Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Preventing Misuse? (Score 1) 157

What's to prevent someone from installing this somewhere just to mess with people? What's done to prevent false broadcasts? If they've figured that out, how are they going to do it without tracking everyone's location, so it can be sold and exploited by someone with loads of money, or used by the government?

Comment Local News? (Score 2) 122

For me, it depends on whether the "local" newspapers will actually cover local news, and have reasonable rates. When the one near me started losing money, the first thing they cut was local news, then they started raising rates. All they were doing was taking articles from the AP and some of the larger national papers, cut/pasting them, and charging more for it. Within a year or two, they increased the rates so much that it cost for 2 months, what it used to cost for 6 months, so I quit. I wish them luck, but a lot of people have moved on to online rumor mills, and seem to be happy with them.

Comment Plus... (Score 1) 86

I ran into this before, the reviews were for something completely different than what was being sold, and there is no clear way to report it. I was resorting to reviewmeta and fakespot for a while, but they're getting muddled up (actually, fakespot became useless all on it's own, due to changes that were made to hide all meaningful insight). Anyway, Amazon reviews have really become completely worthless, because of -
1. Sellers gaming the system.
      a. Switching the product associated with reviews (as cited in original post).
      b. Creating fake accounts and selling to them, so they can write positive reviews (see news about people inexplicably receiving seeds in the mail that they didn't order), and become a "top seller."
      c. Writing negative reviews for competing products.
2. People with grudges posting negative reviews (see review bombing).

If I can, I try to find a reputable review of things I want to buy, but that is hard to do because -
1. Companies are constantly churning out new models.
2. So many options exist for given competing products, it's nearly impossible to find more than one review of the same product.
3. Horrible search results that list sites I've never heard of before.

Comment "Price" vs Acceptance (Score 1) 182

I don't believe the reported price has anything to do with general acceptance. I suppose in order to have some value, some people have to accept that value, but that doesn't mean the general public consider it acceptable in everyday transactions. If anything the price volatility goes against it for that purpose. Beyond that, what is this price based on, individual trades, if so what market is this in? Who trusts the people that manage the market? Do we know they are reporting things properly? What price controls are in place? How susceptible is it to price manipulation? Say, for example, I put my bitcoin in a bitcoin bank, what are my protections if it just disappears (which appears to be happening regularly)?

Comment Re:"Insurance" isn't what the US has (Score 1) 382

I'm not sure how you can equate the UK with the US. To qualify for Medicare you need to be above a certain age or meet some very specific medical conditions. To qualify for Medicaid the maximum income is horribly low ($16,753 single/$34,638 family of four, according to what I found). If you don't qualify for either and can't afford insurance, the clinics you mention might help, but I'm not aware of any within a 100 miles of where I am. I am aware of physicians that dropped insurance and went with payment plans or the like, but then that only helps when you go to see them specifically, and doesn't cover prescriptions, blood work, seeing other specialists, hospitalization, emergency care, etc. If you don't have insurance and have an emergency or chronic illness/condition, in most places in the US, there are no real options (besides possibly bankruptcy for the emergency bill).

Comment How useful will it be? (Score 1) 382

I hope it's more useful than I'm imagining. When someone is unconscious and someone else calls 911, they're not going to be able to browse a list of ambulance providers and hospitals and review prices. Also, most people that don't have insurance, don't have a lot of money in general, so I'm not sure how helpful this would be, unless there are places that provide reasonably competent care for pennies in comparison to what I've seen.

Comment Re:He did put a full response (Score 5, Insightful) 187

Outrage is all the rage right now. If it wasn't clear in this video, this is just a guy doing some youtube videos on the side, trying to coordinate things with friends and volunteers. If you watched several of his videos, this is entirely obvious, and he does not try to hide it. He is not an investigative journalist or detective, so you have to take that into account, as he may not be as rigorous in some of his methods. I was obviously skeptical when he lent the device to other people, as anyone should be. Based on the evidence, you could possibly blame him for being naive or gullible, but that is about it. If you have a problem with it going forward, just don't watch his videos, and simply question the credibility of any information where he is the source. Although, I suspect people will take it further though (harassment, etc), and I hope he doesn't suffer undue consequences.

Comment Re:Uh-oh, you know what this means (Score 1) 277

So far, every single company that has announced employee bonuses thanks to the tax bill has followed with an announcement of layoffs shortly afterward. In some cases, the dollar savings of the layoffs almost exactly matched the dollar cost of the bonuses.

^ This ^

Oooh, look, shiny bonuses. (btw we're laying off hundreds/thousands, and forcing people to sign NDA's to get any severance/etc)

Slashdot Top Deals

Professional wrestling: ballet for the common man.

Working...