Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:How do I refill it? (Score 3, Informative) 194

To put this in perspective, California is aiming for 100 fueling stations by 2024 and as of May this year only 9 actually existed.

"California, Oregon, New York and five other states pledged to put more than three million zero-emission vehicles on their roads by 2025"

http://www.usatoday.com/story/...
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb...

Comment Re:When will I get it on my Nexus 5? (Score 1) 178

Flashing the factory image will do a wipe if you follow the instructions on Google's download page because it has you unlock the bootloader, which causes the device to erase itself. There's also a command argument in flash-all.bat that causes a wipe.

Usually someone will capture and post a link to the OTA download (who knows why Google won't just post it themselves...) and you _can_ "sideload" that fairly easily using adb without losing all your user data. This is by far the easiest method if you don't need to update right this second but you don't want to wait until Google finally gets around to allowing the update for your device.

Comment Re:NFC alone isn't enough (Score 3, Interesting) 122

The reason Google Wallet has been a failure to-date is that it (and all other smartphone-based payment systems except ApplePay) is simply not convenient to use compared to swiping a credit card.

Bullshit. There is virtually no difference in the operation of either system except one has a fingerprint reader.

The reason ApplePay became the #1 smartphone payment mechanism overnight is because it's utterly trivial and convenient to use.

More bullshit. The reason ApplePay became the #1 mechanism overnight is because Apple leveraged their marketing and the media around it. Google hasn't ever done the same. In fact, it would be easy to be oblivious to the fact that Google Wallet even exists - it's almost as if Google doesn't give a crap in terms of marketing it (who knows why..)

It took me exactly 3 seconds at the local Whole Foods to pull out my phone, tap it with my finger on the finger print reader, and put it back in my pocket.

It takes me no more time to use Google Wallet.

Comment Re:So Android DOESN'T have an Apple Pay equivalent (Score 1) 122

HCE eliminates the need for a hardware secure element.

If you think that some software sandboxing is the equivalent of a "secure enclave" chip in terms of secure-ness, you're sadly mistaken.

I was under the impression that where phones have hardware (e.g. Nexus 5) it'll use it, and it provides emulation elsewhere so that Wallet can work across all Android devices with NFC, and the idea was to broaden support for the platform, not to say emulation is better or even preferred.

Comment Re:Person-to-person telepathy is all well and good (Score 5, Funny) 110

Also, I can think at least 10 times faster than I can type... so I could get more stuff done in the same amount of time.

Brain-computer demo (internal voice):
"Visit Slashdot"
"Fucking beta..."
"No no no, go back!"
"Damn, Amazon ads are creepy, I was just searching for a new stereo system!"
"no no no, I don't want to search for a stereo system, go back!"
"reads post explaining vulnerability that tricks brain-computer interface into issuing commands using your internal reading voice select all files permanently delete confirm"
"wait! fuck! nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!"

Comment Re:Politics (Score 2) 384

As soon as any government appoints a Czar, you know that they know bad things are going to happen.

Usually:
* The person has little actual power
* They are allocated minimal resources
* Decisions come from the people above
* Blame falls upon the Czar's shoulders
* Appointing a Czar makes it look like you're doing something, even though you don't actually have to know what you're doing
* Almost inevitably the Czar resigns or is fired later for being ineffective - because they were never actually there to do anything or even empowered to do anything

When you see a Czar being appointed you should immediately think, "they know the outcome here has a high probability of being very damaging politically, likely because they either don't have the answers and they know it, or the answers they have point to a very unpopular outcome".

That's not being cynical, it's just reality.

Comment Re:Where is the NFC 2-factor? (Score 1) 121

Can you elaborate on what the problems are? You described having a PC in each room... so I don't see what's difficult about uninviting one and inviting another when moving.

Sure. Imagine it's a recurring meeting that someone else owns, or a short-term meeting where you're not the owner and the owner is late or doesn't have their laptop with them, etc. How are you going to change the invitation list? You can't, and neither can anyone else on remote teams, so you're screwed until someone goes and creates a new meeting and re-invites everyone, then hope the Chromebox picks that up fast enough, or at all, because technically the meeting has already started. Oh, and then also hope that nobody else has already booked the room you want to use, but simply hasn't showed up.

These are just some of the real problems I've found.

Comment Re:Politics (Score 2) 384

If having a Czar will concentrate more power in their hands then a Czar is what they'll create.

Czar's are usually there to be completely ineffective and take the fall when side A politically leverages hindsight and/or the situation that they themselves have helped create against side B.

Don't be a Czar, it won't end well for you.

Slashdot Top Deals

Enzymes are things invented by biologists that explain things which otherwise require harder thinking. -- Jerome Lettvin

Working...