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User: MachineShedFred

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  1. Re:If only on Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC Breached · · Score: 1

    They are getting the "card present" rate of less than 2%. They had to get retailers to sign on too, and retailers aren't going to pay more than they are now.

    This is an initiative for Apple that does slightly better than break-even, but adds a shload of value to present and future iPhone models.

  2. Re:Competition on Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC Breached · · Score: 1

    Except it doesn't work like that - Apple doesn't have a monopoly in mobile app sales. Far from it, if you listen to Google's press releases regarding the Play store.

    Antitrust works across product segments, not specific platforms. Ford doesn't get sued for changing Ford motors to be incompatible with aftermarket stuff, even though Ford has a manufacturing monopoly over Ford vehicles.

  3. Re:Competition on Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC Breached · · Score: 1

    And should this happen, everyone* wins.

    * by "everyone" I mean "everyone except CurrentC"

  4. Re:The unclassified network? on Hackers Breach White House Network · · Score: 1

    It's still an insecure-by-design network. This is like hacking past a NAT router on $famousPerson's house.

    No one, including the White House, gives a shit.

  5. We already had this? on Windows 10 Gets a Package Manager For the Command Line · · Score: 0

    which enable administrators and power users comfortable with the command line to install software packages without the need for a graphical installer.

    Haven't we already had this since like Windows 2000 in the form of msiexec.exe /i \\path\to\package.msi /qb- ?

    I guess they added wget to it in order to download it from the Microsoft Store, and that makes it newsworthy?

  6. Re:Good for them on Rite Aid and CVS Block Apple Pay and Google Wallet · · Score: 1

    Because of the part you didn't quote.

  7. Re:This'll end up in court... on Rite Aid and CVS Block Apple Pay and Google Wallet · · Score: 1

    so what do they bring to the table?

    Far better security. When you use your PayPass chip in your current card, it just reads the magstripe info via NFC or RFID. You might as well have swiped the magstripe.

    Google and Apple bring tokenized transactions, implemented in differing ways.

  8. Re:Good luck with that. on Rite Aid and CVS Block Apple Pay and Google Wallet · · Score: 1

    After having to screw around with all my automatic bill payments due to getting a new debit card number because of Home Depot's terrible security and shitty point-of-sale equipment, I'm okay with a few companies putting some thought towards making digital payment far more secure, which both Apple Pay and Google Wallet accomplish.

    They may not be any more or less convenient, but they are a shitload more secure.

  9. Re:If you tax the rich, they'll leave on Steve Ballmer Gets Billion-Dollar Tax Write-Off For Being Basketball Baron · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Most of society, including wildly successful people across all faiths, disciplines, and cultures.

  10. Re:What a wonderful article on How Sony, Intel, and Unix Made Apple's Mac a PC Competitor · · Score: 1

    Boot camp previous to Intel Macs? Nope.

    Boot camp is the combination of some helper software Apple wrote to streamline the shrinking and repartitioning of a disk, and the UEFI CSM.

    Macs previous to Intel were not using UEFI and had no access to the CSM. They used OpenFirmware, like other PowerPC-based devices.

  11. Re:I don't know I've had similar problems on How Sony, Intel, and Unix Made Apple's Mac a PC Competitor · · Score: 1

    The switch to PowerPC happened in 1993. There was still a nice long roadmap in 2002 for that to be a useable architecture right until Motorola spun off their semiconductor business (Freescale), and IBM decided that CPUs that don't require their own coal furnace to operate weren't worth the bother. Thus, Apple was screwed in the notebook space for several years offering slightly better G4 chips, while their desktops could continue with PowerPC "G5" CPUs.

    The switch to Intel was purely because Intel saw the way of the future that IBM refused - less TDW means better products that people want to buy. They ditched the shitty Pentium 4 and started working the Pentium-M into the "Core" architecture right around the same time that Apple started porting OS X to x64.

  12. Re:Automation and jobs on Automation Coming To Restaurants, But Not Because of Minimum Wage Hikes · · Score: 0

    Unskilled labor doesn't have to remain unskilled - there are many options available for people to learn how to do other essential jobs that cannot easily be replaced.

    Unmotivated labor doesn't stand a chance - if they get replaced by automation, they are unlikely to go to a vocational school to learn how to weld or wire a new electrical circuit.

  13. Re:Remember when WSJ had a modicrum of decency? on Automation Coming To Restaurants, But Not Because of Minimum Wage Hikes · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think this is still in the Journal's ballpark. What was not economical for McD's to do before (automate ordering) possibly becomes so when you're getting forced to pay someone $15/hr to stand at a counter and push buttons.

    This is what the minimum wage hike advocates never seem to understand - when you raise the labor expense, many more options become economical to the employer.

    (This post is not an opinion on whether the minimum wage should be raised or not, so don't flame me. It is simply an opinion on the possible consequences.)

  14. Re:Please Microsoft... on The Classic Control Panel In Windows May Be Gone · · Score: 1

    Yeah, except I always type in compmgnt.msc and get jack shit. After all these years you'd think I'd figure that one out, but I spend most of my days on OS X / Linux now...

  15. Re:Tesla wasn't the target, it was China on Michigan Latest State To Ban Direct Tesla Sales · · Score: 1

    How do you multiply one integer that ends in zero with one that ends in five and get a last digit of 2?

    Go back to the third grade, you missed something.

  16. Re:Tesla wasn't the target, it was China on Michigan Latest State To Ban Direct Tesla Sales · · Score: 1

    Unless the charging station already has every charging cable being used - then you are stopping for 30 + n minutes.

    When all pumps at a fuel station are being used, it's only a few minute wait. Tesla is doing what it can to mitigate this issue, but it's still a big issue.

  17. Re:Tesla wasn't the target, it was China on Michigan Latest State To Ban Direct Tesla Sales · · Score: 1

    You CAN afford to put solar on your roof. There are several companies that do solar installs based on a "Power Purchase Agreement" rather than an outright purchase, or will finance the panels at a price that still has you saving money per month over what you are paying for electricity now.

  18. Re:Just keep it off the servers.... on The Classic Control Panel In Windows May Be Gone · · Score: 1

    What, you don't want Live Messenger tiles on your SQL server?

  19. Re:Please Microsoft... on The Classic Control Panel In Windows May Be Gone · · Score: 2

    Or, better yet, in Windows 2012 when you right click on the computer and select "Manage", you get the completely useless Server Manager application that takes forever to populate with data and become usable rather than the computer management MMC snap-in that we're actually looking for since Windows 2000.

    Now I have to either run MMC manually and add the snap-in, or use the shitty start "menu" to click on administrative tools, and click computer management.

    Thanks for that.

  20. Re:Please Microsoft... on The Classic Control Panel In Windows May Be Gone · · Score: 1

    click on desktop, press alt+F4.

    Seriously, that's been there since Windows 3.1 or earlier.

  21. Re:The Orion is totally over designed .. on A Look At Orion's Launch Abort System · · Score: 1

    Buran was side-stacked just like shuttle. There are very important design considerations to putting something that big on top of a rocket stack, including the structure of the stages below have to be much heavier, the wing acts like a giant lever on the wrong end, etc.

    No, that would NOT be much simpler and safer. There's a reason why every orbital space plane has been side-stacked (Shuttle, Buran, X-37).

    Also: Buran had a total of what, 37 minutes of orbital flight, unmanned?

  22. Reverse the polarity of the emitters! on Australian Physicists Build Reversible Tractor Beam · · Score: 1

    To manipulate the particle, the team move the position of the hotspot by carefully controlling the polarization of the laser beam."

    And you all thought that the Star Trek writers were just spouting nonsense...

  23. Re:It is opt-out in OSX. on If You're Connected, Apple Collects Your Data · · Score: 1

    It's even better than that - ipfw is actually deprecated. pf is now the preferred firewall since Mac OS X 10.8. More info: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT...

  24. Re:Desktop is dying we need a good Workstation OS on OS X 10.10 Yosemite Review · · Score: 1

    I think it's partially because vertical touchscreens are ergonomically terrible. And, with the emphasis on thin and light, the addition of a digitizer would create thickness they don't want, and the use of said touchscreen would cantilever the base of your notebook off the desk and slam it back down repeatedly.

    Plus, the usage of a touchscreen on a keyboard-centric device just sucks. I'm typing - oh, now I have to reach full arm at the display with my wrist at a weird angle, now I have to find the home row again, now I have to reach full arm extension again, etc. With a trackpad, you can just move one hand an inch or two, and be right back where you were. And good luck trying to actually hit some of these checkboxes / window widgets with your meaty appendage - most of them are less than 32 x 32 px.

    There's a reason why a lot of people like the "cat tongue" / "mouse nipple" on Windows laptops - you can use it with even less hand movement from the keyboard, and far more accurately. I'm hoping that touchscreen laptops are nothing more than yet another fad that will go away.

  25. Re:Bigger fuckup than John Akers on IBM Pays GlobalFoundries $1.5 Billion To Shed Its Chip Division · · Score: 2

    So maybe they shouldn't have chased off their chip customers years ago by refusing to make a functioning piece of silicon that didn't require the Hoover Dam to power it, and a cooling tower to make sure it didn't melt?

    And the POWER line of CPUs dies with a whimper.