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User: hswoolve

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  1. Re:Godwin's Law on Hans Reiser Arrested On Suspicion of Murder · · Score: 1

    A spelling nitpick:

    singular: datum
    plural: data
    alternative pluralization: datums

    datas is a neologism (newly coined word).

    To bring back on topic, the Nazis/Japanese were not the only ones to do research of questionable ethics. Consider the Tuskeegee Syphilis Study.

  2. Re:Parental Involvement on No Video Games on School Nights · · Score: 1

    dang, at 19 ... nevermind 9, I'd have had my mouth washed out with soap for the kind of language the speaker does in the video. Kind of reminds me of the commercial where the kid who calls grandma to bring him a grape soda.

    The agreement in my parents' house was homework done, then tv. The first computer in the house was a Commodore SX-64 I bought for myself when I was 24.

  3. Re:Ah, memories... on Commodore BBSes Return using the Internet. · · Score: 1

    And before Q-link was People Net.

    Someone brought some C-64's to a scifi con many-many years ago. Wow, networking, chatrooms ...

    I feel old now.

  4. Re:Saturated? on Smog Busting Paint Breaks Down Noxious Gasses · · Score: 1
    quoth realdpk:

    The reason people are upset about SUVs is that the folks who buy SUVs are using them to do activities that would be better done in higher fuel-economy cars, most of the time. That is, going to the grocery store, going to/from work, etc. It's incredibly wasteful.
    Okay, I'll get a "fuel efficient car" for commuting and grocery shopping and the like. Will you buy me one? I can't afford it, or the additional insurance and registration fees entailed, or the fact that an additional car at my house will swiftly become the one that gets used by the worse driver in the family, the one who's already on car #4 in less than 4 years of driving, because once again, her car is in the shop, and her boyfriend (responsible for at least half the wear/car killing) needs to get from Point A to Point B.

    Oh, and she left it with only fumes in the tank, again.

  5. Re:blind script kiddies on Three Blind Phreaks · · Score: 1

    Actually, I found the I can program in CGI. amusing more than appalling, ditto the HTML "programming." They probably even think that their "L3337" skills will get them a date with an Angelina Jolie, to complete the "Hackers" fantasy.

    And as a language, Basic is a learning tool.

  6. ... has to be said ... on Windows CE.NET Ported to Xbox · · Score: 1

    Can you imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these?

  7. Re:Speedscript and Geos on Word Processors: One Writer's Retreat · · Score: 1

    I'll speak up in praise of Speedscript as well. I used an SX-64 (think C-64 in a suitcase with a tiny screen) at home until 1993 and first WP5.1 (dos) an Original Mac (MacWrite) at the job. Since then I still prefer WP to MSWord. There's something about "reveal codes" that comforts me.

    The only problem I've ever found (and this applies to any electronic writing), is that once the text you've written has scrolled off the screen, it's possible to repeat a phrase or idea. Actually, this was pointed out to me by an agent. Apparently out of sight == out of mind.

  8. Re:I'm actually wanting to know the same thing, bu on Handling User Grown Machines on a Large Network? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In the defense of the "incompetent dorm techs" they probably had to deal with:
    - students who weren't in their rooms
    - students who figured someone else touching *their* machine was an invasion or their privacy (especially the 50 gig of mp3's)
    - students who were in their rooms and didn't want to be disturbed
    - the 133t hAx0rZ who thought it was uB3R k3W1 to archive their old (infected) systems and reset the machine as soon as the techs had left.

    Having been the "oh call her" person for a(n administrative) department at a university I know what students can get up to.

  9. Re:PeopleSoft in Education on Oracle's Hostile Takeover Bid For PeopleSoft · · Score: 1
    oh my. incredibly poorly thought out and slow. The system regularly disappears off the network.

    You're being kind. I used to work at a large university that rolled out PeopleSoft in 1998 to deal with the "Y2K" problem. It replaced a text/hyper-terminal based purchasing system that'd only taken over the entire university about ... 3 years previously (my department was the last to go online, I was the reason). I'd name names of university and departments, but the university might sue.

    A bigger piece of gobshite I have yet to see than that version of PeopleSoft. The program wasn't prepared for over 4,000 users all needing varied levels of abilities and privileges. It didn't allow users to use anything but the pre-entered list of items (really useful, how often does a lab need to buy a gas chromatagraph, and when it needs a new one, it's a new model). It bombed when saving and wouldn't allow you to get back to the previous order. It allowed null passwords for users. The training was lousy and the manuals stank. In short, it sucked.

    At least one of the major version upgrades was forced by that university's demands. It still sucks, and now the university is using the PeopleSoft time collection system ... which when I left still required manual entry of time cards, and couldn't track vacation balances. My department was hiring a full time person for that job (150 or so employees in that department, most unionized and very cognizant of their entitlements.)

  10. Re:Share C: on Analysis of RIAA vs Princeton Student · · Score: 1
    Superfreaker wrote:
    It's funny, I was at Princeton as a coach during my grad studies and I was amazed at the network in place on campus. Not only was it blazingly fast, but everyone connected to the network had shared drives.

    I'm a former Princeton employee and I'm not that surprised at the caliber of the network that's there. It was one of the original bitnet sites (more info here, and managed to maintain it's connectivity. For the record, I worked there from the end of 1988 (9600 sytek cabling on dos machines) to 2002 (/10baseT/100baseT to the machine, 100baseT hubs, and fibre optic backbones).

  11. Re:'Merican mirror on Why The X-Box Network Will Fail · · Score: 1

    ... oops ...

  12. 'Merican mirror on Why The X-Box Network Will Fail · · Score: 1

    Just in case The Register gets slashdotted, there's an american version of the site called The USA Register with the story here

  13. Re:Try cancelling a cell phone on Disconnecting · · Score: 1
    Um, may I point out that "1984" was originally a book?


    Not that it makes the support tech look any stupider, but it doesn't make the original poster look any smarter.

  14. Re:Patches on patches on patches on Using the USPTO Against Itself · · Score: 1

    Drishmung wrote: Maybe we need to clone some of the thinkers from the Age of Enlightenment and have them draft something for us (that would probably make their cloning illegal).

    Okay, assuming you could get the "thinkers" in their original philosophical bent, they'd end decidng that the only "human beings" were men of an caucasian bent, with women, children, other races and a bit lower, and clones (excluding themselves of course) lower than that. Maybe above dumb animals, maybe below them.

    I'll now sit back and watch the fires start up.

  15. Re:Iraq theory creditable on More News And Links On Yesterday's Terrorist Attack · · Score: 3, Informative

    the correct url is:
    http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/09/12/mideast .reaction/

    although my paranoia is saying homegrown.

  16. from the Sky News website on U.S. Attack -- More Updates · · Score: 1
    Apologies to the Sky News website, mirrored text follows:

    'Attack On Freedom'

    It's being called the worst terrorist attack in history. At the end of the New York rush hour, a carefully planned and well coordinated series of hijacks and kamikaze crashes wiped out America's major landmarks - killing hundreds if not thousands of people.

    In what George W Bush called "an attack on freedom" the first target was the city's World Trade Centre. A commercial aircraft was flown straight at one of the towers, setting the huge structure ablaze.

    Up in smoke

    Then, just a few minutes later, another hijacked passenger plane was deliberately flown into the landmark building's second tower. With both engulfed in flames it didn't take long before first one then the other crashed to the ground.

    More than 50,000 people work in the complex. An unknown number of people have been killed, but the figure is expected to reach catastrophic proportions.

    Next, The Pentagon, perhaps one of the most potent symbols of American might was also hit by an aircraft. A 60-ft section of the building collapsed.

    Warplanes scrambled

    Another hijacked passenger aircraft crashed near Pittsburgh.

    Fighter aircraft have been scrambled and are patrolling the skies over the US capital in case of further attacks on the capital.

    Sky's Washington Correspondent Keith Graves said "There can be no doubt that any aircraft flying over Washington now will be shot down."

    A separate fire forced the evacuation of the White House.

    Hijack

    American Airlines says two of the planes involved were theirs. One, flight 11 from Boston to LA had 81 passengers, nine crew and two pilots on board, the second, a flight from Washington Dulles to LA had 51 passengers, four crew and two pilots on board.

    United Airlines says one of its aircraft, flight 175 from Boston to LA, a Boeing 757 has also gone down with 56 passengers, seven crew and two pilots on board.

    A second hijacked United flight - number 93 from Newark to San Francisco - is also confirmed crashed. It went down 80 miles south of Pittsburgh.

    'We're dying'

    A person who answered the phone on the trading floor at interdealer-broker Cantor Fitzgerald, located near the top of the World Trade Center, said: "We're f***ing dying," then hung up. There was screaming and yelling in the background. A follow up call was not answered.

    "This has got to be one of the most horrendous terrorist attacks perhaps ever perpetrated," terrorism expert Chris Yates told Sky News.

    The Foreign Office has issued a number for worried relatives 020 7008 0000

    Last Modified: 18:54 UK, Tuesday September 11, 2001

  17. sue who? on Barney vs. Right to Satire · · Score: 1
    I have a question then. If the Barney Lawyers are going after people/websites that "infringe" on the Barney Trademark, why haven't they gone after Steven Spielberg or Warner Brothers or Animaniacs.

    The Baloney shorts are ... viscious to say the least, and spot on to the PurpleBeast, at least as spot on as you can make them while turning the PurpleBeast to an OrangeBeast.

  18. Re:What's to apologize for? on Hyperreality: The U.S-China Standoff · · Score: 2
    wiredog wrote:
    KAL 007 was a Korean Air Lines 747 passenger jet that penetrated Soviet airspace accidently and was shot down. It is interesting to note that its course matched what a recon penetration would look like, ...

    Uh ... No.

    KAL 007's flight path ran from Seoul up to Anchorage and the pilots had (probably unofficial) permission/encouragement to edge over the line into Soviet airspace. IIRC, the USSR warned the planes on more than one occaision, and when the warnings were ignored, decided to take a stand and fire.

    There were (to the best of my recollection) unsubstantiated claims by the Soviets that KAL 007's planes had spy-gear on them.

    I recall this because I've flown on that flight, on that route, about a year before the flight that was shot down.

  19. Re:Wrong... this was before DNS as we know it. on The First Email Ever Sent · · Score: 1
    Actually, the first TLD's are latecomers. Concurrent/Just after ARPANET came BITNET, and sending a message from

    bob@hardon!somehost!someotherhost!stanford

    to

    tom@biteme!anotherhost!yetanotherhost!bitnetsite

    required tacking !BITNET (caps required) to the second address.

    Admittedly, my internet knowledge dates from about '89, but I used to work with someone who remembered a 4K RAM mainframe, and I do remember sending .BITNET mail.

  20. all the way over to exchange on When Is Exchange Inappropriate For The Enterprise? · · Score: 1
    If the boss-types main concern is to "share their calendars/schedules" between themselves, why not set up a dedicated exchange server just for that?

    I work in a location that gives new meaning to the word "mixed environment" (1) the email/imap works on sendmail I suspect (not my department), accessable from netscape messenger, pine, webmail and outlook.

    There's also Ontime32 running on an NT 4.0 server that's also running a unix/telnet emulator. Maybe that's a solution?

    (1) - "mixed environment" including dos, through win2000, linux, macs, beos (I think), and netware from 3.11 through 5, unix boxes of various styles and power, and a controls lab that used to run on 6502's (commodore 64)

  21. the book sounds interesting. on The Limits of Software · · Score: 1
    What a pity the first bit of posts are so useless.

    On a related note, the trains in Europe are great places to read. The book seems to be a case of "common" sense. Of course software isn't a magic bullet. Expecting it to be is rather like expecting the royal road to geometry.

  22. jury out on WIPO Settles 'Cybersquatting' Disputes · · Score: 1

    at least now there will be something to appeal to. I think though, that the jury might still be out on whether or not the WIPO is on the side of the angels.

  23. well thought out on Giving Back · · Score: 1

    One of the things that seems to make the linux world run (note the capitalization) is that the users seem to be the community, and seem (so far) disinterested in the "ooh -- lets make money" mentality. Hence the hat passing that succeeded nicely at the Slashdot party, and the quick agreement by the head of Tucows to match the funds raised.

    This doesn't stop things like the almost South Seas Bubble mentality of the stocks and venture capital, but those seem to be outside influences. Only time will tell if those influences will take over the linux world or if the shrug them off.

    hswoolve - why, if my Karma is 0, do I keep getting moderator points?

  24. if you don't mind ads ... on Net Access on an American Road Trip? · · Score: 1
    There's a free service some friends use called Juno. link here They seem to be happy with it, and the accessability.

  25. prejudice and Re:BSD Users on BSD BOF at LinuxWorld · · Score: 1

    Personally, I've always held that computers are tools, and you use what works for you for a particular job. I've used enough computer alphabet soup to learn that.

    I'm going to be visiting the exhibit portion of the Linux World Expo (hey, free tickets are free tickets), mainly to see what all the fuss is about, and I hope to check out the BSD-BoF as well. I like learning new things, even if I qualify as an old fart at times. I'm not looking to be converted to any particular system, I'm going to learn as much as I can about all of them.

    I wonder if Linux users/fanatics are starting to develop something I saw in graduate students at my previous job. I refer to it as being a pinwit. They deal very well, and are very sharp, but only in one specific direction, and they don't bend too well outside that chosen direction, and forget about dealing with fuzzy logic.

    hswoolve

    (personally, for tools, I prefer Dremel, but not to hammer nails)