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User: Davorama

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  1. This bit seems odd. on NASA's Flying Wing Breaks 2 Records · · Score: 2
    The craft, NASA said, might one day play host to experiments for pharmaceutical companies and others that would fly it to the edge of space, conduct experiments and then fly it down -- all by remote control.

    Why would you want to conduct experiments at 100,000 ft at 20 MPH? You aren't going to have low/micro gravity conditions... Is there some other reason or has NASA's PR department just gotten too used to blurting that out when asked why technology xyz might be useful?

  2. Re:Discoveries are not the same as consumer goods on Linus Responds To Mundie · · Score: 2

    Um, I believe they made quite a bit of money actually. The wright's were aware of the value of their inventiveness and marketted the wright flyer to the military. I don't know numbers but I don't think they died poor.

  3. What about wireless on On The Future of ISPs, Both Large and Small... · · Score: 2
    What I'm hoping can keep the local ISP's on their feet is some of the new wireless stuff that's coming out. Not so much because it's cool (even though it is) but because it enables the Mom & Pop ISP to do business on their own terms again.

    The big problem with DSL is that pesky middleman that has a vested interest in seeing you fail. If wireless can be made to work then they are out of the picture and we have a vialble alternative again.

    Let's keep our fingers crossed that the product can live up to it's hype.

  4. Re:Not sure what the problem is here... on Where Do Open Source Developers Hide Their Resumes? · · Score: 1
    As a smart person, I am actually *less* likely to sit through a defense of my intelligence for a complete stranger. Life's too short--and there are far too many good jobs

    I don't know about this. If I don't get at least some grilling I'm likely to assume the place is too desparate for talent. Did they just loose the one guy/gal who was carrying the place? Do they not even know how to ask hard questions? Could be a bad sign....

  5. Re:Pish-tosh on Destroying The Myth Of The Web-Safe Palette · · Score: 2
    Jeez... If you're site is all about matching colors and transparent GIFs, you've got a brochureware site. Don't sweat it -- people will look at it once and never come back.

    Umm.... yeah including the guys who are paying all the bills around here....

    I'd say about 100% of the work I do is making simple PHP run brochure sites where PHP+MySQL is allowing people with no design skills to maintain their site after I'm done. These people pay alot of attention to how their very low trafic sites look on every machine that they happen to walk by and it's their word of mouth that keeps the jobs flowing in. This issue hits me all the time and it's a pain in the ass.

  6. What? on Homebrew S/ADSL · · Score: 1
    I don't know if I'm just dense or I was just OVERLY CONFUSED BY HIS ODD USE OF LARGE TEXT but I'm not completely clear on what this guy did. or why he did it. Here's my best guess, can somebody onfirm?

    He installed a point to point connection between two DSL modems. They were connected by two sets of lines running from the CO to the two sites with the modems that only costs $20/mo so his total cost is the initial equipment and $40/mo. Doesn't sound like he's saving a boatload of dough to me but if he's getting the service where it's otherwise unavailable then that's pretty cool.

  7. Re:This kicks ass on Anti-Dot-Com Slogans Pepper SF · · Score: 2
    I don't live in one of these areas and so didn't know it had gotten that bad but I think this observation makes the choice of the Sam Lowry moniker pretty appropriate. Makes me want to dim the lights, put a magnifier in front of my old Mac's flickering 9 inch screen and set it to churn out old typewriter noises while I'm at work churning out websites for new dotcom ventures.

    Wouldn't Tuttle have been a better choice? Or was that Buttle...?

  8. Maybe /.ers have an opinion then? on C++ Answers From Bjarne Stroustrup · · Score: 3
    These other questions were so great I didn't make the cut but maybe you folks have opinions you'd like to share?

    What do you think of template meta programming? Do you consider it a boon, enabling clever programmers to do outrageously cool things like the Blitz project? Or is any benefit derived from it's use washed away by the obscure, nearly unreadable code it takes to implement it?

  9. What do you think of TMP? on Ask Bjarne Stroustrup, Inventor of C++ · · Score: 5

    What do you think of template meta programming? Do you consider it a boon, enabling clever programmers to do outrageously cool things like the Blitz project? Or is any benefit derived from it's use washed away by the obscure, nearly unreadable code it takes to implement it?

  10. Re:Remember... on Microsoft Plans Media Player for Linux? · · Score: 1
    I think this comment is one of the most insightful here. The real danger is in closed protocols and not any soft/vapor-ware for any particular client. What Linux, and everybody else for that matter, really needs is a good open codec and an open streaming protocol that can't be corrupted or taken away if it ever becomes dominant.

    Didn't Apple open their streaming protocol? Could some of this new-found market cap from all the IPO's be used to develop a good open codec?

  11. Re:From the anouncement page... on Transmeta Webcast Today at Nine PST, Noon EST · · Score: 1

    Actually, I really did mean it as a serious comment. I would be viewing it on either my Windows or Linux version of RealPlayer if the servers wern't maxed out. I just thought it was interesting that they didn't even have MacOS listed there.

  12. From the anouncement page... on Transmeta Webcast Today at Nine PST, Noon EST · · Score: 2
    Download the RealPlayer (for Microsoft Windows)
    Download RealPlayer G2 Alpha (for Linux)
    Download the Windows Media Player

    Well, whatever it is they are doing, I guess it's not anything that Mac users would be interested in....

  13. Put on your ice cleats, boys! on NBC Upset About CBS's Digital Ethics · · Score: 1
    For media watchers, the issue raised ethical questions. ''This is a slippery slope CBS has gotten on to and it could have big consequences as far as its news credibility,'' said Jim Naureckas of the media watchdog FAIR.

    This made me laugh. TV news credibility? News flash kids - that deafening howl in your ears is normal when you reach terminal velocity.

  14. Toilet missing critical equipment! on Humpday Quickies · · Score: 1
    Where's the TP roll?!?

    Maybe since you never have to get up again you don't need TP?

    There's always the fax paper I guess.

  15. I hate to burst your bubble... on Scott Kurtz Blasts Comic Strips on Tech Support · · Score: 1
    But your teachers laughed at you. They laugh very hard in fact. Kids do dumb things and some kids are slow learners. This is frustrating to the teacher who's greatest desire is to get that one kid who is still using his finger to add in the third grade to figure it out. It is frustrating to have the majority of the class not put their name on their papers after spending the whole year harping on them to do it.

    Teachers need to vent sometimes. If you have ever known a teacher it can be quite shocking. They can be cruel - talking about their kids in the most degrading terms. It is unprofessional but necassary for some to get through the bad days.

    The point of all this is that comedy is subjective. When I hear my teacher friends talk this way I don't really find it funny so I politely laugh and change the subject as quickly as I can. They are still my friends though and most have leaned to not go there.

    If you don't find UF funny then feel free not read it. But don't presume to tell me that I'm some sort of bastard for finding it funny.

  16. Re:Heh! Informative? on Brightest Moon Fallacy · · Score: 1

    I don't have any points right now so I can't verify it, but isn't informative right next to funny in the selection list? I know I've made a slip once or twice when moderating. They are probably just addle-fingered.

  17. Getting complicated. on Richard Stallman Calls for Amazon Boycott · · Score: 2
    I gotta wonder just what Amazon is supposed to do. I don't like their inane patent either but if they didn't take it out then they'd just be held hostage by the next devious guy in line who didn't have enough scuples to say no. It's a cut-throat world out there this Xmas (and I leave Christ out purposely there) for all the .coms and alot of them aren't going to make it. Amazon saw that their business model could be patented. If they don't defend that patent then they lose it.

    Unfortunately for Amazon, RMS is right too. Shopping there leaves a bad taste in my mouth now. so I'll be looking for a more astheticly pleasing place for my business. It's a shame though since it really is the fault of a screwed up patent system that encourages the behavior.

  18. Re:Ouch, even funnier, gets better. on GNU/Hurd Web Server Online · · Score: 1

    You'd hate to be a neighbor of his on the same loop. "Hey Jeff, my cable connection just hit a brick wall, how's yours doing?"....

  19. Duvel in the glass? on Medium Rare Quickies · · Score: 1

    I was browsing ThinkGeek and noticed they were putting Duvel in the glasses. Can you get that stuff in the US without hitting the specialty import stores?

  20. $1300 ?!? on MP3 Jukebox That Rox · · Score: 2

    These guys must be kidding. $1300 for the minimal system? $1800 for the high end? Puhleaze - you could just get another computer to do all this and at less than half the cost too.

  21. Not sure I understand. on Dave McAllister (SGI) on Linux and Chilli · · Score: 1

    When I try to read between the lines of the policies of SGI, IBM, HP and Sun what I'm seeing is a general desire to make Linux successful because they think it will keep Gates off their back. Seems to me that about 3-4 years ago everybody had the beginnings of an NT port for their processors and this must have had them worried. Is Linux some sort of enemy-of-my-enemy to them? Do they really want to see it succeed? Once they've derailed Windows will they turn on Linux? Or, is there some other strategy that they have in mind? If there is something else then I'm afraid I don't understand what it is and I'd love to be enlightenned.

  22. Don't forget alternate histories. on What is Science Fiction? · · Score: 2
    Most of the explainations I see here leave out the alternate history genre of sci-fi. There are some great stories out there. In general, I think the best way to distinguish good sci fi from the flotsam is that it will make an attempt to pose a new or interesting answer to a question beginning with "What if." If you generalize too much you can make this apply to anything but the best sci fi will always be the author's attempt to answer an interesting "what if" question which is rooted (if somewhat loosely) in reality.

    So, back to alternate histories, I always considered them sci fi (along with the folks who put together the anthologies I've read) because they answer questions like "what if Kennedy hadn't been shot?", "What if John Lennon had been kicked out of the beatles", ...etc.

  23. Re:so call me cynical, but... on FBI Shuts Down Website · · Score: 1

    If I were an artist and wanted to really boost my exposure I'd design a really tasteless website with a flame fanning subject. Then I'd get a couple of friends (Probably the same guys who acted in the film) to call up my ISP and harass them into killing my site. Then all I'd need is post the story on slashdot and boom! - I'm a geek household name. Not that I think that this is how it actually went but hey, as long as we are being cynical might as well go all the way.

  24. Re:Somebody has to say it. on Comdex Mid-Week Quickies · · Score: 1
    The funny thing is that while I used to really suffer on that old 9" monitor and screen magnification was a total must, the new monitors are so much nicer. I can now easilly afford 19 inches and even more if my eyes start to get worse than the already are.

    Linux is a bit weak but not impossibly bad. With fvwm I could create a monster virtual desktop and then configure the thing so that I could scoll around and it actually worked very similarly to how the old Mac extension. The only problem is that you have to set your monitor resolution rediculously low to get good magnification and it's just not easy enough to switch back and forth if you want to turn magnification on and off.

    I can't speak for anybody but myself here. My eye problems are not as bad as some. Just bad enough that I've tried the software. I invariably get fed up with the limitation imposed or the hassle of stuff scrolling off the screen and go back to emacs or some other text based app with a nice big font.

  25. Somebody has to say it. on Comdex Mid-Week Quickies · · Score: 1

    The two major inovations in W2K that Gore was impressed with - screen magnification and reading for the visually impared and blind - are way out of date. I have had a screen magnification on my old SE/30 for at least 9 years. Reading, I don't know how far that goes back but I think it's even further. I know Apple had something where a simple keystroke would read what was in the current window several years ago.