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Comment Re:As someone who... (Score 1) 154

I buy stuff from Hong Kong on ebay all the time - you can get items shipped from there for $0.00 - $0.99 shipping and handling - sure it takes 7-10 days to show up, but if they can ship that package 1/2 way around the world for $0.99, why does it cost $7.99 - $10.99 to get the same package shipped from 2-3 states away?

Comment Re:Damn I'm old... (Score 4, Funny) 126

I kept thinking "I am the very model of a modern Major Perl Framework..."

I am the very model of a modern Major Perl Framework,
But here I am on Slashdot, trying harder from my job to shirk,
From HackerNews to 4chan there's no forum in which I won't lurk,
I am the very model of a modern Major Perl Framework!

Submission + - Wichita Lineman 2.0: Bill Gates Wants Accelerometers on Power Lines

theodp writes: GeekWire reports that Bill Gates is listed as an inventor on a newly surfaced patent filing that proposes putting accelerometers on power lines to understand how far they move in wind and other conditions, and monitor how close they come to trees and other nearby objects. The idea is to detect issues with power lines before they cause serious problems. Gates and power go way back — a legacy system BillG worked on as a teen that helped manage the electrical grid for the Bonneville Power Administration was just retired after keeping the lights on for 38 years.

Submission + - Firefox 29 is a Flop; UI Design Trends Getting Worse 2

An anonymous reader writes: Firefox 29 marked the release of the UI overhaul codenamed "Australis" and the jury is back with a verdict: the vast majority of feedback on Firefox Input is negative and traffic to the Classic Theme Restorer add-on has aggressively spiked since Firefox 29 came out on April 29. Considering this is a year and a half after the backlash against the new Windows 8 user interface, it seems that even though the "dumbing down" trends in UI design are infuriating users, they continue to happen. Chrome will soon be hiding URLs, OS X has hidden scroll bars by default, iOS 7 flattened everything, and Windows 8 made scroll bars hard to see. If most users hate these changes, why are they so ubiquitous?

Submission + - Jury Finds Apple and Samsung Infringed Each Other's Patents 1

An anonymous reader writes: A U.S. jury concluded Friday that Samsung had infringed on two of Apple's patents and that Apple had infringed on one of Samsung's patents. Prior to the trial, the judge had ruled that Samsung had infringed on one other Apple patent. Samsung will receive $158,400 in damages, although they had requested just over $6 million. Apple will receive $119.6 million in damages, although they had requested just over $2 billion and a ban on certain Samsung phones. Some say that a sales ban is unlikely to be approved by the judge. The jury is scheduled to return on Monday to resolve what appears to be a technical mistake in their verdict on one of the patents, and Apple may gain a few hundred thousand dollars in their damages award as a result.
Chrome

Could Google's Test of Hiding Complete URLs In Chrome Become a Standard? 327

MojoKid (1002251) writes "The address bar in a Web browser has been a standard feature for as long as Web browsers have been around — and that's not going to be changing. What could be, though, is exactly what sort of information is displayed in them. In December, Google began rolling-out a limited test of a feature in Chrome called "Origin Chip", a UI element situated to the left of the address bar. What this "chip" does is show the name of the website you're currently on, while also showing the base URL. To the right, the actual address bar shows nothing, except a prompt to "Search Google or type URL". With this implementation, a descriptive URL would not be seen in the URL bar. Instead, only the root domain would be seen, but to the left of the actual address bar. This effectively means that no matter which page you're on in a given website, all you'll ever see when looking at the address bar is the base URL in the origin chip. What helps here is that the URL is never going to be completely hidden. You'll still be able to hit Ctrl + L to select it, and hopefully be able to click on the origin chip in order to reveal the entire URL. Google could never get rid of the URL entirely, because it's required in order to link someone to a direct location, obviously."

Comment Re:So what? (Score 2) 272

According to an article in last weeks Aviation Week and Space Technology - you are ignorant.

The value of commercial experimentation on the ISS has taken an unforseen upswing. Real companies are paying Real money to put experiments of different varieties on the ISS.There is a back-log of customers.

I'm thinking the Dragon from Space-X is a nice answer to the Russian suggestion. I also think their minister needs some remedial science classes to learn about the law of gravitiy.... you can't possibly reach escape velocity with a trampoline ;-)

Submission + - British Spy Chiefs Secretly Begged to Play in NSA's Data Pools (firstlook.org)

Advocatus Diaboli writes: Britain’s electronic surveillance agency, Government Communications Headquarters, has long presented its collaboration with the National Security Agency’s massive electronic spying efforts as proportionate, carefully monitored, and well within the bounds of privacy laws. But according to a top-secret document in the archive of material provided to The Intercept by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, GCHQ secretly coveted the NSA’s vast troves of private communications and sought “unsupervised access” to its data as recently as last year – essentially begging to feast at the NSA’s table while insisting that it only nibbles on the occasional crumb.

Comment Bad assumption... (Score 1) 399

For those who like Swiss watches - or even high end Japanese watches (Seiko Spring drives..), a smart watch is not necessarily an 'upgrade'. I choose to wear a mechanical watch because I like mechanical watches.

Sure, I have a G-Shock for when I'm going somewhere a Swiss timepiece isn't a good idea, but for the most part, I wear a Swiss automatic - usually a stainless Rolex GMT Master II. (pepsi bezel, baybee!) Why? Because I like the way it looks, and it's about as close to jewelry as I'll ever get.

A smart watch with an LCD/OLED display just isn't going to rival the look of a decent mechanical watch...

If I want a smart device, that is why I have a Galaxy S4.

Comment Re:Redesign the body too... (Score 2) 398

It's an odd looking car because every design decision was made to decrease drag, which has a huge impact on range at highway speeds. The most notable feature on the front is the big bug eye headlight covers. They push air out of the way and create low pressure bubbles around the rear view mirrors- decreasing drag.

No doubt the design was done that way for a purpose. It's still a highly unattractive car. The tesla, on the other hand has a CD of .30 compared to the Leaf's .28.

I'll give up the .02 for a better looking car.

m

Submission + - Apple buys iFixit, declares repairable devices "antiquated". (ifixit.com) 2

ErichTheRed writes: Apparently, Apple is buying iFixit. iFixit is (was?) a website that posted teardown photos of gadgets and offered repair advice. According to the website: "Apple is working hard to make devices last long enough to be upgraded or irrelevant, making repairability an antiquated notion." It's all clear now — I can't replace the batteries, hard drives or RAM in new Macs because I'm expected to throw them in the landfill every 2 years!

It made it to CNN, so it has to be true, right?

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