Comment Re:Observation on moderating this thread (Score 1) 844
You would love reddit!
Comment I'm confused. (Score 1) 202
instantly über popular?
Comment Like just about everything HTML5... (Score 1) 129
...it's neat. Nothing more, nothing less.
Comment Huh. (Score 1) 64
A game filled with snow helping burn victims feel less pain? Imagine that.
Comment Awesome if it works (Score 4) 416
If it really does make elections easier for third parties, I'm all for it (especially the Libertarians!). Personally, I'd love to see more parties come to power; our current two-party system is pretty much broken. Hopefully it would reduce or eliminate gridlock caused by representatives voting along party lines, and eliminate representatives put in their positions due to the same voting by the American People. One can dream...
Submission + - Ski lifts can get all cargo traffic off the road (lowtechmagazine.com)
An anonymous reader writes: These days, we use them almost exclusively to transport skiers and snowboarders up snow slopes, but before the 1940s, aerial ropeways were a common means of cargo transport, not only in mountainous regions but also on flat terrain. An electrically powered aerial ropeway is one of the cheapest and most efficient means of transportation available. Some generate excess energy that can be used to power nearby factories or data centers. An innovative system called RopeCon (not to be confused with a role-playing convention held annually in Finland) can move up to 10,000 tonnes of freight per hour.
Comment Finally (Score 1) 180
I'd have my old connection speed back and hopefully my packet loss issues would be gone. When you live in cheap college apartments with included internet, you really get what you pay for.
If your included internet is by Airwave Networks, be ready to run or open your wallet. Seriously, any latency-critical applications like online games are completely unusable for me.
Comment Goddamn. (Score 1) 572
That last sentence frustrates me to no end.
Comment is there a v-chip in laptops? (Score 1) 121
I wouldn't want anyone to tune into most of the things I watch.
Unless you're into that/those sort of thing(s).
Comment A load off my back. (Score 1) 118
I can spend less time rationalizing my laziness, and more time wasting my life! Thanks, Slashdot!
Submission + - Lamebook Sues Facebook Over Trademark Infringement (techcrunch.com)
designersdigest writes: Here’s a head scratcher, at first glance at least: Lamebook, a hilarious advertising-supported site that lets Facebook users submit funny status updates, pictures and “other gems” originating from the social network, is apparently suing Facebook over trademark infringement.
Submission + - Income Tax Quashed, Ballmer to Cash in Billions 1
theodp writes: Washington's proposed state income tax not only prompted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to spend $425,000 of his own money to help crush the measure at the polls, it also inspired Microsoft to launch a FUD campaign aimed at torpedoing the initiative. 'As an employer, we're concerned that I-1098 will make it harder to attract talent and create additional jobs in Washington state,' explained Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith. 'We strongly support public education, but we're concerned by key details in I-1098. This initiative would give Washington one of the top five highest state income tax rates in the country. I-1098 would apply this tax rate to all income, including capital gains and dividends, and would not permit any deductions for charitable contributions.' Nice to see a company take a principled stand, backed by a CEO who's not unafraid to put his money where his company's mouth is, right? Well, maybe not. Just three days after the measure went down in flames, Ballmer said in a statement that he plans to sell up to 75 million of his Microsoft shares by the end of the year to 'gain financial diversification and to assist in tax planning.' Based on Friday's closing price of $26.85, the 75MM shares would be valued at approximately $2 billion. All of which might make a cynic question what was really important to Microsoft — public education, or a $2B state income tax-free payday for its CEO?
Submission + - Google challenges Facebook over user address books (reuters.com)
jcombel writes: When you sign in to Facebook, you had the option of importing your email contacts, to "friend" them all on the social network. Importing the other way — easily copying your Facebook contacts to Gmail — required jumping through considerable copy/paste hoops or third-party scripts. Google said enough is enough, and they're no longer helping sites that don't allow two-way contact merging. The stated intention is standing their ground to budge other sites into allowing users have control of where their data goes — but will this just lead to more sites putting up "data walls"?
Submission + - In Praise of Procrastination 1
Ponca City writes: "Every year, millions of Americans pay needless penalties because they don’t file their taxes on time, forgone huge amounts of money in matching 401(k) contributions because they never get around to signing up for a retirement plan, and risk blindness from glaucoma because they don’t use their eyedrops regularly. Now James Surowiecki writes that procrastination is a basic human impulse, a peculiar irrationality stems from our relationship to time — in particular, from a tendency that economists call “hyperbolic discounting," the ability to make rational choices when they’re thinking about the future, but, where as the present gets closer, short-term considerations overwhelm their long-term goals. Game theorist Thomas Schelling proposes that we think of ourselves a collection of competing selves, jostling, contending, and bargaining for control where one represents your short-term interests (having fun, putting off work, and so on), while another represents your long-term goals while philosopher Mark Kingwell puts it in existential terms: “Procrastination most often arises from a sense that there is too much to do, and hence no single aspect of the to-do worth doing. . . . Underneath this rather antic form of action-as-inaction is the much more unsettling question whether anything is worth doing at all.” So before we rush to overcome procrastination we should consider whether it is sometimes an impulse we should heed and that it might be useful to think about two kinds of procrastination: the kind that is genuinely akratic, a weakness of will that allows us to act against our own benefit, and the kind that’s telling you that what you’re supposed to be doing has, deep down, no real point. The procrastinator’s challenge, and perhaps the philosopher’s, too, is to figure out which is which."
Submission + - Disguised Asian Male Caught At Canadian Airport (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A young male of Asian appearance was caught in disguise during a flight from Hong Kong to Canada. The disguise consisted of a molded silicone face and neck mask, hat, glasses and cardigan. An intelligence alert (PDF) from Canada Border Services Agency contains photos of the man with and without the disguise as well as further details of the incident. Suspicions were raised at the start of the flight when the subject was noted as having an elderly appearance that didn't match his hands of youthful appearance. Later in the flight the subject entered an aircraft washroom to remove the disguise and was caught emerging as an early 20's Asian male. This disguise is more elaborate than those used by the suspected perpetrators of the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai, January 2010. Will the continued introduction of biometric passport security deprecate the use of disguises or will disguises simply become more sophisticated?
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