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User: Fred_A

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Comments · 4,326

  1. Re:Too little memory! No USB ports! on Netgear Launches Open Source-Friendly Wireless Router · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The problem I have with my WRT54G hardware version 4 is the lack of storage space. It has 4MB of flash memory for the system files as well as for storing my photos and webpages.

    I can see how this can be a problem. Not to mention that it probably won't be enough to run Duke Nukem Forever when it comes out.

    Oh, wait, it's a router, not a NAS or a terminal server !

  2. Re:Thank god. on Ares V Rocket Bigger and Stronger For Moon Mission · · Score: 4, Funny

    Little known fact, but the mass of a male African elephant is a common unit of measure used at NASA and other space agencies.

    Which has led to a number of failures when some engineers counted in African elephants when others counted in Asian elephants.
    Those engineering units are difficult to master.

  3. Re:It doesn't have to be perfect on Casting Doubt On the Hawkeye Ball-Calling System · · Score: 4, Funny

    This assumes there is another method, such as post-analysis of videotape, that can find almost all uncorrected errors or at least give some good indication of the uncorrected error rate.

    Another method would be to use Radar instead of Hawkeye. Probably faster and more efficient as well.
    (obscure reference).

  4. Re:EU requests private US citizen data on US To Get EU Private Citizen Data · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Politicians are people too. If ordinary people cannot understand what a treaty or constitution is designed to do, there is something wrong with either the people or the document.

    The problem is that this so called "constitution", now renamed "treaty" is more or less a sum of all the inter state treaties that have been agreed upon since the 1950s. And it's now something like 300 pages long and an absolute mess despite some apparent attempts at organising the whole thing.

    This has nothing whatsoever to do with a constitution (which is merely the topmost law), or a treaty, it's *all* the treaties at once. No wonder nobody could read it. Only people who have made a career of studying European laws and agreements can navigate through it.

    I have the published version commented by the designed committee of the original version (the one that failed to pass the first time, supposedly pretty much the same as the current one) and I have to say that the comments didn't help much.

    A proper constitution would be a good start in making the eurofolks feel they're part of the same thing though. I'd vote for a properly written one.

  5. Re:And here we go again on Anti-Evolution "Academic Freedom" Bill Passed In Louisiana · · Score: 1

    No steps forward and two steps back.

    We have turned around and are now making great strides forwards !
    .
    .
    Right into the middle ages...

  6. Re:This may be true. May be. on Harvard Study Questions "Long Tail" Theory · · Score: 4, Funny

    But then try to explain porn websites. There is a lot of tail to be hit there.

    And lots of head too...

  7. Re:Growing Asparagus on Mars... on Mars Soil Appears To Be Able To Sustain Life · · Score: 1

    The common methods I've discussed are backward to me. The only method I could see that's workable is to reactivate the core.

    You seem to have a very personal definition of "workable". Even taking the recent Hollywood documentary on the matter, it doesn't seem to be that easy a task...

  8. Re:And in other news... on Bell's Own Data Exposes P2P As a Red Herring · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes, they are creating an upload cap of 30GB per day. Not per month, per day .

    That's still an awful lot of tentacles...

  9. Re:Good. on Intentional GPS Jamming On the Increase · · Score: 1

    Stupid drivers who LOOK AT THEIR GPS while they are driving - every single GPS has a warning on it about this, some of them even announce it every time you turn them on.

    The problem is that people remove the sticker covering the screen that says so. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to leave it on.

  10. Re:Fixed. on Crooks Nab Citibank ATM Codes, Steal Millions · · Score: 1

    I believe you misspelled "ATM machine cards" and "PIN numbers", sir. Please correct this oversight as soon as is convenient for you.

    As long as this time they make sure that they're really Personal PIN Numbers this time. :)

  11. Re:Here's the science free explanation! on NASA Tests Hypersonic Blackswift · · Score: 1

    Well, the US supported Germany in at least *some* ways before they were dragged into the war, so perhaps it was originally US technology...

    Possible but fairly unlikely, the US didn't do much rockets back then.

    According to Wikipedia it seems to date from late 19th century or very early 20th,having been designed in Sweden.

    It could be that the Backswift uses the so called "valveless" design (which actually isn't) which seems to originally be a recent (late 20th cent) French design. It looks like this design can double as a scramjet but it seems to be fairly difficult to run successfully.

  12. Re:So let me get this straight... on WTF? NC Offers to Replace 10,000 License Plates · · Score: 1

    What I'd like to know is how you can be offended by a random three letters, even if they happen to have relatively recently gained a meaning.

    Being offended is a major industry in the US. Lots of people make a good living with it.

  13. Re:Here's the science free explanation! on NASA Tests Hypersonic Blackswift · · Score: 1

    what worries is is how are they going to get tests to compare its performance with the V-1?

    What surprised me is that they managed to extract yet more use from 1940s German technology.

    Has a pulse jet engine actually been used since the V1 ?

  14. Re:Awful on NASA Tests Hypersonic Blackswift · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Asharites questioned the value of evidence and scientific method, because they believed that the deep properties of nature were (and should stay) beyond the realm of human comprehension. Very much like your "God fearing" Midwestern Christians.

    It is often said that history doesn't repeat itself but I could well see a rerun of that episode one of these days.
    It probably was one of the major catastrophes of the human history. Without it the Mediterranean civilisations could have grown together instead of half of them collapsing back into ignorance.

    And yet few people seem to even know about this historical tidbit. :(

  15. Re:Oh great... on Supreme Court Holds Right to Bear Arms Applies to Individuals · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You've made a mistake. We don't need to convince gun owners to help us, we need to convince the people who have had enough to buy guns. And then what ?
    Attack the nearest army base ? Or the treasury office ? Or the FBI bureau ? March on the white house to storm it ? Or what exactly ?

    What is the point of those "freedom protecting" guns all the US people are supposedly so fond of ?

  16. Re:Too Much Mutlitasking? on A Marine's-Eye View of the Networked Battlefield · · Score: 1

    Seriously, with all the recent articles regarding the detrimental effects multitasking has on a person, this sounds like it could do more harm than good. Imagine being in a fire fight and an IM window pops up on your HUD. On the other hand maybe it would let you unwind by punching the monkey, maybe even win a prize !

  17. Re:I'm the only one a bit worried... on A Marine's-Eye View of the Networked Battlefield · · Score: 1

    If the prototypical enemy of the US these days is backed by the indigenous population, then the US is not "liberating" anyone. They are liberating, um, "valuable assets".

  18. Re:Reality Check on Only One Quarter of the Planet To Be Online By 2012 · · Score: 1

    Do you know what portion of the planet doesnt have clean running water? Or a reliable electricity supply? Any idea what portion of the planet exists on less than a dollar per day?

    AC

    This site addresses some of those statistics. Can't vouch for the exactness of the provided figures though. Still fun to see the numbers roll by.
  19. Re:Just deserts... on IT Students Contract Out Coursework To India · · Score: 1

    I mean, you listen to people talk, and they talk about how college is great because it opens so many doors, and a college diploma provides so many opportunities. That's all backwards. College is great because it is, in itself, a great opportunity to learn how to work your ass off in a grown-up environment, but before consequences really come into play. If you're not working your ass off, you're missing out on the best opportunity college can provide. Yes, let's only teach competition instead of cooperation. It's not as if we were an advanced species or anything. We can drop below the societal level of apes. What do we care?

    If we drive fast enough maybe that cliff will just go away.

  20. Re:Thank minimum wage on IT Students Contract Out Coursework To India · · Score: 1

    Don't blame the minimum wage in first world countries, blame the lack of minimum wage in third world countries.

    But isn't taking the lowest common denominator for the best ? It must be true, I read it on /. !
  21. Re:project management is more like "time accountin on The Principles of Project Management · · Score: 1

    I'd say that Project Management involves juggling three things - Schedule, Scope and Budget (think of it as a triangle).


    It is common to include a fourth factor, quality - thus making it a pyramid.

    Actually, you also have to factor in blame so it really becomes a time cube (original seems to be offline).
  22. Re:Worst idea ever on The Beginnings of a TLD Free-For-All? · · Score: 1

    Why not get rid of TLD's alltogether? All those TLD's aren't making things easier to understand and certainly not easier to administrate. How nice it would be when I visit "http://slashdot" I'll be at slashdot. Or since they're going to make the DNS irrelevant, the might as well get rid of it. People do remember phone numbers after all. They'll probably manage with IP addresses (and most users can't figure out how what host names are anyway and live in Google or whatever their search engine is).
  23. Re:Worst idea ever on The Beginnings of a TLD Free-For-All? · · Score: 1

    And a bunch of open source projects and useful services (the Jabber network I use for example) are hosted on .info domains as well. Blocking a generic TLD doesn't make much sense.

  24. Re:Don't we already know this? on Bizarre Properties of Glass Allow Creation of "Metallic Glass" · · Score: 2, Funny

    Please have this out with my freshman chemistry professor in college. He does a spectacular demo in which he drinks a glass of water, and then proceeds to drink the glass itself. Was he a Balrog ?
  25. Re:Cloud Cities on The Life and Times of Buckminster Fuller · · Score: 1

    I have to admit, I've always wanted a city in the clouds, it would probably even be doable. And I've always wanted a ring habitat around a distant star. I guess we all have to make concessions :(