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User: pestie

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Comments · 255

  1. Re:So, how long has the NSA had one? on Lockheed Martin Purchases First Commercial Quantum Computer · · Score: 1

    OK, fair enough - I had forgotten about one-time pads. I really should have specified "all encryption based on multiplying two large primes," since that's the vast majority of commercially-significant encryption. I'm not even sure if there's a theoretical quantum attack on elliptic-curve algorithms or not.

  2. So, how long has the NSA had one? on Lockheed Martin Purchases First Commercial Quantum Computer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So, can this thing crack all non-quantum encryption, then? I seem to remember reading about how that would only require 32 qubits or so. And whether it can or can't, if commercial offerings have come this far, how long has the NSA had a version that can crack all encryption?

  3. Re:We won? on Utah Repeals Anti-Transparency Law · · Score: 1

    Where would those of us whom do not believe in even the possibility of good government (no matter who is in charge), fit into your neat categories there?

    I think you'd find them filed under "assholes."

  4. Re:Heave to! on Internet Access While Sailing? (Revisited) · · Score: 1

    I can understand the wheel/wind issue, but the current shouldn't have that much effect, since it'd be moving you along with the boat.

  5. Heave to! on Internet Access While Sailing? (Revisited) · · Score: 1

    In a sailboat, one can always heave to.

  6. Re:How about SiliconDust HDHomeRun on Best PC DVR Software, For Any Platform? · · Score: 1

    The HDHomeRun works very well with Myth. That's how my system here works and it performs pretty much flawlessly (at least since I diagnosed and replaced a faulty network switch that was dropping packets at random, but not enough to cause a complete failure).

    I do know you won't be able to play HD content with the original Xbox, though. I have Xebian on my original Xbox and tried using it as a Myth front-end for a while but it just doesn't have the horsepower for anything over DVD resolution.

    I don't know about using dual-core Atom - if you meant just for the back end, that should be fine. If you want to play back HD content, I'm not so sure. My Atom-based netbook seems to do OK (just barely) with down-scaled (to the netbook's native 1024x600 resolution) HD, but I've never tried it with a bigger external monitor. It is presumably having to do the decoding and scaling before it displays the content and it does keep up most of the time. I seem to remember it stuttering a bit on high bit-rate streams. I can't really remember much, though, as I don't really use my netbook as a Myth front-end very much.

    I have no idea what DLNA is, so I can't speak to that.

  7. That's impossible! on Did Chicago Lose Olympic Bid Due To US Passport Control? · · Score: 1

    No, see, it's impossible that Rio won, and the US sure as hell didn't lose! See, here in the US, we know that:

    1) We're #1 at everything
    2) We never lose

    Ergo, Rio must have cheated.

  8. Can we start with you? on Did Chicago Lose Olympic Bid Due To US Passport Control? · · Score: 1

    Little Mexico's, little China's, little Vietnam's, little Japan's.

    If we're going to require people in this country use proper English, can we start with you? As Dave Barry once said, "An apostrophe does not mean, 'Look out! Here comes an S!'" Hell, that's not even a complete sentence.

  9. Where? on Did Chicago Lose Olympic Bid Due To US Passport Control? · · Score: 1

    Where? Do any of these exist along the relatively-populated Quebec/New England border, or only in the middle of nowhere (Montana, North Dakota, etc.)?

  10. Re:Window coating, which blocks signals on Using Aluminum Oxide Paint To Secure Wi-Fi · · Score: 1

    I lived in an apartment complex in the US that had windows like this. I only discovered it when I decided to try getting a satellite TV signal through the window. The complex didn't allow satellite dishes, but I had a south-facing window. I figured, hey, why not just put the dish indoors? Glass doesn't block 10/11 GHz signals! It worked great when the window was open, but closing the window caused 100% of the signal to be blocked. I eventually ended up making an insulated double-paned "window" replacement out of two sheets of acrylic with spacers to create an air gap and sealed it along the edges with foam tape. That didn't attenuate the signal noticeably and I had my satellite TV.

  11. "atleast?" on A New Explanation For the Plight of Winter Babies · · Score: 1

    I wish there was an error bar I could put around the non-word "atleast" every time someone uses it...

  12. BBS's were awesome on Chrome OS Designed To Start Microsoft Death Spiral · · Score: 1

    I hear ya on the whole BBS thing. The geographic proximity and subsequent real-life meetings was one of my favorite things about the scene back then. Most importantly, the local BBS scene was where I met the vast majority of my past girlfriends. Sure, I met my current girlfriend through the internet, but life is a lot easier when the girls you meet online live in the next town over vs. the next country over (my girlfriend's Canadian, I'm American).

  13. Cultural differences on What Questions Should a Prospective Employee Ask? · · Score: 1

    I was surprised at how much your response here differed from many others, but then I got to the end of your post and saw you used the term "sticky tape." It made me wonder if you were British. Your home page link goes to a .uk site, so I'm guessing you probably are. Don't you think there's a good chance that there are significant differences in business culture between the UK and the US/North America?

  14. OK, now what does it do? on Google Open Sources Wave Protocol Implementation · · Score: 1, Redundant

    I realize that this is Slashdot and a certain amount of technical knowledge is assumed, but I don't necessarily keep tabs on every little thing Google says or does. So would someone care to explain, even very briefly, what the hell the Wave protocol is for? Even a few words in a sentence in the summary would have been appreciated.

  15. Not even close on Copyright Status of Thermodynamic Properties? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't know if you're trolling or just grossly misinformed, but that's not even close to correct. Lyrics are the copyrighted creative works of the person/people who wrote them. "Changing one word" does not allow someone else to then distribute the lyrics legally. That would be considered a "derivative work," the creation of which is a right provided to copyright holders under copyright law.

  16. Take out the flow restrictor on Consumers May Find Smart Appliances a Dumb Idea · · Score: 1

    If you want your hot water to reach your shower more quickly, remove the flow restrictor from the shower head. Seriously. I did this in the hopes of just getting a more satisfying-feeling shower and an unexpected side effect was that the hot water reached the shower in about 1/4 - 1/5 the time it used to take.

    Some of you may be worried about what such a move would cost. I live alone and only pay about $7 - $8 a month for water, so I really wasn't worried about the effect on my water bill. I did look for an effect, though, and if it was there, it was only a matter of a few cents.

    For those of you who shout, "OMG teh envir0nm3nt!!1!" - I have a septic system, so all that gray water is just going back into the ground anyway. And besides, if the People's Republic of Canada doesn't feel the need to regulate people's water flow rates, why should we here in the good ol' US of A?

    Flow restrictors are usually separate, easily-removable components of shower heads and faucets. Do yourself a favor and take them out. You'll be amazed at how much better a shower feels when the volume of water hitting your skin increases dramatically.

  17. Those who care about looks... on Lenovo Software Update Stealthily Installs Adware · · Score: 1

    Not all of us care how our machine actually looks.

    And those who do generally buy Macs.

  18. How does battery back up help? on Best eSATA JBOD? · · Score: 1

    I've often wondered this and have yet to see an answer to it. How does having battery back up on your RAID card's cache help anything when your operating system is probably doing a buttload of caching in system RAM? A crash or power outage is still going to throw that away, leading to a just-as-corrupted filesystem.

  19. Suits and ties on Where Does a Geek Find a Social Life? · · Score: 1

    If you adopt suits and ties but aren't comfortable in them, it shows. Being comfortable, in clothes and situations, is part of being confident.

    Ha! You're not kidding! The difference between comfortable and uncomfortable in a suit and tie is the difference between "GQ" and "will the defendant please rise?"

  20. Creative? Huh? on The Next Ad You Click May Be a Virus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Another company's "creative?" What the hell does that mean? Is it some industry term for "crappy banner ad?"

  21. Re:Just Throw It on the Meme Heap on 45-Year-Old Modem Used To Surf the Web · · Score: 1

    The AT command set wasn't really a standard, it was simply everyone's attempt to imitate what Hayes had implemented in their modems. The problem was that they had apparently patented the "guard time" concept, and low-end modem manufacturers attempted to work around the patent so they wouldn't have to license it from Hayes. This Wikipedia article talks about the situation.

  22. Correction on Calif. Petitions Supreme Court On Violent Video Game Bill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "California's violent video game law properly seeks to protect children from the imaginary harmful effects of excessively violent, interactive video games."

    FTFY

  23. How? on Interesting Computer Science Jobs? · · Score: 1

    That sounds awesome, but how on earth do you go about finding a job like that?

  24. Re:Americans should appreciate our culture and oth on Why the Widening Gender Gap In Computer Science? · · Score: 1

    ...to finding the Engrish description.

    There! Fixed that for you. I assume that's what you meant, based on your sentence construction.

  25. That's nowhere near as much fun as this... on (Useful) Stupid Unix Tricks? · · Score: 1

    In a bash shell: :(){:|:&};:

    NOTE: Don't actually try this! Or, if you must, do it with a system booted into a live CD or something. It's a fork bomb. If I read it correctly, it creates a function called ":" which calls itself piped to itself (thus spawning two copies of itself), then backgrounds those two processes. The semicolon and the colon at the end actually invoke the newly-created function.