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User: davolfman

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Comments · 519

  1. Re:Problems on NASA Outsources ISS Resupply To SpaceX, Orbital · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Anything made under government contract for its design should logically be considered "work for hire" and be public domain by default. That's the assertion I'm going to make.

  2. Re:Intuit's Mac support stinks anyway, these days. on Quicken 2007 For Mac Lacks EV Cert Support · · Score: 2, Funny

    Unless they're an arts program. Then the Mac version is likely to be superior.

  3. Re:Digital traps in an analog world on Using Speed Cameras To Send Tickets To Your Enemies · · Score: 1

    I think above all else the first rule of driving is don't do anything unsafe. If you cannot safely stop before the light goes red you should run it so you aren't stuck out in the intersection where your location can be hidden or misjudged. Breaking the law is always preferable to the risk of someone getting hurt or killed.

  4. Re:But... on Scientists Hack Cellphone To Detect Diseases · · Score: 1

    Closer to $300 actually. Personally I've been pondering what it would take to use an inkjet to put etch-resist on a circuit board.

  5. Re:How? on Obama Transition Team Examining Space Solar Power · · Score: 1

    Personally I vote for putting something really cool in L4 or L5, like a space telescope or some sort of communication relay.

  6. Re:ScuttleMonkey doesn't even read TFS on Hacked Business Owner Stuck With $52k Phone Bill · · Score: 1

    Part of the difference though is that credit card customers don't have any choice on the security measures for their accounts. As a result they are stuck with the low-security systems the CC companies provide and the CC companies have been forced to accept the liability for that decision. If the only PBX's you could get were phone company PBX's they'd likely be forced to carry the liability for bad security in all cases.

  7. Re:Charged As Terrorists? on Indian GPS Cartographers Charged As Terrorists · · Score: 2, Funny

    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.

  8. Re:Doesn't have a built in update mechanism? on Microsoft Rushes Internet Explorer Patch · · Score: 1

    Yes it does. Expert install lets you choose which updates you want.

  9. Re:heh on Tech Firms Oppose Union Organizing · · Score: 1

    Or cause them. Out of band motivations have a tendency to really screw up the leadership of organizations. For example the short-term stock-price oriented stupidity that most corporations exhibit.

  10. Re:But.... on Australian Court Lets Lawyer Serve Papers Via Facebook · · Score: 1

    That's downright scary.

  11. Re:Not a natural monopoly. on 100 Years Ago, No Free Broadband Pneumatic Tubes · · Score: 1

    You're going to have to back up digging being cheap. Could we get some actually figures to check?

  12. Re:Charging an electric car on Chinese Automaker Unveils First Electric Car · · Score: 1

    Did you just say 400A? Holy shit that would be dangerous!

  13. Re:good! on The End of Individual Genius? · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure you can call a compiler "most of the design work done by computers". That's how chips are built these days, compiled from code into gates, and then layed out. A low-level understanding is still necessary to tweak things to get the compilers and layout programs to work how you want them, and the high-level understanding only exists in the human design team's minds.

  14. Re:Broadcom is crap on Broadcom Crams 802.11n, Bluetooth, and FM Onto a Single Chip · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Arguably it might be Broadcom given all the linux firmware that used to go into the routers that used their chips.

  15. Why am I not surprised. on Cold Sore Virus May Be Alzheimer's Smoking Gun · · Score: 1

    Random transcriptions into our DNA and/or cronic uncured virus's kicking around in our system can have long-term effect? Who'd have thunk? Seriously though I've heard theories that some types of cancer might be the result of viral DNA from some prehistoric plagues leftover in our genome screwing things up. This would sorta be more of the same.

  16. Re:Fair Share on Net Neutrality Opponent Calls Google a "Bandwidth Hog" · · Score: 1

    My guess would be that 5 miles to the west of you the houses are closer together. High-speed DSL and FIOS both take a crapload of infrastructure, namely fiber for both, new fiber runs for FIOS, and close DLSAMs for high-speed DSL. After all I'd bet Comcast still beats the pants off the Qwest offering where you live for raw speed, cripplewared connection and all.

  17. Re:Chin deep on Amazon Fights Piracy Tool, Creators Call It a Parody · · Score: 1

    That's only because they haven't "harmonized" yet.

  18. Re:Indie on Warner Music Pushing Music Tax For Universities · · Score: 1

    Except for the part where the RIAA has never shown much of a tendency to not correct for ALL music as if they owned the idea.

  19. Re:talking on mobile as dangerous as drunk driving on Study Confirms Mobile Phones Distract Drivers · · Score: 1

    I'm in the habit of telling my mom: "I need to get off the phone before I get myself killed." I haven't quite figured out how to say that to my boss yet.

  20. Re:cuz nobody has EVER been able to fool that on Replacing Metal Detectors With Brain Scans · · Score: 1

    Actually with the flashing of subliminal images and all this sounds closer to a Voight-Kampff. What the heck were these people smoking?

  21. Re:Early Cryogenics & Ethical Problems on Mad Scientist Brings Back Dead With "Deanimation" · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What's interesting is that we're talking metabolic suspended animation. It's actually a pretty old idea. I remember reading about it for the first time in "The Star are Ours!" an old Andre Norton scifi novel.

  22. Re:Privacy as a recent phenomenon on "Reality Mining" Resets the Privacy Debate · · Score: 1

    If there was anything my anthropology course taught me is that tolerance and moral relativism are uniquely western features and if we want to compete on even footing with the rest of the apes out there we probably ought to ditch them too.

  23. Do both. on An Ethical Question Regarding Ebooks · · Score: 1

    Seriously. Do both. Buy the used book thereby doing your little part to take it out of circulation and show increased demand for it so it might get reprinted. Then read the pirate version. As you already have a copy you've got a reasonable legal defense of format shifting, not that anyone is likely to go after you, traditional publishers aren't insane like the MAFIAA. If you really feel an extra ethical need send a few bucks to the author. While you're at it urge him to see if he contracted for etext rights with his original publisher and if not recommend your own preferred electronic publisher.

  24. Re:What's new? on The State of Open Source Hardware In 2008 · · Score: 1

    A truckload given how large and complex these pieces are. For my purposes I need a simple lightweight micro module with clock, a little memory, a few pins for 2-wire IO and a few pins to control an RC aircraft servo or link to a sensor. Nothing in this list is even remotely that simple. In Lego terms they're getting to dangerously close to POOP (Pieces Out Of Pieces) territory.

  25. Re:still doing fs on top of RAID :-( on On the State of Linux File Systems · · Score: 1

    Sure you can handle a few corrupt blocks on disk. RAID is built on the assumption that any hard disk has checksumming built right in. Without that RAID 5 would be impossible.