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  1. Re:Can be? on Server Room Smells Can Be an Early Warning · · Score: 1

    > In fact, hard drives are orders of magnitude more reliable than tapes.

    Unless you're in a habit of dropping your backup media...

    But yeah I prefer hard drives in most cases, because each comes with its own built-in drive, all for not much more than a whole tape of the same raw capacity.

    So 2 years later, you can buy double the capacity for the same price, whereas with tapes, you have to buy a new expensive tape drive.

  2. Re:Funny, I routinely smell my servers... on Server Room Smells Can Be an Early Warning · · Score: 1

    Maybe someone should make a semiautomated "factory" that breeds and trains rats for such scent-detection purposes :).

    Rats have a very good sense of smell... And they're portable, put them in an unsealed cage, and have them transported around the factory. Or pass them air samples from various places.

  3. Re:SharePoint on Business-Suitable Document Authentication System? · · Score: 1

    Oh cool, looks like my info on subversion is out of date.

    I might switch to subversion for that then...

  4. Re:SharePoint on Business-Suitable Document Authentication System? · · Score: 1

    Problem is subversion (and the other oss version control stuff I'm aware of) isn't "business document" aware for many of the popular business document formats (including openoffice).

    So you can't really see the diffs. All you know is something is changed, which often isn't very useful.

    And often all that has changed is someone printed the document (which can also cause fields to be updated), or say in the case of Excel there are often changes to the file even if they aren't really visible/material to the user, they could occur just because the user opened the document or viewed a different worksheet in a workbook.

    I'd be interested to know of any OSS version control software that can produce human readable diffs of openoffice or MS Office docs.

    I've tried using version control for such docs and I've also had cases where I want to pull out the older version without overwriting the newer version (this is partly because of the useless diff results).

    Another thing is I often do want to change the names of the documents as well - especially to include the version so that the recipients of the document can more easily see what version it is without having to open it. Some version control software don't handle renames very well.

    And I doubt any are able to handle merges of openoffice/msoffice docs - say you sent a doc to someone, and do changes to your copy, and the other person works on the doc you sent, and then sends it back to you, how do you merge the changes?

  5. Re:What kept them? on Mozilla Plans Fix For Critical Firefox Vulnerability In Next Release · · Score: 1

    > Lynx is pretty secure

    Yeah, no botnet creator in his right mind is going to target lynx.

  6. Re:Future direction? on ISC Releases the First Look At BIND 10 · · Score: 1

    > I run bsd jails that don't have anything but bind running.

    The reason why anyone would need to do all that was both BIND4 and BIND8 were pieces of crap. BIND9 was a bit better but still...

    Anyway, if it's a different team doing BIND10, maybe they might produce something better.

  7. Re:Not surprised on Internet Explorer 9 Will Not Support Windows XP · · Score: 1

    > One example of that is XP's inability to provide hardware-accelerated font-rendering for applications

    In practice it's not such a huge disadvantage, since 2D hardware-acceleration is still rather flaky. Too often I have to turn OFF hardware acceleration because the video card makers make crap drivers (both Nvidia and ATI).

    I find that the hardware acceleration stuff often doesn't work so well when you use multiple monitors - e.g. the video doesn't show - all you get is a black box.

    As for XP vs Windows 7, I get corrupted graphics on my work laptop with Windows 7 and ATI video (example: sometimes lines of text vanish or are incorrectly displayed when scrolling), and no such problems with XP SP3 + Nvidia + single monitor (I won't be surprised if I find some probs if I add a monitor).

    Might be my imagination but seems like 2D hardware acceleration was better in the 1990s e.g. you could get video cards and drivers without such garbage happening - and they actually seemed to be quite fast at drawing 2D stuff, given the slow CPU speeds of those days.

    Maybe the video card manufacturers are focusing more on 3D acceleration.

  8. Re:he should think this through on Company Sued, Loses For Not Using Patented Tech · · Score: 1

    > The inventor WANTS his technology in every saw (I exchanged e-mails with the inventor)

    And how much did he want to charge them?

    That would help establish the real WHY he wants his tech in every saw.

  9. Re:he should think this through on Company Sued, Loses For Not Using Patented Tech · · Score: 1

    Moral of the story: if you have long hair, secure it much better if you're going to spend a significant time with machinery...

    If not you might spend the rest of your life with machinery.

    Don't wear stuff like rings, or wear the sort of clothes that can easily get caught and pulled.

  10. Re:Enough already on US Military Shuts Down CIA's Terrorist Honey Pot · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Then you should try German sometime.

  11. Re:Yay 133ms on Lag Analysis For the PlayStation Move · · Score: 1

    I used to play quakeworld team fortress (custom and normal) with 700ms ping or even higher.

    Definitely a disadvantage, but with games like teamfortress, being able to kill the enemy isn't so important.

    Getting the flag from one point to another could be way more important, and the flag moves about the same whether you have 10ms ping or 1000ms ping ;).

    And with custom team fortress, coming up with a suitable setup can help a lot to mitigate lag :).

  12. Re:Western and Eastern educations are not equivale on High-Tech Research Moving From US To China · · Score: 1

    > They just knew how translate what was essentially pseudo-code into actual code.

    That's why if you're one of the top programmers and designers you have nothing to worry about. In fact you should be very happy.

    Since what this means is you can write programs in English, and these bunch will compile it to C/C++/Java/C#/whatever.

    AND best of all, you can leave the project and let that team take care of most of the boring but necessary stuff - documentation, support, maintenance. Then you work on a new project and do all the cool "creative" and "innovative" stuff.

    If you like the rest of us, are not a top programmer... Then well too bad, be ready for "3rd world" pay, or switch to a job which is hard to outsource - requires local presence: hairdresser, surgeon, nurse, masseur that sort of thing.

    There are lots of crappy programmers about whether US/India/China, if the bosses want to settle for crap, there's no point paying US rates for it.

  13. Re:Microsoft on What Free Antivirus Do You Install On Windows? · · Score: 1

    Yeah I've had mainstream virus scanners identifying security tools as problems. They know exactly what it is, they appear to think that normal users shouldn't be having such stuff. Maybe they are right, but that's the reason why I think the keygen being detected as a trojan by MSSE might be a false positive.

    The motivation for the AV companies and MS to reduce false positives in cases like these might be kind of low.

    Symantec now has this suspicious.insight stuff that basically is "if few other users in the world has run this program before, then it is suspicious". So if you make a python win32 exe program it will be suspicious.

  14. Re:Microsoft on What Free Antivirus Do You Install On Windows? · · Score: 1

    > Do bear in mind a lot of smarter trojans now only run when you are not using the PC, for this reason.

    Then that would be fine, since I usually turn off my windows PC when I don't use it- that limits the problems I'd cause to others (assuming my PC gets infected).

    In contrast any mainstream real-time scanning AV software would run and slow things down when I am using the PC - so they are often worse than the "problem" (unless the problem is stuff like keyloggers).

  15. Re:Microsoft on What Free Antivirus Do You Install On Windows? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yeah but are they really trojans? Or was MSE wrong about those?

    FWIW, I don't install AV on my main windows machine. If I do see something suspicious I upload it to: http://www.virustotal.com/

    So far I don't think my machine has been infected before. If my machine ever gets zombied, I'd probably notice since 1) I have a crappy internet connection, 2) I'd eventually notice the network traffic on the gateway machine - which is not windows.

  16. Microsoft Security Essentials on What Free Antivirus Do You Install On Windows? · · Score: 2, Informative

    I install Microsoft Security Essentials if I have to install AV (and if it's available - only XP onwards).

    Doesn't do as well as Kaspersky and some other payware ones, but does better than most of the free ones.

    And is certainly less bloated than the McAfee and Symantec crap[1].

    [1] Why install AV software that makes your computer behave like it's infected by loads of viruses...

  17. Re:Oh yippy skippy on Filming For The Hobbit Begins In July · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah too bad there wasn't wiki tech in those days.

    Otherwise Tolkien could have made an entire LoTR wiki all on his own - described the entire world(s), languages, the races, histories (from different perspectives), the religions, characters, items, etc. And maybe add some stories...

    And some of us will end up reading that wiki for hours...

    Then again, by now some large corp would have copyright to it and we'd have to pay a monthly subscription to have read access to it...

  18. Re:Oceans too on Complex Life Found Under 600 Feet of Antarctic Ice · · Score: 1

    Well maybe your explanation or someone elses might actually work better.

    Some don't get it when I put it concisely. And when I make it longer, others don't get past the first few sentences... IIRC, I've been flamed by people because they didn't even read past the first half of the first sentence and thus thought I was saying something else :).

  19. Re:sheer leveling? on Professor Ditches Grades For XP System · · Score: 1

    Uhoh, you just said you're a female on Slashdot. Time to say "dude, I'm really a guy" again... ;)

    Seriously though, in case you don't understand why this is happening (seems like many people don't).

    The way it works in many cultures is the girls aren't supposed to do the "chatting up"[1] and the guys are supposed to (only in a very few cultures it's the other way round, and the rest the parents arrange the marriage ;) ).

    So if most of the females don't do it, the guys will have to do it, and those that succeed will have their genes propagated.

    Now the problem is: it's hard to set things up so that girls only get the attention of the ones they find attractive.

    Thus the guys will just have to try their luck...

    And that's why the females get undesirable guys bothering them, or even somewhat attractive guys bothering them at the "wrong times". It's inevitable in such a situation.

    Yes I know, there are also females that (voluntarily/involuntarily) don't get the attention of any guys - whether undesirable and desirable. But I'm talking about the common scenario of straight girls who do want attention from at least some guys at least sometimes.

    [1] Or whatever you want to call it. I know the girls aren't really passive (they do various stuff) but basically most girls don't go around chatting up guys. FWIW I don't mind when girls try to chat me up, even the unattractive ones (there are exceptions but far fewer girls skip showers and basic hygiene than guys ;) ). Unless they happen to be married or otherwise engaged...

  20. Re:Oceans too on Complex Life Found Under 600 Feet of Antarctic Ice · · Score: 1

    Given a particular temperature (sufficient to maintain gas form), heavier gas molecules tend to have a lower average velocity than lighter gas molecules, and a corresponding distribution curve for the velocities.

    So in areas with lower gravitational pull and higher temperatures, the lighter gas molecules are more likely to achieve escape velocity.

  21. Re:...what? on Lord British's Lost Lunar Rover Found, After 37 Years · · Score: 1

    I wonder how much loot and how many skill points the guy got for killing Lord British :).

  22. Re:too weak for charging on Japan To Standardize Electric Vehicle Chargers · · Score: 1

    Even if his washing machine or other domestic appliance is on 380+VAC, it's not 60 amps.

    60amps is a lot of current.

  23. Re:Quick on Japan To Standardize Electric Vehicle Chargers · · Score: 1

    Japan has different parts of their country on different Hz though ;).

  24. Re:Windows Joke on Users Rejecting Security Advice Considered Rational · · Score: 1

    Same if you are a IT Manager or CIO.

    Clueless future bosses/boardmembers (who are likely to pay you more $$$$$$) are more likely to be impressed when you say: I was leading a department of 30 personnel providing IT support to the entire company.

    Than: it was just me and two others.

    Plus face it, wouldn't you rather work for a company that would give you a department budget that allows for 30 personnel etc?

    Then when HQ says we're cutting 10% globally, and no we don't care even if you are doing well and are short on staff. You can far more easily sack the 3 people on your staff who you know don't actually do much (but aren't "rowing backwards").

    When it's just you and two others, at least one of you might have to take a paycut... And if the cut is 33%, your personal workload goes up a lot more if now there's only 2 people in your team including you. Compared to 20 down from 30...

    I heard many navy ships were staffed similarly - so they could lose a lot of personnel and still have enough to operate the ship.

  25. Credit cards are safer on Deposit Checks To Your Bank By Taking a Photo · · Score: 1

    In my opinion credit cards are way more secure than cheques.

    If anything happens with my credit card, it's not my money that's gone. The bank may say I owe them, but meanwhile I actually still have my money. And since I have more money, I have more options.

    Whereas if there is cheque or debit card fraud, it's my money that's gone. So I will have to jump through hoops to get my money back. If I don't have enough spare money left to jump through all the hoops this might be a problem. If the person did a good cheque forgery, I might have problems getting the money from the bank as quick and easily as you did, or even at all.

    I don't know why you get charged fees and interest for paying credit card bills on time. Over here in 3rd world Malaysia I don't get charged if I pay on time. Transferring money to a different (e.g. competing) local (not internatonal) bank account costs about USD0.60. International transfers cost more and require more hassles.

    Kind of interesting that US bank customers get treated so badly and yet US banks still got huge bail outs.

    Lastly, transferring money by taking and sending pictures of cheques with a cellphone is ridiculous. I don't see how that can cost the banks less than "electronic" transfers that are done in other countries around the world. The latter requires minimal human intervention (if the transaction is not flagged as suspicious by the system).