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Comment I first saw this back in Oct '17 for a Texas comp. (Score 1) 110

Using Chrome, I googled a Texas company and went to their website. I called the number listed there and got the "This call may be recorded" message before it started ringing through to the real company. When they answered, I hung up.
Then I dug the real number out of my phone and called them back. I spoke to the owner of this small company, and they had no idea that it was happening. Later she reported to me that their site builder had no idea what it could be.
So I did a little testing.

The only browser that changed the displayed phone number was Chrome. It was listed correctly on all the other browsers.

I then compared the html from Chrome and others, and there was an odd call replacing the static phone numbers from the original html.
Not sure where this was coming from, either from the hosting site or the site generator, or google, I just mentaly flagged Chrome as suspect/venerable, and stopped using it except in static VM's (needed hangouts for work). I never did find anyone else who had noticed this behavior, or see it reported other places before.
This is not exactly cogent to the OP, but I thought the audience would be the right sort of people to hear of it.

Submission + - Is LinkedIn still relevant? 4

An anonymous reader writes: I'm on unemployment and am looking for a new job, and I've been told "Oh, you need to be on LinkedIn if you want to be taken seriously!"
So I go there, and it looks like Facebook or something, wants to scrape my email contacts, upload pictures, and so on.
Is LinkedIn really necessary, or is it just a ruse to get me to give them all sorts of personal information like all other social media sites?

Comment Both Booster Landing feeds from the same Booster? (Score 0) 446

I may be crazy, but it looks to me that both booster feeds on landing were from the same Booster. Both landing motors fired at the same time, and the flames for the other Booster were visible from the top of both feeds. Either they were from the same Booster, or they were facing each other mirror image, but the overhead view of the landing pad(s) are also appear identical in the feeds, but show as not being symmetrical from from the feed views from higher elevation that show both pads and terrain.

Not saying it's faked, just that it wasn't feeds from both Boosters.

Submission + - Restaurateur settles after being extorted by BMI (nypost.com) 1

Frosty Piss writes: BMI claims Amici III in Linden, New York didn't have a license when it played four tunes in its eatery one night last year, including the beloved “Bennie and the Jets” and “Brown Sugar,” winning a $24,000 judgment earlier this year, as well as more than $8,200 in attorney’s fees. Giovanni Lavorato, who has been in business for 25 years, says the disc jockey DJ brought into the eatery paid a fee to play tunes. 'It’s ridiculous for me to pay somebody also,' he said. 'This is not a nightclub. This is not a disco joint . . . How many times do they want to get paid for the stupid music?'

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Dealing with service providers when you're an IT pro? 3

username440 writes: So, a lot of us will have been here; You have a problem with your ISP, cable TV, cellphone whatever technology and you need to call the provider. Ugh. Foreign call centers, inane fault finding flowcharts (yes, i have turned it off and on again) and all the other cruft that you have to wade through to get to someone with the knowledge to determine that YOU in fact also have a degree of knowledge and have a real problem.

Recently I had a problem with my ISP, where the ISP-provided "modem" — it's a router — would lock up at least 3 times per day. I had router logs, many hundreds of Google results for that model and release of hardware showing this as a common problem, and simply wanted the ISP to provide a new router (it's a managed device).

I replaced the router with a spare Airport Extreme and the problems disappeared, to be replaced with a warning from the ISP that they could't access my managed device" and the connection is provided contingent to using THIER router. However my point was to prove that their router is at fault.

How do other Slashdotters fare when trying to get through to a service provider that they actually DO know something in the field? How do you cut through the frontline support bull*hit and talk to someone who knows what they are doing? Should there be a codeword for this scenario?

Comment Re:Commodore Amiga or Commodore PC? (Score 1) 456

Been there, can't fit the T-shirt anymore, but this comment is pretty close to the word on the street Circa '85.

Not so sure about the commies though. I did meet and become friends with a fellow who was Russian, who was was on a team reverse engineering the ZX Spectrum in the 80's though.

Personally I was"rocking" a PDP-11 and DSM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUMPS)

Comment Re:Still Running Like a Champ (Score 1) 558

Years ago I set up a Compaq LTE LITE 4/40CX laptop to play MP3's. I think it had 4 or 8 Meg of memory, and a 1 gig hard drive. It was running Slackware, and I had to re-encode the audio stories (it was for a 10 year old relative) to mono at 128kbit, but they played just fine. It also had the docking station with a ridiculously overpowered adaptec 2940 in it to run a scanner, and a parallel port mono cam. I loved the fact that the hard drive came in an strong aluminum can that easily docked in, making multiple builds and updates as easy as shipping the new hd in the mail.

And Yes, it could play Doom. But they liked Commander Keen better.

Comment CheeseLube (tm) (Score 1) 258

Back in the 90's I had an office chair that made the most awful screeching noise (Freddy Kruger at a chalkboard bad). We tried everything to lubricate that chair. WD-40, dry silicon, heavy moly grease... Nothing worked, until in desperation, we tried the last thing we could come up with.

Kraft American cheese. It worked like a charm, and silenced the screech for more than a year.

Image

Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project 687

garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"
Privacy

Maryland Police Put Activists' Names On Terror List 426

aaandre writes with word of a Washington Post story which begins: "The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects, the state police chief acknowledged yesterday. The police also entered the activists' names into the federal Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area database, which tracks suspected terrorists. One well-known antiwar activist from Baltimore, Max Obuszewski, was singled out in the intelligence logs released by the ACLU, which described a 'primary crime' of 'terrorism-anti-government' and a 'secondary crime' of 'terrorism-anti-war protesters.'" According to the article, "Both [former state police superintendent Thomas] Hutchins and [Maryland Police Superintendent Terrence] Sheridan said the activists' names were entered into the state police database as terrorists partly because the software offered limited options for classifying entries." Reader kcurtis adds "The State Police say they are purging the data, but this is one more example (on top of yesterday's news that datamining for terrorists is not feasible due to false positives) of just how badly the use of these lists can be abused."
Science

New Sub Dives To Crushing Depths 245

University of Washington Scientists are reporting that they have a new autonomous underwater vehicle that increases both the attainable depth and duration of deployment over current submersibles. Weighing in at just under 140 pounds, the "Deepglider" is able to stay out to sea for up to a year and hit depths of almost 9,000 feet. "Deepglider opens up new research possibilities for oceanographers studying global climate change. The glider's first trip revealed unexpected warming of water near the ocean floor, and scientists are interested in studying whether the temperatures are related to global warming."
Biotech

Submission + - British government slashes scientific research

asobala writes: The British Government has slashed the funding of scientific Research Councils by £68 million. The Research Councils most affected by this include the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which has been hit by a £29 million reduction in funding, and the Medical Research Council, which is seeing a £10.7 million reduction in funding.

The response of the BBSRC biological research council announces that the council will have to cut 20 new grants and reduce expenditure on new equipment.

This could have major effects on the research output of the UK.
Role Playing (Games)

The History of Computer RPGs 77

Gamasutra is running a series of articles about the history of CRPGs. The first piece covers the early years, from 1980 to 1983, and deals with with games like mainframe dnd, Wizardry, and Ultima. The follow-up, The Golden Years, touches on the gold box Dungeons and Dragons titles, as well as the Bard's Tale games. "The first Gold Box game is Pool of Radiance, a game which marked an important turning point in CRPG history. The game shipped in a distinctive gold-colored box (hence the nickname for the series), which sported artwork by celebrated fantasy illustrator Clyde Caldwell (Caldwell also designed the covers for Curse of the Azure Bonds and several other TSR-licensed games and books). It was initially available only on the Atari ST and Commodore 64 platforms, though soon ports were available for most major platforms, including the NES."

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