Comment Re:In my case (Score 1) 357
I'm with scorp1us here. Being an idiot, I have sent my flash drives through not only the washer but also the dryer multiple times, and have never had an issue (thank god).
Comment Re:Not funny... (Score 1) 508
Then feel free to create your own tech blog and moderate it to the level of usage of Slashdot, then you can run it however you want. April 1st has been observed on this site since long before you had an account.
I'm not suggesting that
I see you've indeed been around a long time, so I'm sorry that my comment offended you enough to prompt your reply. I'm still a
Comment Not funny... (Score 2, Insightful) 508
There's a difference between a funny april fools joke (see StackOverflow's new Cornify feature) and just being annoying by reporting fake news.
I hate to be the downer, but I'd still like to be able to watch /. for good info today. Too bad I guess.
Comment Re:Yes, I received the same notice. (Score 4, Insightful) 508
I wouldn't even mind paying more. The real problem with this, at least for me, is that they're basically lying to me as a customer. If I got a notice in my email that said "Hey, look, we're either going to have to charge you $3 more a month for this feature, or get rid of it because we're not making enough money." I'd be way cooler with it. Telling me they're improving my experience by ruining it is just plain treating me like an idiot, and I can get that kind of treatment just by driving down to blockbuster, which is where I'll be going September 1st if they seriously do this.
The Dangers of a Patent War Chest 125
Timothy B. Lee writes "I've got an article in the New York Times in which I make the case against software patents. Expanding on a point I first made on my blog, I point out that Microsoft has had a change of heart on the patent issue. In 1991, Bill Gates worried that 'some large company will patent some obvious thing' and use it to blackmail smaller companies. Now that Microsoft is a large company with a patent war-chest of their own, they don't seem so concerned about abuse of the patent system. I then describe how Verizon's efforts to shut down Vonage are a perfect illustration of Gates' fears."
Anti-DRM Activists Take On the BBC 200
An anonymous reader writes "Activists from Binary Freedom Boston have launched a campaign calling on the BBC to release their content online without DRM or proprietary formats. You might remember the BBC asking us about this earlier and even though the public chose not to use DRM by a landslide, they still decided to use it. EMI and Amazon have already ditched DRM. How long before the BBC does?"
TorrentSpy Ordered By Judge to Become MPAA Spy 372
PC Guy writes "TorrentSpy, one of the world's largest BitTorrent sites, has been ordered by a federal judge to monitor its users. They are asked to keep detailed logs of their activities which must then be handed over to the MPAA. Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney responded to the news by stating: 'It is likely that TorrentSpy would turn off access to the U.S. before tracking its users. If this order were allowed to stand, it would mean that Web sites can be required by discovery judges to track what their users do even if their privacy policy says otherwise.'"
Why Music Really Is Getting Louder 388
Teksty Piosenek writes "Artists and record bosses believe that the best album is the loudest one. Sound levels are being artificially enhanced so that the music punches through when it competes against background noise in pubs or cars. 'Geoff Emerick, engineer on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album, said: "A lot of what is released today is basically a scrunched-up mess. Whole layers of sound are missing. It is because record companies don't trust the listener to decide themselves if they want to turn the volume up." Downloading has exacerbated the effect. Songs are compressed once again into digital files before being sold on iTunes and similar sites. The reduction in quality is so marked that EMI has introduced higher-quality digital tracks, albeit at a premium price, in response to consumer demand.'"
Feed News: Our Old Tricks (penny-arcade.com)
Tycho: Like former ESA head Doug Lowenstein, I think that even referring to Jack Thompson empowers him, potentially even summoning him, not unlike Candyman. But he's appended us to his latest hijinx for some reason - that is to say he started it. This is (as our foes will tell you!) "fabulously unwise."
Submission + - Ergonomic Software Eliminates Mouse Clicking
ThinSkin writes: "GentleMouse is an ergonomic software program that eliminates the need to click the mouse by translating cursor movements into mouse actions, providing an easy way to perform mouse actions without manually pressing buttons or scrolling. ExtremeTech's review of the GentleMouse provides an in-depth look of this unusual software and was quite pleased with its "intuitive interface, execution, and software options" but the software "cannot overcome issues in certain apps where clicking a mouse is essential, such as when gaming or designing graphics." Here's a video tutorial of the GentleMouse in action."
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Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable. -- Gilb
