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User: leonbev

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  1. Netware was evil on Ask Slashdot: How Much Did Your Biggest Tech Mistake Cost? · · Score: 1

    I once built a Windows NT 4 system image that used an older version of a Novell Netware driver that was incompatible with the newer version of Netware that the file servers were using.

    It seemed to work fine on the master system that I built, but after that image got deployed to 50 classroom computers it flooded the network with garbage traffic and caused the entire University network (about 500 computers at the time) to crash. It took the network team about two days to figure out what the problem was.

  2. Re:Celebrate Pride on FB Reveals Woeful Diversity Numbers · · Score: 1

    Well... pictures of darker skinned people are kinda hard to see with a rainbow filter on them.

  3. Re:Apple on Why So Many Robots Struggled With the DARPA Challenge · · Score: 1

    Apple isn't stupid enough to invest a ton of R&D in this yet.

    They'll wait for someone to make a clunky but functional prototype that still has some usability issues first, and then make a pretty and easier to use version of that. Then they'll let their marketing machine convince their fan base that it's the most revolutionary thing since... well... the last Apple product that came out.

    Apple is really good at this. They did it laptops, then smartphones, then tablets, and most recently smartwatches (although that one still needs some work).

  4. My "best" System on Ask Slashdot: What Hardware Is In Your Primary Computer? · · Score: 1

    I'm using a desktop system with a Quad Core i7-3770 with 8 GB of memory and a 1 TB hard drive (which I should upgrade to an SSD soon). It also has a Radeon 6870 in it (which I should also upgrade soon), and is connected to a HP LaserJet Color multifunction printer (because color lasers are awesome and I got sick of unclogging Inkjet cartridges).

    I also have a nice set of studio monitor speakers plugged into it.

    I'd imagine that most Slashdot users have more interesting systems lying about their houses, though. I'd rather hear more about their custom Raspberry Pi builds or home theater PC's.

  5. Can you actually Watch this at 8K resolution? on Ghost Towns Is the First 8K Video Posted To YouTube -- But Can You Watch It? · · Score: 1

    I tried watching this at 8K resolution on my quad core i7 laptop, and it turned into a slide show. It looks like Chrome was using maxing out 4 processor cores and was using 5 GB of memory at the time. Wow.

    Running the video at 4K worked fine, though.

  6. Re:personal responsibility on Writer: "Why I Defaulted On My Student Loans" · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So, perhaps the trick to paying off student loans in the 21st century is:

    Create a sham startup business
    Get yourself have a million in seed money from a VC that isn't too bright (This might be the tough part)
    Pay yourself a big salary with that seed money (Because, hey, you're the CEO right?)
    Use that salary to pay off your student loans
    Declare bankruptcy once the seed money runs out.
    Put "CEO of shamstartup.com!" on your resume, and use it to get a management job somewhere that doesn't do thorough background checks.

  7. Re:Fair to whom? on Microsoft To Teachers: Using Pens and Paper Not Fair To Students · · Score: 1

    Amusingly, Steve Jobs never let his kids use an iPad growing up. I guess that he didn't buy into Microsoft's argument about technology always being a superior teaching tool either:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09...

  8. Re:53 million? on Study Reveals Wikimedia Foundation Is 'Awash In Money' · · Score: 1

    Yeah... 53 million dollars doesn't seem like a huge cash reserve for a company with 220 employees, They could easily burn through that 3 years, or even less if they started expanding with new projects.

    Personally, I'd like a new page editor screen doesn't look like a source code editor from the 1990's. Ya know, just in case they're looking for ideas on how to spend that money.

  9. Re:I read the comments ... on Evolution Market's Admins Are Gone, Along With $12M In Bitcoin · · Score: 1

    I think that the difference here is that some people (who didn't do their homework) actually thought that Mt. Gox was legitimate organization that could be trusted with their Internet funny money.

    Anyone using these black market sites knows what they are doing isn't legal and should accept the risk that their bits are going to go "poof" someday and they have no legal resource when it does.

  10. Wrong kind of drone? on Drones Cost $28,000 Per Arrest, On Average · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Instead of using a multi million dollar Predator drone to scan the border, perhaps they should be using something smaller and cheaper like a beefed up version of a Parrot drone instead.

    Do we really need something that flies at 18,000 feet to patrol the border?

  11. Re:No. Just don't use it. on Ask Slashdot: Affordable Large HD/UHD/4K "Stupid" Screens? · · Score: 1

    He wants a 4K display, though, and most (if not all) of the TV's on that site are 1080p.

    I'd imagine that it will still be awhile before we're going to have commercial grade 4K displays, since they aren't commodity parts yet.

  12. Is IBM a real cloud hosting competitor? on Microsoft To Offer Azure Credits To Compete With IBM, AWS · · Score: 2

    I'm not sure why IBM is listed as being a major competitor to AWS and Azure for cloud hosting. I always thought that Rackspace,Google, and Salesforce.com were bigger players in that arena.

  13. Re:Tsk. And they wonder where employee loyalty wen on Massive Layoff Underway At IBM · · Score: 1

    The problem is that management doesn't always have a clue who's a top performer or who's not. Many IBM'ers rarely see their managers now, because they work from home.

    That means that lots of good employees get canned, and the lazy employees who took credit for their work keep their jobs.

  14. Re:This thread will be a sewer of misogyny on WA Bill Takes Aim at Boys' Dominance In Computer Classes · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Did you ever think that women are too SMART to consider a Computer Science job? While the (mostly) guys in the field are pulling all-night marathon coding sessions to meet unreasonable shipping deadlines and worrying about their job getting outsourced overseas, many women are still going after cushy union teaching jobs.

    Why? Because most teachers have a 35 hour work week, 12 weeks of paid vacation every year, and practically guaranteed job security and retirement benefits once they're tenured after a few years.

    We're the morons here, people.

  15. Re:Create a $140 billion business out of nothing? on How, and Why, Apple Overtook Microsoft · · Score: 1

    There might not have been a consumer market for them, but businesses were using Blackberries, Palm OS PDA phones, and Windows CE smart phones years before the first iPhone came out.

  16. Re:U-verse on FCC Officially Approves Change In the Definition of Broadband · · Score: 1

    Not necessarily. They used to offer a 48 Mbps option in my area before AT&T sold their Connecticut land line business to Frontier.

    They won't be able to count most of their ADSL customers as "broadband" customers, anymore, though.

  17. Re:What are the practical results of this? on FCC Officially Approves Change In the Definition of Broadband · · Score: 1

    Realistically, it means that a lot of broadband customers are going to get a "free" upgrade from 20-24 Mbps to 25 Mbps over the next few months in order to placate the FCC and pretend that they give a damn about this ruling.

  18. Re:Then on Science By Democracy Doesn't Work · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I'm not sure what you would call the US Government nowadays. Probably more of an Oligarchy of wealthy business owners and campaign contributors telling our "Democratically Elected" Legislative bodies what bills to vote on.

  19. Re:Useful changes on Jim Blasko Explains BitCoin Spinoff 'Unbreakable Coin' (Video 1 of 2) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A low inflation rate kind of kills the motivation to "mine" the coin and help the transaction network run, doesn't it? One of the reasons why Bitcoin (and the clones like Litecoin and Dogecoin) popular is that the early adopters could get a bunch of it while it was cheap and then watch it quickly go up in value.

    I might be willing to devote about of $100 of power/time/compute cycles for a cryptocurrency that might be worth $500 a few years from now. If I knew that the currency was going to be worth $110 (best case scenario!) a few years from now, I'm not going to waste my time.

  20. Re:"Free Market" religion on Republican Bill Aims To Thwart the FCC's Leaning Towards Title II · · Score: 1

    You say that like every Mom and Pop shop in the world has the resources to set up and support their own multi-million/billion dollar metropolitan fiber network.

    Yes, competition will be easier with Title II, but it's not going to happen quickly. Plus, you're still going to have some rural areas where there simply isn't a large enough customer base to support multiple profitable ISP's.

  21. Re:Nothing has been lost! on Bitcoin Volatility Puts Miners Under Pressure · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The problem is that Bitcoin doesn't really work as a currency when the price is wildly swinging by over 25% in a single day.

    Could you imagine being a store that only sold their goods with Bitcoin? They would have to reprice their entire inventory every hour to insure that they are making a profit on what they're selling!

    Instead, most businesses that take Bitcoin have to use a service like Bitpay peg the Bitcoin transaction price to something more stable like US dollars. Even then, the Bitcoin exchange services are taking a big risk that the Bitcoin to USD price isn't going to suddenly fall. I'll bet that those services will soon need to increase their fees or offer more favorable exchange rates for themselves to stay in business.

  22. Re:Obama: please stop helping us! on Obama Unveils Plan To Bring About Faster Internet In the US · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not sure how "the market" is going to work in this case. The major players in this market have already bought enough votes to pass local laws preventing competition in the regions where they operate.

    At a minimum, these laws that have basically created government sponsored broadband monopolies need to be overturned to allow competition from smaller providers to occur.

  23. Re:Makes sense. on Google Throws Microsoft Under Bus, Then Won't Patch Android Flaw · · Score: 1

    Yeah, my wife got burned on that one as well.

    In defense of Google, that phone is almost 3 1/2 years old now. Most manufacturers usually stop posting Android updates about 18 months after the phone is released.

    That doesn't make the practice right, though. If Apple can get iOS 8.1 working on three year old iPhone 4s, Google should offer the same level of support on their flagship phones.

  24. Re:Makes sense. on Google Throws Microsoft Under Bus, Then Won't Patch Android Flaw · · Score: 1

    Which is great if you have a Google Nexus phone. If not, who knows when (or even IF) you're going to get those Android updates. After the handset manufacturer and service provider are done screwing up the Android release Google released by adding buggy bloatware, it might be six months until you can actually get it on YOUR phone.

  25. Re:Sounds stupid ... on How Bitcoin Could Be Key To Online Voting · · Score: 1

    Yeah, the reliability of the Bitcoin exchanges has a bit to be desired at the moment. Sure, it's not really the protocol's fault, but the half assed implementations that sites like MtGox used for their security have left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of Bitcoin users.