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User: FranTaylor

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  1. Re:maybe... on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 1

    "I'm tired of entering SQL statement after SQL statement. How about we introduce a semicolon operator that lets me concatenate many SQL statements into one! Hey what could POSSIBLY go wrong?"

  2. Re:I'm with you to some extent on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 1

    I know that in a business setting, making x/0 = 0 would be okay

    because "in a business setting" nobody actually tests anything

  3. Re:PowerPC Did This on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 1

    in my opinion, was a good trade off between mathematical purity and pragmatism.

    Yeah let's skimp on a few transistors here and there, in exchange for making computers that give out wrong answers. Gosh those transistors are SO BIG and SO EXPENSIVE nowadays.

  4. Re:Dpends on the program on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 1

    If the worst that can happen is a wrong pixel in a computer game, then that's fine.

    If the developer is assuming that 0/0 = 0 then there is going to be much worse problems than a few bad pixels

  5. Re:sometimes the correct answer is 1 on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 1

    just like zeno, you will never actually get anywhere with that answer

  6. Re:Default should be to raise an exception on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 1

    There is no problem with having a default

    Sure there is! What happens when your program generates the default value? You have a BUG! Not just any old bug, but one that will be REALLY DIFFICULT to track down and REALLY HARD to fix.

  7. Re:ARM has it on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 1

    Having a default is fine

    for creating really really horrible, impossible to find, bugs

  8. doing it wrong on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 2

    Would there be any serious harm in allowing a system wide setting that said div by zero simply equals zero?

    What could possibly go wrong when you assert that infinity equals zero? Well, let's see, your logic errors will go undetected, for one. If you are dividing by zero YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG. You might as well just ignore bus errors as well. And while you are at it, just ignore if the disk is full and keep writing anyway. What could go wrong?

  9. Re:That's Apple on Researchers Find Major Keychain Vulnerability in iOS and OS X · · Score: 1

    such as disallowing modification of system files regardless of an application's permission level.

    So buggy insecure code somehow becomes secure if you can't modify it?

  10. Re:No Keychain on Researchers Find Major Keychain Vulnerability in iOS and OS X · · Score: 1

    Safest place for any password is in your head

    Yeah when you're recuperating from a broken leg and you're all laced up with pain killers, you need to order stuff online because you can't get out, and you can't remember your password. How awesome is that?

  11. Re:Email on Researchers Find Major Keychain Vulnerability in iOS and OS X · · Score: 1

    No, it does not keep your email passwords if you don't use OSX to read your email.

  12. Re:It's not so much American Quality on Microsoft Manufacturing Surface Hub In the US · · Score: 1

    it's just much easier to keep tabs on your supplier (and ship product back for repairs) when they're not across an ocean.

    that's why things are made in china, all the parts are from china

  13. Re:Actually the key issue is China couldn't do it on Microsoft Manufacturing Surface Hub In the US · · Score: 1

    he did? for real? and I thought it was just a movie.

  14. Re:In other words on Microsoft Manufacturing Surface Hub In the US · · Score: 1

    including a lot foreign companies (like BMW)

    So BMW opened a sweatshop in the US. The don't treat the workers like BMW employees, they treat them like trailer trash. You are proud of this?

  15. Re:In other words on Microsoft Manufacturing Surface Hub In the US · · Score: 1

    The thing is to ensure the supply chain is good, which is harder some places.

    yes because it's easier to ensure an intact supply chain in the USA when all of the parts are coming in containers from china

  16. Re: In other words on Microsoft Manufacturing Surface Hub In the US · · Score: 1

    Windows 10 is going to steamroll Android and iOS tablet sales.

    it's already so successful that it's in the "free" bin before it even ships!

  17. Re:Makes sense for high ticket items on Microsoft Manufacturing Surface Hub In the US · · Score: 1

    the difference here is that apple actually manages to sell hardware at a profit

    microsoft has been failing to profit in hardware since the apple II basic card

  18. Re: Are they saying... on Microsoft Manufacturing Surface Hub In the US · · Score: 1

    It's pretty unlikely that you have a vehicle that is foreign assembled. Most of the foreign brand vehicles in the US were assembled here.

    only if you count the disassembly and reassembly that are done at the mechanic's garage

  19. Re:No big surprise on Microsoft Manufacturing Surface Hub In the US · · Score: 1

    build a factory from scratch to assemble 10 big screens before they go obsolete?

  20. Re:In other words on Microsoft Manufacturing Surface Hub In the US · · Score: 1

    volumes won't be in consumer levels it still could be in the 10's if not hundreds of thousands if successful.

    so in other words, a day's output from a chinese factory

  21. Re:In other words on Microsoft Manufacturing Surface Hub In the US · · Score: 1

    longshoremen strikes

    because having your latest gadget sooner than later is more important than the lives of workers

    really, who cares about the sub-humans who handle your goods?

  22. Re:I've personally fixed bugs on Intel Skylake & Broxton Graphics Processors To Start Mandating Binary Blobs · · Score: 2

    RMS was pissed that he couldn't fix his printer driver because it was closed-source.

    He wasn't pissed because he couldn't fix the printer driver, he was pissed because Xerox wouldn't fix it. If Xerox had accepted his bug report and fixed the bug, he wouldn't have gotten mad in the first place.

  23. Re:Nonvolatile memory on package on Intel Skylake & Broxton Graphics Processors To Start Mandating Binary Blobs · · Score: 1

    what an awesome way to enable undetectable malware

  24. Re:Okay, a really, really silly question - on Intel Skylake & Broxton Graphics Processors To Start Mandating Binary Blobs · · Score: 1

    3-D hardware developers are very jealous of their high-paying jobs and they want to keep the "secret sauce" to themselves so they can maintain their stranglehold on the market. They will only allow their code to be released in binary form.

  25. Re:No OpenBSD graphics drivers then? on Intel Skylake & Broxton Graphics Processors To Start Mandating Binary Blobs · · Score: 1

    There are plenty of drivers in all "free" operating systems that are pretty much "binary blobs" for example the drivers for raid cards. they were written using a NDA documentation. joe blow does not have access to these documents (including errata) and has no ability to make any changes to the driver without potentially introducing terrible bugs.

    So whine all you want about "free software", the simple fact is that every "free" operating system is full of this type of unmaintainable "blob" code.

    Tell me are they strict about running on computers that are stuffed full of binary blobs at the factory? what about the firmware on your video cards? the firmware on your ethernet cards? it's all 100 % closed source and it all has hardware-level access to your data so it's just as untrustworthy as a binary blob you downloaded from Intel.