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User: rvaniwaa

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  1. Jobs had Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor on Ask Slashdot: Terminally Ill - What Wisdom Should I Pass On To My Geek Daughter? · · Score: 4, Informative

    FWIW, Steve Jobs had a Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor (often called a PNET or islet cell cancer). What most people think of when they hear pacreatic cancer is an extremely agressive, fast growing cancer that has single digit survival percentages at 12 months. Steve Jobs' cancer was a neuroendocrine tumor which can have survival times much greater than typical pancreatic cancer. I know this because I have a carcinoid cancer which is a neuroendocrine tumor and have been fighting this for years (14 this October).

  2. Obligatory XKCD on A Protocol For Home Automation · · Score: -1, Redundant
  3. Re:One Thousand Times on Record Setting 500 Trillion-Watt Laser Shot Achieved · · Score: 1

    Actually, the lasers use a very low wattage generator of the like you can get at Radio Shack. This impulse is them amplified by successively sending the pulse through amplifiers until the final 500+TW is achieved. --Ron

  4. Re:This one wins the prize on Retailer Calls Rivals' Bluff On "HDMI Scam" · · Score: 1

    Even funnier, it says "Additionally, signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer". A close up picture of the plug shows a double ended arrow.... --Ron

  5. Excited and scared on King's Dark Tower Series To Be Adapted For Film, TV · · Score: 1

    The Dark Tower series is my all time favorite series of books and I have read them all multiple times. I worry about how it will adapt to both the big and little screen although the adaption of The Stand did fairly well. It is a huge story and I love it all (except for the last half of the last book).

  6. 10" Screen PLEASE!!! on Just What is this ASUS Eee Thing Anyway? · · Score: 1

    I want one but a 7" screen is just a bit too small. I would drop my money in a second if they put out one with a 10" screen. Asus said they would months ago and then retracted the statement. The small screen size is the only thing holding me back right now... --Ron

  7. thin air? on Creating Water from Thin Air · · Score: 0, Redundant

    So, they tested this at altitude? Like Mount Everest

  8. Finally Current bushes! on Tapping Trees for Electricity? · · Score: 1

    with real current!

  9. Its not circumventing, it is working with your doc on Subjecting Yourself to Experimental Meds · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have a rare form of cancer for which I am about 30 years younger than the average person with this cancer. I don't expect my doctor to know much about carcinoid because there are so few of us (he has only treated about half a dozen people with carcinoid).
    Therefore, I feel it is my job to research as much as possible, find experts in carcinoid with which to consult and the latest paper to forward on to my current doc. Medicine should be a cooperative venture between doctor and patient, never just one or the other.
    --Ron

  10. Re:What, no screen shots?? on NDIS Wrapper For Wireless LAN Cards Under GPL · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ditto! I may have to steal your idea of using 'O' for a variable. Nice how it confuses with '0'.

  11. What, no screen shots?? on NDIS Wrapper For Wireless LAN Cards Under GPL · · Score: 5, Funny

    How does he expect people to try out his code without any screen shots????

  12. ob Sienfeld reference on Tall People Earn More · · Score: 1

    Now people will be accused of heightening to get a job/raise

  13. Re:A fifth type of programmer... on Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++ · · Score: 1
    believe me, comparing the debug assembler is not a big deal - you either run the debug code, with its additional instructions embedded in it, stack checks etc etc, or you run nice optimised release build code.

    Comparing what the plonker wrote with the debug code is not a big deal - I think I can guarantee the release build is faster

    That would be the case except the release code is generally the code with debug... It is an odd situation but, for various reasons, we run the debug code for our release.

    I do agree with most of what you say b/c the compiler is almost always smarter than the C/C++ coder. The same is not true of an experienced assembler coder but that is another story altogether.

  14. Re:A fifth type of programmer... on Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++ · · Score: 1
    Yes, it was the most optimal code for this situation.
    This code may have been optimal if the only measure was lines of code but that doesn't mean it would have executed any faster. Having fewer lines of code doesn't necessarily lead to better performance. Additionally, it can (and did in this case) lead to problems maintaining the code.
    Believe it or not, it actually was faster. I checked the assember after I unraveled all of the convoluted crap that he had done and the unoptimized assember was a few statements shorter. Of course, the compiler might have optimized them to the same result but we generally run the unoptimized version of the code here so we can debug in case of failure.
  15. Re:A fifth type of programmer... on Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++ · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I, for example, severely abuse short-circuit evaluation -- I'll often put five or more function calls into an if() conditional, ||ing their error conditions together -- but there's nothing wrong with that; you'll never find it in a textbook, but once you're used to reading that sort of code, it is more compact, easy to understand, and easy to maintain than the alternatives.

    There is nothing wrong with that as long as the persons who are going to maintain the code are also of the fifth type of programmer. Generally, the people maintaining your code are of the second type and this code is going to confuse the hell out of them

    We had a guy on our project that wrote an if statement that had three levels of embedded ?: operators along with several function calls, several of which took parameters that were generated by ?: operators with other function calls within them. There were half a dozed each of ||, && and ! along with a few |'s and &'s thrown in for good measure.

    Yes, it was the most optimal code for this situation. However, this situation did not require that level of optimization and, when I had to fix it 2 years later because of a subtle bug that could have been obvious, I was ready to ?: the guy that wrote that code!

  16. What about power supply? on New Nano-ITX 12cm Motherboards · · Score: 1

    I really would like do use one of these but how does one power it? It would seem insane to hook a standard atx powersupply up to one of these mini pcs...

  17. Re:All right! on IBM Releases Compiler for Power4 and G5 · · Score: 2, Funny
    Yes, it compiles vaporware in half the time.
    Thats nothing! I am coming out with a compiler next year that will compile vaporware in just 1/3 of the time as the IBM compiler! --Ron
  18. Micro ethics??? on Ministry of NanoEthics? · · Score: 1

    And here I thought it was yet another SCO article...

  19. Guess their server on SeattleWireless TV: Flickenger, Warcopter, And More · · Score: 1

    is runnong on one of these wireless links... Bittorrent anywhere???

  20. Re:Teach people to use already available tools on How Would You Improve Today's Debugging Tools? · · Score: 2

    I was probably a bit strong on my opinions on printfs. I use them myself but it is usually only for the initial debugging. When the problem starts to get deeper, it is generally faster to run it in a debugger if only because building the entire application takes too long (half a day or more if you change the wrong file...).

    Also, I am frequently the one called in when someone else's code does not work. Since I don't know the code, as you say, debuggers help greatly in figuring out the flow...

  21. Re:Debugger improvements on How Would You Improve Today's Debugging Tools? · · Score: 2


    Reversibility. I'd like to be able to step backwards through code. No, this isn't a joke. Only a small amount of information needs to be stored as each instruction is executed in order to have an emulator go backwards again. You don't necessarily want to run an entire application reversibly. You might want to run a small loop until it crashes and then work backwards to find the cause.


    This is obviously not always possible as many functions (squaring a number, sin of a number, ...) are not reversible

  22. Re:I'm sure loads of debuggers have got it... on How Would You Improve Today's Debugging Tools? · · Score: 5, Informative

    To do this in dbx do:

    "stop at 99 if (x == 17)"

    or in gdb:

    (gdb) break main.C:99

    Breakpoint 1 at 0x8048776

    (gdb) cond 1 (x = 17)

    (gdb)

  23. Teach people to use already available tools on How Would You Improve Today's Debugging Tools? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One of my biggest problems with people on my current project is the lack of knowledge of how to use even the most basic tools. We program in C++ on Unix and many developers find calling up dbx to be a chore and, even when they get dbx up, have trouble using it. We have many other tools, ddd, other graphical debuggers but people just don't use them, relying on printfs and couts...

  24. Re:What's the big deal about show swapping? on DMCA Loophole For Peer-to-Peer TV Show Sharing? · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, TiVo does have a 30 second skip feature. It is just not enabled by default and it is not well known how to enable it. See this link for details on how to enable it.

  25. Re:Why are they so desperate ? on FSF Issues GNU/Linux Name FAQ · · Score: 3, Funny


    It would be hard to write an emacs Macro that inserted "GNU" everytime one typed "Linux"

    I can see it now, the Emacs office assistant: "I see you are trying to type 'Linux' Wouldn't you prefer the official name 'GNU/Linux'?