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User: dotancohen

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  1. Re:Let me be the second on Ubuntu Closes Longstanding Bug #1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    How is this bug fixed? From the initial bug report, reproduction instructions:

    Steps to repeat:

            1. Visit a local PC store.
            2. Attempt to buy a machine without any proprietary software.

    What happens:

    Almost always, a majority of PCs for sale have Microsoft Windows pre-installed. In the rare cases that they come with a GNU/Linux operating system or no operating system at all, the drivers and BIOS may be proprietary.

    What should happen:

    A majority of the PCs for sale should include only free software.

    I can still reproduce the bug in its entirety. Nothing has changed since 2004.

  2. Re:Perverse incentive on PayPal Denies Teen Reward For Finding Bug · · Score: 1

    "Remember kids: If you find a bug in Paypal's system, you'll get paid more for selling it to the black hats."

    Back that up. Where are these supposed blackhats? If I have discovered a security flaw in a common product (Adobe, Canonical, Microsoft) where might I sell? If this becomes better known, then Paypal will have competition (i.e. compete on the free market) to pay for the bug reports.

  3. Re:Ask any McDonald about mcdonalds.com domain on Microsoft Files Dispute Against Current Owner of XboxOne.com · · Score: 2

    The impression I got from the nissan.com story was that he tried to make a quick buck (when asked for a price, he said "I don't know, $15 million?") and when he realized that made him look bad he turned it around into a victim story.

    Don't get me wrong, that doesn't excuse Nissan Motors' behavior. I was considering buying a Nissan Murano in 2005, and chose another brand specifically because of the nissan.com debacle. My wife emailed a copy of the vehicle we purchased instead to their customer service department with an explanation.

    Thank you for the perspective. I hate cybersquatters, but assuming that Uzi was not cybersquatting and legitimately using the name, why wouldn't he ask for a few mil? I don't know if that is what he did ask for, but I sure would do the same if some multinational corporation suddenly wanted dotancohen.com from me. Note that I am not cybersquatting dotancohen.com but rather using it for the purpose for which domain names were intended, as was Uzi doing with nissan.com.

  4. Re:Ask any McDonald about mcdonalds.com domain on Microsoft Files Dispute Against Current Owner of XboxOne.com · · Score: 1

    Thanks. I did not know that.

  5. Re: Ask any McDonald about mcdonalds.com domain on Microsoft Files Dispute Against Current Owner of XboxOne.com · · Score: 1

    Thank you, that is an interesting bit to know.

  6. Re:Here's my office suit, written in 3 minutes in on Java Developer Says He Built, Launched Basic Open Source Office Suite In 30 Days · · Score: 1

    You needed 3 minutes to write that code?

    Obviously he wrote it in Emacs. In VIM it would have been four keypresses and a macro, 5.2 seconds from the bash prompt to a.out.

  7. Re:Here's my office suit, written in 3 minutes in on Java Developer Says He Built, Launched Basic Open Source Office Suite In 30 Days · · Score: 1

    And as of C99 no return is necessary.

    Not necessary does not mean that it _should_ be eliminated. I personally find it bad form, because it makes the intent of the code less clear. Even in PHP, the intent of the code becomes much clearer when return is specified. It is a code smell, and it only gets smellier as the application gets larger.

    For the trivial program above, I wouldn't have even mentioned anything, though.

  8. Re:Ask any McDonald about mcdonalds.com domain on Microsoft Files Dispute Against Current Owner of XboxOne.com · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Go ask any of the McDonalds, whose great-great-great-grandpa 200 years ago proudly called himself "Mr. McDonald", how he or she feels about the mcdonalds.com domain

    Go ask Uzi Nissan what Nissan Motor Corporation did (is doing) to him over the name that he registered circa 1996. Uzi Nissan, having a computer shop, bought the domain name of his last name. Never mind that he _also_ had a car dealership called Nissan Motors in the 1970s, when Nissan Motor Corporation was still called Datsun.

  9. Re:A better philosophical approach on Ask Slashdot: When Is the User Experience Too Good? · · Score: 1

    Or just have an undo button...

    That is exactly what he said in the following paragraph:

    it is better to make it easy for users to recover from those mistakes, and for others to recover easily from any side effects of those mistakes

    Say what? Is this guy the real deal?

    Welcome to /.. Yes, you'll meet some real people here who you've heard of before. But don't ever read the articles.

  10. Re:Still on Firefox 8... on Firefox 21 Arrives · · Score: 1

    Maybe in 6 more months when we reach Firefox 50 I'll give it a try, but until then. Firefox 8 all the way!

    Actually, in 6 more months Firefox 24 is expected to be released, which will be an ESR version and thus enjoy longer support.

  11. Re:Global Warming is true, and deadly .. on "Dramatic Decline" Warning For Plants and Animals · · Score: 1

    You're saying that you care about the impact the planet has on you, not vice versa. It's time to recognise that 'harm to the Earth' isn't abstract and you (and your grandchildren) are co-dependant upon the Earth for your survival.

    No, the GP is saying that humans evolved on the Earth, and changing the Earth on short timescales will affect his offspring who cannot evolve quickly enough. I personally feel the same way.

    I really do not care what particular composition of gasses surround whatever rock that my offspring live on, nor the temperature of those gasses. I'm just concerned that the composition of gasses and their temperature are suitable for my offspring to live and grow food in.

  12. Re: Why not? This proves Warmists are wrong. on CO2 Levels Reach 400ppm at Mauna Loa For First Time On Record · · Score: 1

    Do you think science be put through a political lens before it's published or talked about?

    Quite the opposite, but I wish (ha, and a pony) that those with a political agenda would not misrepresent science as being in anyone's 'interest' or misquoting scientific papers to show one thing when the full results show something completely different.

  13. Re: Why not? This proves Warmists are wrong. on CO2 Levels Reach 400ppm at Mauna Loa For First Time On Record · · Score: 1

    From that PDF:

    This study showed that only about one percent of net primary productivity and 16 percent of eroded carbon contribute to carbon sequestration in eroding watersheds. Combining these results with global estimates from previous studies, the erosion-induced terrestrial carbon sink can potentially offset as much as 10 percent of the global fossil-fuel emissions of carbon dioxide in 2005.

    So that PDF which tries to convince us that releasing carbon is a non-issue due to soil erosion cannot account for the other 90% of the carbon in the atmosphere? And it does not even mention the other ill aspects of soil erosion.

    No, soil erosion can only 'correct' 10% of the 2005 level of the problem. Hint: world carbon emissions have _increased_ since 2005, and then there is the other 90% of the problem to deal with.

  14. Re:Apache sometimes legitimately uses shared memor on Backdoor Targeting Apache Servers Spreads To Nginx, Lighttpd · · Score: 1

    Just because you see a shared memory segment used by apache doesn't mean that you're infected. Apache sometimes legitimately uses shared memory segments. See, for example: http://blog.nominet.org.uk/tech/2008/03/26/apache-shared-memory/

    Thank you. That is an interesting use case, one that I had never encountered. Obviously, if Apache has been configured to share memory across processes then seeing it do so is not clear sign of infection. However, if Apache has not been explicitly configured to do so, then seeing Apache sharing memory with another process is a real red flag.

    Your linked blog is great, there are quite a few gems in there. Thanks!

  15. Re:Why? on Backdoor Targeting Apache Servers Spreads To Nginx, Lighttpd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why isn't there a list of infected sites? Avoiding them would seem to be a priority.

    Here is how to make sure you are not one of the infected sites: Compile and run this:
    http://www.welivesecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/dump_cdorked_config.c

    If you don't want to vet that, you can get a first-aproximation with "ipcs", just look for the Apache PID, which you can get from "ps aux | grep apache2".

  16. Re:Sound? on Listening To the Big Bang – In High Fidelity · · Score: 1

    Yes, you are correct. Reviewing the chronology of the big bang on Wikipedia, I see that I had all kinds of mistakes in the order for which events happened. Thank you for correcting me!

  17. Re:Sound? on Listening To the Big Bang – In High Fidelity · · Score: 1

    I'm not buying that one. The materials would be super-dense, super-hot, moving at almost the speed of light, and moving in different directions. I don't think sound would have much meaning here which could be correlated with what we sense as sound.

    We correlate the propagation of disturbances in the fluid medium which immerses us as "sound". Do you not think that disturbances propagated in the fluid medium that existed moments after the big bang?

  18. Re:Sound? on Listening To the Big Bang – In High Fidelity · · Score: 1

    Relevant for you:
    http://tomsastroblog.com/archives/13999
    In space, no one can hear you scream. Maybe.

  19. Re:Another dumb question.... on Green Meteorite Found In Morocco May Be From Mercury · · Score: 1

    The tricky part of this scenario is getting the rock enough kinetic energy to boost it from Mercury's orbit out to Earth. I'd guess a slingshot around the sun was probably needed.

    How does something slingshot around the sun? I am aware of planetary slingshots, but they depend upon the planet's orbital speed around the sun. I could see how the sun will change the direction of the object, but not how it could impart more kinetic energy to the object.

  20. Re:that would mean... on Seniors Search For Virtual Immortality · · Score: 1

    Microsoft has already invented this (sort of), no-one really used it because it was slow, buggy, and made your entire computer run like shit.

    What was it called? I'm not finding anything from casual googling.

  21. Re: Or White Noise on Ask Slashdot: Best Way To Block Noise In a Dorm? · · Score: 1

    And don't forget to put your source of white noise between you and the wall through which the most noise comes into the room. Probably the doorway, but maybe not.

  22. Re:An Old Discussion on Orson Scott Card's Superman Story Shelved After Homophobia Controversy · · Score: 1

    A question, then: is it possible for a famous person to openly state a viewpoint without "using their own popularity" to further said viewpoint?

    Ender managed to do just that in Speaker for the Dead.

  23. Re:I'm not even a fan, but on Orson Scott Card's Superman Story Shelved After Homophobia Controversy · · Score: 1

    " If marriage is such an important religious institution"

    Excuse me but religion has hijacked marriage as its own, far as I can tell marriage existed way before Christianity.

    Excuse me but Christianity has hijacked religion as its own, far as I can tell religion existed way before Christianity.

  24. Re:Is it fixed? on Ask Slashdot: How To Convince a Company Their Subscriber List Is Compromised? · · Score: 1

    I'd bet my left nut "a well-known provider of tools for the Systems Administration community" is Atlassian, and they claim there's no issue.

    Would you really risk loosing your left nut to know that? Worse, if you are right, would you really want two left nuts?

  25. Re:Please don't... on Ask Slashdot: How to Pimp My Android Tablet? · · Score: 1

    He built a 'sleeper'. Imagine the show-off in the Boss 302, Mach 1, or even Camaro SS, who get his doors blown off by a Pinto.