Slashdot Mirror


User: friedo

friedo's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
300
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 300

  1. Re:Who cares? on Internet Usage Boosts Post Office Revenue · · Score: 1

    A government enforced monopoly and exemption from all taxes is a form of subsidy. UPS and Fedex don't get to deliver first class mail, and they have to pay income taxes.

  2. Explanation on Visual Radio Coming to India · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, no, no! You fellas have got it all wrong! It's just like radio, but with pictures!

  3. Re:Y'all need to get out more. on Ask Futurama Star Billy West About...? · · Score: 1

    Don't forget the robots from Planet Capek 9 and Klein's Beer (in the appropriate bottle) and Old FORTRAN Malt Whiskey.

  4. Re:How much do "court costs" usually run? on GPL Price-Fixing Lawsuit Dismissed · · Score: 2, Informative

    People aren't found guilty in civil cases, nor do they go to prison if they lose.

  5. Above ground on NYC Subway Cell Service, No Cell-Related Cancer · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's worth noting that a good 40% or so of what we call The Subway is actually above ground, on elevated and surface lines, and you can blab on your cell all you want while riding.

  6. Re:An interesting thing on Aluminum Foil Hats Will Not Stop "Them" · · Score: 1
    I'm sorry, I had something crazy in my ear, did you just say 'ideations'?? The rest of your comment was going so well too....


    Ideation, noun
    : the forming of ideas (as of things not present to the senses)

  7. Re:Best Practices on Perl Best Practices · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't really see how these are any more complex in Perl:

    $a = { first => [ 1,2,3 ], second => [ 4,5,6 ] }
    print $a{first}[2];

    And...

    sub foo { return { first => [ 1,2,3 ], second => [ 4,5,6 ] } }
    print foo()->{first}[2];

    One place where Perl syntax really suffers is dereferencing nested structures though. Consider

    @array = @{ $hash{$key} };

    Blegh.

  8. Re:Size soon not being an issue on Half-Terabyte Hard Drive Reviewed · · Score: 1

    I've got a Mamiya 645 Pro TL (shoots 6x4.5cm images on 120 or 220 film) and a Nikon Coolscan 8000ED which scans them at thoroughly absurd resolutions. (At a medium setting I get a TIFF of about 110MB per image, which is good enough for my purposes.)

    I'm a complete amateur, too. My day job is programmer. And my photos really suck.

  9. Re:That's a Lot Of Bits on Leaked Screenshots Show Netflix Downloads · · Score: 1

    That may have been a problem in the past but they have since greatly improved their distribution. I've been a Netflix subscriber for nearly four years and I've never once had to wait for a DVD, even brand new releases.

  10. Re:Not so old, not so past on When Computers Were Human · · Score: 1

    You are absolutely right. I rounded the operands because I didn't feel like typing the exact numbers I looked up, but I did not re-calculate the result. Stupid.

  11. Re:Not so old, not so past on When Computers Were Human · · Score: 1

    $7.8e12 / 2.96e8 = $26,351.35 per person.

  12. Re:I'm not a Californian on Tinfoil Hat House · · Score: 1

    Heheheh. You have a very short memory.

  13. Re:Glad I'm not a Californian anymore on Tinfoil Hat House · · Score: 4, Funny

    On the downside, you live in Alaska.

  14. Re:Box office earnings... on Telegraph Reviews Hitchhiker Movie, Approves · · Score: 4, Funny

    #include <stdio.h>

    #define SIX 1 + 5
    #define NINE 8 + 1

    int main() {
    printf("%d times %d is %d\n", SIX, NINE, SIX * NINE);
    }

  15. Re:Computerised lines cause train crashes on New York Computerizes its Subway System · · Score: 2, Informative

    All New York City subway lines have pneumatic tripcocks tied into the signal relays. It's impossible for a train to pass a red signal without having its emergency brake tripped. The tripcocks require pneumatic pressure to be pushed down, guaranteeing that a malfunctioning one stops a train instead of letting it through. These are still there in the new CBTC system and aren't going anywhere.

  16. Re:Casinos! on USA National Memory Championships · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Even the best card counters don't win that big at casinos. The slight edge it gives you at Blackjack, for example, is largely eliminated by frequent shuffles and large shoes.

    If you want to make money at a casino, don't try to beat the casino at their own game. Play against chumps who are bad at poker.

  17. Re:Perl doesn't kill readability... on Randal Schwartz's Perls of Wisdom · · Score: 1
    And this is exacerbated when people pull out all sorts of jiu-jitsu to apply regexes to problems that are better and more cleanly handled with a general purpose lexer.

    That's what Parse::RecDescent is for.

  18. Re:_ right..... on Random Number Generator That Sees Into the Future · · Score: 2, Funny

    The flaw in your argument is that there is, in fact, no such thing as good macaroni and cheese.

  19. Stem cell research not "outlawed." on US Stem Cells Contaminated · · Score: 1

    New stem cell harvesting was outlawed in the USA by a 2001 Executive Order from President Bush."


    No, it wasn't. Firstly, Executive Orders cannot create law (Youngstown v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952))


    But more importantly, the EO in question applies only to research conducted with federal tax money. Private research institutions and some state-funded ones (including several in California and other states) are free to persue their own stem cell lines as they see fit.

  20. Re:Privatize on Could Nuclear Power Wean the U.S. From Oil? · · Score: 1

    That's a complete load. Every nuclear power plant in the US is required by the government to carry a minimum amount of liability insurance and every one does.

  21. Re:Inside DPRK on North Korea Opens Official Website · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Yeah, they're pretty similar. Except for the fact that people in the sourth aren't starving by the millions, don't have a fanatical national cult leader, are free to leave and come back to the country whenever they want, have an independent press, a thriving economy and cordial relations with the civilized world.


    Yep. Very similar indeed.

  22. Re:Why the Army? on Army Contractor To Build A 1566 Xserve Cluster · · Score: 1

    Yes three, the Commandant of the Marine Corps takes his orders from the Chief of Naval Operations.


    He most certainly does not. (Not anymore, anyway). Both the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Chief of Naval Operations report directly to the Secretary of the Navy. They are co-equal in rank and position with the Chiefs of Staff for the Army and the Air Force, who report directly to the Secretaries of the Army and Air Force, respectively.
  23. Re:What is going on with the BSD's on Mandrakelinux Goes X.org · · Score: 1

    Is [Richard Stallman] also uninformed? I wouldn't say so.


    Then you probably don't know much about Richard Stallman. The guy is a crank and his grasp on reality is tenuous at best.
  24. Re:Oh my sweet Jesus... on Periodic Table of the Operators · · Score: 2
    Oh, come now. If you were a real perl programmer you would have written

    perl -le 'print "true" if 2.9999999999999999 == 3.0'

    :)

  25. Re:Mod Parent Up on KernelTrap Interviews Andrea Arcangeli · · Score: 1

    What is there to "provide?" All you have to do is fill out a form.