Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Whitelisting facebook (Score 4, Informative) 240

Do you even use Facebook? You can block all the apps, or block an specific app on a permanent basis, or block a user (so you don't get any of their spammy invites, but can still be friends with them), or do a wide variety of other things to keep the noise down. Don't get me wrong - I'm not a huge fan of Facebook either. But at least understand what its capabilities are before you go attacking what they can (or can't) do.

Comment Who Visits the Google Home Page? (Score 1) 252

I see a lot of complaints about Google Instant and now this (which really doesn't display instant pages - you still have to mouse over the links). My question is - who actually uses the Google home page? I never see Google Instant because I do all my searches from the search box on my browsers (Chrome or Firefox). My phone I just say what I want to search for and it comes up (Android platform).

I think people just like to complain.

Comment Re:Put this on the list (Score 1) 357

Ah, but what you are failing to remember is there are many jobs in which employers care about the stability and safety of an employee, and not just "are they doing illegal things." For example, I have a friend who, if he is caught drunk driving, or if he gets more than X hundred dollars in traffic fines in one year, he loses his job immediately. The reasoning behind it is - if he is that unstable and untrustworthy in his personal life, we cannot trust that he will handle the job that he was hired to do due to the extreme danger it would present to the people who put their lives in his hands every day. (No, he's not a pilot...but...similar idea.)

So, while I do agree employers should stay out of employees personal lives to a large degree, there is some aspect of managing risk which they (rightly) want to do.

Comment Re:On the contrary, the web must forget (Score 1) 215

Saving Geocites preserves "web 1.0" the time when anyone could make a webpage for the first time. While it might seem like trash to us, it might later provide valuable insight into cultures of the late 20th and early 21st century.

This is the same logic that a packrat friend of mine uses when she doesn't want to throw away ANYTHING. "It is useful and valuable." Yeah? Really? If it's so useful and valuable, why the heck is it sitting in your closet/attic/basement/etc? If you haven't touched something in the past year, you don't need it. I promise you. (The only exception being something like photographs which are designed to preserve memories. The entire point of those is keeping them.)

People keep way too much junk because they are afraid of losing something, when, in reality, it's much better to close old doors so you can move forward into new (and better) areas of life.

Comment Re:How About the Front Glass? (Score 1) 255

but I drop my Droid at least once a week, and so far it's OK (knock on wood).

I actually dropped my Droid face down on asphalt from about 4 feet up. I immediately feared the worse (made even more worse as that was also my GPS unit and I was currently out in the middle of nowhere). However, I picked it up and, although the metal case itself was chipped at the corners, everything else was working great.

That was a pretty awesome experience.

Comment Re:Finding 1920x1200's (Score 1) 1140

When a monitor dies, I need a replacement now, not some time next week.

In addition to keeping a spare in stock, you can also have a monitor out to you next day by paying more for shipping. If it is that critical, and you need a certain monitor, the extra cost may be very well worth it.

Comment Re:That's too much (Score 1) 379

Actually, a billion dollars is WAY more money than any of the examples you gave. It's so much money, most people can't even wrap their minds around how big it is. The top 150 cities of GDP include cities that are ~$5 billion. That's the top 150 cities in the world. So, he has to pay back as much money as some large cities make. As for those hundreds and thousands of well-paid and low-wage people...how much do you consider low wage? (For me, 1000 * $30,000/year = $30 million - not even close to a billion.)

Either way, you're main point is true - the fine is absurd.

Comment Re:I never said it would be soon (Score 1) 662

Take Star Trek for example. Completely unrealistic.

Seriously. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a call on my cell phone that I have to take.

The difference between unrealistic and not currently obtainable is very slight...

Maybe there is NO science that would allow humans/aliens to cross interstellar space within said species existence. Maybe they're quite literally trapped.

In all seriousness, that's an interesting point you bring up. It had honestly never occurred to me that we (or some alien) may just be stuck on the planet they we/they are on without any option of leaving. Hm.

Comment Re:I want to read more (Score 1) 363

(who the hell thinks Mr Bingdorebobbindom from Larcasnia make the story any better?).

Well...much of Slashdot, for one.
And all the Harry Potter, Star Wars, LotR, anime, etc, etc fans.
And those WoW players.

You know...million and billion dollar industries are made up of all those people.

Slashdot Top Deals

According to the latest official figures, 43% of all statistics are totally worthless.

Working...