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User: kencf0618

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  1. Victor VI on Ask Slashdot: What Was Your First Home Computer? · · Score: 1

    My first home computer (I'm an Computer Assisted Instructed alumnus (ASR-33 Teletypes with acoustic modems)) was a Victor-VI 8088, which was purchased by my family by some subterfuge on which I I discovered BBSes on which I played Hack until my visual purple did weird things and my eyes bled. Good times, good times.

  2. Re:Who needs legs? on What Happens When Your Own Limb Is Almost Good Enough? · · Score: 1
  3. International Charter on Space and Major Disasters on China Deploys Satellites In Search For Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight · · Score: 1

    It hasn't been activated for Malaysia Airlines Flight 307, nor was it activated for Air France Flight 447 in 2009 --one would think that they'd be all over this sort of thing like a cheap suit. Does anyone know why not? A computer search for a debris field that wasn't there during the previous pass would seem like a no-brainer.

    http://www.disasterscharter.or...

  4. Re:Simple. Don't. on Ask Slashdot: How Do I Request Someone To Send Me a Public Key? · · Score: 1

    Using the NATO phonetic alphabet, I presume.

  5. Death by Design (1995) on Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini, Nobel Winner, Dies At 103 · · Score: 1

    She and her twin sister were featured in the 1995 science documentary Death by Design/The Life and Times of Life and Times, which is well worth viewing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_Design/The_Life_and_Times_of_Life_and_Times

  6. Re:Work, of course on Ask Slashdot: What Is Your New Years Eve Tradition? · · Score: 1

    That's very much my M.O. Avoid the crowds and drunk-'o-clock.

  7. Re:being older and wiser... on Ask Slashdot: What Is Your New Years Eve Tradition? · · Score: 1

    I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now that I have a social life (to paraphrase Bob Dylan). I used to stay in on Amateur Night, but now that I have friends who are variously Maker Faire peeps, artists, and burlesque/new circus performers, I offer my services as roving designated driver just in case someone's Plan B needs a Plan B and just have a wonderful time. The burlesque troupe held a benefit last night, A Derrière Affair --their favourite venue needed new seating! Who am I to stay home?!?

  8. No Party Like a CryptoParty! on Creeping Government Surveillance Now Without Warrants · · Score: 2

    Hence the grassroots reaction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoParty

  9. Operation Delego on 8 Ways To Circumvent the PROTECT-IP Act · · Score: 2

    Of the approximately 600 members of Dreamboard, only 72 were charged, and twenty of them as John Does. According to the Twitched Indictment, Dreamboard gave advice to its members as to which encryption to use, but obviously the Feds aren't shouting from the rooftops about which security protocols they weren't able to break and/or circumvent...

  10. Foxfire, Nextel and Glock on Ask Slashdot: How Prepared Are You For a Major Emergency? · · Score: 2

    One of my colleagues who lives up in the Boise Hills has been feeling a strong urge lately to live closer to the land and further off the grid, if only by buying a goat. I suggested that she start selling halal goat meat to the local Muslim population, such as it is. More seriously, I recommended the Foxfire anthologies --and much to my surprise, she'd never heard of them! There are twelve in the series now, so whether you want to churn your own butter or fix up some bear stew, that's the place to go. It came from the backwash of the '60s, but AFAIK it's still a good DIY resource.

    If I was still living in earthquake country (Loma Prieta, 1989) I would still have a Sprint/Nextel phone with the latter's Direct Connect, which is half-duplex. Even if the infrastructure was totally shot, they'd still function directly as walkie-talkies.

    I'm in no sense a survivalist, though. If the civil order collapsed I'd probably be standing in line with virtually everyone else. My 9mm Glock 17 wouldn't even come into play --I'm just a geek with a gun.

    Still, it's a good idea to stock up one's larder, just in case.

             

  11. Re:You have to keep buying on Consumers Buy Less Tech Stuff, Keep It Longer · · Score: 1

    It also depends on what you're in the market for. I had the opportunity to buy an Idaho for Obama laptop for $300 after the campaign, a serviceable
    machine on which I had done much data entry, but I decided against lugging around the so-called fourth screen to coffee houses. (I'm glued
    to the screen at home as it is!) But that was then and this is now; I've just ordered an HTC EVO now that every pimply-faced intern and many a
    child has a 'droid, and for less than that amount after the rebate. My current cell phone is a utilitarian Motorola i580. It's five months out of Sprint/Nextel contract, my defunct 200 minutes per month service plan was grandfathered in (on average I use 80 minutes per month), and it's basically dial-up compared to any smart phone's cable modem. But then came Android, and for me the smart phone market had gelled; that was my tipping point. It's worth my while nowadays to be on-line whenever I please, given that such mobile access is now a commodity. When that wasn't the case, I was quite happy with my dial-up dumb cell phone. Too, I go a long time between upgrades, so my previous device always becomes Fred Flintstone's device anyway!

  12. Re:WARNING: Extremely Graphic!!! on Libya SIGINT Jamming Satellites, Towers · · Score: 1

    Yes, I know and appreciate all of this.

  13. Re:Network of nodes using Uucp, USENET on Libya SIGINT Jamming Satellites, Towers · · Score: 1

    Quite so.

    http://bahrainiblogger2011.iyobo.com/7Y6tcbdcxdE

    Just in case you want to see a human brain vs. a .50, savvy?
           

  14. Mediajihad on Middle East Internet Scorecard · · Score: 1

    I've been calling this "mediajihad," i.e. media struggle. It's been fascinating to watch.

  15. Re:Why is this funny? on What’s the Internet? (on 1994's Today Show) · · Score: 1

    I've been on-line in one forum or another since August of 1989 (think cold fusion). Modem hiss... FidoNet... BBSes... and StarFlight. Nowadays I edit Wikipedia, run a couple of Tor relays and plaster myself all over Facebook. Who knows what the 2020's shall bring?

  16. Re:Yet a backup from the Resolute Desk drawer of J on Challenger 25 Years Later · · Score: 1

    Have fun tracking it down, but I once came across an anthology of contingency speeches which were never given: _The Ungiven Speeches_ by Learie John Fraser. General Eisenhower's in case D-Day failed... President Nixon's in case Apollo 13 didn't make it back... Fascinating what-ifs!

  17. At Home on Challenger 25 Years Later · · Score: 1

    I was at home when my mother told me that the shuttle had blown up. I immediately asked "On the launch pad or in flight?" When she said in the air, I knew they were all dead. A sad day.

  18. Re:An Industry Ripe for Change... on Why Designers Hate Crowdsourcing · · Score: 1

    Or Getty Images partnering with Flickr. A small slice of the market shall always pay for really high-end, professional work, it's just that the slush pile has grown so large and accessible that the lower end of that slice has effectively vanished. Verily all God's children got bandwidth now, and new business models shall come into being, and nothing is new under the sun.

  19. Trekker Backpiece on Tattoos For the Math and Science Geek? · · Score: 1

    Some might consider the Trekker option closer to fine:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencf0618/4719438855/

    I've several palm-sized tattoos, all covered up. And mathemamatically, I'd go with phi.
         

  20. Re:alternative choice on Tattoos For the Math and Science Geek? · · Score: 1
  21. Re:Big name = other people on Best Alternatives To the Big Name Social Media? · · Score: 1

    Yogi Berra lives!

  22. From Cold Fusion to Stalkface on Facebook Retroactively Makes More User Data Public · · Score: 1

    Stalkface (as I now call it) has become such an integral social platform that it really does have us by the 'nads. I'm middle-aged, and Stalkface has enabled a certain level of ambient social chatter for me which ranges from elementary school deaf kid cohorts to contemporary friends, acquaintances and correspondents. Then again, I've been on-line in one forum or another since 1989, circa the cold fusion debacle, so I figure that getting screwed by the panopticon became the default long ago.

  23. Re:1968 on Looking Back From the 1980s At Computers In Education · · Score: 1

    I attended Greendell Elementary in Palo Alto, California. Same set-up, same era --my Dad tells me
    that this was the pilot program for computers in education. Anyone know anything more? In any case,
    those ASR-33 Teletypes were so loud, even we deaf kids could hear them! The terminals were connected
    to Stanford University, but all we got out of them was spelling and arithmetic.

    I remember being intensely annoyed that the terminals would instantly spit out WRONG ANSWER --TRY AGAIN,
    not even allowing you the dignity of completing your mistake, but I had my revenge. One rainy day they
    weren't connecting via the acoustic modem. Each terminal had a PRESS TO START button. Knowing full well
    what I was doing, I slowly but surely pressed mine down into the plastic chassis and physically broke the
    switch.

    "But it said 'Press to start!'" I haven't played the innocent as well since.

    Epilogue: I gave my nephews an obsolete IBM ThinkPad last Christmas, figuring that it would get the ball rolling
    even if they had to get software from eBay. And indeed they were so intrigued by it that their parents invested
    in a modern laptop. They're nine and five --and I can't imagine how their sensibilities shall evolve as they grow
    up and the technology itself continues to accelerate towards the Singularity. O brave new world...!

  24. War of Internet Addiction on Google.cn Still Remains In China · · Score: 1

    Check out the WoW machinima --it's had resonance far beyond the gaming community.

    http://digicha.com/?p=125

  25. A Voyage to Arcturus on Emmerich Plans Foundation As a 3D Epic · · Score: 1

    Suffice to say, I await a mechinima of David Lindsay's gnostic novel.