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User: taupin

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Comments · 38

  1. Re:Are they nuts? on 18% of Consumers Can't Tell HD From SD · · Score: 1

    You mean, gouge out your other eye, right?

  2. Re:A picture is NOT worth a thousand words... on Debian Packages Screenshots Repository Launched · · Score: 2, Informative

    Forgot about that checkbox, eh?

  3. Why? on Toshiba Launches Laptop With Three GPUs · · Score: 0

    Why is this a laptop?

  4. Re:Which windows are we talking about again? on Microsoft Discontinues Windows 3.x · · Score: 1

    >>What does the "title" say at the top of your browser?

    "Slashdot | Microsoft Discontinues Windows 3.x"

    So I'm using the new Slashdot OS?

  5. I have dial-up. on Dial-Up Users "Don't Want Broadband" · · Score: 1

    My parents' computer is stilling running SP1 since there's just no way to download over 70 MB of data over a 26.8 kbps line (download speeds usually plateau at ~3.4 kbps).

    A while back I went through the list of updates that Windows wanted to install - I calculated that it would take 73 days online, nonstop, 24/7, to download it all. Since we don't have a second phone line, this simply isn't an option - so our computer has gone mostly unpatched for almost four years (though I was able to force it to get small, important updates, when they appeared). Even our antivirus only gets updated once every two months or so, since leaving the thing connected to the internet overnight to download updates fails half the time due to a dropped connection, necessitating a restart of the download.

    I'd love to have internet access at reasonable speeds - it's no fun having a connection where loading Slashdot on the low-bandwidth settings times out half the time, and Gmail and Facebook will never work - but it's simply not an option: DSL and cable lines end miles away, and satellite costs an arm and a leg (currently at $400 installation + $80/month). Fortunately (for me), I'm doing research at a college now, but going home will suck a lot.

    I should also mention that even for the shitty connection we've got, the only provider is selling unlimited service for "only" $24.99/month. (sigh)

    Just thought I'd give a look at what it's like for people that actually really want better options, but can't give them. It would be easy to justify paying even $50/month for DSL, but we just can't get that.

  6. I suppose... on MS To Become Open Source Friendly Post Gates · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... Microsoft _could_ become the world's largest open-source company...
    ... Apple _could_ become the world's largest producer of low-cost laptops...
    ... China _could_ become the world's largest anarchy (by population) ...
    ... Jupiter _could_ turn out to be the solar system's second Sun...
    ... Hell _could_ freeze over...

  7. .xxx alternative on ICANN Board Approves Wide Expansion of TLDs · · Score: 1

    Instead of .xxx, they should have gone for .cum

  8. Ow. on Brendan Eich Discusses the Future of JavaScript · · Score: 4, Funny
    This statement made my mind hurt:

    "[...] use JavaScript as kind of an underlying assembly language [...]"

  9. 1-page version on Brendan Eich Discusses the Future of JavaScript · · Score: 5, Informative

    is here.

  10. Re:Good. on FISA Bill Vote Today, With Telco Immunity · · Score: 1

    Can you explain this statement, please? _Why_ are you glad? It seems to me that this bill is largely bad news for "freedom". . .

  11. Re:Who woulda thought? on Fastest-Ever Flashgun Captures Image of Light Wave · · Score: 2, Informative

    What? The page wasn't taken down. . . it's just that the linky is wrong. Try here

  12. Re:tar and feather the sob's on FISA Bill Vote Today, With Telco Immunity · · Score: 1

    Ummm... this is a _House_ bill. McCain and Obama are both in the _Senate_. They've already voted (McCain for, Obama against)

  13. Re:wrong summary on Internet Pirates In France To Lose Broadband · · Score: 1

    Well, that's just it, isn't it? If the ISPs can cut out _some_ of the people that use a lot of bandwidth, they've come out ahead already, even if they're missing some (or even most) of those users.

  14. Re:Humans are 98 but prefer 72 on Trees' Leaves Grow At a Cool 70° All Over the World · · Score: 1

    A combination of heat trapped by clothing and heat generated by movement (including that of blood, etc.)

  15. Umm... on TransGaming Launches Mac Game Portal · · Score: 1

    http://www.gametreeonline.com/home.php
    They have three games. Wow. Color me impressed.

  16. Tags on Pringles Can Designer Dies, Buried In a Pringles Can · · Score: 5, Funny

    > humor, death
    I don't know whether to laugh or cry!

  17. Far worse (for me at least) on Spore, Mass Effect DRM Phone Home For Single-Player Gaming · · Score: 1

    It means that I won't be able to play either of these games, since I'm on dial-up, and there's no way I can justify tying up a phone line to play Spore to the rest of my family and anybody that's trying to contact us.

  18. Sure, it's neat on Memristor — 4th Basic Element of Circuits · · Score: 1

    but when will we see products that use this?

  19. Re:Um, not so much of a newsflash on Brain Study Calls Free Will Into Question · · Score: 1

    No. Just no. Belief in God is neither necessary or sufficient to justify a belief in complete determinism. Not sufficient, since as others have pointed out, many believe in both God and free will; not necessary, since many atheists don't believe in free will (myself, for example). In no way does the topic of free will "hinge on the supernatural or extreme pedantry". News flash: an all-knowing God is not the only reason that people don't believe in free will.

  20. Re:Maybe that explains... on NASA Looking For "Diamonds In The Sky" · · Score: 1

    Are you sure diamonds are the reason she's trying to send you on a _dangerous_ mission ? ;-)

  21. Re:Unfortunately, on China Plans to Surpass the U.S. in Nanotech Development · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the Chinese government actually does put its weight behind this plan, I don't see that there's much the U.S. can do : China has the advantage of much cheaper labor, equipment, and so on and so forth, in addition to an extremely powerful, centralized government that is not at all afraid to use that power.

  22. about time! on NASA Announces 120 Small Research Projects · · Score: 3, Funny

    Finally, small projects that might actually be finished!

  23. Re:Google Spreadsheet bug on Excel 2007 Multiplication Bug · · Score: 1

    "Now, unless I'm mistaken, this reduces to: 4*5*7*11*17*29*31*37*41*43*47*53"

    Of course it does.
    COMBIN(x,y) = x! / (y! (x-y)! )
    COMBIN(55,27) = 55! / (27! * 28!) = (55 * 54 * ... * 29) / (27 * 26 * ... * 2 * 1)
    For every x in the denominator, 2x is in the numerator, so this is an integer. Furthermore, it's evident that no prime greater than or equal to 29 can be cancelled out of the numerator, so the end-factorization will include all primes between 53 and 29 (inclusive; 27 is _not_ a prime).

    No silicon needed. Well, except to type/enter this on /.

  24. Eh? on GPhone Still In the Works At Google · · Score: 4, Informative

    So there's not actually any information here. Everything is still up in the air - OS, partners, specs, producers, launch date - except that Google *will* be making a phone.

    Wake me up when something actually is known.

    Other thoughts...
    How long will it be in beta?
    September Fools' ?

  25. Re:The First Discs Were Not ABBA on The CD Turns 25 Today · · Score: 4, Informative

    Billy Joel's 52nd Street was actually the first album released on a CD in Japan.