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User: smartin

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  1. Knowing I will never need to use it again on Happy 30th Birthday, Windows! · · Score: 1

    My fondest memory is the day after I finished my previous job where I realized that I would never accept a job again that required me to use it. Fingers crossed anyway.

  2. Re:An Odd Bird on First 26 Pages of Neal Stephenson's New Novel "Seveneves" Online · · Score: 1

    I loved the Captain Crunch bit. For me it was clear the Stephenson really understands that geek mentality. I think he a a great author and while the endings sometimes do fall a bit short, it is always a great ride to get there.

  3. Some easy and obvious advice. on Ask Slashdot: Best Practices For Starting and Running a Software Shop? · · Score: 1

    - Make sure the everyone understands and agrees with the big picture.
    - Make sure the people are invested in the end result. (this with the point above says that outsourcing is not the best solution)
    - Be consistent, thorough and write high quality software. Coding guidelines and a clear process that everyone understands and follows will help with this.
    - Understand that the idea is more important than the implementation, but a poor implementation can ruin a great idea.

  4. Funny thing is on Enraged Verizon FiOS Customer Seemingly Demonstrates Netflix Throttling · · Score: 1

    I recently upgraded my FIOS service and they used Netflix streaming as one of the reasons that I should do it. After going from 25/5 to 50/25 I still get downgraded quality when watching flix.

  5. Re:RC plane? on How You Too Can Be Shut Down By the Feds For Flying Drones · · Score: 2

    Sure, he hands her the remote and she shuts up :)

  6. Re:My experience with it. on Calibre Version 1.0 Released After 7 Years of Development · · Score: 2

    Another great feature is that you can share books by email. My Mom is a constant reader and I will hunt down books for her. I use Calibre to reformat them to .mobi and then can right click on the book and mail it to her kindle account. Works great! Calibre even lets me add a column to the main listing so that I can add a flag the lets me record that I sent the book.

  7. Re:I guess it was worth it then... on FTC Wins Huge $7.5 Million Penalty Against "Do Not Call" List Violator · · Score: 2

    That works, but I agree that violating DNC should carry very heavy pernalties

    I would consider death to be the minimum penalty.

  8. Re:the only thing worth coming for on Why We'll Never Meet Aliens · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, food. Human is a delicacy in some regions of the galaxy.

  9. I don't get this on $5 Sensor Turns LCD Monitors Into Touchscreens · · Score: 1

    Why on earth would people want to jam their fingers into their screens? If it is to have some gesture based control, a much better solution is a decent trackpad, which in effect works as a proxy for the screen but in a more ergonomic location.

  10. Re:cool on Swedish Engineer's RC Plane Gets a Balloon Lift To Space · · Score: 1

    On Flitetest they talk about attempting this in the US, Ohio i think, and said that it was not that difficult to get FAA approval.

  11. Is this not a form of wire tapping? on Criticism Of Copyright Alert System Mounts · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It seems to me that the content of an IP packet should be protected under wiretapping laws. What gives the ISPs the right to monitor my traffic. If they do have this right, do they also have the right to break or somehow spoof encrypted traffic as well?

  12. Re:Break Their Legs and Put Them in the Everglades on 'This Is Your Second and Final Notice' Robocallers Revealed · · Score: 2

    I'm sorry to say that while the Do No Call List seemed to work well for several years it is now completely being ignored. I guess the telespammers realized that it had no teeth. I really hope that the FCC or who ever runs it takes a company like this and makes a serious fucking example of them.

  13. Re:Speaking of "Smear Campaigns"... on MS Targets Google With Another Smear Campaign · · Score: 1

    Microsoft. Just because they are no longer relevant does not make them any less evil or forgive them for their past crimes. This campaign is just another example of how they really, really don't get it. If they could make a decent product for once, maybe they could get some new market share instead of just sitting and watching their monopoly dwindle away.

  14. Loud whistle on FTC Gets 744 New Ideas On How To Hang Up On Robocallers · · Score: 1

    Somewhere there is a story about someone that actually got charged with blowing a loud whistle into the ear of a telemarketer. I think this was before it was actually illegal for them to call. Now that it is, it is really tempting to do. And no, I don't care about the poor underpaid schmuck on the other end of the line, they deserve what they get.

  15. Think of it more as a nail on The L.A. Times Names Its Favorite Flops of the Year · · Score: 1

    As in the final nail in Ballmer's coffin.

  16. This is nothing new for Microsoft on Windows 8: a 'Christmas Gift For Someone You Hate' · · Score: 4, Funny

    They have a habit of missing the boat on things and then when they realize it, they compensate by embracing it and over doing it. A perfect example was the Web. They completely missed the boat on it in the mid 90's and when they realized it, they reacted by reworking everything they could to be based on http/html and the result was a mess. This time they completely got it wrong on smart phones and tablets and now they are over compensating by trying to turn a desktop into a tablet.

    Apple seems to be getting it right by moving the best features of the tablet to the desk top but doing it in a way that makes sense. For example, gestures are great on both, but when it comes to the desktop, you should use a proxy surface such as a touch pad rather than the screen itself. The first fucker that jabs his finger into my monitor to move a window is going to lose it :)

  17. Keep the psychopaths where they belong on Could Testing Block Psychopaths From Senior Management? · · Score: 1

    In middle management

  18. Re:I've got a way around this on Verizon To Throttle Pirates' Bandwidth · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That sort of sounds illegal to me. If the ISP's start generating fake DNS responses or modifying packets, i suspect that they will be spending time in court. Not all bit torrent traffic is illegal.

  19. Hmmm on Windows 8 Defeats 85% of Malware Detected In the Past 6 Months · · Score: 0

    Seems about 15% short of the mark

  20. Re:Kinda Subjective but... on Does Coding Style Matter? · · Score: 1

    Halleluiah, i don't know why most IDE's bugger with the tab setting but the only proper one is 8. Anything else requires agreements that everyone must follow, which printers and terminals don't support.

  21. Learn from experience on Slashdot Asks: Are You Preparing For Hurricane Sandy? · · Score: 2

    Last year we got slammed by Irene and the October snowstorm (the snow storm was 10 times worse). Afterward I created a storm preparation list which I've reviewed this week and was surprise by some of the things that I wrote that I would not think of now. .e.g. spare fuses for generator, charge cell phones, etc.

    During Irene I learned exactly what happens to my house as the amount of rain piles up. We can take 6 inches or so but after that the water table rises and my basement starts to leak in certain places. So we are clearing out those places and are prepared with mops, shop vac, backup sump and generator.

    This time we won't be able to change what happens, but since we have experience, we know how to at least limit the damage.

  22. Re:Doesn't make sense on Romney Taps Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan As Running Mate · · Score: 1

    Colin Powell remains the only member of the Bush administration that I could have any respect for what so ever. I think that when he looks back on his tenure he must think, "how the fuck could I have gotten myself mixed up in that clusterfuck?"

  23. Re:And you wonder why we have hate-based politics on 12 Dead, 50 Injured at The Dark Knight Rises Showing In Colorado · · Score: 1

    The difference is that one of them was a comedian making a joke the other is a pundit trying to rile the political base of his party. I leave it to you to figure out which is which.

  24. Re:It's from Microsoft and this is Slashdot... on Ask Slashdot: What's Your Beef With Windows Phone? · · Score: 1, Informative

    It's not an irrational rabid hate. It is a hate borne out of 20 years of shitty products, aggressive business practices and all around bad behaviour.

  25. Re:About bloody time on NPR's "Car Talk" Glides To a Halt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I saw, or rather heard, two very knowledgeable guys helping people and having a good time doing it. Car Talk is/was a gem and will be sorely missed by the thousands of people that they have helped and millions of people that they have entertained over the last 25 years.

    It is too bad that the parent poster didn't call them to learn how to change the channel on that radio thing in the dashboard of their car.