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User: magarity

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Comments · 3,760

  1. Re:rickshaw protocol? on The Indian Info-Rickshaws · · Score: 1

    Check the picture; it's a full sized PC with CRT. Nevermind that wireless broadcasting usually sucks down the power as well. Pity the poor biker who has to slog around the whole thing complete with enough car batteries to be useful.

  2. rickshaw protocol? on The Indian Info-Rickshaws · · Score: 1

    When I first read the title, I thought this was going to be a variation on the carrier pigeon protocol...

    On a more serious note, where does the thing get power? And if there's already a power outlet wherever it travels, why not just put in a low cost PC permanently and save all the pedalling?

  3. Re:This is being done by Republican-SUPPORTERS, ri on Hackers Take Aim at Republicans · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Wouldn't eliminating the Republican's "free speech" on the web via DDOS attacks

    It's always ironic that the people who scream most about free speech, liberals, are the ones most likely to attempt to censor to their opponents.

  4. Re:Patch CDs on Survival Time for Unpatched Systems Cut by Half · · Score: 1

    pick up a Microsoft produced copy at your local gas station, like AOL CDs

    AOL hands out free CD's in the hopes that people will sign up for their service and therefor send them money. With Windows patch CDs, MS already has your money so sending out free patch disks is a large expense with NO HOPE of directly generating any revenue. So, no, they will not be doing this any time soon.

  5. Re:Makes you wonder on Complete List of Bugs Fixed in SP2 · · Score: 1

    When was the last time you went in a bank? If the teller is using an IBM branded workstation, odds are that the server running the show is OS/2 based. And if the bank's other workers (lending officer, etc) want to interface a brand new Dell workstation with it, then MS had best provide OS/2 connectivity support or the workstations will be running something besides Windows.

  6. Re:develop... on Sampling Short Sequences From Long MP3 Recordings? · · Score: 3, Informative

    > (for Windows)?."you don't want to do that

    A flip answer but correct in the sense that this is simply a problem of calculation. You don't need any GUI or any fancy interface. I suggest, since you are at a school anyway, that you swing by the computer science department and get some senior to do this for his independent study project. All it needs to do is take the input sound file and put out the random samples. Requirements: 1. the input file, 2. parameters for how often and for how long to randomly sample (could be in a text file) and 3. the output file. No Windows, (MS, X, or other), required. Heck, it could be a DOS program (depending on the input file sizes).

  7. Re:How fragile is stored data? on 100 Terabyte 3.5-inch Optical Storage · · Score: 1

    etting to the level where we're going to require some redundancy in order to maintain data integrity

    What's this "going to"? Perhaps you are unaware that a standard CDROM (vintage 1980's) uses 1/3 of its true capacity with error-checking data? Interestingly, a DVD uses much less of its capacity for such but also uses a more sophisticated algorithm to make up the difference.

  8. Re:"record our entire lives" on 100 Terabyte 3.5-inch Optical Storage · · Score: 2, Funny

    1/46th the size of a Volkswagen

    So it's 3.5 inches across by 4 feet tall?

  9. Trouble? Not hardly on DVD Player Maker's Margins just $1 · · Score: 1

    You wonder if other business, like low-end PCs hardware, are in similar trouble.

    If only a $1 per unit margin becomes too much trouble then some of them will drop out of the race. So since they're still in business, it doesn't really appear that this is "trouble".

    Let's do a little remedial business math: One dollar on $40.80 is about 2.5%. Don't know about the rest of you but at local banks hereabouts the going interest rate for certificates of deposit runs around 1/2 of 1% and the stock market is down over the last month or so. So making DVD players at a 2.5% return is looking darn good!

  10. Re:solid aluminum? on No Noise PC Reviewed · · Score: 1

    If I was a millionaire though, I would skip copper and go straight to solid silver

    Now we're on the right track! For a moment I thought gold would be even better but it's probably too soft.
    But does copper really cost that much? Melt down, say, 5,000 old pennies and that's only $50 in material. That should be plenty.

  11. solid aluminum? on No Noise PC Reviewed · · Score: 1

    If you're going to go all out, aluminum makes only a fair-to-moderate heat conductor. The chassis should be made of solid copper if they want to do it right.

  12. Blue Horizon on What's the Worst Movie You've Ever Seen? · · Score: 1

    Must be one of the worst Sci-Fi flicks ever. The premise of the show is that the amoral scientists opened a gateway to Hell with their incautious experiments. Even more of a Luddite film than The Matrix or Terminator 2.

  13. Re:wait a minute on Windows XP SP2 Impressions · · Score: 1

    hopefully you either store the data somewhere on the network or payroll is smart enough to make backups

    Don't know about you, but I'd love it if payroll lost their data and started (paying) all over again.

  14. Re:Sheriff Joe Loses AGAIN! :) on Judges Junk Jailcam · · Score: 1

    In 1992, 136 people were murdered in the city; in 1999, 214

    Whoa there, be careful with absolute values. The population of Phoenix rose 45% between those years as well so the fact that there are more murders should not be suprising. By the population growth, there should have been 197 murders in 1999. So 214 is a variance of only 6% of expected.

  15. Re:objective? on An Objective Review of UnixWare 7.1.4 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From reading the comment, I'm not so sure

    So, exactly which part of "more expensive" and "fewer drivers" are not 100% quantifiable and objectively measured criteria? This is the measure of an objective interviewer, rather than comments like "The install process was confusing" and "The GUI sucked!"

  16. Re:Not For Everyone on Raid 0: Blessing or hype? · · Score: 5, Funny

    But for the majority of us normal people who are running huge multi-threaded database applications on their desktop machines

    Sorry, most slashdotters are NOT using Longhorn yet.

  17. Re:Bogus conclusions. on Exploring Linux Desktop Myths · · Score: 1

    IE makes some bad bad mistakes in the way it renders and handles pages

    Yeah, but at least it shows *something*. My unversity's student login portal will frequently hang indefintely with Mozilla after name/password. Somehow IE loads each page pronto.

  18. Re:Customers freaking out... on DEFCON WiFi Shootout Winners Set A Land Record · · Score: 1

    and told me my wireless data needed encrypting

    Oy, with a dish like that I'm suprised they don't pick up EM leakage from wired networking...

  19. P-M on Laptops with the Longest Battery Life? · · Score: 4, Informative

    The complaints you cite are slightly behind the curve. Brand new Pentium-M based laptops claim to, and really do, have amazing battery life times. My friend has a Compaq based P-M laptop with a 15" widescreen and his battery lasts 6 hours. One with a smaller screen should run even longer. Beware Pentium-4 mobiles which do suck down battery power; get the 'M' series.

  20. Teddy Kennedy as Faramir on Celebrity Casting For LOTR · · Score: 1

    ...except that Faramir wasn't a rich socialist.

  21. Re:deposit? on History of the Automatic Teller · · Score: 1

    To the humor impaired: that was a joke about the culture of constant spending and no savings.

  22. deposit? on History of the Automatic Teller · · Score: 1

    take deposits ... 'Wow, I think we could build a machine that could do that!'

    Wow, you can make *deposits* at those things???

  23. Re:Win a chance to be on an episode on Stargate Atlantis Tomorrow · · Score: 2, Informative

    what would you do if you won the Stargate walk-on drawing? Obviously, they're not giving some random fanboy/girl off the street a talking part

    Yes, they are. All the filler people just standing/walking around in the background cost too much if they're all 'real' actors who have to get paid union scale. Extras are just people off the streets who have spare time, from the acting equivalent of temp worker agencies, contest winners, non-actor friends of the regular actors, etc, etc..

    but is there something you could do to make the director's job easier?

    Yeah, don't bother him/her. Do just walk or sit where the set manager tells you and whatever happens, do NOT mug at the camera.

  24. Re:quality reviews by quality reviewers on Toshiba Unveils Laptop With Instant-On TV & DVR · · Score: 1

    "Bill Gates is arguably the best business man."

    This is a pretty open and shut case. Since success in business is measured by profitability, Gates and his company have very few competitors for the title. Now if you want to argue whether he's the most philanthropic, etc, then you might be able to argue both ways.

  25. Re:15" near-TV quality screen on Toshiba Unveils Laptop With Instant-On TV & DVR · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sure, VGA CRT's are better than a TV quality CRT but laptop LCD screens are fixed resolution and look mediocre at TV resolutions.

    As a side note, this is just the next logical step. My older Toshiba already plays audio CDs at the flip of a switch without being booted up as a computer.