Marauder2 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Pebble ends production, ceases support (getpebble.com)

Submitted by phorm on Wednesday December 07, 2016 @12:47PM

phorm writes: In a notice to Kickstarter backers, pebble has stated that — following the acquisition by Fitbit — they will no longer promote, manufacture, or sell devices. Further, while existing functionality may continue, it is likely to be degraded and warranty support will no longer be provided. This includes any recently shipped Pebble models. For those that were eagerly awaiting shipment of Pebble Time 2 and other newer devices, those devices will not ship at all. Pebble has indicated refunds will be made within 4-8 weeks. Those expecting their money may not want to hold their breath, however, because a contradictory statement made by to backers by email says that refunds will be made via Kickstarter by March 2017.

Comment Re: Enjoy Your New Internet Taxes (Score 1) 157

by Marauder2 on Tuesday April 07, 2015 @09:42AM (#49421977) Attached to: Why Is the Internet Association Rewarding a Pro-NSA Net-Neutrality Opponent?

Except that the government has kind of ignored the last part of Amendment 10..

I would argue it's pretty much ignored it in it's entirety. Then again, the Government (and the courts) seems to be good at ignoring the rest of the document as well.

Comment Re: Enjoy Your New Internet Taxes (Score 1) 157

by Marauder2 on Monday April 06, 2015 @07:39PM (#49418825) Attached to: Why Is the Internet Association Rewarding a Pro-NSA Net-Neutrality Opponent?

The Bill of Rights is actually fairly clear that the only legal powers of the Federal Government are those explicitly granted (I.e. Enumerated Powers) to it by the Constitution, and that anything not otherwise prohibited is reserved for individual States to excercise.

http://www.archives.gov/exhibi...
"Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

'The Door Problem' of Game Design 305

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday April 23, 2014 @06:25AM from the making-adoorable-games dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Game design is one of those jobs everybody thinks they can do. After all, they've played a few games, and they know what they liked and disliked, right? How hard could it be? Well, professional game designer Liz England has summed up the difficulty of the job and the breadth of knowledge needed to do it in what she calls 'the door problem.' Quoting: 'Premise: You are making a game. Are there doors in your game? Can the player open them? Can the player open every door in the game? What tells a player a door is locked and will open, as opposed to a door that they will never open? What happens if there are two players? Does it only lock after both players pass through the door? What if the level is REALLY BIG and can't all exist at the same time?' This is just a few of the questions that need answering. She then goes through how other employees in the company respond to the issue, often complicating it. 'Network Programmer: "Do all the players need to see the door open at the same time?" Release Engineer: "You need to get your doors in by 3pm if you want them on the disk." Producer: "Do we need to give everyone those doors or can we save them for a pre-order bonus?"'"

Comment Re:You may also remember (Score 1) 123

by Marauder2 on Friday September 16, 2011 @02:03PM (#37422690) Attached to: NASA's Big Telescope Avoids Death-by-Budget-Cut

That Hubble also went WAY over budget, not to mention the incurred cost of sending a shuttle up not once but twice to fix and upgrade it.

Five times actually...
SM-1 in December 1993
SM-2 in February 1997
SM-3A in December 1999
SM-3B in March 2002
and the most recent and final mission,
SM-4 in May 2009
http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/team_hubble/servicing_missions.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope#Servicing_missions_and_new_instruments

Comment Re:Production unit won't be on the station (Score 1) 36

by Marauder2 on Wednesday July 13, 2011 @12:18PM (#36749934) Attached to: Robotic Refueling Experiment Set Up On Space Station

Most satellites are in geostationary orbit much, much higher than the station, which orbits the earth about fifteen times a day.

Actually, most are in LEO (Low Earth Orbit), the easiest orbit to reach. Also, both GSO (geostationary) and GEO (geosynchronous) orbits have an orbital period of 24 hours (geostationary is a geosynchronous orbit with an inclination of 0deg.), completing a single orbit per day. The end result is that GSO, with an orbital period of 24 hours appears to hover a figure eight pattern (size is dependent on the inclination) over the surface of the Earth while GEO, with an inclination of 0deg, appears to hover over a single fixed point over the equator. Geosync is a lot more common than geostationary since geostationary is much more difficult to maintain and there are only a small handful of geostationary "slots".

up to geostationary orbit or else ever so slightly higher, and using it to refuel until it itself runs out of fuel, then deorbiting it to burn up and launching another.

Except satellites in geosynchronous orbits are too high up to de-orbit back down into the Earth, instead the remaining fuel is used to boost the satellites even higher and out of the way into what's known as a graveyard orbit.

Zuckerberg Quits Google+ Over Privacy Concerns 284

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday July 13, 2011 @09:43AM from the so-much-irony dept.

ianpm writes "Mark Zuckerberg has decided to leave Google's new social network because he 'doesn't want to be tracked.' In other news, the Internet's irony meter has just exploded. Robert Scoble is now the most followed person on Google+ according to The Inquirer." Most of the article is about the rankings of various G+ users with big followings. I currently have a measly 400 or so. Guess I'll never be as cool as MySpace's Tom.

Political Robocallers Indicted In Maryland 85

Posted by timothy on Friday June 17, 2011 @07:36PM from the press-%$#$%$-to-continue dept.

sanzibar writes with a llnk to Politico with an object lesson for modern political campaigners: don't harass the electorate with unwanted robocalls. "Ehrlich campaign manager Paul Schurick and Baltimore political consultant Julius Henson were both charged with three counts of conspiracy to violate election laws, one count of attempting to influence a voter's decision and one count of failing to print an 'authorized by' line on campaign material. Schurick was also charged with a single count of obstruction of justice for failing to turn over materials sought by the grand jury."

Canadian IP Lobbyists Caught Faking Counterfeit Data 118

Posted by Soulskill on Friday June 10, 2011 @07:50PM from the lies-damned-lies-and-statistics dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian IP Council, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce's IP lobby arm, has been caught floating false claims about the scope of counterfeiting in Canada. Recent claims include citing a figure based on numbers the FBI rejects ($22.5 billion), a figure the Canadian police won't support ($30 billion), and when pressed on the issue, it now points to yet another source that upon review indicates it fabricated its claims."

Citi Bank Reveals Attack... One Month Late 111

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday June 09, 2011 @10:43AM from the yeah-sorry-about-that dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Is account security a thing of the past? Quote: 'We're talking a fairly serious hack, too. The personal and account information of some 200,000 Citibank card holders in North America was breached, reports Reuters, including contact specifics like names and email addresses. The solitary bit of good news? Citibank claims far more sensitive info like social security numbers, birth dates, card expiry dates and CVV card security codes was not compromised.'"

Twitter Prepared To Name Users 292

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday May 26, 2011 @05:40AM from the tattle-tweet dept.

whoever57 writes "Ryan Gibbs, a UK footballer (soccer player) had obtained a 'superinjunction' that prevented him being named as the person involved in an affair with a minor celebrity. However, he was named by various users on Twitter. Now, in response to legal action initiated by Mr. Giggs in the UK courts against the users, Twitter has stated that it is prepared to identify the users who broke the injunction if it was 'legally required' to do so. Twitter will attempt to notify the users first in order to give them an opportunity to exercise their rights."

The Internet's New Alternate Reality 869

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @05:11AM from the it's-true-i-read-it-on-the-interweb dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Tim Rutten writes in the LA Times that when President Obama released his long form birth certificate last week, one of the striking things about the reaction to the president's calm and — to reasonable minds — entirely persuasive appearance in the White House briefing room Wednesday was the rapidity and ease with which so many leading birthers rejected the evidence he presented. 'Until very recently, if every professional news organization in the nation examined a charge and found it baseless, it was — for all intents and purposes — dropped,' writes Rutten. 'Today, the growth of the Internet has drained the noun "news" of its former authority. If you don't like the facts presented on the sites of established news organizations, you simply keep clicking until you find one whose "facts" accord with your beliefs.'"

WP7 Predicted To Beat iPhone By 2015 377

Posted by timothy on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @06:28PM from the ask-again-later dept.

WrongSizeGlass writes "InformationWeek is reporting that Windows Phone 7 will overtake Apple's iPhone by 2015 according to IDC. IDC predicts 2015 will bring: Android 45.4%, WP7 & WinMobile 20.9%, iOS 15.3%, RIM 13.7%, Symbian 0.2%, and 'Others' 4.6%. These numbers would move WP7 into 2nd place and leave iOS in 3rd place with a slightly smaller piece of the smart phone pie than they current hold (15.7%). The author of the InformationWeek story isn't buying IDC's forecast, because of WP7's anemic sales to date and Microsoft's recent stumbles with its first two updates. I have to wonder if WP7 will still be Microsoft's smartphone OS in 2015 or if they'll have moved to WP8."

US Contemplating 'Vehicle Miles Traveled' Tax 1306

Posted by Soulskill on Friday March 25, 2011 @01:07PM from the take-that-california dept.

dawgs72 writes "This week the Congressional Budget Office released a report saying that taxing people based on how many miles they drive is a possible option for raising new revenues, and that these taxes could be used to offset the costs of highway maintenance. The proposed tax would be enforced through the use of electronic metering devices installed on all vehicles. The mileage tax is being considered instead of an increase in the gas tax in order to tax hybrids, EVs, and conventional automobiles equally."

Comment Re:Why many turn to piracy (Score 1) 620

by Marauder2 on Wednesday March 16, 2011 @09:36AM (#35503066) Attached to: Cutting Prices Is the Only Way To Stop Piracy

What's even better is when I pop in a BluRay and they spend the next five minutes extolling the virtues of "HD" trying to convince me to adopt BluRay... WTF, I'm watching your bleeping BluRay, you don't have to try to sell me on a technology I've obviously alredy adopted...

Seriously. I could see some sort of promo on a DVD trying to convince people to try out BluRay, but if someone is watching a BluRay you don't have to tell them about the benefits, real or perceived to convince them to try BluRay... They're obviously already using BluRay. You don't see ads on television telling you how great television is and why you should upgrade from radio... Ok, you see cable and satellite companies advertising on cable TV, but in large part they're trying to tell you that they're less evil than the OTHER cable company and are trying to get you to switch, or keep you from switching providers rather than trying to convince you to stop watching over the air broadcasts and discover subscription television.

Better then making the trailers skippable (which is a bare minimum) better yet, take me straight to the root menu and stick them in a "trailers for other movies you might like" extra section... I know my parents after watching a DVD/BluRay will usually explore the extras, trailers, etc.

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