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User: dfm3

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  1. Re:I gave up jailbreaking on Untethered iOS 6.1 evasi0n Jailbreak Arrives For iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch · · Score: 1

    Hold on, let me get this straight... you set up a straw man, then use it to accuse the very-much-on-topic GP post of being off topic? If I decide that I don't need functionality that I can only get through a jailbreak (say, I don't need to unlock the baseband and I don't want any apps from outside the official app store), then I may decide that it isn't worth my time to jailbreak. I installed the jailbreak only because I wanted SBSettings and Activator. Trivial? sure. A legitimate reason? It's my device, so I shouldn't have to justify my reasons for choosing to jailbreak or not.

    Oh, by the way, thanks for posting instead of modding them offtopic ;-)

  2. Re:Accepting certified letters on Ask Slashdot: What To Do About Patent Trolls Seeking Wi-fi License Fees? · · Score: 1

    It had my house address but addressed to some name I never heard of. Presumably some scammer used a fake name and address to to scam some credit company.

    When this happens, USPS instructions say to write "not at this address" across the envelope and return it to the post office. I used to live in an apartment unit that received countless bills and collection letters addressed to previous tenants who "forgot" to update their address when moving. After doing this for several months, the letters finally stopped.

  3. Re:Who cares about some damage to a few cars... on The New Ethanol Blend May Damage Your Vehicle · · Score: 1

    The GP doesn't mean continuous as in "365 days a year", but rather "year after year after year." Because different plants have different nutritional requirements, and because certain crops can actually help replenish nutrients that other plants need (for example, soybean roots harbor symbiotic bacteria that actually add nitrogen to soil), crop rotation has been practiced for thousands of years as a way to increase yields and prevent soil depletion. The same is true of allowing a field to lie fallow, which is the practice of not planting a crop but instead allowing weeds or whatever else to grow for a season or two, then plowing them under before plating the crop you actually want. Typically, it's not uncommon to have higher yields in the long run if you allow your fields to lie fallow every so often versus growing the same crops every single year.

  4. Re:One has to wonder. . . on Instagram Wants To Sell Users' Photos Without Notice · · Score: 2

    but knowing these shysters, they would just remove those things and still claim it's theirs.

    There's a difference between being given ownership of a copyrighted work, and being granted a license to it. If you read the new terms closely, you'll see that you (the user) still own the copyright to the photos, but are giving Instagram/Facebook the rights to distribute your works and to make a profit from them without giving you a cut. They aren't claiming that the images are their property, just that you have given them a royalty-free license to use them however they want to. Essentially you are granting them rights without giving up any of yours; in other words, you could still sell prints of your work or license it to other parties.

  5. Re:Why not 50Hz? on Why The Hobbit's 48fps Is a Good Thing · · Score: 1
    Because refresh rate (usually reported in Hz) is different from frame rate (fps). To quote Wikipedia:

    For example, most movie projectors advance from one frame to the next one 24 times each second. But each frame is illuminated two or three times before the next frame is projected using a shutter in front of its lamp. As a result, the movie projector runs at 24 frames per second, but has a 48 or 72 Hz refresh rate.

    Now, the above is probably referring to older film projectors. While I don't know much about cinema projection technology, I have heard that most of the digital equipment used by movie theaters is designed to project at 24 fps, but that the specification for the hardware/software currently used by most theaters calls for it to be capable of 48. (source:DCI) So, 48 fps is not really a "new thing" but is simply an extension of current hardware capabilities. Also, the way I understand conversion technology, when converting to a format for display on a TV it is much easier to use tricks like 3:2 pulldown and interlacing to convert from 24 or 48 fps to the NTSC (60 Hz) or PAL (50 Hz) standards (some sources are sped up from 24 to 25 fps during conversion to PAL) than it is to convert 50 fps to something that can be shown on NTSC equipment. Perhaps someone with more experience in this field could shed some light on this?

  6. Re:There is some news here... on German Police Stop Man With Mobile Office In Car · · Score: 1

    If it's posted with the higher speed, it will probably say "Maximum Speed" instead of "Speed Limit". There's a difference.

    I'm curious where you get this and what exactly the distinction is, because I've driven all over North America (50 states, 8 provinces, and Mexico) and have never seen this in the US. In the States, the only signs I've ever noticed are ones that state "speed limit n", while similar signs in Canada use the word "maximum". I've always assumed this was simply a difference in word choice. I've seen cities such as Atlanta which set a "minimum" speed limit on certain roads, so I wonder if posting a maximum speed (separate from a "speed limit") is something done within a specific region? Or perhaps you are referring to the black-on-yellow advisory signs... the ones usually posted on ramps or near curves which list a speed lower than the legal limit at which most vehicles should be able to safely negotiate the curve? I've never heard of someone getting ticketed for driving between the advisory speed (yellow sign) and the speed limit (white sign), but I have heard of people being cited for "driving too fast for conditions" when involved in single vehicle accidents while driving below the speed limit in rain or fog.

  7. Re:What is sad here on Mother Found Guilty After Protesting TSA Pat-down of Daughter · · Score: 2

    I would personally prefer this "humiliation" to losing one of my family members because one woman would rather be free from the pat-downs/security scanning etc.

    Then the terrorists have won. This is exactly what they've set out to achieve.

    (By the way, I nearly lost a family member on 9/11)

  8. I've seen a similar project before... on Google Street View Heads Into the Grand Canyon · · Score: 2

    not too long ago, a "trail view" project was undertaken and marketed by Nature Valley (as in the granola bar). Granted, their implementation isn't as slick as Google Maps and it hasn't been updated in a while.

  9. Re:Genius on Facebook Patents Pokes-Per-Minute Limits · · Score: 2

    Yeah, you know, that handheld device you use to browse Facebook.

  10. Re:Poison! on Google Reinvents Micropayments — As Surveywall · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not exactly. It's been a while since I took a statistics course (actually, several) but it's understood that people are VERY poor at faking truly random data. For example, in the case above most respondents would almost consistently choose the wrong answer or the CowboyNeal option instead of the correct answer, which they should occasionally do if they are trying to submit a genuinely random response. Thus any data poisoning by individuals would tend to favor the less popular responses.

  11. Re:Rest of the world already ahead on Texas Opens Fastest US Highway With 85 MPH Limit · · Score: 1

    I'm at the other end of the state (rural east TN) and my driving test back in the mid 90's was the same as the one in the GP's post... minus the parallel parking.

  12. Plagiarism is NOT only word for word! on Why Professors Love (and Loathe) Technology · · Score: 1

    Yes, I am a college professor.

    Paraphrasing does not free you from plagiarism; paraphrasing without attributing the source is plagiarism.

    You can legitimately create a work consisting mostly of (properly cited) paraphrases and quotes, while completely avoiding personal opinion or analysis. This is called a literature review, and there are times when they are completely appropriate (in the introduction to a graduate thesis, for example). Where plagiarism comes into play is when you state or imply that an idea is your own without properly crediting the author from whom you obtained the idea. It's not a question of identical wording, but of the idea expressed by the words. You can rewrite a sentence so that it doesn't contain a single word found in the original, and still be guilty of plagiarism.

    When I evaluate student essays and reports, I'm not only judging your ability to find and summarize relevant information from other sources, but also your success at analyzing, interpreting, and responding to the information using your own creative thinking skills. To pass off someone's analysis of the issue as your own without clearly identifying it as such is indeed plagiarism... all you've done is performed a literature review, but left out the citations.

  13. Re:OPT OUT on Female Passengers Say They Were Targeted For TSA Body Scanners · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I live in outsde the US, but I can only implore you folks in the US to fight tooth and nail for all you can. Beat them at their own game - you have the numbers and you have the media there more than ready to take any hot load that will make the masses agitated. Use it to your (and by that defnition, everybody's) best advatage.

    If only I had a mod point. As someone who lives in the US but travels abroad, I understand where you're coming from. We in the states have a habit of exporting the worst of our bad practices (McDonalds, anyone?) and privacy intrusions to countries who are all too happy to adopt them minus the fleeting oversight and alternatives that we still get to enjoy here. For example, I've heard that more than a few countries (though I don't recall which) are in the process of implementing the scanners minus the option of a pat down - either you get scanned or you don't fly. I guarantee that TSA would strip away our options in a heartbeat if there weren't a significant percentage of people who would raise a fuss too loud to be ignored (I'm not talking about Joe Passenger, but people with more clout such as airline employees and a few politicians). Even now we have limited options - opt out, write to our representatives - but rest assured there are still those of us who are doing what we can to stand up for our privacy. Hopefully if enough stories like this one get publicized, public opinion will swing in the direction of respecting the privacy and dignity of those of us who just want to exercise our right to travel.

  14. Re:10% Ethanol on Is E85 Dead Now? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not sure if your good ol' boy was talking about E85 or that "up to 10% ethanol" blend that most stations sell, but my personal experience with E85 is that you either end up paying slightly more per mile versus regular gasoline, or it's a wash (depending on the current gasoline price).

    Several years ago I took a few cross-country business trips in a rented "FlexFuel" Chevy HHR- definitely not my vehicle of choice, but it's what they paid for. I obtained a list of E85 stations along my route (turns out they are exceptionally rare in some regions) and did a little cost analysis with the E85 versus the usual 87 octane (10% ethanol) gasoline. Looking back at my mileage logs, I estimated about 34 MPG with regular gas and 25 MPG with E85. However, the price difference between the two fuels wasn't great enough to make up for the reduced fuel economy, and E85 actually ended up being about 5% MORE expensive per mile at the time.

    My most interesting E85 experience was back in the summer of 2008, when Georgia and the Carolinas were faced with fuel shortages and price hikes. Regular gasoline- when you could find it- was about $4.60 per gallon and most stations were sold out. I happened to be attending a conference in the region and had ended up with an E85 rental car. I printed out a list of stations and had no trouble finding fuel wherever I went... and it averaged about $2.80-3.00. A number of people actually got stranded at the conference when every station in the county, and every station in the next county, ran out of gas. Some folks resorted to waiting for hours in lines dozens of vehicles deep when delivery trucks finally came through with fuel; however, I found that there was always plenty of E85 to spare even after the regular gasoline sold out.

  15. Re:Who would pay for a Letter from Santa? on Why Freemium Doesn't Work · · Score: 2

    TFA doesn't explicitly state how many paying customers the site had (at least 20), or how much the paid service cost, but obviously there's a small niche there.

    You or I may not see the need to use a website to design a letter from Santa because we're probably more adept at using our own tools to accomplish the task. I can easily fire up a word processor, find a template and a few clipart images, and create a Santa letter in just a few minutes. Most "average" computer users I know would probably need an hour or so to get it right. The developer of the site was hoping that they could tap into the niche of people who feel that a few bucks (or whatever the cost was) is worth the time saved by using a website to accomplish the task.

    Many of my family members are into sendout cards, which follow a similar business model: you create greeting cards on a website using premade templates to which you add your own text or pictures, then pay a few dollars to have the company print and mail them for you. Sure, they could buy the glossy paper, envelopes, and stamps and do the same thing for about the same price using tools they have in the home, but they find it worth paying for the convenience.

    Unfortunately it seems that this developer slightly missed the mark and ran afoul of the fact that there is a significant overlap between the following subsets of users:
    1. Those who want to use an online template rather than a word processor
    2. Those who are too cheap to pay a few bucks for a product that (I'm assuming here) saves them time
    3. Those who are too lazy to read the FAQ before firing off an email to a developer
    4. Those who habitually mark emails as spam, even if they are in response to #3

  16. Re:wonder what the story is here on Musician Jailed Over Prank YouTube Video · · Score: 1

    ...this is America, where you are INNOCENT until PROVEN GUILTY...

    You MUST be new here...

    Here in America, the "think of the children" card trumps any notion of rationality or common sense within our legal system or in public opinion in general...

  17. Re:Except on Malaysia Releases Genetically Modified Mosquitoes · · Score: 1

    Dengue is not a human disease. It is a mosquito disease that affects humans.

    Huh? Dengue is very much a human disease. Mosquitoes are a vector, that is to say a species which can spread the virus among a population of another species. I'm not sure about this specific virus, but there are many cases (especially among plant viruses) where insects can act as a vector for a virus without their cells actually being infected (for example, virus particles can be present in the saliva or stylet of an insect and can be passed to another host much in the same way that sharing unsterilized needles can spread infection). Then again, since this virus is persistent (meaning that it can be passed on from one mosquito to its offspring), I suspect that it can also infect cells in the mosquito body. Whether this virus actually causes disease in an infected mosquito (for example, producing outwardly visible symptoms or reducing the individual's fitness) I'm not exactly sure, but it is possible for a virus to infect the cells of a host and not produce actual disease symptoms.

    And yes, IAAB (biologist), and I do have some virology training.

  18. Re:I'm fine with this on French ISP Throttles Direct Download Website · · Score: 2

    He said son, not child. He could be a 34-year old basement dweller for all we know.

  19. Re:Credit Card data? on Apple Impasse With Magazines Over Subscriber Data · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They want access to the personnal and credit card data? If I buy a magazine at a kiosk, the guy takes my money, period.

    Well then you wouldn't exactly be a subscriber, would you?

    Ever wonder why most magazines cost $5-9 at a newsstand, but you can often get a year's subscription to the same magazine for $2-4 per issue? Hint: they're not just making money off of the subscription. The types of magazines a person is interested in can tell marketers quite a bit about their interests, and there's good money to be made in consumer profiling.

  20. Re:Reform is needed. on Newspaper May Have Given Implicit License To Copy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Court system may be sick of it, but the lawyers sure as hell aren't.

    Not going to happen.

    Fixed that for you.

    We know who always wins these cases, and it's not always the plaintiff or defendant...

  21. Re:I like stickers on AMD Hates Laptop Stickers As Much As You Do · · Score: 1

    I peel them off and put them on other things. My Atari 2600 has Intel inside.

    Indeed. My blender and trash bin are now both "certified for Windows Vista".

  22. Re:You need directions? on Just Where Is The Lincoln Memorial, Anyhow? · · Score: 1

    The statue crown was closed after 9/11, and IIRC was just reopened this year. They only allow 240 visitors a day, and tickets sell out early in the morning. The pedestal was closed from 9/11 to 2004. Liberty Island itself only closed for a few months at the end of 2001, but it definitely is open to tourists now (I've seen the lines myself).

  23. ...so I take my money (and car) elsewhere. on Tennessee Town Releases Red Light Camera Stats · · Score: 1

    I don't spend money or time in places with these cameras; if enough people have that attitude, they will go away. Hopefully before the town does.

    Exactly. I live near the "small town" in question and since the cameras went up I've significantly reduced the amount of money I've spent at nearby businesses. When given the opportunity, I also make sure to let people know that this is the reason I avoid the area.

    By the way, the summary is a bit sensationalist with the way it presents the numbers. Despite what those who live in Farragut would like others to think, it is in no way a small town but is a quite busy suburb of Knoxville. There are many large shopping centers there and some of the cameras are installed at the ends of on/off ramps for a major interstate (I-40/75). I don't doubt that a large number of those 3,878 citations were issued to travelers who stopped over for a break from the highway.

  24. Not on all videos on YouTube, Now In Text Mode! · · Score: 1

    I pulled up a few random videos and text mode only seems to be enabled for a select few.

  25. Re:First sentence on Filter Vendor Agrees Aussie Censorship Can't Work As Promised · · Score: 1

    The summary looks fine to me, so obviously the filter is not working.