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Comment Re:Here we go again (Score 2) 461

by djlowe (#43476361) Attached to: Ricin Tainted Letter Sent to Senator and Possibly the President

Umm driving a car isn't a right.

Alas, if only we had an amendment in the Bill of Rights that clearly said the delineation of certain rights did not mean other rights were not equally valid ...

Alas, if only that were the only Amendment to consider. The Tenth Amendment mentions something about rights not ennumerated, I think.

People tend to dissect the Constitution to support their own beliefs, when in truth it needs to considered as a whole in order to fully appreciate it and apply it correctly.

Regards,

dj
Communications

Ask Slashdot: Best Way To Archive and Access Ancient Emails? 282

Posted by timothy from the learn-them-like-the-ancient-memory-singers dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I started using email in the early 90s and have lost most of that first decade due to ignorance, botched backups, and so on. But since about 2000, I've got most — if not all — of my email in some form or other. I run Linux, so this has mainly been in a mix of various programs: Kmail, Evolution, Thunderbird. The past 2-3 years are still on the IMAP servers. My problem is that I only rarely NEED to look back to email of 5 years ago. But sometimes it's nice. Or I just want to reminisce about something...or find an old attachment that I was sent. But I do not want to be clogging my current email client of choice with vast backups and even more, I don't know if it will even easily convert. The file structures are different, some are mbox, others maildir, etc., and I would ideally like a way to 1) store and archive these emails, 2) access them, and 3) search by Sender, Subject, Date, Attachments. Is there anything I can do or do I just have to keep legacy applications on hand for this? Should I keep trying to upgrade and pull old files into the new applications? Any help or suggestions about what YOU do would be great."
The Internet

Ask Slashdot: Best Way To Block Web Content? 282

Posted by samzenpus from the what-has-been-seen-cannot-be-unseen dept.
First time accepted submitter willoughby writes "Many routers today have the capability to block web content. And you all know about browser addons like noscript & adblock. But where is the 'proper' place for such content blocking? Is it best to have the router only route packets & do the content blocking on each machine? If using the content blocking feature in the router, will performance degrade if the list of blocked content grows large? Where is the best place to filter/block web content?"

Comment Re:I'm not even a fan, but (Score 2) 1174

by djlowe (#43086591) Attached to: Orson Scott Card's Superman Story Shelved After Homophobia Controversy

Does that not simply lend credence to his claim of "the end of democracy in America"?

No, it does not, because at the Federal level, the government is not, nor ever has been, a pure democracy. It's a democratic republic.

Well, it was *supposed* to be that. Now it's more akin to a fascist state, where corporations pay federal politicians via campaign donations, lobbyists, etc., to enact laws to their benefit.

And, in that light, he, you, I and pretty much everyone else are in the same boat: We're all being slowly crushed, as individuals, by what the US Federal government has become.

I suspect that Mr. Card doesn't object to that, so much as he does the fact that he's not a member of the "winning team".

Regards.

dj
Input Devices

Ask Slashdot: Keyboard Layout To Reduce Right Pinky/Ring Finger Usage? 165

Posted by Soulskill from the try-upgrading-the-firmware-on-your-hands dept.
Tooke writes "I've developed focal hand dystonia from playing clarinet. It affects my right pinky (and my ring finger, but to a lesser extent). My pinky isn't totally unusable when typing; however, it isn't nearly as agile as it used to be. When I must press a key with it, I tend to keep the whole finger rigid and move my entire hand instead. I also use my ring finger to press the P and semicolon keys (on QWERTY) which is a bit awkward but better than using the pinky. Thus my question: are there any keyboard layouts that are optimized to reduce right pinky/ring finger usage? I switched to Programmer Dvorak a few years ago, but Dvorak seems to make me use my right hand significantly more than my left. I'm considering mirroring the letter keys so my left hand would be used more. I also came across the Workman layout which looks interesting. I might try using that after switching the numbers and symbols around to be more like Programmer Dvorak. Has anyone been in a similar situation? What else could I do to make typing more comfortable? I've got a long career ahead of me as a programmer (I'm currently a high school senior) and I'd like to take care of my hands as much as possible."
Displays

Ask Slashdot: What Is Your Favorite Monitor For Programming? 375

Posted by timothy from the anything-that-keeps-the-lizard-happy dept.
First time accepted submitter BadassFractal writes "I'm in the market for a new large desktop monitor (or two) which I intend to use almost exclusively for programming and all sorts of software development-related work. I'm trying to keep the cost down reasonable, and I do enjoy as large of a resolution as possible. What do people 'in the know' out there use these days for that purpose? I'm thinking a 1920x1200 24" would be good, unless there's an affordable 2560xFoo option out there. I keep hearing about nameless Korean 27" screens, any thoughts on those?"
Bug

Samsung Laptop Bug Is Not Linux Specific 215

Posted by timothy from the using-french-or-korean-does-it-too dept.
First time accepted submitter YurB writes "Matthew Garrett, a Linux kernel developer who was investigating the recent Linux-on-Samsung-in-UEFI-mode problem, has bricked a Samsung laptop using a test userspace program in Windows. The most fascinating part of the story is on what is actually causing the firmware boot failure: 'Unfortunately, it turns out that some Samsung laptops will fail to boot if too much of the [UEFI] variable storage space is used. We don't know what "too much" is yet, but writing a bunch of variables from Windows is enough to trigger it. I put some sample code here — it writes out 36 variables each containing a kilobyte of random data. I ran this as an administrator under Windows and then rebooted the system. It never came back.'"
Operating Systems

Ask Slashdot: Buying a Laptop That Doesn't Have Windows 8 570

Posted by timothy from the craigslist-if-available dept.
First time accepted submitter Sagan's Pie writes "I'm starting to look for a laptop for college, and the only thing I seem to find are laptops or tablets that have Windows 8. I have used Windows 7 for a long time now, and would not have a problem giving it up, but not for Windows 8. After visiting many major online retail sites, I've found that finding either a Windows 7 laptop, or even a laptop without an operating system is nearly impossible. So where should I go if looking for laptops sans os, or at the very least sans Windows 8?"
Security

Bad Grammar Make Bestest Password, Research Say 193

Posted by samzenpus from the power-of-slang dept.
An anonymous reader writes "NewScientist reports, 'Along with birthdays, names of pets and ascending number sequences, add one more thing to the list of password no-nos: good grammar.' Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University seem to have developed a password cracking algorithm that targets grammatically correct passwords. Can bad grammar really make your password secure?"

Comment Re:So Proud of Gun Ownership (Score 1) 1232

by djlowe (#42391333) Attached to: New York Paper Uses Public Records To Publish Gun-Owner Map

Until you develop a mental health problem, then it most definitely is everyone else's business.

That's bullshit. Having a mental health problem doesn't automatically mean that a person isn't capable of responsibly owning a firearm.

You need to learn some critical thinking skills and to develop some intellectual honesty.

Regards,

dj
Communications

Ask Slashdot: Current State of Linux Email Clients? 464

Posted by Soulskill from the unfavorable-selection-pressure dept.
mcloaked writes "We get all kinds of news about new developments, but one subject has been lacking for some time and that is email clients for Linux (or Windows for that matter). A number of reviews (mostly not all that recent) have pointed to the main clients as Thunderbird, Evolution, Claws-mail, and Kmail as possibilities. Up to about a year ago, Thunderbird seemed to be 'the' email client with the best mix of positives. However there are no recent reviews that I have seen. In the meantime Thunderbird has moved to monthly releases, which are more maintenance releases containing security fixes but little functional change — and little new development. Thunderbird also won't be significantly altered in the future, if one interprets the available news information. Evolution is reported to be rather prone to bugs, and Kmail even more so. Claws-mail has limitations, as does Kmail. So where is the future of Linux email clients going, absent any real innovation? We need a well maintained and capable mail client, preferably with good calendar integration (webcal/Google calendar), properly supported HTML composing, good maildir format storage for local mail, and good security support (including the capacity to deal with both GPG and S/MIME encryption and signing). It needs a modern UI and good import/export facilities, as well as good integration with its address book, including import/export of addresses. Are we likely to see this kind of package as we move into the future, or will mail clients slowly disappear? At the moment it looks like email client support is dead — Are too many users moving into web mail and the cloud instead of having a properly functional mail client on their desktops?"
Communications

Ask Slashdot: What Web Platform For a Small Municipality? 161

Posted by timothy from the right-here-in-river-city dept.
First time accepted submitter r3dR0v3r writes "I have the opportunity to help improve / replace the website of my small U.S. town (~6000 people). The town leaders are open to most any suggestions, and are open to the idea of having the website facilitate a more open government — by being a place at which town documents, meeting agendas, meeting minutes, legal forms, ordinances, etc. can be found in an organized way and downloaded. And of course the site should provide general info about the town, it's services, recreation opportunities, etc.. Now, we have no budget, so we'll be looking at free/open software. I've considered options such as Drupal, but I'm doing this as volunteer work so I don't want to start from scratch and spend overly much time. Thus, I'm looking for advice about any existing platforms made specifically for municipalities as a great way to get a jump start. I'm guessing there are other slashdotters that have helped their communities in this way. Your suggestions please?"
The Internet

Ask Slashdot: Management Software For Small Independent ISP? 141

Posted by samzenpus from the a-little-help-please dept.
First time accepted submitter Vorknkx writes "I work in a small ISP. Most of our customers have cable modems but some of them are using Canopy or Ubiquity products. To manage all that, we're using a number of programs and solutions not necessarily made for such a task that are kept up to date simply using copy and paste. We have an Access database for all our internet customers, an Excel document for our wireless users, The Dude to monitor every user and a custom-made web application to monitor traffic. Needless to say, we're starting to hit the limit and juggling between all these programs is a complete pain. Is there some kind of all-in-one solution that would allow us to eliminate all the copy and paste while keeping the same functionality?"

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