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User: ianaverage

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Comments · 26

  1. Re:Salary on UIUC Unveils the Worlds Most Advanced Building · · Score: 1

    when you pay for a building, you do not pay for it out of the same "account" that you pay profs. you get a bunch of alumni to chip in, and one guy to chip in a ton and get his name on the building. it is not like they could have done whatever they wanted with the money.

    with that said, the building does seem a bit wasteful to me and i am not a fan of some of the architectural decisions that they made. much too much orange on the inside (although i guess that is one of our school colors).

  2. Re:Here's one gripe I have about slashdot. on Portable Scanner Solutions for Research? · · Score: 1

    I dont think that his point was that we should not worry about them...but that we should not consider them LAWS. We should not call them LAWS, but BILLS. He never said anything about ignoring them because they are a bill. But you are definitely right about talking about them now--laws are things that you generally can only futily complain about while bills are something where complaints can actually do something.

  3. Re:LiveCD a-la Gentoo setup? on Distributions/Configurations For Specific Uses? · · Score: 2, Informative
    I am using Gentoo right now, and I think that it is great, but I doubt that it is going to be what they are looking for. I could be mistaken, but I do not think that gentoo meets the ease of setup requirement.

    You have to configure your partitions and the soundcard and any pretty much any other hardware yourself....and I doubt that the IT department is going to want to do that. They would have to develop a different CD for each system. It seems to me that the way things are going these days is to standardize software for both maintainability and security reasons.

    To contradict myself, I could be wrong about all of this though :). I am not sure how it works, and have not used it, but Gentoo has produced a self-booting UT2003 demo disk that supposedly takes care of everything. If you could figure out how they managed to whip this up, maybe this would be the solution to your problem.

  4. Re:This could violate the GPL on Review: Lindows 2.0 Dissected · · Score: 1
    I dont think that one can legally install the software on "a whole roomful of computers." sure you physically could install it, but the only people that would be concerned with mass installations would be people (organizations) that also care about being legally compliant. on the lindows website there is a link that someday will point to the group/organization licensing agreements. this implies to me that the currently license is for use of the software on 1 computer. so, sorry....it looks to me like you are gonna be saving $3 on the whole roomful of computer--if not more because M$ is sure to already have group licensing available.

    I just want to say that I do not mean to be bashing on Lindows--I think that it is a great attempt at moving into the Windows marketshare--I just think that it would be a stronger product if the $$ came down.

  5. Re:This could violate the GPL on Review: Lindows 2.0 Dissected · · Score: 2
    I am aware that Upgrade requires a previous license. I would think that most people out there have an old version of windows though. I suppose that there are some people that are still getting their first computers, but I would doubt that that number is very high. I do think that Lindows can do some damage with the Wal-Mart comps, but I don't see it, at that price, becoming prominent elsewhere.

    Also, winXP Home Upgrade does not work with 2K, so you dont have to worry about that ;). It does, however, work with annoying old 98.

    Also, I kinda doubt that Click-N-Run is that big of a deal for the general user. All they are going to want to do is read email, surf the web, and play some games (many of which probably wont work in Lindows). But the WORST thing going for it is that it is something new, and people out the FEAR change.

  6. Re:This could violate the GPL on Review: Lindows 2.0 Dissected · · Score: 2, Interesting
    So let me get this straight...one cannot download Lindows for free? What if I don't want to be an insider or have access to Click-and-Run? I personally don't want to use this software...but would think of recommending it to others if it could be had for free.

    On another note, I just checked buy.com, and they have winXP Home Upgrade for only $96--that is CHEAPER than this. So, why would any run-of-the-mill user (the target audience) buy this software when good old M$FT has cheaper stuff?

  7. Re:Clueless FBI on SANS/FBI Release Top 20 Security Vulnerabilities · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Although the *nix exploits may exist in M$ too, it is possible that they decided that the *worst* M$ exploits were the ones listed. So, maybe FTP is on the list--just at #12 or something for M$. I don't know if I agree with that...but it is a thought...

  8. Re:How is this not illegal? on How The DMCA Is Enforced · · Score: 0
    i understand that they are not going to come after me for it...i too read the article :)

    i am just curious as to whether the could legally come after me if they so desired. say i flamed one of them here on /. and they decided to get back at me :)....

  9. Re:How is this not illegal? on How The DMCA Is Enforced · · Score: 1

    Ok...I have a question....Say I have https running on my server with some legal mp3s sitting behind it that i download remotely to listen to occasionally. my https port is public, but the stuff behind it is protected by encrypted passwords. to be in legal compliance, would i have to take such things down, or is that perfectly legal?

  10. Re:oh no! on Hitchhikers Guide To Be Made Into A Movie · · Score: 1

    keep in mind that it was adams that has been working on the screenplay up until his death. if i remember correctly, he was quite pleased with the idea of having the jay roach direct it (wasn't there something about that is salmon?). i mean sure, they still can butcher it, but it is not like they are starting from scratch....

  11. Re:College Campus on Advertising on a Free Wireless Network? · · Score: 1
    Problem with your argument is that you know how to block the ads, and would probably set it up for her. I too associate with people that are not computer junkheads :), but a lot of them are smart enough to have their literate friends do stuff for them (and I saw lots of girls taking advantage of guys in this situation...(I don't mean to be sexist here...my girlfriend helps out some of my other less technically savy male friends all the time ;)). Just ask any freshman CS student in the dorms how often he helps out girls fix their computers.

    But the idea about targetted ads is an intreging (sp?) one. I think it would be quite interesting to see how this would work out.

  12. College Campus on Advertising on a Free Wireless Network? · · Score: 1

    I would think that that would never work at a college campus. I would think that the majority of college student either know how to block that stuff, or have friends that will set it up. It would last for like a few months, the company would get little or no revenue, and it would die. Sounds like a nice idea though.

  13. Re:Phone size on Analog & Digital Chips On The Same Silicon · · Score: 2, Insightful
    It is not about the size of your cell phone, it is about the cost. By reducing the number of chips, one can SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the cost. The phones probably are not going to get that much smaller...but it will be nice if the prices do. .09 process is going to do a lot for these chips, and we are going to see cell phone prices start to fall pretty significantly.

    On a side note...this does kinda remind me of that Futurama episode where Amy gets a call from Kip and Leela thinks that she swallowed her phone....

  14. Re:Breast Cancer on Video Over IP Permits South Pole Surgery · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Some of the story can be found here. There is more here.

  15. Re:CPU vs data transmission speeds. on Weta Digital's Render Farm Upgrade · · Score: 1
    A good place to read up on multiprocessor systems (that means both in a single box as well as those connected through a network) would be in Computer Organization and Design by Hennessy and Patterson (chapter 9). You can buy it here.

    It may be expensive...but it is a great book for learning about the basics of architecture. Pretty much all schools use this book in their intro to architecture courses. It's got all kinds of info about some of the bottlenecks and how they are being dealt with.

  16. Re:Ideas Anyone? on MacWorld Expo Report, Part II · · Score: 1

    I think that you are missing my point. My point is that there needs to be some stronger standardization. As I am sure you are aware, there are multiple development platforms that are currently being persued (Gnome/KDE being @ the forefront). Freedom is great, but at some point if linux is going to make a jump, some group is going to have to bring some sort of organization to the process. Linux has people in charge of the development of the official kernals, but there are (as far as I know) nobody who is doing this sort of things for the software that runs on the kernal. I think such a group will ultimately be necessary.

  17. Ideas Anyone? on MacWorld Expo Report, Part II · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I was thinking about how the open-source community could start to bring a little more cohesion to the many projects that are out there, and I personally was unable to come up with much. I do think that sourceforge is a decent start, but by no means is it going to really bring the applications together.

    Do any of you have an ideas that can be implimented to bring the cohesion that will obviously strengthen opensource? Can some functionality be added to SourceForge to help this?

  18. Re:Caps on Slashback: Bandwidth, Animation, Gruvin' · · Score: 1
    -- $50 is too much for cable

    Just remember that @Home is having serious $$ issues. I understand that other services (DSL) might offer more for the same price, but how can cable get cheaper if they are already having serious financial issues?

  19. Re:15KB... why on Slashback: Bandwidth, Animation, Gruvin' · · Score: 1

    I personally think that the upload cap is great. At school my freshman year we had no cap and things started to slow down. After the school threw on an upload cap, the general performance of the network increased dramatically...even your regular Joe could notice the difference. I was pissed off for a bit, but ultimately it turned out to be great. I run a little server and sure, I would like to be able to remotely download my stuff faster, but I am perfectly willing to sacrifice my upload capabilities if it is going to make everything else run smoother. If you want to upload a lot at a fast rate, then pay up an get an account that allows for it...not everyone should have to pay for that option.

  20. Norton Users - Something to note on Even Flash Can Get Viruses · · Score: 2, Informative
    The Norton info page on this virus can be found here.

    One important thig to note on this webpage...we should add .swf to the extensions that we scan. Hopefully that will help protect us in the future of more dangerous flash viruses that are sure to come.

  21. Re:whats next on Light Stopped, Held And Re-emitted By A Crystal · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have a question...

    Does anyone know how long the crystal is able to hold this energy/information and/or what kind of energy is required to perform this experiment? It does not say it in this article, and I dont recall it being mentioned in the SciAm article (although that was quite a while ago that I read it).

  22. Re:Samba validates Microsoft on Samba Turns 10 · · Score: 1

    >> Samba Validates Microsoft

    I would also just like to point out the, although many people dont like it, M$ is not going to be going away for a long long time. Samba is an easy to use/setup tool that allows the two interfaces to interact nicely. If anything, this has (and will continue to) help people to make an easy transition from OS to OS. I am not going to pretend that I understand a lot about the different sharing protocals...maybe the M$ one is a pain--but that is somewhat irrelevent. It is a sort of standard (sad as it may be) so whether we like it or not, we can't just ignore it.

    I would just like to say...thanks Samba...without you I might have abandoned my Linuxbox long ago.

  23. Re:I knew this would happen sooner or later... on Chicago Proposes MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) · · Score: 1

    I cannot imagine that the city is going to just take away all the ISPs business. Also, who is going to run this sort of network. I would imagine that it would be a huge undertaking that would require a strong foundation and a decent amount of manpower. Where else are they going to get this than from the current ISPs? Is this actually going to change anything? We are still going to have to pay for it and it is not like all the current ISPs are laughing all the way to the bank--they are loosing serious money. I worry that such a program will either just make the current problems worse or the tax increase is going to be more significant than the amount that we curently pay for our internet (which is fine by me, but I doubt the average Joe who likes his email will share my sentimates).

  24. Simply Put on On the Differences Between MIS/CIS/CS Degrees? · · Score: 1

    To keep it simple:

    CS is more involved in theory. MIS is more involved in business. What do you want to do with yourself? My school does not have CIS so I will not talk about it.

    Recomendation: If you decide you are more into the theory, then go with CS but take some business on the side because it will help to set you apart from all the other nerds out there.

  25. Re:LOTR and the Missing Plot on LotR Takes Top Spot on IMDB · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just a comment on Bill....

    One thing that I enjoyed in the movie was Jackson's suttle note of certain details. I do wish that he would have talked more about certain important things...like the plot around Aragorn's sword...but you dont have time to talk about every little thing in a movie. I like how he still managed to throw some of the little details in there...like Bill the Pony and the new cloaks that everyone recieved from the Elves (notice the clasps before and after Lithlorien (sp)). Anyway...little tidbits like that made the movie a bit more fun for those of us who have read the books (in my humble opinion).