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Comment DR works for only a limited time (Score 1) 3

by sfm (#46193107) Attached to: Dead Reckoning For Your Car Eliminates GPS Dead Zones

Using cheap gyros/accels will give you good DR accuracy for about a minute at driving speeds. Anything more than that requires an order of magnitude increase in the cost of the sensors. The costs will come down with time, but don't expect the GPS free option on your cell phone to give you much benefit in the near term.

Beta Sucks - and that is also not likely to change

Comment Re:Alternative to Beta Hell (Score 1) 93

by sfm (#46193087) Attached to: Simple Emergency Generators and Radio Receivers (Video)

You know, Dice could have avoided all of this if they allowed Beta to be optional.

Over time, people would migrate, or not.

They would have a VERY good indicator on what people thought of the changes.

But no, they want to ram it down out collective throats

There is a lesson in here, somwhere. I wonder if Dice will get it before it is too late ? Or have we passed that point already ?

Submission + - GOP Bill to Outlaw EPA 'Secret Science' that is Not Transparent, Reproducible

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Fox News reports that Republican lawmakers in the House are pushing legislation that would prohibit the EPA from proposing new regulations based on science that is not transparent or not reproducible. The bill introduced by Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., would bar the agency from proposing or finalizing rules without first disclosing all "scientific and technical information" relied on to support its proposed action. "Public policy should come from public data, not based on the whims of far-left environmental groups,” says Schweikert. “For far too long, the EPA has approved regulations that have placed a crippling financial burden on economic growth in this country with no public evidence to justify their actions.” The bill, dubbed the Secret Science Reform Act of 2014 (HR 4012), would prohibit the EPA’s administrator from proposing or finalizing any rules unless he or she also discloses “all scientific and technical information” relied on by the agency in the regulations' development including all data, materials and computer models. According to Schweikert's press release a 2013 poll from the Institute of Energy Research found that 90 percent of Americans agree that studies and data used to make federal government decisions should be made public. "Provisions in the bill are consistent with the White House’s scientific integrity policy, the President’s Executive Order 13563, data access provisions of major scientific journals, the Bipartisan Policy Center and the recommendations of the Obama administration’s top science advisors."

Submission + - Russia bans Bitcoin (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by mask.of.sanity
mask.of.sanity writes: Russia has banned digital currency Bitcoin under existing laws and dubbed use of the crypto-currency as "suspicious". The Central Bank of Russia considers Bitcoin as a form of "money substitute" or "money surrogate" (statement in Russian) which is restricted under Russian law. However, unlike use of restricted foreign currencies, Bitcoin has been outright banned. The US Library of Congress has issued a report examining the regulatory approaches national financial authorities have taken to the currency.

Comment Slashdot Beta Fails (Score 1) 551

by sfm (#46169709) Attached to: Should Nuclear and Renewable Energy Supporters Stop Fighting?

Slashdot Beta Fail
Why are the comments nested on both edges?
Why so much white space on the right half of the screen
How do you change the comment level (I want to only see >3)
The upconing articles are gone.... never to returen ??
Option to post without preview is gone- almost good
How to go back to original Slashdot ?

Comment Slashdot Beta (Score 2) 9

by sfm (#46168347) Attached to: Slashdot beta sucks

Can we at least open a thread to discuss the changes. The new Beta interface is not all bad, but there are a lot of changes and many of the best features are now gone (or hidden) Help

Submission + - House Threatens Legal Basis of NSA Surveillance (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: The author of the Patriot Act has warned that the legal justification for the NSA’s wholesale domestic surveillance program will disappear next summer if the White House doesn’t restrict the way the NSA uses its power. Section 215 of the Patriot Act will expire during the summer of 2015 and will not be renewed unless the White House changes the shocking scale of the surveillance programs for which the National Security Administration (NSA) uses the authorization, according to James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), an original author of the Patriot Act and its two reauthorizations, stated Washington insider-news source The Hill. “Unless Section 215 gets fixed, you, Mr. Cole, and the intelligence community will get absolutely nothing, because I am confident there are not the votes in this Congress to reauthorize it,” Sensenbrenner warned Deputy Attorney General James Cole during the Feb. 4 hearing. Provisions of Section 215, which allows the NSA to collect metadata about phone calls made within the U.S., give the government a “very useful tool” to track connections among Americans that might be relevant to counterterrorism investigations, Cole told the House Judiciary Committee. The scale of the surveillance and lengths to which the NSA has pushed its limits was a “shock” according to Sensenbrenner, who also wrote the USA Freedom Act, a bill to restrict the scope of both Section 215 and the NSA programs, which has attracted 130 co-sponsors. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has sponsored a similar bill in the Senate.

Submission + - Judge Says You Can Warn Others About Speed Traps

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Speeding is against the law, and yes, even going 5 mph over the speed limit is breaking the law. But everyone does it, right? You do it, your friends do it, heck, your grandmother does it. But what about when you see a cop? Some cops are ticketing people for notifying fellow motorists about speed traps. In Florida, Ryan Kintner simply flashed his high-beams to warning oncoming cars that there was a cop ahead. He was given a ticket for doing so. He went to court to fight the ticket, and a judge ruled that flashing lights are the equivalent of free speech, thus he had every right to flash his lights to warn oncoming cars. So what have we learned here? Basically, if you are a good Samaritan, flash your lights and warn oncoming traffic of speed traps, because this is America ,and we are allowed freedom of speech.

Comment Re: Well if HP didn't already have a terrible rep. (Score 2) 385

by sfm (#46162547) Attached to: HP To Charge For Service Packs and Firmware For Out-of-Warranty Customers

One of the reasons in gong with a major brand is the implied support that comes with the name. Changing the support paradigm has an effect on sales, it is just delayed. 3 years out is about the timing businesses are looking to upgrade their systems. If patching/drivers becomes a serious issue in managements collective "mind", this will influence the buying decision for next time.

A company can get away with this when they have a locked in market and customers with few alternatives. I don't believe this is the case in the desktop/server area.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What Online News Is Worth Paying For?

Submitted by schnell
schnell writes: The increasing prevalence of online news paywalls and "nag walls" (e.g. you can only read so many articles per month) has forced me to divide those websites into two categories: those that offer content that is unique or good enough to pay for vs. those that don't. Examples of the former for me included The Economist and Foreign Policy, while other previous favorite sites The New York Times and even my hometown Seattle Times have lost my online readership entirely. I also have a secret third category — sites that don't currently pay/nag wall, but I would pay for if I had to — Ars Technica and Long Form come to mind. What news/aggregation sites are other Slashdotters out there willing to pay for, and why? What sites that don't charge today would you pay for if you had to? Or, knowing this crowd, are the majority just opposed to paying for any web news content on principle?

Submission + - HP denies access to Service Packs and Firmware for out-of-warranty customers.

Submitted by joshitnc
joshitnc writes: In a move that is sure to put a wedge between HP and their customers, today, HP has issued an email informing all existing HP customers that they would no longer be able to access or download service packs, firmware patches and bug-fixes for their server hardware without a valid support agreement in place, stating:

"You are receiving this communication because you have been identified as a customer using HP ProLiant Servers and HP Services.

HP has made significant investments in its intellectual capital to provide the best value and experience for our customers. We continue to offer a differentiated customer experience with our comprehensive support portfolio. HP, as an industry leader, is well positioned to provide reliable support services across the globe with proprietary tools, HP trained engineers, and genuine certified HP parts. Only HP customers and authorized channel partners may download and use support materials. In line with this commitment, starting in February 2014, Hewlett-Packard Company will change the way firmware updates and Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) on HP ProLiant server products are accessed. Select server firmware and SPP on these products will only be accessed through the HP Support Center to customers with an active support agreement, HP CarePack, or warranty linked to their HP Support Center User ID and for the specific products being updated. We encourage you to review your current support coverage to ensure you have the appropriate coverage to maintain uninterrupted access to firmware updates and SPP for these products."

If a manufacturer ships hardware with exploitable defects and takes more than 3 years to identify them, should the consumer have to pay for the vendor to fix the these defects?

Submission + - Kansas drops plan for municipal broadband ban (kansas.com)

Submitted by Mokurai
Mokurai writes: "Facing public backlash over a Senate bill that would outlaw community broadband services statewide, Sen. Julia Lynn, R-Olathe, announced on Monday the postponement of hearings set to take place this week. Senate Bill 304 would prohibit cities and counties from building public broadband networks."

The bill was reportedly "introduced by John Federico, a cable industry lobbyist."

I didn't see this on SlashDot when it was introduced, but the Internet definitely responded to the threat of damage.

Submission + - Adobe's new ebook DRM will leave existing users out in the cold come July (the-digital-reader.com)

Submitted by Nate the greatest
Nate the greatest writes: Whether it's EA and SimCity, the Sony rootkit scandal, or Ubisoft, we've all read numerous stories about companies using DRM in stupid ways that harm their customers, and now we can add Adobe to the list. Adobe has just announced a new timeline for adoption of their recently launched DRM, and it's going to take your breath away.

In a video posted to Youtube, Adobe reps have stated that Adobe expects all of their ebook partners to start adopting the new DRM in March. This is the same DRM that was launched only a few weeks ago and is already causing problems, but that hasn't stopped Adobe. They also expect all the stores that use Adobe's DRM to sell ebooks (as well as the ebook app and ebook reader developers) to have fully adopted the new ebook DRM by July 2014. That's when Adobe plans to end support for the old DRM (which everyone is using now). Given the dozens and dozens of different ebook readers released over the past few years, including models from companies that have gone under, this is going to present a significant problem for a lot of readers. Few, if any, will be updated in time to meet Adobe's deadline, and that's going to leave many readers unable to buy DRMed ebooks.

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