There are downloader addons that account for this asinine behavior and will follow the links until the link being saved has a image extension to it. Or for the really obtuse sites that deliberately mess up content types, you can create a rule to force the content to an image type.

Not that I have ever done this or anything......*whistles*

I take umbrage at this statement. It is never wise to assume anything when it comes to security. And if you've been following the articles related to SCADA systems and industrial security that have been popping up lately, it is obvious that the industrial controls market somehow thinks that *their* systems will never get a virus anyway. With the latest crop of SCADA software touting Cloud Storage/Control and Mobile Access as the latest and greatest _must have_ features, security will be more of a concern than ever.

My opinion here, but anybody that wants cloud control for industrial systems should be hung by their balls and hit in the head with a shovel. It's a stupid idea and fraught with problems. Cloud data storage - not so bad, but still a gateway for countless future problems.

My take on it is there is a significant percentage of younger folks who don't have the drive and the work ethic that they did back then. Not entirely accurate, since people trained in highly skilled professions tend to take their jobs quite seriously and work just as hard (if not harder) than older generations.

But that's my own view. Who the hell knows what he was referring to.

Funny I thought the rest of the paragraph was a series of statements why I think that way. I must of been imagining it. Good thing I wasn't driving!

Sorry to say I don't have time, money or resources to get a study done to test the anecdotal stories of incidents like these so a critical thinker such as yourself could refute it with a slight of objectivity.

I agree with the spirit of the recommendation, but not the way it is suggested.

FACT: People are distracted to varying degrees while performing normal driving.

There are countless reasons why the driver of a car can be distracted in the normal operation of a vehicle: serious conversation with a passenger, yelling at the unruly spawn in the backseat, fishing around in the glove compartment, windshield is dirty and driving during dusk when the sun is shining directly in your eyes, etc etc.

FACT: Personal electronics are an additional distraction while driving.

If I'm using my phone GPS capability while actively navigating an unfamiliar area downtown in a huge city, any point I take my eyes off the road is an opportunity to be in an accident. Best case scenario: The GPS device is completely hands off. Fortunately, my upgraded smartphone has this. Answering a phone is very distracting. You have to find it or fish it out of your pants pocket, look at the device to unlock it, and press the button to answer it. Then talking on the phone is distracting. Some conversations more than others of course. It would be great if a large percentage of people could judge for themselves when they exceed the threshold of not paying attention to the road, but unfortunately, most people are incapable of this judgement call.

Personally, I never answer the phone while driving. If it is important, they'll leave a message and I'll call back later. That's not to suggest everybody should be that way, but I do think a hands off system for answering a call in a car would be best. Instead of a luxury item in a car, I think every car made should have a hands off system the easily integrates with the car sound system. A technical nightmare right now, but with a few mandates to the right companies, it could be a reality in as little as 5 years.

What I literally hate seeing is people who talk on the phone nearly non stop while driving the car. Nearly every one of these people are accidents waiting to happen. I am sorry, but you cannot concentrate on driving while always talking on a phone. If you have to make a phone call or answer it, make it short and sweet. You'll live longer and you can talk longer when you are not driving. Driving is not an afterthought - no matter how long you have been doing it. It requires varying degrees of concentration. Most of the time driving is boring, but you need the mental capacity to respond quickly to bad conditions.

In a my perfect world, talking on the phone while driving would be punishable the same way as driving while under the influence. Ergo, the cop sees you talking on the phone, they get an opportunity to pull you over / ticket you and you get to explain your case to the judge or pay the fine. Repeated infractions get stiffer and stiffer fines until at some point you get your license taken away from you.

For those that absolutely have to talk while driving, get a hands off system for your vehicle.

Siri needing a constant network location to work does make sense. Quite a large subset of questions Siri is going to field will be location based in some fashion. Humans use their location to infer information about conclusions, there isn't a reason why Siri can't do the same. Especially given the limited ways Siri can 'sense' it's environment. I certainly agree that not reading back answers to some queries is of limited usefulness. Being at beta level software I can give it a pass for that. Basically, I want it to be at a level where I can ask it a non-congruous question (think Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit), it locates the information quickly, then parses the information and reads back the relevant portion.

Siri needing a constant network location to work does make sense. Quite a large subset of questions Siri is going to field will be location based in some fashion. Humans use their location to infer information about conclusions, there isn't a reason why Siri can't do the same. Especially given the limited ways Siri can 'sense' it's environment. I certainly agree that not reading back answers to some queries is of limited usefulness. Being at beta level software I can give it a pass for that. Basically, I want it to be at a level where I can ask it a non-congruous question (think Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit), it locates the information quickly, then parses the information and reads back the relevant portion.

This is common knowledge for damn near everybody on Slashdot, but for those who don't know:

It's not the browser cookie that is tracking the browser activities, it is the Facebook included javascript that recognizes the fb cookie and reports that this particular browser has visited this website/page. The cookie is only data on the user's machine and that is used to log where that browser has gone to. That's why these social sites (and porn sites, etc.) are so insidious. You may think that no longer visiting them is enough but it isn't. A good practice is to clean out your cookies once a month, and anything you don't immediately recognize, delete. Most users won't take the time to do that, There was an extension that changed the cookie lifespan to 1 month but I can't seem to find that now. Another good thing to do is run the addon NoScript. Again, for most users they will quickly tire of approving scripts repeatedly. The last thing that is good to do is to add an entry into your hosts file that points facebook.com to 127.0.0.1. There, never having to worry about facebook insecurities again, without being too paranoid.

Make it an audience participation movie. A few members of the audience, random chosen and willing or even an auction, will be issued an arcade light gun (ala Duck Hunt) and at certain points in the movie will need to shoot the aliens on the screen. Simple infrared light sensors behind the screen will trigger the different projectors upstairs to show either a successful or a failure scene ending. Gimmicky? Yes. Worse than the current 3D craze? Eh, make the movie a decent parody on it's own source material, and I'd go see it at least twice to see how it was different based on successful shooting(s) or not. That's twice more than I'm seeing 3D stuff these days.

*stands up tentatively*
"Hi, my name is Mike and I'm a disenfranchised video gamer."
[rest of room, which is packed] "Hi Mike."

I've played my share of FPS and deathmatch multiplayer. It was super fun at the time, but I was never good enough to be competitive at it. The general attitude of the players now is not something I want to associate with. I only want to have fun, they seem to want to lock horns and piss in each other's faces to establish some kind of online social order of dominance. The third person ensemble piece games (Mass Effect, Dragon's Age) are fun, but I've exhausted nearly everything novel out of them. Minecraft enjoyed a big mind share for a while, and I'll likely return to that quite often like an old friend, but it doesn't capture my attention much anymore. Popcap games are fun for a 30 minute diversion, but have no holding power.

The one genre I really REALLY enjoyed, the Splinter Cell series, was killed by their masters and the overzealous DRM releases. Sigh. I've tried to pick up and enjoy Metal Gear Solid games, but it just isn't the same. What I need to do is get really drunk and try again, wipe the brain pan of any coherent memories of Splinter Cell to give Metal a solid shake (double pun intended).

I'll play Mass Effect 3 when it comes out and I have really low expectations, so I'm hoping to be surprised there. Diablo 3 looks too much like an isometric version of World of Warcraft for me to get excited about it anymore, that and Battle.net isn't my idea of a good thing at all. Games used to be about connecting gamers together to play games. Now everything has to be "social" while I broadcast my gaming habits to the world. That and Mr. Bobby Kotick pisses me off just on principle.

"Shit," I say with sudden realization, "I finally grew up."
*sits down*