Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:wot dafuq (Score 1) 246

I've been to Chios. I have a long story to tell of my adventures there. Suffice to say that after 1 week of trying to find transport for a Swiss friend of mine to Turkey, did I realise that there was a Turkish faction on the island and no Greek wanted to help him. Eventually he got on board a fishing vessel after his papers were stamped and left for a small coastal town.
On the trip to Chios, almost everyone on the boat was military. Some spoke English. They were on a training mission but I didn't see them again.
Yes I loved Greece. Amazing place. I even liked Athens!

Comment Re:Yeah, except that's not universally true either (Score 1) 272

For me, I had to find $350-$400/month for electricity, every month. I was lucky and got $10k inheritance. Various subsidies allowed me to install a $20k 3kw system (practical input about 2.3 kwh about 5 years ago. Legislature subsidy gave me 64c/kwh, dropping to 60c/kwh presently. As soon as my contract expires (any time now), I'll be paid 20c/kwh which is almost retail where I am (Australia). For the first few years it knocked 65% off my usage. Then when I got rid of the kids (sold for scientific experiments), I started to achieve credit in the summer months, almost evening out my winter usage, so I can say that I almost get a net 0 cost/year. It won't last though. When I get forced onto the reduced rate of 20c, my power bills will increase, but nowhere near what it was originally.

Now I didn't care too much *wasting* the $10k on the system because I didn't have to find $400/month, every month. That means that I had money for other things and much reduced stress on the family. After 5 years I worked out that I have almost paid the $10k back (there were 4 failures* in that time).
Doesn't matter about the capital expense! The long term savings in money and more importantly stress has paid for the system.

Failures:
The street voltage was too high for the inverter, so the inverter couldn't pump the power to the grid (2x). This was fixed by choking the street's line transformer.
The Inverter (cheap chinese shit) broke.
Birds ripped off the cover of a buss box on the roof and it filled with water.
Total cost to repair after insurance was about $500.
Loss of income from downtimes: $500 estimated.

Comment Re:retail management (Score 1) 85

Ermmm... This guy should not be modded down. What he stated is default in most smaller shops. There are variations like the POS program talks to a CC swipe machine to send item totals and receives receipt information.
What got me was that in one particular case, they fired the whole IT support who set up the initial VPN Intranet and the new IT moved everything to internet. Really dumb.

Comment Re:E-mail client? (Score 4, Informative) 85

Email is there in Win XP and later. These POS terminals are full computers with a cash drawer underneath, merchant banking device and card swipe periperhals. They are networked to a local printer and mainly controlled by IT through remote desktop. They are typically in smaller shops with 2 or more terminals. They do stock control, daily cash calculations etc as they replace traditional Z type cash registers.
Emails are sent by head office to all managers. Intranet and internet are available as well. So yes, they can be infected with spam emails.

Comment Re:Geolock Porn (Score 1) 253

Ahh yes. That takes me back. I think they were called 'Rugby Songs' and the only thing I remember was:

The men of this water
Had a charming little daughter
and the hairs on her dicky di-do
hung down to her knees.

The result of which was that I could never listen to Dido (the female singer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D... without giggling,
and by now, that the charming little daughter would be a hairy Welsh BBW as you say.

Comment Re:Why not just kill them all? (Score 1) 150

So we get a bunch of gay mosquitos?
I did hear once that the female's buzz is there to attract males who don't buzz. Unfortunately the males are deaf.
On a more serious note, the egg, larva and pupa are eaten by fish, frogs, birds, spiders so their absence will be significant. Using genetic switches would only be local and thus effecting the local populations only.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Don't drop acid, take it pass-fail!" -- Bryan Michael Wendt

Working...