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Cellphones

Lots Of People Really Want Slideout-Keyboard Phones: Where Are They? 544

Posted by timothy from the could-be-anywhere-really dept.
Bennett Haselton writes: I can't stand switching from a slideout-keyboard phone to a touchscreen phone, and my own informal online survey found a slight majority of people who prefer slideout keyboards even more than I do. Why will no carrier make them available, at any price, except occasionally as the crummiest low-end phones in the store? Bennett's been asking around, of store managers and users, and arrives at even more perplexing questions. Read on, below.
DRM

How Much Data Plan Bandwidth Is Wasted By DRM? 200

Posted by Soulskill from the phoning-home-adds-up dept.
Bennett Haselton writes: "If you watch a movie or TV show (legally) on your mobile device while away from your home network, it's usually by streaming it on a data plan. This consumes an enormous amount of a scarce resource (data bundled with your cell phone provider's data plan), most of it unnecessarily, since many of those users could have downloaded the movie in advance on their home broadband connection — if it weren't for pointless DRM restrictions." Read on for the rest of Bennett's thoughts.
Bug

Bug Bounties Don't Help If Bugs Never Run Out 235

Posted by Soulskill from the trying-to-bail-the-ocean dept.
Bennett Haselton writes: "I was an early advocate of companies offering cash prizes to researchers who found security holes in their products, so that the vulnerabilities can be fixed before the bad guys exploited them. I still believe that prize programs can make a product safer under certain conditions. But I had naively overlooked that under an alternate set of assumptions, you might find that not only do cash prizes not make the product any safer, but that nothing makes the product any safer — you might as well not bother fixing certain security holes at all, whether they were found through a prize program or not." Read on for the rest of Bennett's thoughts.

Comment Re:Misunderstanding Peering Agreements (Score 3) 328

by UdoKeir (#46760913) Attached to: Netflix Gets What It Pays For: Comcast Streaming Speeds Skyrocket

Umm, I pay Comcast to delivery content to me. If I want to stream video from a content provider, that's my decision. I make the request, not the content provider. The request for data is coming from Comcast's customer, not the content provider.

If Comcast is losing money because of the requests that I make, then they need to change their pricing structure with me, not blackmail the content provider.
Transportation

The Best Parking Apps You've Never Heard Of and Why You Haven't 163

Posted by samzenpus from the park-that-anywhere dept.
Bennett Haselton writes "If you read no further, use either the BestParking or ParkMe app to search all nearby parking garages for the cheapest spot, based on the time you're arriving and leaving. I'm interested in the question of why so few people know about these apps, how is it that they've been partially crowded out by other 'parking apps' that are much less useful, and why our marketplace for ideas and intellectual properly is still so inefficient." Read below to see what Bennett has to say.

Comment Re:If you can learn to put a beer down while drivi (Score -1, Redundant) 184

by UdoKeir (#46737897) Attached to: The Case For a Safer Smartphone

We need enforcement of current laws. I have never, never, seen anyone pulled over for talking or texting on the phone. Let alone charged for it.

And if we're talking about context-sensitive devices, how about a car that extends a 4" spike from the steering wheel every time it sense you fscking around with your phone.
News

Judge (Tech) Advice By Results 162

Posted by samzenpus from the listen-up dept.
Bennett Haselton writes "What advice would you give someone who just bought a new laptop? What would you tell someone about how to secure their webserver against attacks? For that matter, how would you tell someone to prepare for their first year at Burning Man? I submit that the metric by which we usually judge tech advice, and advice in general, is fundamentally flawed, and has bred much of the unhelpful tech advice out there." Read below to see what Bennett has to say.
Editorial

Algorithm Challenge: Burning Man Vehicle Exodus 273

Posted by Soulskill from the in-the-name-of-efficiency dept.
Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton writes: "A year ago, getting ready for Burning Man, I read that the cars in the exit line sometimes have to wait in the sun for hours to get out. I came up with an algorithm that I thought would alleviate the problem. Do you think it would work? If not, why not? Or can you think of a better one?" Read on for the rest of Bennett's thoughts.
Transportation

If Ridesharing Is Banned, What About Ride-Trading? 353

Posted by samzenpus from the hop-on dept.
Bennett Haselton writes "The city of Seattle just imposed new limits on commercial app-based ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft, effectively protecting taxi companies from low-cost competition in the form of smartphone apps. If other cities follow suit, could a company help ridesharers circumvent the restrictions by creating a ride-trading app, allowing drivers to earn 'miles' by driving passengers, and redeem those miles later to get rides for themselves?" Continue reading below to see what Bennett has to say.

Comment Re:Ingrediants (Score 1) 269

by UdoKeir (#46286141) Attached to: Asia's Richest Man Is Betting Big On Silicon Valley's Fake Eggs

Canola was created using traditional cross-breeding techniques. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... That this idiot with a blog doesn't know the difference between that and genetically modified organisms probably shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

That a Slashdot reader doesn't know the difference is just plain disappointing. (I must be new here etc.)

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