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User: Graymalkin

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  1. Re:What about bitrate? on Ask Slashdot: What's the Best MP3 Encoder? · · Score: 1

    Are you retarded? A CD's bitrate is only 150Kbps, so a 128Kbps MP3 isn't losing that much data. Not to mention that the MP3 format is optimized for 128Kbps, the only thing you get from a higher bitrate is more noise and a much larger file size. A well encoded MP3 at 128Kbps sounds damn close to CD quality (the point of the entire format) and is 1/10th the size. If you don't listen to anything lower than 160Kbps you're wasting disk space. Think ten times before typing next time.

  2. Sun moves into the household on Sun buys maker of StarOffice · · Score: 1

    I've been saying this is going to happen for months. Sun is buying Star Division, Star Division makes a multi-platform office suite comparable to Microsoft. Sun also has some knowlegable Java programmers. I say Sun is going to revive their home thin client idea. Why are they reviving it? Because of the recent trends towards closed set top boxes and the like. Most people don't need an entire PC, they just want to surf the net and write e-mail. Sun is going to add an office suite into this so people can be a might more productive. If they decide not to go into home, inexpensive thin clients in an office would work nicely, especially since companies are shelling out thousands of dollars on Wintel boxes that will be obsolete in two years. Why pay upwards of 1000$ for a system when you could pay under 500$ and have all your software incliuded? Sure you can go the cheap PC route, but it's likely that those systems are already obsolete and aren't worth the money you paid for them.

  3. Why is it... on Now Police Can 'See' Through Walls · · Score: 1

    that everyone worried about privacy is considered paranoid or is expected to live in a buker somewhere in the forrest? Because I would like a semblance of privacy in my life I have something to hide? Why yes I do, my personal life. Sure this technology has a good and upstandingu se in law enforcement, it would allow police to get a better grip of a situation inside a building. But there's also other uses that aren't so upstanding. It can easily be used for invasion of privacy by pointing it at my house to see what I'm doing at that time. Oh no I sound paranoid, I must have a cache of weapons buried in my back yard. No I don't, but I have seen other surveilance technologies used to spy on law abiding citizens. ECHELON and various monitoring systems the FBI uses both read the average Joe's e-mail for no real reason other than for thought control, who would want to exercise their right to free speech? I don't need anyone reading my e-mail or anyone watching me while I read my email, I'm not paranoid, I'm not an automaton that believes everything my government tells me either.

  4. If you want... on Ask Slashdot: Geeks Stereotypes and Their Origins · · Score: 1

    to find geeks in their natural habitat check the CS labs at your local college. Sometimes they can be found in Anime club meetings or in various coffee shops. While some...may live right next door to you but dress so chic-ish that you would never know they have their own T1 to do naughties with. This is a lame post, freeways drain the life from within me.

  5. I dont know... on Iridium Files for Bankruptcy · · Score: 1

    what Iridium was expecting. Their prices were insane, it was wayt too expensive to just make a phone call, how many people trek through the Himalayas and take a phone with them? Isn't the point of going out in the wilderness to get away from civilization? They should have user a smaller constellation of higher altitude satillites, similar to the US military MILSTAR satillites. With higher altitude they could have a longer lifetime (15-20+ years) and have a wider coverage area. The idea was sound in a way, but they really should have done alot of marketing in smaller developing nations where a decent telephony infrastructure doesn't exist but is needed. They could have also sold their services to airline companies that could benefit from a global communication system, that way their planes could more readily get accurate weather information. That would have made them more money than trying to sell to wealthy american travelers wanting to call home to check on their stock broker and maid.

  6. You're missing the point on Evolution is a Myth in Kansas · · Score: 1

    Whenever I was taught about evolution in my Biology class, it was always presented as a theory and explained and such. The only people that have ever tried to instill in me that it's fact were Christians trying to disprove the point. It's neigh the 21st century, and people still cannot look up the term "theory". I can't see how in a country of separation of church and state, a school board can make a rule declaring a non-religious explaination for the existance of life on the planet is a myth. I believe in evolution, I can see it everywhere, whether there is an all powerful god, I dont believe in it although it's probable. The problem with evolution is that it doesn't contradict God but it contradicts the Bible, one of the most entertaining pieces of literature I've ever read. What I see happening here is religion butting in where it doesn't belong, again. Children should be taught evolution as a means to explain the biology they are studying, whether they want Creationist beliefs or evolutionists beliefs is up to them, it matters little to me. It's basically the same argument as having prayer in school, if you're going to say evolution is a myth you also have to say Adam and Eve are also myths, along with Mohommad, Jesus and pals, ad infinitum. Evolution is the only way to explain biology without sounding like a complete idiot, let people decide on their own what they want to believe.

  7. Re:Prove god exists -- EASY on Evolution is a Myth in Kansas · · Score: 1

    Well the fact that the Pioneer and Voyager space probes have left our solar system and can still be heard (they havent crashed into a crystal sphere encompassing our rock and star) I think that means there is plenty of open space in the universe, billions of miles of it. If you wanna prove Alpha Centuri is a star all you need to do is take two pictures of it at two different times of the year and figure out the doppler shift, it will come to about 4 light years if you can add. What I find funniest is you compare God to 10 billion dollars. There's an existencial difference between an all knowing diety and 10 billion dollars.

  8. Re:Plastic, it's whats for dinner. on Plastic Hard Drives · · Score: 1

    SCSI is great, but for the low end IDE is more economical, maybe even FireWire if they can get the price down on the processors and SRAM inside them. Yes I know FireWire is a SCSI derivitive.

  9. Re:Lighter, faster, but still slow. on Plastic Hard Drives · · Score: 1

    EEPROMs do need electricity to keep their data stored, but they only need 1.1 volts and require very very low wattage so the little lithium battery you see on the motherboard (open it up and look, I promise you it's there somewhere) is enough for the BIOS et al to retain their memory.

  10. Re:Proposal on Changing the Keyboard · · Score: 1

    Why not just make the keyboard a big touchscreen with a monochrome LCD on it or something. Star Trek style, so the keyboard could be different with every program or set up in user preferences. This could also be a great use for digital ink.

  11. Plastic, it's whats for dinner. on Plastic Hard Drives · · Score: 1

    This will be great if two things happen. First, more platters in the same sized hard drive, which means an increase of capacity without signifigant cost. Second would be higher RPM speeds since the drives weigh less than their metal equivilents. I wouldn't mind a 10,000rpm EIDE hard drive. In UDMA 33/66 that would really fly.

  12. Re:What? on Plastic Hard Drives · · Score: 1

    Ever seen a floppy disk?

  13. Re:Microsoft is way ahead, actually on IBM joins Trillian project · · Score: 1

    Yet another clue: Windows 2000 is a much better OS than Linux. :-)

    only if you don't ever turn your computer on

  14. Why UCITA is bad for everyone. on Ask Slashdot: What can we do about UCITA? · · Score: 1

    You personally may use all GNU/open source software, but as someone else pointed out with Foobar Inc, your bank, grocery store, ect. probably uses commercial software. With the ability to change license agreements after the sale of a product and the ability to disable software remotely, companies can hold their customers by the soft spot because their customers may depend on their software. You know why Microsoft supports UCITA? They can sell Brand X Inc Windows 2000 Uber-super preium server edition but then Brand X Inc hits it off with an IPO or their product kills everyone on the market, Microsoft says "hmmm, they can afford a hugely inflated license fee now", then they change the EULA so all Uber-super preium server editions need extra licensing fees whenever someone visits a website hosted on the server. Microsoft gets a huge cut of Brand X Inc's profit but then Brand Y Inc which didn't have a successful IPO and hasn't made much money cant afford the new EULA, they go out of business. Don't ignore this or pass it off because you personally use open source software, not everyone else does and you have bank accounts with them or buy groceries from them or maybe they're you're local elementary or high school.

  15. This is a good thing on Dell to offer Linux on Dimension Line · · Score: 1

    Like I said in a reply to someone's comment, linux is relatively easy to use but difficult to administer. Dell is taking on some of the responsibilities of your office Unix guru, offering support for their products under linux and configuring the system for you. Sure most of us could or already have built our own systems but in an office with dozens or hundreds of employees you don't want to do it yourself. Some people will bitch about not having office but there's always Applix and Star Office, which are both Office 97 compatible and are very well put together not to mention much less expensive than Office 97 or 2000. We're going to see alot more linux-ready desktops in the next year. Especially with nVidia et al opening up their hardware and helping with drivers for their products. The 2.4 kernel with FireWire and USB will do alot to increase linux's popularity, with USB support we'll most likely see linux drivers for all of our favorite USB toys.

  16. Re:Why? on Dell to offer Linux on Dimension Line · · Score: 1

    Lets stop and think here for a moment. Who does Dell market it's computers to? Only housewives and small children? Oh wait, I forgot they also have some very large businesses and schools. That is why Dell is now offering linux on it's desktop lines. They're not trying to convert Joe Average user to linux, but give businesses a Windows alternative that is scores stabler than Windows 98 or NT. It won't make anyone think it's like Windows, if anything it will just make more people realize that Windows is not the end all be all of computing. More people would try linux if they could get it preinstalled on their computer. Linux is relatively easy to use but like all unicies it's difficult to administer. Desktop manufacturers that are supporting linux are taking some of the administration work out of using linux on home systems.

  17. Re:What about the power requirements on Athlon Reviews · · Score: 1

    The chip's bus is 200mhz, not the system bus, thats only 100mhz so your PC100 SDRAM still works with it. And if you'd like to add power sucking space heater like periphrials, don't complain. Some of us know how to use cooling fans and external drives.

  18. Poor SGI.. on SGI Faces Another Reorganization · · Score: 1

    for years they were the cream of the crop in servers and high speed workstations. Intel was never a match for them, but now with the PII/III and Xeon chips, Intel has found a way into the high-end computing market. I don't think SGI euipped itself to deal with this. They embraced Intel with the Visual Workstations, which are great pieces of hardware, but are too expensive for some, and can be seen as entering their dotage as even faster bus speeds are reached with non-SGI chipsets, 3.6 gig memory bandwidth isn't as fast as it was a year ago. It's good that they've embraced OSS because they've done some really great things that it would be nice to have open sourced but I think it's the beginning of the end of SGI unless they come up with the next Big Thing before someone else does.

  19. People will still buy it on The Media on Microsoft's "Crack this..." ploy · · Score: 1

    In the not entirely distant past something similar to this happened. When Bill Gates reveiled Windows 98 at a press conference he got a BSOD. But people still bought Win 98, all the OEM's put it on their machines. People will buy Win2k, for no other reason than it comes with more eye candy and a few extra security holes. When NT went from 3.51 to 4 all they really did was change the GUI and add some extra utilities, most of which were really buggy leading to unreliable performance.

  20. Megacorps and You on MS Takes on AOL in Web Access: Round III · · Score: 1

    At the turn of this century we're seeing a repeat of what happened at the turn of the last century. Giant megalithic corporations scurrying to get the next consumer and make all the money they can without any regard for people. AOL and Microsoft figure they are so needed by consumers that they can do anything they want and get away with it. Sure free internet access look nice...until you see where it's coming from. Internet Explorer was free too but it made you commit to using it as your default browser and mail client ect. ad nausium. AOL is doing the same thing by assuming they are so important to you or I that they can take over Joe User's desktop. This is helping no one, free access just means they found a different way to get money out of you, whether you realize it or not.

  21. Re:Dial-up's days are numbered on MS Takes on AOL in Web Access: Round III · · Score: 1

    Analog dial-up access will never be out. There is so much market saturation of regular analog modems that it will be a decade before we see a real decline. Analog access can be used from just about anywhere with a phone line, xDSL has a limited range, and cable needs a coaxial cable, which not everyone has. ISDN was never much of a contender, but it still is a little more robust then DSL at least for distance.

  22. Ok... on Creation of a Cybernation · · Score: 1

    so lets say this "country" comes into existance. If someone like the US instituted a program to spy on the internet would it be considered espionage even to people living in the US? And I don't see this conforming to the Zappist regulations for a country. "You can't be a Real Country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."

  23. Slashdot effect... on It's All About the Pentiums · · Score: 1

    has struck down the Al that is Weird. Darnit I wanted to watch the video. I guess this Jedi needs to learn patience.

  24. Why does everyone... on SGI to drop Irix for Linux · · Score: 1

    berate SGI now? The only real mistake I see lately is their logo change. They still support MIPS in their other systems. The Visual Workstations are a step in the profit direction. Instead of having to use all of their own software (having a hardware and software division gets very expensive) they can now use Windows or Linux on their workstations and servers. They're doing their best to port their IRIX stuff to linux, which is much easier than porting to NT because linux is entirely open source. Their hardware is nothing to scoff at either, a 64bit PCI bus isn't something Amptron offers of their motherboards, and their total memory bandwidth is very high. Yes I know the 810 will get 3+ gigs of bandwidth, but will people really use it? Having a completely locked down motherboard is something I thought might be going away. SGI's board is expandable as any other 440BX board.

  25. SGI and You on SGI Introduces New 1400L Linux Server · · Score: 1

    I would assume that they mean basically the same as Sun means when they talk about the Solaris Operating Enviroment, a distribution based on the processor. I think SGI using linux and Intel is a Good Thing. First off, XFS kernel support is going to be in the 2.4 kernel, SGI has said they're going to port several IRIX utilities and such to linux which will be a big boon for anyone running a server that needs powerful softqware. What makes this sweeter is they are going to be porting the software to x86 processors, while not all linux users use x86, many do. SGI now stands to make a much healthier profit on their performance workstations because they no longer have to spend beaucoup cash on MIPS chips for them and keep IRIX going which can get expensive. Now they can use other companies' software. I wish they would have picked a different distro, maybe SuSE (my personal favourite). But any distro is better than Windows so woohoo!