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User: LeftHanded

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  1. Re:First post on The Case Against GUIs, Revisited · · Score: 1

    That is true for MS Windows batch files, but is most assuredly not the same with MS Windows PowerShell scripts. Microsoft has finally "gotten" the power and strength of true scripting, and current iterations of Active Directory and Exchange both use PowerShell objects as the preferred administration control methods. To help with the transition, there are even aliases for commonly used UNIX commands. Just check out the capabilities and functionality described in the free Mastering PowerShell E-Book

  2. It's Hard to beat "Really Cheap" on Why Dumbphones Still Dominate, For Now · · Score: 1

    Although my wife has an Android phone, I make do with a Tracphone $15 special I got. It's definitely a "dumb" phone, but I don't text, and rarely make calls. I use an iPod Touch, and that is enough for a portable pocket computer; I only sometimes miss the work anywhere of a 3G device. Would I like a smart phone? Sure. Do I want to pay for two people's voice+data plans? Nope. I'm betting that many others are in the same boat.

  3. Wait, that's not right... on Google Unveils Beta Chrome OS Notebook · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Chromium is 24 on the periodic table of the elements. The element that's 48 is cadmium. Maybe they're going for some sort of esoteric Chromium Chromium == 2 * 24 == 48 kind of thing?

  4. Re:Hot Damn Tamale! on Solar-Powered Cars Race fron Austin to Calgary · · Score: 1

    You'd think so, wouldn't you? I happened to see the MIT team driving theirs on US 290, and they had a pair of people running behind it and pushing periodically... unless they get those bugs out, MIT is going to have to hope for lots of downhill stretches.

  5. Re:Silence, infedel! on TerraSoft Releases YellowDog Linux 3.0 · · Score: 1

    No, no, no, you have it all wrong. You need NetBSD for your multi-platform needs. They even have t-shirts for it.

  6. Re:Sun And Documentation... on OpenBSD (Still) Seeks UltraSparc III Docs From Sun · · Score: 4, Informative

    Great story! However, you can get all kinds of user manuals, hardware manuals, software manuals, etc from http://docs.sun.com You can read them on-line, download Adobe Acrobat versions, and purchase the documents as well. It's a lot easier than it used to be... HMM, no Sparc 1 manual, but the Sparc Classic and similar is at http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/801-2176-13:

  7. Twelve Digits on Longer Bar Codes Coming in 2005 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Twelve digits ought to be enough for everyone...

  8. Re:Or use the simple method.... on Spy v. Spy · · Score: 1

    This only works if you never connect (via dialup, ethernet, cable modem, anything) to the 'Net ever again. Most spyware caches the information and sends it when it can.

  9. We want... on What Kind of PHB Do You Want? · · Score: 2

    to have a manager who actually manages, not simple a super programmer. That is, the manager should be someone who understands design processes, software architecture process, development processes, and manages the infrastucture to keep developers moving forward for whichever phase(s) they are currently working in. Technical experience is necessary, but studying management, including handling people and groups, is likewise necessary. This combination should result in a manger that doesn't make irresponsible promises (unrealistic goals). We know what happens when unrealistic goals are set: the geek corps to have to push the panic button, generally resulting in Bad Software. Reading something like Project Management : Best Practices for IT Professionals by Richard Murch (available from Barnes and Noble is a Good Idea.

  10. Max Headroom on TiVo Watches the Super Bowl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does anyone remember the premise of the show? TV Reporters only get to be on-air for as long as people are watching. The networks have big control rooms with real-time statistics of watchers. If the bar graph goes too low, you get pulled. With enough TiVo units, the networks could get the instant feedback they really want. Imagine TV lineups changing weekly, daily, hourly in direct response to viewers desires based on their TiVos. Scary, isn't it?

  11. The much vaunted 1 page pdf... on Macintosh Clustering · · Score: 2

    Available from here

  12. Construction tips... on A Real Tabletop PC · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is an interesting case, but it wouldn't be difficult to recreate it. Start off with an industrial strength work table. Add some high quality casters so you can move it around. Glass table tops can be obtained from a craft store like Michael's or a place that sells custom cut glass. Plexiglass would also work, and has the advantage of being lighter. The keyboard tray is also easy; Home Depot/Lowe's/your hometown hardware sells the mechanisms for that. PC Mod sites can get you the fans, motherboard offsets, and suchlike (or simply buy a cheap case and raid it for parts). This goes for drive bays and such as well; many cases these days come with a cage for several drives. Et voila! Fit, assemble, and you've got it. You get the joy of construction, and save money too.

  13. Re:This once again proves... on Australia Rules DVD's are Films, Not Software · · Score: 1

    Ahh, that brings back memories of a computer backup solution that did indeed use VHS tapes as the media. They used regular VCRs, too, not a special computer only tape backup device.

  14. Re:Umm.... on Tron Special Edition On Sale January 15th · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, Tron was about computers, but used standard cinematic special effects. There was no CG used in Tron at all, which was one of the funny things about the movie. Despite looking like there were computer graphics everywhere, there were actually computer graphics nowhere.

  15. Re:Don't tell me to stop using MS Word... on RMS: Putting an End to Word Attachments · · Score: 2, Informative

    The letters in the article asked for alternative formats, which can be created with MS-Word: text, HTML, and PDF. The third can be created within MS-Word if you have Adobe's Acrobat software. (not just the reader; the distiller).

  16. Re:I never saw the point on No Solaris 9 for x86 · · Score: 1

    This is true. If you wanted a low cost Solaris alternative in a production environment, you probably wouldn't find any commercial software that had been ported to both. 99 times out of 100, seeing 'Solaris' as a supported platform meant Solarit Sparc, not Solaris Intel. Compiling any of the Gnu suite, or anything else, usually goes pretty smoothly, though.

  17. Re:Just buy a sunblade 100? HELL NO on No Solaris 9 for x86 · · Score: 1

    You won't find me arguing that Sun hardware is very expensive compared to commodity PC hardware, but the particular piece of hardware you mention, a network card, isn't necessary for the Blade. It comes with a built in 10/100 Ethernet port.

  18. Another Cooking Theme Author... on Review: The Linux Cookbook · · Score: 3, Informative

    A regular Linux Journal columnist, Marcel Gagné writes about system administration using a French Chef theme. He has written a book: Linux System Administration: A User's Guide. Look for it at Barnes and Noble

  19. Re:Asteroid defense shield, anyone? on Another Asteroid Close Call · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How about this [pdf, 2M]. The main problem is early detection. Modifying the trajectory of any decent sized object is considerably more difficult the closer it gets to Earth. Why? Because more force is needed to alter the trajectory to eliminate the possibility of collision. If you can give a small nudge when the object is much farther away, this beats a huge nudge when it is close by. Not that we have any organized way to produce any kind of nudge right now.

  20. One lone voice in Virginia... on Future of Music Summit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    one of the two states that passed UCITA. I don't know how, with all the high-tech companies in Northern Virginia (NOVA), that UCITA made it through the state legislature. Perhaps Boucher, who is a US Representative, can make a difference at the national level. He is definitely against the DMCA in its current form, and wanted Skylerov released when he was arrested. I'm glad I voted for him, and he has my continued support.

  21. Re:Lower Cost...Higher Quality on Cold CRT Guns for Thinner CRTs · · Score: 1

    Yes, but that is because any new technology requires investment in people, equipment, infrastructure, etc. Just because one component is cheaper doesn't mean that then entire assembly becomes cheaper.

  22. Re:I18n on Software Internationalization · · Score: 1

    I agree with this assesment. The reason that Java is so nice for I18N is that the internal representation is Unicode. It makes it so easy to have output in UTF-8 (one of the current most popular Unicode encodings). This is really nice for web browsers, because the current Netscape, Mozilla, and IE all have very good UTF-8 support. Although I put down Microsoft all the time, I give them credit for a very good implementation of UTF-8 and font support for multi-lingual applications. The Mozilla team is right on their heels, however, to the point of now supporting Arabic glyph shaping. If you don't know what that is, Arabic text changes the shape of the characters depending on the context. Therefore, you can't use a simple font encoding where code 0xblahblahblah uses font glyph 0xblahblahblah. You have to analyze the data to produce a proper representation.

  23. Re:Internal unicode and code page translation on Software Internationalization · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is a nice feature of the Java API, but you can achieve the same result using the UNIX (tm) libiconv implementation. If your UNIX (tm) doesn't have one (or you use Linux, BSD, etc), then there is a Free Version. It will do all the conversions for you, for many character sets. Most current *nix distributions include this as a package.

  24. Re:Turbo Pascal on Borland Releases Kylix 2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They went with Delphi/Object Pascal because the compiler technology was familiar to them, because the compiler is simpler, and because they wanted to take advantage of their Delphi market. Although Borland used to kick butt with its Turbo C product Back in the Day, Visual C++ from MS is now killing them in the C++ market. Delphi is a pretty popular RAD tool, not dead at all.

  25. Re:WTF? on Lighter Side of CPAN · · Score: 2

    You didn't read the article. There are several Perl packages available that are related to LoTR: Date::Discordian, to print Discordian dates, Date::Tolkien::Shire, which does a 'today in history' for LoTR. Others are mentioned, but those are the ones specific to LoTR.