Unfortunately, there appears to be no way to automatically send e-mails/SMS messages when certain usage targets are met, so the usability of the site leaves a lot to be desired. But it's a start...
...using a "real" light bulb in 80's. Breadboarded my own special "modulator" device in fact. Of course, since I didn't have a fancy laptop then, I had to wire up a demodulator as well. Stuffed everything into two cigar boxes. You could even hear the filament "ring" when you tapped the box. Very cool!
No, they raised the price. Used to be you got discs for $8 and streaming was free. Then the two of them were $11, meaning streaming went up to $3. Now to get the same thing it costs you $16. They raised the price on streaming.
No, streaming is still $8 (because there never was a way to get "just the streaming" without the DVDs). You just don't get the DVDs as of August if you change your plan to streaming-only.
Since their streaming has a limited selection and degraded quality (no 1080p, bad throughput issues, etc.)
The quality of recent streams has improved substantially. On my 52" HDTV, "Weeds" and "Dexter" look great, as do most other streams (mostly Korean movies). I've *never* had a stream suffer due to throughput issues. I would suggest if you've had throughput issues, you should talk to your Internet provider, and not blame Netflix.
it isn't worth as much as getting the same movie on a disc
Not if time means nothing to you. Streaming is instant; having a DVD sent to you is on average two days.
Right, try travelling around the US without using a plane.
I do it all the time. I'll drive 3000 miles on vacation before I submit to inane security policies. Oh, and I choose not to have a job that requires me to fly. Yes, it is possible to travel around the US without using a plane.
...is good if you're into foreign movies. One thing I noticed is that my instant viewing queue was literally cut in half a few days ago. They simply dropped the streaming versions of many of the movies I had in the queue. This made no sense then, but it does now: What better way to lock in your customer base than to kill off customers' instant queues, thereby forcing them into making a decision: Do I purchase both plans, now that so many instant play options have been removed?
It all makes perfect sense now. I think I'll stick with Netflix for streaming, and my local Redbox (hell, there are probably 10 Redbox kiosks within a 5-mile radius of my house) for DVDs.
BTW, Redbox has started carrying "in-house" rental DVDs that seem to be custom-pressed for Redbox and don't appear to let you fast forward through the previews or jump to the menu. I've found that if you keep pressing "menu" or "FF" between the preview breaks, you'll presently get to where you want to go. Once Redbox figures out how to eliminate this little bug, I'll be through with them.
...reading an analog clock is a lost art with many of our young people. I often find my high-school students asking me "Mister, what time is it?" while staring directly at the analog clock in my room. It took me a while to figure out that they do not know how to read time on a clock with hands. So now, at the start of the year, we have a clock-reading activity that I stole from a 3rd-grade workbook.
Credit Unions are non-profit organizations, with totally different goals. It is possible, and not uncommon, to have smaller credit unions that are just a few dozen to a few hundred people.
They are much, much more transparent than banks and frequently totally transparent in both their books and operations.
While using the same password for Hotmail and internet banking is really not a good idea, using the same password for wordpress.com and wordpress.org is just common sense for people who don't have a photographic memory.
I was going to mod this up, but thought it might be a good time for my annual suggestion of using passphrases instead of random sequences of characters. Much easier to remember, and a short 3-word passphrase (maybe with a random character to increase entropy) usually satisfies the moronic "password strength" checks.
...OpenNIC charges $0 for TLD applications, and since it's a transparent democratic approval process, you get to actively participate in the approval process. We need to show ICANN there are alternatives to their extortion attempts.
On the other side of that coin: I've got a con artist who is trying to scam me out of about $400 in a legitimate transaction, first time in over 8 years that I've run into this. What does PayPal do? Immediately debit my account for $400, then tells me I'm supposed to reason with this fuckhead. So now I've got a $400 debit (meaning any transactions after this I will never see until I'm over the $400 threshold), and a scammer who knows I'm down $400.
I wonder why Netflix would not place a limit on the number of simultaneous connections / streams delivered to any given account
They already do. Once you establish a connection from a specific IP, Netflix forces you to enter a code in your device that you have to get from the site. If the IP changes, you have to enter a new code.
..when the local Fry's (actually, 3 of them that are within a 10-mile radius of me) and Altex carries aisle after aisle of discreet components? Oh, and at reasonable prices too.
It's really a no-brainer: RS sold out long ago, and they're no way they'll get their piece of the market back. In fact, the answer is so obvious, I'm really not sure what the question is.
...that doesn't mention OpenBSD isn't worth reading. I'm sorry if I sound like an OpenBSD fanboy, but whether you love or hate de Raadt, the OpenBSD architecture and SCM process is a beautiful thing to behold.
...and destroyed about 1000 floppy disks chock full of games, shareware, and what not. My grand plans were always to "show my kids" what I grew up with...but now they're almost out of school, and aren't the least bit interested.
So practicality trumped nostalgia. The disks, machines, drives, everything are gone forever. I still have pangs of guilt over the decision, but also remind myself that realistically I would never run anything under DOS again.
According to the Serious Tubes folks, Comcast had no part in fixing the problem:
Comcast did not help us fix The Pirate Bay. The problem was GBLX using reverse path filtering. We shut down one of our transits because it was flapping. The result was that all outgoing traffic to GBLX got filtered even though the packets took the same path as before. The Pirate Bay is using different paths for incoming and outgoing traffic to avoid being traced. We don’t even know where their servers are. We resolved the issue by activating our other transit again.
Note to Slashdot: Fix your screwed-up "hidden comment" selection and allow comments to be recursively unhidden, please.
Ok, that's neat and all... but where's the iPhone/iPad/Blackberry app to access the 'gvim gpg' password store on the go? Where's the browser plugin to auto-login and automatically fill forms based on the gvim gpg datastore?
Rolling your own is a bit more work (yes, I have to fill in the passwords myself, rather than using autofill [and who knows where *that* data might be cached]), but at least I don't have to worry about a 3rd party telling me that I have to change my secure passphrase...and then changing their minds because they can't quite make up their minds.
...but am I the only one who is very hesitant about storing my precious passwords "in the cloud"? I use this gvim gpg plugin to encrypt my passwords, on my own terms, and I make them accessible to myself by any number of ways that I control.
Is this so incredibly difficult to do for most people that they must depend upon others to maintain their personal data?
...to get onboard, but have been rejected each time. The amount of detail that Google requires for its application is just mind-boggling. More mind-boggling is the selection process that seems to favor established projects with large developer bases that really aren't in need of extra help. Good luck getting on the SoC bandwagon if you're a small (but established) open software project.
Slashdot Mirror
Smart Meter Texas
Unfortunately, there appears to be no way to automatically send e-mails/SMS messages when certain usage targets are met, so the usability of the site leaves a lot to be desired. But it's a start...
...using a "real" light bulb in 80's. Breadboarded my own special "modulator" device in fact. Of course, since I didn't have a fancy laptop then, I had to wire up a demodulator as well. Stuffed everything into two cigar boxes. You could even hear the filament "ring" when you tapped the box. Very cool!
Damn, I should have filed a patent on it...
No, they raised the price. Used to be you got discs for $8 and streaming was free. Then the two of them were $11, meaning streaming went up to $3. Now to get the same thing it costs you $16. They raised the price on streaming.
No, streaming is still $8 (because there never was a way to get "just the streaming" without the DVDs). You just don't get the DVDs as of August if you change your plan to streaming-only.
Since their streaming has a limited selection and degraded quality (no 1080p, bad throughput issues, etc.)
The quality of recent streams has improved substantially. On my 52" HDTV, "Weeds" and "Dexter" look great, as do most other streams (mostly Korean movies). I've *never* had a stream suffer due to throughput issues. I would suggest if you've had throughput issues, you should talk to your Internet provider, and not blame Netflix.
it isn't worth as much as getting the same movie on a disc
Not if time means nothing to you. Streaming is instant; having a DVD sent to you is on average two days.
Right, try travelling around the US without using a plane.
I do it all the time. I'll drive 3000 miles on vacation before I submit to inane security policies. Oh, and I choose not to have a job that requires me to fly. Yes, it is possible to travel around the US without using a plane.
...is good if you're into foreign movies. One thing I noticed is that my instant viewing queue was literally cut in half a few days ago. They simply dropped the streaming versions of many of the movies I had in the queue. This made no sense then, but it does now: What better way to lock in your customer base than to kill off customers' instant queues, thereby forcing them into making a decision: Do I purchase both plans, now that so many instant play options have been removed?
It all makes perfect sense now. I think I'll stick with Netflix for streaming, and my local Redbox (hell, there are probably 10 Redbox kiosks within a 5-mile radius of my house) for DVDs.
BTW, Redbox has started carrying "in-house" rental DVDs that seem to be custom-pressed for Redbox and don't appear to let you fast forward through the previews or jump to the menu. I've found that if you keep pressing "menu" or "FF" between the preview breaks, you'll presently get to where you want to go. Once Redbox figures out how to eliminate this little bug, I'll be through with them.
...alive and well!
...reading an analog clock is a lost art with many of our young people. I often find my high-school students asking me "Mister, what time is it?" while staring directly at the analog clock in my room. It took me a while to figure out that they do not know how to read time on a clock with hands. So now, at the start of the year, we have a clock-reading activity that I stole from a 3rd-grade workbook.
Seriously.
Download the ISO, burn it to a CD, reboot.
Credit Unions are non-profit organizations, with totally different goals. It is possible, and not uncommon, to have smaller credit unions that are just a few dozen to a few hundred people.
They are much, much more transparent than banks and frequently totally transparent in both their books and operations.
Apparently, Texans CU didn't get the memo:
http://www.cutimes.com/2009/12/23/management-shakeup-lawsuits-cuso-bankruptcy-plagued-texans-cu
http://www.cutimes.com/2011/04/27/credit-union-industry-reacts-to-failure-of-big-tex
Funny thing is that members were *never* notified that Texans had its board removed. So much for credit union transparency.
While using the same password for Hotmail and internet banking is really not a good idea, using the same password for wordpress.com and wordpress.org is just common sense for people who don't have a photographic memory.
I was going to mod this up, but thought it might be a good time for my annual suggestion of using passphrases instead of random sequences of characters. Much easier to remember, and a short 3-word passphrase (maybe with a random character to increase entropy) usually satisfies the moronic "password strength" checks.
...OpenNIC charges $0 for TLD applications, and since it's a transparent democratic approval process, you get to actively participate in the approval process. We need to show ICANN there are alternatives to their extortion attempts.
On the other side of that coin: I've got a con artist who is trying to scam me out of about $400 in a legitimate transaction, first time in over 8 years that I've run into this. What does PayPal do? Immediately debit my account for $400, then tells me I'm supposed to reason with this fuckhead. So now I've got a $400 debit (meaning any transactions after this I will never see until I'm over the $400 threshold), and a scammer who knows I'm down $400.
This road runs both ways, friend.
...can be found here. Rather chilling.
I wonder why Netflix would not place a limit on the number of simultaneous connections / streams delivered to any given account
They already do. Once you establish a connection from a specific IP, Netflix forces you to enter a code in your device that you have to get from the site. If the IP changes, you have to enter a new code.
..when the local Fry's (actually, 3 of them that are within a 10-mile radius of me) and Altex carries aisle after aisle of discreet components? Oh, and at reasonable prices too.
It's really a no-brainer: RS sold out long ago, and they're no way they'll get their piece of the market back. In fact, the answer is so obvious, I'm really not sure what the question is.
...that doesn't mention OpenBSD isn't worth reading. I'm sorry if I sound like an OpenBSD fanboy, but whether you love or hate de Raadt, the OpenBSD architecture and SCM process is a beautiful thing to behold.
...and destroyed about 1000 floppy disks chock full of games, shareware, and what not.
I cried a little
So did I, believe me...
...and destroyed about 1000 floppy disks chock full of games, shareware, and what not. My grand plans were always to "show my kids" what I grew up with...but now they're almost out of school, and aren't the least bit interested.
So practicality trumped nostalgia. The disks, machines, drives, everything are gone forever. I still have pangs of guilt over the decision, but also remind myself that realistically I would never run anything under DOS again.
Also, IT'S NOT FUCKING CEMENT, IT'S CONCRETE.
This message brought to you by the American Concrete Institute: Advancing concrete knowledge!
Whoever you are, you've made my day. The world is right again, thanks!
According to the Serious Tubes folks, Comcast had no part in fixing the problem:
Comcast did not help us fix The Pirate Bay. The problem was GBLX using reverse path filtering. We shut down one of our transits because it was flapping. The result was that all outgoing traffic to GBLX got filtered even though the packets took the same path as before. The Pirate Bay is using different paths for incoming and outgoing traffic to avoid being traced. We don’t even know where their servers are. We resolved the issue by activating our other transit again.
Note to Slashdot: Fix your screwed-up "hidden comment" selection and allow comments to be recursively unhidden, please.
Ok, that's neat and all... but where's the iPhone/iPad/Blackberry app to access the 'gvim gpg' password store on the go? Where's the browser plugin to auto-login and automatically fill forms based on the gvim gpg datastore?
Rolling your own is a bit more work (yes, I have to fill in the passwords myself, rather than using autofill [and who knows where *that* data might be cached]), but at least I don't have to worry about a 3rd party telling me that I have to change my secure passphrase...and then changing their minds because they can't quite make up their minds.
...but am I the only one who is very hesitant about storing my precious passwords "in the cloud"? I use this gvim gpg plugin to encrypt my passwords, on my own terms, and I make them accessible to myself by any number of ways that I control.
Is this so incredibly difficult to do for most people that they must depend upon others to maintain their personal data?
And I'll be damned if this isn't the very device!
...to get onboard, but have been rejected each time. The amount of detail that Google requires for its application is just mind-boggling. More mind-boggling is the selection process that seems to favor established projects with large developer bases that really aren't in need of extra help. Good luck getting on the SoC bandwagon if you're a small (but established) open software project.