I have a heat pump, and would like a reasonably priced smart heat pump thermostat. I can't use a standard programmable thermostat since if I tell it to go down to go down to 60 at night, then 68 shortly before I get up it will flip into Auxiliary Mode (actually more likely bump all the way up to Emergency Mode) and use the MUCH less efficient electrical backup systems. Heat pumps alone can be pretty efficient but often MUCH more gradual, needing a fair bit of lead time.

A smart heat pump thermostat would probably need external sensors for the outdoor temperature, and maybe even add things like wind speed, ambient heat from direct sunlight vs overcast, etc to determine when to start up the heat pump and stay only in the most efficient heat pump mode yet still get to the desired temperature at the desired time. It would learn over time how differing outdoor conditions altered its efficiency and adjust accordingly.

I grew up with a gas furnace and we had a fairly inexpensive thermostat that could be programmed for 6 changes a day, with the ability to customize all 7 days individually if desired, or have one setting for M-F and another for Sat and one for Sun. You could manually make an adjustment and have it kick back into the programmed settings at the next programmed interval. I don't see much need for going beyond that for non-heat pump systems.

Transferring ownership of the account should have no impact on the developer/host/game company. I agree that players should not expect a server to continue hosting games years after they have stopped selling them without receiving compensation, but this should be done through a yearly access fee or something similar. If a game passes hands ten times in a year, while another copy is held by the same owner for ten years, why should the hosting company require $100 for a single year of use from the first copy, while being perfectly happy with receiving $10 for ten years of use for the second copy?

Well, if you feel something is not even worth $0.01, then you feel it is worthless to you, and if it is worthless to you, then you shouldn't care about not having it.

I was a bit disappointed that no soundtracks were included for any of the corresponding games this time around. I have not had a chance to install the games yet, but reading your post already makes me look forward to hearing the music and also sad that I won't have a simple soundtrack set to play in the car. Maybe we can ask the Humble Bundle crew if they can release some of the soundtracks once X copies are sold or X dollars are raised. They have done similar things in the past.

I got the e-mail from the Humble Bundle crew announcing the Humble Indie Bundle 3 and thought I'd submit it here since this is where I first found out about the Humble Bundles. This was my first attempt at submitting a story, and looks like I messed a few things up. Any way I can fix these?

1. Used the DRM straightjacket icon for the story instead of the Games joystick icon (I didn't know what the icons being shown in the lower corner of my submission meant or why it seemed to change at times.)

2. Unneeded carriage return after "Cogs by", did not show up in the Preview box since it was much narrower and meshed in at the right spot.

I don't really pay attention to tags on Slashdot, so not sure how to figure out which ones should be used.

I don't know why it is always referred to as "The elusive Higgs boson" when Einstein was able to so clearly point to its existence decades ago:
Einstein proving that the Higgs boson can be found anywhere

Looks like Julian Assange can no longer claim that no one has been killed due to documents released by WikiLeaks.

I was very disappointed at how little coverage this launch was receiving due to all the news outlets being so heavily focused on the royal wedding. Hopefully this will allow it to have more of the attention that it deserves.

I am confused how you can say "They are not saying that the only information taken was names and emails" and "They have not said that the personal information was limited to names and email addresses." To me that is pretty much exactly what the sentence that you quoted says: "We want to assure you that the only information that was obtained were names and email addresses."

I could understand saying that it takes a leap of faith to believe that was all that was acquired from the system since from the message we can't determine that it did not also contain other personal data. Since I got e-mails from both Kroger and Brookstone with a few hours of each other that were quite similar, it seems that both were most likely using the same e-mail service provider and that the databases were set up in a similar way. The Brookstone e-mail was a bit more specific, stating:

  "We want to assure you that the only information that may have been obtained was your first name and e-mail address. Your account and any other personally identifiable information are not stored in this system and were not at risk."

Since no other personally identifiable info was even stored on the system, let alone in the same database, I am pretty confident that it truly was only names and e-mail addresses that were compromised.

I also do not understand how you can say that if later on it comes to light that purchasing details were also stolen no one would be able to fault them. Even Kroger explicitly stated that only names and e-mails were compromised. If they used a different system than Brookstone, or Brookstone was giving false information in their e-mail, and it comes to light that info beyond names and e-mail were compromised, then yes, that goes well beyond the extent of their original notice and they would definitely be taken to task for lying to and misleading their customers. Maybe if they had only stated "Our e-mail service was compromised and customer names and e-mail addresses may have been obtained by an unauthorized person" you would have a point since that would not explicitly state that that was ALL that was at risk, but both Kroger and Brookstone have made it quite clear that only names and e-mail addresses were compromised and no other customer related data was involved.

There are several reasons. I am one of those who gave my info to Kroger, and doing so has let me save some money, partly because I also did the same with Giant Eagle (the other large grocery store chain in my area.) I pass both of them pretty much every day. Each has good weekly deals, and they both send e-mails of the deals the day before they begin. It makes it easy for me to compare and see which store to stop by in a given week and what to pick up where. They are the same ad fliers that are in the Sunday paper, but I have not bothered to pay for the Sunday (or any other day) paper in years. The on-line account also goes a bit beyond the paper ads. They allow you to "upload" special coupons onto your Loyalty Card. You scroll through the list of optional coupons, mark which ones you want to take advantage of, and instead of clipping coupons and having to remember to bring them into the store with you, they are "loaded" onto your Loyalty Card and automatically used when you go through the check-out.

One other non-discount reason to give them your e-mail and use the Loyalty Card is that if an item is recalled they can track who bought the item and send them an e-mail stating what was recalled, the reason it was recalled, and what to do with the item to safely fix it or discard it or return it for a refund.

I got the e-mail from Kroger within three hours of receiving a very similar e-mail from Brookstone. Although not identical, the two e-mails are quite similar. Foes anyone know who this e-mail service provider is and what other companies may have been affected by this? It is nice to see Kroger and Brookstone act quickly to let their customers know the extent of the data that was compromised, but if this is the fault of a common e-mail service provider I would think that many more than just two companies were affected by this, and interesting to see how different companies react to the same issue. It is also good to see that the third party e-mailer is given only the base details necessary for them to perform their function and are not provided with street addresses or other unnecessary personally identifiable information.

++++++++++++Important E-Mail Security Alert++++++++++++

Dear Valued Brookstone Customer,

On March 31, we were informed by our e-mail service provider that your e-mail address may have been exposed by unauthorized entry into their system. Our e-mail service provider deploys e-mails on our behalf to customers in our e-mail database.

We want to assure you that the only information that may have been obtained was your first name and e-mail address. Your account and any other personally identifiable information are not stored in this system and were not at risk.

Please note, it is possible you may receive spam e-mail messages as a result. We want to urge you to be cautious when opening links or attachments from unknown third parties.

In keeping with best industry security practices, Brookstone will never ask you to provide or confirm any information, including credit card numbers, unless you are on our secure e-commerce site, Brookstone.com.

Our service provider has reported this incident to the appropriate authorities.

We regret this has taken place and for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information.

Sincerely,

Brookstone Customer Care

Maybe the "AprilFools" bit in the product link will help you figure out if this is a joke or not ;-) . Over the past few years ThinkGeek has turned several of their joke April Fools products into real products though due to demand, and I have a feeling that this one (along with the Star Wars Lightsaber Popsicles) will follow the same path.

I do not think the number of people being prevented from having internet access dictates how "significant" the issue is in this case. Egypt was mostly trying to prevent people from organizing protests when they cut off internet access. Libya on the other hand is trying to keep news of the government's attacks upon their own people from getting out.