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I received this email this afternoon:

From: notices[at]slashdotmedia.com
2016-03-16

Dear Site User,

Fair processing notice - Data Protection Act 1998

We are writing to let you know that with effect from 27 January 2016, the Slashdot Media business, which provides online services through various web sites including Slashdot.org and SourceForge.net (the "Slashdot Media Services") has been purchased by SourceForge Media LLC of 1660 Logan Avenue, San Diego, California, 92113, USA ("we" or "us").

As a result your personal data have been transferred to us and will be used in connection with the continued provision of the Slashdot Media Services to you. Your personal data will continue to be processed fairly and lawfully in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 for the same purposes as those it was originally collected by Dice Career Solutions Inc and/or eFinancialCareers Limited including to:

* continue to provide you with information (by electronic means or otherwise) about other services we offer that are similar to those that you have already received or enquired about;
* carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
* provide you with the information and services you request from us;
* tell you about changes to the Slashdot Media Services; and
* ensure that the content made available through the Slashdot Media Services is presented in the most effective manner for you and your device.

Further information on how your personal data may be processed, who it may be disclosed to and how it will be stored can be found in the Slashdot Media Services privacy policy available at: http://www.slashdotmedia.com/privacy-statement/

You can ask us to remove all your account data, stop processing your personal data and to stop contacting you for marketing purposes at any time.
* For SourceForge.net, please contact us at sfnet_ops[at]slashdotmedia.com
* For Slashdot, please contact us at privacy[at]slashdot.org
* For FreeCode, please contact us at freecode-privacy[at]slashdotmedia.com
* For SlashdotMedia.com, please contact us at sfnet_ops[at]slashdotmedia.com

Please let us know if you have any queries.
Yours sincerely,
Logan Abbott
The team at SourceForge Media LLC

Their privacy policy does allow them to share your info with advertisers:

In order to effectively tailor our services, these Sites may sell your personal information third party consultants and business partners, including, but not limited to other lead generation companies (collectively “Third Party Contractors”) to collect, compile, organize, and market to you related services.

When you submit any personal identifiable information on a Site, we will obtain your consent authorizing the Sites to sell to Third Party Contractors, any and all personally identifiable information that is necessary to enable additional service offerings.

Hopefully this doesn't mean a spam bombardment.

I've been looking for a new job for a bit now, and Applicant Tracking Systems are the bane of my search. A long series of forms can take up to 20 minutes to fill out, and for what? So a human being can never even look at it?

iCIMS
Why do I need to enter a time zone setting for my account?
Why are there over 100 options, including "Antarctica/Casey (Australian Western Standard Time)" and "Pacific/Efate (Vanuatu Time)" when I've already given you my bloody postal code?
Why, when using my LinkedIn info to fill out your forms, do you need access to everything in my LinkedIn profile, including messages ya creeps?

LinkedIn
Why can't I limit what I share with other sites? Why is sending messages as me even an option?
Also, politics do not belong on LinkedIn. Don't kill your platform with offtopic noise, like memes.
Search options like my location and search radius should be remembered.

ClearCompany.com
Why can't I upload my resume from my PC instead of using Dropbox or Google Drive?

Glassdoor.com
Why am I automagically logged out when I close my browser?

Elsewhere, etc.
No, I'm not sharing my salary history with you. Not even if we are close to an offer. I'm not telling you what I made at the last 5 jobs in your tracking database, so don't make it a required field.
Recruiters, if you ask for an email in the posting, can you at least acknowledge you got it?
Why do I need an account and password and multiple forgot-password questions that are common?
No, I'm not giving you my mother's maiden name.
If you have a tracking system, why doesn't it email me when I'm rejected, or even list it as "not selected" when I check? It's like a black hole where I give info and get nothing in return.
The turnaround time frame on even hearing on submission can be in weeks or longer. Why not list when you're going to process the stack of resumes?

On a related note, I'd like to see employment law change so employers can give a reason why they reject a candidate without being sued. The only way I get any useful interview feedback is via agencies.

Democracy is a joke, says China – just look at Donald Trump

“The rise of a racist in the US political area worries the whole world,” the party-controlled Global Times crowed this week ahead of of Trump’s victory in the latest round of primaries. “He has even been called another Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler by some western media.” It added, darkly: “Mussolini and Hitler came to power through elections, a heavy lesson for western democracy.”

Trump, or “Chuanpu” as they call him in China, has been a gift to Communist party spin doctors paid to convince the country’s 1.4 billion citizens that rule of the people is a sure path to chaos and destruction.

“They are relishing this moment,” says Zhou Fengsuo, a US-based democracy activist who fled his native China following the deadly 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. “They are very happy. They are laughing over this. To them [Trump] is a good character to show the deficiencies of the democratic system, that such a person could become president. It is just unbelievable. Beijing is definitely gloating over this.”

[...] Chinese newspapers, which have previously pounced on the Arab Spring and Ukraine’s Maidan revolution as evidence of the dangers of democracy, have wasted no time in hyping the potential turmoil that Trump’s rise could bring.

An editorial in the Chinese-language edition of the Global Times noted with glee that fighting had broken out at Trump rallies in what was supposedly one of the world’s “most developed and mature democratic election systems”.

[...] An editorial on another government-run website claimed Trump had “humiliated” the US political system. “He has turned the election into a prank,” it said.

Depressed people commonly want something they haven't got - love, money, a job, a better job. My present depression is not like that. I lost interest in everything, I sleep excessively, until a couple days ago I was vomiting after every meal, but there was nothing particularly that I wanted, whose acquisition promised to dispel this miserable rain cloud that's been following me everywhere.

Rather, I know now that time will take care of it. It always does. I don't know how much time but a bit of progress is that I went back for seconds at the Portland Rescue Mission's breakfast this morning, not because I was so hungry, but because the food tasted so good.

Actually it's been a while since food tasted good.

I was sleeping during the day at Right 2 Dream Too on Saturday, when I woke up my boots were gone. I was quite dismayed as I could not imagine being admitted to businesses barefoot, also it is still cold and wet here in Portland. But the R2D2 staff gave me a brand-new pair of shoes that someone had donated.

Tucked into my boots for "safekeeping" were my phone and my glasses.

I have a friend who helps me out with certain expenses, I can't just ask him for any amount of money but if I have something credible to spend it on he'll lend me some cash. He's going to buy me a new phone this weekend.

I don't know how I'll get new glasses. I'm not totally blind without them but it is irritating to have everything blurry.

Even all this doesn't get me down. It did at first.

Shit Happens.

WATCH: Florida Deputy Illegally Arrests PINAC Reporter Protesting At High School
Broadcast by honoryouroath + YouTube

Florida Sheriff’s deputies illegally enforced the “school safety zones” trespassing law against PINAC reporter Jeff Gray, outside of a St. Augustine high school earlier today. Gray complied with law enforcement orders, and is currently being held in the northeastern Florida St. Johns County jail, but oddly no charges are listed with his mugshot, unlike all of the other suspects as you can see below.

The St. Johns Sheriff’s Office has wanted to detain Gray for many months now, after the local schools Superintendent declared him persona non grata, even though Gray has a son currently attending St. Augustine High School and two other children in the system.

Jeff Gray was arrested while protesting with a sign in hand, the SLAPP lawsuit filed against him by St. Johns Schools last December. The legal action was filed along with 38 SLAPP letters sent to his home address by certified mail, one of which invoked Florida Statute 810.0975 and its “school safety zones.”

“How are you doing, Mr. Gray?” asked the Florida deputy as he got out of his patrol car, wearing street clothing, to which Jeff responded, “Pretty good. How are you?” “May I ask you why are you here?” asked the St. Johns sheriff’s deputy. “I am peacefully assembling and peacefully protesting,” replied Gray. “Ok. Do you realize [that] this is a violation of your no trespass order that was issued. Correct?” asked the deputy.

“No, it’s not actually. There’s a provision that that says “shall not infringe on the right to peacefully assemble and protest If you look in the statute, it’s right there,” said Gray, whose HonorYourOath YouTube page is famously filled with instances like these where the reporter very carefully expresses to the officers his statutory or constitutional rights, and he re-iterated for emphasis, “In the statute. That’s why I’m here.”

“This is within the 500 foot safety rule, so i’m putting you under arrest for violation of that trespass order,” replied the Florida deputy who seemed to suddenly remember that Gray is a reporter and would in all likelihood be recording the scene, “If you would, put your sign down, turn your phone off, put your hands behind your back, turn around please. Put your hands together like you’re praying, please.”

Gray surrendered to detainment. “If you look at the statute, there’s a provision…” said Gray as the sheriff’s deputy cuffed him. But Jeff Gray is right. The last sentence of the “School Safety Zones” statute reads: “Nothing in this section shall be construed to abridge or infringe upon the right of any person to peaceably assemble and protest.”

It's been a month since the Soylent News Folding@Home team was established, and we've made major strides. As of the time of writing, we are currently in 1684th place, and rising quickly. Thanks for everybody's participation!

Currently, we have 33 active folders contributing 83 CPUs to the effort. We've completed a grand total of 2516 work units. Our top 10 folders are:

1. Beldin65
2. kurenai.tsubasa
3. tibman
4. LTKKane
5. Kymation
6. cmn32480
7. Runaway1956
8. SirFinkus
9. NotSanguine
10. crutchy_work

According to extremeoverclocking.com we'll be in the top 1000 in about 1.2 months.

Hillary Clinton Falsely Credits Reagans With Starting ‘National Conversation’ on HIV/AIDS

Edit: BBC picked up on the story.

Note: Typed this out last year but never got around to posting it.
        I’ve been meaning to install Linux on this notebook for quite some time, and finally got around to it Friday.
        I started using Linux back in 2002 with Mandrake, and I loved it. They later renamed it Mandriva, and I kept using it. Then I found out that they were disbanding and patches would stop coming, so I switched to kubuntu, which is Ubuntu with a KDE desktop instead of that God-awful Gnome desktop. It ran happily on an old HP tower for years until the old tower had a severe hardware failure. I still need to take its hard drive and video card out and install them in the old Dell, which isn’t on my network because it’s running XP.
        My first notebook I had like this one was stolen in a burglary five or six years ago. It was the same model as this, and it ran kubuntu very well, far better than its native Windows. With Windows I had to run a program from the ISP to get wi-fi working on it, but it just worked fine on kubuntu without my having to do anything.
        So Friday I put it on this notebook dual-boot, since I need Microsoft Word even though I hate Microsoft Word. Knowing it would take a while I plugged in its power, and plugged it into the network for more speed. It took ten minutes to get my part of the installation done, and watched the news as Linux installed.
        I booted it up when I was done, and egad, KDE! What have you done?! Yes, it’s a beautiful desktop, but it isn’t the same KDE I’ve been using for almost fifteen years.
        What the hell, you stupid wet behind the ears software designers, are you NUTS? Look, you dumbasses, changing an interface all around for no good reason is just brain-dead stupid. I don’t want to learn a brand new God damned interface unless it’s instantly recognizable as an improvement, and this is about the same stupid move Microsoft made with Windows Eight. Look, you morons, if I wanted to learn a new interface I’d install Gnome or something.
        Next I wanted to hear music, so I needed on the internet. I tried to connect to my server but simply couldn’t get on with the wi-fi. Strangely, I was able to connect with someone else’s unsecured wi-fi. It had gotten on the internet easily with the network card plugged in.
        Someone had said that Libre Office could read and write .doc files well, so I tried it. First I opened an Open Office document, and the font face was some cartoonish sans serif font instead of Gentium Book Basic.
        Then I opened a .doc file, and it opened, although instead of Courier it had a different sans serif face.
        I wanted to get at some files on my external hard drive, so I plugged the network cable in. It indicated a connection, and I could get on the internet through the router, but the external drive didn’t show up.
        I doubt that’s the OS’s fault, though, since it wouldn’t let me connect with my own wi-fi but was fine with someone else’s. I’m pretty sure it’s that damned modem-router that the cable company makes me rent. I’d change ISPs if I weren’t planning to move next Spring.
        At any rate, KDE now sucks. Someone said XCFE was good, I’ll have to try it.

(Note: I've been way too busy)

I was in the Emergency Room Sunday night for a profoundly stupid reason. I got a chest X-Ray. It showed a mass on my right lung. The ER doc told me to ask my primary care physician for a referral for a CT scan.

Her receptionist was real clueful, got me an appointment for Friday morning. I expect the CT scan will be next week - they're not like MRIs, there's no real wait time for CT scans in the US.

It could be a benign growth. The usual practice is to watch the mass over some period of time. Cancer will grow quickly, benign growths slowly or not at all.

Cancer will have a rough surface, which will show in a CT scan but not an X-Ray.

It would suck to die young, but I feel I've accomplished what I set out to do, that being to teach others, in the form of my writing.

The stupid reason that I was in the ER is that my insurance and psychiatrist and so my pharmacy are all in Washington State. I've been staying in Oregon due to the ready availability of food and shelter. That means I need bus fare to pick up my meds.

I've had a real bad cold, so I could not sing on the street to raise the money for the bus.

Now there are other ways I could have gotten my medicine. I guess the stupid reasons are - overall - a good thing, as these resulted in my X-Ray.

Has anyone ever died here in Soylent? Kuro5hin has been around long enough that a few people have. Mindpixel and enterfornone committed suicide. trhurler dropped dead of a heart attack while hiking in the woods. I think someone was killed in action in Iraq.

The ER doc said my "cold" was really acute bronchitis. I should have realized that as my sore throat and stuffed-up nose both cleared up but I have quite a severe cough.

In other news, the housing division of the organization that runs my mental health clinic tells me I qualify for housing. I don't know yet how soon that will be. I have the number of the guy that handles the paperwork; I called him a couple days ago, he called back but just left his name and number, now my phone is out of juice. There are no power sockets where I'm hanging right now, but I expect I can rejuvenate my phone by mid-afternoon.

HyperX Introduces 16 GB DDR4 Impact SODIMM Modules, Kits Up To 64 GB At 2400 MHz

There are a couple 16 GB DDR4 SODIMM memory modules out there, but not very many. However, Kingston is filling the gap with new HyperX modules, which it uses in six new memory kits in its DDR4 Impact line.

The 16 GB DDR4 SODIMM modules will exist in two variants, one with a 2133 MHz frequency and the other at 2400 MHz. The latencies depend on the kit they're in, although the lower-frequency model has slightly quicker timings, as is usually the case.

16 GB modules for consumers are becoming more common, and DDR4 prices are dropping due to the usual industry oversupply. You probably remember a time when 8 GB or 4 GB modules were in this position. What amount of RAM do you want or need for gaming or VM/work computers? Is the requirement of a DDR4-capable motherboard holding you back?

Edit: I didn't realize the story is for SODIMM laptop memory. I don't see a lot of DDR4 laptops because I mainly look at deals which are for older laptops. A typical laptop with removable/replaceable RAM will have 2 slots, so that's 32 GB of memory with this kit.

Older stories:

Price Check: DDR4 Memory Down Nearly 40% in 6 Months, Expected To Continue
G.Skill Introduces 64GB DDR4-3200 Memory Kits
G.Skill Announces 128 GB DDR4 3000 MHz Kit For Content Creation Professionals
Price Check: Price Gap Between DDR3 and DDR4 Memory Almost Gone