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Comment Re:My brother-in-law had a positive antibody test (Score 1) 118

So the antibody tests don't just return a positive result for Covid-19 (official name is SARS-CoV-2), they can return a positive result for a variety of coronaviruses.

A small nit: SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome [caused by] CoronaVirus 2, named after the first human coronavirus identified in 2003) is the virus. COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease of 2019) is the disease caused by the virus. Both are "official" names, "the official names COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 were issued by the WHO on 11 February 2020."

As far as I understand, there are (today) 7 known strains of human coronaviruses:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronaviru...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

If the test is positive whenver it finds antibodies for any of the 7 coronaviruses, then it is indeed of little value AFAIU.

Comment Re:Good idea? (Score 1) 126

by Luminous Coward (#58579844) Attached to: /e/ Announces 'Un-Googled' Android Smartphones

I can just install MicroG on LineageOS.

Yeah... not really.
Why do you think microG themselves maintain a Lineage OS fork?
https://lineage.microg.org/

"Why do we need a custom build of LineageOS to have microG? Can't I install microG on the official LineageOS?
MicroG requires a patch called "signature spoofing", which allows the microG's apps to spoof themselves as Google Apps. LineageOS' developers refused (multiple times) to include the patch, forcing us to fork their project."
https://review.lineageos.org/#...
https://review.lineageos.org/#...
https://review.lineageos.org/#...

Comment Re: tricks: Vaccum, wash the keboard, load linux. (Score 1) 508

by Luminous Coward (#50492927) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Cheapest Functional Computer For Students?

Then installing Linux [...] will give them a modern, supported, OS with a good and easy to use word processor (Open Office) for free.

OpenOffice is dead.
LibreOffice is the better Office clone.
(I don't understand why so many students torrent MSOffice when they could get LO legally for free.)

Comment Re:Irony (Score 1) 274

I'm trying to switch over to linux, but only if I can run lotro. I'm hoping eventually swtor will play in wine...but right now I'll be happy just playing lotro.

I was under the impression that "Lord of the Rings Online" worked well in Wine 1.4, is it not the case?
http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iAppId=4891
What GPU do you use? and what distro are you running?

Comment Re:None of this (except the passwords)... (Score 1) 261

by Luminous Coward (#36651474) Attached to: Hacker Exposes Parts of Florida's Voting Database
In my opinion, in most (democratic) countries, the current voting system is too simple, and this simplicity favors the two major ruling parties, preventing all alternative voices from gaining any traction.

There are other (more complex) voting systems. I believe that some form of graphical user interface is necessary, should one ever intend to introduce any of these more complex systems.

Comment Re:Don't get overexited (Score 1) 130

by Luminous Coward (#36484100) Attached to: Software Patent Reform Happening Now

None of this solves the software patents problem in the USA. The software patents problem isn't caused by some bad apple applications slipping through the procedures. The problem is that software has to conform to standards (interfaces and data formats), and these are being covered by thickets of patents.

I think everyone concerned about this sad state of affairs should read Xiph's comments to the FTC Patent Standards Workshop. Their submission focuses on how software patents affect Standards Setting Organizations.

Comment Re:single process for all flash (Score 1) 261

by Luminous Coward (#32662998) Attached to: Firefox 3.6.4 Released With Out-of-Process Plugins

This means while you are enjoying a show on hulu.com, a rogue flash ad could still spoil the fun

You might try Flashblock

Flashblock is an extension for the Mozilla, Firefox, and Netscape browsers that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves placeholders on the webpage that allow you to click to download and then view the Flash content.

Submission + - HDD manufacturers moving to 4096-byte sectors

Submitted by Luminous Coward
Luminous Coward writes: As previously discussed on Slashdot, according to AnandTech and The Tech Report, hard disk drive manufacturers are now ready to bump the size of the disk sector from 512 to 4096 bytes, in order to minimize storage lost to ECC and sync. This may not be a smooth transition, because some OSes do not align partitions on 4K boundaries.
The Almighty Buck

EA Flip-Flops On Battlefield: Heroes Pricing, Fans Angry 221

Posted by Soulskill from the put-your-money-where-your-gun-is dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Ben Kuchera from Ars Technica is reporting that EA/DICE has substantially changed the game model of Battlefield: Heroes, increasing the cost of weapons in Valor Points (the in-game currency that you earn by playing) to levels that even hardcore players cannot afford, and making them available in BattleFunds (the in-game currency that you buy with real money). Other consumables in the game, such as bandages to heal the players, suffered the same fate, turning the game into a subscription or pay-to-play model if players want to remain competitive. This goes against the creators' earlier stated objectives of not providing combat advantage to paying customers. Ben Cousins, from EA/DICE, argued, 'We also frankly wanted to make buying Battlefunds more appealing. We have wages to pay here in the Heroes team and in order to keep a team large enough to make new free content like maps and other game features we need to increase the amount of BF that people buy. Battlefield Heroes is a business at the end of the day and for a company like EA who recently laid off 16% of their workforce, we need to keep an eye on the accounts and make sure we are doing our bit for the company.' The official forums discussion thread is full of angry responses from upset users, who feel this change is a betrayal of the original stated objectives of the game."
Censorship

US Congressman Announces Plans To Probe Wikileaks 311

Posted by kdawson from the good-luck-with-that dept.
eldavojohn writes "Congressman Peter King (R-NY) is calling for a probe into Wikileaks with regard to the recent publication of half a million 9/11 pager messages. He has announced that he plans to have his Washington staff begin a preliminary investigation because Wikileaks' action 'raises security issues.' A word of caution: Congressman King has been known to make inflammatory and unpopular statements."
Software

Inkscape 0.47 Released 225

Posted by kdawson from the drawing-not-quartering dept.
derrida writes "After over a year of intensive development and refactoring, Inkscape 0.47 is out. This version of the SVG-based vector graphics editor brings improved performance and tons of new features, including: timed autosave, Spiro splines, auto-smooth nodes, Eraser tool, new modes in Tweak tool, snapping options toolbar & greater snapping abilities, new live path effects (including Envelope), over 200 preset SVG filters, new Cairo-based PS and EPS export, spell checker, many new extensions, optimized SVG code options, and much more. Additionally, it would be wrong to not mention the hundreds of bug fixes. Check out the full release notes for more information about what has changed, enjoy the screenshots, or just jump right to downloading your package for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X." We've been following the progress of Inkscape for years (2006, 2005, 2004).

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