Slashdot Mirror


User: hedwards

hedwards's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
12,373
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 12,373

  1. Re:I don't get it on The Dash Is Now Anonymized In Ubuntu 13.10 · · Score: 1

    I don't let people take my picture. And I used to work security, so I know how to dodge cameras without having to act suspiciously. Hint, it's not that hard.

    What's more, none of those cameras are hooked into anything. In most cases the tapes are deleted within a month as it's just too expensive to have somebody sitting there recording every time that somebody comes into frame. What's more, the cameras are low resolution and designed to be on 24/7, not for high fidelity HDTV.

    Yes, it's something to be concerned about, but considering how few crimes are caught on tape or solved via tape in the UK, I think we can dial back the paranoia a bit. Remember the UK has more cameras than the US does. Mostly focus on preventing it from getting that bad.

  2. Re:Ubuntu is a has-been. on The Dash Is Now Anonymized In Ubuntu 13.10 · · Score: 1

    Nothing wrong with Ubuntu, except that the people running it don't understand the concept of production code. They may have fixed a lot of the problems that they introduced with Unity, but I won't be installing another copy any time soon. I just don't trust them to refrain from shipping known broken code. I have a pair of large monitors and that unity shit just does not take large monitors into consideration. Hopefully they've fixed that in the mean time.

    As far as Mint goes, it just works. I rarely have any problems with it and the distro has taken some effort to insulate itself from the stupidity that has been coming out recently. Cinammon and Mate didn't happen without cause or reason.

  3. Re:I don't get it on The Dash Is Now Anonymized In Ubuntu 13.10 · · Score: 1

    Considering that your post is full of various logical fallacies and general shit, I'll take that advice with a grain of salt.

    As far as that handle goes, do you really think that there aren't a ton of people that have the name H. Edwards out there? Edwards is a common name, as the AC pointed out, there were no typos of note in that particular post. There was a more conversational tone to the posting, but considering that grammar wasn't taught during the '90s, there are tons of folks out there that don't bother grammar checking their posts.

    As far as trolling goes, just because you don't like what I have to say, does not mean that I'm a troll. I know the conservatives on here don't like the fact that I call bullshit and don't bother to be nice about it. But, the fact of the matter is that they rarely, if ever, have a decent response. Most of the time it's appeals to "common sense" which mysteriously involve regurgitating talking points out of place.

  4. Re:Looking at the wrong thing on Robotic Bartender Programmed To Recognize When You Are Ready For a Drink · · Score: 1

    Or you just have the robot wait until signaled to bring a beer. Saving the time wasted on the interaction by bringing the check or the beer and only asking if you signal for something else.

  5. Re:Looking at the wrong thing on Robotic Bartender Programmed To Recognize When You Are Ready For a Drink · · Score: 1

    What about if that's the last one they wanted? Doing something like this would result in one beer being wasted per patron. Also, it would result in people who had been drinking sprite to be served beer.

    Also, it doesn't provide for the possibility that you might want a different kind of beer or to switch to the soft stuff so you can sober up before leaving.

  6. Re:What's more important... on Robotic Bartender Programmed To Recognize When You Are Ready For a Drink · · Score: 1

    Around here if you keep giving them drinks after they're clearly intoxicated you can wind up losing your license. Even if you do put them into a cab and nothing bad happens.

  7. Re:Ok, so they know when you want another drink... on Robotic Bartender Programmed To Recognize When You Are Ready For a Drink · · Score: 1

    Spoken like somebody who hasn't been in a McDonald's lately. I tend to avoid them like the plague, but they've added automation over the last 10 years. The drinks mostly fill on their own in response to a button and IIRC, the fries are now on a timer.,

  8. Re:I don't get it on The Dash Is Now Anonymized In Ubuntu 13.10 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The difference is that anonymity means they can still collect all your information, just not your identity. So, you're just one breech away from having all of your information spilled to them. What's more, when it comes to online services and such, the name isn't usually that important, they don't really know that my name is Sir Dragon King of the 4th order of New Castle.

    Just because one is anonymous, does not mean that one has privacy, when I go out in public, I'm anonymous, but people can see everything that I do.

  9. Re:Easier to carry? on The Other Pong · · Score: 1

    A decent ping pong table will fold up and roll to the side of the room. If you want to play it takes like 5 minutes to set up, and if you need the room for a meeting, it takes about 5 minutes to fold up and slide to the end of the room. Or, you just take the net down, and use it as a table.

    As opposed to pool, where you absolutely have to put something over the top of it, because it's not going anywhere, between the weight and the very specific requirements to maintain a level playing surface.

  10. Re:"why do people - especially xyz..." on The Other Pong · · Score: 1

    Ping Pong is particularly good as a choice because it's a great way to beef up the cerebellum with all that cross body coordination. Plus, it's fairly cheap, the main expense being the room you put it in. Balls are cheap and tend to last a long time, same goes for the paddles.

    It's also a great way of developing focus and clearing the brain when you get stuck in a rut.

    Obviously, there are other choices that have merits, it's just that Ping Pong is pretty efficient.

  11. Re:Yes on Ask Slashdot: Is iOS 7 Slow? · · Score: 1

    Android handsets don't need a new OS for 3 years after release. My Nexus One from years back is doing just fine using version 2.2, IIRC. There's still plenty of apps that work for it and I can't recall ever having found an app that I needed which wasn't supported. The only exceptions are cases where the necessary hardware wasn't in the phone. Whereas iOS developers don't even bother supporting older phones in most cases.

    Bottom line here is that apart from the die hard fanbois, iOS isn't particularly special and you're looking at a $650 phone that was creamed by the Nexus 4 last generation, a phone that cost a full $300 less. And looks likely to get creamed again by the successor.

  12. Re:Yes on Ask Slashdot: Is iOS 7 Slow? · · Score: 2

    That's a false equivalency. Apple controls the whole process, they design the hardware and set the specifications, they write the software for iOS and they decide which devices will receive upgrades. Plus, Apple doesn't typically release dozens of different models at any given time.

    Whereas neither Android nor Windows mobile is so vertically integrated.

  13. Re:Easy answer... on Trans-Pacific Cable Plans Mired In US-China Geopolitical Rivalry · · Score: 0

    I love how the anti-American bigots trot this sort of bullshit out, without context.

    The US had a sterling record compared with any other nation that's gone through an industrial revolution. What's more, the industrial revolution happened well before we had any concept of the long term consequences to the destruction. The Chinese are well aware of global warming and the rest, they've chosen to engage in dangerous policies because they view it to be better than enforcing their own regulations.

    As far as the lakes and rivers go, again, nobody realized the consequences when things were being built. But, now that we do know better, the water is being cleaned and for the most part is clean.

    As for the currency manipulation, you wouldn't be saying that if you knew what was going on. The Chinese government still owns most of the enterprises in China. They withhold pay that should be going to the workers in order to lend money to American businesses and the government. The net effect of that is that you've got a lot of people working for very little and the normal adjustment to the currency value doesn't happen because they're sending cash back to counter act that.

    In the long term that's extremely dangerous as at some point they won't be able to afford to keep lending money, at which point the wages will need to rise and when that happens they won't be able to export as many goods. It's going to get extremely nasty if they don't manage it right. Or they'll wind up with prolonged stagnation as things catch up.

  14. Re:Easy answer... on Trans-Pacific Cable Plans Mired In US-China Geopolitical Rivalry · · Score: 1

    You seriously think they'd be able to get a nuke onto a ship without being noticed? If it were truly that easy, we wouldn't be bothering with missiles at all.

  15. Re:Easy answer... on Trans-Pacific Cable Plans Mired In US-China Geopolitical Rivalry · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Until somebody develops the ability to nuke all it's enemies globally instantly, and synchronized down to the second globally, there's no point in signing such an agreement as MAD pretty much ensures that nobody is going to be using nuclear weapons.

    Consequently, that treaty was just an effort to bolster China's image on the world stage. If there were really any purpose to such a treaty, it would have been signed a long time ago.

  16. Re:station wagon? on Never Underestimate the Bandwidth of a Suburban Filled With MicroSD Cards · · Score: 1

    Station wagon? Is that like the paddy wagon?

  17. Re:Google is a targeted ad company on Google May Replace Cookies With Unique AdIDs · · Score: 1

    Probably, I use self-destructing cookies on any and all cookies that are installed on my computer. Most of them are deleted the moment I leave the website, a few that I really need, are allowed to persist until I close the browser, and only one or two is allowed to remain after I close the browser. Most of the time, I wind up with random ads, assuming I get them at all.

    I can't recall the last time I actually clicked on one of those links, and I don't think I've ever bought anything as a result of one of those ads. I do however sometimes put companies on my "do not buy from" list for shitty ads and the ones where they're clearly lieing even more than usual.

  18. Re:Give consumers more privacy? on Google May Replace Cookies With Unique AdIDs · · Score: 1

    You can blame spammers for that. Unfortunately, there aren't very many ways of limiting who makes accounts that don't leave some people out of the loop.

  19. Re:Yet another story... on Work Halted On Neal Stephenson's Kickstarted Swordfighting Video Game · · Score: 1

    Unless you botched your post, that's not at all what you were saying. Rehashes and sequels sell tons of copies in large part because that's what the audience demands. They've played the previous game or they've played the spiritual predecessor and you get a shit load of word of mouth, whether or not the new game is any good.

    That's why a game like GTA V can sell $800m when it first releases. People are already familiar with the game.

    Truth be told studios prefer to release new games that are innovative, it's just incredibly hard to pass up on the relatively easy money that comes from a sequel to a new game that they did. Don't you think that the studios would love to all be releasing revolutionary games every release? Seems to me that being the guy that invented the platformer or was the first to figure out how to use real 3D would be rather rewarding, beyond the megabucks.

  20. Re:Impractical? on What Will Ubiquitous 3D Printing Do To IP Laws? · · Score: 2

    Not going to happen any time soon. You don't seriously want a plastic replacement part for your fender or bumper, do you?

  21. Re:Yet another story... on Work Halted On Neal Stephenson's Kickstarted Swordfighting Video Game · · Score: 2

    I don't agree, KS has a huge variation in the kinds of projects that are being funded. Some of them are so simple that they can scarcely fail. A book where it's been written and the author is just looking to fund the printing. Or a sunglasses design where all the details have been worked out, but they need to buy a couple thousand to make it economical.

    The problem is that people let themselves get wrapped up in the hype without having the time to do any research or access to much of the inside dirt on what's going on.

    A lot of people don't realize that between taxes and the KS fees, that there's always 25% or so missing even before the project ships out the swag.

  22. Re:Yet another story... on Work Halted On Neal Stephenson's Kickstarted Swordfighting Video Game · · Score: 2

    Not really, the reason for all the rehashes and sequels is that the people lending the money have some way of estimating what the IP is worth. There's a guaranteed audience that will give it a shot and you don't have to waste resources selling the concept. That safety is also a large part of why it so often doesn't work out well in terms of artistic merit.

    Hollywood actually likes new stories, it's just that most of the new stories are garbage whereas the presold ideas like Spiderman 14 and Superman 1,000,000 are ones where they don't have to worry about filling seats long enough to get word of mouth going and don't have to count on advertising to get people in the theaters on release day.

    Same goes there, when you're using a control scheme that players are familiar with and telling a story in a familiar format, it drastically cuts down on the risk. There's still a ton of innovation that's possible, but it's difficult to estimate the risks and rewards from doing so.

  23. Re: GMA 600? Last years Atom? $200?!? on Intel Rolls Out Raspberry Pi Competitor · · Score: 2

    Not really, OLPC was never intended to be for sale in the developed world. Which always seemed to be a mistake. Offering a portion of the production for a bit of a mark up could have been good for everybody increased volume and the extra funds could have been used to subsidize units for the developing world.. The closes they did was that buy 2 get one deal. Which was stupid.

  24. Re:Ballmer on Ballmer Admits Microsoft Whiffed Big-Time On Smartphones · · Score: 3, Informative

    Which party is it that's in favor of cutting food stamps to give tax breaks to the rich?

    Ballmer's rich, he may be a Democrat, but he has a vested interest in seeing that conservative policies are followed. As those policies are how he was able to accumulate so much wealth without contributing anything of value. Under a more liberal economic policy and regulatory set up, MS would never have been allowed to grow as big as it has, without earning that size. They would have been broken up in the late '90s when they used their size to stifle innovation across the industry.

    Bottom line here is that it's the conservatives that are always trumpeting this sort of maladaptive business practice so that they can easily scare voters.

  25. Re:What I dont get... on Ballmer Admits Microsoft Whiffed Big-Time On Smartphones · · Score: 1

    It makes sense because they previously had a fairly good mobile OS. I had it on my PDA about 10 years back, and it wasn't bad. The problem is that they failed to see the iPhone and Android coming and get a piece of the action.

    Also, realize that they had 0% marketshare before the XBox was released, and now they're doing OK. They just missed one of those crucial moments in time with the mobile market and now they might never catch up.