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User: Glug

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  1. Simmtester on Good, Affordable PC Diagnostic Software? · · Score: 1

    www.simmtester.com has a program called Doc Memory that creates a bootable floppy disk with a memory testing utility on it that turned up a very intermittant bit error.

    I started having some very strange problems with a PC that gradually increased in frequency over several months. At its highest rate, I'd get some bizarre lockup maybe once every couple days. The big clue finally came when I copied a large file from one drive to another and the MD5 hashes didn't match (I thought I had a virus or a poltergeist or something at that point) and a file compare revealed a single bit difference. I tried several RAM testing utilities, and the simmtester one was the only one I found that could duplicate the bit error in one of my simms. I had to convince myself by moving the simm (256M PC133) to another machine and testing again, and sure enough, that was it.

    It was tough to make the bad bit misbehave: required zeroing the bad bit, then writing 1s into totally different but very specific locations elsewhere in the simm before the 0 would flip to 1.

    Six months of very intermittant single bit flipping in ram being used to cache disk reads or writes super-mega sucks the big one, by the way. I have this simm in a container with a biohazard symbol on it.

  2. Re:Animal Cruelty on 'Mouse-Tronaughts' to Test Low-Gravity in Space · · Score: 1

    Is it better to test on mice or humans? Which life is worth more?

    From the point of view of a human, of a mouse, or of the earth as a whole?

    2 out of 3 points of view agree: The mouse's life is worth more.

  3. Re:"Co-opt Java" on How C# Was Made · · Score: 1

    But people DO say that Java was co-opted C++

    People that say that are talking about the technical side of things. The business aspects are a different issue. Java did not co-opt C++ with the goal of eliminating all future development in C++ in mind, but co-opting commercial software development based on Java is precisely what C# is all about. Sun never perceived that their operating system market share was threatened by the use of C++. Microsoft, on the other hand, did perceive that their operating system market share was threatened by the use of Java, and C#/.NET was their solution.

    Java allowed developers to write software for Windows that was not dependent on Windows APIs. There is no software development platform technology that Bill Gates is more afraid of. C# and the .NET core concept - that of compiling all other languages into a bytecode interpreter that Microsoft controls - not Sun, not anybody else - was the driving force behind the development of C#. C#'s technology was nowhere near as important to Microsoft as the need to deal with the threat posed by Java.

    When it comes to making a major technology commitment decision such as deciding whether to base future development of a large commercial software development project on C# and .NET or Java or Forth on old surplus Lego Mindstorms RCX bricks, one had better consider all the issues. The business strategy behind C#'s existance is highly relevant to such decisions because C# is designed to make sure you buy into and stick with C#, .NET, and all that that entails. If your business plan for a product calls for marketing it to anything other than the Windows customer base, you're dead if you don't take C#'s strategic reason for existance into account.

  4. Chips From the 70s on IC Failures Linked to Resin Series? · · Score: 1

    I have a great big stack of S-100 cards from the 70s with a fair number of 7400 series TTL chips on them that use ceramic packaging. Granted, those aren't surface mount SOIC packages, but they're built like little tanks and they all still work fine. Given the chemical complexities and environmental concerns with using plastics for the packaging of chips, have any manufacturers gone back and looked at the costs of applying some of the older tried-and-true packaging methods to the newer smaller packages?

  5. Re:Privacy in a cyber cafe? on California Cybercafe Regulation Decision Released · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What's wrong with that part of the decision? You can't expect to use a "public" computer AND have complete privacy. You want privacy, do it in your own home.

    Those ARE "private" computers. They're the property of the Internet cafe businesses. As I understand it, the root problem was hooligan regulars at a small number of cybercafes, almost certainly due to their geographic locations and the fact that they were open late. Unreal Tournament plus open late hours equals teenage males that live nearby. The "solution" (security guards and video cameras) lost sight of that problem, and wound up having profound privacy and free speech effects on ALL cybercafes in that region.

    Bet you dollars to doughnuts that the guards and cameras at the five problem cybercafes will simply cause the hooligans to take their activities elsewhere. Cost is high, and root problem remains unsolved.

    Even though those were privately owned computers, consider the effects that would be had on publically owned computers. Suppose that someone was murdered outside a neighborhood library, because its late hours and geographic location made it a popular hangout for wayward youth. Would a reasonable solution be to mandate the installation of security guards and surveillance cameras in ALL public libraries? That's effectively what's been done here.