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Comment Re:uh (Score 1) 207

A few weeks ago I had my (2 years inactive) WoW account get owned and banned, possibly through my email account, so that was a major sign to sort out and properly tier all my passwords. I found firefox's list of saved passwords to be particularly helpful as a checklist of sites to change, as well as a reminder of how stupid I had been using my "good" password on far too many low priority sites in the past. Also a strong reason against having one "good" password.

Thanks to your post, however, I am also reminded that I shouldn't assume this list is complete, as I had completely forgotten about Ebay and Paypal passwords, which I must not have used in the past couple years.

Comment Re:Do you have a combined "inbox"? (Score 1) 207

I use an app called "SMS Backup" which uploads all SMS messages I send and receive from my Android phone to my GMail inbox with a custom label (default is "SMS"). They show up properly as conversations between me and my contacts (To and From fields appropriately link to the correct contacts since the address book is shared between phone and GMail). I've found this extremely useful when I can't remember if I said something to someone via email, Google Talk (which already logs chats in GMail) or SMS, since a GMail search will find it. I suppose some may have privacy concerns with Google logging all their SMS, but I think this behavior would make an excellent addition to Android/GMail to keep GMail competitive with what Facebook is doing as well as to make GMail more attractive to "casual" Android users who only signed up for GMail as a requisite to getting an Android phone.

Comment Re:so true (Score 3, Insightful) 228

I was just thinking about this earlier tonight while playing Left 4 Dead. Tanks (big muscular zombies which are aptly described by their name) can punch really hard. They can send cars and dumpsters flying and crush people with them. But not all cars, only the ones it outlines in red for you. If you're going to introduce a mechanic like that, and teach players to use it, you've got to stick with it. Don't design a level set in a junk yard, filled with magically immobile cars.

Make the rules of your game consistent. Remembering a long list of exceptions just adds a layer of metagaming that I'm not interested in. The game world should be layer of abstraction atop a rule set, and the rules should flow naturally from the game world. This is a very delicate balance that I know is hard to come by, and I fully accept games that can just approximate this balance by never putting players into situations where the exceptions manifest themselves.

Comment Re:Thanks god. (Score 4, Informative) 466

It's not necessarily hidden for just the first few seconds. It's based on mouse movement. If you mouse over the page, the text fades in. If you just open the site, the search box has an active cursor, so you type your query, hit enter, and you're off without ever seeing any of the clutter they've added.

Comment Re:Love my 2048x1152 Dell SP2309W monitor (Score 1) 952

I've been looking at upgrading to either that or the Acer B233HUbmidhz 23" 2048x1152 screen. I'm coming from a dying 24" 1920x1200, and 1920x1080 just seems like a downgrade. And I guess as they're phasing them out for 16:9s, all the current 1920x1200 screens cost more than I paid two years ago ($300), so ~$200 for that Dell or the Acer seems like a steal. Samsung also makes one at this resolution, but these are the only three monitors with this size/resolution that I'm aware of. They seem like a step in the right direction for screen size vs. pixel density, and I'm really disappointed that I haven't seen any other monitors like this.

Comment Re:Video Games (Score 3, Interesting) 447

They even do this with games like World of Warcraft, where the CD key itself is what's worth the price on the box, and removing the discs from the sealed box lets anyone with access to the discs to see the key. I bought a copy like this, and while it worked out OK, I was rather suspicious and considered going elsewhere to get it.

Comment WTF? (Score 4, Interesting) 134

According to Activision, 'The company intends to expand the Call of Duty brand with the same focus seen in its Blizzard Entertainment business unit.'

What? Blizzard has put out seven titles (four of which are expansions) in the last decade. Activision has put out nine titles in the Guitar/Whatever Hero line in just the last three years (not counting portable titles), and it sounds like they have similar plans for the Call of Duty line. I think what they mean to say is "We think we can turn Call of Duty into a subscription based FPS that prints money for us like World of Warcraft. And if we farm out five more shovelware titles in the same line, they'll sell based on brand recognition alone."
Earth

GPS Receiver Noise Can Be Used To Detect Snow Depth 51

cremeglace writes "Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder have found a use for GPS besides finding restaurants or the occasional road-that-doesn't-exist: it can be used to measure snow depth. The new technique, which takes advantage of distortions of the GPS signal after it reflects off the snowpack, may potentially improve weather forecasts by allowing meteorologists to track snowfall patterns. ScienceNOW has the story, which one geophysicist describes as 'a classical case of one person's noise becoming another person's signal.'"
Censorship

Dam Burst Tool Disables China's Green Dam Censorware 40

An anonymous reader writes "The infamous Green Dam censorship software has suffered yet another blow. As ZDNet explains, Dam Burst, a tool released by security researcher Jon Oberheide, allows unprivileged users to disable the censorware by removing the hooks that enable it to monitor and block user activity, effectively restoring running applications to their original uncensored state. While the Dam Burst software is currently available at Oberheide's website, community mirrors will undoubtedly be necessary to avoid blocking by the Great Firewall."
Government

FCC Backs Net Neutrality, Chairman's Full Speech Posted 270

ArmyofGnomes writes "FCC chairman Julius Genachowski delivered Monday on President Obama's promise to back 'net neutrality' — but he went much further than merely seeking to expand rules that prohibit ISPs from filtering or blocking net traffic by proposing that they cover all broadband connections, including data connections for smartphones. Genachowski stated: 'I understand the Internet is a dynamic network and that technology continues to grow and evolve. I recognize that if we were to create unduly detailed rules that attempted to address every possible assault on openness, such rules would become outdated quickly. But the fact that the Internet is evolving rapidly does not mean we can, or should, abandon the underlying values fostered by an open network, or the important goal of setting rules of the road to protect the free and open Internet. ... In view of these challenges and opportunities, and because it is vital that the Internet continue to be an engine of innovation, economic growth, competition and democratic engagement, I believe the FCC must be a smart cop on the beat preserving a free and open Internet.'"

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