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User: Detritus

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Comments · 6,170

  1. Re:The Vomit Comet and protocol on Falling Window Cover Damages Discovery · · Score: 1

    They probably do it now. A major part of engineering is based upon learning from the mistakes and failures of the past.

  2. Re:How it looks on Designing the Look of the 360 · · Score: 1

    Step one in becoming an aesthete, learn how to spell aesthetics.

  3. Re:injunction? on Harry Potter's 'Half Blood Prince' Leaked · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's assuming that the book store owned the books that they sold. The publisher could have written a contract that said that they owned the books until the official retail distribution date, at which point ownership transfers to the retailer.

  4. Re:again? on 'Whispering' Wireless Internet · · Score: 2, Informative

    It isn't CDMA. It appears to be a combination of a narrowband pilot carrier and a wideband PPM signal that transports the data.

  5. Technical Information on 'Whispering' Wireless Internet · · Score: 3, Informative

    See this article for an explanation of some of the technical details of the system.

  6. Re:compatibility on Why Doesn't the Itanium Get the Respect It's Due? · · Score: 1

    It might be the Intel 4004, although CP/M was initially targetted at the Intel 8080. MS-DOS was (mostly) a clone of CP/M.

  7. Re:What are the odds? on T-43 Hours and Counting · · Score: 2, Funny

    There's this thing called "weather", you might have heard of it.

  8. Re:Can someone please explain on T-43 Hours and Counting · · Score: 0

    Time.

  9. Re:Modularised code will always have this problem. on Zlib Security Flaw Could Cause Widespread Trouble · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I like programming in C, but I recognize that it is completely inappropriate for many of the applications that it is used for. When modern computers are thousands of times faster than those used for the development of C, we can afford to spend some CPU cycles on reliability and security.

  10. Re:The Middle East Is Everywhere on Body Scanners for the London Underground · · Score: 1
    How about we all commit suicide, to avoid offending every religious fanatic with the fact of our existence on the same planet?

    We're dealing with a set of dysfunctional cultures that rationalize their failures by blaming outsiders.

  11. Re:well... on Shacktopus: Behemoth in a Pack · · Score: 1
    You could do it, for several minutes.

    I've seen thermal batteries that could produce insane amounts of power for short periods of time. They are popular for applications like tactical missiles, where their characteristics are ideal.

  12. First Sale Doctrine on White Wolf Applying License to Indie Games · · Score: 4, Informative

    They might want to look at Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, a Supreme Court decision that said that a copyright owner can't impose arbitrary restrictions on the purchaser under the guise of a license.

  13. Re:An ironic posting here at Slashdot... on When Computers Were Human · · Score: 1

    We also need a unit for millihelens per kilogirl.

  14. Analog Computers on When Computers Were Human · · Score: 1

    In World War II, analog computers (electrical and mechanical) were widely used for computing firing solutions for torpedoes and naval guns. Some of these systems were quite complicated. I've never been able to find a book that described them in detail. Probably because they were considered to be very sensitive military secrets. See here for an example.

  15. Re:Does Linus use slide rules? on When Computers Were Human · · Score: 1
    What model of slide rule do they use today? I collect slide rules and I'm not aware of any that are still in production. See here for some examples of slide rules designed for military applications.

    I was reading the Army field manual on mortars recently. They made extensive use of a portable digital computer designed just for mortar crews.

  16. Re:The True Test on Large Scale Production of Artificial Meat · · Score: 1
    Mod parent up.

    All of the cows that i've encountered are dumb as doorknobs. They are probably smarter than sheep, but that's not saying much.

  17. Layer Violations on Examining ICMP Flaws · · Score: 1
    ICMP is part of IP. TCP, and other protocols, run on top of IP. An IP packet is not required to have a sequence number.

    ICMP was designed during an era when network hosts were not assumed to be hostile. I wouldn't blame them for that.

  18. Re:How will GPS be affected? on Leap Second This Year · · Score: 1

    GPS uses it's own time scale, which has a fixed offset to TAI (TAI - 19 seconds). There are no leap seconds in the GPS time scale.

  19. Re:OR... on Cometary Fireworks Go Off Without Hitch · · Score: 1

    That's about 8,100 Big Macs.

  20. Re:Trusted what? on Why Do We Have to Use a Floppy to Flash BIOS? · · Score: 1
    I don't think so, although it could be useful for that application.

    It allows the designer of the motherboard to implement features in software instead of hardware. The disadvantage is that it steals the CPU from the user to do it.

  21. Re:Slashdotted! on BBC Offers Beethoven Symphonies for Download · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They may be more concerned about gathering accurate statistics on the number of files downloaded, files per user, etc.

  22. Re:All soundtracks are copyrighted on Attack of the $1 DVDs · · Score: 1

    To properly present a silent movie, you need music. If you're on a low budget, it can be a single musician and a piano. In the golden age of silent movies, it was often a fancy pipe organ or a small orchestra.

  23. Re:Mac OSX has had great IPv6 for a while (10.2)! on Federal Agencies Must Use IPv6 by 2008 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Most people, who enjoy semi-anon IP addresses from defacto forced reissue taht I know are against IPv6 and see it for all its regretful faults, despite its wonderful goals and alleged benefits.

    The tin foil hat brigade is on the march, again.

    If you want an "anonymous" IP address, there is nothing to prevent you from using a sooper-sekret random number instead of the interface's MAC. See RFC 3041.

  24. Scalia Fan Club on Justice O'Connor Retiring · · Score: 0, Troll
    Can we clone Scalia?

    I can hardly wait for People for the American Way and other so-called non-partisan groups to start predicting the end of civilized life on the planet if another judicial conservative is appointed to the court. It's a great way for them to raise money.

  25. Re:One of the Worst Judges on Justice O'Connor Retiring · · Score: 0
    WTF does it have to do with political party affiliation, if any?

    Judicial philosophy and political affiliation are not strongly correlated. There are plenty of liberals who think Roe v. Wade was a bad decision, even though they support free access to abortion.