RobDollar - Slashdot User

Ask Slashdot: Is the Recycle Bin a Good GUI Metaphor? 465

Posted by timothy on Saturday February 26, 2011 @02:00PM from the why-call-it-a-recycle-bin-when-it's-trash? dept.

dsginter writes "During a recent Windows 7 upgrade, I disabled the 'Recycle Bin' from appearing on the user desktop. Why? Because this allows the users to retrieve errant deletions. While this was the goal of the 'Recycle Bin' in the first place, most people (including myself) are in the good habit of keeping a tidy workspace and 'taking out the trash' when they see that it is full. For some people, their OCD meant that deleting a file was a two step process: delete the file and then empty the recycle bin. By disabling it from view, I have found that the original function is restored for the smattering of times that it is actually needed. Why are we wasting pixels on such a poor metaphor?" Going further, is there some combination of metaphor and method of use that you'd find more useful or natural?

Feds Help You Find Your Fastest Internet Service 163

Posted by timothy on Thursday February 24, 2011 @04:58PM from the ok-not-good-for-nothin' dept.

jfruhlinger writes "Slashdot previously covered the National Broadband Map, designed by the US Federal government to illustrate where the 'digital divide' between those with access to high-speed Internet and those who go without. But, as blogger Ryan Faas points out, you can use it for a much more individualistic purpose: to find your fastest local wired or wireless ISP. Just plug in your name and address and you'll soon see what your options are."

Comment Legit (Score 2, Informative) 294

by RobDollar on Tuesday February 22, 2011 @08:25PM (#35285892) Attached to: Trying To Lure Suckers, Company Resells Open Source Blender

What he's doing is completely legal. Quite how much money he makes would be interesting to see, anyone buying a 3d package would surely do a small amount of research. Law of averages will prevail I suppose.

He's been doing this for ages, and does it with various other software packages.

Comment Re:DNF (Score 1) 287

by RobDollar on Sunday February 13, 2011 @07:50PM (#35195318) Attached to: The Most Violent Video Games of All Time

You should go down to the bookies and put all the money you have on that. You'll probably only get odds of something like 44/50, but at least you'll profit a bit.

Alaska Must Release Palin E-mails By May 211

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 28, 2011 @06:53PM from the hitting-fwd-is-complicated dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from msnbc.com: "The state of Alaska has until May 31 to release about 25,000 pages of e-mails from former Gov. Sarah Palin and senior members of her administration, the state attorney general declared Wednesday. ... the delays in dealing with public records from the Palin administration will have stretched out longer than the Palin administration itself. She was governor for 966 days. By May 31, the request from msnbc.com for the official records will be 986 days old. State regulations usually require records to be made available within 10 days, but state officials said they were overwhelmed by the volume of the e-mails."

Open Source More Expensive Says MS Report 465

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday January 19, 2011 @12:32PM from the yeah-that'll-fly dept.

doperative writes "Much conventional wisdom about programs written by volunteers is wrong. The authors took money for research from Microsoft, long the archenemy of the open-source movement — although they assure readers that the funds came with no strings attached. Free programs are not always cheaper. To be sure, the upfront cost of proprietary software is higher (although open-source programs are not always free). But companies that use such programs spend more on such things as learning to use them and making them work with other software"

Comment What are the legalities? (Score 1) 257

by RobDollar on Friday January 14, 2011 @12:03AM (#34873522) Attached to: Virgin Mobile To Start Throttling Broadband2Go

Out of curiosity, do all broadband suppliers have different contracts or is there a standard in what you buy vs. what you end up getting after a few months?

For example, if I get an "unlimited" (that word can't go without inverted commas when related to broadband) package, but end up a few months later with a revised cap, can I cancel the contract or am I still bound by a "we can change this at any time" clause?

Jimmy Wales Declares App Store Models a Threat 334

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday January 13, 2011 @11:53AM from the heard-this-story-before dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Wikipedia's chief says models such as the App Store on the iPad are not only a dangerous chokepoint to internet freedom, but that this is a real and immediate problem that's of more concern than the overblown what if's of the net neutrality debate."

Comment Re:Mods? (Score 1) 206

by RobDollar on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @11:28PM (#34844052) Attached to: MySpace Lays Off 47% of Employees

In my opnion, all online profile pictures should be run through a recapture type system to weed out that bizarre duck face phenomenon. Why do people do it?????????

The Moon Has a Fluid Outer Core 127

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday January 08, 2011 @06:18PM from the marshmellowy-filling dept.

mapkinase writes with this excerpt from Discovery News: "The Apollo Passive Seismic Experiment recorded motions of the ground from moonquakes and other activities generating sound waves until late 1977. The network was too limited to directly monitor waves bouncing off or scattered by the moon's core, leaving scientists dependent on more indirect techniques, such as measuring minute gravitational changes, to craft a picture of the moon's interior. Those models turned out to be pretty accurate, says lead scientist Renee Weber, with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The new research confirms the existence of a solid inner core and liquid outer layer, similar to Earth's. Unlike Earth, the moon also has a partly melted, mushy layer over that."

Comment Re:double standard (Score 1) 611

by RobDollar on Thursday January 06, 2011 @10:44PM (#34786730) Attached to: Man Arrested For Exploiting Error In Slot Machines

You don't sign/agree to an EULA when you sit down at a slot machine...

That's an interesting point, what are the legalities when it comes to using these machines? I understand that even now you can be kicked out of a casino for counting cards on traditional black jack, but theres no law against it.

Does anyone know how far someone can take a slot machine exploit before it becomes illegal?

Running Your Own Ghost Investigation? 810

Posted by timothy on Thursday January 06, 2011 @07:52PM from the whooooo-whooooo-or-woo-woo dept.

Quirkz writes "I am a skeptic, but have friends and family who swear by their ghost stories. I have access to a supposedly haunted house and been tempted to run a proper scientific investigation. My first question is what sorts of tools or measurements would make for sensible metrics to test during a hunt? Temperature change seems to be a common one, but the other devices you'll see ghost hunters use seem pretty random. The second question is what kinds of results would it take to be 'interesting'? Baseline readings at several presumably non-haunted locations seem to be obvious requirements for comparison. Once you have those, what kinds of results would it take to convince a skeptic there's something unusual going on, or demonstrate that there's not? I don't have much hope of changing the minds of those who believe, but it would be satisfying to at least be scientific about it."

Thin Client, Or Fat Client? That Is the Question 450

Posted by timothy on Tuesday December 28, 2010 @07:50PM from the you've-got-vdi dept.

theodp writes "If virtual desktops are so great, asks Jonathan Eunice, then why isn't everyone using them? However encouraged folks are by the progress virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) has made, and however enthused they may be about extending the wins of server virtualization over into the desktop realm, you don't see analysts and developers eating the virtual desktop dog food. And even the folks you meet from Citrix, Microsoft, Quest, VMware, and Wyse — the people selling VDI — use traditional 'fat' notebooks. So, are you using virtual desktops? Why, or why not?" I wonder how long the abbreviation VDI will stick around.

Avoiding DMCA Woes As an Indy Game Developer? 494

Posted by timothy on Sunday December 05, 2010 @01:54PM from the jealously-guarded dept.

androidstevep writes "I was just on the receiving end of DMCA takedown notice for my game in Android Market, 'Super Pac.' Namco Bandai have filed the notice with Google, claiming breach of copyright of their game 'Pac-Man.' Although my version is obviously inspired by the original arcade game, no original artwork or sound has been copied. The problem from my point of view is that the DMCA notice is not clear where or why the breach is alleged. My guess is that maybe the name is too similar, although I did a trademark search for 'Super Pac' before release and came up with nothing. Furthermore, Google have disabled my access to this app, presumably as required by the DMCA, so I am unable to even make whatever modifications would be required. As a part-time developer with limited means (i.e. can't afford expensive lawyers), but willing to make best efforts to avoid legal issues, how does one negotiate what seems to be a difficult minefield of trademarks, copyrights and DMCA? Does anyone have tips in this area?"

Pac-Man's Ghost Behavior Algorithms 194

Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 03, 2010 @06:58PM from the i-hate-the-pink-one dept.

An anonymous reader writes "This article has a very interesting description of the algorithms behind the ghosts in Pac-Man. I had no idea about most of this information, but that's probably because it's difficult to study the ghosts when I die every 30 seconds. Quoting: 'The ghosts are always in one of three possible modes: Chase, Scatter, or Frightened. The "normal" mode with the ghosts pursuing Pac-Man is Chase, and this is the one that they spend most of their time in. While in Chase mode, all of the ghosts use Pac-Man's position as a factor in selecting their target tile, though it is more significant to some ghosts than others. In Scatter mode, each ghost has a fixed target tile, each of which is located just outside a different corner of the maze. This causes the four ghosts to disperse to the corners whenever they are in this mode. Frightened mode is unique because the ghosts do not have a specific target tile while in this mode. Instead, they pseudorandomly decide which turns to make at every intersection.'"

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