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Comment Re:Suck it bitcoin haters (Score 1) 81

This was exactly my sentiment to reading recent articles on green energy solutions or digital open source currencies. /. used to be populated with true nerds interested in cryptography and novel solutions to problems. Now it's populated by pro-fiat trolls, anti-EV trolls, and even a surprising turn of very pro-State trolls advocating for fear and against scientific advancement.

Really, it's just trolls and the articles are just bait for the most part. It is disappointing. Gizmodo and Engadget were great for tech, but never insightful conversations or thoughtful treatments of OSS topics. But all of the graybeards have left, and a bunch of Woke folk are tooling around in their place, failing to comprehend how anything works, or why no one lines them. I'm saddened to see how toxic Slashdot (and the other sites) have become.

Comment Re:Heros (Score 1) 284

Oh, Lucas didn't create the mythology -- he copied major points (without credit) from Akira Kurasawa's Seven Samaurai. This is why Darth Vader has the Samurai-style mask. R2 and C3PO come straight from Kurasawa's film.

That is why the first movie has such dramatic appeal, whereas the third movie has fish-people and teddy bears.

Comment Turnover rate (Score 1) 226

A better focus is on the happiness of the people working there. Ask about turnover. What is the size of the team, and when/why did the last 2 people leave? Walk around the place. Meet your teammates. Are they gloomy? Cracking jokes? Ask how conflict is managed. How does the team celebrate milestones? What does the average day look like?

Comment What is the VPN's response to MPAA takedown? (Score 1) 134

IMO the only useful metric is how the VPN provider responds to a request from MPAA about a clien't's torrent activity.

My use case doesn't consider Chinese govt' monitoring important. I would be curious to hear why non-Chinese slashdot readers would consider this a threat.

IMO the major threat is MPAA.

Comment Yes, "nG" is just a marketing term. (Score 2) 81

I was under the impression that - "nG" was originally just an arbitrary marketing term, approximating "Our company's Nth generation of equipment, better than our (n-1)G service".

Correct. The nG is, conveniently, comparable to WiFi versions and names. Unsurprisingly, after 3G became well known, it was decided that since a year or so had gone by, 4G needed to come into existence. This is closely related to marketing, of course.. So, because mobile phone "G" wasn't something that was integrated into mobile phone towers annually like the next year of fashion, carriers decided to use a 4, then some used the acronym LTE, etc.
When a large number of antennas are upgraded, that must also include testing and adjusting settings due to differing land (and buliding) structure, altitude, composition, and weather in unique areas, across the country. Design and testing for this of course can't be done annually.

"nG", and other things involving mobile phones, are not technical/proper versions. Go to a phone store and ask a technical question; you'll receive a marketed response.

Comment Alex Jones: canary in coal mine (Score 1) 171

Caitlin Johnstone documents this was a coordinated attempt by Facebook and Twitter to remove content offensive to the corporate masters.

Alex Jones was the canary in the coalmine, now they will continue ensuring Sanders (and other upstarts) never gets a second chance.

She writes:

Regardless of where you’re at on the political spectrum, if you oppose the status quo then opposing internet censorship of any political speech is now a matter of simple self defense. If this wasn’t obvious to you when they shut down Alex Jones, it should damn well be obvious to you now. If you want to change the existing system in any way which takes power away from those currently in power, your voice is next on the chopping block. They’re locking all the doors down as fast as they can to keep us trapped in this Orwellian oligarchy until they get us all killed by war or ecocide. If they shut down the public’s ability to share dissident information, they’ll have locked the final door. Don’t let them.

Comment AGPL v3 -- iTextSharp -- license interpretation (Score 1) 203

OK, I'm asking in good faith... Is the AGPL v3 license in accordance with what the owner of iTextSharp says? There appears to be a huge disconnect in the licensing terms for AGPL v3 vs. what iTextSharp says.

The ambiguity is apparently so sharp that Google forbids usage of any open source software using AGPL:

WARNING: Code licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) MAY NOT be used at Google.

The license places restrictions on software used over a network which are extremely difficult for Google to comply with. Using AGPL software requires that anything it links to must also be licensed under the AGPL. Even if you think you aren’t linking to anything important, it still presents a huge risk to Google because of how integrated much of our code is. The risks heavily outweigh the benefits.

Do not attempt to check AGPL-licensed code into google3 or use it in a Google product in any way.
Do not install AGPL-licensed programs on your workstation, Google-issued laptop, or Google-issued phone without explicit authorization from the Open Source Programs Office.


Given this confusion, does anyone wishing to speak about the economics of open source want to actually talk about the legal amgiguities of open source licensing?

Comment California poverty rate (Score 3, Informative) 153

"This week, State Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes called poverty California’s No. 1 priority during a forum of legislative leaders in Sacramento. Mayes, who represents parts of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, claimed the state’s poverty rate is higher than any state in the nation when considering factors such as cost-of-living."

We decided to fact-check whether the report Mayes cited really shows that California has the highest poverty rate in the nation.

Comment Tempe Police are corrupt (Score 2) 58

Please don't forget that the Tempe Police Dept. immediately placed all blame on the pedestrian. We now know that the Uber car know of the obstruction and had enough braking time to have reduced it to a non-fatal accident.

Please remember the faked darkened videos, when the street was well lit.

I have no idea what is happening in this accident in Tempe... Any locals have a clue?

Comment Re:Not surprising (Score 1) 445

The reporting for the stock market is just as bad. You can have movements of 50% within a day, but if the final number evens out, it is reported as a "modest" change, with just 10 points change in the Dow, etc., when in reality there were major changes. Day traders could make a ton of money while the average Joe thought nothing was going on.

NPR's "Market Place" is a fantastic example of the corrupt (it is so bad I don't think it is merely incomptence) reporting. IMO the "incomptentence" is deliberate, and a feature.

PS -- wow, it has been such a long time since I commented, I forgot how abysmal Slashdot's editing system is...

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