Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:I don't see the problem (Score 1) 545

Actually, many A/Cs now do run according to the clock. For the past 10 years, my thermostat has been programmable on a weekly schedule, and thanks to our government changing the weekends of the DST changes, I have had to manually reset its clock 4 times a year: correct it for not shifting on the right weekend in the spring, correct it again when it shifts automatically on the wrong weekend, correct it for shifting automatically on the wrong weekend in the fall, and correct it again when the right weekend arrives.

I recently upgraded to a wi-fi capable one (so much easier to program the schedule through a web interface), and it will change correctly on its own (I assume, since this weekend will be the first DST change since I've had it).

I would still prefer to get rid of the DST shift altogether.

Comment Re:Officer dickhead is a dickhead. (Score 1) 1440

The one time I got bumped from behind, a very light bump (no visible damage to my car), my glasses flew off my head, and I was probably rolling a good 5 seconds before I even realized I was moving and stuck my foot back on the brake; I hadn't even realized it had come off. The three cars behind me were crunched up pretty bad, but the police offer didn't even believe I'd been hit. So, yeah, I can easily believe your foot can come off the brake when you get bumped.

Comment e or paper, each has its place (Score 1) 323

I don't buy many ebooks, mainly because I can often get the same book on paper for the same price (or less!) than the ebook. With the drawbacks of the ebook (difficult or impossible to share, may be disappeared at any time, cannot resell, etc.), I am not willing to pay the same for the ebook as I am for the paper book.

I do own a kindle and have read a few books on it. But overall, there's just something about the paper book that is a better reading experience.

What I do like about ebooks is that I can keep one loaded on my phone, so I always have a book available on the spur of the moment when I have an unexpected 10+ minutes of idle time.

Comment Re: Fiat Currency (Score 2) 692

The Romans used money. This was accepted not because of taxation but because the coins were precious metals of known content and weight. The Roman hyperinflation came from adulterating the precious metals with base metals, and from altering the coins' weights. Hence the use in the later empire of scales and touchstones to establish the value of the currency. People reverted to barter after the fall of the empire because the legal infrastructure that it took to maintain relatively trustworthy money standards was gone.

Forbes is right that bitcoins are not money. Neither is the US Dollar any longer money. Both are, however, currency. And both are accepted for the same fundamental reason: people believe that they are portable stores of value with predictable behavior.

Comment Re:Haters Gonna Hate (Score 4, Informative) 915

Your bigotry is showing. I'm not Christian and even I know the Christian answer to this, which is that the old covenant of Leviticus was replaced by a new covenant from Jesus. What is especially ironic is that the Catholic Church does not have anything against homosexuals per se, so long as they are celibate. Which, by the way, is why there are so many homosexual priests, since priests must also be celibate.

Comment Re:And Yet... (Score 1) 522

Technically, it's not at the PPA level. It's a level higher, so no, it's not every program in the budget, actually. There are some that will not have that cover (because they're small), but most of the cuts allow for a lot more flexibility in how they are cut than it would at first appear. As it happens, the President is using that flexibility to make the cuts as bad as possible, rather than as easy as possible. So I'm saying that nothing bad must happen, but that doesn't mean that nothing bad will happen.

Frankly, if we can't cut the budget back to where it was in the scary dark ages of, say, 2010 without the world falling apart, then we have way bigger problems than this sequester. But in actual fact, we are not talking about cutting anything, but about slowing the rate of growth in programs. So really, it's all crap political theater.

Comment Re:House Republicans (Score 4, Insightful) 522

I know, I shouldn't feed the trolls. But I do have to note that the Republican-controlled House has been passing budgets while the Dem-controlled Senate has not, which is why we've been running on continuing resolutions (and thus running up $1T per year in new debt). I also have to note that the Republican-controlled House has pushed through at least three bills to avoid the sequester, but the Dem-controlled Senate has killed all of them. I also have to note that the President and the Dem-controlled Senate have not put forward any plan except vague notions of raising more taxes on "the rich," which is their answer to every question, apparently, including "Where shall we have lunch." Moreover, I have to note that the President has threatened to veto all of the ways the Republicans have proposed to avoid the sequester. Which I must finally note was in fact the President's idea as a lever to get the Republicans in the House to agree to tax increases, not the last time that taxes were raised, but the time before that.

I don't trust the Republicans in government further than I can comfortably spit a rat, but take off your partisan blinders for a moment and look around. The world is both weirder and more wonderful than your blinkered view will allow in.

Comment And Yet... (Score 4, Insightful) 522

There isn't a single Federal department that will not spend more money this year even with the sequester than they spent last year. The $85B in cuts from the sequester is somehow magical: the whole government — every basic function — apparently falls apart without this sliver of money (in a $3.6T overall spending plan), again noting that they will still spend more money than last year, even with the sequester. Amazing, really.

Wait! You don't think.... No! Surely politicians wouldn't play games with government services for political gain? Say it isn't so!

Comment As a Time Warner customer (Score 1) 573

I'd just like the service they do provide (a decent 20MBit) to stay up and maintain low latency. I have experienced numerous periods where service just goes away, and even more where packet loss climbs drastically or the latency goes through the roof. I don't care about gigabit speeds as much as I care about reliability. Deliver the latter and I'll think about paying for the former.

Slashdot Top Deals

If a thing's worth having, it's worth cheating for. -- W.C. Fields

Working...