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Comment No account data's 100% CONSISTENT; most 97% TRUE (Score 0) 309

by AmazingChicken (#31800646) Attached to: How Truthful Are You When Creating Web Accounts?

I have my virtual dna all over the place. I try to format user data differently in different text fields, using puncs, caps, and nums. One anomaly per account is good. Helps with things like mass mailings, "government" communications via e-mail, etc. - not that there are fewer, but at least I know whom to thank.

It is surprising how many places don't normalize the data input in text fields, no matter how persnickety the validation for country and/or postal codes.

Comment Just 'trying to support those people on the go' (Score 0) 494

by AmazingChicken (#31495994) Attached to: Deposit Checks To Your Bank By Taking a Photo
I use checks, but I wish I didn't have to. Some places - school portrait companies, fund-raising efforts - demand checks to minimize 'leakage' of payment en route to the counting room; some state registries still require them for licenses and registrations; probably to avoid the fees the credit cards charge.

I wrote a check last Fall that was imaged imperfectly by a company that scans (and destroys) checks. As described above.

The company got paid when by my bank, but the bad image prevented reconciling the transaction. They sent my account to collections, and nasty letters started coming. The imaging fail rate is lower than their payment default rate, so from their POV I was trying to skip on a $34.00 bill. Everyone sounded suspicious and pissed as I tried to clear it up.

It took about a week to figure out what happened, and to get them to admit they'd been paid They were even grumpy when I asked them to call off the collectors. So I agree, checks have jumped the shark. If the banks stopped issuing them, I'd be happy.
NASA

The Difficulty of Dismantling Constellation 200

Posted by Soulskill from the contract-termination-fees-are-out-of-this-world dept.
Last month, we discussed news that President Obama's 2011 budget proposal did not include plans to continue NASA's Constellation program, choosing instead to focus on establishing a stronger foundation for low earth orbit operations. Unfortunately, as government officials prepare to shut down Constellation, they're warning that it won't be a quick or simple process due to the contracts involved. From the Orlando Sentinel: "Obama's 2011 budget proposal provides $2.5 billion to pay contractors whatever NASA owes them so the agency can stop work on Constellation's Ares rockets, Orion capsule and Altair lunar lander. But administration officials acknowledge that this number is, at best, an educated guess. ... Many inside and outside of the space agency, however, think the number is too low. The agency has signed more than $10 billion worth of contracts to design, test and build the Ares I rocket and Orion capsule that were the heart of Constellation. But government auditors said last year that the costs of some of those contracts had swelled by $3 billion since 2007 because of design changes, technical problems and schedule slips. How much NASA will owe on all those contracts if the plug gets pulled is unclear. Many of the deals are called 'undefinitized contracts,' meaning that the terms, conditions — and price — had not been set before NASA ordered the work to start. That means the agency will need to negotiate a buyout with the contractor — and that can be a long and painful process, according to government officials familiar with the cancellation process."
Piracy

The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work 1027

Posted by Soulskill from the an-opposing-arrrrrgument dept.
spidweb writes "Much virtual ink has been spilled over Ubisoft's new, harsh DRM system for Assassin's Creed 2. You must have a constant internet connection, and, if your connection breaks, the game exits. While this has angered many (and justifiably so), most writers on the topic have made an error. They think that this system, like all DRM systems in the past, will be easily broken. This article explains why, as dreadful as the system is, it does have a chance of holding hackers off long enough for the game to make its money. As such it is, if nothing else, a fascinating experiment. From the article: 'Assassin's Creed 2 is different in a key way. Remember, all of its code for saving and loading games (a significant feature, I'm sure you would agree) is tied into logging into a distant server and sending data back and forth. This vital and complex bit of code has been written from the ground up to require having the saved games live on a machine far away, with said machine being programmed to accept, save, and return the game data. This is a far more difficult problem for a hacker to circumvent.'"
Earth

UN To Create Independent Panel To Review IPCC 342

Posted by Soulskill from the this-can-only-end-well dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that an independent board of scientists will be appointed to review the workings of the world's top climate science panel, which has faced recriminations over inaccuracies in a 2007 report that included a prediction that Himalayan glaciers would vanish by 2035, although there is no scientific consensus to that effect. That brief citation — drawn from a magazine interview with a glaciologist who says he was misquoted — and sporadic criticism of the panel's leader have fueled skepticism in some quarters about the science underlying climate change. Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program, said the review body would be made up of 'senior scientific figures' who could perhaps produce a report by late summer for consideration at a meeting of the climate panel in October in South Korea. 'I think we are bringing some level of closure to this issue,' says Nuttall. One area to be examined is whether the panel should incorporate so-called gray literature, a term to describe nonpeer-reviewed science, in its reports. Many scientists say that such material, ranging from reports by government agencies to respected research not published in scientific journals, is crucial to seeking a complete picture of the state of climate science."
Science

What Is Time? One Researcher Shares His Exploration 578

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the what-about-the-underverse dept.
Physicist Sean Carroll has built up a bit of a name for himself by tackling one of the age old questions that no one has been able to fully explain: What is time? Earlier this month he gave an interview with Wired where he tried to explain his theories in layman's terms. "I’m trying to understand how time works. And that’s a huge question that has lots of different aspects to it. A lot of them go back to Einstein and spacetime and how we measure time using clocks. But the particular aspect of time that I’m interested in is the arrow of time: the fact that the past is different from the future. We remember the past but we don’t remember the future. There are irreversible processes. There are things that happen, like you turn an egg into an omelet, but you can’t turn an omelet into an egg."
Image

California Legislature Declares "Cuss-Free" Week 262

Posted by samzenpus from the f#*k-those-f@^king-f%&kers dept.
shewfig writes "The California legislature, which previously tried to ban incandescent light bulbs, just added to the list of banned things ... swear words! Fortunately, the measure only applies for the first week of March, and compliance is voluntary — although, apparently, there will be a 'swear jar' in the Assembly and the Governor's mansion. No word yet on whether the Governator intends to comply."
Editorial

Suspension of Disbelief 507

Posted by CmdrTaco from the not-the-kind-in-a-fluid dept.
Frequent Slashdot Contributor Bennett Haselton writes in "A federal judge rules that a student can seek attorney's fees against a high school principal who suspended her for a Facebook page she made at home. Good news, but how could the school have thought they had the right to punish her for that in the first place? Posing the question not rhetorically but seriously. What is the source of society's attitudes toward the free-speech rights of 17-year-olds?"
Businesses

Our Low-Tech Tax Code 691

Posted by Soulskill from the the-taxman-tweeteth dept.
theodp writes "After establishing that nothing can excuse Joe Stack's murderous intentional plane crash into an IRS office, a NY Times Op-Ed explains the reference in Stack's suicide note to an obscure federal tax law — Section 1706 of the 1986 tax act — which the software engineer claimed declared him a 'criminal and non-citizen slave' and ruined his career. Interestingly, a decade-old NY Times article on Section 1706 pretty much agreed: 'The immediate effect of these [Section 1706] audits is to force individual programmers ... to abandon their dreams of getting rich off their high-technology skills.' Section 1706, the NYT Op-Ed concludes, 'is an example of how Congress enacted a discriminatory law that hurt thousands of technology consultants, their staffing firms and customers. And despite strong bipartisan efforts and unbiased studies supporting that law's repeal, it remains on the books.'"

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