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User: PIPBoy3000

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  1. Re:Update in the next android on PIN-Cracking Robot To Be Showed Off At Defcon · · Score: 1

    A patient prankster could make your phone unusable for a good long while. Similarly, setting your phone somewhere overnight that periodically tries to unlock the phone would mean you couldn't use it for 16 hours or so.

  2. Re:That's the police for you on Ten Cops Can't Recover Police Chief's Son's iPhone · · Score: 2

    I had Prey installed on my son's laptop, which was stolen along with a bunch of other things. After I told Prey it was stolen, we got a geolocation hit in a nearby town with the name of the hotel in the WiFi. The local police went out at midnight and collected it all for us. We drove over in the morning and brought them brownies.

  3. Fixing computer problems on Magical Thinking Is Good For You · · Score: 1

    Sometimes I run defrag and delete my temp folders when weird issues show up. It seems to work enough times that I keep doing it. I can't tell if that's a fact-based decision or just superstition.

  4. Careful with anecdotes on Man Barred From Being Alone With Daughter After Informing Police of Porn On PC · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I recently had a great experience with police. We had a break-in, and all the laptops were stolen. Fortunately we had Prey on one of them, and it tracked the thieves to a hotel in a nearby town. The local police investigated and recovered almost everything. We drove over the next day and brought them brownies.

  5. 24 doctors on Maine Senator Wants Independent Study of TSA's Body Scanners · · Score: 1

    Looking at the demographics (PDF), it looks like 222 have law degrees and 24 have medical degrees.

  6. Dust Devils on Thick Dust Alters NASA Mars Rover Plans · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's my understanding that dust devils have done a pretty good job of keeping the solar panels clean over the years.

  7. Re:My daughter was extremely upset as well. on Why Google Is Disabling Kids' Gmail Accounts · · Score: 1

    A similar thing happened to me. My finance was signing my daughter up for a game when she put in her actual age. This purged her account completely, which was really annoying. I drilled into everyone's heads that they should always lie about their age on the Internet, which goes against my general policy of honesty.

    The moral of the story is that laws have unintended consequences.

  8. Re:Possible treatments on Terry Pratchett Considers Assisted Suicide · · Score: 1

    It looks like aluminum likely doesn't cause alzheimer's. There was also some evidence that high doses of zinc can cause problems.
    On the other hand, a recent study suggests that too much zinc might be the problem. In this laboratory experiment, zinc caused beta amyloid from cerebrospinal fluid -- the fluid that bathes the brain -- to form clumps similar to the plaques of Alzheimer's disease.

    My general rule of thumb is to stay physically active, eat well, and stay mentally sharp. Mega doses of whatever likely aren't going to help much.

  9. Depression on Terry Pratchett Considers Assisted Suicide · · Score: 1

    My mother in law is currently dying of cancer, in Oregon, with probably a few weeks to live. She's pretty depressed about it, though isn't considering suicide. My personal goal is to have her take the right medication so that she's as pain-free and comfortable as possible. Hospice is also covering 100% of all medical fees.

    I guess what I'm saying is that legislating who can or can't commit suicide based on depression isn't necessarily the solution. Taking care of people so that they can be as high-functioning, pain-free, and financially secure is perhaps a more practical solution.

  10. Assorted adventure games on Ask Slashdot: Best Adventure Game To Start With? · · Score: 1

    Neverwinter Nights can be picked up for $10 and runs on older machines. There is a huge amount of content out there, though the engine is a bit dated, people have made lots of things.

    Minecraft is the mainstay in our household, perfect for a ten year-old. Build, explore, mine, and create your own world.

    We had a good time with Trine, and up to three can play. It's a pretty game, though hooking up multiple mice and keyboards to a PC can be tricky.

  11. Re:I really like Woz but.. on The Dying DVR Box and Woz Wisdom · · Score: 1

    There is certainly value with long-term projects in education (I have a master's degree in biology education but am not currently teaching).

    At the same time, I think there's immense value in giving regular feedback to students. I'm most fond of unified smaller projects which lead up to larger projects, with guidance along the way. Imaging starting a year-long course by saying "Everyone, build a content management system!" and not providing any indication of how they're doing until the end.

  12. Wyden sure seems to support net neutrality on Senator Wyden Asks DHS To Explain Domain Seizures · · Score: 1
  13. Re:Artificial Brains? on A Mind Made From Memristors · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is my great-great-great-grandfather. He has had his head replaced twice and his, erm, "handle" replaced three times. Grandad is a randy old gentleman.

  14. Security Essentials on AVG 2011 Update Causes Widespread Problems For 64-Bit Windows · · Score: 4, Informative

    I used to recommend AVG, and have since switched to telling family members to use Windows Security Essentials. AVG isn't the lightweight, unobtrusive piece of software it used to be.

  15. Re:Why this is important on NASA Finds New Life (This Afternoon) · · Score: 1

    It could also mean that panspermia happens (life seeding earth), but that there's not just a single type of life floating around in space. I can envision a universe full of bacteria that make their way into assorted planetary niches every once in awhile.

  16. 3DS, iPhone, Android on The 5-Year Console Cycle Is Dead · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think most of the innovation is in the hand held arena these days. New markets often get the focus of developers and manufacturers for awhile, but I think in time we'll circle back to consoles as graphics, processing, and sensing technologies improve.

  17. Declining Subscriptions on Pay Or Else, News Site Threatens · · Score: 5, Funny

    Seems like a perfect solution to declining readership - sue them until they pay.

  18. Choices on Google Responds To Net Neutrality Reviews · · Score: 1

    Comcast is clearly the best and fastest in my area, but there are others. I had Qwest DSL for a long while, through a local ISP. There's a wireless ISP that requires carrying around a good-sized radio receiver. Dial-up still exists.

    Like you say, though, there's just Comcast for me. With Verizon moving out of the wired business, I doubt I'll get FIOS anytime soon.

  19. Short-hand on Regenerating Muscle Cells With Newt-Inspired Tech · · Score: 3, Informative

    I believe this is simply short-hand for "selected by evolutionary processes". Even good science writers like to use "designed" on occasion, just like how physicists talk about electrons "wanting" to find the lowest energy state.

  20. Emergent Behavior on Market Data Firm Spots the Tracks of Bizarre Robot Trading · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I suspect that a fair amount of this is emergent behavior - complex patterns from simple rules. For example, if two bots are making test purchases of a stock, one penny greater than the last buy, up to a fixed, you end up getting these odd patterns. The two programmers may not have planned the interaction at all, though they have these weird Game of Life sort of patterns in the data.

  21. Editor girlfriend on Sentence Spacing — 1 Space or 2? · · Score: 1

    I tried to switch to a single space for my editor girlfriend, but I find my 30+ years of typing impossible to shake. Fortunately she still loves me. Plus my Droid adds a period if I hit the space bar twice.

  22. An anecdote of one on UK Courts Rule Nintendo DS R4 Cards Illegal · · Score: 1

    Actually, I bought an R4 for homebrew. There are a lot of simple games and applications like Colors! that easily make the cost worthwhile.

  23. Parallel? on Intel's 50Gbps Light Peak Successor · · Score: 1

    I look forward to using parallel ports again. Of course, I may have problems figuring out which of the million pins just got a tiny bend in them.

  24. Convenience over Quality on Sony's Blue-Violet Laser the Future Blu-ray? · · Score: 1

    I recently became a Netflix convert. The DVD-in-the-mail trick is okay, as I'm a patient guy and don't mind planning ahead. What really impressed me was the streaming. True, it's not perfect, but the value of convenience far outweighs subtle quality issues.

  25. McLibel on Google Spent $100M Defending Viacom Lawsuit · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's not always expensive to litigate. The classic example is the one against McDonald's.