Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:The quality doesn't matter (Score 1) 249

Ditto. I have to wear headphones for any device in order to hear audio well enough to appreciate music and lyrics or voice. Right now I'm listening to my laptop and it sounds the same as my tablet, ipod and the FM transmitter I use for watching TV. My headphones were very inexpensive at Newegg (~$16.00, if I remember correctly), but they can be "connected" to anything through the FM transmitter which uses rca cables (such as for a TV) or directly to a device (tablet, laptop) with a single audio cable and the sound is good enough, and much better than infra-red headphones.

Comment Re:It's my birthday soon! (Score 4, Insightful) 286

Retired at the grand old age of 53. I didn't have to but I'd been working since I was a kid so I felt I deserved some time off. Did a couple more years since and then quit for good. Delivered newspapers from age 10, worked in the surfboard business (Velzy & Jacobs) from 13-18 y.o., big ocean lifeguard for 5 years, 5 years of military, university, 24 years in the fire service and finally a couple years as a warehouseman in my mid 60's. Health wise, I had been an endurance athlete most of my life and was a competitive surfer, swimmer, runner and cyclist. Around age 67 I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (common in endurance athletes) and an enlarged heart but I tolerated it okay. Few weeks shy of my 70th now and just had my second cardioversion so back in a normal heart rhythm for the time being. Still walk about 4 miles every morning and keep busy otherwise. Best upside to all this: I've lived to hug my great-grandson and tell him I love him.

Comment Re:A joke? (Score 1) 647

" I felt like I was back in '98 having to edit the fucking kernel just to get printing or sound to work." I suppose I could have made that sentence clearer. I haven't even considered editing the kernel in the last 14 years and did not do so in this instance.

Comment Re:A joke? (Score 1) 647

Been using Debian for the last 16 years and always loved it. After my laptop died this year, I got a new one, scraped win 8.1 off it and installed the latest Deb and absolutely nothing worked, nothing. I felt like I was back in '98 having to edit the fucking kernel just to get printing or sound to work. That was not where I expected Debian to be 16 years later. I was really pissed and felt kind of betrayed by something I really cared about. I'm a 70 y.o. heart patient now and I just decided I didn't need that shit and stress. I put windows 8.1 back on, configured it to look and act like win 7, added all the open source software we all know and love (LibreOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, GIMP, Qbit, learned PowerShell) and haven't looked back. I miss Debian a lot but I'm done.
Software

After a Long wait, GNU Screen Gets Refreshed 77

New submitter jostber (304257) writes "It's been a long wait, but now GNU Screen, the most useful CLI windows manager around, is available. Version 4.2.1 was released a couple of days ago and the maintainer's release news is here." There are fewer commits than you might expect for software that's had six years since its last major update, but that could be because the developers have had 23 years to knock out the major bugs.

Comment Consider WD TV Play (Score 4, Informative) 165

I'm a great-grandfather so I suppose I'd qualify as 'elderly', though I have no idea what that word means and I don't like it. I have several streaming devices but only one that I'd recommend for people of any age who are technically challenged and that's the WD (Western Digital) TV Play. Much like the Roku and Apple TV, the WD is small, easy to set up and less expensive than the Roku and Apple; a big plus for us 'elderly' on fixed incomes. I'm currently using it on an older HD TV and it has never given me any problems and doesn't do any weird shit on its own; like my streaming blu ray player does. Oh, and did I tell you it runs imbedded Linux? How could you possibly go wrong?
User Journal

Journal Journal: Time moves on 1

[just some thoughts, I'll clean up later]
Well, it has been four years since my wife passed away. Still miss her so much. I am back on my feet financially after living paycheck to paycheck for a while. dying ain't cheap. Surprising how much effort it takes to keep a household, yard and family going and it often seem I have no time for myself.

Comment The Easy Way (Score 1) 147

With Debian, android and Windows 7 machines, the cable cut and Tier II Internet (2 up, 20 down Mbps) in the house I simply use streaming devices for my TV's: Samsung wifi blu ray player for the big TV and a nice little WD Play TV device for my bedroom TV. Simple, inexpensive and fewer hassles.

Slashdot Top Deals

As long as we're going to reinvent the wheel again, we might as well try making it round this time. - Mike Dennison

Working...