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Comment Re:Best Buy, not the best at all (Score 1) 248

by sporkme (#31607518) Attached to: Best Buy Offers Bogus "3D Sync" Service
When I worked as a tech for an independent computer shop, we constantly got people coming in bitching about how Best Buy Geek Squad had ripped them off, failed to fix their problem or made the problem worse. The most amusing case was when some mouth breather over there snapped off a clip from the heat sink retainer. Instead of ordering a replacement retainer (or buying it used from me for five bucks) he used 20 bucks worth of thermal compound in an attempt to glue the sink to the processor die.

I am pretty sure this was socket A (image):
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/84/picture053z.jpg

We opted to order a new mobo, CPU and cooler new from the manufacturer, even though we had plenty of spares. Having billed Best Buy several times the value of the system for parts and labor, we built the customer a new system at cost plus 5% or 10%.

After the computer shop closed, I applied for a position at Geek Squad for interim employment. I was rejected on grounds that I was overqualified. What an operation.

Comment Fairtax baby! (Score 1) 347

by sporkme (#26504299) Attached to: GAO Reports Bailout and Tech Firms Love Tax Havens
If we were to enact the FairTax plan, all of this money going overseas and all of the money roosting overseas will come right back into our economy where it belongs.

The FairTax repeals the 16th amendment

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

...and nukes other earnings-based taxation schemes and replaces it with a simple prorated sales tax structure. If you wish to pay NO taxes, you may do so by purchasing new goods up to the poverty level (as determined by the census bureau) and used goods (which would not be taxed). The tax rate is controlled by the voters directly under this plan, in that the policies of the elected are directly visible at the cash registers of the electors.

Every legal US citizen is regularly refunded the value of retail taxation--weekly, biweekly, monthly, annually, given to charity--whatever, using the existing systems of social security, welfare and unemployment, etc.

In addition to the elimination of all income taxation, gains taxes are also nuked. This is a major stumble for many, but remember that these wealth holders make major purchases of new goods, which are taxed at the FairTax rate.

The current ballpark is $13,600,000,000,000, trillion with a T, are hiding from taxation overseas. With the FairTax, these thirteen trillion dollars come back home to work for us.

You pay no income taxes. You take home 100% of what you earn. You have more control over your federal government. You pay a 23% tax on new goods up to the poverty line, but the MASSIVE supply-side taxation cost is eliminated from those goods, meaning the price after FairTax is the same. The economy booms because every-friggin-corporation opens up shop in the new tax utopia. Jobs are plentiful.

Don't believe me! Read for yourself!

Comment WTFPOST (Score 3, Interesting) 632

by sporkme (#25091027) Attached to: YouTube Bans Gun and Knife Videos In the UK
The link in the article leads to a Slashdot 404. Wtf

The link is this

What a noodle-spined move on the part of Google! If only UN language were so effective on the rogue nations of the world!

"I would like to see other internet service providers follow suit to reinforce our message that violence will not be tolerated either on the internet or in the real world," said Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who has also stated that police should restrict photography by citizens. Indeed, why not suppress free speech in in all ways in Britain and in the rest of the world, you dunce? It would certainly decrease violence!

The hysterical myths about computer game violence have in many cases been debunked, as recently discussed, and why are YouTube videos any different? Movies, games and books which incite dissent are next on the worldwide chopping block, folks! To see Google assume the position on this debate, which includes no specific legislation, is a grim forecast on government intervening in our daily lives with their friendly companies on Politically Correct leashes opening our bedroom doors for them.

The cheeky bastards.
Robotics

Submission + - Robotic Telescope Installed on Antarctica Plateau

Submitted by
Reservoir Hill
Reservoir Hill writes: "Antarctica claims some of the best astronomical sky conditions in the world — devoid of clouds with steady air that makes for clear viewing — that unfortunately lie deep in the interior on a high-altitude plateau called Dome A with an elevation up to 4,093m known as the most unapproachable point in the earth's southernmost region. Now astronomers in a Chinese scientific expedition have set up an experimental observatory at Dome A after lugging their equipment across Antarctica with the help of Australia and the US. The observatory will hunt for alien planets, while also measuring the observing conditions at the site to see if it is worth trying to build bigger observatories there. The observatory is automated, pointing its telescopes on its own while astronomers monitor its progress from other locations around the world via satellite link. PLATO is powered by a gas generator, and has a 4000-litre tank of jet fuel to keep it running through the winter. The observatory will search for planets around other stars using an array of four 14.5-centimetre telescopes called the Chinese Small Telescope Array (CSTAR). Astronomers hope to return in 2009 with new instruments, including the Antarctica Schmidt Telescopes (AST-3), a trio of telescopes with 0.5-metre mirrors, which will be more sensitive to planets than CSTAR."
Biotech

Submission + - Snortable Drug Keeps Monkeys Awake

Submitted by sporkme
sporkme writes: A DARPA-funded research project at UCLA has wrapped up a set of animal trials testing the effects of inhalation of the brain chemical orexin A, a deficiency of which is a characteristic of narcolepsy. From the article:

The monkeys were deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours and then given either orexin A or a saline placebo before taking standard cognitive tests. The monkeys given orexin A in a nasal spray scored about the same as alert monkeys, while the saline-control group was severely impaired. The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys' cognitive abilities but made their brains look "awake" in PET scans. Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is "specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness" without other impacts on the brain.
Researchers seem cautious to bill the treatment as a replacement for sleep, as it is not clear that adjusting brain chemistry could have the same physical benefits of real sleep in the long run. The drug is aimed at replacing amphetamines used by drowsy long-haul military pilots, but there would no doubt be large demand for such a remedy thanks to its apparent lack of side-effects.
Data Storage

Submission + - Disk drive failures 15 times what vendors say

Submitted by
jcatcw
jcatcw writes: "A Carnegie Mellon University study indicates that customers are replacing disk drives more frequently than vendor estimates of mean time to failure (MTTF) would require.. The study examined large production systems, including high-performance computing sites and Internet services sites running SCSI, FC and SATA drives. The data sheets for the drives indicated MTTF between 1 and 1.5 million hours. That should mean annual failure rates of 0.88%, annual replacement rates were between 2% and 4%. The study also shows no evidence that Fibre Channel drives are any more reliable than SATA drives."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Reflectivity Reaches a New Low

Submitted by
sporkme
sporkme writes: "A new nanocoating material developed by a team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has the lowest level of reflectivity ever seen, or not seen in this case. The amount of light reflected by the composite of silica nanorods and aluminum nitride is almost the same amount reflected by air. From the article:

Schubert and his coworkers have created a material with a refractive index of 1.05, which is extremely close to the refractive index of air and the lowest ever reported. Window glass, for comparison, has a refractive index of about 1.45.
. . .
Using a technique called oblique angle deposition, the researchers deposited silica nanorods at an angle of precisely 45 degrees on top of a thin film of aluminum nitride, which is a semiconducting material used in advanced light-emitting diodes (LEDs). From the side, the films look much like the cross section of a piece of lawn turf with the blades slightly flattened.
Suggested applications include increased efficiency in solar cells, more energy-efficient lighting and advances in quantum mechanics. No word yet on invisibility cloaks."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Amazing Cancer Drug Found; Scientist Annoyed.

Submitted by
sporkme
sporkme writes: "A scientist was frustrated when the compound she was working with destroyed her sample of cancer cells. Further research revealed that the substance was surprisingly well suited as a cancer treatment. From the article:

"I made a calculation error and used a lot more than I should have. And my cells died," Schaefer said. A colleague overheard her complaining. "The co-author on my paper said,' Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?' I said 'Oh', and took a closer look." They ran several tests and found the compound killed "pretty much every epithelial tumor cell lines we have seen."
Lab test results on hapless mice have resulted in the destruction of colon tumors without making the mice sick. The PPAR-gamma compound is expected to be especially useful in combating treatment-resistant types of cancer."
Communications

Submission + - Text Messaging Device for the hearing impaired

Submitted by spaceball1
spaceball1 writes: I was in the army and I did serve in Iraq — one of the side effects being some permanent hearing loss. I now wear hearing aids all of the time in both ears. Talking on a cell phone has become nearly impossible. I have considered moving to a device more geared towards text messaging but they are all very expensive and have a lot of the features that a cell phone user needs. Are there any devices out there that anyone has found that are geared only towards simple text messaging? The No-Frills-Cell-Phone concept has been largely ignored in the US; does a No-Frills-Text-Messaging device exist?
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Amazon asserts right to adjust prices after sale

Submitted by An anonymous reader
An anonymous reader writes: On December 23, Amazon advertised a "buy one get one free" sale on DVD boxsets, but did not test the promotion before going live. When anyone placed two boxsets in their cart, the website gave a double discount — so the "grand total" shown (before order submission) was $0.00 or something very small. Despite terms stating that Amazon checks order prices before shipping, Amazon shipped the vast majority of orders. Five days later (December 28), after orders had been received and presumably opened, Amazon emailed customers advising them to return the boxsets unopened or customers' credit cards would be charged an additional amount. (You can read more threads about this here and here.) Starting yesterday, Amazon has been (re)charging credit cards, often without authorization. On Amazon's side, they didn't advertise any double discount, and the free or nearly-free boxsets must have cost them a mint. But with Amazon continually giving unadvertised discounts that seem to be errors, is "return the merchandise or be charged" the new way that price glitches will be handled?
Media (Apple)

Submission + - DVD jon on Job's "give up DRM if I could"

Submitted by
Whiney Mac Fanboy
Whiney Mac Fanboy writes: ""Dvd" Jon Johansen has posted several sceptical blog entries reacting to Steve Job's blog posting about DRM. One post questions Job's misuse of statistics that attempts to prove consumers aren't tied to iPods through ITMS.

Many iPod owners have never bought anything from the iTunes Store. Some have bought hundreds of songs. Some have bought thousands. At the 2004 Macworld Expo, Steve revealed that one customer had bought $29,500 worth of music.
The other question's the DRM-free in a heartbeat claim. There are apparantly, many Indie artists who would love to sell DRM-free music on iTunes, but Apple will not allow them.

It should not take Apple's iTunes team more than 2-3 days to implement a solution for not wrapping content with FairPlay when the content owner does not mandate DRM. This could be done in a completely transparent way and would not be confusing to the users.
"
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Half-Life 2: Episode 2 delayed to end 2007

Submitted by
Wowzer
Wowzer writes: "EA and Valve today announced the naming and product configurations of Half-Life 2's The Black Box and The Orange Box, while at the same time confirming another worldwide release date delay from summer 2007 to winter 2007. From the article: "The Black Box will ship for the PC, and includes Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2. The Orange Box will ship for the PC, PS3 & Xbox 360, and includes all the content of The Black Box, plus the original Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One." If you thought the delay was the only bad news, then artwork fans haven't seen the ugly new boxart yet."
Privacy

Submission + - Senate introduces strong privacy bill

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "US Senators yesterday introduced a bill that better protects the privacy of citizens' personal information in the face of data security breaches across the country. Key features of the bipartisan legislation include increasing criminal penalties for identity theft involving electronic personal data and making it a crime to intentionally or willfully conceal a security breach involving personal data, giving individuals access to, and the opportunity to correct, any personal information held by commercial data brokers, requiring entities that maintain personal data to establish internal policies that protect the personal data of Americans, requiring entities that maintain personal data to give notice to individuals and law enforcement when they experience a breach involving sensitive personal data and requiring the government to establish rules protecting privacy and security when it uses information from commercial data brokers, to conduct audits of government contracts with data brokers and impose penalties on government contractors that fail to meet data privacy and security requirements."

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