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User: 3dr

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  1. Re:No on Is It Time To End Our Love Affair With the QWERTY Keyboard? · · Score: 1

    One thing I have enjoyed about Macs since starting to use them in the late 80's was the ease with which you could enter the "decorated" characters. The Option key is like the compose key on other keybds. Opt-: u gives a umlaut-u, Opt-* gives a bullet, Opt-' gives accents, etc.

    On DOS/Windows one had to use Alt plus the num keys, and enter the actual character code. Alt-2,4,7 would give character #247. Pathetic.

  2. Re:Bloody communists! on Lenovo CEO Gives His $3M Bonus To 10k Workers · · Score: 2

    "Generosity" was not the word I had in mind.

  3. Re:Better yet. on Feds Plan 'Fog of Disinformation' To Track Information Leaks · · Score: 1

    Actually, this story is the first volley in our unannounced plan to disseminate information through particular channels to identify leakers.

    I'm looking at you, Agent 597 in Omaha.

  4. Re:Huh. on How Many Seconds Would It Take To Crack Your Password? · · Score: 1

    I wish the summaries would include direct links to the interesting bits, rather than some random ad-fest blog entry.

    The underlying tool for all of this is at https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm

  5. Re:When Zuckie himself is selling shares on SEC Calls For Review of Facebook IPO · · Score: 1

    And just to really finalize these toy numbers now that I know a few more things, FB currently has 2.14B shares, with cash on hand of about $8B. This yields $8/2.14 = $3.74/sh book value, again not counting other company assets such as IP. Thus a more proper stock value would be $7.43 (from parent post) + $3.74 = $11.17/sh.

  6. Re:When Zuckie himself is selling shares on SEC Calls For Review of Facebook IPO · · Score: 2

    I've been wondering what a fair value is -- *assuming* that FB is worth investing in at all, which is dubious at this point. But, for the sake of argument, let's say it is.

    At IPO, the $38 was 107 times their annual earning, so that's roughly $0.35/share value, not counting their assets, IP, etc. Last I calculated, Apple had a P/E of 17, which is surprisingly low for a "hot tech property", but Apple has the earnings to fully support their valuation. During the past 3 years, FB has increased their revenues by 71% annually, or increasing it fivefold in this time (5x = 1.71^3). While I don't think that growth rate will continue, I do think it warrants a slightly higher P/E valuation of 20-25. Let's be generous and give 25. That in turn gives a valuation of $0.35*25 = $8.75/sh. No doubt these are hand-wavey arbitrary numbers here...but not unreasonable.

    Last, my final adjustment is simply a value proposition. If I believe $8.75/sh is worth it (AND if their business model matures), then I need a buffer for a profit, at least 15%. So, my buy-in price is (1-0.15)*8.75 = $7.43.

  7. Re:A week? on Who's Pirating Game of Thrones, and Why? · · Score: 1

    It's been interesting to compare the two. I've been reading the books and am halfway through book 5, and watching the series. They've fabricated things for more skin-time (such as the prostitute Roz in the HBO story, not in the book), and switched things around. Another embellishment in the HBO story, purely for shock value, was when Joffrey forced the whore in his bed to beat the other whore viciously. Most of the "simpler" changes are to make it simply more interesting to watch, and on HBO that means more tits, usually. These are not substantive changes to the storyline, however.

    More questionable changes DO change the storyline. I don't think we'll know if it was for TV adaptation, or if the edits simplify the storyline, or what until much later. For example, one was last week's (?) episode where Lord Tywin tells his cupbearer (Arya) of the difference between saying m'lord and my lord. There are two things different in that scene: (1) in the book, Arya is never Tywin's cupbearer at Harrenhal, and (2), the m'lord/my lord conversation takes place much later, in book 5, between Lord Bolton and Reek. So this first change could bring huge implications; for instance, while Arya was serving, Littlefinger recognizes her but it's not yet known if he reveals or uses this information elsewhere, which would be very different from the book.

  8. Re:Do It Right The First Time!! on Ask Slashdot: Is a Home Drone Feasible? · · Score: 1

    Do a search for "Crazy Horst" on vimeo. I think this is the person you are mentioning.

    For instance, watch his "Catch me if you can" video.

    Yeah, the link above is from youtube, but search on vimeo where most of his videos are.

  9. Re:Excessive "modularity" can become hell. on Glibc Steering Committee Dissolves; Switches To Co-Operative Development Model · · Score: 2

    +2 that.

    The building complexity is compounded also by a project's over-specification of dependencies. That is, instead of just requiring FooLib x.y, they are requiring x.y.z. Part of the problem here is that projects use dotted-version notation inconsistently. I would never expect an API change with a .z change, and I would only expect an API change to add functionality with a .y change but never a break in current code. A change in major version means anything goes. Many projects follow this. I wish I had kept notes of those I've run into that do not.

    Several years ago I was building a couple projects on Linux, and after downloading all the packages that weren't already on the system, I got things built. It was extremely time consuming, but it worked. Whatever happiness I had was soon vanquished because another program I wanted to use required one of the same libraries but with a different .z version, which, in some case, could cause a huge rippling of library do-overs. Ridiculous.

    As a related aside, one thing I would like to see is a migration of projects away from autoconf tools. I've been using cmake for over a year now to build cross-platform tools and it does everything autoconf could clumsily do, and better. It is truly a better tool for this job.

  10. Re:Personal use? on Commercial Drones Taking To the Skies · · Score: 1

    There are rules for RC aircraft that boil down to keeping within line of sight, and under 400ft agl. The article mentions the 400ft altitude limit.

    The growing disagreements between drone enthusiasts and entities such as the FAA and LA's motion picture unions stem from the commercial use of hobby-grade drones to film real estate, agricultural lands, etc. LA's movie unions don't want small operations filming real estate because they believe that if there's any filming around Hollywood, they better damn well get it. That's why LAPD is involved: the unions pushed for the city ordinance.

    For individuals, the policy is simply keep it within sight and under 400ft.

  11. Re:Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce on SCO vs. IBM Trial Back On Again · · Score: 1

    +1 Bleak

    ten bleaks

  12. Re:One more issue on The Zuckerberg Tax · · Score: 1

    Well, why shouldn't he? If the house is paid for, why should the government become a de facto landlord? That is, even after you pay off your house, you owe the government property tax which you can think of as variable annual rent. As I wrote elsewhere today, taxes based on nebulous valuations, determined by a representative of government whose interests are not aligned with your own, are wrong.

  13. Re:Such systems have been proposed before on The Zuckerberg Tax · · Score: 1

    And many of us think that property tax is a total scam. As you said, it's based on fluctuating opinion, rather than a verifiable value. I believe this is wrong, but I also don't expect any changes in my state's tax code to address it. Similarly, I don't think stocks should be taxed on their momentary value, either.

    Taxation when gains are realized (that is, when property is sold for more than it was purchased for) is the only sensible way to implement taxes. At that moment of sale, the value is known (agreed to by buyer and seller), and is a concrete valuation for tax purposes. This is why stocks taxed as they are today (time of sale, or time of grant for equity-as-income) is fair, while property taxes on homes are wrong. My property tax should be based on the value of the house when I bought it, and not determined by an auditor with an interest not aligned with mine.

    I'm not arguing for zero taxes because of course we must fund the needs of society. But taxing a ghost of a value is wrong.

  14. Re:Is a UAV necessary? on Amateur UAV Pilot Exposes Texas River of Blood · · Score: 1

    The grove of trees behind the plant is where it appears to source from. The creek upstream (left) looks normal, and downstream of the trees looks bloodied. The Trinity river isn't far away, and at the mouth of the creek it is very red.

    No UAV needed for this one. Had anyone looked in Google's imagery and known that location was a meat packing plant, the conclusion would be simple.

  15. Re:Is this really a big deal? on Raspberry Pi Has Gone To Manufacturing · · Score: 1

    I agree. I've been working with different microcontrollers for a few years now, with the goal of creating an autonomous vehicle. In the context of autonomous vehicles, microcontrollers such as Arduino are capable of doing basic navigation to waypoints, and basic obstacle avoidance. That's largely the easy stuff. The hard stuff includes path determination, mapping, and more intelligent, higher-level reasoning about navigation. And for this, you need more memory.

    That's where a device like the R-Pi will be valuable. You'll have the processing headroom for complex algorithms, enough memory to represent and manipulate the world, and of course sensor access. I see combining R-Pi and Arduino: Arduino would drive the sensors, and provide the data to R-Pi over I2C, for instance.

    I look forward to getting one.

  16. Re:BSD license was always more permissive, so grea on GPL, Copyleft Use Declining Fast · · Score: 1

    You realize we're talking about source code and not human rights, right?

    There is a distinction.

  17. Re:News for nerds, stuff that matters on Should Social Media Affect Your Creditworthiness? · · Score: 1

    I wonder why your were targeted. Lenders are ridiculous. They push these ludicrous loan amounts (4X your salary is a good start) and then squawk over a ~$3000 increase in annual pay that's legit.

    I bought my first house in 2000 with all the bank statement sniffing they required, up to a point. My credit score was similar, and I had some cash saved up for a 20% down payment. The wrinkle was my folks gave me a $10K gift to apply to the house, and the banks were NOT happy about that when they found it in the statements. They wanted a couple things: (a) a notarized statement from my folks saying it was a gift and they never want to be paid back for it, and (b) the lender wanted copies of my parents' bank statements to ensure they could cover that gift. IMO, this was asking too much, and (not e-bragging) I told them they could ignore my parent's information since they have nothing to do with this loan, or I'd be willing to start the lending process again with another lender. It worked, they backed away from that request.

    I'm also surprised at how much they pestered your employer. My lender never contacted my employer.

  18. Re:Not surprising on Using a Tablet As Your Primary Computer · · Score: 1

    The "quality" of the writing is the surprising bit, not the fact that an author uses bits of technology to aid writing.

  19. Re:I would rather.... on Zynga To Employees: Surrender Pre-IPO Shares Or You're Fired · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's the unvested shares, so percentage held doesn't enter into it.

  20. Re:Dual license on Ask Slashdot: When and How To Deal With GPL Violations? · · Score: 1

    It's their code to release, and they can release it simultaneously as a separate GPL project and as proprietary product.

    However, if you think they have included contributed code (GPL'd) into their proprietary product, then write them and voice your concern, and ask about it. I don't think one letter will stifle future sharing, especially since they've already taken the step of killing the "free" GPL'd version.

  21. Re:GPL is essentially infinite... on Ask Slashdot: When and How To Deal With GPL Violations? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I don't see what the issue is in the summary. Company B bought company A which includes A's assets, then discontinues development of a GPL-covered variant. Well, B still owns the non-GPL version, so where's the confusion. Code can be dual licensed, and is, often. See QT for a project that has gotten lots of mentions lately for an example of this.

    As soon as GPL'd code is out there, it's always "out there" at that point.

  22. Re:Well do you want on Android ICS Will Require 16GB RAM To Compile · · Score: 1

    Swapping is rarely a problem. If one builds a highly memory-constrained machine on purpose (only installing 1GB RAM for a Android build machine, for example), then yeah, swapping will occur.

    My Android build machine has 8GB, but the last time I benchmarked memory usage (froyo, summer 2010) I only saw about 2.2GB used at any time. Swap was zero.

    The need for swap space on today's machines has become far less important than it used to be, solely because of the low price of memory.

  23. Re:As usual, not the first for the basics on iOS 5 Update Available · · Score: 1

    I had that happen once, but I edited the dot files that TM uses (located in the root of your backup volume) and was able to get TM to continue on that disk. No history was lost.

    It might have a shiny button on top, but underneath it all are still ASCII text files, steeped in the panicked cold sweat of a million UNIX hackers looking for a quick fix.

  24. Re:What is the goal? on Ask Slashdot: How Do You View the Wall Street Protests? · · Score: 1

    This $20 trillion figure caught my eye as a suspicious quote. So far, nothing of the sort has been distributed, yet.

    In 2008, total bailout cost estimates ranged from $4.5T to $8T.
    According to CNN in 2009, the bailout had $11T committed, but of that only $3T had actually been paid out.
    The SIGTARP report was the source of the $23T committed figure, but even in that report only $3T was actually spent (also 2009).

    Many sources are quoting each other, and it's hard to find more information into 2010 and 2011 about what monies have been disbursed.
    According to the The Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch website, as of April 2010 some $4.6T had been distributed.

    So far, every cost estimate is based on the maximum, worst-case cost of each program (as it should be in most cases). But what is more interesting is how much is actually spent, and under what conditions the rest can be spent. But certainly, $20T has NOT been spent.

    BTW, the bailouts make me sick, so don't confuse my questioning this figure with disagreeing with you.

  25. Re:It's always bugged me on A Few Million Monkeys Finish Recreating Shakespeare's Works · · Score: 1

    So, the monkeys used pretty much the same tactic I used for term papers in English lit.