>"Renewable Energy Set To Be Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels By 2020"
Or we figure out effective fusion, finally, and all our problems with energy and everything related to it just go "poof"! Energy related nation conflict, emissions, waste, land use, most of the danger, most of the cost, supply issues, many of the grid issues, could all quickly disappear.
OK, so I am living in a dream world. But it COULD happen.... based on how long it has already taken, probably not by 2020, unfortunately.
It isn't a rare case. I have entered wrong zip codes by accident several times from several vendors over several years and every time was denied the ability to use the card until the correct zip code was entered.
And gas is one of the most used fraud cases for stolen/lost cards. Not sure why, but probably because the purchase is valuable enough (large tank of high octane can be $70+) and you don't have to interact with a teller.
It means when your card is lost or stolen, the perp often will have no idea what your zip code is and thus cannot use the card. I said it was effective, I didn't say it was 100% effective.
Oh, followup to self- although we can't seem to manage a PIN code, nearly every gas pump asks for my 5-digit zip code as an effective security measure against lost/stolen cards. So someone, please tell me why this would be so difficult???????!
>"In Canada, Australia and most of Europe, credit cards have long abandoned the signature for the EMV chip and a PIN to authenticate the transaction, like one does with a debit card."
We never needed a "chip" in the first place. Many millions of dollars wasted to overhaul everything- replacing readers, putting in chips, replacing all cards, updating interfaces and software- and still no PIN! A PIN code is a password. If required, without it, a card would be useless (at least in physical transactions, which is all we are really talking about anyway, since on-line can't use "chip readers"). Doesn't matter if it is a valid card, a stolen card, or a "made up" (cloned) card- put in the wrong PIN too many times and POOF, the account is frozen.
A password/PIN is required for my phone, my Email, my work account, Slashdot, my bank card, voicemail, calling to discuss my cable TV account, just about everything.... except credit cards??? Do they REALLY think people can't handle at least a freaking 4 digit number password in 2018?
>"Businesses that accepted EMV cards reported a 66 percent decline in fraud in the first two years of EMV deployment,"
Add a PIN, and then get a 99% decline in in-person fraud. Again, chip security does NOTHING for online security. Develop a PIN for use online and watch fraud drop tremendously there, too.
>"Comcast engineers independently created our X1 products and services, "
Um, I guess she doesn't know how these patents work. It doesn't matter HOW it was developed/created. Could be from nothing, could have been by people who never heard of the features before, could be in a clean room, could be a 100% copy of some established product. A patent is not a copyright.
Love TiVo, hate some long physical patents, absolutely hate all software patents (also hate long copyrights, especially on obsolete/abandoned stuff), hate Comcast. Hmm, I am certainly conflicted:)
>"I just really don't understand how you can be a functioning member of society and not have managed to get an identification card once in your life that is sufficient proof of identity. Is it really that much of a burden, once every 10 years to get your drivers license / ID card?"
That is my position too. I am sorry if it is "difficult" to get a government ID, but without it you can't drive, buy a home, get credit, get a legitimate (tax-paying) job, get any type of clearance, purchase any restricted product, serve jury duty, or do just about anything else required in a modern society. I don't think we should make it artificially difficult to get an ID, but if getting an ID is a barrier to voting, then how important is voting to that person, really? And these same supposedly "suppressed" souls who can't seem to manage the task of getting an ID (ONCE) are somehow just dying to find transportation out to a voting location every year (despite their supposed 3 jobs and child care) and possibly wait in line for many minutes (or in some cases even an hour or more)?
It is not like one has to go through this ID process every year. A state ID is typically valid for 10 years and renewal by mail for at least another decade. Yeesh.
I suspect you are right about abandoning true tablets. And I would be OK with that as long as the "tablet" part of the convertible:
1) Isn't any more expensive 2) Isn't any heavier or bulkier 3) Has no less battery life 4) Can really run ALL Android apps correctly 5) Is really a tablet with no forced keyboard or hinge
So far, I don't think any of those has been achieved except maybe #5, but it looks like it is getting better in all of those each year. Meanwhile, those of us who really only want a tablet seems to be stuck with under-powered, under-speced, narrow-screened choices, which sucks.
5 years from the Nexus 10 and you would think one could buy a fast, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, widescreen tablet for no more than what the N10 cost. Note that is just doubling all the major specs over *5 years* which should be normal at this point.
(The Samsung Chromebook Pro isn't a tablet because it has a hinged keyboard, making it unsuitable for my use case)
I just do not want a narrow screen. 16:9-ish is what is needed for reasonably sized video playback- one of the primary purposes I use a tablet. That means only the Tab A, which is cheap, slow, no front speakers, only 2GB RAM and 16GB of storage, and sold with Android that is 2 versions behind.:(
>"At a whopping $599, I doubt many people were buying it. Now, the Pixel C is completely gone from the Google Store, and there's no new tablet to replace it. "
And here I sit, still waiting for something worthy to replace my Nexus 10. The Nexus 10 was expensive enough- but at least it was a nice, quality, dual-front speaker, 10", widescreen tablet running plain Android. Nothing like it has come since. Samsung's offerings all have "contaminated" Android that I just couldn't swallow, and everything else has been narrow aspect ratio, too small, too poor quality, or no front stereo (or combinations of those).
The Nexus 10 has held up well for the 5 years, but its days are numbered. Waiting for Google now seems hopeless.
>"That The Facebook needs saving is encouraging news... that seems to indicate its popularity and influence is waning."
I have never been more proud of never having had a Facebook login. I really hope Facebook falls and burns. Although it could do some good things, the bad is really bad. From bullying and harassment to invasion of privacy, fake news, tracking, and manipulation, it is probably the world's largest and most dangerous cesspool.
>"A Visa executive described this practice to CNN as offering shoppers "freedom from carrying cash.""
This needs to be stopped. That is NOT "freedom", it is the exact opposite. Cash should *ALWAYS* be accepted at merchants. I see nothing wrong with cash-only, or offering both cash and credit/debit, but there are huge potential issues with credit/debit only, not the least of which is privacy and tracking. Also- emergencies and technology failures.
>"The guy built mandrake. You have to keep this in mind when making your judgements:)"
I am not sure what you mean by that, since Mandrake was wildly popular and, at the time, one of the best overall Linux distros. From Mandrake came Mandriva, and from that, Mageia... which is, itself, very impressive (in fact, I am using it right now).
>" responding to rising shipping costs and consumers' concern about the environmental impact "
I can't stand those damn "poly bags". They are beyond frustrating to try and remove the damn labels and the bags are not recyclable. The padded envelopes lined in bubble wrap are not any better.
Just give me a nice cardboard box with some scrunched paper for padding...
So I suppose that Tesla doesn't matter much, since it is a very small fraction of cars sold by any of the major manufacturers. The band you might like doesn't matter because there are so many bigger ones. Linux (and MacOS) doesn't matter, since MS-Windows dwarfs desktop market share. Wind power doesn't matter much, since natural gas is a zillion times more market share. Yeesh.
>"a red line striking through a classic lock that's normally used to signal the presence of encrypted HTTPS pages"
Really, that sounds OK to me. it is a reasonable warning "for the masses." But ONLY if it stops there. No pop-ups, no dialogs, no animation, no nagging, no striking through the URL, etc.
Not everything needs to be https, and things that aren't are not necessarily any problem. Mozilla can have bonus points by keeping the about:config that allows the user to en/disable the insecure http icon feature.
I have been using Spotify with just their web-based stuff, under Linux (Mageia) and Firefox for a very long time now (years) and it works great. Maybe there are some advanced things it can't do, but it does everything I need and I have been impressed. Pretty easy to use, excellent sound quality, and has never crapped out on me.
I had this problem, not printing enough. I scan more often than printing. After the last in a series of color HP inkjet printers died, I had enough. Enough of the exorbitant ink prices, "expiring" cartridges, clogged printheads, inability to print in black if some stupid "light cyan" is too low, having to clear error messages all the time about the ink is too old or too low or whatever....
I bought a multifunction Brother MFC-L2740DW and have not looked back. Laser printer, black and white. It just works. The toner lasts forever and never expires. It works with third-party cartridges just fine. The pages print quickly with almost no "warm up" time and the ink doesn't smear and is waterproof. And on top of that, Linux support was excellent, and it has a myriad of useful features (even a color touchscreen and autonomous PDF creation). Double-sided printing, fax (how quaint), TWO SIDED scanning in one pass, ADF, and all for under $300!
So if you can live without color, jump to a networked B&W laser printer and don't look back.
>"I actually think there is good reason for this. Trump isn't saying YOU cannot use these products,"
Being somewhat nit-picky, because of the last few Slashdot stories about recent laws. Trump isn't actually "saying" anything. He is signing a bill that was passed by the House and the Senate into law. So there are hundreds of representatives saying something.
Procedures vary state by state, but all are required to minimally perform background checks. There are three primary citizen protections in the process:
1) When you legally attempt to purchase a gun from a dealer, a Federal background check is run to make sure you can legally purchase a gun. The gun seller does NOT send information about the gun nor the serial number during the check. But the dealer is required to hold onto that information for a long time (many years). So it is not a registration scheme, per-say.
2) You are correct that the government does know who legally purchased guns through dealers. However, individuals can give/transfer/sell guns to other individuals, legally, as long as they (in good faith) are transferring to someone legally allowed to have one. This last part is what makes it impossible for the government to know the whole picture. That is why I said it is the first step- the second step would be to outlaw any type of private gun transfer.
3) The last protection is that the background checks that the government process are not allowed to be computerized. By law, they can only be stored on paper and not in machine-readable format. This prevents them from turning the background checks into a searchable, mass, pseudo-registration scheme.
>"Makes one feel safe walking around knowing that people you meet on the street are, most likely, not armed."
You do realize that nothing of the sort is true. Walking around, the people you meet that are good, law-abiding people end up being the ones without guns because of such regulation and it yet the bad criminals are likely armed because THEY DON'T FOLLOW THE LAW. How does that make anyone "safe"? Oh, right, it is about illogical/irrational "feelings" and not reality or facts...
Try examining just how "safe" so-called "gun-free" zones are, and perhaps you won't feel so safe anymore. It so happens, those areas are precisely the LEAST safe and the ones that crazy people hit first.
Slashdot Mirror
>"Renewable Energy Set To Be Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels By 2020"
Or we figure out effective fusion, finally, and all our problems with energy and everything related to it just go "poof"! Energy related nation conflict, emissions, waste, land use, most of the danger, most of the cost, supply issues, many of the grid issues, could all quickly disappear.
OK, so I am living in a dream world. But it COULD happen.... based on how long it has already taken, probably not by 2020, unfortunately.
It isn't a rare case. I have entered wrong zip codes by accident several times from several vendors over several years and every time was denied the ability to use the card until the correct zip code was entered.
And gas is one of the most used fraud cases for stolen/lost cards. Not sure why, but probably because the purchase is valuable enough (large tank of high octane can be $70+) and you don't have to interact with a teller.
It means when your card is lost or stolen, the perp often will have no idea what your zip code is and thus cannot use the card. I said it was effective, I didn't say it was 100% effective.
Oh, followup to self- although we can't seem to manage a PIN code, nearly every gas pump asks for my 5-digit zip code as an effective security measure against lost/stolen cards. So someone, please tell me why this would be so difficult???????!
>"In Canada, Australia and most of Europe, credit cards have long abandoned the signature for the EMV chip and a PIN to authenticate the transaction, like one does with a debit card."
We never needed a "chip" in the first place. Many millions of dollars wasted to overhaul everything- replacing readers, putting in chips, replacing all cards, updating interfaces and software- and still no PIN! A PIN code is a password. If required, without it, a card would be useless (at least in physical transactions, which is all we are really talking about anyway, since on-line can't use "chip readers"). Doesn't matter if it is a valid card, a stolen card, or a "made up" (cloned) card- put in the wrong PIN too many times and POOF, the account is frozen.
A password/PIN is required for my phone, my Email, my work account, Slashdot, my bank card, voicemail, calling to discuss my cable TV account, just about everything.... except credit cards??? Do they REALLY think people can't handle at least a freaking 4 digit number password in 2018?
>"Businesses that accepted EMV cards reported a 66 percent decline in fraud in the first two years of EMV deployment,"
Add a PIN, and then get a 99% decline in in-person fraud. Again, chip security does NOTHING for online security. Develop a PIN for use online and watch fraud drop tremendously there, too.
>"Comcast engineers independently created our X1 products and services, "
Um, I guess she doesn't know how these patents work. It doesn't matter HOW it was developed/created. Could be from nothing, could have been by people who never heard of the features before, could be in a clean room, could be a 100% copy of some established product. A patent is not a copyright.
Love TiVo, hate some long physical patents, absolutely hate all software patents (also hate long copyrights, especially on obsolete/abandoned stuff), hate Comcast. Hmm, I am certainly conflicted :)
But the followup questions are:
1) Analog, digital, or both?
2) And if not also digital, why not?
>"I just really don't understand how you can be a functioning member of society and not have managed to get an identification card once in your life that is sufficient proof of identity. Is it really that much of a burden, once every 10 years to get your drivers license / ID card?"
That is my position too. I am sorry if it is "difficult" to get a government ID, but without it you can't drive, buy a home, get credit, get a legitimate (tax-paying) job, get any type of clearance, purchase any restricted product, serve jury duty, or do just about anything else required in a modern society. I don't think we should make it artificially difficult to get an ID, but if getting an ID is a barrier to voting, then how important is voting to that person, really? And these same supposedly "suppressed" souls who can't seem to manage the task of getting an ID (ONCE) are somehow just dying to find transportation out to a voting location every year (despite their supposed 3 jobs and child care) and possibly wait in line for many minutes (or in some cases even an hour or more)?
It is not like one has to go through this ID process every year. A state ID is typically valid for 10 years and renewal by mail for at least another decade. Yeesh.
I suspect you are right about abandoning true tablets. And I would be OK with that as long as the "tablet" part of the convertible:
1) Isn't any more expensive
2) Isn't any heavier or bulkier
3) Has no less battery life
4) Can really run ALL Android apps correctly
5) Is really a tablet with no forced keyboard or hinge
So far, I don't think any of those has been achieved except maybe #5, but it looks like it is getting better in all of those each year. Meanwhile, those of us who really only want a tablet seems to be stuck with under-powered, under-speced, narrow-screened choices, which sucks.
5 years from the Nexus 10 and you would think one could buy a fast, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, widescreen tablet for no more than what the N10 cost. Note that is just doubling all the major specs over *5 years* which should be normal at this point.
(The Samsung Chromebook Pro isn't a tablet because it has a hinged keyboard, making it unsuitable for my use case)
Low end, slow, cheap, only 2GB RAM, only 16GB storage, rear-only speakers, and 2 versions of Android behind.
I just do not want a narrow screen. 16:9-ish is what is needed for reasonably sized video playback- one of the primary purposes I use a tablet. That means only the Tab A, which is cheap, slow, no front speakers, only 2GB RAM and 16GB of storage, and sold with Android that is 2 versions behind. :(
Well, maybe "proud" is not the correct word. Perhaps "validated"?
>"At a whopping $599, I doubt many people were buying it. Now, the Pixel C is completely gone from the Google Store, and there's no new tablet to replace it. "
And here I sit, still waiting for something worthy to replace my Nexus 10. The Nexus 10 was expensive enough- but at least it was a nice, quality, dual-front speaker, 10", widescreen tablet running plain Android. Nothing like it has come since. Samsung's offerings all have "contaminated" Android that I just couldn't swallow, and everything else has been narrow aspect ratio, too small, too poor quality, or no front stereo (or combinations of those).
The Nexus 10 has held up well for the 5 years, but its days are numbered. Waiting for Google now seems hopeless.
>"That The Facebook needs saving is encouraging news... that seems to indicate its popularity and influence is waning."
I have never been more proud of never having had a Facebook login. I really hope Facebook falls and burns. Although it could do some good things, the bad is really bad. From bullying and harassment to invasion of privacy, fake news, tracking, and manipulation, it is probably the world's largest and most dangerous cesspool.
I must close with my absolute favorite South Park link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
And that was long before:
https://www.washingtonpost.com...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
>"A Visa executive described this practice to CNN as offering shoppers "freedom from carrying cash.""
This needs to be stopped. That is NOT "freedom", it is the exact opposite. Cash should *ALWAYS* be accepted at merchants. I see nothing wrong with cash-only, or offering both cash and credit/debit, but there are huge potential issues with credit/debit only, not the least of which is privacy and tracking. Also- emergencies and technology failures.
>"The guy built mandrake. You have to keep this in mind when making your judgements :)"
I am not sure what you mean by that, since Mandrake was wildly popular and, at the time, one of the best overall Linux distros. From Mandrake came Mandriva, and from that, Mageia... which is, itself, very impressive (in fact, I am using it right now).
https://distrowatch.com/table....
http://www.mageia.org/en/
>"Daylight Saving Time is a great idea. Ditching it in the winter is the problem. Just keep it year round and eliminate the stupid changing."
+1000
This. It should just never stop being summer time. Problem solved.
>" responding to rising shipping costs and consumers' concern about the environmental impact "
I can't stand those damn "poly bags". They are beyond frustrating to try and remove the damn labels and the bags are not recyclable. The padded envelopes lined in bubble wrap are not any better.
Just give me a nice cardboard box with some scrunched paper for padding...
Troll!?
So I suppose that Tesla doesn't matter much, since it is a very small fraction of cars sold by any of the major manufacturers. The band you might like doesn't matter because there are so many bigger ones. Linux (and MacOS) doesn't matter, since MS-Windows dwarfs desktop market share. Wind power doesn't matter much, since natural gas is a zillion times more market share. Yeesh.
>"a red line striking through a classic lock that's normally used to signal the presence of encrypted HTTPS pages"
Really, that sounds OK to me. it is a reasonable warning "for the masses." But ONLY if it stops there. No pop-ups, no dialogs, no animation, no nagging, no striking through the URL, etc.
Not everything needs to be https, and things that aren't are not necessarily any problem. Mozilla can have bonus points by keeping the about:config that allows the user to en/disable the insecure http icon feature.
I have been using Spotify with just their web-based stuff, under Linux (Mageia) and Firefox for a very long time now (years) and it works great. Maybe there are some advanced things it can't do, but it does everything I need and I have been impressed. Pretty easy to use, excellent sound quality, and has never crapped out on me.
I had this problem, not printing enough. I scan more often than printing. After the last in a series of color HP inkjet printers died, I had enough. Enough of the exorbitant ink prices, "expiring" cartridges, clogged printheads, inability to print in black if some stupid "light cyan" is too low, having to clear error messages all the time about the ink is too old or too low or whatever....
I bought a multifunction Brother MFC-L2740DW and have not looked back. Laser printer, black and white. It just works. The toner lasts forever and never expires. It works with third-party cartridges just fine. The pages print quickly with almost no "warm up" time and the ink doesn't smear and is waterproof. And on top of that, Linux support was excellent, and it has a myriad of useful features (even a color touchscreen and autonomous PDF creation). Double-sided printing, fax (how quaint), TWO SIDED scanning in one pass, ADF, and all for under $300!
So if you can live without color, jump to a networked B&W laser printer and don't look back.
>"I actually think there is good reason for this. Trump isn't saying YOU cannot use these products,"
Being somewhat nit-picky, because of the last few Slashdot stories about recent laws. Trump isn't actually "saying" anything. He is signing a bill that was passed by the House and the Senate into law. So there are hundreds of representatives saying something.
Procedures vary state by state, but all are required to minimally perform background checks. There are three primary citizen protections in the process:
1) When you legally attempt to purchase a gun from a dealer, a Federal background check is run to make sure you can legally purchase a gun. The gun seller does NOT send information about the gun nor the serial number during the check. But the dealer is required to hold onto that information for a long time (many years). So it is not a registration scheme, per-say.
2) You are correct that the government does know who legally purchased guns through dealers. However, individuals can give/transfer/sell guns to other individuals, legally, as long as they (in good faith) are transferring to someone legally allowed to have one. This last part is what makes it impossible for the government to know the whole picture. That is why I said it is the first step- the second step would be to outlaw any type of private gun transfer.
3) The last protection is that the background checks that the government process are not allowed to be computerized. By law, they can only be stored on paper and not in machine-readable format. This prevents them from turning the background checks into a searchable, mass, pseudo-registration scheme.
>"Makes one feel safe walking around knowing that people you meet on the street are, most likely, not armed."
You do realize that nothing of the sort is true. Walking around, the people you meet that are good, law-abiding people end up being the ones without guns because of such regulation and it yet the bad criminals are likely armed because THEY DON'T FOLLOW THE LAW. How does that make anyone "safe"? Oh, right, it is about illogical/irrational "feelings" and not reality or facts...
Try examining just how "safe" so-called "gun-free" zones are, and perhaps you won't feel so safe anymore. It so happens, those areas are precisely the LEAST safe and the ones that crazy people hit first.