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User: nielsm

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  1. So eavesdrop at the endpoints? on Temporal Cloak Erases Data From History · · Score: 1

    Without having really understood the physics behind this, what I gather is that it basically would allow you to conceal optical signals from eavesdropping on the transmission line. But that's only on the transmission line. Obviously the transmitted data still needs to exist at the endpoints in one form or another... so eavesdrop on the endpoints instead? Unless you have a true point-to-point line, your data will also likely be routed over some sort of IP network, where it will have to exist in some other form for at least short periods of time.

  2. Re:Intellible units... on Big Asteroid (With Its Own Moon) To Have Closest Approach With Earth Today · · Score: 1

    On the other hand, the comparison to the Moon's distance is useful. "It's more than 15 times further away than the moon" gives a good point of comparison. It certainly makes it clearer to me that there's no risk it will hit anything we should care about.

  3. Re:Hey gamers! on How Game Streaming Went From Shaky Webcams To the PS4 · · Score: 1

    ...and then there is also ofcourse Sega who started slapping around people over footage of an age old Dreamcast game.

    Silly, silly Sega.

    That sounds like some kind of vengeance. "We couldn't make this popular, so we'll make certain you won't either."

  4. Re:Do not want on GNU Texinfo 5.0 Released · · Score: 1

    No, it's not. It is clunky and difficult to navigate. A set of linked HTML pages would be good for learning the deep details of a product. Texinfo is just crap.

    Isn't that a property of the `info` reader and not so much a property of the format? The idea is good, the user interface is horrible.

  5. Re:Can it run linux? windows 7? Windows XP? on Microsoft Surface Pro Arrives Feb. 9 · · Score: 1

    Actually it's Windows 6.2 aka. "Vista with even more tweaks", but it's not like version numbers really matter much.

  6. Re:oh Linus you so funny on Linux Nukes 386 Support · · Score: 2

    As far as I know, ISA is still used for some legacy hardware, e.g. PS/2 keyboard, PC speaker, floppy controller, but it's almost purely conceptual by now. The ISA bus might not even exist outside a single chip (e.g. SuperIO controller.) I don't know about MCA, but I think that was only on some 386 and 486 IBMs, so that would certainly be irrelevant to have in by now.

  7. Re:Advice from a DAE veteran on Slashdot Asks: SATA DVD Drives That Don't Suck for CD Ripping? · · Score: 1

    I think you missed the part where he asked for something that is fast, and doesn't care as much about bit-accurate copies.

  8. Odd way to announce it on FreeBSD Project Discloses Security Breach Via Stolen SSH Key · · Score: 1

    Why would you use a stolen SSH key to announce a security breach?

  9. Re:Don't underestimate Microsoft on Productivity and Creativity Software Coming To Steam · · Score: 1

    On the other hand way too many Steam users have hundreds of dollars worth of games on their account, those users aren't just leaving the train mid-journey.

  10. Re:Le sigh. on Bill Gates: the Traditional PC Is Changing · · Score: 3, Informative

    Except that they don't. If you write Metro apps in C++ you don't use .NET. If you write them in JScript you don't use .NET. They were careful at the //build conference last year to explain that the WinRT API is native C++ but there is a transparent marshalling layer to the .NET runtime. The host for JScript/HTML apps is presumably also native code that marshals the objects.

    But yes they must run on all the platforms, of which C++ is the only that will need to be built for every platform.

  11. Search button on Ask Slashdot: What's Your Beef With Windows Phone? · · Score: 1

    The search button.
    I've hit it by accident countless times (Lumia 800, so touch button), and only actually wanted to use it maybe 10 times.

  12. Re:Forth on Designing a Programming Language For Embeddability · · Score: 1

    Except this is not about languages running on embedded platforms, this is about hosting a language inside an application, for providing e.g. scriptability of a GUI application.

  13. Or maybe it's used to change speed limits on GPS Maker TomTom Submits Your Speed Data To Police · · Score: 1

    In the US, speed limits are legally to be set after the 85th percentile of actual speeds. So if everyone is speeding, the speed limit should legally be changed such that at most 15% of drivers will be speeding at that stretch of road.

    This kind of data might just as well be used to help determine areas where the speed limit is wrong.

  14. Outdated software is outdated software on Microsoft Counts Down To XP Death · · Score: 1

    I'm installing a new computer.
    I know, I'll use Linux!
    I'll use kernel series 2.2 because I remember that one from when I was a kid. Simple and proven. Great choice I just made!

  15. Re:Confusing symbols on US Students Struggle With Understanding of the 'Equal' Sign · · Score: 1

    I remember seeing this kind of notation in my grade school textbooks. (I'm from Denmark by the way.)
    Though usually it'd be presented with otherwise marked fields, rather than parentheses, and accompanied by short instructions. In earlier grades accompanied by a drawing representing the kind of problem solving needed, instead of written instructions. Like this:

    Fill in the blanks, so both sides are equal:
    4 + 3 + 2 = ___ + 2

    In later grades, regular equation notation was then introduced, substituting x and y for blanks to fill in. Then you'd get a question like this:

    Find the value of x in each equation:
    4 + 3 + 2 = x + 2
    x = ___

  16. Re:FLOSS software? on PETA Creates New Animal-Friendly Software License · · Score: 1

    My following argument might not work if you follow it through, but consider it anyway.

    Every time you consume a plant, you might deny an animal a source of food or a space for living. What if you eating an apple caused a sparrow to die of hunger, who could otherwise have survived off that apple? In this way, consuming plants might also negatively affect animals.

  17. Closed source? No. on Canonical Explains Decision to License H.264 For Ubuntu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Huh?

    H.264 is not "closed source", it's an open standard with open source encoders (famous x264, everything points to it being the best quality encoder available anywhere) and decoders (libavcodec), it's just that a bazillion companies have patents that cover every corner of video coding. It might be "unfree", but it's certainly not "closed source" or "closed standard" or "proprietary".

  18. Re:14k buys a lot of film. on How To Get 39 Megapixels From a 53-Year-Old Camera · · Score: 1

    Last time I had a 35mm film developed (which was late last year), apart from the negatives, I got digital prints of it. I didn't ask for it, but it's what I got. Naturally the negatives were developed chemically, as that's required, but after that most shops will scan the negatives and produce digital prints from that. And it isn't even cheap. Don't get me started on the price of getting low-resolution (about 5-6 MP JPEG) scans burned onto a CD, it's ridiculous.

  19. Re:Unfortunately... on Windows 7 Has Lots of "God Modes" · · Score: 1

    So all that stuff about a "tunnel of light" is a lie? It's just infinite blue?

    I want my money back.

  20. Re:So? on VC Defends Farmville, Touts Virtual Tractor Sales · · Score: 1

    What about that game "Chess" where you command an army to mercilessly slaughter an entire kingdom? If that isn't brutal I don't know what is.

  21. Re:Another Genuine Advantage ? on Windows 7 May Finally Get IPv6 Deployed · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is a server-checks-client-security thing, not a Microsoft-checks-customer-setup thing. Refusing to work with known-broken software.

  22. Re:If you write it will they come? on Is Linux Documentation Lacking? · · Score: 1

    Maybe the reason nobody bothers reading documentation is that they have become used to it being poor to non-existent. It's not even worth looking for so when it does exist nobody bother with it because they assume it isn't there or isn't worth it.

  23. But who catches them? on URL Shorteners Get Some Backup · · Score: 1

    But then what happens when 301Works dies?

  24. Re:I dont' see it this way on Analyst Predicts Android Overtaking iPhone In 2012 · · Score: 1

    The "make a contract with us, get a phone and pay for it monthly" came maybe 4-5 years ago, and they're not still even locked the operator you bought it from

    Not so in Denmark, I remember seeing operator-sponsored phones since the GSM network was first introduced 15 or so years ago, and I believe they have been SIM-locked as well most of the time.

  25. Re:Remote code execution is LOW impact? on Microsoft Says No TCP/IP Patches For XP · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There's no remote code execution possible with this on XP, only DoS. You can make the system essentially freeze while the packeting is going on but that's it. Only Vista and Server 2008 have remote code execution exploits from this bug.

    Also you can only exploit this if the machine has software accepting TCP connections. If you have an (application) firewall blocking all incoming connections with no exceptions (such as XP SP2+ has by default) there's no real problem.