Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment It works great here in Switzerland (Score 2) 316

Switzerland is a wealthy and high-trust society and so things like self-checkout work great. There is no weighing mechanism so you never get the âoeplease put item in the baggage area. Foreign item in the baggage area. Please place item in the baggage areaâ ad nauseum that I get in the USA and Ireland when I try to use self-check out. We also have farm stores that have no staff. I live in Zurich but I walk to a neighborhood farm where I buy a lot of my groceries including meat. There is no staff. You ad things up yourself and pay electronically. My bill is often close to the equivalent of $100 a couple of times per week. Living in a place like this is such a different experience than the USA where I grew up. The first time I experienced it was when I bought thousands of dollars of furniture when I moved here and didnâ(TM)t get billed until weeks after they had delivered everything - there was no pre-payment, no deposit, etc

Comment Love Dvorak but up for something better (Score 1) 303

Iâ(TM)ve been using Dvorak for about 20 years now and thereâ(TM)s nothing better. If Iâ(TM)m stuck on a hotel pc or something that only has QWERTY I can still type ok, but for everyday use Dvorak is the best. But I would like to eventually move to something more direct. I would like to type without using mechanical input. I think some of the research on detecting forearm muscle movement is interesting. And Iâ(TM)ve looked into schooling keynoards too but havenâ(TM)t made the jump. Really though what would be best is to not have to spell out words at all. If I could just transcribe the words directly, sans letters, I would be happy. When we think we think in words but when we type we have to type each letter one after another even if we donâ(TM)t think of each letter. Typing is almost autonomic. So the leap to transcribing words direct,y without letters is not so great. In the meantime Iâ(TM)ll keep going on Dvorak.

Comment How to lose a domain (Score 1) 196

If you offer the domain for sale then you will lose the domain in arbitration. However, if the family first went to a lawyer to contact the NFL lawyer to negotiate then the family would have been fine. I went through this with Sony years ago for a domain I had been using for a few years for a game that Sony later registered a trademark for. They tried to buy it anonymously which I ignored. They then sent me a threatening letter. I got a lawyer and the lawyer negotiated a sale to Sony. I could have kept the domain if I wanted with minimal outlay to my lawyer, but I could not use it for commerce after Sony registered their trademark. I could have challenged the trademark but my lawyer said it could cost up to $250K to challenge it and I wouldn't be guaranteed of winning. But if I wanted I could keep the domain and continue using it but I could never use it for commerce. So, I decided to give it up to Sony for some ok money.

Comment Thatâ(TM)s what we do in Switzerland (Score 1) 219

At night we buy practically free nuclear-generated electricity from France (canâ(TM)t turn the plant off at night and you have to do something with the electricity) and use it to pump water back up into the mountains. Then during the day we release it and generate electricity that we sell to Germany and France at high daytime prices.

Comment It's not that big of a mystery (Score 1) 197

Written recipes from the time period still exist. Most are for wealthy people but there are regular recipes. For the wealthy recipes, there's some interesting podcasts where they recreate the recipe: https://www.npr.org/sections/m... https://www.npr.org/sections/t... (and many more) As for the ingredients, I know that this is unusual in the USA, but here in Switzerland I still buy most of my food direct from the farm. Here in Zürich there are some city-subsidized working farms placed strategically around the city. My local farm is about a 5-minute pleasant walk through cow pastures. Every week I buy raw whole milk, raw butter, freshly laid eggs, organic vegetables, bread, cheese, etc, and meat from the cows I walk past every week. We make our own yogurt with the raw milk. I think most people back then didn't really cook with recipes. They'd take whatever they got fresh that week and work with that. That's how my wife and I do it today too.

Comment Re: should be thanked not sacked (Score 2) 190

-A supermarket left open but unstaffed all day with no security would suffer amazing amounts of loss. Sure, if you live in a shitty country. Here in Switzerland there are vegetable stands on the roadside by farms where you take your groceries and drop your money into a box, often just a wooden box.

Comment Convenient but dangerous (Score 1) 15

I've used Uber in a handful of developing countries including India and China. It's very convenient to be able to set your ride destination without having to speak with the driver, and it's nice to confirm that they took the proper route. However, twice in India I got drivers that were on meth or some similar drug. In India (not sure about China) some people will buy a small fleet of cars and rent them out to drivers to drive for Uber. Uber already doesn't pay well and since these drivers are losing a cut to the car owner they have to drive long hours and so they take stimulants. This is no different than some of the 3-wheel taxi drivers who also take stimulants. Even if you give the driver a low rating the car owner will just rent the car out to another driver.

Slashdot Top Deals

The bogosity meter just pegged.

Working...