA2 (my friends also like LoL but it seems not as polished to me). Free to play, and I don't need to buy a funny hat or shoes in order to enjoy the game and/or be competitive.

  6. Same for HP on Ask Slashdot: Best/Newest Hardware Without "Trusted Computing"? · · Score: 1

    Even long again in the days where 802.11 was standard, HP required their branded wifi cards (even though they're all mini-PCI which is supposed to be a standard). I picked up a non-HP 802.11G card to replace the craptastic Broadcomm my laptop came with and it bitched immediately upon boot that it was a non-supported card.

    The only way I could upgrade was by installing an 802.11G card from another HP model (sadly, also a broadcomm, but at least a bit faster).

  7. Re:Genitals on Dogs Trained To Sniff Out Ovarian Cancer · · Score: 1

    Dog Owner: Don't be annoyed, he's not being rude. He's just checking your for ovarian cancer

  8. Bank details on New Zealand Court Orders Facebook Disclosure To Employer · · Score: 1

    You can get a lot more information than is needed for the case from those. In particular, I wonder what they'd want her bank details for? To show she's got work on the side? To show she traveled somewhere?

    Facebook I could understand more as people post dumb incriminating things on there all the time. However there's still a trove of information that the employer shouldn't have access to, such as things indicating sexual orientation, political lean, and many others.

  9. A drop in growth! on Have eBooks Peaked? · · Score: 1

    Oh noes! A drop in growth.
    That doesn't mean adoption isn't still growing, or even that it's dropping, it just that it's not growing as quickly as before.

  10. Re:It's all in perspective on Want To Record Xbox One Gameplay? Get Ready To Pay · · Score: 2

    For the last 6 years I've been getting a great online experience

    And if you want to get online to play on MS's servers, that's legitimate as they have to pay for the infrastructure. The issue comes when they do stupid shit like restricting Netflix to a Gold account. WHY? It costs them nothing for you to run Netflix, so the only reason for this is greed.

    Gameplay recording I could also see being a paid/premium feature if it uses MS's servers.

    But in terms of a great online experience: When I compare my xb360 from when I first got it to now, it has gone from a relatively easy-to-use and clean interface to an ad-laden piece-of-shit which constantly tries to upsell "premium" features and sales at the expense of usability.

  11. Re:Soldiers looking to hook up in the field? on Soldiers Looking For Hookups On Craigslist Are Being Warned of a Military Sting · · Score: 1

    In the case of Japanese comfort women, they females in question were Koreans who were kidnapped and FORCED into prostitution.

    In contrast, TFA is warning against soldiers taking on with women who are basically advertising their services in Craiglist. While they may be pushed to such a situation by circumstance, it's still a far cry from being kidnapped and basically gang-raped.

  12. Re:Ya know what also works? on Researchers Develop New Trap To Capture Bloodsucking Bed Bugs · · Score: 1

    It's an odd topic, but I recall reading an article on it. The male will basically "crack" the female's shell and forcibly impregnate her in various cases IIRC

  13. Bad idea on NZ Professor Advocates Civil Disobedience Against Mass Surveillance · · Score: 1

    Indeed. Do this, and the next time a real terrorist gets through then kiss even more of your rights goodbye.

    Certainly one shouldn't be afraid to fight against surveillance etc. You also shouldn't be afraid to buy a home cooking device etc if you need one, but deliberately buying a pressure cooker and a package of ball bearings just to "add noise" is just plain stupid.

  14. Official currency on Federal Judge Declares Bitcoin a Currency · · Score: 1

    Indeed. What they need is to strengthen laws against fraud/abuse regardless of the monetary medium. This doesn't seem to be an attempt at controlling fraud so much as controlling the medium itself.

    While they're add it, perhaps they can improve the regulation of pseudo-currency providers like paypal, etc as well.

  15. Re:Can be converted to conventional currencies on Federal Judge Declares Bitcoin a Currency · · Score: 1

    The difference is between a Fiat Currency and a Commodity Currency.

    The latter derives most value based on supply and demand, while the former traditionally derives value from a government or agreement between government/pseudo-government entities.

    Bitcoin is an outlier it is an artificial construct similar to a Fiat Currency, but value is based around demand and supply is somewhat limited by technology. So yes, it's a currency, but it cannot be truly treated as either a Fiat or Commodity currency. A ruling to consider it essentially a Fiat Currency so may make sense in terms of fraud control and various other things, but doesn't take into account its Commodity properties.

  16. Can be converted to conventional currencies on Federal Judge Declares Bitcoin a Currency · · Score: 1

    Can't almost anything that can be bought/sold technically be converted to conventional currency...

  17. Re:Ya know what also works? on Researchers Develop New Trap To Capture Bloodsucking Bed Bugs · · Score: 1

    IIRC, they scatter under light. Maybe they're just hiding from the light in whatever crevice they can?

  18. How would they remember us? on Dolphin Memories Span At Least 20 Years · · Score: 2

    I'm guessing that doesn't wouldn't have much (if any) a sense of smell. Hearing somebody outside of water might be a bit harder too. Looks, especially when one is young, could change a lot.

    Sounds like, given what she had to work with, this dolphin had a better memory than I do :-)

  19. Re:It is time to wake up on AOSP Maintainer Quits · · Score: 1

    I believe that Samsung also includes the appropriate blobs necessary to boot their devices.

  20. Re:Who cares about games? on John Carmack Joins Oculus VR As CTO · · Score: 1

    Mix it with something like the "Leap Motion" sensor (or a Kinect, but leap seems more versatile), and there are a lot of cool things you could do.

  21. Re:Really? on First California AMBER Alert Shows AT&T's Emergency Alerts Are a Mess · · Score: 1

    Blue Nissan Versa?

    Was it driven by two Japanese guys named Hiro and Ando?

  22. Or Mandarin on US IT Worker Files Hiring Lawsuit Against Infosys, Class Action Proposed · · Score: 1

    As like the case in BC, Canada

  23. Re:As John Crapper intended? on The Latest Security Vulnerability: Your Toilet · · Score: 1

    Just don't push the button labelled ATR

  24. "privacy" distributions on Half of Tor Sites Compromised, Including TORMail · · Score: 1

    I sometimes wonder about these "security" or "privacy" based distributions.
    Maybe it's just the paranoid in me, but wouldn't they be an easy target for honeypots? Also, how do they get updates, etc.

  25. Or what you're doing with the OS on Qualcomm Says Eight-Core Processors Are Dumb · · Score: 1

    Software that's single-threaded, no it doesn't benefit from more cores

    But - to an extent - running multiple single-threaded applications does. You're still bound by I/O, but it lets you do things like have something ripping a CD/DVD or doing a/v encoding running the background while you're still able to play a game online. In most cases add an Antivirus to the mix and it's quite often sucking up a good portion of a core when you're hitting a lot of files (again, also I/O, but SSD's help)

    Most people wouldn't multi-task enough to see the advantage of 8 cores, but they used to naysay multi-core as well. Go back to a high-Mhz single-core machine and tell me it's not painful.