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Comment Oh you sweet summer child... (Score 1) 8

"I think they're just cool, there's something authentic about having DVDs," he says. "These things are generations old, it's nice to have them available."

First, although the DVD was developed in 1995 it wasn't a mainstream thing until at least 2000. So it's just a bit more than one generation old. If this young man loves DVDs, he'd probably pass out from joy over VHS tapes. And wait until he sees his first pair of rabbit ears and finds out what THEY were for...

All humour aside, this retro media and electronics movement pleases me. I'm pretty sure it's just a fad; but even so, a connection with and awareness of how things used to be can give one a valuable perspective on more modern ways of doing things.

I'm also very happy at this guy's realization that "It's nice to have something you own instead of paying for subscriptions all the time". If that sentiment ever takes root and becomes popular again, the broligarchs could be in for a rough time - and the harder things are for them, the better they are for the rest of us.

Comment Re:So what's the actual advantage to this? (Score 1) 5

Bookkeeping?

I mean, both Mac App Store packages and Flatpaks are already self-contained... so there's no dependency management you have to think about with those "apps". And WSL already supports numerous Linux distros, each of which already has its own package manager (e.g. dnf, apt).

FTA: "For those times when you need to install many software packages at once, like when setting up a new PC or virtual machine, you can create a Brewfile with a list of packages and run it with the 'brew bundle' command. However, the Brewfile isn't limited to just Homebrew packages. You can also use it to install Mac App Store apps, graphical apps through Casks, Visual Studio Code extensions, and Go language packages.

So it seems that Homebrew streamlines the process of installing a specified set of programs - especially a mix of APT packages and Flatpacks - on multiple machines, both real and/or virtual. That could also be done with a BASH script, but as TFA points out BASH isn't always available or up-to-date.

The article doesn't mention Snaps or AppImages - I wonder if Homebrew can handle those as well.

Comment As if! (Score 2) 27

Now you can just pop up a movie — no trailers! — with the click of a remote.

In the first place, trailers - which play before the movie, are a feature, not a bug.

In the second place, streamed movies can be interrupted by ads - and I'm not talking about mere product placement. So when it comes to streaming - no, fuck you very much.

Comment Re:Not going to happen anytime soon (Score 1) 116

It's too easy and they refuse to change.

It's not just "easy". Fax is as secure as the phone network we pretend is secure, so if you act on a fax which appears to come from a specific phone number then you have some level of legal protection from liability. If you use a website or email then you are only as protected from liability as your identity verification system.

My monthly bank payments are electronic, but a few don't have bank account destinations, so it gets done via the bank's paper check service.

If I need to deposit a check, I take a photo of it with my cellphone using the bank's app and it gets processed just fine. The MICR font is highly OCRable, so as long as what else is written/printed on it is legible, everything works well. Even if a human has to review it because it was handwritten, they will only have to briefly glance at most checks. The only thing I actually write checks for any more is my rent. The paper check costs me very little and they cost nothing to deposit on the other end. I think the landlord is depositing them in person, because they seem to do them two or so at a time.

Comment Re:I still write about 15 checks a year... (Score 1) 116

E.g. Create a system to digitally scan a shared thing describing a transfer, but instead of using a standard QR code, keep using cheques.

You appear to have not read anything above your comment. I can't do a QR code by hand. I need a printer to produce one. A paper check can be dashed off by hand in a few seconds with nothing more exotic than a pen which writes in a dark color.

Or Adopt a system that finally eliminates the use of unsecured magnetic stripes on credit cards, but then keep the completely unsecure signature for verification.

We haven't even eliminated magstrips. We still have them around for backup. An attacker can disable a chip reader by making a special card that applies epoxy to the contacts when it's inserted, which you can do with e.g. a dremel, forcing subsequent users to fall back to the strip.

It's like a competition to see how close they can get to a good idea while still fucking up the implementation.

That's the US for you. Electoral college, scotus with no term limits, yada yada.

Comment Re:Payroll checks are still a thing in small biz (Score 1) 116

I get the impression that a company like ADP requires that an employer employ at least some minimum number of employees in an area. Otherwise, ADP appears to fall back to printing paper checks for the employer to mail. I don't know the specifics; I just know that I got ADP paper at one job after a bunch of layoffs, and I got ADP paper when I was the only remote worker in a particular state.

Comment I wonder... (Score 4, Interesting) 11

TFA doesn't mention this; but if PN junctions in this new material have the same 300mV forward voltage drop that regular germanium diodes and transistors have, then that will contribute a bit to the speed. I think it should also reduce power consumption by a non-trivial amount - perhaps by a factor of two when compared with regular silicon junctions.

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