Hey Sparky.. you don't like an article?? easy fix... Dont READ it... Some of us like to hear about ham radio being used for critical stuff... geez.. What a specail snowflake.. just because he doesn't like a story, nobody else here should be able to read it either.... .

*some* of us don't do cellphone contracts... In case you didn't know, theres all sorts of no-contract cellphone providers, where you actually pay ONLY for what you actually *use*, like http://ting.com/

And if you don't like the bloatware on your phone, chances are quite good you can root it, and remove that crap.... It isn't that hard..

Oh yesss... I was also born without the "sports gene"... It puzzles me why otherwise seemingly normal people go absolutely bonkers over a bunch of guys on a field chasing a ball and beating each other senseless, better known as football... Or what passes for the other "national pastime", baseball... Which is why I'm really tired of getting charged a fairly large sum of money (~$5/mo) for that ESPN crap.. I'd gladly cut the cord, and do streaming of what few shows I care to watch over my 50/12 cable internet connection, but wifey won't budge.. Oh well..

Those of us who were born without the "sports gene" would seriously LOVE to be able to get a tv package withOUT that ESPN crap.. Of course, if it didnt heavily contribute to the cost of the tv package, I wouldn't care, but since it DOES add to the package cost, it could die a gruesome death as far as I'm concerned. You GO, Verizon... Kick those ESPN lawyers in the ass....

As I see it there are two major issues with website ads.. The annoyance factor, and more importantly, the VERY big risk of getting malware embedded with the ads, from a LOT of the sketchy ad-networks. At least if you're on Windows, I'd find the second issue to be FAR FAR more important than the first.. I have a small business doing Windows cleanup and migrating a lot of XP users over to Ubuntu. I've been looking at a program that appears to be a godsend in keeping the crap OFF of Windows, its called "Sandboxie", it allows you to run pretty much any Windows app (your browser?) in a sandbox. If perchance, you pick up malware from webbrowsing, you simply delete the sandbox. Your base Windows install remains clean since you never browse with a non-sandboxed browser. I'm considering looking this to my repertoire of tools to keep Windows clean....

The problem is that ANY ad, glaring flash-based in-your-face OR a tastefully presented text ad usually come from one of the many ad networks.. These ad networks have a VERY bad reputation for including malware with their supplied ads.. I'm a retired support tech/net admin, and run a small side business fixing borked up Windows systems, plus getting people OFF of XP... One of the first things I put on a rebuilt Windows system, which is only done when I can't talk the user into switching to XUbuntu instead, is Firefox, Ghostery, Adblock.. The bottom line is, even with the improved security model in current Windows versions, a stock Windows install is still wide open for getting owned by malware from these bad ad-networks... This is why I've quit using Windows personally, and even still use the listed addins for Firefox...

It might have been too late for the traditional world-wide April 1st "April Fools Day" but it landed smack dab on the USA's own second "April Fools Day", otherwise known as "tax day"...

Don't blame them a bit.. It's not gonna be long before that starts happening in the USA... if it hasn't already...

The people in these assclown's districts are, for the most part, as ignorant as the assclowns they keep electing.. All these elected idiots have to do is be seen getting bills passed to send pork to the home district and regular as clockwork, they get reelected. I live in Nevada and Harry Reid, the "poster-child" for Congressional idiocy is one of the Senators from this state. The last time he was up for re-election, there was quite a wave of voter fraud, a small amount I personally witnessed, as I was a Republican poll-watcher during that election season. Our local (R) people took the matter up with the local Registrar of Voters, who, in turn, passed it up the chain to the State AG, who promptly sat on it.. Of course our AG was a loyal (D), thus HAD to "protect" Dingy Harry from losing the election... Once these turdbags infect your government, its really hard to get rid of them.. I'd hoped we'd be able to get rid of Harry Reid during his reelection campaign using the "Tom Daschle" trick.. For those who don't remember history, Senator Tom Daschle was a Senator from North Dakota, and who, also, had been the Senate Majority Leader, but unlike Reid, his constituents flushed him down the drain in 2004...

All you peole who don't like the April Fools Day articles.. Why don't you just take a break from Slashdot for the day? Those of us who think they're funny and are enjoying them think you're all a bunch of complainers.... Take a days vacation for heavens sake.. The less funny Slashdot that you seem to prefer will be here for you tommorrow...

Geez..

AND either be.. depressed and suicidal OR recently joined ISIS and wanted to contribute to their jihad, and get his quota of virgins.... I suspect this will be investigated VERY closely now, since it appears the plane was commanded to fly into the ground by the copilot...

Hell, they've been crap for the last 30 flippin' years.. In 1985, I got laid off from a job, and a friend who was a radio shack manager at a local store told me that they were hiring at the local Radio Shack Computer Center for a repair tech. I applied and despite having not much experience with the then-new personal computers, I got hired. I worked there for about 6 months, with my local manager happy as a clam with my work. I wound up being the go-to-guy on the small TRS-80 Model 100s that were just being introduced. All the sudden I came in one day, and my manager says to me "I gotta let you go, the guy who quit, that made the opening that we hired *you* for wants to come back.. And he's chummy with the district manager, so my hands are tied"... I was SERIOUSLY pissed as it was a great job, nice manager, and fun work, but after 6 months I was job-hunting again.. I even wrote a nastygram to the mucky-mucks in Ft Worth, which never did any good.. Since then, Radio Shack can kiss my ass...

I, for one, have a fairly long list of companies I will not do business with, with Sony, near the top of the list, and now Lenovo, working hard to beat out Sony for top place on the list.

Since I'm sort of my neighborhood "tech support", I make it clear to anyone who asks me for advice on what to buy, of my list and WHY these companies are ON the list. I tell them that if they go ahead and buy some piece of tech from one of these companies, they need not ask for my help in setting up the item or ANY kind of support, rather they can go elsewhere in the future for advice, since they obviously don't value mine...

Which is why I look at Edward Snowden as a true American hero.. If he were to come back to the US, I doubt he'd even get as "fair" a trial as Irwin Schiff did..
http://www.takelifeback.com/ir.... Irwin's only "crime" was to publish books showing of facts showing clearly that there was/is NO law requiring Americans to pay an "income tax".. I live in Las Vegas, and attended a large part of the "trial".. His attorney was prevented from presenting evidence, and was also prevented from presenting evidence disputing the endless lies presented by the IRS and the prosecution.. Irwin was brought into the courtroom in shackles and prevented from speaking in his own defense by the judge. The "icing on the cake" of this "kangaroo court trial" was the fact that the judge, in his jury instructions, told the jury that they MUST find Irwin guity .. or THEY would be in violation of the law.... After the trial I spoke to a couple of people who were on that jury and they told me they were convinced of Irwin being not-guilty, but the completely illegal jury instructions scared them such that they voted to convict.. Whether or not you know (or believe) that the "income tax" is totally bogus or you've bought into it like a very large number of Americans, this type of "Star chamber" trial is VERY un-American... And this would be the type of trial that Snowden would receive, AT BEST....

ANYbody who believes that either party has the best interests of the AMERICAN PEOPLE at heart, is living in a fantasy world.. Until about midway thru BushJr's second term, I was a Republican.. Then I began to realize that BOTH parties were out for NOTHING but their own power.. The ONLY thing they pay attention to is the big-bucks donations that keep them in office.. America is SCREWED...