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User: MadKeithV

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Comments · 1,183

  1. Re:Sound Quality/Better speakers on Stretchable, Flexible, Transparent Nanotube Speakers · · Score: 1

    This means that in the case of digital audio, half of the bits in each sample are allocated to the top decibel of loudness

    Each additional bit adds 6.02dB of dynamic range (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal-to-noise_ratio#Fixed_point).
    That's 6dB for one bit, not 1dB for half of the bits.

  2. Re:Obama - A template for future US politics? on Discuss the US Presidential Election · · Score: 1

    From day 1 the democrats were labeling McCain as Bush Jr.. if that's not negativity, then I don't know what is.

    For me as an outsider (I'm Belgian), McCain actually seemed to try really hard to look like Bush Jr - which makes that statement look more like fact than mudslinging.
    The fact that so many of you see it as negativity goes to show how much G.W. Bush ruined politics for those who believe in small government. I get the distinct feeling that McCain could have won the election if he hadn't been pandering so much to the NeoCon side all of a sudden. Of course, he wouldn't have made it through the primaries if he didn't. Damned if he did, damned if he didn't.
    I was actually firmly on Obama's side until I saw a balanced documentary on the both of them, and now I understand why the race is close. McCain actually stood for something in his previous bid.

  3. Re:Bang on Target? on Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Released · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Still, getting a stable release out on the dot is a pretty interesting feat. Microsoft sure didn't manage it with Vista though they kept scrapping announced features.

  4. Re:In other news... on Nintendo Already Anticipating Holiday Wii Shortages · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just imagine how much it would sell if it reassuringly said "Don't Panic!" in large blocky lettering on the front!

  5. Re:even if... on In UK, Broadband Limits Confuse Nine In Ten Users · · Score: 1

    I would think almost all ISPs *do* allow you to monitor your usage (I know Telenet in Belgium does), but either nobody bothers with it until they get warning e-mails that they're approaching the limit, or they are too clueless to find the monitor.

  6. Re:When does it stop being a car? on 1000-mph Car Planned · · Score: 1

    Then they should just run a Eurofighter on a runway trying not to take off... Just as much a "car" as this thing.

  7. Re:Invisible DRM is no DRM on Open-Source DRM Ready To Take On Big Guns · · Score: 1

    A particular implementation of DRM might work if it expands what you can legally do with your files (relative to the normal terms-of-service). For example temporarily transfer your license to a friend for a weekend, selling your license to someone else, creating mash-ups based on the licensed files, etc...
    Of course that's still limited compared to a totally free unrestricted public domain file, but there just aren't that many of those around.

  8. Re:Invisible! on Open-Source DRM Ready To Take On Big Guns · · Score: 1, Funny

    ROT-26: TWICE as good as ROT-13!

  9. Invisible! on Open-Source DRM Ready To Take On Big Guns · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Make surveillance invisible and people won't object to it!"
    Still, the implementation details would be interesting. How quickly will this be broken? Probably before it ever gets popular.

  10. Re:Nothing new here on New Gadget Blocks 'Spam' Phone Calls · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just like locked doors are annoying as hell to legitimate visitors.

  11. Re:What's "GA"? on FireFox 3.1 Leaves IE in the Dust · · Score: 1

    Genuine Advantage? (FireFox now has a genuine advantage over IE7)
    Genetic Algorithm? (They are interbreeding the best FireFoxes?

  12. Re:Disclosing a key is disclosing knowledge on UK Court Rejects Encryption Key Disclosure Defense · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's pretty cool - mod parent informative please. TrueCrypt goes even further than my suggestion allowing an entire decoy OS.

  13. Re:Disclosing a key is disclosing knowledge on UK Court Rejects Encryption Key Disclosure Defense · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just have two keys. The real key, and a key that when used de-scrambles all the data as 18th century political tracts.
    Hand out the second one.

  14. Re:Hmmm on Windows 7 To Be Called ... Windows 7 · · Score: 1

    I'm holding off for the Ultimate Edition of that. Though that will probably be renamed Penultimate Edition when Windows 8 comes out.

  15. Re:It'll never fly. on Unbelievably Large Telescopes On the Moon? · · Score: 1

    "We were going to calculate the spin-up with our laptops, but the DHS confiscated them."

  16. Re:General case != this on Recovering Blurred Text Using Photoshop and JavaScript · · Score: 2, Funny
    The ????? is finally revealed!
    1. - Get frustrated at blurred text
    2. - Fail to write unblur filter
    3. - Post to slashdot
    4. - PROFIT!!!!
  17. Re:Do you have kids? on Ford To Introduce Restrictive Car Keys For Parents · · Score: 1

    Good idea. Let's ban cars!
    What, you mean you've never been tempted to show off while driving your car?
    Liar!
    ;-)

  18. Re:this does not look good for the judge. on Judge Suppresses Report On Voting Systems · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's great logic... Limit the exploitation of the fault to the people that put the fault there in the first place, but lets not let the other team know about it!
    If this information comes out after the election and it does turn out there was a really simple-to-exploit flaw, it should void the results of all these machines.
    I'm not holding my breath for that though (and why would I, it's none of *my* business, I'm not an American citizen.)

  19. Re:Should lead to possibly great advertisements on How Kernel Hackers Boosted the Speed of Desktop Linux · · Score: 1

    My Vista Home Basic 64-bit is usable as soon as the desktop actually appears. Might be that all the add-on crap to persuade people that they need Vista Ultra Super Duper Special Racing Stripe Edition with Extra Cheese is slowing it down?
    Note: it booted even faster before the first driver updates :-/. I'm sure it will be dog-slow by the time application compatibility catches up enough with 64-bit.

  20. Re:Solution? on Can Static Electricity Generate Votes? · · Score: 1

    That system is still vulnerable to a vote invalidation technique. You don't have to generate extra votes for YOUR guy, just destroy more votes of the other guy by punching extra holes in them during counting.

  21. Re:Why I was never interested in WoW on Blizzard Awarded $6M Damages From MMOGlider · · Score: 1

    Because the next guy is level 72 and I'm only 71 and we just can't have that! ;-)

  22. Re:what can tests really do... on Working Effectively with Legacy Code · · Score: 1

    First, you write tests first, based on clear user stories.

    Which is cute, except that a lot of real world software development doesn't fall into neat little boxes like that. You can test examples, but you can't test every possible document a user might type into your word processor, every possible data set you might collect with a scientific instrument, every possible configuration designed in a CAD application, or every possible state of a game world in a MMORPG.

    That's only partially true. Unit Tests are not black-box tests, they are written by the developers ideally before the actual code is written, and they ideally exercise most if not all of the special cases of the code. To use the document analogy: you won't test every document (QA can't do that either), but you will test all "classes" of documents that are actually different to the handling code.

    Depending on the complexity of the system that can still be impossible. TDD evangelists might claim that this means the system is badly designed and should be broken up into pieces that *are* testable. I personally do not have enough experience with TDD to subscribe to this point of view - it seems to me that sometimes you have to do something that's simply too hard to predict or test accurately (uncontrolled hardware, random input, multithreading..).

    Still, putting together a set of 100% covered and tested blocks of code will give rise to a whole new set of untested behaviours, and stuff will still break.

  23. Re:Siberia: crazy liberal myth or FACT? on Strong Methane Emissions On the Siberian Shelf · · Score: 1

    SILENCE! I kill you.

  24. Re:Exceptions! on What To Do Right As a New Programmer? · · Score: 1

    You know, performance isn't the only consideration, and not even the main consideration. Confusing the living daylights out of other programmers by writing something that's twice as complex as the obvious solution is not good. Especially if it is for no real gain other than not wanting to bother to figure out why your design is so wrong that you're having to use exceptions to control flow.

  25. Re:Go with the flow on What To Do Right As a New Programmer? · · Score: 1

    So there's one item in there that you might disagree with, and that makes it "horrifically outdated"?
    Err. No.
    It's still one of the best non-technical starter books for developers to know what the true spirit of software development is. Like another reply says: every book is likely to have something you disagree with. Many times the items you disagree with are the most interesting ones, because they may contain wisdom you have not previously considered.