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User: stanjo74

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  1. Alarmist article... on MARS, Inc: We Are Running Out of Chocolate · · Score: 1

    Alarmist article from a big corporation to set the stage for loose regulations on chocolate so that the masses can keep getting their 99cents "chocolate" bars (aka hydrogenated fat with dark-brown solids, corn syrup, emulsifiers and natural flavoring agents, whatever other non-cocoa crap - tastes like cocoa) and the company's pockets full.

  2. Re:what's the point? on The Students Who Feel They Have the Right To Cheat · · Score: 1

    If cheating is so prevalent, that a degree becomes the anti-pattern, employers would start sampling the non-degreed pool in order to identify employees who can do the job. The fact that this is not happening leads me to believe, that the whole Indian culture just doesn't care about "the work being done" and the society is content with very low productivity. This is not untypical for very stratified and nepotist societies where the piece of the pie is more important than the size of the pie.

  3. Re:Citizens United says... on For Microsoft, $93B Abroad Means Avoiding $30B Tax Hit · · Score: 1

    If you mean "US Citizens" by "people", yes, US citizens must file with the IRS all income earned, even abroad, while being abroad, working for abroad, and all possible permutations of "abroad".

  4. Re:Nope. on Google Foresees Ads On Your Refrigerator, Thermostat, and Glasses · · Score: 1

    So you can tap on an icon to open the fridge door, maybe ???

  5. That would teach you ... on A Call For Rollbacks To Previous Versions of Software · · Score: 1

    that if it is not broken, don't fix it ! This is true for many things in life, and I'm glad we have such a trivial example for this wisdom as smart-phone upgrades. Please, leave it as it is.

  6. Re:driving farther to get to work on Is Traffic Congestion Growing Three Times As Fast As Economy? · · Score: 2

    Also, gentrification is a big factor - lower-middle and in certain coastal areas, middle class people are being displaced, seeking more affordable homes further from their communities and work. Although the housing market is still a mess on average, certain coastal areas have appreciated above their 2006-7 peak, due to the ultra-easy monetary policy of the Fed.

  7. Re:How do they break even? on Who's On WhatsApp, and Why? · · Score: 1

    Or just make another free account in an year and have your limited number of friends switch to it. As someone else pointed out, people in the countries where WhatsApp is huge has never made an online payment in their entire live. To them $1 is just as unpayable as $100 - because they lack he infrastructure to make the payment.

  8. Re:Developing Countries on Who's On WhatsApp, and Why? · · Score: 1

    It's clear that WhatsApp is proportionally popular to the cost of sending SMS, but how many of the penny-pinching users are paying customers? Or do they create new promotional/free accounts every year? How many of the 450M accounts of WhatsApp are just the same person getting a free account every year?

  9. Re:CNN argues it's worth the money on WhatsApp: 2nd Biggest Tech Acquisition of All Time · · Score: 2

    The whole business model of WhatsApp is based on the premise to be purchased by a rich Internet/Social Media company. They already sold to Facebook. If they start another one against their parent company, who's going to buy them again? Running something like WhatsApp is not a sustainable profitable business - you need the LBO end-game.

  10. Re:Crypto COMMODITY on Bitcoin Exchange Value Halves After Chinese Ban · · Score: 1

    Which country takes gold for tax payments ?

  11. Re:Crypto COMMODITY on Bitcoin Exchange Value Halves After Chinese Ban · · Score: 1

    Absolutely right. Bitcon in NOT a currency, until a country starts receiving tax payments in it. The definition of currency is "a system of money in general use in a particular country". Gold used to be a currency when countries would take it to settle obligations - now it's a commodity. Same with Bitcoin - it's a commodity and a store of value, and you still need to sell it for a currency to settle your capital-gains tax obligation on it.

  12. Re:kWh/day is stupid. on Tesla Model S Has Bizarre 'Vampire-Like' Thirst For Electricity At Night · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, it's clumsy, but Watts doesn't tell you readily how much you are paying for it. Consumers are billed for kWh, so to express the cost of the drain, they used kWh/day; example: 4.5 kWh/day * $0.20 per kWh = ~ $1/day

  13. Re:Nokia was RIPPED OFF! on Nokia's Elop Set To Receive $25 Million Bonus After Acquisition · · Score: 2
    very simple. The bigger and older the company, the more proxy voter shareholders it has (traded on the secondary exchanges to millions to people who own only a handful of shares each). These shareholders have no clue what is going on in the company they own. They let the board and executives run the show unabated.

    The real game is played at the board level and executives. The company itself is just a stage - nobody cares about the company in the long run - one can always incorporate another. The board and the executives care about the company as a mean to an end - to make money off it. How the money is made - it doesn't matter. Sometimes money is made by making product and selling it; sometimes money is made by selling out; sometimes by liquidating and golden parachutes.

    A successful public company is that makes the board and the executives rich. Products, employment, etc. is just secondary effects, to make things look not too sociopathic.

  14. Re:"they can't type, they can't create documents" on Bill Gates: iPad Users Are Frustrated They Can't Type Or Create Documents · · Score: 4, Interesting
    This was modded funny, but is actually insightful. Not many people are producing content (documents, drawings, etc). Everyone is consuming content - video streaming, web browsing, casual gaming, social media + some basic typing/input . Apple bet on the latter group and created a product that does this very well - zero administration, no viruses, safe applications.

    People who need to create content already used specialized software and/or machines (aka PC, workstation, server, etc). They are not buying a tablet to replace that.

  15. Re:Here's the deal... on Is Buying an Extended Warranty Ever a Good Idea? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly this. For non-catastrophic things, be self-insured. If you can afford to pay for a replacement, pay yourself the insurance premium. The insurance company has already done the work for you to analyze the risk and come up with an insurance premium number.

  16. Re:Finally a group that gets it! on What's Actually Wrong With DRM In HTML5? · · Score: 1
    DRM hobbles technology as much as SSL hobbles Web browsing.

    There is nothing wrong with encrypted/DRM video. There are many applications - one is streaming of licensed (paid) content, another can be surveillance cameras protection over public networks.

  17. Re:Does the professor also pay for the water he us on No Such Thing As a Tax-Free Lunch At Google? · · Score: 2
    Tap water and toilets are mandatory for an office - it is not a benefit.

    If Google lunches were truly free, open to the public, then it can be argued it's not employment benefit/compensation - merely a charitable expense for Google. But if one needs to be a Google employee to get Google lunches, then the lunches are clearly compensation for employment, and it stands to reason that it should be taxable as such.

  18. Windows 7 + guest account + UAC on Ask Slashdot: Protecting Home Computers From Guests? · · Score: 1

    Enable the Guest account in Windows 7/Vista. It is disabled by default, but is very airtight - nothing can infect the machine from there. Don't forget to run with UAC on. Set Firefox browser to erase all history/cookies on exit.
    I've been running like this for years without a single hick up. It protects my machine, my files and my privacy. Also protects the guest's privacy by auto-erasing all browser history.

  19. It's difficult to make predictions ... on Ask Slashdot: Why Is It So Hard To Make An Accurate Progress Bar? · · Score: 1

    especially about the future ....
    - Yogi Berra

  20. Re:Fiscal cliff on The U.S. Careens Over the Fiscal Cliff, Reaching Only Half of a Deal · · Score: 1

    They can always agree to agree later. Meanwhile the private Federal Reserve is monetizing $40 Billion/month of US debt with no end in sight. Who needs tax revenue when you have a sugar daddy like that.

  21. Re:Fixed Refresh Rates on Carmack: Next-Gen Console Games Will Still Aim For 30fps · · Score: 1
    Triple-buffering with vsync allows to decouple the frame rate of the renderer from that of the presenter.

    Your rendering is slightly slower then 60 fps, say 58 fps. With double-buffering with vsync you have to present at 30 fps. With proper triple-buffering with vsync you can present at 58 fps.

    Most games don't care about vsync and will present at the rate of the renderer, causing mid-frame tearing. If you're lucky, the tearing will occur on the top of bottom of the frame and won't be too bad.

    Triple-buffering allows to present at the rate of the renderer or presenter, whichever is lesser, AND with vsync without tearing.

  22. Re:Fixed Refresh Rates on Carmack: Next-Gen Console Games Will Still Aim For 30fps · · Score: 2

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/2794 "So, this article is as much for gamers as it is for developers. If you are implementing render ahead (aka a flip queue), please don't call it "triple buffering," as that should be reserved for the technique we've described here in order to cut down on the confusion. There are games out there that list triple buffering as an option when the technique used is actually a short render queue. We do realize that this can cause confusion, and we very much hope that this article and discussion help to alleviate this problem."

  23. Re:Fixed Refresh Rates on Carmack: Next-Gen Console Games Will Still Aim For 30fps · · Score: 1

    Have you actually done vsynced triple buffering with OpenGL or DirectX or it just seems to you it ought to be doable?

  24. Re:Fixed Refresh Rates on Carmack: Next-Gen Console Games Will Still Aim For 30fps · · Score: 2

    Unless, you use a technique called "triple buffering", in which case you can have tear-free variable frame rate at any rate. Unfortunately, none of the major 3D APIs have provisions for this. I always wondered why such a fundamental omission for a graphics rendering API.

  25. lack of proper triple buffering on Carmack: Next-Gen Console Games Will Still Aim For 30fps · · Score: 4, Informative

    Neither DirectX nor OpenGL support proper triple buffering to avoid tearing at variable frame rates. Because of that, if you want tear-free rendering, but cannot keep up at 60 fps all the time, you must render at 30 fps or 15 fps, but not, say 48 or 56 fps. You can render at any variable frame rate if you allow for tearing (which most games do and avoid the headache of v-sychs altogether).