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User: redxxx

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Comments · 258

  1. Re:Recourse on Student Satirist Gets 3 Months; the Judge, Likely More · · Score: 1

    What sort of recourse does the girl have? Are there protections preventing her from suing for having three months of her life wasted?

    There is a class action lawsuit in progress against the judges, and like 16 other parties. I don't know if this girl is part of it.

  2. Re:"God particle" on Race For the "God Particle" Heats Up · · Score: 1

    At least it's not the WMD Particle...

  3. Re:race? on Race For the "God Particle" Heats Up · · Score: 1

    Right, Some competition can be harmful. It is specifically harmful when it encourages the restriction of open communication of information and prevents people from having the best available tools for their work/research.

    This is slashdot, so that's a question I feel pretty comfortable begging. Compare competition between proprietary software v. competition between open source solutions.

    The information associate with these physics projects are open. Heck, once the LHC is up, they are going to be doing crowd computing for the analysis.

    While they are competing for resources, somewhat, the tools they are creating do have other purposes so it isn't too wasteful. The information is open and available. This is good competition.

  4. Re:You not thinking Milti-Core. on Firefox Faster In Wine Than Native · · Score: 1

    The new version of AVG doesn't actually do that anymore. It's pretty neat.

  5. Re:I already said that... on MIT Team Creates Shock That Recharges Your Car · · Score: 1

    That wouldn't actually help. You still have to create that power when you are cruising, so it is more efficient just to take it from the engine directly.

    You are passing the power through the whole power train, loosing energy at each step, and then convert the airflow back to rotational momentum and then to energy. That's is a lot less efficient than just a belt.

  6. Re:You know... on Some Of Australia's Tubes Are About To Be Filtered · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I can't say anything at all about Webshield, but most commercial filtering software also blocks things like game sites and employment resources(job search sites, as well as sites with information about how much people in specific jobs get paid) .

    They wouldn't have to pay for an anti-porn blacklist, so that saves them a little money and they probably offer services(or at least could) above and beyond just porn and IP filtering.

  7. Re:Seems like the correct procedure on Texas Judge Orders Identification of Topix Trolls · · Score: 1

    of course, by 'actionable' I mean libelous. grrr...

  8. Re:Seems like the correct procedure on Texas Judge Orders Identification of Topix Trolls · · Score: 4, Funny

    In the United States obvious satire is not actionable. Basically, a reader of normal intelligence would have to expect to believe it, while the person posting it does not have a good faith belief that it is true(which is also required in the US for libel).

    So, if I made the statement "Todd Knarr has sex with farm animals!" it would be actionable, because to someone who is farmilar with Todd Knarr it would be believable that he had sex with 'farm' animals, but I don't have a good faith belief that the animals he has sex with were raised on farms.

  9. Re:You still have to feel sorry for them ;) on Microsoft Accused of Squandering Billions On R&D · · Score: 1

    "Then thanks to years of R&D, we have produced Vista. Umm... Your honour, can you make them stop laughing so I can continue? Thanks... We call Vista a great success, because almost everyone who got it on their computer, then bought Windows XP at a premium just to get a usable computer. So we sold them two operating systems, whereas without Vista they'd have only bought one. Everyone else sued us instead. And some did both."

    Windows 7 is a direct result of R&D for Windows Vista. It is being marketed well and computers have caught up with the extra overhead. They've made the UI pretty enjoyable and toned down UAC.

    Even the money they wasted on vista, is going to show some pretty decent returns for them. They are going to be selling bits and pieces of Vista's code for, probably, more than a decade.

    I know, "woosh". Of course the parent is being satirical, but that doesn't mean they aren't raising a real point.

  10. Re:Culture on China Aims To Move Up the Food Chain · · Score: 1

    How does a society that historically repressed individuality (aka "thinking for yourself") overcome these traditions and start to innovate (aka "thinking of NEW things")?

    I don't know, but Japan does a pretty good job of innovation. Most likely it is because individuality can never be fully suppressed. Germany has one of the most oppressive cultures in Western Europe, and they invent their asses off.

    I don't think it's a big of an issue as you make it out to be. If they really need it, they can just pick a reasonably wealthy area(middle classish) and let it do it's own thing for a few years.

    Bohemian districts will pretty much form on their own, and then it is just a matter of taking the already educated and now free thinking residents and finding them useful work.

  11. Re:Oh how I love planes.. on The Flying Giant Is 40 Years Old · · Score: 1

    Business, for most airlines, is a compromise between first class and steerage. It's actually pretty nice, but it isn't inexpensive.

  12. Re:I used to read the WSJ on WSJ Says Gov't Money Injection Won't Help Broadband · · Score: 1

    That's pretty sad. I've met a lot of intelligent and articulate conservatives. I've managed to covert more than a few of them on particular issues, and the Republican Party has managed to drive plenty of people over to our side. At least those ones are demonstrably open minded.

    You haven't met one? Your own bias may have a bit to do with that. Folks don't respond well to being insulted and they can pick up on prejudice in other people.

    Well, it's kinda nice, you know, open minded liberals don't exist. That's a solid base. Conservative can be convinced to switch sides, and once they become liberals they can be counted on not to change back.

    Your ideology seems to be doomed. I'm a little worried about what a lack of debate will do to our legislature, but all that progress will be nice if they don't destroy the country.

  13. Re:Net Neutrality on ESPN's Play To Make ISPs Pay · · Score: 1

    Do you have any understand at all of why Hulu blocks based on country?

    I like that Hulu exists and is able to afford the licenses to distribute content. Unfortunately, that is not compatible with international distribution, due to the desires of the people who own and control the content.

  14. Re:I thought we already had this option... on ESPN's Play To Make ISPs Pay · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's more of a copyright issue than ESPN screwing you over. The league or federation that runs the sport owns the rights to how it is distributed. ESPN doesn't have the rights to distribute the content outside of America, so you get screwed.

    Same thing with Hulu and Pandora and all the other great services available here. Y'all don't get to use them, because they would have to purchase additional licensing. Kinda like the BBC's iPlayer here in the states.

    It pretty much is the same crap as regioning, and the same folks are to blame, big IP or whatever you want to call them. Not the folks who run the websites.

    ESPN is being a bunch of greedy bastards, but that isn't why you can't see the site outside of the US.

  15. Just doing it all wrong. on Is It Windows 7, Or KDE 4? · · Score: 1

    So... you wouldn't be interested in knowing that Plasma works pretty good in Windows7, unless you use multiple monitors. Amarok is almost usable.

    For a little while, I actually had my windows7 looking pretty much like the video. Biggest diffrence was 'document flip' looking different from the compfusion equivalent.

    for the ac sibling: 7 does add some new UI stuff to XP. I actually like it more and there isn't too big a difference in performance. The new task bar and better integrated search(particularly for the control panel) really do make a lot of things easier. I deal with a lot of images, and the new preview pane in windows explorer is nice. None of this gets in the way of productivity, and once you get used to using them, they will save you time, energy and clicks.

  16. Re:I don't get it on VMware Releases Open Source Virtualization Client · · Score: 1

    Rdesktop is actually a dependency for VMware View Open Client. install instructions

    They aren't reinventing the wheel or anything. They are just strapping some stuff onto to make it easier to use and a little more functional and using a different protocol.

  17. Re:This will come up on Local Police Want To Jam Wireless Signals · · Score: 1

    Kill criminals... solve the problem of crime really fast.

    It has never worked before. Ever. What it does do is create lawless areas.

    Look at europe or asia during the middle and dark ages. It doesn't help, it just means they are more willing to fight against the police and will have more support from and ever more lawless community.

  18. Re:This will come up on Local Police Want To Jam Wireless Signals · · Score: 1

    For one, this would violate the 4th Amendment rights of the people (excepting prisoners and guards, both of whom can be searched at will) whose calls were logged. The previous administration may have used this point as an argument in the plan's favor, but it is not.

    I don't really like the government being able to intercept and record any phone conversation that happens near a jail. However, if they were required to do a little blurb in Spanish and English that the call was being recorded and why, it would be alright. It would make it a very effective method of discouraging unauthorized use of cell phones, without egregiously harming anyone's rights.

  19. Re:Ubuntu is vulnerable! on Security Hole In Windows 7 UAC · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Note that most distributions don't enable sudo for the user account per default (not even Ubuntu's parent distro, Debian), it would be interesting what the Ubuntu folks would say if you suggested turning off sudo per default.

    Then users will need to know their administrator password, and will end up using it as an account.

    Sudo prevents a certain large segment of the potential Ubuntu population from being retarded. It's a calculated risk, but I don't think they would change their position. It is not one they arrived at by chance.

  20. Re:My first experience with LED lighting... on LED Lighting As Cheap As CFLs Invented · · Score: 1

    In physics, coherence is a property of waves, that enables stationary (i.e. temporally and spatially constant) interference. More generally, coherence describes all correlation properties between physical quantities of a wave.

    wikipedia seems to thinks it has to do with the waves, mainly I just meant everything in the electromagnetic spectrum that isn't a laser(which don't spread and are coherent). From this description, and a the couple of physics class I've been in that touched on it, Coherent light doesn't spread because all the vectors and frequencies are the same.

  21. Re:too late on OLPC 2.0 — One Laptop Foundation Reboots · · Score: 1

    With the backlight off, or in bright sunlight, you get a 1200x900, very sharp, very readable, 200dpi, reflective LCD screen.

    If I could have purchased one for less than $400, I would have done so mostly for this feature. It seemed very attractive at a price of around $200.

    I don't believe there are any commercial products out there with a similar display, which is kinda a shame.

  22. Re:My first experience with LED lighting... on LED Lighting As Cheap As CFLs Invented · · Score: 1

    not every foot or so. It quarters every time the distance from the light source doubles. This isn't exactly surprising behavior for a source of non-coherent radiation.

  23. Re:What about the production? on LED Lighting As Cheap As CFLs Invented · · Score: 1

    It's in fairly minute quantities and it is encapsulated in non-biodegradable plastic.

    I'm not really sure how much environmental impact just throwing them out would have. They could always mandate recycling, but I'm not really convinced it would be necessary.

    Compared with the amount of pollution a coal plant would be kicking out for incandescent, or even CFL, it seems like it would be well worth it.

  24. Re:biomass to fuel? on Smart Robot Capable of Hunting For Its Own "Food" · · Score: 1

    Well the thing generates 80 watts and weighs 6 lbs. Google seems to be of the opinion that 80 watts is 0.107281767 hp.

    Weight isn't going to scale up directly with power, but the thing need to generate about 100,000% more power than it does to be of much use in a car.

    That doesn't seem like it is going to necessarily be practical. Some other similar technology? Maybe, but not this.

  25. Re:ISP or Content on AT&T, Comcast To Join RIAA Team · · Score: 1

    Yeah, sorry, I don't want the people who passed the DMCA to be in charge of my tubes. I don't think that would help. Big IP has an awful lot of money for lobbyists and they are demonstrably effective at pushing their agenda.