For some reason I can't reply directly, so... just to say glad you're still here. Cuz I didn't forget.

Current plan is $2 per day used, unlimited minutes. Since I don't use the phone much I seldom go above the $15/mo. minimum. Not worth over $30/mo. to me no matter what they offer. (Only Verizon and AT&T have real coverage here; the ZTE only sees Sprint and it can't pull up one bar, so the plethora of cheap Sprint resellers aren't useful. T-Mobile uses AT&T but roaming voicemail doesn't work.)

Anyway I'm in no rush; by the time it hits Walmart the price will come down and other options may appear, and might be worth a try on swapping out the SIM card.

Very interesting to me as I need the flipphone's solid protection of the main screen (otherwise it won't be long before it gets broken in the barn), prefer the form factor in my hand and by my ear, and vastly prefer having physical phone controls rather than on-screen.

Right now I use a $12 retard phone because it has the really necessary stuff (protected screen, physical controls) and I can live without the Android features and I don't text. But this looks like a good hybrid best-of-both -- if I can't have a full physical keyboard, this is the next best thing. It's the same size as my retired smartphone (also a ZTE; nothing wrong with the hardware, the problem is Virgin Mobile -- you've been warned) which is plenty big for my uses.

Next question, which I didn't see answered in TFA -- is it going to be available not locked to Tracfone? Verizon is good here but my Verizon account is a lot cheaper than Tracfone.

I wonder where they hid the profits.

I know someone who used to work there. Ten years ago, basic sales rep making $56,000/year plus benefits. Seems a little pricey for an entry-level sales person...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j8k79x7ylY

in which Roger Stone points out that voting fraud and electronic voting are a one-to-one correspondence. I don't know if this is true, but seems to me it's a lot easier to twiddle ones and zeros than it is to insert or delete stacks of physical ballots.

I don't see Logitech on that list. Nor does it tell me which are rebadged and made by whom.

Seems to me there should be a simple utility folks can use to determine vulernability.

...that already deals well with the problem.

It's called a "houseboat".

As someone envisioned FEMA's new housing specs:
http://www.doomgold.com/images/fema.jpg

The reservoirs used for hydro power are very enviro-friendly indeed; they hugely benefit wildlife, and probably do a lot to recharge aquifers since the water sits there long enough to soak in rather than just running past.

Regardless... seems to me this could be adapted to small-scale and local, to use any hill in parallel with existing roadways.

Also, if someone parks a vehicle on your property without permission, you can generally get it towed (and impounded) by the city or county at no charge to yourself. In fact, once the cops arrive they won't let the equipment's owner take it without your permission, so it's up to you if you want to punish the culprit: Tow charges and impound fees can total well up in four figures.

....and winnings are taxed. Probably the object is to track down anyone they think owes taxes on racetrack winnings.

I'd guess most of the rest on the list have a similar motivation.

I especially enjoyed this tidbit:

Worse, after a power outage, it reboots into demo mode-with the cooling compressor off. Spoiled milk, ahoy.

The linked review nails dead-on why this is a Useless Invention.

[eyes two working fridges from 2001 and 2004, decides not to toss out the repairable 1949 antique after all]

FIDOnet!!

Not a bad idea, actually.

From http://gizmodo.com/youtubers-are-up-in-arms-about-youtube-red-1738022087

"the company says it will give YouTube Red partners a majority of the subscription revenue they bring in. YouTube hasn't specified the exact amount, but it will be based on your watch time."

Reading this literally -- downloaded content has no "watch time" ... and therefore would not garner payment for the content creators.

First they complain of drought, now they complain because they'll get too much rain... hey, envirowhacks on the left coast, are you glad you didn't tear down all your flood-control dams yet??

I lived in SoCal during a "bad" El Nino year, back a couple decades. And what became obvious to me is that it's not the heavy rain that's the problem, it's the slapdash planning, and too many "view lots" on the edge of cliffs made of porous material (like sand and clay). Plus a complete lack of understanding of how to channel excess water to minimize destruction (here's a hint: you want to slow it down and spread it out, not make it rush faster so it undercuts even more. Guess which I saw done over and over in SoCal.)

Thanks for the link. Last time I looked at the kyocera the price was still higher than it's worth to me. $20 is more like it. As to whether it will work with my cheap Verizon pay-as-you-go...?? looks to me like that one is locked to Sprint. Sprint is completely worthless here. (See map: http://www.boostmobile.com/coverage/ that's about right in my experience. I'm near Billings MT.)

I find the smartphones harder to hear on -- has to be positioned perfectly or I can't hear the durn thing at all. Maybe it's the aging ears; younger mileage may vary.

I don't think you realise how much banging around happens if you do physical work outdoors (or in a barn). Where the pockets are is also a commonly-used point of leverage. The phone occasionally gets subjected to being crushed because it just gets in the way. If it's much more breakable than a pocketknife, it WILL get broken. Either that, or it won't be carried at all, and then why bother with it?

If you don't live on the phone, most of its time is spent held in the hand next to the ear, not typing on it. Contacts can be imported rather than retyped.

So who will really benefit here? hardware manufacturers? content providers?

I know all it does for me is make me even less likely to ever break down and buy a new TV (something I never did after the switch to digital... well, no point now!)

I had a glassbrick smartphone (Android) and hated it. Now I have a flipphone that cost $12 purchased outright (yes, twelve dollars). It's dumb as a rock (it can't even do call switching, tho it sorta receives texts if they're short enough). Battery life is so-so, about four hours of talk or a couple weeks of disuse. I prefer it because I can carry it in my pocket in the barn and not worry about it getting banged or wet -- won't hurt it a bit, and it was no big investment to start with. And it's FAR easier on both the hand and the ear than the smartphone was.

What I'd really like is a flipphone with a full keyboard, such as used to exist but seem to have vanished in favor of larger screens. Then having the smartphone features would make sense. With the push-3-times keyboard, it's all too much bother to use, at least typing in English. (Since I don't type Japanese I can't speak to that.) And make the whole phone a little larger so it's not so dang hard to hang onto; my pocket isn't so tiny that it has to be the size of a matchbox, and my big paws aren't so fond of tiny objects.

...the fact that IXQuick/Startpage fucked with their interface, making it unusable without javascript, and by the time they fixed it, no doubt many others like myself had migrated to DDG, never to return.

Pretty much same here. I don't mind useful, unobtrusive ads. I don't mind occasional brand-recogntion ads. I do mind being punched repeatedly in the eyeball by the same damn ad everywhere I look. Yeah, I'll remember that brand, all right -- as one to avoid.

I don't bother with AdBlock. Between HOSTS, Prefbar, and NoScript, and occasionally "block images from this server", 99% of the obnoxious stuff fails to penetrate my desktop, and what's left doesn't amount to much.

I thought something like this had already been deployed, decades ago -- what happened to that?

Doesn't look solved to me. Rather, looks like it's solved good enough for devices that are seen as more or less disposable, like cellphones and tablets.

When the user can feel the innards working, the user can figure out where to stop dialing. I didn't realise there was a specific procedure, but when I was a kid I'd snag "lost combination" locks from the trash and work it out by feel. Mind you this was 40 years ago. Apparently combination locks haven't changed much.

Used to be higher than that; it's changed since last I looked, now definitely looks attractive.

https://republicwireless.com/plans/

But do they resell Sprint, like most of these MVNOs?? cuz that's not real useful in my area.

Also means it'll have the same limited area service as Sprint and T-Mobile, neither of which is worth much here in Montana.

I've had T-Mobile -- reception was decent, but could not get voicemail in any roaming area.

I've had service via a Sprint reseller -- worst reception ever. Zero to two bars when anything else got four, and 3-4 bars when everything else got five.

So I feel less than enthusiastic on those counts.

As to the cost -- maybe if they'd offer phone only (unlimited) and BYOP (I'm not interested in buying another phone for their service; I already own Sprint and T-Mobile specific phones). I'm not interested in paying $10/GB to use a crappy phone interface.

And where the hell did the Moderate button disappear to??

That too. I've often wondered how many of the specimens we have were not actually from a separate species, but rather, just outlier specimens of the same species.

And how many outliers of other species have been misidentified as belonging to various proto-humans, too.

Without DNA analysis, we're really just guessing. What if they were looking at the fossilized remains of all of today's 300+ breeds of dog, with all the variation those encompass? would they be ID'd as 300 different species??

...is that tool-using humans are older than they think, but that fossil specimens have not been recovered (and might never be).

Seems you have to enable javascript in your Pipedot preferences, not just in your browser. The major effect I immediately notice is that typing in the comment box gets a little laggy, as does initial display of the comment box itself. Also seems to impact display of comments under the story, as when I enabled JS in my settings, that got laggy too. (The story appears immediately, the comments take about 10 seconds.)

Also, now when I move the cursor with the arrow keys, it vanishes. It's fine if placed with the mouse or moved with the Home or End keys.

Termites are fairly sensitive to a variety of pesticides (also to cold and dehydration). The problem is that the core of the nest, along with the queen, is usually well underground, therefore safe from the usual pesticides.

The solution is to treat the area with "Termidor" which they'll take home to mama, and eventually this kills the entire nest.

But the problem with the desert is that there are always more termites, so killing 'em off one colony at a time is an exercise in futility.

A better alternative in termite country is the metal-framed, metal-covered house, which is both flexible like wood, and rather more fireproof as well as pestproof. Unfortunately as of the last time I checked, metal houses were not yet insurable!

In the SoCal desert where I lived for 28 years, you don't need super-termites; the native ground termites will eat everything just fine. Any cellulose (including lawn clippings, cardboard, dead weeds, and flour) they can get to will be eaten. Lay a 2x4 on the ground and it will be infested within a week (literally). Termite control is a way of life.

My screen is 1920x1080 at 120dpi. On Pipedot, to achieve approx. 12-point on the screen, I have browser zoom at 150%. At site default, it's visually approx. 5 point.

I must need to air out my cave, but I'd never seen/heard him sing and had never heard of this little gem. He's actually pretty good, and that he can do that material with a straight face? *That* is acting!!

And this is the article I came here to read today.

In this case, the connection is "What does this tech do to your life?"

An article that contemplates this very issue:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_green_lantern/2011/03/disoriented_in_the_dairy_aisle.html

Did I see correctly that it has two black and two semi-transparent sides?

Walmart (which probably has a larger sample than anyone else) studied what happened when disposable plastic bags were banned in some locale (I forget where this was, but some city in California). They found that sales of packaged disposable plastic bags went up significantly -- apparently replacing all the Walmart plastic bags that had formerly been repurposed.

Point is, people still wind up using and disposing of the same quantity of plastic bags, whether they use the 'free' bags their groceries went into, or buy brand new plastic bags by the box. And the purchased bags are heavier plastic, rather less degradable than the store-type bags.

So banning plastic grocery bags produces no net gain to the environment, and likely produces a net loss (more nondegradeable material, more petroleum used).

Also, I've started to wonder if the store-type bags are now a cellulose-type plastic, since they fall apart at the slightest exposure to the elements.

Or that would help me get up the hill or against the wind. Ideally one that would charge when it wasn't assisting, like downhill, flat, or with the wind.

Genetics: Why you look like your father, or if you don't, why you should.

Bah. Pickups changed in 1997 and they ain't been the same since.

...says the person driving a 1991 F-350.

Glad you kept "journal", cuz I destest the word "blog" !!

I've noticed the soy drama too :(

I like having all three sites each as their own thing. If a story gets duplicated, probably best to have each site's individual take on it, rather than a straight-up duplicate.

For everyone who is pissed about having to dumpster-dive to find basic settings like enable/disable Javascript and load/don't-load images, my solution is prefbar:

http://prefbar.tuxfamily.org

And if you disable compatibility checking, it will work despite the browser's complaints.

Probably because Firefox continues to make Google its default search engine.

Default ads in my fresh browser? Great way to guarantee I never install Firefox again.

(Actually, I haven't since SeaMonkey and PaleMoon became available.)

I've messed with the conversion part a few times and I agree with the commenter who said it's hard to figure out (I don't care what it looks like, but it uses programmer logic, not user logic). In fact after a few go-rounds (and discovering it doesn't respect my file locations) I stopped bothering. :(

This is a lowly P4-2GHz with 1.3GB RAM and WinXP. Everything else runs fine (sufficiently well that I'm not terribly motivated to replace it); Calibre is notably sloggy. I don't put =any= books in its library, and occasionally I clean out the trash it leaves in %Temp%.

The bookmark script frequently hangs, too: "A script on this page is running slowly. Do you wish to stop the script? Yes/No" and once it does that, the script will never complete and will sometimes crash the whole program. If it's done it once on a given book, it will do it again in that same part of the file, tho I haven't pinned down a common factor, other than it's more likely with larger files.

On a middle-aged machine (a little low on CPU but plenty of RAM), Calibre can take up to two MINUTES to start. It can take equally long to load a 1mb PDF or a 500k epub. (It does somewhat better on .mobi files.) When I go to page down, it often stalls for up to half a minute. I like the fact that it's capable of handling so many file formats, but lordy, the patience it's extracted from me in return...

Same here. I've been eternally frustrated with Linux, 16 years and still vainly hoping to find one I can live with for everyday... the more new distros I hear about, the more prospects for next time I run a bunch of test installs. And yep, one a week is about enough to cogitate about. If at some point this comes with a thorough in-house review, well, that'll be a bonus!

PS. In things to fix, the RSS feed articles lack a link back to this site.

When I use my cellphone, I usually check local wireless just to see what's around. Twice now I've encountered signals for open wireless named something like "FBI Surveillance Van". If it was seen at a given location all the time (as most are) I'd think it was someone being a smartass, but each time it was only in the neighborhood once.

I've been really wondering about what happens when USB2 and USB3 meet. I've read many reviews telling of corrupted and lost data where the common factor seems to be mixing USB2 and USB3. Not what you want to experience with backups!!

I like the little cases -- seems to me they'd do at least a little shock absorption in the event of leaping off the shelf.

I bought one of those docks (different make) back when they were fairly new, but it never did agree to work. No idea what its issue is. Friend got the same one and it worked fine. I guess I'm just lucky!

What I've kinda been thinking of doing is having a whole pile of HDs more or less enclosed and all with USB connectors on a hub, makes 'em all accessable pretty much on demand. Hadn't occurred to me to use a dedicated cabinet, tho -- might be easier to set up for cooling and cables than, say, using an old PC case.

BTW the RSS feed does not contain any links to Pipedot, only links pointing at TFAs.

I like that last idea of yours... can you point us at some specifics (eg. site that sells 'em) so we know what to look for? cuz I hadn't heard of a basically "bare shelf" system available commercially.

(Tho I have done the "several HDs scattered around the desk" method...)