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User: Rie+Beam

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Comments · 453

  1. Password Strength on Dropbox Password Goof Let Any Password Work For 4 Hours · · Score: 1

    Password strength is great, but this does go to show that no matter how many locks you put on your front door, if someone else forgets to close it, you're still going to lose your television...

  2. Man, on WSJ and Al-Jazeera Lure Whistleblowers · · Score: 1

    Lest we forget why Wikileaks became the sensation it has.

  3. Identifying OP's Target on Ask Slashdot: Web Site Editing Software For the Long Haul? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm a little confused -- are you looking for an online CMS? Or an offline tool for editing? Because that seems to be more than half of the recommendations coming up.

    If you're looking for content management, your options are pretty much limited to how much power you ultimately want over your content. Drupal has a little bit of a learning curve but is easily the most flexible options in the pack; outside of that, try browsing a couple of distribution sites, or hell:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_content_management_systems

    Of course, when it comes down to it, just simply learning to hand-code is not going to be the end of the world, I promise. Nothing has changed in the time you've described on the code-side of things except for bolted-on additions, and browsers are still pretty forgiving to older code (programmers could only wish for the kinds of backwards-compatibility HTML has had during its existence). HTML is not that difficult. CSS is not that difficult. AJAX might be a bit of a push, but JQuery is pretty solid for adding a little extra "zing" for not a lot of extra work. Look into it:

    http://www.w3schools.com/

  4. The Shack...sure. on RadioShack Trying To Return To Its DIY Roots · · Score: 1

    Known about this for about a month now, it's been a very badly kept secret with the ground floor guys at RS. From what I've gathered, it's the new CEOs push to really get back to what drew people to the store in the first place -- the "Oooh, neat" factor. How they execute it, however, is still up in the air; most RSs are dinosaurs in terms of getting new product in / clearing out old product. My experience with them was mostly replacing/repacking stuff that had its casing yellowed because they've been in the store so long.

    To be fair, I can understand wanting to diversify a bit -- it's basically been focusing so much on cellphones for the past decade that it's no wonder that it might be tempted to garner more sales than from a market that has since become extremely competetive and harder to pull a large profit from without the messiah-like capabilities of its more salesman-like staff (the few are hard to find; the turnover is pretty awful).

    I'd just be happy if A) It became a geek store again that B) could actually turn a good, fair profit. Dreams.

  5. No. on The Petition to Classify Wikipedia a "World Wonder" · · Score: 1

    A World Heritage site should be something that exists in the world; something we interact with and can learn from.

    Wikipedia is a very fascinating project and I wouldn't mind having some sort of international intervention in its preservation, but it's inappropriate to put it in the same ranks as a 4000-year-old forest or a historical church. It's a website; there should be better channels than this for it.

  6. Oh! on Nano-Viewing Record Broken · · Score: 1

    There are my keys...

  7. Interpretation on Jeff Bezos Calls Sales Tax Requirements On Amazon Unconstitutional · · Score: 1

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_Auto_Transit,_Inc._v._Brady

    Two questions:
    1) Does the use of outside businesses for shipping constitute nexus on the part of Amazon? Probably not.
    2) Although Amazon forwards packages to these states, are they using any public services in said states outside of the shipping company? Not really.

    Truth be told, I think he's got a point under the current law. Simply sending a lot of packages to a place doesn't constitute owing that place a tax, at least on the part of Amazon.

    I think there is some murky ground when it comes to what the customer should or shouldn't be responsible for in terms of taxation, but I don't feel it is Amazon's responsibility to collect this tax by force.

  8. Re:What Isn't Unconstitutional? on Jeff Bezos Calls Sales Tax Requirements On Amazon Unconstitutional · · Score: 1

    I'm assuming there's supposed to be an "EXCLUSIVE" in one of those two spots, no?

    But yes, that just gives more credence to why the term is overused. It's like saying because something isn't in the kernel, it shouldn't be included in any releases of an OS; in theory you could have a micro-government subsisting on just the constitution, but people demand things like police services and Flash 10, so you make room for them at lower levels, where they can do less harm to the overall structure.

    Also -- it's kinda surprising I never noticed the comparison between government models and OS frameworks before.

  9. I don't understand on Jeff Bezos Calls Sales Tax Requirements On Amazon Unconstitutional · · Score: 1

    ' “We’re no different from other big chains of retailers,” Bezos said. “They don’t collect sales taxes in states where they don’t have [employees], either.” '

    They also don't sell merchandise in those states to consumers.

    I do sympathize somewhat -- it seems like a bit of a burden to any online retailer to have to log and track sales tax for every single state in the United States in order to do business online. However, simply selling your product directly to consumers also shouldn't exempt you from having to pay sales taxes, either. I feel like there should just be a separate tax pool for online sales, essentially creating an imaginary taxed "online" state, the funds of which could then be proportioned to the various states on a per-state percentage.

    Or perhaps we could drop sales taxes in general and just submit to a higher tax rate in this country. No, that'd be silly...

  10. This just in... on Worm Descendants From Columbia Disaster Relaunched · · Score: 2

    When asked about this achievement for C. elegans, the species did not respond, instead opting to reproduce asexual for a period of three to five days.

  11. What Isn't Unconstitutional? on Jeff Bezos Calls Sales Tax Requirements On Amazon Unconstitutional · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm just waiting for the Constitution to be declared unconstitutional, at which point a dark vortex will begin swirling underneath Washington D.C. and devour the National Mall...

  12. Re:Hunting on Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Persistent Bacteria Go Down · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, but we've yet to develop nano-sized shotguns, so that'll have to wait.

  13. Let me be the first to say it... on Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Persistent Bacteria Go Down · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm taking this with a grain of salt.

  14. Perhaps this isn't a bad thing... on The Rise of Filter Bubbles · · Score: 1

    If being constantly bombarded by birth theories is what's required of me to be a reader of the "free press", I think I'll just pick up a subscription to Pravda, thanks.

  15. Listen! on Square Enix Facing Big Losses For 2010 · · Score: 2

    Get me:

    (1) A New Final Fantasy on a tablet and other portable device that, (2) While still pretty, (3) Has a fun and exciting mechanism incorporating touchscreen RPGing and (4) Isn't prepared by a poll of "things teenagers like". Make sure that it (6) Has a triage that goes: Gameplay, Immersiveness, Storyline, and then Graphics; and (7) Has an ability, in some form, to interact with other players, be it via Bluetooth or over the Internet.

    You risk falling victim to being another dead game company if you continue to emphasize high-budget "Wow!" games over ones that will actually draw new players into the series. You don't have to abandon the concepts you've developed, but please, just try something new. Is that so much to ask?

  16. Easy. on Tech Experts Look To Help Save the Postal Service · · Score: 1

    Raise the damned rates! And I do mean by a substantial amount.

    If your customer base has shrunken, you've lost out to a competitor. If it's essentially vanished, you offer nothing they don't. Despite what may be said, the Post Office isn't dead -- it's just broke. You want to mail a letter? You want to make sure it gets there?

    Five bucks to mail a personal letter. You may hate it, but when it comes time to mail a letter to your girlfriend in California, five bucks won't seem like such a burden after all. And that's the key -- capturing that novelty market that uses it from time to time for the physical sentiment of having an object sent by one person in their hands.

  17. Re:The problem with USPS is ... on Tech Experts Look To Help Save the Postal Service · · Score: 1

    The problem with those ideas is that they're basically already being covered by two strong competitors who have garnered people's trust. The USPS is redundant and perhaps, as the weaker candidate with little to offer the general public, it should be eliminated.

  18. Good for the farm! on Real Life Farmville · · Score: 1

    Good news for the farm, they get £300,000 even if all their crops flop, and since the farm gets to create the choices being voted on, that'll probably be unlikely. Profit ahoy!

  19. UP? on Microsoft TouchStudio Uses Phone To Program Phone · · Score: 1

    So, when can be have an ultra-portable device with on-the-go programming in mind? I'd find it very amusing/interesting to pound out a program while waiting at the bus stop.

  20. Re:Wait what? Bonuses depending on results? on Google Ties Employee Bonuses To +1 Success · · Score: 1

    Actually, if done right, this might be an interesting exercise in management. Make everyone's bonuses directly correlate to the quality of work of other parts of the business. Make it so that everyone's bonus is dependent on everyone else's work, in various branches, and just sit back and watch everything self-organize...or burn to the ground. Either way, you'd still have your golden parachute...

  21. Purpose? on Google Ties Employee Bonuses To +1 Success · · Score: 1

    So Google, with its pretty sweet database of what people are searching for all over the Internet, feels the need to inject bias and conflicting opinions into the matter?

    Part of Google's success was -removing- the personal opinions of those doing the searching, favoring what they ultimately searched for over what they felt was good. This gives much crisper results than simply asking people, "So, what do you like?", since for some unusual reason, people always seem to like glitchy porn sites and random advertisement-filled linkholes.

  22. It Makes Sense! on Why Being Wrong Makes Humans So Smart · · Score: 3, Funny

    So that's why I feel smarter after staying at a Holiday Inn.

  23. Authors Make Case for Used Books on Game Designer Makes Case For Used Games · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As gamers age, they begin to seek out copies of games they played as kids. I know I have and I promise I'm not alone.

    If you want to make more money, fighting the used game market isn't the way to go. Release a system for $100, make the games $10, and then we'll talk.

    Maybe paying $50-$100 for a single game tends to turn some people off.

  24. Lock-In on Why Netbooks Will Soon Cost $99 · · Score: 1

    Step One: Integrate Card in a Specialized "Mobile Laptop"
    Step Two: Offer Laptop for Free w/ Two Year Service Plan
    Step Three: People might begin to choose a wireless broadband service over their home network.

    Extra Step: Keep charging for "extra cards" if they want their home-based setups to use the service.

  25. What Could They Possibly Do? on US Army Sees Twitter As Possible Terrorist "Operation Tool" · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Honestly. All this is is a single expression of the huge networking of computers we call "The Internet". Even if they found a bizarre way to shut down Twitter, confiscate the servers, etc, there is nothing that cannot prevent a competing service from filling the role. After awhile, it leaves only one option.

    Go home. Internet's closed.