Slashdot Mirror


User: Ars-Fartsica

Ars-Fartsica's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
2,521
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 2,521

  1. Re:Society's wholesale dismissal of clinton??? on Salon in Dire Straits · · Score: 2

    No I meant the way he was disgraced, disbarred, and then turned into a mascot for lowbrow media.

  2. Truthfully, the sex content wasn't very good on Salon in Dire Straits · · Score: 2

    They made a big deal out of the risque material, but it was pretty lame.

  3. Salon won't be missed. on Salon in Dire Straits · · Score: 2
    Salon started out with high aspirations to produce a slick web daily when no one else seemed interested. Unfortunately for them, most other magazines, tv shows, etc figured out the web in time to be relevant.

    Also, it must be said, their politics were insipidly honkey-liberal...frustrating and agonizing to people all over the spectrum. It seems that they never really got over society's wholesale dismissal of Clinton...their entire MO seemed to be driven by a desire to resurrect his reputation, even moreso than a desire to bolster the Democratic party itself.

    Their tech column was fair, but it really did't break any useful news.

    If they had been more balanced in their writing they might have attracted a larger audience, but their limousine-liberal articles became grating.

  4. No encrypted email company has ever made it on DOJ Wants ISPs to Log User Traffic UPDATED · · Score: 2

    Joe Sixpack either can't understand encrypted email or doesn't care, because the twenty odd encrypted email startups in the Bay Area have all ended up on the scrap heap, and some of them had truly nice, easy to use solutions.

  5. Honor system? Don't make me laugh on DOJ Wants ISPs to Log User Traffic UPDATED · · Score: 2

    I'm not posting as someone looking from the outside, I'm telling you from the inside that people with access to personal information go snooping through it all the time. Please inform every root user I've ever met about your honor system.

  6. They're the only ones NOT looking on DOJ Wants ISPs to Log User Traffic UPDATED · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Any ISP employee, sysadmin or free email provider admin can already look at your data any time they please. And they do.

    At least the government will probably be required to disclose what they do.

    Your best bet is to not send any sensitive info over email, and don't store any unencrypted sensitive or private data in online storage systems.

  7. Amen. Amateur has ZERO experience on The Owner-Builder Book · · Score: 2
    The amateur contractors use the yellow pages to find their subs. This is why they always end up with the crappiest subs - because they often naively think the lowest bidder should get the job.

    There are enough contractors out there that you can shop around. Maybe doing it yourself is the way to go, but if you end up surfing the yellow pages for a subcontractor, you likely are about to enter the pain cave.

    Also, many good contractors do a fair deal of the work themselves. Mine put in my windows, did some closet carpentry, etc. This guy did not just stand around and eat pizza.

  8. Same story in Bay Area on The Owner-Builder Book · · Score: 2

    Try finding an empty lot that is open for development and for sale to individuals. I dare you.

  9. Haha. Inspectors are often failed contractors on The Owner-Builder Book · · Score: 2
    Presuming that the home inspector will save your project is often as naive as thinking that amateurs can spot good subcontractors from bad.

    Most home inspectors are failed contractors. There is your industry insiders tip. They will not save your project.

  10. You don't know as much as you think you do on The Owner-Builder Book · · Score: 2
    I have watched many a self-contractor wash untold amounts of money down the drain as they dole out work to the cheapest bidding subcontractor. Not everyone who charges a lot of money is a crook. Some of them are actually better at what they do.

    Get references for your contractor and look at their past projects. If they don't have any past projects, don't pay them a premium.

    Don't be naive in thinking that you know plumbing and electrical just because you like to tinker. I have watched folks drop $200-$300k on bungled self-contracted jobs. Don't buy into the /. arrogance that tells you that geeks know better.

  11. Leaving backup to users? on Making Users Back Up Important Data? · · Score: 2

    Come on, this is absurd. If the sysadmin can't figure how to backup user data, its time to switch up the sysadmin.

  12. Re:Hello, these are US citizens you moron on Lawrence Livermore Lab On The Chopping Block? · · Score: 1

    Where in the law does holding citizenship bar you from being treated as an enemy combatant?

  13. Please, more self-righteous pap on Lawrence Livermore Lab On The Chopping Block? · · Score: 2, Flamebait
    You're either bitching about inadequate security, or you're bitching about vigorously enforcement of security.

    You have an armed body claiming they have the right to kill four million Americans, who have demonstrated a high degree of lethality to date. Why don't you drop out of your naive fantasy land for a while to hazard some concern for the true physical safety of your children rather than your own patrician sensibilities.

  14. These rules make little sense. on US Govt Wants to Control ICANN? · · Score: 2
    Rule one - First come first served. The heck with who owns a copyright or trademark, this is a seperate space. You want it, get in line, get in line early, if you miss out try to buy it, if you can't buy it, rent it or come up with something else.

    This is idiotic on too many levels to bother enumerating, but primarily it favors the same domain squatters you want to rub out.

    Rule two - One Domain name per customer. dove.unilever.com is just fine, the space for dove.com should belong to someone else. 'www.' should be depricated.

    Also makes no sense. This wouldn't cut out domain squatters - you could create a corporate entity basically for free in some offshore country and assign domain ownership to it.

    Rule three - The name must be in active use. The lack of this rule has created squaters, and ties directly into the previous two rules.

    That one I agree with, though obviously it has limits too.

  15. Wrong, they are tools, not pieces of art on F# - A New .Net language · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The languages that succeed are those that solve a particular problem well in a particular domain, with extra points for being easy to learn and extra extra points for being used by the most people (network effects).

  16. SmallTalk is dead, get over it on F# - A New .Net language · · Score: 2

    There were a few stragglers still cranking around in SmallTalk a few years back, but at this point the prospects for this language having a real imapct is zilch. Throw it up on the scrap heap with Lisp and the other dead way-cool languages.

  17. Agreed, language designers != VM designers on F# - A New .Net language · · Score: 2
    .Net is not the only game in town for standardizing a virtual machine. The Parrot project, which is associated with Perl 6, is working towards a highly performant (pseudo)register-based VM that will be available as a separate codebase should other language builders wish to use it.

    This makes sense - it is wasteful and time consuming for disparate teams to reinvent the VM.

    Now before getting on your high horse about these unique VMs exposing some key element that the others omit - just remember, every language is ultimately a wrapper/macro/syntax rewrite of your CPUs intruction set. Raising the level of assumption to the VM level is realistic.

    Now admittedly Parrot does not encapsulate a lot of the features in .Net (security, data abstraction, object pooling...etc etc), but its a step in the right direct.

    Don't underestimate .Net - it makes sense.

  18. WMA clearly trounces MP3, but you're an island on Flipster Portable Plays MPEG-4 · · Score: 2
    I ripped my music using WMA as well. There is no comparison with MP3 - WMA is clearly superior. This matters when you are trying to stuff music into a portable unit. Do you want twelve MP3 songs or sixteen WMA songs?

    The only problem is that MP3 has become a de facto standard for sharing on the web, so if you are trying to download tunes from Gnutella etc., you are going to be downloading MP3s 95% of the time.

  19. I give it six months on D-VHS to Hit The Market This Week · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Really, with the widespread adoption of DVD, what is the motivation for film companies to provide widespread support for another format?

    How many people have sets capable of rendering the signal at full quality anyway?

    Maybe it would have had a chance before DVD authoring equipment became cheap, (assuming the authoring equipment for this format even exists for consumers), but otherwise this looks to be DOA.

    The development costs will just be translated to higher DVD prices in a year.

  20. We only learn from disaster on Cradle to Cradle · · Score: 4, Insightful
    People rarely change their behavior unless a clear signal tells them to do so in one discrete visible event.

    The affects of environmental damage are incremental, so it will take an enlightened authority to force these changes on society.

  21. Re:Nope on Will Digital Cinema Wipe-Out Today's Movie Theaters? · · Score: 2
    Theater owners are not in control of the process, they are controlled by it. Once the production companies tell them digital is coming, they will have to switch.

    Its not like Ma and Pa Small Business Owner in Nebraska will be adversely affected by this - all of the theaters are owned by large corporations now, so the rollouts will happen nationwide once there is momentum.

  22. Obviously on Will Digital Cinema Wipe-Out Today's Movie Theaters? · · Score: 2
    The contrarians here need to know that a major cost center for production companies is the management of physical reels. They are quite heavy.

    Once the technology is there, the studios will be pushing digital content heavily. Digital content will also make deployment to TV and DVD easier once the film has left the theater (if theaters are even still in use in twenty years).

  23. Slightly offtopic - missing piece on linux desktop on Ximian to Bundle StarOffice 6.0 · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    I think Ximian and the OpenOffice folks have done a great job in bridging the gap between linux and Windows (along with Mozilla.org of course), but for me the missing piece is integration with popular music devices.

    Does anyone know of ongoing projects to unify communications between linux and the popular devices?

  24. For what its worth, Powell's strategy on Baby Bells Victorious Over Sharing Rules · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Powell's strategy at the FCC has been to basically accept that cable and phone companies have de facto monopolies, and to allow them to work unfettered without having to subsidize their competitors.

    Comeptition is reduced, but it is his opinion that progress will occur more rapidly nonetheless. It is certainly true that PacBell was in no rush to distribute new equipment and services that would enrich Covad (hence the "cancellation of Project Pronto).

  25. Don't be naive. You have mortal enemies. on X-45 Makes Debut Flight · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This is cute, but in case you hadn't noticed, there are individuals in the US and elsewhere right now who would like nothing better than to roast you and your family alive.

    No, unmanned fighters won't stop terrorists. Thats obvious. But unmanned surveillance drones that will collect massive amounts of data and never need to come back for a pee break, just might.

    Peace is won through strength. Somehow that simple fact escaped you in history class, but your bashful pleas for peace love and happiness are completely out of line with what we know about human nature and human history. If you value your culture, you defend it.