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obsurveyor

359 karma · joined October 29, 2013

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obsurveyor··on Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client
I agree with untog, you need to get your install fixed. I'm running on hardware from 2011(except the SSD) since launch and Windows 10 is extremely fast to boot and the UI hasn't crashed once. It even runs my security camera software that was last updated in 2008. I only recently re-installed Skype so I can't speak to that but it has problems all of it's own.
obsurveyor··on Why I don't want stuff
I assume he reads digital books based on his uncluttered nature and gifting Kindle books is a pain because you can't schedule when it's delivered or create a redemption code. It's just immediately sent to that person's Kindle library.
obsurveyor··on Perfectly preserved bronze age wheel unearthed in Cambridgeshire
If the skull has no signs of exposure to fire(recall there were teeth to examine), then there's a good chance the person didn't die in the fire that burned everything else around it.
obsurveyor··on The US Government has no credibility to compel anybody to weaken security
> Only if Apple stupidly wrote a generic firmware that could run on any iPhone and then lost it. That risk is essentially zero.

The updates they write now are generic and run on any iPhone. So theoretically any new code, by default, would be as well. They may not even have a way to limit firmware to specific devices without many man hours more of work on top of creating the modifications already being requested.

obsurveyor··on San Bernardino County tweets it reset attacker iCloud password at FBI's request
Why would you ever do this with the real device without thoroughly testing the circumstances with a stand-in first?

From a technical perspective, it seems very simple and easy to replicate before actually doing it and locking yourself out completely like they seem to have done.

obsurveyor··on Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us
> Try to drink plain water with sugar (not tee/coffee or anything else that bring own taste). It is just impossible to drink too much of it

This is blatantly not true in the US, you can observe any number of people anywhere drinking full sugar sodas all day long.

obsurveyor··on How Wired Is Going to Handle Ad Blocking
They should be able to still do this too; presumably they still have an ad department for the dead tree version of things. That means they have the people in place to sell ads and integrate them into their content. Of course, magazine ads don't really fit your "not huge, distracting or obnoxious" requirement but their ad people can evolve too. There's probably even a business in this for websites/companies that don't have dedicated ad departments.
obsurveyor··on Amazon Lumberyard: free AAA game engine with Oculus and AWS integration
Business. Amazon re-invests almost all their profits in itself(Wall Street hates this a lot). Getting a sweetheart deal from a company about to go under to fill a gap in their software technology to grow out their game section was probably too hard to resist.
obsurveyor··on Amazon Lumberyard: free AAA game engine with Oculus and AWS integration
It's describing the engine and the games that have been produced with it, not necessarily the games that will be created with it in the future. Crysis 3 was definitely a AAA game.
obsurveyor··on Twitter's rumored algorithmic timeline switch
I've always used sk=lf to get chronological Facebook. I wonder what the difference is, if any because I'm trying h_chr and it seems to be the same order.

My issue with it has been even though it's chronological, it doesn't actually show you all the posts from all your friends. It still does it's own crappy algorithmic filter(I think it's based on interaction) and I miss stuff from people I want to hear from all the time. I only have about 60 friends and no one is relatively chatty so there's no reason why I should miss anything.

obsurveyor··on Maru turns Android smartphones into portable PCs
Some devices have a connector that supports SlimPort(aka MyDP) cables which allow you to connect to an HDMI display. You can see a list as well as get more info here:

http://www.slimportconnect.com/slimport-supported-devices/

obsurveyor··on Livestream of Wendelstein 7-X Stellerator being turned on
No, they want to do this by 2020.
obsurveyor··on MIT dean to start new university: “No majors, no lectures, no classrooms”
The example used is flawed to begin with, in my opinion. Some kind of structure is almost required to learn a language in a reasonable amount of time, assuming there is no immediate access to full immersion 24/7.
obsurveyor··on A VR Cycling Experience for $40
You can get turntable riser rings that will enable this quite easily. You could even potentially modify the riser ring instead of adding more wires to the bike for more linear input(one axis instead of three).
obsurveyor··on Apple May Be Using Congo Cobalt Mined by Children, Amnesty Says
This is called wanting to have your cake and eat it too.

Currently consumers in the Western world are doing it at the cost of child/third world labor. Apple's surely got some margin to cover some of it but why shouldn't prices go up to reflect it? Companies don't have a right to succeed. If the consumer won't play their part then Apple will have to adjust their devices and software to get to a price point consumers will pay. The yearly device model of business is incredibly wasteful and maybe it should go away.

obsurveyor··on Why Would Anyone Use Perl 6?
It's kind of sad to hear that about CPAN, it used to be pointed at as the only bastion of package organization.
obsurveyor··on Tesla Model S can now park itself
"When your reservation is over or you are finished with the vehicle, please place this key-like device into steering column where the traditional key would."

A manual lockout would be a smart thing here. There's all kinds of solutions to the "computers are dumb" problem.

obsurveyor··on E-Prime: English without the verb 'to be'
Your original question is invalid because the questioner would never ask it if they only used E-Prime. Let's re-phrase your question with E-Prime: "Describe E-Prime to me, I've never heard of it."

You get the idea now? The very form of the question affects your understanding of the answer. Through the description you receive, you begin to understand what E-Prime means to those that came up with it. In E-Prime, you literally can't state what it is to anyone else because that would go against E-Prime's rules.

obsurveyor··on You should try FreeBSD (2014)
Always read /usr/ports/UPDATING after upgrading your ports tree, before upgrading any ports. This usually has what's going to break and instructions about how to manage. It does seem like it's not updated as often these days though.
obsurveyor··on The Advertising Bubble
I assume he bought the faucet from Amazon so Amazon knows that. You would think Amazon would sell ads based on past purchases too. Then all the kitchen utensil/product/cleaner companies could pay for an ad that is displayed after the purchase of related items, like kitchen faucets. The weight should be lower on impressions for more faucets(unless it was returned) and higher for these kinds of ads.
obsurveyor··on What MongoDB got right
Are you implying you're not supposed to use joins in SQL?
obsurveyor··on F.C.C. Sides with Hot Spots, and Hospitality Industry Feels a Chill
This isn't true. You can't intentionally use paint or wallpaper that blocks signals in public spaces or places where a wireless device is expected to be able to be used(like a movie theatre) in the case of an emergency.

In the eyes of the FCC it is no different if it is willful.

obsurveyor··on Laser Razor suspended by Kickstarter
They already have that feature: You can select "No thanks" on the rewards screen and pledge a $1 to comment.
obsurveyor··on Test Pilot Admits the F-35 Can’t Dogfight
Israel's rocket defense system, the one used to stop the attacks mentioned in the parent post is really good at being frugal in which rockets it shoots down. It doesn't just try to shoot down every rocket coming at it, it plots them and prioritizes ones that will most likely hit valuable or populated targets. It lets the ones that are going to land in empty fields go, since the risk and damage is minimal.
obsurveyor··on Nantero comes out of stealth mode: Carbon nanotube based non-volatile RAM
They're not making or selling anything. They're only licensing the technology.
obsurveyor··on Vim's speed is not really the point (2013)
But can you repeat it in a slightly different place? That's where vim typically beats other editors for me. Every editor can do a one-off in some way. It's when you can repeat them in different contexts or quickly adapt them to slightly different ones. vim gives you tools right up front to do this quickly and accurately instead of doing repetitive mouse gestures or filling out dialogs.
obsurveyor··on Apple Debuts New 15-Inch MacBook Pro and $1,999 27-Inch Retina iMac
Ah, I thought Ivy Bridge was newer than 2012 but I guess it's been kicking around for quite awhile now.
obsurveyor··on Apple Debuts New 15-Inch MacBook Pro and $1,999 27-Inch Retina iMac
Not really trying to defend the specs here(AMD, yuck) but the CPU should be much faster than the one you have. It's not a straight 100MHz difference with all the processor changes between 2012 and 2015.
obsurveyor··on How the DEA took a young man’s life savings without charging him with a crime
What if the money was incorporated?
obsurveyor··on Did I ever mention that I fucking hate the fucking web
But isn't Android software and the APIs designed to be extremely modular? This could be solved through a separate app that enables the functionality. Maybe if Google's app store supported this idea more extensively, we could choose the options that an app has access to instead of just trusting they're not going to abuse the privilege.
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