Slashdot Mirror


User: crumley

crumley's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
301
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 301

  1. Re:ethernet/wifi with dialup is possible on TiVo Says It Will Discontinue Support For Dial-up Service Later This Month (betanews.com) · · Score: 1

    You can schedule the dial out at a specific time on the TiVo. For TiVo a daily connection to get new data is nice to get changes in the programming schedule, but you could get by with weekly.

  2. Re:Alternative: donate it on Ask Slashdot: Store Umbilical Cord Blood — and If So, Where? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I was lazy. The odds of getting the same set of numbers twice in only 1100 tickets is pretty low.

  3. Re:Alternative: donate it on Ask Slashdot: Store Umbilical Cord Blood — and If So, Where? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but the GP post didn't saying anything about winning the jackpot. With 1100 Powerball tickets, you also have a 1100 in 648,975.96 of winning $10,000, and 1100 in in 5,153,632.65 chance of winning one million dollars. Plus higher chances of winning less money (but not winning back you "investment"). Those odds are worth considering.

  4. Re:they can continue for now... on Blackboard Buys Moodlerooms and Netspot · · Score: 1

    Odd comment. Care to post any examples? In my observation, academia and governments are usually fractured.

  5. Almost missed it on Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot · · Score: 1
    CT, What's the deal burying news in August when everyone is on vacation?

    Anyway, thanks to Cmdrtaco. I have been with this place since near the beginning. I came across it based on links from TCLUG, and I was captured.

    Oh the many wasted (and well spent) hours reloading this page!

    Thanks for the memories.

  6. Re:Really, Slashdot? on Congresswoman and Staff Gunned Down · · Score: 1

    She is on the Science and Technology Committee and the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. Slashdot is not evolving into generic news. Slashdot has mixed in generic news from the beginning. Some its biggest stories were Columbine-related.

  7. Re:Neato on First Measurement of Magnetic Field In Earth's Core · · Score: 1

    Nope, the precession of equinoxes is related to bulging of the Earth's equator.

  8. Re:Yay! on Navy Tests Mach 8 Electromagnetic Railgun · · Score: 1

    In most contexts reporting income tax numbers alone is silly. The rich pay almost nothing in payroll taxes. T Trying to keep things in proportion while ignoring payroll taxes (and state taxes, for that matter) is an exercise in futility.

  9. Re:SNL skit on The Many Iterations of William Shatner · · Score: 2, Funny

    The golden age of SNL is 17.

  10. Re:"Apple Inc -- creator of the personal computer" on The Apple Two · · Score: 1

    Apple I's aren't particularly relevant, since very few of them sold. Even the Apple II came six months or so before the first TRS-80. The TRS-80 was certainly a personal computer. It may have been marketed to small businesses, but it was marketted to individuals as well. The most popular software for the TRS-80 was mainly games.

  11. Re:Oh come on. on Should Undergraduates Be Taught Fortran? · · Score: 1

    FORTRAN is really easy to pick up later anyway as it's "old fashioned" and line numbered based. I'd think the biggest problem teaching the class now would be getting students to take it seriously because it's a much older way of thinking about programs from our modern OOP languages.

    Fortran is line numbered based? What does that mean? You don't even have to use line numbers in f77, much less f90 or later. Yikes.

  12. Re:Insufficient at any speed. on Ubuntu vs. Windows In OpenOffice.org Benchmark · · Score: 1

    What's wrong with the current Track Changes? It works weel enough for me and my interactions with Word users.

  13. Re:Some ideas... on Physics Experiments To Inspire Undergraduates? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ultrasonic tape measure / speed of sound experiment. Ultrasonic transducers are easy to come by; students should send some pulses out one, and then sense the return pulse, giving either a numeric indicator or a voltage level that corresponds to the delay time. A little electronics heavy, but if they have had a background in electronics it should be pretty fun. Proof of concept: ultrasonic tape measures at Home Depot for $15. (Trick: you have to build some kind of ultrasonic horn to channel the pulse and collect the return pulse -- otherwise it diffuses too much)

    You don't need ultrasonic or transducer. Two cheap microphones and the correct connector to get them on separate channels and a computer is plenty. Make a loud sound and record it with each microphone. Find the distance from microphones to the sound source. The find the time shift of your signal between the right and left channel. Divide the two and you have the speed of sound. There are a lot of variations you can make, but the basics are easy to do.

  14. Re:Wha? on Virginia Begins Open-Source Physics Textbook · · Score: 1

    Hopefully it will be truly open source - LaTeX is a great way to write physics, and TeX is compiled. In this case, it looks like they are planning on a web-based text, so it would be nice to be able to download the source files. Then you could host your own local, possibly altered, copy of the text if you are using it in a class.

  15. Re:Light and Matter on Virginia Begins Open-Source Physics Textbook · · Score: 4, Informative

    Indeed, there are a lot of similar efforts out there. Hopefully they will use some of the existing sources. Take a at The Assayer and other site like Open Textbook to get an idea of some of the great things already being done in this area.

  16. Re:Anyone read the actual sources? on Nancy Pelosi vs. the Internet · · Score: 1

    Why is Slashdot posting links to crazy right wing/libertartian conspiracy theories? This is stupid.

    Just tag this as fud or flamebait and move along. Sometimes trash gets past the firehose.

  17. Re:Unlikely on Algorithm Names Powell 'Ideal' Vice President Candidate · · Score: 2, Informative

    Bush/Quayle, Kennedy/Johnson, Eisenhower/Nixon, and Roosevelt/Truman seem to suggest that multi-generational winning tickets are not uncommon. Plus, Kennedy/Johnson even had an older VP, as I am guessing Teddy Roosevelt did.

    But yes, Colin Powell is unlikely to be a VP, since he has said many times that he doesn't want to, and he is more believable than most when he makes that claim.

  18. Re:Cool; Now to expand to the great lakes on First US Offshore Wind Power Park In Delaware · · Score: 1

    They would probably want to skip at least Lake Superior as a site for wind turbines, since the fact that it ices over in the winter would be yet another complication on top of a dubious idea. In the Great Lakes region it probably makes more sense to just put the wind turbines on farm land. Maintenance and installation is much cheaper on land, and there is plenty of farm land around to use.

  19. Re:GPS is digital! on Ionospheric Interference With GPS Signals · · Score: 1

    If you can get any data from the transmission after the signal has been processed, it's highly likely that its good data.

    The real problem isn't so much distortion of the signal in the ionosphere, which seems to be what you are getting at. The problem is that variations in the ionosphere change how long it takes for signals to get through the ionosphere. This is obviously a problem for GPS since it relies on timing the signals in order to calculate positions.

  20. Available to other programs ? on TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6 Now Released · · Score: 1

    has anyone seen any info on if and when TiVo will allow outside user programs access to these features. I am hoping that it won't take too long till Galleon can do this sort of thing.

  21. Fail2ban on Mystery Malware Affecting Linux/Apache Web Servers · · Score: 1

    Fail2ban is another nice way to deal with these brute force attacks.

  22. Original retraction letter on '55 Science Paper Retracted to Thwart Creationists · · Score: 4, Informative

    The original retraction letter is inspiring. I am glad that Dr. Jacobson set the record straight, even though it would have been easier for him to ignore his earlier mistakes.

  23. Balloons are not new on Huge Balloon Lofts New Telescope · · Score: 3, Informative

    Though this sounds like a very interesting project, the use of balloons (and sounding rockets) for instruments that might later fly in space is not new. Cosmic ray studies have been using balloons for since 1912.

    What may be new here is using balloons for instruments that need to be aimed precisely. Detectors on previous balloons were usually omni-directional, or could make measurements over large surface angles. Their Sun-tracking technology aiming sounds interesting, and I look forward to reading about their results

  24. Re:Quick! Alert the scientific community! on "All Quiet Alert" Issued For the Sun · · Score: 1

    You (and everyone I have ever heard deny that the sun has anything to do with global warming) seem to assume that the only mechanism by which the sun can affect our climate is through its solar energy output. You (and everyone...) ignore the affects on our atmosphere due to solar weather. We know that our magnetosphere is shaped by the solar wind... solar wind is related to sunspot activity... how do you know that these effects on our magnetosphere (which have nothing to do with solar energy output) don't affect the Earth's albedo?

    Of course the Sun affects global warming. Look into the Little Ice Age.

    You missed at least one connection. The solar cycle affects both the solar wind and the Sun's UV output, which is a part of the solar energy output, so there is a correlation between the solar wind and solar radiation output. But environmental researchers do take these effects into account.

    As for albedo effects, the magnetospheric plasma has little effect on the Earth's albedo. The total column density of the plasma in the magnetosphere is tiny compared to the column density of the atmosphere from the ionosphere down. People have done these sorts of calculations.

  25. Re:OK, so lets have a vote on Yahoo Exec Says "Enough DRM" · · Score: 1

    I have bought music straight from the band many times, though the majority of it has been fromoone band (Pearl Jam).