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User: hedwards

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Comments · 12,373

  1. Re:Where do I sign up? on Hillary Clinton Takes Data.gov Overseas · · Score: 1

    That's actually true. How that typically works is that they need to have a valid SSN in order to be hired and payroll takes the social security tax out automatically on whatever one makes up to the limit. So, they'll end up paying the taxes and whoever it is that the SSN corresponds to gets the benefits.

    As for the GP's taxation line, that really only applied because there wasn't any way of gaining representation. It doesn't really apply to individuals that don't go through the naturalization process.

  2. Re:in a counter move, the global IT union said on Hillary Clinton Takes Data.gov Overseas · · Score: 1

    You do realize that there's overhead and other costs involved, right. It's not just the cost of the wages that has to be included, there's the cost of benefits, pay roll taxes, capital expenditures and whatever other costs are involved with running the business.

    Even if one is working for oneself the actual take home pay is probably only a half or so of the total fee.

  3. Re:Short games are fine, but... on Developer Panel Asks Whether AAA Games Are Too Long · · Score: 1

    Because you're paying for the entire game and it should be compelling enough that you want to finish it. It's a really bad thing if players don't think that completing the game adds much value.

  4. Re:Social Security..... on Hillary Clinton Takes Data.gov Overseas · · Score: 1

    Unavailability of jobs in foreign countries are seen as a national security issue where as unavailability of jobs in the US are seen as sloth on the part of the unemployed. Because obviously nobody would work if they could get regular checks that don't even cover the cost of living.

  5. Re:I'd rather my tablet could be used as a 2nd scr on Do Two-Screen Laptops Make Sense? · · Score: 1
  6. Re:Laptop? on Do Two-Screen Laptops Make Sense? · · Score: 1

    The keyword for that has been "Desktop Replacement" or at least that's what they were calling them the last time I was looking for a high res display. I can't recall what they were calling them back when portables were just desktops with a tiny monitor in a fold up form factor.

  7. Re:Docking Stations - Hotel TV's on Do Two-Screen Laptops Make Sense? · · Score: 1

    I haven't bothered to do it yet, but my new laptop has both HDMI and VGA outputs on top of its own screen and I have two monitors on my desk...

    There is something absurdly ironic about a tiny laptop with two huge honkin' displays.

  8. Re:4.5 kg isn't so much on Do Two-Screen Laptops Make Sense? · · Score: 1

    Theoretically yes, but in practice what it means is leaving the laptop at home most of the time. Which isn't really bad, but it's not really the typical point of a laptop. Personally, I had a laptop in college because it allowed me to bring it home on weekends so that I could finish my work. So, most of the time it would remain stationery except for when I'd go home.

    The amount of physical exercise is more of an issue of sloth than anything else, it's not that hard to work a few minutes of exercise into ones day. And really one shouldn't be sitting for more than 20 minutes without standing up and pacing back and forth at least once.

  9. Re:Then Why Have We Moved in the Narrative Directi on Developer Panel Asks Whether AAA Games Are Too Long · · Score: 1

    Which is a good thing, it's demoralizing to be playing a game like Zelda II and have to find a very specific tile in order to continue the game. And where said tile doesn't have any sort of clue that it's where you're supposed to be or to even know that there is a tile you need to visit to continue on your quest.

    More than that, it's a cheap way of adding longevity to the play experience.

  10. Re:"Videogame Stories." I Always Chuckle at That.. on Developer Panel Asks Whether AAA Games Are Too Long · · Score: 1

    Yeah, really, there's a reason why those choose your own adventure movie games of the 90s are more or less completely extinct at this point. Sure it was kind of a cool idea back then, but really it makes more sense with respect to books. And even in book form they're largely extinct as well.

  11. Re:Short games are fine, but... on Developer Panel Asks Whether AAA Games Are Too Long · · Score: 1

    That's not really a problem either, at least not for gamers, the issue tends to be giving the player a reason to complete the game. Assassin's Creed failed miserably at that by being way too repetitive, Assassin's Creed II remedied that problem and is a treat to finish. I had no issues finishing FO3, FO:NV, Prototype, Infamous or BM:AA because the games were actually interesting enough to finish.

    In fact I finish more games now than I ever used to in large part because I'm actually compelled to do so via the plot and other elements that weren't really available in the past.

  12. Re:The practices are the same... on Ask Slashdot: Best Offline Storage Method For Large Archives? · · Score: 1

    One possibility would be keeping an offline copy on something along the lines of a DROBO and then storing a copy with Crash plan. It's expensive to send disks, but for images that size it's just about the only way to ensure that the data is being properly backed up off site.

    For 125 the OP could back up up to 1tb of data by mail. Doing that weekly is probably a good deal and between those chosen days a copy could be taken home.

    Ultimately with data in that kind of volume there is no good way of dealing with it. But it's going to be a lot more cost effective to deal with disks and a service like Crash plan than it is to just keep a copy on site.

  13. Re:Hidden costs on Dismantling a Nuclear Reactor · · Score: 1

    I assume you're trolling, but then again there's plenty of ignorant nuke haters in the world that can't possibly imagine that nuclear reactors are anything other than disguised nuclear weapons that will explode at any moment regardless of how carefully they're tended to.

  14. Re:I'm confused on Dismantling a Nuclear Reactor · · Score: 3, Funny

    Indeed, that thing is a giant lightening rod. And apparently without a rubber nub at the top a single lightening strike could fry the earth like a potato.

  15. Re:Indie anything = whiner on Carmack Addresses FPS Creativity Concerns · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not really, indie developers claim that they can do better and actually try to do better. It's pretty clear from your tone that you know precisely zip about what you're talking about. Otherwise you'd realize that indie developers do put their money where their mouths are. Often it doesn't work out well and sometimes you get something that nobody has seen before.

    But to dismiss it as whining when folks point out that the quality of games could and should be higher is just as ignorant as your suggestion of a game involving that vespa and coffee houses.

  16. Re:Wiretapping? How? on NH Man Arrested For Videotaping Police.. Again · · Score: 1

    None, but it's filed under the same rules that wiretaps are. Videotaping and audio recording are both forms of wiretap when done in a surreptitious manner. And you do need to have consent of one or all parties involved depending upon the state you're in.

  17. Re:Things have to change on NH Man Arrested For Videotaping Police.. Again · · Score: 1

    The wire tapping statute is just where they put the restrictions on recording other individuals for practical and historical reasons. I'm not aware of any state in which wiretapping is literally wiretapping. Hell even when wiretapping a phone they don't even tap into the wire the way that they used to.

  18. Re:Wow. so police has become judges now. on NH Man Arrested For Videotaping Police.. Again · · Score: 1

    Just because they're the ones that said that it's wiretapping doesn't mean that they're interpreting laws. The law is very clear that this is wiretapping. The question is whether or not it's illegal in this instance.

    As for interpreting the law, how else are they going to do their jobs if they're not interpreting the law? Wait for a jury verdict before making an arrest?

  19. Re:Why I don't use NoScript on NoScript Awarded $10,000 · · Score: 1

    Yes, and as far as I can tell there isn't any way of doing it now. Which is annoying when you are OK temporarily allowing a long list, except for Facebook.

    And allowing it site by site would definitely be helpful, just because I'm trusting a site with javascript doesn't mean that every site should also get that trust.

  20. April Fools on Qt For the Console · · Score: 1

    Clearly this April Fools joke was botched be slashdot's failure to be nearly 10 months behind.

  21. Re:Why I don't use NoScript on NoScript Awarded $10,000 · · Score: 2

    The UI isn't confusing, what is confusing is the tendency of sites to use a large number of largely anonymous servers to give even basic functionality. What NoScript really needs is a way of blacklisting domains manually so that I have to manually enable them if I decide I want them. For things like Facebook which are inexplicably everywhere even though they aren't necessary on any site that I routinely go to.

  22. Re:sad on NoScript Awarded $10,000 · · Score: 1

    It's a phase that's looking more and more like a new normal. We were lucky with those huge painterly sites of the late 90s that they eventually went away. Sure they looked cool, but on a dial up connection they'd take 20 minutes to fully load.

    Now, sites take 20 minutes to load because they've got to load content from all over the web and frequently the slowest things to load are the ads. Each hop from server to server takes more time and with the sites pulling in stuff from other sites it can easily stall out if you're doing anything else with your connection.

  23. Re:Recognition vs usefulness on NoScript Awarded $10,000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Javascript itself isn't the problem so much as the tendency to need to allow javascript from 20 or 30 sites just to view a page in its entirety. Typically they don't tell you what sites they genuinely use so if you don't recognize the domain name then you don't have any way of knowing if it's intended to be executed by the web devs.

  24. Re:Did they also get a grant... on NoScript Awarded $10,000 · · Score: 1

    If MS had only made one mistake 2 years ago, I doubt very much that we'd be after them to this extent.

  25. Re:Should have been a default in browsers from day on NoScript Awarded $10,000 · · Score: 1

    The point of noscript is to deny scripts globally and then just enable the ones that you deem to be safe. I assume that's what you meant because if you just blacklist domains that you know to be malicious you might as well just send your information directly to the crackers.