Also, they make it slightly difficult (but definitely not impossible). To view the snap, you must be touching the screen--so you have to hold that in place while you do the screenshot dance with your other fingers.
They also let you set the timer on the photo, so you could give someone a nice generous 10 seconds, or you could say they get to see it for 2. Some phones require a second or so of holding the buttons to get a screenshot, so if the image is only there for 2 seconds, you had better be really fast.
You also have to know you are going to want to save the photo. If most of the photos you receive are innocuous, are you going to be ready to do the screenshot dance? You only get one chance and it is only around for a max of 10 seconds.
The only reliable option is an app that grabs the unviewed images and stores them. These work since snapchat downloads the image before showing it to you...giving you plenty of time to find the barely obfuscated file before viewing it in snapchat and having it get deleted.
I've never bothered though. For the most part, I like snapchat because it doesn't clog up everything else with dumb pictures. A group MMS will send as a message (not data), can have a large filesize attachment, can take some time to load, and will be stored in your phone forever unless you delete it. For stupid little throwaway "snaps", it is kind of nice that they just go away when you are done.
Unfortunately, the ads on the site for Paint.NET seem to come from doubleclick and google. So my guess isn't that this is due to a permissive site owner. If they found those ads objectionable, those providers would be able to serve them something better (most of the time; there are always dirtbag advertisers who mislabel things and try to cheat the system in order to have their ads show up where they are not wanted)
What's funny about this, is that part of what *sucks* about sourceforge's download pages is that they are littered with the same kind of ads that bittorrent sites have (I know, I know, they can host the torrent from their own tracker, not some pirate thing)
You get to a download page and there are ads that scream things like "DOWNLOAD NOW", "CLICK HERE TO INSTALL", etc.
Frequent/savvy users are able to figure this out, but when you tell your parents that they can get this free photo editor, they end up with the same damn crapware on their computer as they would have had if they just went ahead and tried to pirate photoshop. The same thing is true about Paint.Net's download page...on their page, I see two giant colorful "Download" buttons that are actually ads. The actual download link is a standard text link that says "Paint.NET v3.5.11" which takes you to another page that has another giant colorful "Download" button. On that page, the real download links look like fake links...the button says "Download Now DotPDN LLC" which doesn't sound at all like what you want.
Sourceforge isn't quite as bad...the ads aren't always there, and often they show up on the post download ad-page (the one that says "your download will start shortly" so there if you click them, you often end up with both the file you want *and* the crapware...leaving a 50/50 chance the user will get the right file.
I get why the pirate sites have these misleading ads (and it probably helps discourage people from software piracy since they try it, get some weird downloader and ad-toolbar instead of the software they were looking for, and then give up)...but when respectable free alternatives resort to the same shady ads? wtf?
Pretty much why I don't care about unlocked/off contract phones.
I don't plan to change from AT&T anytime soon....the providers are all equally shitty and have comparable pricing. If I don't use the subsidy, I am still paying for it. My grandparents have phones on the same plan, and because it has taken them this long to figure out their current basic flip phones, it's not like we want to get them new devices.
The best move is probably to use their upgrades on the free iphone and sell them NIB on ebay. That probably nets out above saving the upgrades just in case a smartphone user on the plan breaks or loses their phone (since the odds of that happening are low and the profit from the two iphones probably exceeds the expected value of replacing a broken phone).
Maybe this means we will finally get Jellybean on the Moto X (a phone made by a google owned company that was released with a non-current OS well after the new version had been released).
#1 is one of the few reasons I wish I had gone apple.
The phones got a little taller with the iPhone 5, but they have basically been the same form factor since 2007. And the interface/buttons have remained basically the same (although, I would love to have a dedicated back button that is always in exactly the same place).
I sat there with an open contract for a good 6 months waiting for a phone that I actually wanted to replace my old phone. The android options were huge...the S4 and HTC One are giants and the small screen options were super thick (since they were "budget" models). I wanted an S4 mini but it didn't seem to be in a hurry to make it to AT&T (and the HTC one mini was barely smaller than the HTC one despite having a smaller screen). Finally I went with a moto X which was a decent size (much smaller than the HTC one despite the same size screen) and had a contoured back to make up for the bulk a bit. Even then, I had to deal with the new trend towards getting rid of the dedicated "menu" button. I still have the back button in the same place in every app, but now the menu can be anywhere.
If I had joined the apple-borg, the only reason to delay buying a new phone at contract expiration would be if the next model was about to be released.
Doesn't that mean that EU chemical suppliers will no longer be allowed to sell us Nitrogen?
It seems kind of silly to refuse to sell something that could be used for capital punishment or torture. Especially when that thing is already restricted to medical professionals. Any drug used by anesthesiologists could probably be used as part an execution...as well as plenty of drugs that are not used by anesthesiologists but would have similar effects in high doses (if they are not going to wake up, you don't much care about side effects or potential wake-up complications). I understand that the EU is trying to take a political stance here (not that different from google refusing to to do certain things in china based on government policies), but this is just dumb.
What would they do if the US just decided to switch to a bottle of vodka and a bottle of aspirin, administered by feeding tube?
I remember reading somewhere that the secret is time. All of those tricks like tapping the top/side, opening slowly, etc., cause you to wait a little bit longer before opening the can.
None of the tricks actually do anything, but the explosive force actually dissipates pretty fast (and when you do open a shaken can and get spray, you are getting the tail end of the force that built up). Pausing to set the can down still and tap on it gives it enough time to dissipate below the point of spraying all over the place.
And before anyone mentions something about alerting people to my presence with a bell or an "on your left", this girl was jogging with earbuds in that were loud enough to hear from outside.
Also, the girl was totally fine. Maybe an ever so slightly scraped knee. Compare this to someone I know who was jogging in a straight line and got hit from behind by a bike that wasn't paying attention...she broke a bone or two and the cyclist was uninjured. Sometimes life's not fair.
Well, in TFA (and conveniently omitted from the summary), it mentions that all of those injuries occurred during racing (and/or while mountain biking). Broken collarbones are not particularly uncommon among road racers and I'd imagine that mountain bike racers have all sorts of broken bones (my non-racing dad sure has had several).
Heck, I broke my hand while riding on a multi-use path, far from a road. Some girl was jogging, saw her friend on the other side of the path, and decided to make a 90 degree turn and bolt all of the way across the path without looking. Even though I was slowed down and riding fully on the other side of the path (because I am paranoid of joggers who don't look behind them when they step to the left to pass someone), there was no way to avoid the body that was suddenly in front of me. Ended up essentially punching the ground with my hand that was still on the bars and then hitting my head into it (cracked my helmet so it's probably good that I was wearing it). Ended up with a boxer's fracture, a tooth that was still attached but needed a root canal, and some stitches where that tooth went through my lip...all of this while slowed down on a bike path far from traffic.
So if you've managed to do all of those activities for 40 years without breaking something, all you've really managed to do is not be unlucky (or you've got really strong bones).
That's basically my main hope...that SteamOS brings linux netflix.
I still run linux on a netbook, but I switched my HTPC to windows. XBMC runs about the same, but netflix works perfectly.
Of course, now my complaint is that both the Netflix and the Amazon Prime streaming videos are still crippled on my HTPC. You cannot watch HD video content from amazon on the PC. You can watch it in HD on a roku or on some crappy blu-ray player that has the plugin, but you can't watch HD on a full power HTPC. Netflix will let you play the videos in HD, but they still won't give you 5.1 sound unless you use a roku. If it is a silverlight limitation, why not just release a client? The majority of people don't have 5.1 setups and won't care, and those that do probably won't mind installing a separate player app.
I don't buy this. Maybe for low price to volume/weight goods, but there are plenty of things where a pure kilogram or two is worth quite a lot of money.
How much weight in cocaine or heroin filled balloons can a drug mule swallow? There you are talking about an expensive airplane ticket and some amount of monetary compensation for a person who can only carry a limited amount of drugs and could roll over on you if they get caught. Not hard to imagine that an inexpensive drone would worthwhile.
Even if the investment is more than paying for a mule, how many times can your drone make the trip before it gets caught? It probably doesn't even have to land at the drop off. A well wrapped brick of drugs can survive a pretty decent fall (and you could always have a small parachute). You could just rig up a targeting system and drop it somewhere deserted and make the pickup when the coast is clear.
Except that it isn't high alcohol content that makes beer safe to drink even if the original water source wasn't great (the beer that ancient armies were brewing to ensure a safe drinking supply was not strong) and the fact that drinking most beers leads to a net increase in hydration...
The president gets to direct the military without input from Congress (they get to declare war, but the president orders around the armed forces). Congress needs an additional check against the executive branch since they would otherwise have nothing. In the case of the ACA, they don't have nothing--they have the ability to amend or repeal it, and they had the chance to not pass t in the first place.
Second, you can exercise this power without holding up the entire government. When congress blocked all funding and indirect support to South Vietnam, they did so with a standalone act--they didn't bring about a shutdown of the government. In that case Congress wanted something different than the executive branch, and so the worked their power over the budget to bring it about. With this situation, they know they would never be able to pass a standalone bill through the senate, so instead they are trying to hold up the whole government with the hopes that the threat will force the Senate to cave. The senate doesn't have to cave though...they can just send it back to the house with an amendment and make it their problem again.
One thing worth noting though is that often these systems use ancient control schemes.
Can't speak directly about the japanese systems since they have some more modern stuff, but in the US they are *old*. We haven't started building a new plant since 1974 or a new reactor since 1977 (though they did start some new reactors at existing plants earlier this year).
The control rooms at these places are filled with tons of manual buttons and switches. Many of them look like this. I have no doubt that they are reliable and have failsafes, but a physical switch doesn't have a "are you sure" dialog or stop to ask for an admin password. Sure, switches might have those little covers you have to lift up to press a button, and the most important switches could be controlled with a key, but if somebody wants to push a button, it is getting pushed.
We hear a lot about how much reactor design has come along in the 35 years it has been since we last built one (just think about how long ago that was)...but don't forget that along with efficiency and physical safety, there have been a LOT of improvements in monitoring and control (only a fraction of which have been able to be integrated into the old plants).
Well technically you could read it either way (although it has to get through the senate before it is in the president's court, so you can't say that "Congress passed a budget").
The senate is saying "We don't like this budget. Give us what we want or we won't sign it".
The house is saying "We don't like this law. Give us what we want (waivers to individuals so that they have more time to fight it) or we won't give you a budget that can make it through the senate".
If there were a non-partisian senator looking at the budget (like that exists...), I think they would take a look at it and say "this budget is flawed: it doesn't provide for the funding of a major government program and therefor I can't approve it without sending it back to the house for modification".
Honestly it all seems rather dumb. Refusing to fund the ACA is like refusing to pay up on a bet that you lost. They put it to a vote (and constitutional challenges and all other sorts of things) and it still made it through...they lost the bet and now they are refusing to pony up.
Good to know buffalo is still making good stuff (and I didn't know some of it now comes with DD-wrt installed).
I've had a WHR-G125 going strong since maybe 2007 with DD-WRT. It has always been good and bugs have been worked out over time--and bugs usually meant things in DD-WRT that were not tied to general operations (sometimes it wouldn't accept settings changes without a reboot, the "usage log" would fill up or otherwise stop after a month or two of operation without a reboot)...actual routing activity never had a problem that I can think of.
Lost track of them when they were banned from bringing products to the US for a few years...looking to upgrade (only because I would like to have the built in switch be gigabit and some wireless N might be nice) and I will take a look at the new Buffalo models. Had previously just been waiting until an ASUS or something else with DD-WRT compatibility showed up cheap on slickdeals.
Forgot my second point: Symbian....S60 was incredibly popular throughout Europe until android and iOS came into the world. It barely registered in the US, AT&T wouldn't even force you to buy a smartphone data plan if you bought some S60 phones...and for a while you couldn't even filter S60 phones from the nokia feature phones on the major carrier websites.
They were using smartphones long before the US caught on outside of the blackberry business users.
Pretty much what the rest of those guys said. Except for Apple, the mobile phone space (especially smartphones) is not at all US-centric.
Some of this was definitely because of the carriers. The Galaxy S was rebranded for each major carrier (the Captivate on AT&T, the Fascinate Verizon, the Vibrant on T-Mobile), each one of them having a unique outer shell design rather than just shipping the same damn phone that was in Europe for a year. I think they all *lost* features (FM radio, LED flash, etc) coming to america...
I haven't looked into it too much, but can you block this crap but still be able to use the services that are connected to them? (i.e. can I block facebook/twitter integrations in hosts but then still use facebook/twitter directly without issue?)
Yeah, I switched to Xubuntu a while ago and haven't looked back. Part of it was that my 10" eeepc (my only computer running linux) just couldn't deal anymore with the bloat, but I also didn't like the non-bloaty changes.
Next step was going to be the xfce flavor of mint...but Xubuntu has been working just fine so I have had no reason to switch. I don't think I am set up on a LTS release, so I might make the switch to mint when the updates stop. The computer is getting pretty long in the tooth though... Bought a new battery and switched to an SSD a while ago which sped it up enough to keep using when I eat breakfast, but websites are getting so filled with javascript that it really struggles. Used to be able to avoid the bloat with flashblock and an ad blocker...but now it's all javascript and html5 junk that I can't turn off without destroying the page functionality. I don't think people realize how much overhead some of those tiebacks to facebook/twitter/etc (for tracking/commenting features) add to their site.
Huh? The house doesn't have an advantage. They charge you a fee for playing at their table.
Of course, when they take a rake, it means it is no longer a zero sum game (less money leaves the table than comes in), but you can still win by being better than the other players.
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They also let you set the timer on the photo, so you could give someone a nice generous 10 seconds, or you could say they get to see it for 2. Some phones require a second or so of holding the buttons to get a screenshot, so if the image is only there for 2 seconds, you had better be really fast.
You also have to know you are going to want to save the photo. If most of the photos you receive are innocuous, are you going to be ready to do the screenshot dance? You only get one chance and it is only around for a max of 10 seconds.
The only reliable option is an app that grabs the unviewed images and stores them. These work since snapchat downloads the image before showing it to you...giving you plenty of time to find the barely obfuscated file before viewing it in snapchat and having it get deleted.
I've never bothered though. For the most part, I like snapchat because it doesn't clog up everything else with dumb pictures. A group MMS will send as a message (not data), can have a large filesize attachment, can take some time to load, and will be stored in your phone forever unless you delete it. For stupid little throwaway "snaps", it is kind of nice that they just go away when you are done.
Unfortunately, the ads on the site for Paint.NET seem to come from doubleclick and google. So my guess isn't that this is due to a permissive site owner. If they found those ads objectionable, those providers would be able to serve them something better (most of the time; there are always dirtbag advertisers who mislabel things and try to cheat the system in order to have their ads show up where they are not wanted)
You get to a download page and there are ads that scream things like "DOWNLOAD NOW", "CLICK HERE TO INSTALL", etc.
Frequent/savvy users are able to figure this out, but when you tell your parents that they can get this free photo editor, they end up with the same damn crapware on their computer as they would have had if they just went ahead and tried to pirate photoshop. The same thing is true about Paint.Net's download page...on their page, I see two giant colorful "Download" buttons that are actually ads. The actual download link is a standard text link that says "Paint.NET v3.5.11" which takes you to another page that has another giant colorful "Download" button. On that page, the real download links look like fake links...the button says "Download Now DotPDN LLC" which doesn't sound at all like what you want.
Sourceforge isn't quite as bad...the ads aren't always there, and often they show up on the post download ad-page (the one that says "your download will start shortly" so there if you click them, you often end up with both the file you want *and* the crapware...leaving a 50/50 chance the user will get the right file.
I get why the pirate sites have these misleading ads (and it probably helps discourage people from software piracy since they try it, get some weird downloader and ad-toolbar instead of the software they were looking for, and then give up)...but when respectable free alternatives resort to the same shady ads? wtf?
"TAG, You're it."
"TEACHER!!!!!"
I don't plan to change from AT&T anytime soon....the providers are all equally shitty and have comparable pricing. If I don't use the subsidy, I am still paying for it. My grandparents have phones on the same plan, and because it has taken them this long to figure out their current basic flip phones, it's not like we want to get them new devices.
The best move is probably to use their upgrades on the free iphone and sell them NIB on ebay. That probably nets out above saving the upgrades just in case a smartphone user on the plan breaks or loses their phone (since the odds of that happening are low and the profit from the two iphones probably exceeds the expected value of replacing a broken phone).
Maybe this means we will finally get Jellybean on the Moto X (a phone made by a google owned company that was released with a non-current OS well after the new version had been released).
The phones got a little taller with the iPhone 5, but they have basically been the same form factor since 2007. And the interface/buttons have remained basically the same (although, I would love to have a dedicated back button that is always in exactly the same place).
I sat there with an open contract for a good 6 months waiting for a phone that I actually wanted to replace my old phone. The android options were huge...the S4 and HTC One are giants and the small screen options were super thick (since they were "budget" models). I wanted an S4 mini but it didn't seem to be in a hurry to make it to AT&T (and the HTC one mini was barely smaller than the HTC one despite having a smaller screen). Finally I went with a moto X which was a decent size (much smaller than the HTC one despite the same size screen) and had a contoured back to make up for the bulk a bit. Even then, I had to deal with the new trend towards getting rid of the dedicated "menu" button. I still have the back button in the same place in every app, but now the menu can be anywhere.
If I had joined the apple-borg, the only reason to delay buying a new phone at contract expiration would be if the next model was about to be released.
It seems kind of silly to refuse to sell something that could be used for capital punishment or torture. Especially when that thing is already restricted to medical professionals. Any drug used by anesthesiologists could probably be used as part an execution...as well as plenty of drugs that are not used by anesthesiologists but would have similar effects in high doses (if they are not going to wake up, you don't much care about side effects or potential wake-up complications). I understand that the EU is trying to take a political stance here (not that different from google refusing to to do certain things in china based on government policies), but this is just dumb.
What would they do if the US just decided to switch to a bottle of vodka and a bottle of aspirin, administered by feeding tube?
None of the tricks actually do anything, but the explosive force actually dissipates pretty fast (and when you do open a shaken can and get spray, you are getting the tail end of the force that built up). Pausing to set the can down still and tap on it gives it enough time to dissipate below the point of spraying all over the place.
Also, the girl was totally fine. Maybe an ever so slightly scraped knee. Compare this to someone I know who was jogging in a straight line and got hit from behind by a bike that wasn't paying attention...she broke a bone or two and the cyclist was uninjured. Sometimes life's not fair.
Heck, I broke my hand while riding on a multi-use path, far from a road. Some girl was jogging, saw her friend on the other side of the path, and decided to make a 90 degree turn and bolt all of the way across the path without looking. Even though I was slowed down and riding fully on the other side of the path (because I am paranoid of joggers who don't look behind them when they step to the left to pass someone), there was no way to avoid the body that was suddenly in front of me. Ended up essentially punching the ground with my hand that was still on the bars and then hitting my head into it (cracked my helmet so it's probably good that I was wearing it). Ended up with a boxer's fracture, a tooth that was still attached but needed a root canal, and some stitches where that tooth went through my lip...all of this while slowed down on a bike path far from traffic.
So if you've managed to do all of those activities for 40 years without breaking something, all you've really managed to do is not be unlucky (or you've got really strong bones).
I still run linux on a netbook, but I switched my HTPC to windows. XBMC runs about the same, but netflix works perfectly.
Of course, now my complaint is that both the Netflix and the Amazon Prime streaming videos are still crippled on my HTPC. You cannot watch HD video content from amazon on the PC. You can watch it in HD on a roku or on some crappy blu-ray player that has the plugin, but you can't watch HD on a full power HTPC. Netflix will let you play the videos in HD, but they still won't give you 5.1 sound unless you use a roku. If it is a silverlight limitation, why not just release a client? The majority of people don't have 5.1 setups and won't care, and those that do probably won't mind installing a separate player app.
At least he isn't arguing that the Fifth Amendment is a bad thing again....
How much weight in cocaine or heroin filled balloons can a drug mule swallow? There you are talking about an expensive airplane ticket and some amount of monetary compensation for a person who can only carry a limited amount of drugs and could roll over on you if they get caught. Not hard to imagine that an inexpensive drone would worthwhile.
Even if the investment is more than paying for a mule, how many times can your drone make the trip before it gets caught? It probably doesn't even have to land at the drop off. A well wrapped brick of drugs can survive a pretty decent fall (and you could always have a small parachute). You could just rig up a targeting system and drop it somewhere deserted and make the pickup when the coast is clear.
It used a round charging connector...it had a mini-USB (not micro) port, but that was for data connections only and could not be used to charge.
Except that it isn't high alcohol content that makes beer safe to drink even if the original water source wasn't great (the beer that ancient armies were brewing to ensure a safe drinking supply was not strong) and the fact that drinking most beers leads to a net increase in hydration...
The president gets to direct the military without input from Congress (they get to declare war, but the president orders around the armed forces). Congress needs an additional check against the executive branch since they would otherwise have nothing. In the case of the ACA, they don't have nothing--they have the ability to amend or repeal it, and they had the chance to not pass t in the first place.
Second, you can exercise this power without holding up the entire government. When congress blocked all funding and indirect support to South Vietnam, they did so with a standalone act--they didn't bring about a shutdown of the government. In that case Congress wanted something different than the executive branch, and so the worked their power over the budget to bring it about. With this situation, they know they would never be able to pass a standalone bill through the senate, so instead they are trying to hold up the whole government with the hopes that the threat will force the Senate to cave. The senate doesn't have to cave though...they can just send it back to the house with an amendment and make it their problem again.
Can't speak directly about the japanese systems since they have some more modern stuff, but in the US they are *old*. We haven't started building a new plant since 1974 or a new reactor since 1977 (though they did start some new reactors at existing plants earlier this year).
The control rooms at these places are filled with tons of manual buttons and switches. Many of them look like this. I have no doubt that they are reliable and have failsafes, but a physical switch doesn't have a "are you sure" dialog or stop to ask for an admin password. Sure, switches might have those little covers you have to lift up to press a button, and the most important switches could be controlled with a key, but if somebody wants to push a button, it is getting pushed.
We hear a lot about how much reactor design has come along in the 35 years it has been since we last built one (just think about how long ago that was)...but don't forget that along with efficiency and physical safety, there have been a LOT of improvements in monitoring and control (only a fraction of which have been able to be integrated into the old plants).
The senate is saying "We don't like this budget. Give us what we want or we won't sign it".
The house is saying "We don't like this law. Give us what we want (waivers to individuals so that they have more time to fight it) or we won't give you a budget that can make it through the senate".
If there were a non-partisian senator looking at the budget (like that exists...), I think they would take a look at it and say "this budget is flawed: it doesn't provide for the funding of a major government program and therefor I can't approve it without sending it back to the house for modification".
Honestly it all seems rather dumb. Refusing to fund the ACA is like refusing to pay up on a bet that you lost. They put it to a vote (and constitutional challenges and all other sorts of things) and it still made it through...they lost the bet and now they are refusing to pony up.
I've had a WHR-G125 going strong since maybe 2007 with DD-WRT. It has always been good and bugs have been worked out over time--and bugs usually meant things in DD-WRT that were not tied to general operations (sometimes it wouldn't accept settings changes without a reboot, the "usage log" would fill up or otherwise stop after a month or two of operation without a reboot)...actual routing activity never had a problem that I can think of.
Lost track of them when they were banned from bringing products to the US for a few years...looking to upgrade (only because I would like to have the built in switch be gigabit and some wireless N might be nice) and I will take a look at the new Buffalo models. Had previously just been waiting until an ASUS or something else with DD-WRT compatibility showed up cheap on slickdeals.
They were using smartphones long before the US caught on outside of the blackberry business users.
Some of this was definitely because of the carriers. The Galaxy S was rebranded for each major carrier (the Captivate on AT&T, the Fascinate Verizon, the Vibrant on T-Mobile), each one of them having a unique outer shell design rather than just shipping the same damn phone that was in Europe for a year. I think they all *lost* features (FM radio, LED flash, etc) coming to america...
I haven't looked into it too much, but can you block this crap but still be able to use the services that are connected to them? (i.e. can I block facebook/twitter integrations in hosts but then still use facebook/twitter directly without issue?)
Next step was going to be the xfce flavor of mint...but Xubuntu has been working just fine so I have had no reason to switch. I don't think I am set up on a LTS release, so I might make the switch to mint when the updates stop. The computer is getting pretty long in the tooth though... Bought a new battery and switched to an SSD a while ago which sped it up enough to keep using when I eat breakfast, but websites are getting so filled with javascript that it really struggles. Used to be able to avoid the bloat with flashblock and an ad blocker...but now it's all javascript and html5 junk that I can't turn off without destroying the page functionality. I don't think people realize how much overhead some of those tiebacks to facebook/twitter/etc (for tracking/commenting features) add to their site.
Of course, when they take a rake, it means it is no longer a zero sum game (less money leaves the table than comes in), but you can still win by being better than the other players.