Slashdot Mirror


User: _merlin

_merlin's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
1,467
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 1,467

  1. Re:Why did they get rid of Media Center in Win 10? on New Leaked Build Is Evidence That Windows 10 Will Be Ready By July 29 · · Score: 1

    Media Center wasn't introduced until Windows XP. Your timeline is off by half a decade.

  2. Re:This is new? on iPhone 6S New Feature: Force Touch · · Score: 1

    Resistive touch screens typically get pressure sensitivity for free, capacitive screens do not. It's usually faked by doing tricks with contact patch area. As you push harder your finger tip flattens and contacts a larger area of the screen. I don't know whether Apple's implementation is the same or if they've actually integrated a strain gauge or something for real pressure sensitivity.

  3. Re:Dues it matter? on Sony Releasing New 1TB PlayStation 4 In July · · Score: 1

    Nintendo lets you play games off an external USB HDD on the Wii U. Sony's just fucking you over again.

  4. Re:Why? on Sony Releasing New 1TB PlayStation 4 In July · · Score: 1

    I disagree. On Wii U I'm paying similar dollar amounts to what SNES carts cost back in the '90s, and getting far more content for it. So I'm paying less in inflation-adjusted terms for more content. None of the games I've bought have required DLC to get full content. I did buy the DLC for Mario Kart 8, but it's about $10 for 16 new tracks. That's great value even if you only play each of the new tracks once.

  5. Re:If Sourceforge is any example on GitHub Seeks Funding At $2 Billion Valuation · · Score: 1

    You're not taking preferential shares into account. They often have nasty conditions attached. For example the venture capitalists may be able to liquidate the company without needing a majority.

  6. Re:Who needed it? on Critical Vulnerability In NetUSB Driver Exposes Millions of Routers To Hacking · · Score: 1

    There are lots of solutions:

    • JetDirect - print server listens on a TCP socket, clients treat the socket the way they would a serial port with the same printer model attached. No job management or anything, but very simple to implement.
    • AppleTalk PAP - printer requests data from client as it needs it, client polls printer for status. Printer status and job management are done in a standardised way for all printers. But it depends on obsolete protocols.
    • lpr/lpd - the UNIX equivalent to AppleTalk PAP. Runs over TCP/IP, provides standardised printer status and job management, easy to proxy/multiplex, supported out-of-the-box on most modern operating systems.
    • Windows Printing - kind of like AppleTalk PAP but using NetBIOS instead of AppleTalk. All the printer status and job management functionality, but a bit cumbersome to use. Works well on OSX and Windows clients.
    • IPP - a "modern" HTTP-based printing protocol. Should do anything the other solutions can do, but better. Used by CUPS, and supported on Windows since Win2k. Also used by iOS for printing.

    As for standardised printer control languages, there's HP PCL (printer can be relatively dumb), HP-GL (vector protocol really intended for plotters), SPL (Samsung's equivalent to HP PCL), PostScript (requires fairly heavy runtime to render), and PDF (declarative page description language). A print server should be able to handle at least one of them.

    The way it used to work was there were "workgroup printers" with a built-in NIC and print server. They'd usually be able to interpret PCL or PostScript so anyone could print to them with a driver for one of these languages. But they were expensive.

    So you could connect a printer to a computer and get the computer to act as the print server and share it on the network. If you had a driver for the printer on this computer, you could make it translate PCL or PostScript to the printer's (probably proprietary) native language so clients still wouldn't need a special driver, only the print server would.

    But using a computer as a print server looks overly complex, so you got dumb print server boxes. You can't install fancy print drivers on these boxes, so they just proxy a TCP port to the serial/parallel port the printer is connected to (JetDirect). Each client needs drivers for the specific printer(s), and it prints as though it had the printer attached locally to a serial port.

    NetUSB is the next step in this devolutionary chain. It's like the dumb print server adapted to USB rather than serial/parallel. The client machines have a driver for the specific printer(s) and the USB I/O is redirected over the network.

  7. Re:...unless you rule Australia on 'Logjam' Vulnerability Threatens Encrypted Connections · · Score: 1

    However, if recent history is any indication, Australians like to get screwed over by their government, hence they keep voting for anti-citizen politicians. Must be some kind of collective masochism going on down under.

    All our major political parties (Liberal/National, Labor and Green) have anti-citizen policies. Much like the US Republicrat system, while you can choose who's going to be fucking you, you'll still have to bend over.

  8. Re:Yes. on Will Robot Cars Need Windows? · · Score: 3, Informative

    It wasn't the passenger windows that were the issue, it was a radio antenna window, and the failure was because the window was supposed to be glued in but they used rivets instead, and the fractures started at the rivet holes.

  9. Re:Drive-throughs on Will Robot Cars Need Windows? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Window blinds have to be raised for safety reasons during take-off/landing because sometimes a passenger will be able to see something important or dangerous. Windows do provide some safety as well.

  10. Re:As an OS X/iOS dev who has used Swift... on Swift Vs. Objective-C: Why the Future Favors Swift · · Score: 2

    What's with the outbreak of people who can't spell COBOL? It's like kids are trying to sound older than they are by using jargon but completely screwing it up.

  11. Uber isn't collecting GST? on Australia: Your Digital Games (and Movies!) Could Be About to Jump In Price · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It makes no sense at all if Uber isn't collecting GST. The GST is essentially a value-add tax applied to all domestic sales of goods or services. It doesn't apply to hobbies, exports, and personal imports up to a certain value. But I can't see any way Uber should be exempt from GST. It's clearly provision of a service for money, and hence subject to GST. Yet another way these goons think they can just avoid the law.

  12. Re:Adobe? on Future Holds Large Updates Instead of Stand-Alone Windows Releases · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I've had no problems with Adobe CC either. Don't know what people are bitching about.

  13. Re:Maybe it's a sign... on Cisco Names Veteran Robbins To Succeed Chambers as CEO · · Score: 1

    Haha try having an office of 100 people trying to work with everything on network drives on a wireless network.

  14. Re:Maybe it's a sign... on Cisco Names Veteran Robbins To Succeed Chambers as CEO · · Score: 1

    Cisco's VoIP desk phones are very popular. It's great being able to run a single type of cabling when provisioning an office.

  15. Re:Word Press? Wow! on New Zero Day Disclosed In WordPress Core Engine · · Score: 1

    It isn't as bad as it used to be. There are far fewer security issues found these days, and they don't tend to botch major releases the way they used to. However it's succumbing to bloat, each release bigger than the last.

  16. Re:Already patched on New Zero Day Disclosed In WordPress Core Engine · · Score: 2

    It only applies security updates automatically if the user the PHP scripts run as has write access to the WordPress directory. I never allow that. I'd rather have the security of knowing a WordPress exploit can't modify the WordPress installation than the convenience of updates through the web UI.

    This latest exploit also depends on a logged in administrator viewing the malicious comments to do the really nasty stuff. This is another very good reason to only ever log in as an administrator when you absolutely must. Use a non-admin user for writing content and moderating comments.

  17. Re:Back end on GCC 5.1 Released · · Score: 1

    Compile time is important - you can be more productive if your edit/compile/test cycle is faster. This is especially true with test-driven development.

  18. Really crappy article on How False Color Astronomy Works · · Score: 5, Informative

    I know I should've expected it given it's on medium, and it's been submitted to /. by its own author, but that's a really bad article. It's full of irrelevant details, stupid comparisons and misleading crap. I understand the concept of "science evangelism" but could you please do it without acting like a total buffoon?

  19. Re:Poor Design... on Networking Library Bug Breaks HTTPS In ~1,500 iOS Apps · · Score: 1

    This is where the world is going with per-application library installations on Windows, things like Docker on Linux and application bundles containing libraries/frameworks on OSX. It guarantees that you don't get unexpected application breakage on a library update, but in means a library update requires work for every application using it.

  20. Re:How about basic security? on Why the Journey To IPv6 Is Still the Road Less Traveled · · Score: 1

    Yeah, my ISP gives me a static /56 and a dynamic /64, so that's a lot of space to scan. My Windows boxes randomise addresses for outgoing connections, so you can't trivially get addresses to scan by sniffing egress traffic. And on top of that my router acts as a firewall and only allows incoming connections on whitelisted address/port combinations.

  21. Re:GNAA - NIGGER OBAMA IS NOT OF GNAA on Obama Authorizes Penalties For Foreign Cyber Attackers · · Score: 1

    You know, I liked the GNAA back when they had press releases relating to recent event, and up-to-the-minute trolling for news stories. But now it's all stale copy-pasta. You aren't the GNAA, you're just lame imitators.

  22. Re:We need COMMUNISM now! on Verizon Subscribers Can Now Opt Out of "Supercookies" · · Score: 2

    Nope. It's 'crony capitalism'

    Call me cynical, but I don't think I've ever seen any other kind of capitalism.

  23. Re:Phew on Why You Should Choose Boring Technology · · Score: 1

    Is Bennet still allowed to post? I haven't seen any of his ramblings for a while.

  24. Re:Simplr math ... on Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina Near Launching Presidential Bid · · Score: 1

    US is 115V 60Hz. Europe/Aus/China is 230V 50Hz. Japan is 100V 50Hz or 60Hz depending on the area.

  25. Re:Wrong target on Google Loses Ruling In Safari Tracking Case · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, you're describing the "do not track" header, and that's not what this is about. This is about circumventing the "accept 3rd-party cookies" setting. Google used a nasty piece of JavaScript to simulate a user form submission so they could store a cookie that would otherwise be rejected.