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

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Li-Ion batteries aren't good for this role (Score 5, Informative) 41

Lead acid batteries last longest when they are fully charged and kept that way, and discharged infrequently. This makes them excellent for use in standby power situations, where they are almost always topped up ready for the power to go out.

Li-Ion batteries last longest when they are actively used. Keeping a Li-Ion battery fully charged all the time is bad for its longevity; the battery structure breaks down faster at a high state of charge. This is why it is recommended to store Li-Ion batteries half-charged in a cold environment, and why cars like the Tesla Model S normally only charge up to 80% unless you require a "full-range charge" for a road trip. Not topping off to 100% extends battery life.

Maybe Facebook intends to keep the batteries at 80%, but it's hard to believe the economics are going to work in their favor.

Not to mention that lead-acid batteries are mostly water and non-combustible sulfuric acid. A Li-Ion battery fire is 50 times nastier than a lead-acid battery fire, and produces a hell of a lot more noxious gases.

Comment WHY are men trying to scare women away from gaming (Score 4, Interesting) 728

I truly don't understand this. When I was a young awkward geek with very specific interests, I would have absolutely LOVED there to be women around with those same interests. Us guys totally loved the few geeky girls that were around and always wished there were more.

Yet today we see guys trying to scare the women away. What the hell changed?

Comment Re:Apple's QA vs. Android's QA (Score 1) 203

I suspect they derped the packaging of the release. Its behavior highly suggests missing files or wrong versions.

It's still inexcusable though. Updates should be pushed to a few dozen people inside the company to test the possibility of showstoppers like this one.

Comment Re:Practically speaking as a CPA... (Score 1) 410

>-always try to arrange so you owe a little money come tax time

This this this this this.

You can tweak your allowances with your employer so you always get a small tax bill. No worries about losing your refund money, AND you get the money throughout the year instead of in a lump sum.

Some idiots claim they like receiving that check every year, that it's a nice "bonus", when in actuality it's just you lending Uncle Sam your hard earned money interest free and getting the loan repaid in April. I keep hearing about people with refunds well into the four figures, and want to slap them silly.

I bet the IRS wouldn't give YOU an interest free loan if you stopped withholding... why should you give THEM one?

Comment List the STL? Seriously? (Score 5, Insightful) 479

>technical question like listing all the container classes in STL from the top of my head

Do experienced devs even know this? I've programmed in several languages and I could never give a list of functions on demand. That's what reference material is for.

You honestly dodged a bullet with that one; any company that asks for such a thing has a damaged tech culture.

Comment They always told me I was so smart... (Score 5, Interesting) 243

The funny thing is I was told all the time growing up that I was "extremely smart" and "gifted", when in reality, I didn't FEEL like I was.

Sure, I could do things with computers that few of the other kids could do, like program and build things. But I don't think I was "smart". I just LIKED doing those things, so I did them all the time, and thus became really good at those things.

Meanwhile, you could ask me to cook a meal at the time and I'd completely fail because I never cooked. I didn't enjoy it, and was thus lousy at it.

I don't think I was unusually "smart" or "gifted". I just got obsessed with computers and technology, so I got good at those things.

Comment E-mail is the foundation of identity online (Score 3, Insightful) 235

Everything requires an E-mail account. You need an E-mail account to make a Facebook, Google, Apple, etc. account. It's the "out of band" communications method with which someone can be reached that is universal and not tied to any specific company or provider.

If E-mail has to go away, something else needs to replace it in this manner. Phone numbers could be one way; there's already services that exclusively use phone numbers to authenticate (Telegram messenger for instance). The problem is most people, including myself, don't want to give their phone number out to everyone. E-mail, I could care less, or create a throwaway account.

E-mail is too useful. It needs to stick around.

Comment Maybe this can be used against the bots (Score 5, Interesting) 100

Populate the net with files like this full of E-mail addresses that are not valid. Have dummy accounts on the appropriate servers that will accept the logins, allow the spambots to think they're successfully sending E-mails when in fact they're all going into the bit bucket.

For added effect, make the servers respond v e r y s l o w l y under these accounts, taking tens of seconds to "send" the E-mail, a minute or so to log in, etc. Basically, slow the spam bots down and waste their time. Of course, the bots will probably eventually evolve to detect such shenanigans, but why make spammers' jobs easy? :)

Comment No, school should not be year-round. (Score 5, Informative) 421

Kids should have at least a couple of months out of the year when they can just not worry about their studies and have fun and BE KIDS.

I mean, jeez! You only get to be a kid once. Let them enjoy those summer vacations. When I think back to my childhood, my fondest memories are during those summer vacations! Why the heck should we take that away from our future generations?

Leave summer vacation in place. And stop freaking shortening it.

Slashdot Top Deals

Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

Working...