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User: RosenSama

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Comments · 109

  1. Re:Good Luck on Ask Slashdot: Programming / IT Jobs For Older, Retrained Workers? · · Score: 1

    There's not a lot of IT companies hiring 50+ year old junior engineers, so that's another stumbling block.

    That's correlation, but what's the causation? Surely part of the reason there aren't many 50+ junior engineers hired is because there aren't many interviewing.

  2. Re:It would be fair... on Unlocking New Mobile Phones Becomes Illegal In the US Tomorrow · · Score: 1

    There's nothing preventing you from buying a phone at the unsubsidized price and then modifying it. You're making a deal with the cell phone provider: You agree that you'll honor the contract you signed, and they give you a phone at a discount. Hopefully this is going to be a bit easier over time as everyones moves to LTE (does this mean that CDMA finally bites the dust?) and phones become standardized like the rest of the civilized world.

    If that were true, then why is the cell phone contract not lower if I bring my own phone, since there is no subsidy? One could argue that the the price they offer the phone to the customer is not a subsidized price, but simply the market price. If they could charge more for the phone, they would, but the market won't bear it, so they can't. It has nothing to do with a subsidy, but instead is more like a loss leader, where the grocery store agrees to take a loss on Pepsi, to get people into the store to buy other goods.

    They can call it a subsidy, but that is just marketing speak.

    Isn't the phone "subsidized" by them selling other companies the rights to be included on their ROM and their ability to lock out certain features? On an unlocked phone they can't disable Google Wallet, charge you extra to enable the Wi-Fi hotspot, or guarantee AT&T Navigation will constantly present itself as a nav handling option. Even if you buy the phone from them, without a contract they can't guarantee how long they could deliver you as a captive consumer (or be entitled to the contract break fee). Also if you buy the unlocked phone from anybody else, you paid the extra money to party A instead of the cell phone carrier and they haven't replaced their revenue stream from locking down your apps and features.

  3. Re:Why don't you. on Motorola Develops Bare-Bones Phone · · Score: 1

    Where can you find old phones? And maybe more importantly, where can you find new batteries for them?

  4. Re:I wonder how many people will point this one ou on How MythTV Detects and Flags Commercials · · Score: 1

    It's not new to MythTV either. Someone just decided to write about it today.

  5. Re:Self-Verified Voting on How to Hack the Vote and Steal the Election · · Score: 2, Informative

    Schneier recently wrote up such a proposal using only paper ballots coby Rivest of RSA fame.

  6. Re:Apples vs. Oranges: 640x480 movie file != DVD s on Retailers Pressure Studios on Web Deals · · Score: 1

    Maybe 640x480 and no extra content is just fine for most consumers. Then why not save 15%+

  7. Re:What I really want to know... on Chinese Lasers Blind US Satelites · · Score: 1

    Many countries, including China have reconnaissance satellites in orbit. In fact private companies do, too. And except for geosync, most useful orbits will and do cross over the US.

  8. Is 12,000 / 65,000,000 Relevant? on Study Finds World Warmth Edging to Ancient Levels · · Score: 1

    Can anyone explain why 12,000 years is a relevant period of time to care about the maximum temperature? TFA's study looked back 12,000 years. Mammals have been around 65'ish million years, right?

  9. Re:What I REALLY do not understand about the web 2 on The Future of Rich Internet Applications · · Score: 1
    There are cross-platform thin-client network solutions like VNC or Nomachine's NX. They do exactly what the web x.0 wants to do, they do it fast and they do it without all the bloat and packing/unpacking of (essentially very simple) data. ... and you can use your favourite GUI toolkit to build applications.
    Am I thinking about this wrong? If you offer an application via VNC or NX the entire environment consists of more total resources, with the extra requirements falling on the backend.

    When you expose your appliction as a web 2.0 app, your backend includes the application's backend and the shared environment (web/database server, etc) it depends on.

    When you expose your application via VNC/NX, you have to additionally provide the per-user user environment (windowing, at least). The client machine is already providing the window managaer etc to run the thin client in, so why duplicate that in the backend? The flipside of thin client is fatter backend.

    Is a thin client that much thinner than a web browser anyway? Another thing to think about is when you go thin client you're marrying to the client. I guess it's like just coding your web 2.0 junk for compatibility with only one web browser. That might be a pro or con, depending on who you are and what you're doing. Is there a way to run thin clients without needing to install software on the host?
  10. Re:That DIY HTPC just became economical! on TiVo Announces High-Def Series3 DVR · · Score: 3, Informative

    For bi-directional support you're talking about CableCARD 2.0, which Tivo Series 3 will support. Here's more of Ars' coverage of CableCARD 2.0

  11. Re:Easy on The Physics of Superheroes · · Score: 1

    So you consumed how many pounds of food/liquid in that period?

  12. Re:Similarly on The Physics of Superheroes · · Score: 1
    You can gain upwards of 15-20 lbs of muscle mass in 24-48 hours
    Spoiler: It's really muscle mass, but not yours. You spend the 24-48 hours acting like a python and swallow a turkey whole.
  13. Re:Is it enough? on Universal to Offer Music for Free · · Score: 1

    What if instead of "forcing" you to watch something, it's audio ads prepended to each track?

  14. Re:Come on! 10X Bigger than the Biggest Ever? on Discussing a Private Buyout of Microsoft · · Score: 1

    The record will be raised to $33 billion this year in the buyout of HCA. Here's a good article on the history and current trends. Note that a $300 billion buyout of MSFT would be around 10% of the entire annual M&A market.

  15. Re:Now, you see on GPS Map Viewer for PSP Released · · Score: 1
    None of the games that came out for it are worth their cost and the cost of upgrading my 1.5 firmware. No thanks, I like being able to do awesome stuff like this on a high res handheld. Music, video, emulation, and all the homebrew you can ever imagine.
    For curiosity's sake, what make the PSP better than the Nokia 770 for hi-res homebrew? It's got higher res and Maemo to help with the homebrew. Is it a cost thing? Does the PSP have a stronger processor for multimedia?
  16. Re:What about the 586? on The Next Three Days are the x86 Days · · Score: 1
    I don't care what Intel marketing pushed down people's throats, I still call them 586 and 686 systems. So does the Linux kernel...
    I think you've stumbled onto something. It's much preferable for you and the kernel to shove something down my throat. I believe as a team this opens up some interesting careers in adult entertainment for us.
  17. Aiken on Intel - Market Doesn't Need Eight Cores · · Score: 1

    'Only Six computers will ever be sold in the commercial market' Howard Aiken (The designer of the first IBM computer)

  18. Re:I am a free man on RFID Passports Raise Safety Concerns · · Score: 1
    Couldn't they get all the same benefits with a simple barcode?oes the RFID hold just your ID number for lookup on the database or is the RFID part now full identification?
    I have read articles in the past that the RFID would contain some biometrics. Here are some (quickly googled) references.
  19. Re:I am a free man on RFID Passports Raise Safety Concerns · · Score: 1

    Ahhh security by obscurity.

  20. Re:Nanotech is more than tiny machines on FDA Asked to Regulate Nanotechnology · · Score: 1
    Do we have a clue what happens when those nanoparticles interact with our brain cells? Hell no!
    Is there nothing that's not man-made on a nanoparticle scale that we already interact with?
  21. Re:Nothing Wrong with E-mail on Why Emails Are Misunderstood · · Score: 1
    The number one reason email is worse than a phone call or face-to-face is asynchronicity. When you write an email, you don't know which parts the other person wants to gloss over or has questions about. Assuming an email reply conveys enough emotional context, you don't know your counterpart's reaction until you're done talking and they've replied. In a synchronous conversation, this information is immediately available.
    Lacks facial expressions? Emoticons really do work... especially in block communication like e-mail. It doesn't take long for someone to get used to emoticons as a "second language" of sorts to real-life facial expressions.
    I don't agree with this at all. This is like saying the transcription of a conversation contains as much information as the voice recording. Plus, how many people know what those combinations of punctuation marks mean beside the smiley face? Perhaps emoticons are good enough for you to get by, but they certainly reduce the capability of the medium.
    E-mail, to me, allows me to take my time carefully crafting a message, allowing me to make sure it's worded right and get rid of ambiguities, prejudices, assumptions and errors.
    Of course, if any of your assumptions are wrong, if you don't know what parts will be ambigous to your counterpart, you've just wasted a bunch of time carefully crafting useless dialog.
  22. Re:Queen B's Privacy Law on Congress To Restrict Social Security Number Use · · Score: 1
    How do you define what data this governs?
    1) All data collected belongs to the individual that it pertains to, not to the harvester of the data.
    For example, how would this apply to a baseball player's statistics? Can anonimized or grouped data be used? For example, can I publish reports on how many cars pass my driveway everyday? How general must the summation be? Also, I envision lawyerly shenannigans with defining which data pertains to who. Doesn't my customers' financial history pertain to my wellbeing?
    2) No data can be released to any entity but appropriate law enforcement with a valid search warrant without the express permission of the subject.
    If I know my neighboor's birthday can I tell it to anyone? Can I order them a cake saying "Happy 21st Birthday" for delivery on their birthdate? Or would that be disclosing personal data to the bakery?
    3) Social security numbers shall not be used by any entity but the social security administration, the IRS, or the US Military.
    Won't we just wind up with other number related to our financial identity? Probably at a higher cost to us.

    I think Schneier has it right. If you want to stop identity fraud, pass laws that financially incent the credit card/bank/credit agency companies to prevent it. Then they'll actually try to validate both the transaction and the transactor.
  23. Re:It's all about Sleep on Americans Are Seriously Sick · · Score: 1
    Americans burn the candle at both ends far too much, and don't get nearly enough sleep.
    Can you point towards some proof of this?
  24. Re:The Breakdown & The Irony on Apple Defeats RIAA and France In Same Day · · Score: 1
    Being a bass player, I'm concerned about what's left over for the musician. Very concerned.
    Groupies! But as the bassist, you should still be concerned.
  25. Re:Screw those guys.... on Netflix vs. Blockbuster Revisited · · Score: 1
    Support your local library
    What am I already doing with my taxes? But seriously, is it realy helping my library if I borrow from them instead of paying for the same thing elsewhere? Are they not better off if I leave their inventory there for people who aren't willing to pay for Netflix? Honestly, I would have thought them better off (and me not) if I pay my taxes, but don't use the services I'm entitled to. Or is there some sort of thing where their funding will shrivel if the demand isn't there?