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Comments · 1,798

  1. Re:Oh for crying out loud on Google's Scanning of Gmail To Deliver Ads May Violate Federal Wiretap Laws · · Score: 1

    I suppose Google could keep a whitelist of (non-gmail) senders for each address, and if anyone tries to send to that address without being in the list they'd send a "Click here to agree with our EULA. Otherwise your e-mail to *receiver* will be dropped."

  2. Re:God and Cockroaches on Clinton Grants $1 Million To Edible Insect Farmers · · Score: 1

    think of a monkey-like God looking down on all of mankind's problems with famine and hunger and yelling, "For My sake, mankind, I gave you the cockroach! An unlimited food source - you can't wipe the little bastards out if you try!"

    I think God might have underestimated mans (and Monsanto's) ability to fuck up a perfectly good source of food...

  3. Re:Yes. on Ask Slashdot: Are We Witnessing the Decline of Ubuntu? · · Score: 1

    While it apparently has options, strictly speaking, that's really not far away from having to edit xorg.conf.

    That's entirely true. It's a silly way to handle it. At a technical level, I understand why they buried it in the Compiz settings (because Unity is really just a Compiz plugin), but why not expose the useful Compiz settings to the user in an obvious place? I can understand that some of the Compiz settings aren't something you want to let the average Joe mess with, but that doesn't mean they should go full GNOME on the options front.

  4. Re:Yes. on Ask Slashdot: Are We Witnessing the Decline of Ubuntu? · · Score: 1

    Oh well, tried Unity instead. The main interface element (dock) has NO configuration options. Nothing.

    Yeah, it does. The first version didn't, but more recent versions have some options, although nothing compared to, say, KDE. The problem is they're buried in the compiz settings manager which, oddly enough, isn't accessible through the Ubuntu System Settings interface.

  5. Re:Woohoo! on FDA Will Regulate Some Apps As Medical Devices · · Score: 1

    Why the fuck would you use a mobile app to control an IV pump?

    An IV pump, probably not. In fact, you'd be silly to run hospital gear with a phone.

    A personal device like an insulin pump... yep, I could see it. They've already got pumps that wirelessly communicate with glucometers, and a user interface written on a mobile has to be less confusing than the nests of modal menus on a pump.

  6. Re:Oh my god on Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving On Bitcoins · · Score: 2

    young men are last on the list when shelters are overcrowded.

    As a single young man I can say that single young men are last on the list for just about everything.

    That's not entirely fair. Single young men are first on the list for military conscription.

  7. Re:they have a girl!!!!!!! on Cyanogen Mod Goes Commercial To Make "Available On Everything, To Everyone" · · Score: 1

    in the picture there is a girl on the team? what does she do?

    Who cares? I mean, they have a dog and a circus clown too, and nobody thought to ask questions about how they contribute...

  8. Re:Who will be first on German Data Protection Expert Warns Against Using iPhone5S Fingerprint Function · · Score: 1

    Back in 2005 some car thieves in Malaysia tried to steal a Merc S Class with some kind of biometric immobilizer. When they realized they couldn't get the darn thing running without a finger print, they merely chopped the owner's finger off with a machete (I swear it's true: BBC Article).

    What makes this sort of thing particularly nasty is that it doesn't have to actually work. The bad guys just have to think it might work, and goodbye finger. Or fingers, since they wouldn't necessarily know which finger was magic. Or eyes, if they get confused about what "Retina Display" is all about.

  9. Re:How much of a role did an Android phone play... on Nokia Had an Android Phone In Development · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I doubt they would have been concerned about Nokia as an Android competitor - but they would have been very, very worried about losing their partnership with the maker of 80% of the Windows phones sold.

    I suspect it's a bit of both. Losing market share would be really bad, but just as bad would be if their Windows Phone poster child Nokia did really well with an Android phone (and I can't see why they couldn't... they do good hardware) to the point that they no longer needed Microsoft propping them up financially. It would send one hell of a message to other mobile manufacturers... namely, "not worth the bother".

    That perception matters a lot. Technology-wise, I doubt Windows Phone is that bad (I haven't seen one, myself). But the market thinks it's tainted, and that's what's killing it as much as anything else.

  10. Yes, but... on Study Shows Professors With Tenure Are Worse Teachers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hate to talk about correlation/causation, but there's typically some significant demographic differences between profs with and without tenure.

    My experience is that tenure-track profs were a heck of a lot younger, meshed well with the students, hadn't spent the last 20 years teaching the course, and were more likely to put in more time and effort on the material. Tenured profs also tend to have a lot of things sucking their time (obviously researchers, but department heads and/or deans are worse), so they dump a lot more on the TA's and are pretty tight for office hours.

    I'd be curious to see how things break down when they account for demographic differences. If that's even feasible.

  11. Re:Innovation? on Nokia Insider On Why It Failed and Why Apple Could Be Next · · Score: 5, Funny

    Instead they got in bed with MS and ended up with a fatal disease.

    More like they got pregnant, had a severely disabled child, and their only sane option is the marry the father.

  12. Re:Beware of Microsofties bearing gifts on Official: Microsoft To Acquire Nokia Devices and Services Business · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's one way to look at it.

    The other way to think about it is that the rest of Nokia just unloaded a boat anchor of a mobile phone business and a horrific CEO onto Microsoft, with the added bonus of him possibly becoming CEO of that combined corporation.

    Or, if you prefer, "beware of Finns bearing gifts".

  13. Re:How did this pass moderation? on The Greatest Keyboard Shortcut Ever · · Score: 1

    I'd say it's the lowest ever, too, but I've had a number of slashdot editors in my filters for years... Guess I'd better put timothy back on the list.

  14. Re:People who can't stop on What's Causing the Rise In Obesity? Everything. · · Score: 1

    Stop right there at the "stress makes you eat" part. WTF man? No it doesn't.

    I don't buy "stress makes you eat", but I'd be comfortable in saying that stress would contribute a lot to someone to not caring too much about what they eat, how much they eat, how healthy it is, or what it's doing to their body.

    People under stress frequently take the path of least resistance, and if that means the cheapest, fastest, most convenient food and stretchy pants, then so be it.

  15. Re:Major thread on Canadian City Uses Drone To Chase Off Geese · · Score: 1

    I suppose I could have previewed that. Note to self: don't post on slashdot while buying a house.

  16. Major thread on Canadian City Uses Drone To Chase Off Geese · · Score: 1

    Now I'm the terrorists to use teams of drones to herd geese into oncoming aircraft.

  17. Re:Stupid decision by clueless jury on US Horse Registry Forced To Accept Cloned Horses · · Score: 1

    I don't think the popular sire effect can be drastically increased in magnitude, not above what artificial insemination provides.

    I was thinking more about the popular sire effect and how it would work on the mare side of things. "Production" from mares is constrained by limited reproduction lifespans, gestation times, etc, so having a handful of clones of a popular mare could shakes things up a bit.

  18. Re:Greed knows no bounds on US Horse Registry Forced To Accept Cloned Horses · · Score: 1

    But is it an illegal monopoly? They're not preventing anyone else from racing horses, or registering horses.

    From what I've read about it, there are other registries. However, if you want to race or do rodeo events, it sounds like they are effectively a monopoly, and the cost of starting up a competing ecosystem of events outside the registry is likely going to be quite high.

    They likely aren't an "illegal" monopoly, but being a legal monopoly is more than enough to makes things like this happen.

  19. Re:Greed knows no bounds on US Horse Registry Forced To Accept Cloned Horses · · Score: 1

    Actually, they allow it- you just can't register the foal in the AQHA registry at that point.

    That's not quite so bad, then, although for a foal of a clone of a registered horse it strikes me as silly if it wasn't allowed registration.

  20. Re:Stupid decision by clueless jury on US Horse Registry Forced To Accept Cloned Horses · · Score: 1

    I do think you have to be a little careful though at how it is applied when money is involved and horse racing is certainly in that category.

    Off the top of my head, it would drastically increase the magnitude of the popular sire effect. Right now, that's limited by the lifespan of a stallion (or, more accurately, how much semen you can extract, store and disseminate over its lifetime), and for a mare it's even more restricted. Cloning effectively eliminates those constraints, and it takes generations to get a true sense of the impact.

  21. Re:Greed knows no bounds on US Horse Registry Forced To Accept Cloned Horses · · Score: 1

    File a suit against those organizations, seeking to force them to recognize horses from other registries.

    Yeah, that's always an option. But if you have to force those organizations to recognize other registries, you've pretty much nailed the argument that the one existing registry is a monopoly, haven't you?

    And that's assuming those organizations even exist (I haven't looked to closely) and the entire quarter horse industry isn't basically operating under the thumb of the one registry. Which makes an even stronger argument for them being a monopoly.

  22. Re:Greed knows no bounds on US Horse Registry Forced To Accept Cloned Horses · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ergo, the correct solution would have been to dismiss the suit and tell the plaintiffs that they are free to form their own clone registry. The fact that the current registry is a monopoly would be immaterial because said monopoly excludes clones and thus wouldn't compete with a clone registry.

    The problem usually comes not because of the registry, but because there may be other organizations which only "recognize" horses from that registry for their purposes. For example, if a race organization requires that a horse be "pure bred", and only accepts AQHA pedigree, then things start getting messy. And very likely, AQHA rules don't allow AQHA-registered horses to breed out-of-registry, which massively restricts the breeding pool for any competing registry.

    In other words, sometimes these sorts of registries act as gatekeepers for a whole host of things, and it makes more sense to change the registry than the change the practices of everything "downstream". Particularly if the registry isn't keeping up with industry practices, or the rules start to introduce health issues with pedigree animals (i.e. reduces the breeding pool excessively).

  23. Re:Here's why I downloaded ("pirated") it on Despite Global Release, Breaking Bad Heavily Pirated · · Score: 1

    TV and movies and other forms of media you consider to be passive entertainment frequently give life to interesting discussions and debates

    No shit. Every human endeavor, from knitting to skydiving, frequently gives life to interesting discussions and debates.

    The apparently subtle point I was making is that if passive entertainment is the basis your interactions with other people to the point that you think that giving up said passive entertainment would make you a social outcast, then you seriously need to get a life.

  24. Re:Here's why I downloaded ("pirated") it on Despite Global Release, Breaking Bad Heavily Pirated · · Score: 1

    Sure, I could forgo films and television series completely, but there's that social aspect of being a part of conversations at work and at gatherings that I would miss out on. I already don't give a damn for sports, might as well drop out of society completely.

    Not really. There's a fairly simple solution to this issue.

    1. find a hobby where you actually do things yourself rather than having entertainment fed to you by someone else
    2. do that hobby
    3. find people into the same hobby
    4. talk to those people

    Speaking from experience, a shared interest pretty much eliminates any awkwardness due to lack of shared media culture. It's also extremely effective at shutting down undesirable conversation. Someone talking to you about the latest sporting media event at work? Start talking about your hobby (unless it's NSFW; we don't judge your predilections here on /., but the folks at the office might get a bit weirded out). If nothing else, it reminds people that while they sit on their asses in front of a television, you actually go out and do things. If your hobby keeps you fit, it's even more effective.

  25. Re:Random numbers on a mobile device on All Bitcoin Wallets On Android Vulnerable To Theft · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Shouldn't the RNG tap into the device's accelerometer?

    The Linux kernel has has the ability to push device input into the random number entropy pool for a long time (/dev/random and /dev/urandom). If the device drivers aren't pumping accelerometer events into the pool, someone really missed an opportunity.

    In this case, it sounds like something went wrong with the Java/Dalvik random number generator. It's not clear to me from glancing at the various write-ups whether it's a failure to RTFM on the part of the Bitcoin wallet writers (or maybe whoever wrote a common Bitcoin reference implementation) or if there's something broken in the Android implementation of the RNG class.