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Comment Re:That's a great plan... (Score 1) 197

I was shocked, but when my wife's iPhone was stolen at Walmart we got it back the same night.

Find My iPhone tracked it to an address and after about an hour wait Houston PD sent an officer to meet me down the street. Based on the Find My iPhone map viewed on our iPad, he was confident enough that it really was in that house to go knock on the door at midnight.

About 20 minute later we had the iPhone back and all the information on the thief (Walmart employee). We went to the store the next day and she bought us another Otterbox case to replace the one she threw away. (I had a nice chat with her store manager right afterwards.)

Comment Re:The WRT54G had a good run, but it's obsolete. (Score 1) 194

Here is the main place to go for all Tomato development, all current developers are active here:
http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?forums/tomato-firmware.33/

Last year I upgraded from a WRT54GL with original Tomato to an Asus RT-N16 running Toastman's build. Got 365 days of rock solid stability before upgrading to a newer build with VLANs and Multi-SSD.

In my mind the RT-N16 has replaced the WRT54GL as the standard open source router for new installs.

Submission + - Flabbergasting quantum refrigerator like 'window A/C for Lincoln Memorial' (scienceblog.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a solid-state refrigerator that uses quantum physics in micro- and nanostructures to cool an object a million times heavier than itself to extremely low temperatures. What’s more, the gadget, which measures a few inches in outer dimensions, lets researchers place any object in the cooling zone and later remove and replace it, similar to an all-purpose kitchen refrigerator. “It’s one of the most flabbergasting results I’ve seen,” project leader Joel Ullom says.
Government

Submission + - Brennan Sworn Using Copy of Constitution Lacking Bill of Rights (yahoo.com)

Jeremiah Cornelius writes: The White House ceremony confirming and swearing John Brennan as the new Director for the CIA contained rich and bitter symbolism. By his own selection, Brennan chose to swear his oath on a manuscript copy of the U.S. Constitution, drawn from the George Washington presidential archive. "Director Brennan told the president that he made the request to the archives because he wanted to reaffirm his commitment to the rule of law as he took the oath of office as director of the CIA,” The fly in the ointment is that this copy of the Constitution, with Washington's handwritten marginalia, pre-dates including the protections from the Bill of Rights, required by states to ratify the document as foundation law for the nation. Given the recent record of CIA activity in the last two administrations, is possible another intention is being heralded?

Submission + - Multimorphic develops multi-game and open source pinball platform (engadget.com)

ghops writes: Multimorphic shows off the P3, an innovative multi-game pinball platform. With a 27" 'touchscreen' LCD in the lower playfield and modular shot layouts comprising the upper playfield, the P3 delivers a one machine, many games system where the physical pinball can interact with graphics on the screen as it rolls towards traditional, physical objects (ramps, loops, targets, etc) on the upper playfield. The system will ship with two games, one designed by famed pinball designer Dennis Norman, and it's an open platform allowing anybody to develop their own shot layouts and/or software. Because of it's ball tracking technology, it can even play itself!

Comment Re:Perjurious fuckers... (Score 1) 359

Major League Baseball and some of the NFL franchises assert ownership of anything documented at their games.

Not true, I'm a sports photographer and MLB/NFL does not own the copyright of images I take at their games. Now they do restrict usage as part of the credential agreement, but that doesn't give them ownership or any rights to use the images themselves.

Comment Speed isn't all about in-camera writing... (Score 2) 164

Professional testing has shown that the cameras I currently use (Canon EOS 1D Mark IV) top out around 66 MB/s when writing to the fastest CF cards.

But in-camera speed is only half of what matters. As a photojournalist and sports photographer who works on tight deadlines most days, I also have to consider how fast I can download the images off the CF cards onto my computer for editing. With the right card reader you can download at up to 97 MB/s.

This is why I always use the fastest cards I can, currently Sandisk Extreme Pro 90 MB/s, because even though the camera can't take advantage of that extra speed it will definitely save me time when it comes to editing.

For people not on a time crunch or those who always download to their computer by plugging their camera in with a USB cord it is probably wise to save money and not buy the fastest cards out there.

Comment Re:Most won't notice (Score 1) 329

I did this with Comcast just this week actually. They dropped my bill (for "triple play" cable/phone/internet) by $60 per month. It is still too expensive, but more reasonable now and I'm not quite ready to drop TV completely. (Haven't convinced the wife yet and don't have time to setup a media server/sick beard/etc.)

I used the online chat and I wish I would have done it sooner, was pretty simple.

Comment Re:The cops who wrote those emails should be fired (Score 1) 340

If I'm black or Muslim in Friendswood, Texas...

If you were black or Muslim you wouldn't be in Friendswood: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendswood,_Texas

The racial makeup of the city was 90.09% White, 2.70% African American, 0.40% Native American, 2.39% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 2.79% from other races, and 1.63% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.79% of the population.

Although seriously, ignoring this current story, Friendswood is a really nice city with good schools and I'd happily live there if I could afford it. (I live nearby.)

Comment Re:Good Idea (Score 1) 172

Walmart has carried CR123A batteries for well over 10 years. You should also easily be able to find them at Target, Radio Shack, Best Buy, etc. Heck all the grocery stores around here (Houston) carry them as well.

From what I've seen the CR123a actually seems to be a pretty standard battery for use in flashlights. I think all of the Surefire flashlights use them: http://www.surefire.com/ Tactical gun lights by Streamlight use them as well: http://www.streamlight.com/product/class.aspx?cid=10

Comment Re:NCIS (Score 1) 1200

I'm actually going to disagree with you here. I'm a news photographer in a large metroplex and deal with police and crime scenes fairly frequently. Every single "crime scene investigator" I've ever met carries a gun. They are all commissioned police officers and are armed while out collecting evidence and documenting scenes.

Now we may have a slight sticking point between "technician" and "investigator" but in the real world, the folks out at the scene have guns and several of them I know actually out-rank detectives.

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