Slashdot Mirror


User: Doogie5526

Doogie5526's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
145
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 145

  1. The manufacturer of the lock will keep records and can construct duplicate keys if they wanted to do so.

    Where do you get this? Why would companies do this? The only things I can think of are: subpoena (this would only apply to a single case, so the lock company would have to proactively do this...why?), to sell access back to the government (ISPs do this but you don't have a choice, it would be suicide for lock companies to do this), or a law or regulation (can you cite one?)

    When I bought my house I called a locksmith because I didn't have a key to the garage. He drilled the old lock, gave me a new one and rekeyed it in front of me. There was no talk about calling the company or looking in some registry.

    Off the shelf locks from Home Depot have instructions for the average person to rekey their locks without help:
    https://www.kwikset.com/smart-...

    What evidence do you have companies keep a key registry that they provide to law enforcement?

  2. Re:Cheaper to license, costlier to support on Munich Plans New Vote on Dumping Linux For Windows 10 (techrepublic.com) · · Score: 1

    I'm glad you're happy with Windows.

    Pulse Audio was released 13 years ago. I haven't heard of any issues over 5 years. Gnome 3 was released in 2011 (there were widely used alternatives). If you go by Linus, who swore off Gnome since 2003, he switched back to Gnome in 2013 saying "has been getting less painful" and "things are better than a year ago."

    I'm not going to defend every part of systemd, or even that it was a net win, but I don't think it was a frivolous change, either. Starting and stopping services asynchronously has obvious wins (as well as obvious pitfalls). Personally, I would hit problems where the user's environment would bleed into the services they started and stopped.

    Other than systemd, the changes you mentioned are well behind us. All of them had alternatives and distros set up around avoiding them.

  3. Re:"the iPhone 8 models didn't sell out during..." on Apple's Latest Products Get Rare Mixed-Bag Reviews, Muted Reception (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    If you're happy with what they've been releasing, I'm genuinely glad it works for you.
    Wikipedia groups all of the Macbook Pros between 2012 and 2015 under "Third Generation (Retina)" [1]. They all had Ivy Bridge and later Haswell chips (that started shipping from 2012 and 2013)[2]. I was holding out for Kaby Lake--or, honestly, just something compelling enough to upgrade my 2011 laptop. If I waited 5+ years, I don't want to pay for a new laptop where the architecture is only 1 or 2 years newer. I've regularly gone to the Apple Store to see if they were noticeably faster or had features I'd like and haven't been compelled. I don't feel like I was alone in holding out for what Apple released last year.

    While I like the idea of USB-C, I'm just not ready to move yet. While you can get breakouts from USB-C to legacy ports (why do I want to upgrade to a computer where I'll need a dongle for every single thing?), I haven't see USB-C to multiple USB-C (from my research it seems to be a technical restriction). So if I did want to go all USB-C I a) might not have enough ports and b) can't use a single cable to "dock." I really like magsafe (including the charging indicator light) and just dont see USB-C charging as an upgrade. I like the battery level indicator lights they got rid of, I'm not a big fan of the newer keyboards, and while I like touch id I don't like the soft ESC.

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  4. Re:"the iPhone 8 models didn't sell out during..." on Apple's Latest Products Get Rare Mixed-Bag Reviews, Muted Reception (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 2
    In a rare statement, they pre announced they're making a new form factor for the Mac Pro in the next year. Partially because the from factor didn't work out as expected, but the pre announce seemed to be because consumers were so unhappy.

    I think the new Macbook Pro pushed them over. Yes, they claimed "the most orders" (or preorders) or something for the Macbook Pro, but everyone knows that's because of the demand buildup because they hadn't shipped a new Macbook Pro in awhile. The actual reception was tepid and I'm sure longer-term sales showed that.

    I was waiting for this new Macbook Pro, but now I'm seeing if I can wait for the next one. It made me look seriously at other laptops (but I haven't found one I liked out there, either).

  5. Re:It doesn't make sense to use Apple on Target's Sales Floors Are Switching From Apple To Android Devices (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    Are you saying Apple will be happy to sell you a replacement device, but Android manufacturers won't?

    Yes. When a company comes up with a solution, they will usually approve it for a set number of years...not changing anything (i.e. upgrading every 6mo to 1 yr) because that would mean recertifying a new model, sourcing new cases, dealing with heterogeneous inventory. Apple hardware generally has longer production/support runs than Android. Most of the iPod Touches seem to be available new from retail sources for 3-4 years[1] (I couldn't find a similar source for Android). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  6. Re:It doesn't make sense to use Apple on Target's Sales Floors Are Switching From Apple To Android Devices (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    Funny, I was thinking the opposite. Apple seems to support their hardware for much longer periods of time than Android devices--both in software updates and in the ability to purchase replacement hardware. Androids aren't enough of a commodity to swap out different devices and expect software or hardware (which likely includes a form-fitting case) to work. I can see ditching iPod Touch, though. I wouldn't be surprised if Touches gets discontinued and iPhones or iPads aren't worth the cost.

  7. Re:PEP 394: /usr/bin/python should not be python3 on It Will Take Fedora More Releases To Switch Off Python 2 (phoronix.com) · · Score: 1

    Haven't thought this out very far, but you could just not install /usr/bin/python by default. If you need python2, you get "command not found" instead of something that /might/ work at first, but error pretty quickly. I think modern Fedora even recommends the package to install. Then, you just install the python2 package and /usr/bin/python works for your Python2 scripts.

  8. Re:The iPhone does miss such a button on Steve Jobs Wanted the First iPhone To Have a Permanent Back Button Like Android (bgr.com) · · Score: 1
    I can't imagine Apple adding another physical button. Didn't Android ditch the physical button for a software button a few years ago? Looking online (in general and the Pixel specifically), it looks like the "home" button is software now as well. I would expect Apple to do that, if anything.

    I haven't used an Android as a daily-driver in years, but I never liked the physical back button (I agree the IOS solution is a kludge). Reasons being is that "back" navigated both in the app and between apps and you didn't know if you were at the back of the stack, so I'd just mash on it. I can see those getting addressed by a software button.

    I think Android got it right by having navigation at the bottom and can see IOS moving that way, too. It made sense in 2007 when the phone was small enough and it mirrored navigation on a desktop computer. Now phones are too big (Reachability is a hack)...but I can see if them not making big changes now.

  9. Any idea if Windows Phone has the same implementation as Android? They used the back button to navigate inside the application as well as changing to the previous application...I never knew which it would do. Also, the back button doesn't do anything when your at the back of the "stack" and being a physical button there's no indicator. Browsers grey out the back button (or in the case of Firefox omit the forward button). But I believe Android moved from a physical button to a software button...not sure how much else has changed about it.

  10. I also sit with people like my parents and see them double-click on everything. When I say "left click" on something it always takes two tries to get it right. I guess it's all about who you're designing it for because I'm glad 3-button mice have been the norm since scroll wheels became popular.

  11. It's easier for him to not walk away because he's not on any of those committees--it's on his terms. If you're just going to be ignored, you're (in many cases a rich and busy person) wasting time that could be better spent elsewhere. Even Cook says he's focusing on what would be mutually beneficial. I don't blame someone from walking away if they feel like they're being exploited but never listened to. There were some great photo ops for these special meetings and councils. These people are associating with the administration in the hopes of making a change.

  12. Re:This is not something new for Apple on Apple Is Still Ignoring One of the Biggest iPhone Engineering Flaws of All Time: 'Touch Disease' (slashdot.org) · · Score: 1

    whoops. replied to the wrong thread =)

  13. Re:This is not something new for Apple on Apple Is Still Ignoring One of the Biggest iPhone Engineering Flaws of All Time: 'Touch Disease' (slashdot.org) · · Score: 1

    Can't we judge both on their merits? By all accounts the Samsung recall has been hamfisted. Yes, they announced a "replacement program" quickly, but waited a week (and after airlines in multiple countries called out that model phone for a ban) before telling users to stop using the phone and didn't call it a recall. They failed to coordinate with U.S. safety authorities. Only yesterday did they officially recall the phone.

  14. Re:This is not something new for Apple on Apple Is Still Ignoring One of the Biggest iPhone Engineering Flaws of All Time: 'Touch Disease' (slashdot.org) · · Score: 1

    There's a preference to compensate for magnetic north inside the compass app. So I don't think that's the issue. I've also seen the compass not work or be completely wrong on multiple generations of iPhones.

  15. Re:This is not something new for Apple on Apple Is Still Ignoring One of the Biggest iPhone Engineering Flaws of All Time: 'Touch Disease' (slashdot.org) · · Score: 1

    Are you sure it was a temperature sensor? Like this scenario, I understood the problem to be a solder issue. Reflowing the solder would fix it permanently. Temperature changes would swell/compress the components enough to create a solid connection on a temporary basis. I've seen various solder issues since they started using solder without lead.

  16. As the article mentions, in Apple's case it has nothing to do with the digitizer. You'll still have the problem after replacing it. The problem is two IC chips on the motherboard--likely the solder holding it to the board. Interesting. the article says they need to replace the chips instead of just reflowing or resoldering the old ones back. Maybe it's shorting out the chip? This isn't the first time, by far, that soldering has been an issue on a portable device. I think it was my 4s that developed a solder issue with the wifi chip. I had an issue on an earlier phone where the top half of the touchscreen stopped working (wasn't sure if it was the digitizer or a similar issue to this). Everyone keeps blaming the thinness and bending, but before this everyone was pointing at lead-free solder being more brittle and prone to developing bad solder joints. My guess is that it's a combination (but bending is easier to explain).

  17. Re:Too much power needed for GPU these days... on But Can It Run Crysis 3? · · Score: 2

    at least, they have to be able to play very well at around 1680x1050 or 1440x900 on one of those lower-power-draw cards (e.g. Nvidia 650 or AMD 7850).

    I'm not sure what your desktop resolution is (I'm guessing it's around there). I feel like that's a bit much to expect a computer speced to run a desktop operating system (when using the 3d portion it's only doing basic texturing/compositing) being asked to run modern 3d game at full resolution. Commodity desktop computers have always lagged behind even mainstream modern games. Quake 1 required a floating-point math co-processor I didn't have, then games required 3d cards. There was usually a transition (software rendering mode when 3d cards were needed, PCI 3d cards when AGP started getting popular), but generally they had to be played at a significantly lower resolution and frame rate if they could play at all.

    If this model wasn't profitable, they wouldn't be doing it. While there's obviously a market for games like The Sims and Myst (they're some of the top-selling PC games of all time), that's not the same market Crysis 3 is going after.

  18. Re:Just buy new hardware! (NOT) on OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) Won't Support Some 64-bit Macs With Older GPUs · · Score: 2
    What model does he have? What browsers are you talking about?

    Chrome supports 10.5(sidebar)
    Firefox supports 10.5
    Safari supports 10.5

    I did read an article the other week that Chrome is thinking about dropping 10.5 support in a few months.

    Is this a ppc Mac? I just looked it up, and that was announced 7 years ago. It looks like they were selling them until Aug 06 (6 years ago), but if you purchased one in that time you can't really expect newer software to work.

  19. Re:Standard practice? on LinkedIn Password Leak: Salt Their Hide · · Score: 1

    All of the banks I've used require 4-5 days, verification, and send email notice (sometimes a post card) when you're transferring to an account for the first time. I'm not saying people should be flippant about their bank login info--but banks seem to do a decent job of notifying users about risky changes to their account (as long as your email isn't compromised, too).

  20. Re:Bloat on Apache OpenOffice Lagging Behind LibreOffice In Features · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have LibreOffice downloaded, but only use it once every few months...so I haven't followed too closely (or really care too much about how efficient it is). But I thought one of the first things the LibreOffice team planned to do was remove the Java dependency everyone had been complaining about for years for causing bloat and slowing things down.

  21. Re:OpenSolaris but not FreeBSD? on Ask Slashdot: Free/Open Deduplication Software? · · Score: 2

    That's why Apple swapped their monolithic data blobs (for iPhoto, Aperture, etc) in to smaller files when Time Machine was released--like Sparse Bundle Disk Images, for example. Since the data is banded across multiple files, when some data is changed, you only need to back up the affected bands. I believe they marketed this as "Time Machine Aware" and advised third-party apps to adopt this approach. I thought Time Machine's approach was clever given the constraints of a traditional file system (in lieu of using something like zfs).

  22. Re:HA! on AT&T Officially Ends Plans To Acquire T-Mobile USA · · Score: 1

    *embarrassed* I read them over but missed the data options mixed with the voice plans. About 6months ago I went over all of the options I knew about and was frustratingly disappointed.

    Thanks for reading more carefully than I did. I'm looking to sign up with one of these guys after work today.

  23. Re:HA! on AT&T Officially Ends Plans To Acquire T-Mobile USA · · Score: 2

    Maybe it's just me being picky and not a competition issue...but I rarely get close to 400min/mo. That's the smallest plan offered (unless I'm a senior) and I pay $39. I have a smart phone, but don't have a data plan (use wifi only)--but would love to have one. I think a data plan would cost another $20-30 (about $70 total before taxes).

    None of those plans would really fit my needs. What I would prefer is similar to what I saw in London; a pay-as-you-go talk and data system. Nobody in the US has pay-as-you-go data and the pay-as-you-go talk stuff has weird rules where things expire at the end of the month or you get charged a dollar a day.

    I'm willing to believe that I'm an outlier and one of the few who can look past that impulse to pay nothing up front in exchange for a contract and high monthly bill.

  24. Re:Once you have discovered on Why Your Dad's 30-Year-Old Stereo Sounds Better Than Yours · · Score: 2

    I can't remember the specific article I read, but hopefully the Loudness War is coming to an end because of the rise of digital streaming (and their normalization and other volume adjusting algorithms), but who knows, that could start a Dynamics War.

    Wikipedia has some info on it:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war#2010s

  25. Re:Frist to get jailbroken... on How Apple's iOS Went From Insecure To Most Secure · · Score: 1

    Is this the one you type in the lock screen? I just found and read the article and it's unclear. If so, I thought the iPhone makes you wait longer and longer after consecutive failed attempts which would slow down a brute-force attack quite a bit. Also, I can't remember if it was an Exchange policy, a feature on the iPhone (or of Android), but I thought I remember seeing a setting that would wipe the phone after 10 consecutive failed attempts.