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Comment: Re:How did this moronic submission make it here? (Score 1) 466

by Falc0n (#43205881) Attached to: Why Earth Hour Is a Waste of Time and Energy

The point of Earth Hour is public awareness, to get people talking, thinking, discussing solutions.

But it doesn't even do that! At best, a few 'regular people' -might- think about the environment for a few days (or hours), akin to the hype around St. Patty's day this year. But come the day after, those people will forget all about it. And at worst, it just gives environmentalists more to be smug about, sniffing their own asses thinking they are making a difference, when in fact they aren't. We're on hydro-electric here. Our CO2 doesn't change a lick if we turn out our lights in the PNW.

No, Earth Hour is simply a fundraising opportunity for the WWF and other environmental organizations. Its mainly about money, and has little to do about making real change. Similar to politicians and political parties, environmental organizations need to look like they're fixing problems, otherwise they won't make money, or a living. I'd go as far as to say many environmental organizations are also anti-technology (nuclear, GMOs, etc), shooting themselves in the environmental foot they want to fix.

Comment: I had an LG screen, replaced with Samsung (Score 5, Informative) 195

by Falc0n (#43187533) Attached to: Apple Faces Lawsuit For Retina MacBook Pro 'Ghosting' Issue
As soon as I received my MBPr I started testing to see if it had ghosting issues and if it was an LG screen. Sure enough, both were true. I returned it, and referenced the specific part number 661-7171 (that was the samsung screen) to replace it with. My local apple rep obliged and I had a nice new Samsung screen. Re-ran the stress test and it cleared.

That was 6 months ago, haven't seen a ghosting issue since.

Comment: Re:Fuck those greedy bastards. (Score 1) 510

by Falc0n (#41944101) Attached to: Tesla Motors Sued By Car Dealers
Definition of Motor vehicle (Per TFA): “Motor vehicle”, any motor driven vehicle or house trailer required to be registered under chapter 90 regardless of curb weight or required to be registered under sections 20 to 35, inclusive, of chapter 90B having a curb weight of not more than 1,000 pounds, or a truck camper. Sure sounds like Tesla falls under that model to me!

Comment: Remote Controls (Score 5, Interesting) 301

by Falc0n (#41105065) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Use For an Old Smartphone?
I use old phones over wifi to control my XBMC media boxes. When I build my new house in a few years, I'll probably incorporate them into home automation since I'll have around 10 lying around. Most phones in airplane mode with wifi will last at least a week, and it lets me have chargers around the house to keep them (or my current phone) plugged in most of the time.

Comment: Whos fault? HTC or Verizon? (Score 1) 143

by Falc0n (#37826854) Attached to: Is Verizon Breaking FCC Regulations With Locked Bootloaders?
I have the HTC Thunderbolt, unlocked running BAMF. According to the verizon rep, the bootloader lockdown was at the request of HTC. Additionally, the warranty is handled by the manufacturer, and would be void by them, not verizon. He told me that I could return the phone, and verizon only does some cursory testing to see if it turns on, functions, etc. The fact it was rooted wouldn't be detected until handed to HTC.
Now this is all assuming Verizon isn't lying to me. It could very well be all false. But it seems like they're trying to pin the fault on locked down phones to the manufacturer, NOT themselves. Aren't there some Android phones, made by Verizon that are unlocked?

Comment: Teen Tech Fest anyone? (Score 1) 116

by Falc0n (#36841256) Attached to: Fond Memories of Nerd Camp
I was one of those lucky high school tech nerds that attended Teen Tech Fest 2000 sponsored by AcePlanet and Microsoft. It was its first and last year, since AcePlanet went belly up like many other startups of the time. AcePlanet was going to do annual computer-themed summer camps for kids, but I guess there wasn't enough money in it.

Already being already an F/OSS person, it was a very fun camp. Despite being Microsoft sponsored (and getting a free copy of VS6 and tour of the MS campus), many of the kids there were very open source users and programmers. Many to this day I still talk to and are in tech related industries, including a few working at Google and Intel.
Hardware Hacking

+ - Drupal heading for space->

Submitted by
Falc0n
Falc0n writes "Not to be outdone by various other weather balloon projects, this week at drupalcon, a group of crazy drupalists decided to become engineers and take on a project to launch drupal into space. Its currently using APRS on the ham radio frequency to track its progress. You can track its progress live. More information can be found at drupalinspace.com."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Mini Options! (Score 4, Interesting) 169

by Falc0n (#34271944) Attached to: New Device Puts SSD In a DIMM Slot
Actually I find this potentially quite cool. Not as much for the power source, but the size. Since most mATX boards don't come with mini PCIe slots, if you want to use an SSD drive you need a 2.5" drive or a PCIe card with a mini-slot on it. Both are much larger than a DIMM option.

And with 50gb, this would be very useful in a media box streaming from a server. Now only if the price could come down.
Cellphones

Journal: Rumor: 500 Kin Phones 9

Journal by symbolset

When Microsoft's Kin was released a month ago, it came with the usual sequence of tittilating leaks (project Pink), a swell of coverage leading to liveblogging of the release press conference, and an advertising blitz impressive in its scope. Since it's supposed to be a social phone of course it has numerous fansites including Facebook and Twitter. Of course there's a Wikipe

Comment: Ham Radio + GPS = Fun! (Score 4, Interesting) 368

by Falc0n (#31753944) Attached to: Ham Radio Still Growing In the iStuff Age
My 4x4 group (hot4x4.ca) uses VHF almost exclusively due to its reach above and beyond CB. Cell phones usually don't work where we travel either. Depending on the terrain, we can reach over 75kms from each other on just the 2m band w/o a repeater. This only requires a technician (basic) license as well.
Add in the APRS + Garmin GPS, and your rig turns into a mobile GPS transmitter. We then can track each other, which makes it really easy to find each other. APRS also allows us to send text messages via a p2p network of Ham Radios. Example: we had guys in Reno who we needed to contact because we broke a part on the Rubicon. Couldn't reach them via radio, but with APRS, our txt msgs could be relayed.
None of this requires anything but the first class license. Its an awesome hobby and there is a lot you can do with it, in addition to Geek cred and ecomm or search/rescue.

What good is it if you talk in flowers, and they think in pastry? -- Ashleigh Brilliant

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