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User: BikeHelmet

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Comments · 2,173

  1. Re:WOW Netbook please. on Zotac's Ion-Based Mini-ITX Board For Atom Debuts · · Score: 1

    It's not sad that this was modded informative, but rather that it is informative!

  2. Re:Yeah, still awaiting ARM on Zotac's Ion-Based Mini-ITX Board For Atom Debuts · · Score: 1

    The Pandora is an ARM-based PDA/UMPC/PSP thingy. Tiny screen, so not a netbook, but it has a good battery life(10+ hours of actual use on a new battery) and HOMM 2 has been ported! :D

    Now the question - Netbook or PDA? You choose!

  3. Re:How much?!?! on 220-mph Solar-Powered Train Proposed In Arizona · · Score: 1

    Don't forget, there's four tracks going the whole way!

  4. Re:Nonsequitor in the summary on Square Enix Shuts Down Fan-Made Chrono Trigger Sequel · · Score: 2, Informative

    The argument could be that this is a ROM mod. Aka you need to download the game (likely illegally) to play it.

    I wonder if it'd be different if it had a separate engine, or would they send a C&D letter for that too? Hmm... they probably would.

  5. Re:first post! on Is a $72.5m Opening Weekend Enough For Star Trek? · · Score: 1

    You're comparing Movie to Series, not Movie to Movie.

  6. Re:Solution looking for a problem. on Cone of Silence 2.0 · · Score: 3, Informative

    That won't help you against one of these.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_microphone

    I happen to live in a small town, which doesn't have a lot of noise polution. One of my Uncles was a cop, and showed me a Parabolic Mic when I was younger. The thing lets you hear conversations inside a house an entire block away!

    Whenever I see TV shows where _EvilCorporation_ goes to the effort to bug a house with tiny mics, and there's a black van(or icecream truck!) sitting outside all the time, I can't help but laugh.

    If they want to know what you're saying, they don't have to get close to you or your house to do so!

  7. Re:That's great... on Time For Voice-Mail To Throw In the Towel · · Score: 2, Informative

    Give it time.

    I'm pretty sure they know they have a winner here - which means if they open it up before getting prepared, it'll get clogged and DOS itself.

    With the economy in a slump, and mounting youtube costs, they'll probably also examining ways to make Google Voice self-sufficient.

  8. Re:It's not an alternative to BigTable on MS Releases Open Source Alternative To BigTable · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which means that your appliance that uses BigTable needs continuous access to the Internet.

    What!? This is absolutely outrageous~! None of my servers have internet access!

  9. Re:Alienware on Alienware Refusing Customers As Thieves · · Score: 1

    Not exactly. You can get monster cables cheap (OEM) from warehouses and some eTailers.

    Alienware is never cheap. Or at least, never cheap enough that it comes close to building your own PC.

  10. Re:Haven't these people learned? on German Gov To Ban Paintballing After Shooting · · Score: 1

    This isn't about safety. No, these politicians know exactly what they're doing. They LOVE stuff like this happening. It just gives them one more way to subjugate the public. But you'd think the Germans of all people would understand the risks of having an overly powerful government and a largely unarmed populace.

    From the sounds of it, "subjugating the public" is having a positive effect on the number of murders and shootings!

  11. Re:Is physical destruction even possible? on When Hacked PCs Self-Destruct · · Score: 1

    You may be thinking of flashing the BIOS, which is a different issue entirely.

    Really? I might? What ever gave you that idea? ;)

  12. Re:NAND is the culprit on All Solid State Drives Suffer Performance Drop-off · · Score: 2, Informative

    SSDs will always have this problem to some degree as long as they use the same NAND flash architecture as any other flash media. For SSDs to really effectively compete with magnetic media they need to start from scratch.

    Of course, then we wouldn't have the SSD explosion we see today, which is made possible by the low cost and high availability of NAND flash chips.

    Or...I dunno, maybe they could create a filesystem specifically for NAND flash.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFFS2

  13. Re:How about selling licenses at a reasonable cost on Windows 7 Anti-Piracy Plans · · Score: 1

    Plus, when you reinstall your OS, there's a good chance the key will be disabled anyway.

  14. Re:Really? on Windows 7 Anti-Piracy Plans · · Score: 1

    I think it's the other way around.

    Most old Dell/Compaq/HP/etc. computers that I come across(containing P4's) claim to have a pirated OS installed.

    Take one client - I phoned Microsoft and got him a new license key, but two months later it was disabled again, and that non-genuine WGA bubble came back. For most clients it's longer than two months, but that was the worst one right there.

    It's very tempting to use pirate keys instead, since they don't cause grief or make me look incompetent, while Microsoft's WGA does.

    But lucky for me most of my repeat clientele understand where the blame lies. I give them good deals whenever WGA breaks down again. ;)

  15. Re:Is physical destruction even possible? on When Hacked PCs Self-Destruct · · Score: 1

    I remember reading way way back about a whole bunch of BIOS update exploits that showed up. That was when it was common for boards to have a Win32 BIOS update program bundled on the CD.

    Since then most of the BIOS updating code has been moved into the BIOS, or board manufacturers just instruct you to burn a bootable CD.

    No win32 bios flashing means no sneaky/nasty win32 bios flashing. ;)

  16. Re:i seen js javascript the same way on Windows 7 Users Warned Over Filename Security Risk · · Score: 1

    Indeed! But link files have their own problems. (mainly security ones - malformed file code execution)

    You won't hear me saying this very often, but XML-based .lnk files would be best!

  17. Re:He should have put in a blank hard drive on Repairman Steals Hard Drive And Charges To Reinstall It · · Score: 1

    Don't companies already do this? (well, without the active theft part)

    Data recovery, transfer, and backup are all very lucrative!

  18. Re:illegal file-sharing? on EU Rejects Law To Cut Pirates Off From Their ISP · · Score: 1

    Don't forget, those officers are protecting you in other ways. I'd rather have them fine people that are speeding, instead of just raising my taxes.

    What has the MPAA/RIAA done for you, lately?

  19. Re:kill the filename.extension paradigm on Windows 7 Users Warned Over Filename Security Risk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Perhaps for speed?

    I'd like to see files without an extension auto-resolved to whatever they were - but I do find extensions handy.

    On Windows I can open a folder with say... 200 ~350MB files, and they show up instantly - but on Linux (with its wonderful libmagic), it takes dozens of seconds.

    I feel it should go like this:

    1) No extension -> Resolve extension
    2) Extension -> Check if file compatible with programs registered to handle that file type

    Extensions are handy for searching, too. The more specific you can get, the easier it is to find something - and .jpg is very specific, as opposed to just searching all images or heck, all files.

  20. Re:i seen js javascript the same way on Windows 7 Users Warned Over Filename Security Risk · · Score: 1

    Win98's Explorer had a lot of such issues. XP's isn't so bad. If you tell it to display the extensions, you'll see the correct extension.

  21. Re:How to rename files on Windows 7 Users Warned Over Filename Security Risk · · Score: 1

    A better solution is to just append the same extension if one isn't specified, and then if the user does it a second time (with the same name), allow it. This way idiots that select the entire filename for some unknown reason won't be vulnerable. :P

    Or *gasp* have a popup that warns that the file's extension was dropped. (oh, wait! Explorer does have that - but the file save dialog doesn't.)

    I feel the first option is best. Any power user will just hit F2, select the extension, and press delete. Takes all of 3 seconds, but protects the newbies. :) And a power user should know that if he wants to save from his email client without an extension, flip the file type to "All Files (*.*)"

  22. Re:Financial Firms Do the Same on Unclean Military Hard Drives Sold On eBay · · Score: 1

    Recently my HTPC/NAS's primary HDD died. It was a PATA one, because linux doesn't like booting from my board's SATA controller.

    (but all the data drives are SATA)

    I decided to pick up an old PATA HDD to act as a replacement OS drive while I RMA it. I picked up 4GB PATA Maxtor drive from a local business selling old computer parts for cheap. A working install of Windows XP was still on it, along with MS office license keys. My Documents still had piles of files sitting inside it, including letters and invoices containing names, dates, phone numbers, etc..

    I stopped investigating there, and wiped it. Had to get my HTPC back online in time to record TV shows!

    When I went back to the business to ask them about it, they said they do ask if there's any personal info on the drive, but people probably incorrectly answer "No", thinking delete means it's gone. Go figure.

  23. Re:please... on Unclean Military Hard Drives Sold On eBay · · Score: 1

    One of my Uncle's HDDs (almost?) lit itself on fire.

    It was an external Samsung drive. Something happened to the motor, and then smoke started streaming up out of it, and there was an awful putrid smell. I was quick to unplug it before it lit anything on fire. (it was sitting on a desk ontop of piles of paper)

    Data recovery was quoted at $2800, so my Uncle opted to do nothing, despite having plenty of important documents stored on it. Years later he made a new friend that worked at a data recovery place, and the guy did it for him for about $180. :)

    What really pissed me off, was Samsung wouldn't replace the drive or cover the data recovery costs. They wanted his old one to be sent in, but if he had sent that in he'd lose any chance of getting his data back.

    I wonder if he'd have faced the same arguments if their HDD had burned his house down when it died. Somehow I think those cheap bastards got off lucky. I'm never recommending Samsung drives again!

  24. Re:A rant on Debian Switching From Glibc To Eglibc · · Score: 1

    The old one is Via, and the new one is SiliconImage.

  25. Re:A pretty good one, actually on Windows 7 "Not Much Faster" Than Vista · · Score: 1

    Average Joe can't even install Picasa, and doesn't know what "formatting" or "partition" is.