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User: jfeldredge

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  1. Re:Lies, damn lies. on Hacker Destroys Avsim.com, Along With Its Backups · · Score: 1

    I used to be the system administrator for a small company. At one point, a hard drive controller failure led to data being written to the wrong location on the drive, overwriting other data. Unfortunately, by the time this was discovered, it had been going on for two weeks. The backup system hadn't reported any errors, as it was making a faithful copy of already-corrupted data. Once the hard drive controller had been replaced and the disk reformatted, I had to restore from backup, check the results on the hard drive, and then repeat the process with the previous day's backup if the data was still corrupted. Finally, with two-week-old backups, I was able to restore uncorrupted data. Then, every transaction that had taken place over the last two weeks had to be re-entered into the computer, while making sure that we didn't send out duplicate data to suppliers and customers. It took a month of hard work by all of the office staff to get the system totally caught-up again. So, just because the backup system worked correctly doesn't necessarily mean your data is good.

  2. Re:No, don't go for it. on With a Computer Science Degree, an Old Man At 35? · · Score: 1

    I started my programming career at age 29, and have worked as a programmer/analyst for 23 years now. I have chosen to stay in the programming field, rather than move up into management. I have more technical skills than interpersonal skills, and prefer dealing with the technical side of the job. I still enjoy my work after 23 years.

  3. Re:Yes, go for it. on With a Computer Science Degree, an Old Man At 35? · · Score: 1

    I started my programming career at age 29, and have been working as a programmer/analyst for 23 years now. By personal preference, I have stayed with the technical side, rather than moving up into management. The only point where finding a job was a real problem was when I was laid off after working in the field for six months. At that point, I was being turned down both by companies that wanted someone with two years' experience, and companies that wanted someone fresh out of school with no experience (one HR person told me, "We want people who haven't learned any other company's way of doing things"). Eventually, I found a company that valued ability more than a strict rule on how much experience you had had, and have worked pretty much full-time since then.

  4. Re:On windshields? on In-Game Web Browser Round-Up · · Score: 1

    A few years ago, I was struck by a car while crossing a downtown intersection. The car was stopped at a traffic light, and I was crossing the street from the right (passenger) side of the car. The driver looked to his left, saw that no traffic was approaching, and pulled out into a right turn (legal in Tennessee) without checking whether anyone was in front of him. I didn't have time to jump out of the way, but instead had to topple onto the car's hood and bang on the hood to get the driver's attention. He carried me 20 feet or so before coming to a stop. Had I toppled backwards, he would have run over me, and would probably have simply wondered why the street was so bumpy. Fortunately, I just ended up with bruises on both shins from being struck by the front bumper. If you add a heads-up display on the windshield, many drivers will be paying even less attention to their surroundings than they do now.

  5. Re:Crazy Indians? on Indian GPS Cartographers Charged As Terrorists · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The truly-scary thing is an administrator with a screwdriver. A former boss of mine tried to do his own computer repair, and managed to connect the case of his machine to 110V AC. Fortunately, the only casualties were the PC, one input port on the server, and a scorch mark on the wallpaper above the cable jack. Had this been more recent, with networks rather than RS-232C connections, the damage would have been considerably more expensive.

  6. Re:Mid Range Wireless on Wireless Power Consortium Pushes For Standard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wireless power covering an entire room will have to wait until wireless devices' power requirements go low enough that the radiated energy won't be a hazard to the user. At the power levels currently used by laptops, the power source would have to emit enough energy that you would microwave-cook the user. The device described in this article is probably using short-range magnetic coupling, not radio waves; not a particular threat to health, but putting your laptop on top of the charger would probably scramble the hard drive.

  7. Re:Perfectly safe? on Drilling Hits an Active Magma Chamber In Hawaii · · Score: 1

    If the magma was under enough pressure to burst through solid rock of the type created when it cools then it would have already burst out, tunnel or no tunnel.

    However, if the pressure should increase in the future, the borehole is the likeliest route for the lava to come out, as this is probably now the thinnest point in the magma-chamber wall.

  8. Re:Hot Drill Bit on Drilling Hits an Active Magma Chamber In Hawaii · · Score: 3, Funny

    The last (optional) step is for the drill operator to piss on the drill core. When the geologist opens the box of drill core, the first thing he does is lick the rock, because you can see the colour variations in wet rock a lot easier than in dry rock.

    And then the geologist says, "Someone's been eating asparagus!"

  9. Re:Mobile phones on South Carolina Wants To Jam Cell Phone Signals · · Score: 1

    In the USA, rather than banning laser pointers, they have fairly stringent punishment for shining lasers at aircraft. Of course, this does mean that they have to catch the perpetrator, not an easy task if they shine the laser from a well-populated location and only do so for a few seconds.

  10. Re:Mobile phones on South Carolina Wants To Jam Cell Phone Signals · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Another possible solution is to have a dummy base station that the cell phones will connect to, since it will have a stronger signal than the towers farther from the prison. If the base station is set up so as not to pass any calls on, it effectively blocks the calls. However, such a solution is currently not allowed as it would also interfere with calls for some distance around the prison, as well as the intended calls originating inside the prison.

  11. Re:Two $99 costs £275 plus shipping. on Give One Get One Redux, OLPC XO-1 Now On Amazon · · Score: 1

    The original goal was to produce the laptops for $100 each, but they never succeeded in getting the price below $200 each. Despite this, the "$100 laptop" name has stuck.

  12. Re:I can do this on How To Cloak Objects At a Distance · · Score: 1

    Also, any waste heat will have to be radiated in the direction away from the shield; radiating heat toward the shield will either pass directly through it (revealing your presence) or warm up the shield (causing it to radiate heat and reveal its own presence). An all-sides shield would require storing any heat internally, limiting how long you can stay cloaked before you have to either reveal your presence or cook in your own juices.

  13. Re:I can do this on How To Cloak Objects At a Distance · · Score: 1

    You would still be cloaked only from one side, and visible from other directions. Also, you wouldn't be able to see in the direction that you are cloaked from; if all of the light from that particular angle is passing around you, rather than reaching you, you would see the reverse side of the cloaking device/field as black. So, this technique would work if you were trying to hide from a sensor or observer at a particular angle to you, but wouldn't be particularly effective against a web of sensors that are sharing their results.

  14. Re:In Soviet-America... on Maryland Police Put Activists' Names On Terror List · · Score: 1

    The quotation "Treason doth never prosper. What is the reason? For if it doth prosper, none dare call it treason." does not date back to Ovid, but rather to the 16th century Englishman Sir John Harrington.

  15. Re:Yeah, so? on Live Architecture — Grow Your Own Home · · Score: 1

    Most trees have roots that are at or near the surface. As a result, if it rains hard enough to soften the ground, they blow over in storms that do little or no damage to houses. So, you would need to use trees that created taproots, which rules out most hardwoods. Also, given that trees tend to extend upward higher than most houses, any such "tree-house" would need a built-in lightning-rod system.

  16. Re:bad reporting ? on The Largest Recorded Tsunami Was 50 Years Ago · · Score: 1

    A tsunami produces a relatively small wave in deep water, but then crests to a larger wave when it reaches shore, because you have a lateral movement of an entire body of water. Compared to a splash height of over 1700 feet, a wave height of 100 feet in mid-bay is a relatively small wave. I don't have any problems describing this as a localized tsunami.

  17. Re:Fool me twice... on Darwin Awards 2006 · · Score: 1

    Your professor was using a non-standard definition. Dynamo is a common term for electric generators, particularly the large units used in generating stations to convert mechanical energy (such as from an engine or hydraulic turbine) into electricity. They aren't perpetual motion machines, however; some energy is lost as heat, so the electrical energy output is less than the mechanical energy input.

  18. Re:It has to be said on Pyramid Stones Were Poured, Not Quarried · · Score: 1

    The Pantheon, in Rome, dates from about AD 125, and its dome is made of concrete. Nineteen centuries later, the building is still intact. According to the Wikipedia article, an unreinforced dome built of modern-day concrete would barely support its own weight, since concrete has very low tensile strength. The secret appears to be that the concrete was applied a little at a time and stamped down as it applied, eliminating the air bubbles that would otherwise form and weaken it.