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  1. Re:It makes sense. on The IRS Decides Who To Audit By Data Mining Social Media (typepad.com) · · Score: 1

    A boat's estimated value in many cases has little or nothing to do with the income (declared or otherwise) of its owner. Snap judgements based on external appearances are very often completely wrong, in many different areas of life.

    I have known a great number of boaters who worked in assorted building trades, who had boats that were the envy of the folks who could actually afford the waterfront property. One gentleman I knew, who was a framing carpenter, built himself an absolutely beautiful vintage Chris-Craft replica, completely from scratch and powered it with an engine from his retired work pickup truck. The guy was lucky to break $50K/year, but he had a boat that looked like it cost better than twice his income.

  2. Given what seems like pretty steep logistical challenges, this is quite a bold claim. It'll be interesting watching this unfold...I for one am hoping the process is documented and presented either way.

  3. It was bound to happen... on Tesla Employee Calls For Unionization, Musk Says That's 'Morally Outrageous' (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    ...sooner or later. Let's face it, Tesla is doing much better than you might think, given the short amount of time they've been in existence. They're very high profile, and Musk has a lot of money. That alone is enough to attract the inevitable parasites.

    As to the claims that this worker is a UAW shill, he may be, or he may not. UAW certainly is not going to own it, nor will he, if this is true. He could simply be a disgruntled worker upset over X condition, and failing to make headway with local management, he is proceeding along his legally available options (rather than doing the easier thing and voting with his feet). HOWEVER, that's giving him and the UAW both a great deal of benefit of the doubt. It is entirely within the scope of union practises to use shills and other underhanded dealings (political donations, anyone?) to get what their leadership wants. It is completely plausible that he is, in fact, on the UAW's payroll. This has been the case longer than most of you posters have been alive.

    Unions may have had their time and place once, but it sure as hell has passed them by. Nowadays, they exist to enrich their leadership, and keep their mediocre to piss-poor members employed, at the expense and on the backs of their members who actually give a shit about their job and perform well. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and thanks to crooked leadership raiding the pension fund for personal gain, that's all I'll get for time served.

    It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, anyway. Popcorn anyone?

  4. Firstly, that the Tor browser has not, according to this article, been sandboxed from the outset. Given the nature of the beast, you'd think this would have been a design consideration from the get-go.

    Secondly, that we have an explanation of a sandbox in the summary of the article, as well as the linked article. Wherefore art thou, /.? Thy news is more fit for PHB than BOFH.

  5. Re:Block everyone or the driver? on US Regulators Seek To Reduce Road Deaths With Smartphone 'Driving Mode' (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    My viewpoint is that if you can't operate you vehicle safely while making limited use of your smartphone, you can't operate it safely while not using your smartphone.

    This. So very much this. Mind you I'm a huge proponent of hands-free, but the overwhelming point is that if you are unable to drive safely without both hands on the wheel, you are unable to drive safely at all. Cars and other motorized vehicles do have more control inputs than just the steering, accelerator and brakes.

  6. And....profit??? on New Attack Can Seize Control of Drones · · Score: 1

    This could be a money maker for an enterprising small-time criminal. Look for a surge of drones for sale on eBay. Missing remote controller, charger, and extra batteries. Excellent condition! For parts or fix.

  7. Pittsburgh != NY. Also, given the way they drive in Pittsburgh, I wouldn't be surprised if he was in a car driving the correct way down the street, and went onto the sidewalk to evade a car coming wrong way down the (one way) street.

  8. Re:With Experience of Similar Incidents... on Tesla: Model X Accident Caused By Driver Error, Not Autopilot (computerworld.com) · · Score: 1

    There are a surprising number of people who do this. Oddly enough, even people who are otherwise tolerably decent drivers are guilty. The common point seems to be not learning to drive in a manual transmission vehicle, or not owning one early on in their driving career.

  9. Re:What's the difference? on Government Spy Truck Is Disguised As A Google Street View Car (vice.com) · · Score: 1

    "Are you so weak willed that others must be silenced so they don't tell you how to think?"

    You win Best Quote in a Slashdot Comment for today. Hats off to you.

  10. I'm not surprised they are collecting that sort of information, at that detail level, for a feature which is in beta testing/still under development. How else are they going to get the level of in-the-field information needed to work out the kinks? Now, if they were to store all of that information from purchase to whenever, indexed by owner, and so on, that might get creepy, but again, in this day and age of litigation for everything, it might be prudent to defend against lawsuits (they don't want to be another Toyota).

  11. Re:Uh huh... on Burr-Feinstein Anti-Encryption Bill Is Officially Released (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 1

    De fence is what keeps out de neighbor's dog. Defense is what you may need to resort to, if the bastard gets in anyway.

  12. Re:$1,000,000 idea on Ford Ditches Microsoft Partnership On Sync, Goes With QNX · · Score: 1

    That's all I want in a car stereo. USB, line in, and a volume knob. No more, no less.

  13. Like that's going to work on US Secret Service Wants To Identify Snark · · Score: 1

    Most humans are none too good at detecting sarcasm in non-speech mediums. This pattern seems especially prevalent in employees (and administrators) of governmental agencies.

    Good luck. You're going to need it.

  14. Good for Google, etc. on Google Tells Glass Users Not To Be 'Creepy Or Rude' · · Score: 1

    Good on Google to attempt to combat rampant bad manners using their tech. Unfortunately I don't think it'll work. Tact and social graces have been dead since long before Google even existed

    Bad to all you brain-dead cave dwellers who are so damn hung up on this piece of tech somehow taking your picture that you think physical violence is ok. Here's a news flash for you bright sparks:

    1. Nobody in the public sphere gives a fuck about you. Not me, not them, not anybody. Don't believe me? Go walk down a sidewalk in Manhattan and start randomly complaining to passers by about oh, cameras or something.

    2. You're already on quite a few cameras, whether you're in public or on private property. Lots of them are manned by underpaid staff whose only bright spot to the day is uploading footage they find amusing to social media sites.

    3. You assaulting someone who happens to possess a piece of hardware you don't like does, in fact, make you a criminal in a whole lot of jurisdictions. As opposed to your glass wearing nemesis, whose mere inclusion of you in the background of his photo of something else is either not typically culpable, or at the most a slap on the wrist.

    I personally have a use case that I'd like to try Glass out for. It does involve wearing them in public. However, I do possess sufficient tact to remove them when interacting with someone. Were I to be assaulted for possessing them, or threatened with such, my response would be very much the same as to an attempted mugger. Being that I do reside in a country with rather widespread firearms ownership, engaging in this sort of self expression could earn you a well deserved perforation.

    So far it seems as if the number of assholes wearing Glass are vastly outnumbered by the assholes who consider physically assaulting someone for such to be acceptable.

  15. Here's a start... on Ask Slashdot: Command Line Interfaces -- What Is Out There? · · Score: 2

    Setup a virtual machine, or a partition, install a BSD (I'm partial to NetBSD), and go to it. Skip the graphical interface packages on installation.

    You want to learn about this, here's how most of us did it (flavor and variant will vary of course). Your motivation determines how much you will learn. Enjoy.

  16. Nice ending. on How Did My Stratosphere Ever Get Shipped? · · Score: 1

    Seriously. The ending to this article is one of the best last words I've seen in awhile.

  17. I'd love to on US Air Force Reporting Pilot Shortage · · Score: 1

    ...but I can't. Have a family, which doesn't work all that well with active duty deployments. Have TERRIBLE vision and have had corrective lenses since age 4, also a non-starter. On top of that I'm 35...I couldn't get recruited for any of the armed services regardless of physical condition. In addition, the penchant of the current (and several prior) administration to engage other militaries and paramilitaries on a global scale, with no declaration of war (aside from a nebulous and ever-changing "terror" tag applied), renders training via our military an unavailable option to an otherwise very interested party.

    In the current climate, without the flight time afforded by military experience, you are unlikely to make a livable wage as a commercial pilot (unless, perhaps, you are single, unattached, and can live on shoe strings for awhile). This combined with the initial expense of private pilot training really does not do anything to increase the available commercial pilot pool.

  18. Re:so you are...??? on Seattle Bar Owner Bans Google Glass, In Advance · · Score: 1

    Eh? I agree with the bar owner how? I was merely stating that were I to own a Glass, the last place I would go with it would be a bar?

  19. Troll bar owner on Seattle Bar Owner Bans Google Glass, In Advance · · Score: 1

    The bar owner's a troll...however, I have to say that a bar is the LAST place I would have Glass on my head. I'm interested in it for business use, and recreational use, but come on...where do most cellphones get swiped/lost? That's right, in a bar.

    That being said, if I were offered physical violence for wandering into an establishment with these on, there would be problems. A _polite_ request to remove would be sufficient.

  20. LOC makes laws? on White House Petition To Make Cell Phone Unlocking Legal Needs 11,000 Signatures · · Score: 1

    Since when is the LOC or any staff thereof any kind of legislative body? Who granted them any authority to regulate, well, anything outside of the Library itself? I could understand the FCC issuing a ruling like this, as cellphones are very much within their purview, but the LOC?

    What did I miss?

  21. Re:One More Tool to Fight the Rise in Workers' Pay on HR Departments Tell Equifax Your Entire Salary History · · Score: 1

    Most corporate HR departments have open accounts with at least one of the credit reporting agencies, to say nothing of Lexis Nexis et al. Whether or not they use them is often solely dependent on how motivated a particular HR staffer is.

  22. Missing the point on New York Paper Uses Public Records To Publish Gun-Owner Map · · Score: 1

    The paper missed the mark by miles, in their breathless attempt to score page views off the tragedy of another. But isn't this what news media does nowadays?

    Sex offenders, unlike registered firearm owners, are typically 1. convicted felons (who are barred from firearm ownership anyway) and 2. Statistically likely to commit repeat offenses.

    REGISTERED firearms owners are, in the overwhelming majority, legally permitted in their jurisdiction to possess such things, legally acquiring the firearms, and law abiding citizens. They have not broken any laws in the acquisition, ownership, or use of such items. In addition, at least in my area, this list would contain a very large percentage of the local law enforcement officers, who typically become quite irate at having their home addresses listed.

    I won't show up on this kind of list, as the interesting things in my house are exempt from permit requirements in my locale. Besides, I'd so much rather pin an armed home invader to the wall with a broadhead arrow...much more in keeping with my barbarian ancestry. The stain will go away with the carpet.

  23. Re:There is one smartphone that lets you do this.. on California Sues Delta Air Lines Over Mobile Privacy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is one area where the Blackberry OS has very soundly beaten every other mobile OS I'm aware of. Any OS even remotely considering corporate/enterprise usage really ought to have this sort of ACL for apps.

    But, they don't.

  24. Re:Reasonable? on Texas Schools Using Electronic Chips To Track Students; Parents In Uproar · · Score: 1

    The opposite would also be amusing. Bring a bunch of spare tags in, all programmed with your cloned tags info. Might be curious to report double the number of students, and difficult to dedup identical tag hits.

  25. PETA is passe on PETA Condemns Pokemon For Promoting Animal Abuse · · Score: 2

    This is an organisation whose time came and went, but doesn't realise it and is futilely thrashing at anything that'll generate a headline containing their name. People are more aware of the issues they once touted, but are filtering out their sensationalist over the top antics that often obscure their message.

    Has beens, right up there with the *AA.