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User: Quixote

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  1. Re:Why diss Linux? on Review of the Roku HD1000 Media Player · · Score: 1
    Sigh. You must really not understand how to make arguments.

    How can it be Linux's fault, if (as the author himself states), Linux on the Tivo (with an inferior processor, as the author himself says) works fine?

    The following statement:
    My new Dell box with P4 2.8GHz w/512MB running Windows XP is slow, whereas my old P-III 800MHz w/256MB box running Windows XP is snappy! Therefore, it must be Windows XP at fault here!!

    Do you see the problem?

  2. Why diss Linux? on Review of the Roku HD1000 Media Player · · Score: 3, Insightful
    No, not a Linux zealot here, but I do take issue with the following from the article (yeah, I RTFA, shame on me):
    Yes, it can do these things, but because of its awkward Linux-based operating system and sluggish response, the thing acts like it doesn't want to.

    My guess is that the reviewer is talking about the "operating system" of the Roku in a broad sense, and not in the sense that computer geeks do. He probably means "interface", and should not have included "Linux" in that sentence; after all, he does go on to praise the Tivo, which is also Linux based (as he himself says). Just bad writing, if you ask me.

  3. Re:Who is going to care? on Trained Rats for Mine Detection · · Score: 1
    For a balanced diet we must have animal flesh; plant food just doesn't hack it alone.

    I know, you probably haven't heard this, but there are 100s of millions of people in India who have never eaten a bite of animal flesh. Millions of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists (to name a few) get by just fine on a vegetarian diet (note, I said "vegetarian", not "vegan").

    Try not to believe everything that the meat industry tells you (directly or subliminally).

  4. Re:Inferno? on Inferno 4 Available for Download · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Inferno was *almost* famous. It had the grave misfortune of being released 1 year after java 1.0.

    No, I think mistake that Bell Labs made was to charge everybody (including Joe User, the hobbyist) for the OS. Nobody could download it for free and try it out. You had to pay for it.
    If I'm a hobbyist and just want to try something out, I don't feel like shelling out $100 for something that seems quite esoteric.
    Basically, BL's desire to milk it completely destroyed Plan9's chances. Couple that with Linux's surge, and Plan9 was doomed.
    Later, much later, they released it for free, but by then it was too little, too late.

  5. Sigh... English.... on Swedish Carbon-Fiber Stealth Ship Runs NT · · Score: 2, Insightful
    From the article:
    And if it is detected, the Visby should be quick enough to escape as it is only half as light as a conventional corvette.

    So.... is it twice as heavy as a conventional corvette?

  6. Re:The wrong path on Excel Clone for Linux Now in Beta · · Score: 1
    These are just different approaches.

    Let us assume that your goal is to get Windows users to use Linux. Now you can do this two ways:
    (a) offer a current Windows user the same look & feel & functionality on the Linux platform; or
    (b) offer a current Windows user a better product on Linux, where "better" is directly proportional to the ratio of the Windows installed base to Linux installed base.

    There are some who will take (a); others will try (b). It is, obviously, more difficult to do (b) than (a); include the fact that Linux coders are doing it on their own time for almost no remuneration, and it becomes even harder. Doing something for the love of it is difficult, given these economic times.

  7. OSS solution? on Open Park Project Gives Free Wi-Fi to Capitol Hill · · Score: 1
    They are using equipment from Tropos networks. While they could have gotten it for free, I'm wondering about the rest of us who may be considering a mesh network for large outdoor spaces. So... are there any _good_ (and inexpensive) OSS solutions for putting together WiFi mesh networks? Are the APs which can be hacked (in the true sense of the word) to run such OSS packages?

    I'd like to have a setup where you have an AP with 2 antennas: an 11b for providing access to clients, and an 11a for talking to other mesh nodes (for eventual connection to the rest of the world). Preferably, have automatic setup, path discovery, encryption between the nodes (to prevent spoofing), etc.

  8. Re:Wow, whats up with the NY Times? on 600 PowerMacs Make One DVD · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The article was also unclear why such horsepower is needed for such a mundane process as scanning and storing film.

    Oh, I don't know, let's try reading the article, shall we?
    He then processed the images with his film-restoration software, which he'd programmed onto some Macintosh G4 computers. (The effort took months, as the faster G5's weren't out yet.) The processed picture was clearer, sharper and more detailed still. He could see every divot on the turf. What had once looked like a smudge in the background was now recognizable as a boat on the lake.

    The more important question is: since it takes 5 seconds per frame, why does he need 600 Macs? You'd need 600 Macs if your image enhancement operation took (brace yourself) 50 minutes per frame on a G5. 8-O
    What kind of enhancement is he doing?

  9. Why? on Academics Take On Government Net Censorship · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I don't understand why the Saudi (and other Islamic) governments are so worried about this "interweb" harming their culture.

    1. Islam is the fastest growing religion on this planet, so why worry about the Internet?
    2. Muslims live and thrive in countries with open access to the Internet (like US, Canada, India); if they are just fine with it, what's wrong with Saudi citizens having open access to the Internet?

    This censorship by the Saudis wouldn't have anything to do with trying to preserve the royal family's hold on power now, would it? Naaahh.. I didn't think so.. ;-)

  10. Re:please explain on Injunction to Enforce GPL · · Score: 1
    Then so would the binary drivers of all the vendors. Wrong.

    If the parent's program is a binary _patch_ , it doesn't have to be GPLed. The recipient is free to download the original (unpatched) code under GPL.

    By your reasoning, noone would be able to sell any software for Linux! After all, all binaries are "patches" in a sense of the word.

  11. Re:URL Short cuts - cool! on Amazon's Search Engine Goes Live · · Score: 1
    I hope they will implement this now in some form.

    Don't count on it. Bezos has probably patented it by now.

  12. Re:Is this legal? on VIA Releases Source To Custom WASTE Client · · Score: 1
    Have you looked at the source code for PadLock? I have, and VIA has not taken out the original GPL license. They have added their own GPL license under WASTE's original license.

    Eric Harmon could have just downloaded the PadLock source and looked at it, just as I did! IMHO, it just reeks of sour grapes. He hasn't been doing much maintaining, and is now pissed off that someone else has taken up the slack.

  13. Re:Is this legal? on VIA Releases Source To Custom WASTE Client · · Score: 4, Interesting
    WASTE files contain the following license at the top:
    /*
    WASTE - main.h (a bunch of global declarations and definitions)
    Copyright (C) 2003 Nullsoft, Inc.

    WASTE is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    .....

    How can it be "unlicensed" if it has GPL license on each file?

    On a related note: VIA is releasing their "PadLock SL" under GPL too.

  14. What's wrong with this? on Auto-Censoring DVD Player · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Maybe I haven't had my morning coffee yet, but I don't see what's wrong with this? In fact, if anything, it is a good thing! Let the morally uptight^H^H^H^H^Hstanding get this player and censor their own movies to their hearts' content. The rest of us can then watch the movies in their entirety.

    I think it's a Good Thing(tm).

    The problem comes when someone else tries to impose his/her morals on ME. By censoring DVDs at source, that is what happens. This player, OTOH, brings censoring to the destination. Great idea.

  15. *This* could be a dupe? on Sun and Microsoft Make Nice · · Score: 1
    I can understand (somewhat) when obscure stories get duplicated; but this, folks, is about SUN kissing Micro$oft. Sun, Microsoft and Linux are probably the 3 most well-known names on Slashdot. How is it possible that the editor(s) didn't know that this story was a dupe? It just boggles the mind.

  16. Re:My Take. on Sun and Microsoft Settle Litigation · · Score: 3, Interesting
    1. 900 Million of the award was to resolve patent issues. That's a pretty huge number (in fact it's the highest patent violation settlement I have ever seen.

    Good catch. Let's expand on this a little.
    Microsoft has recently hired the guy who built up IBM's formidable patent portfolio.
    Microsoft recently floated a trial balloon by asking for miniscule royalties on FAT16, the filesystem that goes into the little flash memory cards in cameras, PDAs, etc.
    Microsoft may pay the $900MM now, but will get back much more later (note the "Sun and Microsoft will pay each other royalties"). In other words, McNealy has opted for short-term gain instead of long-term viability; expect Microsoft to use the patents to crush Sun in a couple of years.
    The patents will also be Microsoft's key weapon againt the OSS community. Here's a snippet from an article :
    Asked by CollabNet CTO Brian Behlendorf whether Microsoft will enforce its patents against open source projects, Mundie replied, "Yes, absolutely." An audience member pointed out that many open source projects aren't funded and so can't afford legal representation to rival Microsoft's. "Oh well," said Mundie. "Get your money, and let's go to court."

  17. Athena? on Making A Better Browser History · · Score: 1
    Am I the only one who remembers this browser from ... 1995? 1996? called "Athena" (or something like that) which had a graphical history window like this one? It was from a University in Florida, I believe.. too many beers between then and now, memory's fuzzy.. :(

  18. Too little, too late on EV1Servers.Net's CEO Regrets SCO Deal · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I don't understand the sudden desire to heap praises on Mr. Marsh. Instead of just expressing regret, why doesn't he do something for the OSS community that is of comparable value?

    For example: why doesn't he release the details of the deal with SCO, if SCO has insinuated some details that are not true? Surely the secrecy clause works both ways!

    Additionally, why doesn't Mr. Marsh donate, say, $1MM (the purported value of the deal, as per SCO) to OSDL? Call it a token of appreciation for the OSS community that has helped his business get to where it is today.

    Words, by themselves, don't mean much Mr. Marsh when your deeds have done tangible damage. If I break a neighbors window, I will have to replace it; just saying "Gee, sorry!" doesn't help.

    Until Mr. Marsh takes tangible steps to balance his mistake from March 1, his words are meaningless. The most likely explanation, IMHO, is that he's trying to douse the protests and just move on, with complete disregard for the ramifications of his deed.

  19. Real reason? on iPod Mini Worldwide Rollout Delayed · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I don't mean to diss the Mac crowd here, but how much of this shortage is due to the fact that the minis have 4GB microdrives in them, which by themselves cost more than $250 ?

  20. Re:How can we fracture it? on McNealy Answers: No Open Source Java · · Score: 1
    "Insightful" my ass.

    Have you looked at Sun's license? You are not allowed to distribute Java.

  21. Skimpy.. on Brain Controlled Tightrope Video Game Shown · · Score: 1
    The article's a bit skimpy on the details (and not to mention, 3 weeks old). But the headset looks interesting. Where could one get a headset like this, and how much would it cost?

  22. What the... on TiVo Will Die · · Score: 1
    What's with this doom and gloom today?

    Cheer up, people! It's friday!

  23. Turn the ringer off.. on Using Employee-Owned Technology in the Workplace? · · Score: 1
    Just put it on vibrate, and put it in your pocket. If it starts vibrating while you are meeting with somebody, just say that you're happy to see them... ;)

  24. .. and in other news on Trusted Computing Rollout Hits the Desktop · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Samsung will now install the Phoenix Core Managed Environment (cME) BIOS in every computer they make.

    ... and in other news, geeks (who make the majority of the purchasing decisions worldwide) have decided that they will boycott every computer that Samsung makes.

  25. Re:Lessons? on Grand Challenge 1, Competitors 0 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I think it would be safe to say that the mechanical (platform) aspects of this competition are insignificant compared to the sensing and control aspects. With a human driver, most of the entrants would have completed the course with ease.

    In my suggestion, by providing interested entrants with a common platform, you take away these secondary issues, and get to focus on the primary issue: how to use the sensory data to control the vehicle so that it can get from Pt A to Pt B.