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Comment Gang up. (Score 2) 268

Start by just asking. Maybe they'll have no problem with you de-IoT-ing things. Otherwise, ask around your neighbors and their experiences. Get together, start petitions, annoy the local government, seek media attention. Become a thorn in their sides as a group. And above all, disconnect the lot. I reckon they'll have to sue you first to force you to use that equipment. Find ways to make THEM have to expend the legal effort. There's probably also other examples of similar situations online, see how others have resolved their issues.

Comment Huuuuge solar sail. (Score 2) 382

Or hundreds of smaller ones. Rig them with steering and turning capabilities, ensure they radiate what they absorb away at an angle. They can cast shadows when passing over earth's relatively emptier dark regions (read: pacific ocean).

Seriously, though. If the oil and coal lobby weren't so ruthless, adoption of solar would have been even quicker. Even now, as it stands, renewables are being adopted all over the place and are becoming not only viable, but seriously cheaper. And that trend will only continue, so it's not all bad news =)

Comment Allright... here's my Macbook Pro Wishlist: (Score 1) 240

DO change:
- go back one keyboard generation
- bring back the f'in 17" model, and a 20" model for huge people like me (and gamers / designers)
- create a decent desktop docking system, with MODULAR port expansions so people can pick what they need (SD card, old Firewire, MIDI, whatever). You're the geniuses, rethink the workplace.
- a few normal USB ports. I know USB-C is the way to go, but I share the dislike of extra dongles when I'm traveling. Seriously? Find some other way to force the ecosystem.
- Why not just make the left or the right side modular as well, so I can swap in a bar with USB ports for a bar with SD slots and Firewire for when I go photo editing?

Do NOT change (or, at least, check carefully with public opinion first {yeah, I know, wishful thinking}):
- the hardware / software integration. It's awesome.
- aesthetics. They've always looked gorgeous, keep it up.
- the great Displays. Love the resolution.

Rethink:
- the keyboard.
- Mac as a gaming platform. I've got a Steam account full of games that prove that it's quite possible. It just requires some PROPER FRICKIN' DRIVERS and some dedication/commitment from Apple.

Comment How about burn-out? (Score 4, Interesting) 604

A few articles back I read about the huge burn-out problem in the US. That makes for a pretty good explanation. If you're burned out, your mind has pretty much shut down higher reasoning. Recovery usually takes months, so a vacation won't cut it. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people just go " ah, fuck it". Combine it with depression or other mental illnesses and you have somebody sitting in a true hellhole. One more reason for companies to actually give a shit about their employees. Here in the Netherlands the employer is also responsible for mental well-being. That's growing in the U.S. and other 1st world countries, but not nearly enough.

Comment Quid Pro Quo (Score 1) 109

And just what is our Dutch government giving back to the NSA? I'm pretty sure it's not fresh Dutch cabbages. The Dragnet is apparently global. How long until someone gets arrested just for blogging negatively about a politician? A banker? A NSA employee? This is an old, old cycle and marks the start of the end of an empire. Rome, Arabia and many others show this trend. Humans can and will conspire against each other in an ever growing bid for power until the masses once again have to overthrow the few. Only thing is, we can't win with pitchforks anymore, we need tanks and choppers. And they're decidedly harder to come by.

Comment Security is swimming upriver by definition. (Score 3, Informative) 134

Information sharing is built into the universe, and so is copying of patterns. Atoms and molecules share electrons in predictable ways, cells communicate with each other, living entities communicate and share in incredibly diverse and complex ways; and once "the cat is out of the bag" it's almost impossible to get it back in. Streisand effects ad nauseum. The war living things wage against each other on so many levels - for example, viruses versus our immune systems - are also a facet of this interaction. We exist in an environment where sharing and communication is fundamental and everything influences everything else in myriad, complex ways. Making something totally secure - in other words, preventing it from interacting with its environment - hence is utterly impossible, or at the very least the amount of energy required to secure something is immense and the result is always imperfect.

Goes for plagiairism as well. DNA copies itself, kids copy their parents, we copy habits and patterns from each other hundreds of times every day. It's part of our processes for optimalisation and they're also intrinsic to the universe. Thus, things like copyright are also doomed to fail. Here, too, the amount of energy required is huge.

Comment How to screw over the updater.. (Score 2) 250

You can do one of two things:
- Find the temp folder where Skype downloads its new copy, find out what name it gives the file, and replace it with a 2.8 version, then remove wheel rights so it can't replace it
- adjust your hosts file so that Skype can't auto-update. Unfortunately I don't know what the updater connects to.. time to dust off your favorite network scanning apps.

On the side, I think we all would do well to keep bombing Skype support with mails that we see abolsutely no reason to switch to the bloated leviathan with the useless interface adustments and would greatly appreciate it if they would at least introduce a "classic" mode.

Comment Depends on how you're wired.. (Score 1) 221

Some people can happily read through a list and pick out the ideas whilst laughing at the insults and caustic trolling, others get frustrated by content and end up dejected. If you're the latter type, you're probably best outsourcing it or leaving it be. But there's much to be said for communicating with your community, and as long as you remember that for every IQ 120 there's an IQ 80 out there - all, unfortunately, still allowed behind a computer - then it becomes easier to shrug it off. Besides, it's YOUR project. If they don't like it they can write their own and some people are just fashionably frustrated.

Comment Re:No... (Score 1) 375

Very true.. the only thing we can to is Streisand Effect it as much as possible to help slap Facebook in the face. Maybe even set up a dedicated group resenting this move. Who knows, they might get the point. But it looks like we're seeing Microsoft's grubby little fingers in FB policy again.

Comment Netherlands too. (Score 1) 307

People are worried it's another one-two by the record companies (and it probably is). This is great news and comes down to a bitchslap to the pencil pushers trying to get away with it.

Btw, if you want to rally more support: join our facebook group: We Need 5m people to prevent the labels killing internet freedom with ACTA. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=213704134963

Comment Gotta protest. (Score 1) 133

Look around, there's plenty of things to do. Write your MP's. Join our "We need 5m people to prevent the labels killing internet freedom with ACTA" Facebook group. (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=213704134963) Join your local political party and yell at the town meeting that it pisses you off. Tell your friends. Only by sitting on your ass do you achieve your aforementioned goal.

Comment Re:I Think I Know Why They Left Him Out (Score 5, Interesting) 136

We SHOULD be against any form of copyright protection on principle. It goes against nature (copying is natural) and hence will require LOADS of energy to enforce - from policy makers, judges, and cops to sysadmins and users. Get rid of it; there's plenty of better ways to get this done. Open source collaboration is one, alternate business models are another. The record companies have already been made superfluous by these developments and they know it, but they're doing their damnedest to become tyrants rather than adjust to life's flux.

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