Submission + - Apparent Hardware Issues With Some of the Google Nexus 4 phones (blogspot.com)
DougDot writes: "Some Nexus 4 phones turn off WiFi when the screen is blanked."
Comment Update: the phone has a hardware bug (Score 1) 1
As described in this post in androidforums:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-4/235432-nexus-4-apps-sleeping-when-screen-blanked.html
all apps are put into a sleep state when the screen is blanked. This means that gmail notifications don't happen, and GrooveIP doesn't answer calls. The good news is that Google support was very responsive when I called and told me they would replace the phone.
Submission + - The Google Nexus 4 Arrived Today (blogspot.com) 1
DougDot writes: "There's good news, and some not-so-good news involving our Real Smart Friends over at Google. But I'm sure they'll fix it real soon now."
Submission + - Amazon.com's credit card systems have apparently been compromisied
DougDot writes: "I just got a call fro Amazon.com informing me that someone in Dallas, TX, some 600 miles away from where I live in Santa Fe, NM, just tried to buy $51 worth of Domino's pizza using my Amazon.com credit card number.
Since I only used that credit card to purchase stuff on-line from Amazon, it is pretty clear that Amazon's financial credit card systems have been compromised.
The good news is that Amazon's fraud detection systems caught this almost instantly.
I expect we'll be hearing more about this.
--Doug"
Since I only used that credit card to purchase stuff on-line from Amazon, it is pretty clear that Amazon's financial credit card systems have been compromised.
The good news is that Amazon's fraud detection systems caught this almost instantly.
I expect we'll be hearing more about this.
--Doug"
Comment Re:Remote deletion (Score 1) 309
I agree too. Love my Nexus 7, much beter device than the KF.
Submission + - Things Linux: Fun Sound Project (blogspot.com)
DougDot writes: "So I got up one morning earlier this week and, as usual, stopped off at the espresso machine in the kitchen before going on in to the home office. I then followed routine by restarting the VirtualBox Windows XP image in preparation for signing in to my work place's vpn, and reached over to turn on the sound system.
No sound.
My expensive Creative AWE 7.1 surround system had died. Crap.
[...]"
No sound.
My expensive Creative AWE 7.1 surround system had died. Crap.
[...]"
Comment Been telecommuting for 7 years (Score 2) 212
My employer is on the east coast, I am in Santa Fe, NM. I'm currently running Linux Mint 12, with Windows XP as a VirtualBox guest for the Windows-centric activities. All bases are covered.
--Doug
"Never pick a fight with someone who buys his ink by the barrel."
- Mark Twain
Comment Re:Close the door. (Score 1) 480
Agree about cats. I look forward to the 10 - 15 times per day that my cat *absolutely* *positively* *needs* to be in my lap.
Oops, here he is again...
Comment Woo hoo! (Score 1) 285
I'm ready for my anal probe now!
Submission + - Amazon.com's new DRM flash content prevents Linux (amazon.com)
DougDot writes: "On or about January 15, Amazon apparently re-encoded much of their instant video content so that a new DRM-enabled flash player is required to view it. When Amazon customers selects one of the newly encoded video selections via browser, the message "Updating video..." appears with a yellow status bar.
The update then fails for any Linux user running a 64-bit system for which the 64-bit version of the Adobe flash player had been installed. On Linux Mint and Ubuntu systems, this 64-bit version of the flash player is installed by
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer
After about a week and a half of receiving apologies, but no solution from Amazon, one Linux user presented a partial work-around on this Amazon discussion forum:
http://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon%20video%20on%20demand/ref=cm_cd_et_up_redir?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx3EQAX98ED5WQ3&cdPage=2&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=TxFTGOK5LRL3JM&newContentID=Mx1TF574R0D9DQ6#Mx1TF574R0D9DQ6
Here's the partial work-around (thanks, Andy)
—
Doug, it runs fine on my Mint 12 after HAL is installed. My OpenSuSe box never had the problem, and I just simply can't do anything on my BSD box (understandably). My guess is that Amazon changed the streaming player to probe something in your hardware like MAC address for DRM, but Flash Access uses HAL to accomplish this task although HAL has been obsolete for Debian-derived distros for some time now.
I think your player update is failing before it completes, correct? You don't see the error message everyone sees here ("your player could not be updated"). You can follow the steps below but since I don't know how your system is configured, please perform them at your own risk.
1. Remove/rename .adobe and .macromedia from your home directory
cd
mv .adobe adobe.old
mv .macromedia macromedia.old
2. Remove Flash sudo apt-get --purge remove adobe-flashplugin
3. Install Flash sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin
4. Verify you have the latest Flash by going to: http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about
5. Test with your Firefox or Chrome (not Epiphany)
Please make sure your hald is running.
— The problem with this work-around is that it removes the 64-bit version of the Adobe flash plugin, and installs the 32-bit version which performs horribly on 64-bit Mint/Ubuntu installations. The 32-bit version of the player is not accelerated, and the video is jerky/stop-action.
Lot's of people are complaining that they cannot play new video content for which they have complained. All because Amazon decided to deploy DRM enabled content without properly testing on Linux.
I'm curious if Amazon will fix this, or just let us 64-bit Linux users hang out to dry."
The update then fails for any Linux user running a 64-bit system for which the 64-bit version of the Adobe flash player had been installed. On Linux Mint and Ubuntu systems, this 64-bit version of the flash player is installed by
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer
After about a week and a half of receiving apologies, but no solution from Amazon, one Linux user presented a partial work-around on this Amazon discussion forum:
http://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon%20video%20on%20demand/ref=cm_cd_et_up_redir?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx3EQAX98ED5WQ3&cdPage=2&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=TxFTGOK5LRL3JM&newContentID=Mx1TF574R0D9DQ6#Mx1TF574R0D9DQ6
Here's the partial work-around (thanks, Andy)
—
Doug, it runs fine on my Mint 12 after HAL is installed. My OpenSuSe box never had the problem, and I just simply can't do anything on my BSD box (understandably). My guess is that Amazon changed the streaming player to probe something in your hardware like MAC address for DRM, but Flash Access uses HAL to accomplish this task although HAL has been obsolete for Debian-derived distros for some time now.
I think your player update is failing before it completes, correct? You don't see the error message everyone sees here ("your player could not be updated"). You can follow the steps below but since I don't know how your system is configured, please perform them at your own risk.
1. Remove/rename
2. Remove Flash sudo apt-get --purge remove adobe-flashplugin
3. Install Flash sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin
4. Verify you have the latest Flash by going to: http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about
5. Test with your Firefox or Chrome (not Epiphany)
Please make sure your hald is running.
— The problem with this work-around is that it removes the 64-bit version of the Adobe flash plugin, and installs the 32-bit version which performs horribly on 64-bit Mint/Ubuntu installations. The 32-bit version of the player is not accelerated, and the video is jerky/stop-action.
Lot's of people are complaining that they cannot play new video content for which they have complained. All because Amazon decided to deploy DRM enabled content without properly testing on Linux.
I'm curious if Amazon will fix this, or just let us 64-bit Linux users hang out to dry."
Submission + - Nation-Wide Outage of Verizon's 4G Network (pcmag.com)
DougDot writes: "It's been out all day, 12/7/2011. What's left is 1X service which disconnects about 10X per hour. Verizon is expensive *and* slow."
Comment Re:Eccentrics at the labs? (Score 1) 215
cc: dzzr@lanl.gov, please.
Comment Re:Eccentrics at the labs? (Score 1) 215
Also, I would be remiss if I didn't use to opportunity to leach of Slashdot's bandwidth to mention my new science fiction novel, Second Cousins: http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins/
:)
--Doug
Comment Re:Incredibly slanted article (Score 1) 215
Agree completely. I also left in June, 2005 when Act 3 was just one year away.
--Doug Roberts, http://parrot-farm.net/lanl-the-real-story/
Comment Re:Hack Job (Score 4, Informative) 215
Speaking as the author/creator/owner/maintainer of the original LANL, The Real Story blog, http://parrot-farm.net/lanl-the-real-story/ [parrot-farm.net], and as a person who spent 20 years on staff at LANL, I can tell you that Hugh Gusterson's paper, if anything, understates the levels of incompetence, arrogance, and these days under its new corporate ownership, the *greed* demonstrated by the management of Los Alamos National Laboratory. The place had become nearly completely dysfunctional during the Nanos period, and is now simply treading water. The primary goal and business plan these days is to ensure that the annual award fee is received in it's entirety. Science has taken a back seat to making money for the LLC that now owns the contract for running the place.
--Doug Roberts LANL, Retired 2005
