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Comment Re:Related question (Score 1) 932

by webagogue (#30082332) Attached to: Easing the Job of Family Tech Support?

Exactly. A better question might be, "why does your family have such little respect for your time/expertise"? Or, "why am I such a pushover in such that I repeatedly help those who never heed my advice?" Tell them to bring their computer to the geek squad so they can get reamed for at least 100 bucks (likely more).
Science

A New Explanation For the Plight of Winter Babies 276

Posted by kdawson from the prom-night dept.
Ant passes along a Wall Street Journal report on research that turned up a new explanation for the lifelong challenges experienced by winter babies. "Children born in the winter months already have a few strikes against them. Study after study has shown that they test poorly, don't get as far in school, earn less, are less healthy, and don't live as long as children born at other times of year. Researchers have spent years documenting the effect and trying to understand it... A key assumption of much of that research is that the backgrounds of children born in the winter are the same as the backgrounds of children born at other times of the year. ... [Economist] Mr. Hungerman was doing research on sibling behavior when he noticed that children in the same families tend to be born at the same time of year. Meanwhile, Ms. Buckles was examining the economic factors that lead to multiple births, and coming across what looked like a relationship between mothers' education levels and when children were born." Here's a chart in which the effect — small but significant — jumps out unmistakeably.
Editorial

Encryption? What Encryption? 500

Posted by Soulskill from the these-are-not-the-files-you're-looking-for dept.
Slashdot regular Bennett Haselton writes with his take on the news we discussed early this morning about the UK government's prosecution of two people who refused to disclose their encryption keys: "Is it possible to write a program that enables you to encrypt files without drawing suspicion upon yourself if anyone ever seizes your computer? No; a program by itself, no matter how perfectly written, couldn't do this because you'd still attract suspicion just for possessing the software. You'd need a social element driving the program's popularity until it gets to the point where people no longer look suspicious just for having the program installed. Here are some theories on how that could happen — but it would be a high bar to clear." Hit the link below for the rest of Bennett's thoughts.

Comment Selling expertise or access? (Score 0) 168

by webagogue (#28331575) Attached to: Should Wikipedians Edit Stories For Pay?
If the editor was simply selling his expertise in writing acceptable/good/great Wikipedia articles then I cannot see any harm in what he was doing. But, if he was selling his access (can he edit things others are not allowed to edit? can he bypass filters/restrictions that your average joe cannot?), then he's wrong. He's wrong and there should be a policy that anyone caught doing so has their rights busted down to average joe.
The Media

News Corp Will Charge For Newspaper Websites 453

Posted by CmdrTaco from the probably-not-for-fox-news dept.
suraj.sun writes "Rupert Murdoch says having free newspaper websites is a 'flawed' business model. Rupert Murdoch expects to start charging for access to News Corporation's newspaper websites within a year as he strives to fix a 'malfunctioning' business model. Encouraged by booming online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire media mogul last night said that papers were going through an 'epochal' debate over whether to charge. 'That it is possible to charge for content on the web is obvious from the Wall Street Journal's experience,' he said."

Comment Re:I Like It (Score 1) 379

by webagogue (#27191777) Attached to: iPod Shuffle Finds Its Voice
"Hate the headphone arrangement in principle, but I can live with it for now." That's an interesting way to put it. But if you are really pleased overall, with the exception of the "headphone arrangement" aren't you still pleased? I find that, constantly wanting to change "just one thing" about my computers, ipods, etc., is really just wasted energy. It works. It works well. Why be frustrated with it?

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