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User: meatmanek

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  1. Re:MythTV rant on MythTV 0.23 Released · · Score: 1

    It may be a hardware problem, but that doesn't give MythTV an excuse to crash.
    Catch the error, display a useful error message, and return control to the user gracefully.

  2. Re:TFA is worthless, inspired by third-hand rumor on Mpeg 7 To Include Per-Frame Content Identification · · Score: 1

    Am I the only person who thinks this is a good thing for consumers? Think about it. If the algorithm works the way it's supposed to, (that is, identifying copyrighted videos and video clips quickly) and is implemented on video distribution sites, then it will actually help fight piracy via these channels.

    Once that happens, they can stop (or at least tone back) the addition of DRM to their media. If you can prevent things from being shared, who cares if you can't prevent them from being copied legally for backup purposes?

  3. Re:What do we put now into the "save" icon? on The End of the 3.5-inch Floppy Continues · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Going back in a song or video is still called "rewinding", despite the fact that nothing we use for these media actually winds/unwinds/rewinds anymore.
    Multiple songs on a CD are still called "tracks", despite the fact that they aren't on separate tracks as they were on vinyl.
    We still "dial" a phone.

    Technology changes the way people think and how they describe things. The action (rewinding) starts to symbolize the intent (going backwards in a song), and after a while, the intent becomes the actual meaning of the word.

  4. Re:Close to death... Not quite on The End of the 3.5-inch Floppy Continues · · Score: 1

    Well, the CMSes aren't much better. Blackboard, for example, is stuck in the 90s: it still uses frames for layout.

    The defaults that schools pick probably don't help much either; at my school, the upload feature limits storage to 200MB per class; even in a relatively small class, that's 10 megs per assignment IF the professor clears it out between projects.

  5. Re:And then they check it? on Why Computer Science Students Cheat · · Score: 1

    You're underestimating the way the brain remembers things. When grading assignments in an intro level programming class, you come across weird ways of solving the problem that technically work, but are bad style, etc. These things stick out in your mind, and you notice when you see the same thing twice. For example, as a TA for an intro programming class, I once graded an assignment where a student had written code something like this:

    while (x == 0) {
        if (x == 0) {
            do something;
            x = 1;
        }
    }

    When another assignment used the same construct, I thought "hey, this kid is using an if statement inside of a while loop with the same condition; didn't I see one like this before?" I didn't have to look at every previous assignment to know that this kid was cheating, I just remembered. Maybe this breaks down for larger classes, but it worked fine for my section of ~30 students.
    In other words, checking a list for duplicates is O(n) if you use the right data structures (hash table or 10^10-unit neural network).

  6. Re:The sad fact is... on Best Way To Land Entry-Level Job? · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up. If you're really a talented programmer, it should show in a phone interview, so really your biggest hurdle is getting to the point where you can talk to a real developer. Have any friends that work at software companies? They may be able to get you into a phone interview.

    Also, put a lot of effort into your resume. Make sure it shows how you stand out from everyone else that got a CS degree from your school. If you have worked on open source projects, put them on your resume. If you did well on a large project for a class, put it on your resume. If you programmed for an extracurricular activity, put it on your resume. Make sure it's clear that you have put significant effort into these things, and can actually work on a code base larger than a weekly coding assignment.

  7. Both on Pen Still Mightier Than the Laptop For Notetaking? · · Score: 1

    I do both; I'll usually take notes with pen and paper, but if there's a lot of math and I feel like my handwriting isn't going to be legible enough, I'll do them in LaTeX. If I can't remember the syntax for something, I make some up, comment it, and come back to it later.

  8. Re:1. Upload to Wikileaks with Xerobank 2. Link to on Hosting a Highly Inflammatory Document? · · Score: 1

    CD-Rs cost $10? You must be thinking of blu-ray.

  9. Re:Convert? on Time Warner Cable Won't Compete, Seeks Legislation · · Score: 1
    More importantly, look at their summaries of the bills they're protesting.

    The bills would:

    • Prohibit cities from moving money between broadband and other divisions. So, Wilson citizens can't expect to see any of their subscription fees go to pave streets and build basketball courts. Does that make sense?
    • Ban cities from pricing service below the cost of providing the service. We don't use this practice.

    The second one makes sense, from a free-market perspective. This would make sure that cities are actually competing with the corporations, and the cities aren't driving out corporations by funneling taxes into broadband.

    The first one, however, combined with the second one, means that the city broadband departments can ONLY charge what it costs to keep it running/upgrade it. Otherwise, they'll just be racking up money and not be able to spend it. This seems like it would be worse for broadband companies - citizens are guaranteed a service with no markup. Any price over the actual cost of bandwidth, power, and repair would go into upgrading and expanding the network, rather than some executive's bank account.

  10. Re:Obvious? on 12 Small Windmills Put To the Test In Holland · · Score: 1

    I am not an aeronautical engineer, but I'd guess energy output is roughly proportional to either wind speed times radius, or wind speed times radius squared.

    So yeah. Small windmills which can only use a small amount of the wind are not going to harvest as much energy as a bigger windmill.

  11. Re:how about... on Looking To Spammers To Solve Hard AI Problems · · Score: 1

    So you're suggesting we present several e-mails, some legitimate and one spam, and say "pick the spam e-mail" (Or the inverse, many spam and one legitimate) The problem with this is that spam filtering is a pretty well-solved problem; well-trained Bayesian filters do a pretty good job. Assuming a liberal 1% error on your Bayesian filter, there's a 1-in-a-million chance that the filter will mess up 3 times in a row.

  12. Re:Everything old is new again on Supercomputer As a Service · · Score: 2, Informative

    As some folks have already commented, we're not regressing 30 years, any more than using an internal combustion engine (which has been around for about a century) is a regression. We're just using a technology we've been using all along. This is _not news_.

  13. "People", not "humans" on Managing Humans · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm put off by the summary and the title - it makes it seem as if it's going to encourage managers to consider everyone underneath him just another part of the "herd".

  14. Re:So last century! on 24x DVD Burners Hit the Market · · Score: 5, Informative

    When CD-ROMs were new, most people's hard drives were a fraction of what could be held on a CD. The first computer my family had with a CD drive had a 250 meg hard drive. When you could start burning CDs for realistic prices, the average hard drive was probably a few gigabytes; you could back up all your data on two or three CDs.
    When DVD burners became available, hard drives were usually a few dozen GB; it took somewhere around 10 DVDs to back up all of your data.
    When Blu-ray burners became available, it wasn't uncommon for hard drives to be 500 GB, so 20 Blu-rays to back up your data.

    Yes, Blu-ray burners will become cheaper, and yes, blu-ray discs will become cheaper, but by the time they do, we'll be seeing 2 and 3TB hard drives for $100. The $/GB of Blu-ray might drop below hard drives for a while.

    Then, hard drives will continue to advance with Moore's law, and by the time the next generation of optical discs come out (which will probably be 150 GB/layer, based on the ~5x ratio of each disc type to the previous), you'll be able to buy 2-digit terabyte hard drives for $100.

    Conclusion: Blu-ray is already obsolete, at least for data archival. Hard drives are going to win for the next few years.

  15. Re:You're right--convenience sucks on Sun Slips Firefox Extension Into Java Update · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's a nifty program called fseventer which lets you watch file changes in real time.

  16. Re:Saw this on Superbowl Sunday. on Rabbit Ears To Stage a Comeback Thanks To DTV · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up. Digital cable is compressed more than over-the-air broadcasts, at least when the station only has one channel. When I watch digital cable, I notice a lot of compression artifacts that aren't there in OTA DTV.

    The flip side to this is that digital cable doesn't cut out when you look at it the wrong way.

  17. Re:Like maybe residuals and royalties on How To Encourage Workers To Suggest Innovation? · · Score: 1

    Required reading: How Hard Could It Be?: Thanks or No Thanks

    "Simply because one programmer's idea translated visibly and directly into a lot of money didn't mean that the other team members weren't adding just as much value to the business, albeit in a less direct way."

  18. Incomplete Summary on Why Windows Must (and Will) Go Open Source · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Honestly, can't the summary tell us at least "Why Windows Must (and Will) Go Open Source?" The summary doesn't explain why, it simply counters one reason why not.

  19. Re:Not a first on Students Call Space Station With Home-Built Radio · · Score: 1

    They could try, but they'd be caught within a week, I'm sure. The FCC is very serious about their airwaves, and Hams are too.

    The local hams would just make it into a Fox hunt game.

  20. Re:Firefox is a web broswer on Microsoft Update Slips In a Firefox Extension · · Score: 1

    Keep in mind that what is a "good thing" was judged from Microsoft's point of view.

    If more people use .NET for web stuff, more people buy Visual Studio.

  21. Re:Why not sooner? on Apple Planning Video-Call iPhone · · Score: 1

    You mean like the trackpad on my August 2007 Macbook Pro, which is probably the same hardware as current "gesture-capable" trackpads, but cannot be upgraded to support gestures?

    From what I've read, my MBP's trackpad has a 10x20 grid of sensors which tell the absolute location of fingers with low resolution. I'm guessing this is how it knows whether there are 2 fingers or 1.

    If this is true, the only thing preventing me from having gesture support is software.

  22. Re:Office for Linux and OSX on If Windows 7 Fails, Citrix (Not Linux) Wins · · Score: 1

    Joel Spolsky has a good article that touches on this (figuring out how people actually use your program):

    http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000065.html

  23. Republicans? on The Best Robots of 2008 · · Score: 1

    Did I miss something? Why are half of the front page stories tagged Republicans when they have nothing to do with republicans?

  24. Re:Money for better public transport where possibl on Feds To Offer Cash For Your Clunker · · Score: 1

    And in Cleveland, New York City, Washington, D.C, etc. The only place I've seen that doesn't have effective public transportation to the suburbs is Indianapolis.

  25. Re:Where's my GM Strep Mutans? on Tooth Regeneration Coming Soon · · Score: 1

    For those who are too lazy to google:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caries_vaccine