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User: poptones

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  1. Re:Bad news on both directions. on Facebook's Fight Against Fake News Was Undercut by Fear of Conservative Backlash (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    That is what THE INTERNET is for. GINYF, but it is a search engine

  2. Re:December 30th on 'Longest Living Human' Says He Is Ready For Death At 145 (telegraph.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    I've had stories posted and it doesn't even remember that. It seems likely some records are purged after a time.

  3. Every election we hear about one or two cases. This election we have seen literally Millions of cases of election fraud, and everyone says we have toi focus on making sure Trump doesn't win.

    What people who make idiotic arguments like yours are oblivious to are the many frauds that ALREADY happen through mail-in votes. Why do you think conservative states are all about mail in voting? Shutins in nursing homes get ballots. People who haven't had a connection to reality in years are sent ballots, which their AIDS complete in their stead and return. No one asks for an ID because it's not needed, right?

    Election fraud is all around us. Voter fraud has been repeatedly been shown to be statistically irrelevant. Arizona denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of legally registered voters is not.

  4. Re: secure 'for now' on Is the 'Secret' Chip In Intel CPUs Really That Dangerous? (networkworld.com) · · Score: 1

    No, a Beowulf cluster of them!

  5. Re:Spyware on Ask Slashdot: Would You Recommend Updating To Windows 10? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A friend's Dell that uses bluetooth for everything was hosed beyond repair, because it killed the keyboard and mouse functionality even in the bios. He closed the popup for weeks and was caught by the latest "update" that made the red X mean "yes, please fubar my box."

    Telemetry? Canonical, Redhat and others have been collecting telemetry on various issues for years. However, Microsoft is a closed box - so you really believe telemetry data from a corporation that is opaque and has already agreed to aid law enforcement by essentially fishing for untoward activities, is not a big deal? This is literally allowing LEA an open window into your home.

    How's that for FUD? Facts, Uncertainty, and a Dubious product.

  6. Re:excellent PR by Google on Google Uncovers China-Based Password Collection Campaign · · Score: 1

    I like to think I'm an experienced user (I'm 48 and used to be an admin), and I still don't know when or how it happened. Not a good feeling.

  7. Re:excellent PR by Google on Google Uncovers China-Based Password Collection Campaign · · Score: 1

    Well it fucking happened to me and it sure feels like a data breach. This happened just the other day and they used my contacts folder to send spam (ONE PIECE) to everyone in my address book. This means they had access to every piece fo data saved in my account. If that isn't a data breach, what is?

  8. Re:I don't think the problem is that they didn't.. on RadioShack Trying To Return To Its DIY Roots · · Score: 1

    Remember when you could buy that big fat 12AWG zip speaker cable with the soft, mushy outside for like 33 cents a ft? That was AWESOME cable; wish I still had them.

  9. your naive navel is showing on RadioShack Trying To Return To Its DIY Roots · · Score: 1

    I recently bought a used (but working) 750W, 7 channel sound system. It put out an "honest" 120WPCH into each of seven channels, but can be switched to use just two, three, four ,etc. It's a pretty good Kenwood, cost a bit over $500 when new just for the HT receiver. I bought it to replace a 70's vintage TWO channel Marantz 2220 - that's 20 watts per channel of first generation, OTL (ie it uses bigass coupling caps to the speakers and a single polarity power supply) probably germanium transistor amp. After living with the Kenwood a few days I tore the thing back out and put the Marantz back in: it's FAR easier to use, it sounds better, and it's even LOUDER (as my neighbors will attest).

    You may be happy with two inch speakers and shit that "just (barely) works" but many want something better. I'd even say most want better, but can't afford it or can't really find a demonstration that allows them to appreciate the difference. Just look at the multitude of videos on youtube, the deadtree magazines devoted to higher end stuff (tho I never even said Radio Shack sold "higher end" - in fact I said AFFORDABLE higher end, which is more like mid level) and the people willing to still pay dollars to go see movies in theatres -- where they can enjoy the sound without worrying about pissing off the neighbors.

    ANd if you build anything nowdays you'll end up using SMD for some of it. That shit is mad difficult to solder, especially if you're over 40. This is why so many "kits" come with parts of pc boards already soldered. But what do you do if you design your own kit? Now you gotta track down a service. It would take less than 5000 worth of machinery at a location to be able to do this. Would they all make a return? Nope - but plenty in select "pilot" locations would net enough return to pay for an expansion in store coverage... just like those cellphone things they've been so stuck on these last years. And a whole lot more of a captured market.

  10. Re:I don't think the problem is that they didn't.. on RadioShack Trying To Return To Its DIY Roots · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I disagree. Ratshack sold out its base over time because it lots its innovative drive. It became just another competitor to the cheap big box stores and lost because it's not a big box store. Radio Shack once sold some of the highest quality affordable home audio (yes, it did) and look where it went: RCA and other "brand name" CRAP. That's just one example of how it lost focus.

    Radio shack has almost unprecedented community presence. They could offer services, like reflow soldering, act as a front end to an affordable pc board manufacture, and even offer walk-in cnc services. There's like 2500 stores in the US; imagine if you could walk in to a store less than 20 miles from the house, hand them a thumb drive, then stand there with the kid and watch while a cnc machine grinds out a part for you. No better way to get kids interested in this stuff than seeing it done and working hands on.

  11. Re:Still wondering... on Mint It Yourself With a Browser-Based Bitcoin Miner · · Score: 2

    No. gold has value because we make things from it. It's a metal with unique properties, not just beauty. Semiconductors depend on gold. Our civilization (as we know it today) depends on semicondcutors.

    BTC is simply a virtual good made from semiconductors. It is three degrees separated from actual value.

    It would be great if something like this took off, and nothing ever will if people don't try. But the thought of using a web browser to mine BTC is pretty ridiculous: I ran the java applet 24/7 for weeks on a quad core 2.7ghz machine and generated nary a coin (nor did I see a transaction). I suspect this is simply a proof of concept of a technology that will ultimately end with BTC clients being made illegal because of all the hucksters conning users into planting malware under the guise of "free riches."

  12. We are not alone on Baby's First TSA Patdown · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does France have such patdowns in their airports? What about Canada? What about Germany? Belgium? China? Japan?

    Why is it we also have not heard of ANY foreign terrorist activities on airliners since all this started? Are the american airport patdowns such a deterrent they can stop a "potential terrorist" from boarding a plane in S Africa with a bomb or a knife?

    This needs to stop. I really don't care personally, because I don't fly - but all the other people being displaced from the planes are filling up the trains, and I miss the extra elbow room.

  13. Re:wealth=creativity? on NASA Banned From Working With China · · Score: 1

    if japan were china, china would have stopped invading the place centuries ago.

  14. Re:Sigh on Google Expected to Settle Over Drug Ads, to the Tune of $500M · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ayup. Just one more example of how corporations as people is a failed idea from the start. If an individual did this that person would be locked up in the pokey for a few years where their earning potential would be substantially more reduced.

    Perhaps if we reformed the law so that coporations who so overtly break laws would be punished by, say, having to turn over ALL their profits for the next X months to the government as penalty - I bet far mroe corporations would reconsider such nose-thumbing.

  15. wealth=creativity? on NASA Banned From Working With China · · Score: 1

    In what world? The pursuit of wealth drives creative ways to make something for nothing. Creativity derives from a culture of creativity (which the japanese have in spades) not from a culture of "work harder and steal the opposition's ideas."

  16. Re:kool aid on NASA Banned From Working With China · · Score: 1

    Japan isn't governed by a totalitarian regime that explicitly enforces conformity. So I guess when China finally undergoes that NEXT revolution (that would be their sixth in less than two centuries) I'm sure they'll then be a force to be reckoned with...

  17. Re:kool aid on NASA Banned From Working With China · · Score: 1

    Wow, more kool aid for you.

    The US long ago STOPPED mining those rare metals because it was "cheaper to buy them from china." IOW they adopted the wal-mart mentality and treated selenium and barium like air conditioners and tube socks.

  18. Re:kool aid on NASA Banned From Working With China · · Score: 1

    Name a Chinese technology that has become a world standard. Who are the power players in blu ray? HDTV? Operating systems?

    Look at all the game clones. Great at copying, lousy at innovating.

  19. Re:kool aid on NASA Banned From Working With China · · Score: 1

    You rant as if this is something new. "Deadbeat dads" (and moms, and it's very easy to become one) have been denied that right since the Clinton administration. If you owe child support, you get no passport. This works especially well when one has opportunity to work abroad (and, thus, to pay that child support) but cannot work abroad because one is denied rights explicitly granted under the 14th amendment.

  20. Re:kool aid on NASA Banned From Working With China · · Score: 1

    [i]US technology doesn't originate from the US government. It originates from bright individuals that live in the US. They can migrate to other countries, just like they have all their technology mass produced in other countries. [/i]

    Yes, and we see that happening now in droves. I'm sure that will happen in even greater numbers when the economy of china has stagnated.

    I think you just want something to worry about.

  21. kool aid on NASA Banned From Working With China · · Score: 0

    You're swallowing his kool aid. The fact is without US technology and US raw materials China would have a LOT less to produce. China is two decades away (at least) from having trees to support its production of lumber, furniture and other such goods. They're also dependant upon western (often american) technology which they essentially clone and sell domestically. They have demonstrated a great ability to produce but little in the way of useful original ideas when it comes to those gadgets and geegaws.

    A trade war with China would hurt them way more than us. We do still have factories sitting idle, and we have workers without work. There's also an entire globe for each of us to compete in. Just wait til Brazil gets rolling in another decade or two... China who?

  22. unity only half sucks on Ubuntu Aims For 200 Million Users In Four Years · · Score: 1

    I can't stand unity either, but some of the tools make using a GP computer mo better. My PC uses a 42" monitor attached to my living room wall and my eyesight and great, and tools like global menu both save screen real estate and make things ultimately simpler.

    But yeah, I hate unity. But you really NEED things like mini/max/close buttons next to the global menu - so I made my own, very simply, using xsendkeys and three panel launchers. A vertical panel running dockbarx gives me a great launcher/task selector, and maximus makes it easy to keep track of one thing at a time when I want that without being intrusive.

    Basically, the only thing that sucks about unity is the unity desktop itself. The only thing from there I miss is the text search/launcher. If that didn't take up the whole desktop it would be much better.

    http://mypicturepalace.com/albums/userpics/10001/Screenshot~4.png

  23. Web 101: Google don't fuckin work without js on Poisoned Google Image Searches Becoming a Problem · · Score: 1

    That's the problem. They had a GREAT web search page but then had to fuck it up with IFRAMES (web security 101: IFRAMES are not made for use outside a corporate firewall) and eight layers of javascript. I use google image search a LOT and the solution ultimately came down to me carving out a command line google grabber as a means to avoid all their bullshit.

    gggrabber -a -s xga +its+britney+bitch|wget -i -

    It sucks not having instant real time update on search terms, but it's a lot less dangerous to sort through a bunch of extraneous images than to use that fucked up "improved" google image search.

  24. time is on my side on Ubuntu Unity: The Great Divider · · Score: 1

    that's the thing, tho: the LTS releases are really no more stable than any other - in some cases it seems even LESS so becayse they seem to figure "we'll fix those problems on the next update."

    And they do. 10.04.2 works pretty much flawlessly for me where 10.04 was a clusterfuck of bugs. The only thing now missing for me is hdmi audio - not a big deal, but annoying none the less when it was working under 10.10 before I did that "upgrade" to 11.04 and fucked everything up to the point I had to ffr the goddamn machine.

    I hope I have learned my lesson now: the last three releases I have "upgraded" within weeks of the latest becoming available, and in each case I was forced to revert back to the previous version (a time costly procedure that inevitably leaves me still having to correct some /home settings by hand). I think from now on I will stick with lts releases ONLY at least six months after their initial release.

  25. Re:Cool but... on AppleCrate II: Apple II-Based Parallel Computer · · Score: 1

    Except you can buy an Apple IIe motherboard that IS based on an ASIC and actually runs BETTER than the original AND uses like a tenth the power. It's also more reliable because it has, basically, one motherboard chip, one cpu, two memory chips, and not much else.