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User: ckthorp

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  1. Re:none on What Restrictions Should Student Laptops Have? · · Score: 1

    I agree with you -- minimal restrictions on the laptops. But you also neglect to mention the sad fact that children are being prosecuted for computer crimes while tinkering with school-owned laptops. If the current computer crimes laws were being fully enforced when I was in school, I would have learned much less about computers and much more about "Bubba".

  2. Re:none on What Restrictions Should Student Laptops Have? · · Score: 1

    When I was in school, I used Macs with OS 6. :-P

  3. Re:Limited usefull information. on Ultracapacitor LED Flashlight Charges In 90 Seconds · · Score: 1

    The other option is that they aren't actually using an ultra capacitor and are instead using a nano-phosphate LiIon. You can stuff a decent amount of charge into one of those in 90 seconds.

  4. Re:Limited usefull information. on Ultracapacitor LED Flashlight Charges In 90 Seconds · · Score: 1
  5. Re:That sucks on Chemical Pollution Is Destroying Masculinity · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yah, but the males that are left have 2x better odds. TWOOOOO GIRLS FOR EVERY GUY

  6. Re:"Muddy the crispness"? on Grey Lines Mar MacBook Air Displays · · Score: 1, Redundant

    They just need more burn-in time, like audiophile speakers and headphones. The users need to display vibrant oilpan-like colors for a few hundred hours to ensure that the pixels are transitioning with optimal clarity and efficiency.

  7. Re:!Bricked on OpenSUSE Beta Can Brick Intel e1000e Network Cards · · Score: 1

    You forgot the deflector dish.

  8. Re:Google Much? on Environmental Cost of Hybrids' Battery Recycling? · · Score: 3, Informative

    It isn't less capacity in a NiMH vs. a NiCd, it is less peak output current. That is why until recently, portable power tools still used NiCd batteries. Typically a NiMH has 3-5 times the internal resistance of a NiCd cell.

  9. Re:Ownership on Environmental Cost of Hybrids' Battery Recycling? · · Score: 1

    Also useful for DIY cardiac (de)-fibrillation...

  10. Re:Battery capacity, not life on Sony Pledges More Accurate Laptop Battery Figures · · Score: 1

    Ah, but you loose a lot of eyes in the process.

  11. Re:This is nothing new... on California's Wireless Road Tolls Easily Hackable · · Score: 1

    You could verify that it was changed, but how do you verify who did the changing? Especially if it happens several times over several months? Note that I wrote frame, not prank. A prank could be written off as a one-time computer glitch or something. As a serious pre-meditated frame-up, I suspect the bureaucracy would decide against the individual.

  12. Re:This is nothing new... on California's Wireless Road Tolls Easily Hackable · · Score: 1

    Ah, but you could use the hack to frame someone for fraud. They would have a hard time clearing their name because computers are "infallible."

  13. Re:Ahhh, a RED SNAPPAH. Mmmmm, very tasty. on DNA Bar Coding Finds Mislabeled Sushi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Supplies! Whoever modded the parent insightful apparently hasn't seen an awesome movie.

  14. Turning your lights on and off on Intel Claims an Advance In Wireless Power · · Score: 1

    This technology sure could give new meaning to turning your lights on and off. You even get dimming for free (turning your lights halfway off).

  15. Re:As a Safari user on Firefox SSL-Certificate Debate Rages On · · Score: 1

    Wow. A little testy there. I see you don't like straight-faced sarcasm much.

    Anywho, most good ideas are borrowed in some capacity or another. As discussed in another fork of this root post, electronic search highlighting goes all the way back to less (or earlier). Just because you're borrowing something neat doesn't make it any less of a rip-off. It's like UI Darwinism.

  16. Re:As a Safari user on Firefox SSL-Certificate Debate Rages On · · Score: 1

    It was mostly sarcastic, but yes, the concept of search highlighting is pretty old.

  17. Re:As a Safari user on Firefox SSL-Certificate Debate Rages On · · Score: 1

    The highlighting is key. For web browsers, it was in the Google Toolbar before anywhere else, AFAIK.

  18. Not such a hot article... on Hands-on Look At USB 3.0, Spec Details Revealed · · Score: 1

    That article isn't so hot. It says things like: "Bi-directional data transfer will be very useful for syncing up information on PDAs and storage backup." The data flow on a PDA sync is way too small (and non-interactive) to be helped by full duplex communications. It also says "bumped the power output from about 100miliamps to 900 milliamps." The current limit is 500 mA. Bumping to 900 mA is pretty worthless.

  19. Re:As a Safari user on Firefox SSL-Certificate Debate Rages On · · Score: 1

    In fact, the Safari in-page find was so nifty that FF3 more or less ripped it off. :-)

  20. Re:Ever See A Flaming LiPo Battery? Very Ugly. on Japan Demands Probe of iPod Nano Flameouts · · Score: 1

    Actually, the Apple tends to be fairly conservative with their designs. There is almost assuredly a bog-standard over discharge (voltage and current) IC attached to the pack. That covers the over discharge scenarios. A standard LiPo buck charger IC these days is accurate to better than 1% and properly supplies the required constant-current transitioning to constant voltage profile that a LiPo requires. That covers the over charge scenarios. Apple tends to use standard grade or better components (skipping the super-no-name Chinese suppliers of probably counterfeit parts). So that covers the quality cells portion. The only one that I don't think Apple monitors is battery case temperature.

    Given that most LiPos in the field, operated with the afforementioned charge and discharge protection, fail due to membrane damage (at least that was the cause of the flaming Sony 18650 LiIons that were hot news a couple years back), there isn't much a case temp monitor would tell you other than the fact that you're having a catastrophic breakdown and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

  21. Re:"Millionth of a meter" on Mars Lander Snaps the Most Detailed Pics Yet · · Score: 1

    So, like I said -- micron isn't official... Micrometre is incorrect in the United States, so micrometer it is. :-)

  22. Re:Ever See A Flaming LiPo Battery? Very Ugly. on Japan Demands Probe of iPod Nano Flameouts · · Score: 1

    Yah, but the battery in a Nano is a far cry from the 3S pack in the linked video. I'd wager that a Nano battery has way less than 10% of the capacity of the linked battery. I've set off some 230 mAh 1S packs and they barely had enough oomph to pop their bag. The Nano can charge in roughly an hour off a USB port, so it has to be roughly 500 mAh capacity. Not exactly a tricked out 4S4P RC plane battery pack, eh? LiPos are actually used in many medical devices, just not implantable devices. They are very safe if you stick with quality cells and make sure to monitor case temperature, discharge rate, discharge voltage, charge rate, charge voltage, and discharge levels very carefully (EG to better than 1%). Sure as heck beats trying to lug around a lead acid battery pack in a portable device. :-)

  23. Re:Glad someone is doing this ... on Sony To Set Compatibility Standards For PS3 Music Games · · Score: 1

    So the solution is to open source the X-Arcade button-to-USB microcontroller firmware. Then some enterprising folks could just make an unofficial firmware patch to their USB controller to make it go for anyone who felt like it.

  24. Re:Glad someone is doing this ... on Sony To Set Compatibility Standards For PS3 Music Games · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually, Lexmark lost the case that has allowed toner cartridge manufacturers to produce aftermarket ID chips for toner refills. The same reverse engineering for compatibility precedent likely holds in this case too, though it will be expensive to convince M$ of that fact...

  25. Re:"Millionth of a meter" on Mars Lander Snaps the Most Detailed Pics Yet · · Score: 1

    The Far Side is awesome, though I'm not sure to what cow you're referring.