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User: L4t3r4lu5

L4t3r4lu5's activity in the archive.

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  1. Re:GNU/Linux on The Man Behind Munich's Migration of 15,000 PCs From Windows To Linux · · Score: 2

    For the same reason you ride an escalator up and down floor levels, you take aspirin as a pain killer, and you store your hot beverage in a thermos.

    It's not a genericised trademark, per se, but the term "Linux" is now used to describe the whole, incorrect or not.

  2. Re:Governments need the source code on The Man Behind Munich's Migration of 15,000 PCs From Windows To Linux · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Large organisations and governments typically do have access to the source code, under heavily restrictive NDAs.

    You don't get to put Windows on a warship without the DoD being able to see what it does.

  3. Re:Can't turn them off? on London Police To Wear Video Cameras In Pilot Project · · Score: 1

    I am under the impression that a person must be under arrest before a police officer can search them. I'm pretty sure that's how it works.

  4. Re:Can't turn them off? on London Police To Wear Video Cameras In Pilot Project · · Score: 1

    I'd be happy if the guidelines were to record from the point where an officer was expecting to make an arrest, e.g. when investigating a crime, when faced with a situation where a crime is developing, or during an arrest and subsequent journey to the police station.

  5. Re:perhaps consider a passphrase. on It's World Password Day: Change Your Passwords · · Score: 1

    If a site restricts your passphrase/word to some arbitrary limit, be concerned that they aren't hashing it and instead storing it in plaintext. Hash output will be the same length regardless of input length, so a password limit makes no sense. There may be DoS protection in limiting input to *some* length, but not less than (arbitrarily) 2^8 characters.

  6. Re:No story here, move along on Brain Injury Turns Man Into Math Genius · · Score: 1

    But that isn't what has happened. This guy paints / draws geometric shapes, and his visual perception is damaged to the point that he also sees the world this way. He doesn't solve complex formulae in his head, at least not in any meaningful way. We know that there's math in nature (Golden Ratio, for example); If he can pick that out better than most, then good for him. I still wouldn't call him a savant, not until he can explain it in a way others can understand.

    I see Matt Damon's character in Good Will Hunting as an example of a mathematical savant, even though it's a dramatisation. This guy doesn't come close.

  7. Re:No story here, move along on Brain Injury Turns Man Into Math Genius · · Score: 1

    I am currently in IT. I could apply to university as a mature student (read: Able to pay his own way, so no entry criteria) on any course I wanted. Am I all of a sudden a Physics savant?

    Savantism is an ability beyond that which is expected in the majority of the population, and also without any special instruction or education in the subject matter. It's great that this guy got his life on track and is getting himself educated, but unless he's already capable of doing advanced number theory in his head, he's no savant.

  8. Re:True Costs on Microsoft Cheaper To Use Than Open Source Software, UK CIO Says · · Score: 1

    All of those "apps" (services) are tied in to one central server (which may or may not be distributed / redundant) which is mandatory for their functioning. If that server fails, all of those services are gone for the entire organisation. If your client PC dies, nobody else would be affected.

    if you don't get that, I'm not sure you're qualified to comment.

  9. Re:True Costs on Microsoft Cheaper To Use Than Open Source Software, UK CIO Says · · Score: 1

    All of those "apps" (services) are tied in to one central server (which may or may not be distributed / redundant) which is mandatory for their functioning. If that server fails, all of those services are gone for the entire organisation. If your client PC dies, nobody else would be affected.

    if you don't get that, I'm not sure you're qualified to comment here.

  10. Re:One of those unable to install the 8.1 update on The Upcoming Windows 8.1 Apocalypse · · Score: 1

    If you have a Pro license, downgrade to Windows 7.

    If you don't have a Pro license, have you tried a Linux distro?

    I don't know if you can still slipstream updates, but maybe you could try that. Clean installation with all mandatory patches.

  11. Re:Is there anything that's not a terrorist threat on US Government To Study Bitcoin As Possible Terrorist Threat · · Score: 1

    I hate to spoil your snark, but Islam, like Judaism, has a prohibition against eating pork. So you could argue that *not* eating bacon is a possible warning sign of terrorist potential...

    Getting my info from a film, I know, but part of the premise in the "Traitor" was that it was allowed to assume the traits of your enemies in order to attack them, i.e. Eating pork, drinking alcohol in order to appear western and therefore pass undetected. No idea how accurate it is, but it at least groks as far as my understanding of whackjob theology is concerned.

  12. Re:Blank Media on Sony Warns Demand For Blu-Ray Diminishing Faster Than Expected · · Score: 1

    I bought the same, or a similar, MiniDisc device. I was young at the time, didn't understand much about how it all worked, trusted the salesman when he told me I could put MP3s on the MiniDiscs and thereby get many more hours of music per disk. He lied. It came with a little USB adapter with a 3.5mm plug in the other end. It was bundled with a cheap USB sound card and recorded analog audio directly on the device. That's the last Sony product I owned.

  13. Re:Recruiting policy on Microsoft Cheaper To Use Than Open Source Software, UK CIO Says · · Score: 1

    I'd have reservations between updating between LTS releases. Ubuntu LTS is a 5 year term; I wouldn't dare to guess how much has changed between then and now, especially as LTS is really just a snapshot-and-fork with ongoing maintenance, and the next LTS release will be based upon the next "new shiny". You may skip two LTS releases before your support period ends.

  14. Re:True Costs on Microsoft Cheaper To Use Than Open Source Software, UK CIO Says · · Score: 0

    It's also a single point of failure. How much work could get done when your mail, calendaring, lync, voice, and collaboration are all offline at once?

    Something something "eggs in one basket".

  15. Re:Stupid Lawsuit. It's not wiretapping on Google Halts Gmail Scanning for Education Apps Users · · Score: 1

    In loco parentis. The school picks the provider based upon whatever guidelines they are required to adhere to. Attending the school requires using the school's services, whomever provides them. It's likely that the parents don't even know the kids have a school email account, never mind who hosts the service.

  16. "Could* *be"? on Graphene Could Be Dangerous To Humans and the Environment · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Come back when you can say "is" or "isn't". Until then, this doesn't even qualify as tabloid-worthy. It's not even a supposition, as that would require you to state an opinion either way, regardless of how ill informed.

  17. Re:Not a surprise on SEC Chair On HFT: 'The Markets Are Not Rigged' · · Score: 1

    In financial markets, that is expressly illegal. That activity actually has its own set of laws because it is such an unfair, pernicious, and profitable activity.

    It's only illegal (front running) if you're the guy trading on behalf of the buyer, i.e. It's your account, as the guy who is sent to the orange stand, who buys the oranges and sells them to your client at an inflated price. If you announce you're buying loads of oranges and Usain Bolt sat on the bench next to you goes and buys them first, that's not front running.

    The problem is that I can't, for the life of me, see why this is an accepted practice. All it does is transfer wealth a penny at a time to a select fe... Oh.

  18. Re:Not a surprise on SEC Chair On HFT: 'The Markets Are Not Rigged' · · Score: 1

    It's like going to your supermarket. And in the time interval when the cashier picks up your item to scan it there is a secondary laser system which detects the movement, reads the bar code, and raises the price for the actual scan that you have to pay.

    Supermarket analogy doesn't work here as prices are advertised prior to making the purchase, and cannot fluctuate during trading. You will get what you want at the price advertised. There's no analogy that will fit because front-running only occurs in commodity trading. The only thing separating this from front running is that it is done by a computer, and technically it isn't your broker who's making the personal trades before your own and enriching himself; It's the guy sat next to your broker who can type faster than your guy, getting the lower price faster.

  19. Re:Time to move into the Century of the fruit bat. on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 1

    You're saying that you're happy with the current imperfect state of innocent people being killed. You're condoning state-sanctioned murder on factually incorrect evidence.

    The level of doublethink is utterly astounding.

  20. Re:Time to move into the Century of the fruit bat. on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 1

    He also left his children to burn to death in a house fire, thinking only about saving his own ass. So, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for him. If my daughter was in a burning house, I would run into it to save her, even at the threat of my own life. Most parents would at least attempt to do so. He didn't, but claimed he did.

    I have a propensity for simplifying complex emotional subjects, but bear with me on this.

    Your child is in your house, your house is on fire. The fire dept are on the way, you cannot safely get to your child. Here are some outcomes:

    - You save the child, you are uninjured. Yay! Two lives saved.
    - You don't save the child, you are uninjured. Life goes on. Maybe. One life lost, one life of doubt and self loathing.
    - You save the child, you are injured. Your child is now your permanent carer through some emotional obligation. Two lives trashed.
    - You don't save the child, you are injured. You wish you could end your suffering, but that's not allowed. Two lives trashed.

    Ultimately, no matter what anyone says, you are the most important to you. If you're ruined, you cannot enjoy the joy you bring to others, you cannot be there to help them when they need it. I'm not saying live only for yourself, but take care of No. 1. Once you're gone, the universe ends from your perspective.

  21. Re:First.... on Decommissioning Nuclear Plants Costing Far More Than Expected · · Score: 1

    He missed the word "atmospheric" in his post. Coal plants pump out more radioactive chemicals in to the atmosphere than nuclear plants. Obviously nuclear plants produce more waste in general, but it is all encased in glass and buried or otherwise disposed of (Looking at your, Fast Breeder Reactors).

  22. Re:Pale Moon: Firefox with adult supervision. on Firefox 29: Redesign · · Score: 1

    Pale Moon gets my vote; I switched around Firefox 24 and haven't glanced back. They keep the UI sane and intuitive instead of making needless cosmetic "eye-candy" changes (Who the hell cares if tabs have rounded edges?!), strip out needless code to speed up the browsing experience (No statistical reporting, no (disabled) built in PDF viewer, no adult controls, no automatic updating), and it's compiled specifically for newer processors, meaning the binaries are optimised for the system you run now, in exchange for not running on the system you had in 2003.

  23. Re:Are there any old drives around that read these on US Nuclear Missile Silos Use Safe, Secure 8" Floppy Disks · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have a TRS-80 Model 4p at home that has two built-in 8" drives.

    This guy is one of the greatest threats to the US Minuteman missile system.

  24. Re:True on You Are What You're Tricked Into Eating · · Score: 1

    I see your point, and agree. I should have made clear that I was comparing it to the US system of a black and white table of numbers, not that the entirety of the UK food industry makes use of this "pie chart" system.

  25. Re:Where's my rate cut? on Netflix Confirms Deal For Access To Verizon's Network · · Score: 2

    That's the part that pisses me off about this entire situation - I, the customer, am paying X amount of dollars for Y amount of road use; I am not paying them to spy on me, or get caught in traffic, or limit how many vehicles I want to put on the road for that one flat fee, nor did I ever ask for or authorize such activity. Classic bait-and-switch, except nobody gets their ass handed to them for it.

    The problem is that you're not expected to be able to use your whole bandwidth all the time, and you were never supposed to. Yes, they needed to tell you that and they didn't, but ultimately that is the way the network is designed. If you want a constant 20Mb downstream, go lease a bonded line. You're looking at $15,000 PCM.