Slashdot Mirror


User: Detritus

Detritus's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
6,170
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 6,170

  1. Re:Interesting on When Microbes Ate the Ocean · · Score: 1

    What's the total biomass of homo sapiens compared to that of ants and termites? Hint, we would not be missed.

  2. Re:I wonder... (Mars climate evolution) on When Microbes Ate the Ocean · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think that it is more likely that Mars was doomed by its relatively small mass. Its escape velocity is only 5 km/s, and it doesn't have a strong magnetic field to protect it from the solar wind. This means that the atmosphere will rapidly leak into space.

  3. IPV6 on When Pigs Wifi · · Score: 1

    It would be a good motive for switching to IPV6. IPSEC should be the default for all Internet traffic. Who cares about link encryption if all of the packets are end-to-end encrypted.

  4. Thank God for the Atom Bomb on 60 Years Since Hiroshima · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Paul Fussell's essay, Thank God for the Atom Bomb, should be required reading for those who want to understand the decision to drop the bomb and its historical context.

  5. Re:been around for years... on Spyware Based ID Theft Ring Uncovered · · Score: 1

    Prodigy got in trouble because people found personal information inside its cache files. It turned out that the only reason that information was present was because prodigy's software didn't initialize the contents of the cache files when they were created. They contained whatever random junk that had been left behind by other software. They weren't spying on their users.

  6. Re:Oh boy, here we go on Discovery Prepares for Return · · Score: 1

    I thought that it just changed the elements of the orbit, making it more elliptical. To deorbit something, you have to reduce its velocity.

  7. Levels of Abstraction on What Xbox Games Will Be Backwards Compatible? · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's one thing to write a system call compatible graphics library. It's much more difficult to handle programs that directly access the graphics hardware, and there are often compelling reasons to directly access the graphics hardware in high-performance applications.

  8. Re:WTF? on Retail Fraud on the Rise · · Score: 3, Interesting
    At what point do you "rat him out"?

    Do you wait for him to rape or kill someone?

    What if he steals from your neighbor?

    I turned in a fellow student who was stealing expensive tools from people's cars and trucks. I didn't regret it then and I don't regret it now.

  9. Re:Uh... on Top Ten Game Cliches · · Score: 1
    Some of us suck even worse than that.

    Some of these puzzles and missions may be simple for people who have previously played similar games, but frustratingly difficult for those who don't know the tricks and strategies.

  10. Re:Devil's Advocate on Spammers Lose Court Battle Against Univ. of Texas · · Score: 1
    That aside, are you saying that if a museum accepts a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, they're then obligated to set up an Army recruitment kiosk in their lobby?

    No, but it's hypocritical for universities to engorge themselves on government grants, contracts, financial aid, and scholarships, and then act "holier than thou" when it comes to ROTC and military recruiting on campus. Some people are mentally stuck in the 1960s.

  11. Re:constitutional rights? on Spammers Lose Court Battle Against Univ. of Texas · · Score: 1

    If you read Indian press accounts, and other sources of misinformation, it was all the fault of Union Carbide. No mention of UCIL's Indian management, investors, staff and the role of Indian government officials. No, it was a horrible crime perpetrated on the people of Bhopal by those evil colonialists at Union Carbide in America. No Indians were involved.

  12. Re:Devil's Advocate on Spammers Lose Court Battle Against Univ. of Texas · · Score: 1

    Don't quit your day job. ROTC and military recruiting is not "quartering troops". The schools are free to refuse all of that tainted federal money, and any obligation to cooperate with the military.

  13. Re:Coincidence? on Risks of Partisan Spam Filtering? · · Score: 2, Informative

    You would be misinformed. Anything having to do with guns or weapons is a commonly blocked category.

  14. Re:constitutional rights? on Spammers Lose Court Battle Against Univ. of Texas · · Score: 1

    That was Union Carbide India, Limited, not Union Carbide. Something many people find convenient to ignore when looking to place blame.

  15. Re:1st Amendment = Free SPEECH on Spammers Lose Court Battle Against Univ. of Texas · · Score: 1

    It general, it isn't a violation of the first amendment if the restriction is content-neutral.

  16. Re:Devil's Advocate on Spammers Lose Court Battle Against Univ. of Texas · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That was a reaction to schools that were happy to accept boatloads of government money, but told the military that they were not welcome on campus.

  17. Re:in the UK... on Bully To Blacken Rockstar's Other Eye? · · Score: 1

    I can't wait for a group of these hooligans to "happy slap" some SAS commando home on leave.

  18. Re:Design Issues on More New Details on NASA's CEV Launcher Studies · · Score: 1
    The Titan isn't exactly the poster child for launcher reliability.

    How much would it cost to man-rate the Titan IV?

  19. Re:The Best Thing on Using Technology to Protect Anonymous Sources? · · Score: 1
    If they are reporting a crime that the organizaiton is committing then they should be protected by whistleblower laws right?

    If you believe that whistle-blower laws are effective, you may be interested in purchasing this fine structure as an investment for your future.

  20. Re:The Best Thing on Using Technology to Protect Anonymous Sources? · · Score: 1

    The problem is that most corporations and government agencies have policies that say only certain people are authorized to talk to the press, usually top-level executives and the public relations office. Anyone else is likely to be fired if they are identified as a source of information.

  21. Re:Wireless speeds are inflated on Wireless Networking Speeds of 540 Mbps w/ 802.11n · · Score: 1

    On a relatively quiet Ethernet, you can get very close to wire speed. Many of the early reports of limited speed on Ethernet were due to bugs and deficiencies in hardware and systems software.

  22. Re:I hope the shuttle comes home safe... on Space Shuttle to Receive Emegency Repairs · · Score: 1

    The old heat shields were composite structures composed of fiberglass, resin, and ablative materials.

  23. Re:Working at 300 miles? on 125-Mile WiFi Connection · · Score: 1
    It's bandwidth and SNR. See Shannon limit.

    You could transmit 11 Mbps in 1 MHz of bandwidth with a 33 dB SNR.

  24. Re:obSMAC on British Intel Shuts Down al-Qaeda Sites · · Score: 1

    The quotation is from a fictional character in a fscking video game.

  25. Re:Understandable . . . on Governmental Servers Wiped? Never! · · Score: 1

    I know someone who does this stuff as part of his job. All hard drives are removed from the computers being removed from service. They are sent through an industrial strength degausser to nuke any information left on the drives. What's left is scrap metal, since the degausser also wipes the servo signals needed to position the head over the tracks on the disk. This is what they do to ordinary computers. Computers that have been used to store or process classified information get more intense treatment.