31288033
submission
goombah99 writes:
Brokerages where I keep my mutual funds are just password protected. They do sometimes ask extra security questions but these seem tissue thin (like "what's your favorite food?"). I can use above average passwords but then I need to write them down or put them in a key chain so I don't lose them. I fear key loggers or someone stealing my home computer or it's contents. Is there anything to stop people from draining your account if they have your password?
30182007
submission
goombah99 writes:
According to developers, executives and investors in mobile gaming and payment sectors , Google warned several developers in recent months that if they did not switch to Google Wallet or continued to use other payment methods — such as PayPal, Zong and Boku — their apps would be removed from Android Market, now known as Google Play. In one email sent to a developer in late August, Google said the developer had 30 days to comply, otherwise the developer's apps would be "suspended" from Android Market. Reuters obtained a copy of the email this week. "They told people that if they used other payment services they would be breaking the terms of use," said Si Shen, founder and chief executive of Papaya, a social gaming network on Android. "Whether it's right or wrong, we have to follow the rules."
24606196
submission
goombah99 writes:
The initial response of geeks to the iphone 4s was a sort of Mehh. Which is odd considering one rarely hears of a computing device 2x faster than its nearest rival. Anadtech benched it and found the overall performance was about 2x faster than the new Galaxy S II phone. Indeed it's tied in speed with the ultra speedy Galaxy tablet yet runs at a slower processor speed for long battery life. The graphics boost is 6x that of the iphone 4. Then there is Siri, which how hard usefully accurate voice command is, ought to at least evince rubber necking to watch either a spectacular Apple boast fail or a surprising breakthrough. Then there's the fact that it not only sold out a rather large pre-release inventory but it managed to sell a million in 24 hours (to real people, not just into "channels". Yet various news organizations have called it a "letdown," a "dud," a "stumble," and a "gaffe." Geeks sometimes deride apple as nothing more than a pretty case, and yet here the only thing that didn't change is the look and feel. Are we geeks guilty of judging the book by the cover?
24585734
submission
goombah99 writes:
Benchmarks from Anadtech show that on both graphics and overall benchmarks the iphone 4s is about 2x faster than it's nearest competition: Samsungs's Galaxy S II. In graphics frames-per-second it is more than 6x faster than the iphone 4. Indeed, it is essentially equal in speed to the larger Galaxy II tablet, while running at slower clock speed for extended battery life. The apple A5 strategy looks like a category killer.
23278992
submission
goombah99 writes:
Nilay Patel makes a very cogent argument that software patents are not a bad thing at all. He argues that the problem is the Trolls. And his solution is not only simple, but actually exists and is well tested in other countries, such as Germany so it's pretty easy to evaluate if he's right. He squarely puts down common strawmen like "software algorithms are just math and you can't patent math". And he points out that patents bring methods in to the public domain, unlike the bad old days of trade secrets. In a few years even those seemingly "obvious" patents will be legally obvious and free to all, so in a way there is a clearing house process in effect that is de-encumbering entire fields, such as Amazon-like stores, in the long run. And when people are forced to work around patented methods they explore new more diverse methods, broadening our knowledge. His solution is mandatory licensing at reasonable rates of all patents not in active use by the holder. This allows universities to continue profiting from patents while encouraging people to license widely rather than sit back and wait to litigate when someone succeeds. The end of trolling is within reach.
17043008
submission
goombah99 writes:
Net Nanny is the well known software to shield young children just getting started on the internet. But I figure that maybe computer savvy folks have other solutions or things that can be layered on top. If there was a list of naughty sites one could of course toss that in a Host file but, having tried that approach, those lists can be pretty long (and thus slow) despite being incomplete and they don't filter by content just IP. The other problem is that they are not per-user so mommy and daddy can't browse freely. I don't mind paying and don't require an open source solution. But I do need one for a mac osx computer. All this goes without saying that supervision and participation are important but you can monitor every key stroke and page load even when you are in the same room. Almost every google phrase you can think of has some close by salacious analog: My 5 year old like Ben 10, and I encourage him to use logic to form his own search phases, but there are some naughty Ben's in the world apparently. What do slashdotters do?
12114198
submission
goombah99 writes:
There is No...
1) try
2) spoon
3) sunshine when she is gone
4) Third rule of fight club
5) Devil, it's just Cowboy Neal when he's drunk."
6) option 7
12101254
submission
goombah99 writes:
slashdot poll
There is Np...
1) try
2) spoon
4) option 3
5) sunshine when she is gone
6) Third rule of fight club
7) Devil, it's just Cowboy Neal when he's drunk.
9907148
submission
goombah99 writes:
Written mail in Victorian London was delivered and picked up 12 times in a 12 hour day. It also resembled e-mail in the way it was used. Messages often sought replies by the next postal pickup. And even the lazy practice of sharing links rather than writing a thoughtful letter became commonplace as people would send copies of previously read newspapers instead of writing. Like now, newspapers saw their circulations plummet as their content was shared freely this way. And as the price of mail droppped to negligible, junk mail was invented along with the 409 solicitations from strangers. All in all it seems like a good evidence that charging more for e-mail delivery would arguably cure its worst tendencies.
9851284
submission
goombah99 writes:
Written mail in Victorian London was delivered and picked up 12 times in a 12 hour day. It also resembled e-mail in the way it was used. Messages often sought replies by the next postal pickup. And even the lazy practice of sharing links rather than writing a thoughtful letter became commonplace as people would send copies of previously read newspapers instead of writing. Like now, newspapers saw their circulations shrink as their content was shared freely this way. And as the price of mail drop to negligible, junk mail was invented along with the 409 solicitations to strangers. All in all it seems like a good evidence that charging more for e-mail delivery would arguably cure its worst tendencies.
6245307
submission
goombah99 writes:
VOIP provider ooma offers no-charge, no-strings-attached, commercial-free, VOIP to anywhere in the US. While the service is free forever, you do have to buy their unit. Unlike Magic Jack or Skype, this is a stand-alone unit so it does not need your PC to operate and behaves like a regular hassle free phone. Moreover, reviews say the voice quality is consistently as good or better than Vonage, my current carrier. Since the price of the unit on Amazon is less than about 7 months of Vonage+taxes & fees, I'm thinking of making the jump. But somehow this seems too good to be true: given the quick payback period why is everyone not using this? So I'm asking Slashdot users about their experience. A summary and links to reviews can be found here and the most in depth ones are on Amazon. They claim there is no catch: it will stay free forever as long as ooma stays in business or your voip modem does not need to be replaced (e.g. you break it or want to upgrade it) I note that since 2005, there have been regular unfulfilled predictions they would shortly be out of business, but webmeters show their traffic has grown 450% in the last year and they are now up to about 1/8th Vonage's website traffic, so it seems like they have taken root. On the otherhand ooma's bundled services (voicemail, local calling, etc...) have changed from year to year so what you get depends on when you bought into it. Is there a catch?"
6241661
submission
goombah99 writes:
Back in 2005,I heard about the free voip phone service ooma, but their peculiar business model at the time let them make local calls on your local land line in return for free long distance VOIP turned me off. That business model is gone now and they are simply offering no-charge, no-strings-attached, commercial-free, VOIP to anywhere in the US. Since the price of the unit on Amazon is less than about 7 months of Vonage+taxes & fees, I'm thinking of making the jump. Unlike Magic Jack or Skype, this is a stand-alone unit so it does not need your PC to operate. Moreover, reviews say the voice quality is as good or better than Vonage, my current carrier. But somehow this seems too good to be true: given the quick payback period why is everyone not using this? So I'm asking Slashdot users about their experience. A summary and links to reviews can be found here and the most in depth ones are on Amazon. They claim there is no catch: it will stay free forever as long as ooma stays in business or your voip modem does not need to be replaced (e.g. you break it or want to upgrade it) I note that since 2005, there have been regular unfulfilled predictions they would shortly be out of business, but webmeters show their traffic has grown 450% in the last year and they are now up to about 1/8th Vonage's website traffic, so it seems like they have taken root. Is there a catch?
6232505
submission
goombah99 writes:
Back in 2005,I saw the free voip phone service ooma a few years ago, but their wonky model of using your conventional land line in return for free voip turned me off. But now they are simply offering no-charge, no-strings-attached, commercial-free, VOIP to anywhere in the US and cheap rates outside the US. This will stay free forever as long as ooma stays in business or your voip modem does not bust. Since the price of the unit on Amazon is less than about 8 months of Vonage+taxes & fees, I'm thinking of making the jump. (The only recurring charge from ooma is $12 in E911 fees per year.) All reviews say the voice quality is as good or better than Vonage, my current carrier. I note that since 2005, there have been regular unfulfilled predictions they would shortly be out of business, but webmeters show their traffic has grown 450% in the last year and they are now up to about 1/8th Vonage's traffic, so it seems like they have taken root. But somehow this seems too good to be true: given the quick payback period why is everyone not using this? So I'm asking Slashdot users about their experience. Unlike Magic Jack or Skype, this is a stand-alone unit so it does not need your PC to operate. A summary and links to reviews can be found here and the best ones are on Amazon.Link to Original Source
5663425
submission
goombah99 writes:
TGD Daily reports that due to a notification glitch dating back to 1984, the UK laws governing DVD piracy are said to be unenforceable until the European Union Commission can meet to accept the UK law. This is said to be unlikely to happen before 2010. The problem arose in 1984 and was repeated in 1990, when the laws governing pornography and DVD piracy in the UK were not, as required under the EU agreement, sent to the the EU commission for approval.
5532391
submission
goombah99 writes:
"On Tuesday, a U.S. district court in Texas issued a permanent injunction that bars Microsoft from selling recent versions of its Word software." reports many news outlets. Sales must cease in 60 days. MS will appeal to a higher court, however in addition to the judge's ruling, previously a jury as well upheld the patent infringement and awarded 200 million dollars. The ruling also bars not just Office 2008 but also any translation of documents between docx to word 2003 and later. The patent itself is for a specific way of serializing an XML document. Instead of putting markup tags amidst the text, you simply write the text out raw with out any inline tags. Then in a separate storage area you list each xml tag followed by a pointer to the character position it should be inserted into that bulk text. Since the tags and raw content can be stored separately, the claim is this encoding has the desired feature that changes to format tags won't require re-writing the whole document body, and you could associate many different format tags sets with the same raw text for different "views". The regenerated document inverts this to produce XML which can then be handled normally.
