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User: nordicfrost

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  1. Re:You can't play the 'luser' card! on Clean System to Zombie Bot in Four Minutes · · Score: 1

    what would be the current state of the WWW? Unix and Linux were in no position to offer "easy computing"

    I like to think that the Next computer could have evolved into a really userfriendly little thingy. And now, in some sort it has. Without Microsoft, we'd may have had sound and advanced cheap graphics sooner (Amiga) and a more user friendly interface (Mac) a lot sooner. But they were squashed by a mostly inferior system (MS DOS).

    But my bet would be on the Next, in a cheap edition.

  2. You can't play the 'luser' card! on Clean System to Zombie Bot in Four Minutes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Many IT-people brand the persons that get these bots / infections as clueless lusers who get their comeuppance. I don't.

    A machine isn't supposed to act this way. It is very simple, but we forget that proper behaviour for the machine is to NOT get infected in seconds. I have abandoned windows some time ago, but still help friends with their machines. But it is a battle they're losing. Nothing seems to help, mostly due to the extremely bad security paradigms. They now think its normal having to run 2 - 3 different anti-adware programs, virusscanner, be on eternal vigilance at every corner of the internet.

    It is not supposed to be like this. Don't forget that.

  3. Re:Are you insane? on Do-Not-Call List Could Be Opened For Phone Spam · · Score: 1

    The the webpage (The sentral government registry ain Brønnøysund, Norway. I imagine it's a lot like the central filing stationn in Futurama) you use to block callers is very simple.

    You fill out your social security number (Called person number here, more 1984-style), then check off what you don't want. You can check off the following:

    I want to block advertisment through mail (check)
    I want to block advertisment through phone and mobile (check)

    and
    I want to block advertisment from charities (check)

    And sinceI give money anonymeously to charities, they don't have prior business with me. So they don't bother me.... Yay! I give to the Salvation Army and some to Save the children, but if they dare to call me, I'll stop that instant and explaing every fucking soul in the charity why I did it. I have already resigned from my Amnesy lifetim membership becaus they were so god damn annoying. Yes I want to take action, but not every fucking other day!!!

  4. Are you insane? on Do-Not-Call List Could Be Opened For Phone Spam · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What the hell is going on over there? Has the entire USA become a free-for-all (big business that is) annoyfest? I'm on an European do-not-call-list and have recieved two calls in four or five years one was a mistake, that didn't help I reported them anyway.

    The other was from a company I already do business with (I yelled at them anyway and moved my business to another company that don't anoy me at work). They used the pre-business loophole so I told them what my opinion was with that and talked to everyone I could reach in the company. I also reported them to the consumer ombudsman, since they are abusing their power grid monopoly in Oslo to justify pushing sales calls.

    From an outside perspective, it seems like the only ones enjoying freedom in the US are big, bug business. They can trample the freedom of private citizens quite easely, it seems and bother them at will while the government drags its feet. And counts its money, I presume. We have the loophole too, but we are at least working on closing it, not opening it more.

  5. Re:smae 'SMART' as the one sold by Mercedes on ZAP Smart Car Approved for Sale in the US · · Score: 1

    Well, it happens a lot easier with this car. But in rain, summer it is tha bomb.

  6. Re:smae 'SMART' as the one sold by Mercedes on ZAP Smart Car Approved for Sale in the US · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes, it is Smart. It is a truly cool little car but sadly not very good in our (Norway) winter conditions. A coworker had the terrifying experience of sliding down a loooong hill sideways on snow with this baby. And winter tyres.

  7. I remember the launch... on A Brief History of the iPod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I also talked with a Mac-enthusiatic buddy of mine, and he hated it. I don't know why, but he thought it would bring down Apple another notch on the finance scale. Guess he was wrong. Along with some that said "no wireless. Lame."

    I find it the most indispensable tool in my life. Backup, file transport, music and calendar. With a huge harddrive.

  8. Mac people using this already... on Amazon Japan Offers Barcode Purchases via Camera Phone · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The good folks at Delicious Monster have the Delicious Library where you can use your iSight or other camera to scan your DVD library barcodes for ease of use. Quite pornographic.

  9. Re:Couple thoughts. on New Video Game Recreates Kennedy Assassination · · Score: 1
    I thought the single bullet theory was a bunch of shit, but after seeing their recreation it certainly seems plausible.

    My woman is an army medic, and this weekend I read a bit of the litterature she is reading for her next exam. I swear to you, reading the whole book (written, edited and issued by the army medic division) is like reading the unabridged rotten.com. There are several diagrams with accompanying pictures describing bullet paths and their way through flesh. For example: a .38 caliber handgun shot will pretty much go straight through the flesh and exit in a direct line. A rifle bullet may change orientation and direction while inside the flesh. As I remember, the AK-47 ammo would enter the flesh, rotate 360 degrees inside the wound and take a curve. The AK-74 ammo would enter the flesh and rotate 180 degrees while inside the flesh so it would most likely exit on its backside.

    Reading these diagrams and seeing some of the damage made by rifles firering one round, I fine the "magical bullet" theory quite possible. Some of the pictures shows the damage done by ricochets, and it is truly incredible how much power they pack even when they have been trough a body.

    Hell, I remember from my army training the power of the Hekler & Kock G3 (I used the Kongsberg AG3 version). It is deadly up to 1000 meters (although that's pretty much a lucky shot if you don't have a scope) and when shot through some THICK wood, it passed through three or four logs separated by a couple of meters each.

    Rifles are powerful, ricochets are dangerously unpredictive.

  10. Re:Some calculations... on Hacking Vodka · · Score: 1

    Pardon me for the nickpicking, but I believe the correct term is: "Dude, that's a dude, dude"

  11. Re:Prefrences on Creative, Apple Battle for MP3 Player Market · · Score: 1

    Well, I don't regard the battery as weak. I understand that it may appear as weak compared to some other players but not in my opinion.

    There are additions to the iPod that give you a battery time far beyond other harddisk players. In my opinion the battery is sufficient and there's almost always a recharge option nearby. Adapter, computer, 12v outlet or otherwise.

    Dragging spare batteries around, along with recharging equipment is the old paradigm. In the future, this will be reserved for professional grade equipment only. BTW; my handicapped uncle bought a ipaq GPS enabled PDA, there's sucky batery time for you. 1,5 hours with GPS enabled and very few recharging options... compare that to the badass Anton Bauer batteries for my workplace's professional grade cameras, I don't know how manye ampere / hours they are, but I would definately NOT piss on them... ;)

  12. Re:Prefrences on Creative, Apple Battle for MP3 Player Market · · Score: 1

    It is like I wrote in the grandparent. The semi-sealed iPod design is a small paradigm shift in appliance design, and not everyone likes it. I really prefer it since the battery is
    a) Good enough, not outstanding like the 22-hour 1st and 2nd gen replacement battery, but good enough. It was an increasment from my MD player by 33%, so I think it was very good.
    b) Replacable. The guys behind the ipodsdirtysecret.com ad did a really good job at convincing a lot of people that when the battery dies AND IT WILL DIE SOON! you have an expensive paperweight. If you call Apple, they will kill your first born.
    c) a sound design choice.We can argue a lot about wether or not we like the choice, I like it.I prefer it over my old Nokia, where the battery could jiggle loose, my MD player where the door opened at the slightest touch or my Canon DV camera where I accedentally nudged the door and the battery fell out and smashed into the ground.
    d) Reduces space. A often-replaceble design makes the case somewhat larger. A bigger capacity battery of the same level of technology will usually be bigger. It is a compromise.

  13. Re:Prefrences on Creative, Apple Battle for MP3 Player Market · · Score: 1

    I don't agree. The semi (you CAN open it without much trouble. People do this all the time). sealed way is much better. As for the battery capacity, it is a compromise between size and capacity.

    I urge you to check out my Sony MD, wich I love and use professionally, ite has indeed a weak door. It is like that by design and has caused me to lose an interview, since I brushed against it with my hand and it poped open. The solution to that has been to incorporate the MZ50 in an anclosure with mic amps, XLR plugs and pre-mix.

    But the battery door desing still sucks and it is an remnant from the time hwere users change the batteries in their appliances. They don't do that anymore. hey recharge them.

    BTW, the iPod has up to 40 hours (I think) play time with the Blekin battery attachment. But then you also see what size a 40-hour battery grows to. It is, however, perfect for the kind of people that want to play music nearly two days in one strech without ever seeing an outlet.

  14. Re:Is it me? on Trekkies Director Roger Nygard Answers · · Score: 1

    I have to agree with the parent. S3 of Enterprise is an enormous improvement over the previous two. It is, in fact, closing in on Babylon 5. But the S3 storyline lasted only for that season, and carried little into S4. We'll see what happens for naow.

  15. Re:Is it me? on Trekkies Director Roger Nygard Answers · · Score: 1
    In Enterprise, the ship gets kicked around a lot more


    And it shows. When Enterprise is in spacedock, you can see that it had been royally fucked up by the incoming fire. That irritated me a lot with TOS: not matter how low you mode budget is, you can smear some ash in a pattern on your model and to at least a couple of shots after it has 'sustained fire'. Just an addition to the firecrackers in the flicght consoles.

  16. Re:Do yourself a favor... on Trekkies Director Roger Nygard Answers · · Score: 1

    I love Doctor Who! I watched it all the time when I was little. Exterminate! Exterminate! Great stuff.

    Doctor Who had awsome story lines. I also loved the first War of the World movie, from the fifties or early sixties. I LOVED the HHGTTG, and the Welles 'invasion' radio play.

    But here's the difference: TOS relies on a lot of effects, amd they are bad. Even for its age. Yes they have a couple of ropics, but rely a lot on the cheesy effects that were better in fifties horror flicks.

  17. Re:Is it me? on Trekkies Director Roger Nygard Answers · · Score: 1

    It is not that the sets are bad, I understand that it is 35 years old. The old (not bad) effects just remove the eyecandy-factor that could make you watch a show for the coolness factor. Like Matrix.

    It's more the storylines I find bland and boring. The characters are one-sided, the chicks fall for powerful bad guys all the time and storylines repeat over and over and over...

    TNG storylines are much more interconnected and advanced. Enterprise storylines are very good at developing characters, a shame that TOS fans find it to be dumb. I do think that TNG is closer to the original vision for Star Trek that Gene had than TOS.

    Stanley Kubrick waited the technology out or AI (But passed away too soon), maybe Gene should have done the same thing?

  18. Is it me? on Trekkies Director Roger Nygard Answers · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Or is the first (TOS) series just incredibly boring? Don't get me wrong, I love The Next Generation. I even helped a petition by reporing on it in our online paper (it got 150 000 signatures in a country of 4 000 000).

    But TOS seem to be for those who lived in an era with low expecations on story and effects. IMHO, TNG (WTF? BBQ!) was the first series that had acceptable story lines and effects to accomodate such a series concept.

    I also, god help me, like Enterprise. * ducks * Hey! I like the prinicple that man is fallable and stumbles out in the universe. Kirk seems to be a pompous asshole in TOS, and McCoy is just a cockknocker. The characters develops in TNG, and even in Enterprise.

  19. Re:Prefrences on Creative, Apple Battle for MP3 Player Market · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I have the 3rd gen. iPod and it has more or less 8 hours playtime. I don't like to fiddle around with the smart playlists so it prettymuch follows the precached music.

    The battery is in my eyes 'very good', since it is more that 2 hours better than my old MD, or just about the same time as my old CD player. It is suffient for me, and easily recharged.

    But a friend has the 2nd gen iPod, with one of those 22-hours batteries. And it keeps going, and going, and going...

    One design paradim shift that Apple has done correct is the no battery hatch approach. It is truly controversial, but a step in the right direction. Like my old MD, the battery hatch is one of the weakes points in the case design. The Sony MZ-R50 is semi professional, but still the battery hatch is very weak.

    How often is the user going to change the battery, is it is rechargable in the device? Most professional equipment has external battery packs (Like Anton bauer), but that design is unacceptable in consumer equipment. Modern batteries like li.ion are also very expensive to buy. The (unintendet) rarely-opened iPod battery desing is a very good compromise on user accessability, design slickness and case design.

  20. Prefrences on Creative, Apple Battle for MP3 Player Market · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Whenever there's an iPod vs X brand player, the same arguments pop up. Well, I'm an iPod fan, trough and through. And now I understand why.

    The iPod does its few tasks with a 'very good' rating for all of them. FireWire transfer = Very good. Biggish screen, backlit but (for the most part) no colours = Very good, sound quality = Very good, battery capacity = Very good (12 h), expandability = Very good (lots of accessories, much more than the others), design = Very good, UI = Very good.

    The reason for for its success is the average 'Very Good' rating that users and critiques give it.

    What about the others? Well, usually they have one outstanding feature but that is not enough to raise the overall user experience to the iPod level.

    We geeks often put on blinders when it comes to gadgets and forget what people want. And while we may choose another product because we evaluate OGG-support to be an 'Excellent' feature, most people do not. They see like this: FireWire transfer = Very good. Small screen, backlit but (for the most part) no colours = bad, sound quality = Very good, battery capacity = Very good (12 h), expandability = bad, design = bad, UI = fair, OGG support = WTF?

    And the round goes to iPod. In my work, I have tried out a huge number of iPod 'killers', and frankly they don't reach to the knees of iPod for an average person. I saw this hot chick on the tram today, she had a 2001 Creative Nomad. It was twice or three times the size of my old portable Sony CD player. Apple chose the right direction early and are now reapling the benefits.

  21. A battle... on PSP Site Launches, Launch Titles Confirmed · · Score: 1

    JoeLinux, Blackmonday; it will b an uphill battle for Sony. But they started out some 11 years ago with another battle. Who won? There's no question that Nintendo has a very good grip on the hanheld marked now, but they had a stranglehold on the console market before. And things have happened in other markets as well.

    I hope it will (fo once) be a battle where the better alternative comes out on top. Unlike the VHS - Beta battle, WordPefect - Word Battle, OS/2 - Windows battle....

  22. Re:Monopily activity? on Gates v. Jobs, continued... · · Score: 1

    LOL! Thanks, man! That comment made my morning complete..,

  23. Re:Monopily activity? on Gates v. Jobs, continued... · · Score: 1

    do you know that Bill Gates personally DONATES to the cause?

    Yup. I also know that the donations coincide with official MS-visits to developing countries. They will remember such a uge contribution when they are rich enough to not pirate software.

  24. Monopily activity? on Gates v. Jobs, continued... · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "Microsoft made it worth our while to get them into our box," said Hugh Cooney, the president of Rio, a unit of D&M Holdings of Japan. Rio had been using software from RealNetworks. "They bring a whole suite of service to us, marketing, help with testing and engineering support," he said.



    You know, it's not an illegal monopoly until one use said monopoly to gain in other product areas. The quote is typical "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" politics, and while Rio are happy now, I know that they have a bad feeling about this. Microsoft does not help anyone unless they think they have huge profits to gain from it. AIDS victims included.

  25. Not that easy... on How Journalists Distort Science with Balance · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's very easy to dole out critique to journalists, a lot harder to actually be one. I write for a living, in a newspaper. My chosen field is IT and tech, and I feel like I have very good grip about the stuff. But I can't write an article like "Explorer sux0rs!, Firefox pwns j00", it has to ta in consideration every side of the subject. Not to mention that the MS lawyers would have a defamitation suit field day if I make the slightest mistake.