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Comment: Re:Excellent; (Score 1) 362

by theJML (#42466317) Attached to: Canada To Stop Producing Pennies In 2013

This is an interesting part. I've noticed recently there have been more and more places where the Cash price differs from the Credit price. It used to be this way growing up, and they're going back to it because of all the problems and costs associated with Credit. And yes, it's Cheaper to pay with Cash. (a few gas stations here charge 10 cents or more per gallon for credit over cash transactions.)

Comment: Re:The problem with FOSS office suites (Score 1) 266

by theJML (#41693193) Attached to: OpenOffice Is Now, Officially, Apache OpenOffice

I've got the same background and needs... and I've found more and more that Google Docs seems to work pretty well 98% of the time. It keeps getting better and better and for most interoffice stuff just works. Sometimes it hits a macro or something that it doesn't get and I have to download it, but the last time I did that was about 2 years ago (and it's improved a lot since then anyway).

I'm quite happy that I'll be able to completely ditch office software installs soon.

(Disclaimer, we have gmail for business here so if you open anything from the webmail client, it does it through Google Docs.)

Google

+ - Google Ireland goes down - possible nameserver hijack->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "A hack of Google's account at the Irish Domain Registry (IEDR) is being named as the likely culprit, for the Irish edition of the search engine having its name server record updated to point to an Indonesian server earlier today.

Thousands of Irish internet users were left without access to Google, as a result of the apparent hack.

Sophos security experts said it was an unclear whether the fault lay with the IEDR or MarkMonitor, or whether a Google employee had had their credentials stolen."

Link to Original Source
Businesses

+ - Apple Quietly Releases New iPods-> 1

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes "At the company's media event last month, Apple introduced its fifth-generation iPod Touch and seventh-generation iPod Nano, but only mentioned an October timeframe for when it would start filling pre-orders. Without an official word, it looks like the official launch day for the new iPods is today. Apple Stores around the country are currently stocked with the new iPods and customers who pre-ordered are finally receiving email notifications that their orders have shipped, or are "preparing to ship." Still, it is interesting to note that Apple didn't make a special announcement or even post a press release to announce the launch of its newest media players, especially as the competition heats up before the holiday season."
Link to Original Source

+ - Russian officials are considering a plan to ban children from using WiFi-> 1

Submitted by dsinc
dsinc writes "The Communications and Press Ministry has proposed banning children from using Wi-Fi networks in public, potentially making cafes, restaurants and other locations providing the service responsible for enforcing the law.

An official with the ministry’s Federal Mass Media Inspection Service, known as Roskomnadzor, said the ban should apply to people under 18 years old.

Locations providing Wi-Fi access would be held legally responsible for implementing the rule, and failing to meet the proposed measure would result in a fine ranging from 20,000 rubles to 50,000 rubles ($640 to $1,600), Vedomosti reported Thursday."

Link to Original Source
Operating Systems

+ - OS upgrades powered by Git->

Submitted by JamieKitson
JamieKitson writes "The latest Webconverger 15 release is the first Linux distribution to be automagically updatable from a Github repository. The chroot of the OS is kept natively in git's format and fuse mounted with git-fs. Webconverger fulfills the Web kiosk use case, using Firefox and competes indirectly with Google Chrome OS. Chrome OS also has an autoupdate feature, however not as powerful, unified & transparent as when simply using git. bod"
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Comment: Re:But that's not the real problem. (Score 1) 1651

by theJML (#41596027) Attached to: To Encourage Biking, Lose the Helmets

Except that kids are much more likely to think nothing of wearing a helmet if the parents with them are also wearing helmets. My 2yo likes to wear hers, but only if we're wearing ours. It just becomes something you do as part of the activity. Just as much as wearing seat belts while in a car. If I put her in a normal car seat just to put her down to grab something while we're getting in the car, she starts saying "No, Dad! No, no, no, no..." until I put her in her seat and buckle her in. She's not used to a regular seat, and she's not used to biking without a helmet.

I was always brought up to wear a seat belt when I'm in a car, and if I don't now (like on a bus where there isn't one, or if I have to pull my car up the driveway a few feet to work on it) I just feel really weird not having it.

Canada

+ - Can Google base ads on e-mails sent to Gmail accounts?->

Submitted by
concealment
concealment writes "A new lawsuit targets Google for reading e-mails to target ads, according to TechCrunch. But the issue isn't that Google is reading e-mails from registered users; rather, the company is using e-mails sent from other services to Google users to target ads as well.

Google has gotten the side-eye a few times in the past for using e-mail content to serve context-based ads to its Gmail users. And for those Gmail users, Google's hide is covered: the terms of service explicitly state that users' e-mail content determines what ads they see."

Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:HUGE DECLINE (Score 4, Insightful) 222

by theJML (#41330759) Attached to: Is iPhone Battery Usefulness On the Decline?

My 4S is definitely better than my 3G was, but then it was 3 years old when I traded up. I still get a days worth on either. The catch is that the 4S is so much faster and generally more useful that I end up doing more battery sucking things with it just because. It's smooth and does great transferring real time maps with GPS while streaming Pandora in the background, even over AT&T "4G".

If I leave both on the table and mostly ignore them for the day, the 4S gives me more battery life than the 3G ever did.
If I actually use them as I usually would have, the 4S loses... but I find I actually use it A LOT MORE. When I first got it I found myself thinking "Man, the battery life sucks on this" but then I realized I was bascially using it non-stop. Once I got over the "OMG NEW-SHINY" period, it's on par with what the 3G was.

In short, I think the batteries Have improved, but we now expect our phones to do more, and have found more and more ways to use them more on a more regular basis. We cram more powerful AND power hungry chips in the same package and then get annoied and act surprised when it doesn't last as long as the older ones did.

The same thing has happened to laptops... and because this is slashdot, cars. I mean, I remember in the 80's and early 90's when we had little civic hatchbacks that got 55+ MPG. Why don't we have that now? because the civic is huge in comparison, weighs almost twice as much (the old 90 DX was literally 1 ton), has A/C, power everything, huge beams and airbags for safety, etc. And everyone thinks we should have more MPG by now. Yeah. We should, except you wanted all this other crap in there too.

Comment: Failure? (Score 4, Interesting) 111

by theJML (#40789557) Attached to: Face To Face With the 'Human Barcode'

We have fingerprint readers here. Sometimes, they don't recognize my finger. It's still my finger, but there's nothing i can do to convince it it's me, so I'm stuck and can't do my job until it decides to let me in. Face recognition is the same way. There's no way I can change my face, or alter my fingerprint to make it work, so I basically am just screwed. If there's any chance of that with this, there's no way I want it.

Comment: Don't have anyone else there. (Score 4, Interesting) 480

by theJML (#39407833) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Are Your Tips For Working From Home?

Seriously, don't have a significant other or children at home. It's my biggest hurdle. I used to be all about working from home, but trying it after having a daughter means "Daddy's trying to do work" turns into "Yay! Daddy's Home!!! Let's bug him ALL DAY!".

If I got a job that required working from home, I'd probably build a small shed in the backyard with insulation, power, and ethernet and just work out there so they're less likely to bust in every 5 minutes or be screaming down the hall or whatever.

Comment: Re:"Apple should have spoken up sooner..." (Score 1) 315

by theJML (#37939788) Attached to: Apple Acknowledges iPhone 4S Battery Problems

Why? I don't see a reason behind it. Sure it'd have been NICE if they spoke up sooner, but perhaps they didn't duplicate this glitch in the lab until now. I know personally I have no problem with the battery on my iPhone4S or iPad2 both running iOS5. You ever take your car to the dealer for a problem and have them not duplicate it, same deal.

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