Slashdot Mirror


User: xded

xded's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
202
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 202

  1. Re:It was to be expcted on Spammers Establish Fake URL-Shortening Services · · Score: 1

    Exactly. And they should setup their own service.

    So the URL will be something like hxxp://link.nyt.com/Ax91. With the added benefit of shorter codes (due to the limited number of users), special codes all for themselves (e.g., hxxp://link.nyt.com/nfl) and in-house stats collection/DB control.

    The user instead will be sure there is some editor taking responsibility for the occasional goatse redirect, which may be removed/updated in a centralized manner at a later time.

    If the magazine cannot manage to setup something like this, they should not even start using public tinyurlers...

  2. Re:Less Glare from Glossy on Users Want Matte LCDs While Glossy Screens Dominate · · Score: 1

    The glare is constrained to a very limited area and does not wash out the entire screen as those so called Anti-Glare have happen.

    Sure. It just happens that most of the times I have a bright window/dark wall behind me, not a far away spot light/black background. This means that the glare is either not there or covering 30%-50% of the screen making that portion and the whole screen unreadable.

    With matte screens instead, the glare is spread out evenly. You sure get a lower contrast ratio, but at least you can still use the screen and you're not distracted by sharp details in reflections.

    Also please note that today's matte screens (at least the ones I've used, Acer Timelines and Apple MacBook Pros) are quite different from the ones that were sold 10 years ago. They're not completely matte, but a good compromise between brigthness/contrast and "sharp relfections spread". They reflect tangent light (light coming from the sides or from angles at which you don't usually look at the screen) and diffuse perpendicular light (light coming from behind the user). IMHO, this is the best compromise. And it will just cost you 50$ more on an MBP.

  3. Re:Most important point not in summary on Capturing Solar Power With Antennae · · Score: 1

    You don't necessarily have to stack'em up. You could linearly change the single antenna lengths along the array, to let them resonate over different frequencies. This way you would obtain in a single layer a very wide bandwidth antenna. Or you could use other well-known RF tricks (assuming you're able to replicate them litographically).

    This would probably be one of the advantages over multi-junction solar cells. Of course assuming you're able to turn that HF energy into DC...

  4. FRAM on The Arduino Project Gets a Core Memory Accessory · · Score: 1

    Yeah, even though it's more of a comment become story...

    Then I think I will quote my own comment there...

    Nice learning project!

    However ferromagnetism is not for learning only. Check over at TI for FRAM powered uCs and their advantages.

    The standardization brought in hardware and software tools by Arduino is good, but people should understand that a '90s Atmel microcontroller isn't everything that's out there...

  5. Re:"magnetic core memory" extension board on Why Google Choosing Arduino Matters · · Score: 1

    Nice learning project!

    However ferromagnetism is not for learning only. Check over at TI for FRAM powered uCs and their advantages.

    The standardization brought in hardware and software tools by Arduino is good, but people should understand that a '90s Atmel microcontroller isn't everything that's out there...

  6. Re:"magnetic core memory" extension board on Why Google Choosing Arduino Matters · · Score: 1

    Nice learning project!

    However ferromagnetism is not for learning only. Check stuff over at TI for FRAM powered uCs and their advantages.

    The standardization brought by Arduino both in hardware and software tools is good, but people should understand that a '90s Atmel microcontroller isn't all what's out there...

  7. Christian Church statement... on AP Files FOIA Request For Bin Laden Photos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I suppose the Vatican's statement regarding Bin Laden's death is the only thing I liked from them in the past 10 years:

    Faced with the death of a man, a Christian never rejoices [...]

  8. You working for NSA, right? on 'Motherlode' of Data Seized At Bin Laden Compound · · Score: 1

    fed to a flock of >100 migratory birds.

    Birds moving in a flock follow highly correlated routes. This leaves room for statistical analysis and, with a sufficient number of captured birds, parts of the message may be recovered.

    Now please stop trying biasing our agorithms...

  9. Re:Not exactly animated GIFs, but can't miss this: on The Art of the Animated GIF · · Score: 1

    I was doing the same thing back in '99 with Windows 9x logos. The scrolling bar at the bottom was using the same palette cycling technique of these images. Manually editing the bitmaps of the logo .sys files, you could also choose how many colors would cycle IIRC. It was really easy to get some kind of animation going with this technique. Too bad I never released any of them...

    Still, this art is way cooler than mine! ;)

  10. Re:Oh please on FTP Is 40 Years Old · · Score: 1

    FTPS is the a nightmare! It has the random port problems of FTP but also encrypts the commands so there is no way for the firewall to figure out what ports will be used.

    Not really. You've got commands to enable encryption selectively: e.g., only during authentication, only on data connections (files, listings, or both) or all the time on both.

    And nobody seems to be talking about FXP, which allows one client to control transfers between two remote servers with the data connection happening (eventually in an encrypted fashion) between the remote servers only at their full speed, with no requirements on the client.

  11. Re:Slashdotter already on Apple AirPlay Private Key Exposed · · Score: 1

    Google cache for blog entry, sources on original website (these still work to me).

  12. Re:As long as I can still play my old favourites on The New Commodore 64 · · Score: 1

    You may want to try reading them back on your PC before getting rid of them, in case you've got two PC floppy drives lying around...

    See ADFRead from WinUAE (any recent Windows version) or Disk2FDI (Windows 9x only, but better disk format support).

  13. Re:Replace their respective pages with a message on Yahoo! Liable In Italy For Searchable Content · · Score: 1

    I hope we won't need to get to that point to see "resources spent on homegrown IT" in Italy.

    But I'm not too optimistic.

  14. Re:I'd actually buy a pair on Glasses Purge 3rd D From Films · · Score: 2

    Go over at ThinkGeek and actually try to buy them. Even if it's an April fool, if they see enough interest they will turn them into an actual product (as happened before with the Tauntaun sleeping bag, iCADE, Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt, 8-bit Tie, etc...)

    And there's no big science behind these glasses, so they should also land pretty quickly on-market.

  15. Double Jeopardy on SABAM Wants Truckers To Pay For Listening To Radio · · Score: 1

    Shouldn't there be a law that prohibits someone to be taxed two times over the same... stuff?

  16. Re:Could they have done it because... on MS Removes HTTPS From Hotmail For Troubled Nations · · Score: 1

    the Iranian CA breach?

    TFP is referring to this, in case anyone other than me missed it.

  17. Re:because it's not at all difficult... on Rock, Paper, Shotgun Call For Worldwide Game Release Dates · · Score: 2

    ... they think they can make more money that way (money always is the reason).

    Now, supposing the pirate version of a game is not released even before the first day of availability, it is likely it will spread out in "usual protocols" some days after it. Shouldn't they foresee a money loss if the only option for gamers to play will be through illegal means? How is that going to bring them money?

    If the pirate version is stable and the game is not mainly multiplayer, once gamers go down the pirate road they're unlikely to buy the game after the official release. Or, at least, they will see less advantage in doing so...

  18. Re:USA #1 on AT&T Cracking Down On Unofficial iPhone Tethering · · Score: 2

    Americans also regularly pay over $100 per month for cable TV... and there are ads on almost every channel (often taking up a full third of every hour of programming!), not to mention pay-per-view channels.

    About that, look at the bright side: at least you are producing great stuff (tv series, documentaries) or, at least, stuff you in the end export. Here (Italy) the last consistently good stuff was produced 50 years ago.

    These days we may pay less for tv, but the stuff we get is either cr** or coming from the US a season later...

  19. Nasa original article on NASA Satellite Snaps Rare Cloud-Free Ireland · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nasa original article, with better text, 3 Mpixel images and no ads business going on...

  20. Re:what progress? on Japan Battles Partial Nuclear Meltdown · · Score: 1

    The point is nobody's explaining people why they're falling off bridges. In technical details I mean.

    But, after all, I understand that hearing a talk about stones and arches from who built, paid for, and didn't maintain log-shaped-people-killing bridges, would make them look unreliable at best, criminal at worst.

  21. Re:NHK World is reporting serious emissions on Nuclear Emergency Declared At 2 Plants In Japan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1015 microsieverts - that is apparently a year's worth of radiation exposure each hour

    Or 30 bananas...

  22. I'd say *most* of them. on Ask Slashdot: Worst Computer Scene In TV or Movies? · · Score: 1

    Untraceable was pretty accurate. Or, at least, not totally wrong...

  23. Re:Jurassic Park on Ask Slashdot: Worst Computer Scene In TV or Movies? · · Score: 1
  24. Double clicking titlebar... on GNOME To Lose Minimize, Maximize Buttons · · Score: 2

    ... always worked as an alternative for maximize/restore on MS Windows. Just like double clicking the top-left corner closes a windows since Windows 3 at least.

  25. True, GP is b*shit... on Timezone Maintainer Retiring · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mod parent up, since I'm losing that ability to post a better history.

    http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=roff&manpath=FreeBSD+8.1-RELEASE&format=html#HISTORY

    Osanna first [roff] version was written in the PDP-11 assembly language and released in 1973. Brian Kernighan joined the roff development by rewriting it in the C programming language. The C version was released in 1975.

    [...]

    After Osanna had died in 1977 by a heart-attack at the age of about 50, Kernighan went on with developing troff. The next milestone was to equip troff with a general interface to support more devices, the intermediate output format and the postprocessor system. This com- pleted the structure of a roff system as it is still in use today [...]