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Comment Re:You can control cellular access on iOS (Score 1) 333

by kenshin33 (#46346811) Attached to: How Mobile Apps Are Reinventing the Worst of the Software Industry
yes, it does, and yes I could just use iptables also, no need for AFWall or anything else.
But, saying it would be PITA would be a euphemism.
What the available "firewall" applications out there do is simplify that task a bit. I would be even better if we had something like this : http://iphonemonsta.com/firewa... or this http://www.neowin.net/forum/to... . baked in the system, so that no rooting is needed.
I'm not asking, I'm just saying. (and in the mean time, I'm thinking about implementing my own solution, using libnetfilter_queue or something similar).

Comment Re:If we make it we can break it (Score 1) 156

by kenshin33 (#46313501) Attached to: Riecoin: A Cryptocurrency With a Scientific Proof of Work
What's intrinsic about the value of any given service/comodity/product?
it depends on the value of somthing else which depends on the value on something else ... etc, it will end up depending on someone's time somewhere costing. what is the intrinsic value of time? yours? mine? the time of the guy sitting in the corner? the miner's? the cop's?

Submission + - Slashdot Beta Woes 16

Submitted by s.petry
s.petry writes: What is a Slashdot and why the Beta might destroy it?

Slashdot has been around, well, a very long time. Longer than any of it's competators, but not as long as IIRC. Slashdot was a very much one of the first true social media web sites.

On Slashdot, you could create a handle or ID. Something personal, but not too personal, unless you wanted it to be. But it was not required either. We know each other by our handles, we have watched each other grow as people. We may have even taken pot shots at each other in threads. Unless of course you are anonymous, but often we can guess who that really is.

One of Slashdot's first motto's was "News for Nerds" that Matters. I have no idea when that was removed. I have not always scoured the boards here daily, life can get too busy for that. That excuses my ignorance in a way. I guess someone thought it politically incorrect, but most of us "Nerds" enjoyed it. We are proud of who we are, and what we know. Often we use that pride and knowledge to make someone else look bad. That is how we get our digs in, and we enjoy that part of us too. We don't punch people, we belittle them. It's who we are!

What made Slashdot unique were a few things. What you will note here is "who" has been responsible for the success of Slashdot. Hint, it has never been a just the company taking care of the servers and software.

— First, the user base submitted stories that "they" thought mattered. It was not a corporate feed. Sure, stories were submitted about companies. The latest break through from AMD and Intel, various stories regarding the graphic card wars, my compiler is better than your compiler, and yes your scripting language stinks! Microsoft IIS has brought us all a few laughs and lots of flame wars to boot. Still, we not only read about the products but get to my second point.

— User comments. This is the primary why we have been coming here for as long as we have, many of us for decades. We provide alternative opinions or back what was given in the article. This aspect not only makes the "News" interesting, but often leads to other news and information sharing. It's not always positive, but this is the nature of allowing commentary. It also brings out the third point.

— Moderation. Moderation has been done by the community for a very long time. It took lots of trial and error to get a working system. As with any public system it's imperfect, but it's been successful. People can choose to view poorly modded comments, but don't have to. As with posting anonymous versus with our own handle it's an option that allows us to personalize the way we see and read what's on the site. And as a reward for submitting something worth reading, you might get a mod point of your own to use as a reward for someone else.

Why we dislike Beta and what is being pushed, and why this will result in the end of an era if it becomes forced on the community.

1. Bulky graphics. We get that Dice and Slashdot need revenue. I have Karma good enough to disable advertisements, but have never kept this setting on. I realize that Slashdot/Dice make money with this. That said, the ads sit away from my news and out of the way. I can get there if I want it (but nobody has ever gotten a penny from me clicking an ad... nobody!), but it's not forced into my face or news feed.

2. Low text area. I like having enough on my screen to keep me busy without constant scrolling. Slashdot currently has the correct ratio of text to screen. This ratio has never been complained about, yet Beta reduces the usable text area by at least 1/2 and no option for changing the behavior. I hate reading Slashdot on mobile devices because I can't stand scrolling constantly.

3. JavaScript. We all know the risks of JS, and many of us disable it. We also have an option of reading in Lync or non-standard browsers that many of us toy with for both personal and professional reasons. This flexibility is gone in Beta, and we are forced to allow JS to run. If you don't know the risks of allowing JS to run, you probably don't read much on Slashdot. Those that allow JS do so accepting the risk (which is admittedly low on a well known site).

4. Ordering/Sorting/Referencing. Each entry currently gets tagged with a unique thread ID. This allows linking to the exact post in a thread, not just the top of the thread. In Beta this is gone. It could be that the site decided to simply hide the post ID or it was removed. Either way, going to specific posts is something that is used very commonly by the community.

5. Eye candy. Most of us are not here for "eye candy" and many have allergic reactions to eye candy. Slashdot has a good mix currently. It's not as simple as the site starting with a r-e-d-i-t, which is good. That site has a reputation that keeps many of us away, and their format matches my attitude of them (s-i-m-p-l-e-t-o-n). At the same time, it's not like watching some other "news" sites with so much scrolling crap I can't read an article without getting a headache. The wasted space in beta for big bulky borders, sure smells like eye candy. Nothing buzzes or scrolls yet, but we can sense what's coming in a patch later.

The thing is, the community cares about Slashdot. We come here because we care. We submit stories because of that, we vote because of that, we moderate because of that, and we comment because of that. At the same time we realize that without the community Slashdot loses most of its value. We respect that we don't host the servers, backup the databases, or patch the servers. Slashdot/Dice provide the services needed for Slashdot.

It's a give give relationship, and we each get something in return. Slashdot gets tons of Search hits and lots of web traffic. We get a place to learn, teach, and occasionally vent.

Look, if you want to change default color scheme or make pre-made palettes for us to choose from, we would probably be okay with that. If you want to take away our ability to block ads by Karma, or move the ads to the left side of my browser window, I would be okay with those things too.

If you want to make drastic changes to how the site works, this is a different story all together. The reason so many are against Beta is that it breaks some of the fundamental parts of what makes Slashdot work.

User input until recently has not been acknowledged. The acknowledgment we have received is not from the people that are making the decision to push Beta live. We told people Beta was broken, what it lacked, and we were rather surprised to get a warning that Beta would be live despite what we told people. People are already making plans to leave, which means that Slashdot could fade away very soon.

Whether this was the goal for Dice or not remains to be seen. If it is, it's been nice knowing you but I won't be back. A partnership only works when there is mutual respect between the parties. A word of caution, us Nerds have good memories and lots of knowledge. The loss of Slashdot impacts all of Dice holdings, not just Slashdot. I boycott everything a company holds, not just the product group that did me wrong.

If that was not the goal of Dice, you should quickly begin communicating with the user base. What are the plans are to fix what Beta has broken? Why is Beta being pushed live with things broken? A "Sorry we have not been communicating!", and perhaps even a "Thank you" to the user base for helping make Slashdot a success for so many years.

Comment Re:Google already has a noose on manufacturers (Score 1) 225

by kenshin33 (#46065137) Attached to: Google Charging OEMs Licensing Fees For Play Store

I believe the Nexus phones get updates far before third-party branded phones, no?

Not always. the galaxy nexus was left out this time around, and it wasn't b/c of performance or anything, it's working quiet perfectly with an AOSP build of 4.4.2. The official reason was : it's more than 18 months so fuck you very much.
The point is, if you don't like the phone of X or Y company? simple, don't buy it. And if somehow you're forced to, there's always a way to get rid of the original software and install something else (AOSP builds come to mind as they are what you seem to be looking for), and that is due to the "openness" of android (notice the "").

Comment Re:Google already has a noose on manufacturers (Score 1) 225

by kenshin33 (#46053963) Attached to: Google Charging OEMs Licensing Fees For Play Store

.... My phone (a VZW Galaxy Nexus), on the other hand, is crap because Google ceded some of its control to Verizon. So I can't tether or get timely Android updates or clear off the Verizon crap unless I install a third-party ROM, and even then I have to jump through hoops to get the latest Google Apps, and I will always be months behind on Android version updates. If Android were closed to begin with like iPhone was, Verizon could not have done that -- but they also probably would not not have taken Android in to begin with.

That's why, my GSM galaxy nexus is running the latest official google version of android -4.4- (which, it is perfectly capable of running). Oh wait, there's no such thing.
What there is, is AOSP, openness (in a way), that openness gave me (and many many others) the possibility to to get updates, tinker, add features (caller name display comes to mind, there was none for a long time, and it wasn't free).
You want the "Google experience"? Fine buy a google phones from the google play store using your google wallet, not available for your carrier?? well, that's just too bad (not all phones are available for all carriers, this isn't new thing, been like this as far as I can remember).

Comment Re:low cunning, not clever (Score 1) 229

Don't know about comcast, but i'll raise you one bell canada.
sometime ago they went crying rivers to the CRTC saying that they need to impose limites on every single DSL subscriber (a customer of BELL or not, irrespective of the total aggregated amount transfered for a given ISP. Independant ISPs were paying for that bandwidth), b/c simply there's too much congestion (which they absolutely didn't prove). At about the same time they introduced a new TV service, that uses IP multicast on the same (supposedly congested) lines. Guess what that? didn't count at all

Comment Re:GMOs feed over a billion people (Score 1) 419

by kenshin33 (#45865841) Attached to: Cheerios To Go GMO-Free
No, they are (I suppose, as I have no allergies, nor does my direct family for whom I buy things).
When there is the possibility to ask (allergic people will ask) no need for "mandatory" label. But in my experience if a question gets asked most of the time, it is more efficient to answer onces and for all on a big enough display device (be it a screen, paper or anything that might serve that purpose).

GMO labelling though is a different issue. Much more political than a health issue.

indeed, what I said in my previous post seems like a solution to the labelling problem (without forcing anyone to do anything).

Comment Re:GMOs feed over a billion people (Score 1) 419

by kenshin33 (#45863979) Attached to: Cheerios To Go GMO-Free
not baning, (I'm for anyone buying- procuring- anything if they feel like it) but merely labelling. This product can contain this and that and let people make the decision to consume or not (someone who's allergic will probably not, someone who doesn't like either -- I don't like hot sauce that contains sugar, usually I look for it on the label, if it weren't on the label i'd have to taste the thing before buying it, which is impossible in the store, before buying it --)
saves lives, and no liability in case of a big incident (lack of information might kill in this instance). The one thing I don t get though in regarding the GMO labelling, if this or that company refuses to label, let them. Then those are not using any GMO in their product, should stop bitching and start advertising that on their boxes. From that consumers should assume that by default GMOs are present. What they do with that info is up to them
-- that said, the fact that GMO are dangerous or not is really irrelevant, as many people stated above and below they avoid GMOs for "political" reasons --

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