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Comment Re:He Won! (Score 1) 467

Chip off a corner of the Scantron sheet (ensure correct orientation), then, for the visually impaired, distribute a plastic mask/stencil along with the sheet. On that mask, include the candidate names in braille, each next to a hole through which you can directly write onto the sheet.
Such masks are easily available with holes for each line (instead of small holes and braille). Adapting them is trivial. If cost is an issue, replace the candidate name on the stencil with numbers, throw in an instruction sheet in braille with the name and number of each candidate and you can reuse the stencil.
Write-ins are slightly more complicated if the voter is unable to write by hand. But at that point, expecting a trusted person to help doesn't seem too over-boarding to me.

Comment Re:Fake ID? (Score 1) 615

In most of the western world, prepaid SIMs have only been sold to users with some sort of proper ID for a couple of years now. I'm fairly sure this is mandated through the whole EU. Most countries even have some sort of nationwide identification cards, which tend to be the single or one of very few ways to, well, prove your identity.

Comment Opera on Android: been there, done that. (Score 1) 170

Opera Mini (5 beta, available from the market) can make use of Opera Link, keeping bookmarks and co. in sync through all desktop and mobile instances configured for the same user.

In addition to what Fx and Fx Home do, it also includes a fast rendering engine, better UI, snappier JavaScript, a better developer console, an awesomer bar and a bunch of other stuff. With alternatives like Chrome and Opera, when can we finally put that XULly abomination to rest?

Comment Re:Don't worry (Score 5, Informative) 175

That's just the User-Agent string. The actual fingerprint consists of that and a big bunch of other headers your browser sends out with each request. Language, preferred encoding, plugins; screen resolution, your installed fonts and so on.Changing your standard browser's user-agent to something like you quoted above is a surefire way to be even more unique.
Check the panopticlick page for your details. Keep in mind their "bits of identifying information" only apply to a single header. A bit of work and identifying over all of these fields is easily done. Throw in a bit of extra work and users can be singled out even after they change one or two of 'em.
Summing all the lines together, I can get some 70 bits of identifying info out of my (almost worst-case) setup: Ubuntu 9.10 running a snapshot of Opera 10.54 with a couple of extra fonts and a weird screen resolution.Cut away user-agent and plugins and we're still at some 35, more than IPv4 addresses out there.

The Military

Submission + - Critics Say US Antimissle Defense Flawed, Dangerou

Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that President Obama’s plans for reducing America’s nuclear arsenal and defeating Iran’s missiles rely heavily on a new generation of antimissile defenses which last year he called “proven and effective," but now a new analysis being published by two antimissile critics at MIT and Cornell, casts doubt on the reliability of the a rocket-powered interceptor known as the SM-3. The Pentagon asserts that the SM-3, or Standard Missile 3, had intercepted 84 percent of incoming targets in tests but a re-examination of results from 10 of those apparently successful tests by Theodore A. Postol and George N. Lewis, finds only one or two successful intercepts — for a success rate of 10 to 20 percent. Most of the approaching warheads, they say, would have been knocked off course but not destroyed and while that might work against a conventionally armed missile, it suggests that a nuclear warhead might still detonate. “The system is highly fragile and brittle and will intercept warheads only by accident, if ever,” says Dr. Postol, a former Pentagon science adviser who forcefully criticized the performance of the Patriot antimissile system in the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Dr. Postol says the SM-3 interceptor must shatter the warhead directly, and public statements of the Pentagon agency seem to suggest that it agrees. In combat, the scientists added, “the warhead would have not been destroyed, but would have continued toward the target" causing a warhead to fall short or give it an added nudge, with the exact site of the weapon’s impact uncertain. “It matters if it’s Wall Street or Brooklyn,” says Postol, “but we won’t know in advance.”"
Security

Submission + - Mobile 'Remote Wipe' Thwarts Secret Service (zdnet.com.au)

bennyboy64 writes: Smartphones that offer the ability to 'remote wipe' are great for when your device goes missing and you want to delete your data so that someone else can't look at it, but not so great for the United States Secret Service, ZDNet reports. The ability to 'remote wipe' some smartphones such as BlackBerry and iPhone was causing havoc for law enforcement agencies, according to USSS special agent Andy Kearns, speaking on mobile phone forensics at a security conference in Australia.
Games

Submission + - Steam on a retail DVD PC Game?

jitterman writes: I purchased "Metro 2033" for Windows yesterday. After thinking about downloading it from a disreputable source, I decided, "No, I want PC gaming to thrive." So, I went to my local retailer, put down $49.95 plus tax, came home, and installed... Steam. Right off the disc. Which then began the download process to install the game on my machine. Now, there were .sid files on the disc, but I couldn't determine if there was a way for Steam to use them to "restore" the game to my system.

I have no issue with Steam itself, but if I had wanted to buy the game this way, I would have done that in the first place. If I had know that THIS was how a supposed DVD of this title was going to work, my choice between "purchase/pirate" might have been different. As it is, I did find a nice Razor1911 copy of the game to actually use should I ever have to reinstall from scratch. Yes, I still had to download the iso, but at least now I *have* it. I suppose the upside is that I did support PC gaming with my money.

Comments? Criticisms (both of me and/or of the Steam situation)? Similar anecdotes?

Submission + - Google Chrome Incognito Tracks Visited Sites (lewiz.org)

wiplash writes: Google Chrome appears to store at least some information related to, and including, the sites that you have visited when browsing in Incognito mode. Lewis Thompson outlines a set of steps you can follow to confirm whether you are affected. He has apparently reported this to Google, but no response has yet been received.

Submission + - Trademark attack on Open Source project

jfbilodeau writes: I've been contributing and releasing open-source projects for a number of years now, and managed to stay (mostly) clear of conflict. One of my projects BSOD(roid) have been available on the Android Market for nearly a year. Last night, I've received a email asking me to rename my product because it infringes on the trademark ROID. This trademark has been filled nearly six month after my project was on the market. The two projects are completely unrelated and do not compete. Renaming the project is not the issue here. Responding to mindless corporate bullying is. I'm curious to know if this happened to other slashdotter and what suggestions you may have.

Comment Re:3d helmet. (Score 1) 138

Some time ago, there was a university experiment combining a high-resolution (centered) display with a large-surface but low-res projection, for peripheral vision. Never heard of it again, so apparently it wasn't that successful. IIRC, the high-res part was fixed, though.
Small 1080p displays should be available, there's plenty of LCD projectors. Possibly not in an inch, probably not too cheap.

Comment Re:Hell Yes (Score 1) 138

Actually, one of these plus a 20" portrait (1200x1600) screen to it's left and right is a fair bit more awesome than just the 30" display. Since, if you're doing that, you probably run two video cards anyways: throw in a 1080p projector, just in case of wanting to watch a movie in bed or something. Ten million pixels. Fun!

Comment Re:My 2 cents (Score 1) 609

The theoretical limit of a DS1010+ and a DX510 (which is the only Synology offering in the 20 TB range) is actually 16 TB due to them using ext3. With 2 TB drives the best you can actually get are 14.5 TB with RAID-6 or RAID-5+Hotspare. Spanning a RAID-5 over all disks would result in a volume slightly larger than 16 TB, which will not work. I've tried it.
Still, 14.5 TB is pretty much okay in my book. If you actually do need more, build a Backblaze pod (same price league as two DS1010+ with a DX510 ea.; more then double the drives of that) or be spendy and get an X4500 (related as far as the number of drives goes. A completely different class in all other aspects.)

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