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User: CaptainSuperBoy

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  1. Re:i'll buy it, but.. on Voices from the Hellmouth Released in Paperback · · Score: 1

    stupid censors^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hmoderators. I was just poking a little fun at Jon Katz's style of using L's instead of one's when he writes a number in his column.. why is that? bad OCR? or does he really confuse the l with the 1?

  2. Re:Wow, more homophobic whiners... on Professor Sues teacherreview.com Site Operator · · Score: 1

    I find it hard to take notes and listen to lecture at the same time. I avoid this problem by not going to class.

  3. I disagree on Professor Sues teacherreview.com Site Operator · · Score: 1
    I see what you are saying. The comments posted on the site are of course vulgar and offensive. I don't think they're any more useful than rational, non-offensive comments. However (and it's a big however):

    You really shouldn't classify these kids as upper/middle class. You complain about homophobia and then you go pigeonhole them into one socioeconomic group without even a clue as to their real background. It seems to me you're pretty certain who you think these people are, based on nothing more than your stereotype of the typical spoiled college kid.

    You should be glad, because it seems like you escaped college without having a plain old crappy professor. I'm three years in and I've already had this experience a couple of times. It's different than just having a tough professor - that I can deal with. What pisses me off is an instructor who doesn't take the time to do things right. My software engineering class was a joke. Frequently the guy would show up to class just to say it was canceled, because his printer broke and he couldn't print out the lecture notes. Homework took over a month to grade at times. As the manager of our class project, he did a poor job of providing us direction and coordinating development. It's these types of situations that a review site helps for.

    I have no doubt that the guy who is suing is a bad instructor. Why would they post those comments otherwise? I don't accept the explanation that they're pissed off that they got bad grades. If everyone in the class got bad grades, well, there's your proof that he's a crappy teacher. If he was just a tough but good teacher, there would be a number of good reviews of him by people who enjoyed his class and got good grades. This doesn't seem to be the case.

  4. Another example of ZD's brilliant research on Professor Sues teacherreview.com Site Operator · · Score: 1
    The CDA was indeed ruled unconstitutional soon after it passed, due to a tremendous movement involving the EFF, ACLU, ALA, other groups, and netizens everywhere. It's very irresponsible of ZDTV to refer to the CDA as if it were still a law. They need to check their facts, too. The CDA didn't say that websites can't be held responsible for what other people write, as they claim. It just said the original writer could be held responsible for indecency.

    Just one more example in the large list of reasons why ZD really, really sucks. I actually get the ZDTV channel, half the time it's this weird animated Lara wannabe telling me the latest gadgets I should buy.

  5. Can dual mode phones improve reception? on Where Can I Find Cell Phone Recommendations? · · Score: 1
    I have a question about Sprint PCS's service. I'm looking for a digital phone and I went to my friendly Radio Shack to grill them about PCS. I was a little skeptical about the benefits of dual mode phones - they just seem to juice you for roaming charges.

    During my conversation, the salesman told me that a dual mode phone was better, because even if the phone is operating in digital mode, the analog network will be used to improve the quality of the call, without any additional cost. This seems like a load of horse crap to me.. isn't the PCS network digital only? Wouldn't it have to use a competing analog network, like Bell Atlantic? I'm real skeptical.. I've heard of salespeople lying about coverage and features in order to make a sale. So, was this guy speaking the truth or lying through his teeth? Thanks

  6. Re:Word Ignore for Moderation? on More on the Samsung Linux Handheld · · Score: 1

    Decent AC posts? now there's an oxymoron..

  7. Not quite on Is SDMI a Consumer's Nightmare? · · Score: 1

    The MPman is an MP3 player, period. It was released before SDMI so how could it have anything to do with SDMI? These guys just figured out the format for sending files to the unit, and wrote their own software. You're not going to see anyone complain about this because a) The music starts off in an unprotected format (CDDA or MP3) and b) Saehan is a relatively small Korean company who are probably happy, if anything, that their device works on one more platform now.

  8. They've got one of those, don't know its name (nt) on Is SDMI a Consumer's Nightmare? · · Score: 1

    p

  9. This is really nothing new on CERT Advisory On Malicious HTML Tags · · Score: 3
    Applause to the CERT for speaking out on this issue.. however as a developer of web applications I'll say that this has always been a factor. Any time you take information from a user and serve it back, your site / users are at risk of being abused. It doesn't matter if you serve it back to everyone, or only the user who submitted the information.

    Consider Slashdot, for example.. you'll notice that it says Allowed HTML and has a list of permitted tags when you are posting. This is so that you don't do anything funny with javascript, forms, or even the blink tag (yuk).. any site that accepts input like this needs to scan for possible malicious tags.

    One more concern I've seen is generic error message pages, where the error message is passed in using a GET type encoding on the URL line. This is so that admins don't have to make multiple pages for "password incorrect", "no username", "our database is down/broken", etc.. however a user can just change the error message that is passed in and possible include malicious tags in this. I'd recommend using error codes instead, that map to hard-coded error messages.

  10. I think they're a little too confident on BMG's New Copy-Protected Audio CDs · · Score: 1
    From http://www.midbartech.com/products_advantages/2a.h tml

    the CACTUS DATA SHIELD system renders it impossible to digitally duplicate optical media.
    I think they're a little too confident about this.. the word impossible is, well.. a little too absolute. You can logically prove that this statement is false..

    1. If the CACTUS DATA SHIELD system renders it impossible to digitally duplicate optical media, then there exists no optical media that can be duplicated.

    2. It is not the case that there exists no optical media that can be duplicated.

    Therefore, premise 1 must be false - it is not the case that the CACTUS DATA SHIELD system renders it impossible to digitally duplicate optical media.

    But seriously folks.. many people have an audio CD player with digital out. Many people use a seperate CD player and DAC also.. wouldn't raw digital data be going from the CD to the DAC? Couldn't you just hook it up to a DAT player, a standalone hard disk recorder, or a sound card with digital in (like the SB Live)?

  11. Re:BeamIT Packets Unencrypted on MP3.com's Beam-It · · Score: 1

    I thought exactly the same thing you did, that I wouldn't be able to find any of my music on it. While there are a few CDs I had that it didn't find, it surprised me with a few - such as Beck's One Foot in the Grave, and Grateful Dead - Mars Hotel.. overall i'm real pleased with the selection.

  12. Where does this stop? on Brazil Bans Doom, Duke Nukem and 4 Other Games · · Score: 2
    Some guy starts shooting people in the street, with one of those cool nerf guns. After a while he's arrested, and the officer sits him down.

    Officer: Why did you do it?

    Dude: Nerf Arena Blast made me do it.

  13. Re:They /are/ way too similar. on Court Tells Disney to Pull Go.com Logo · · Score: 1

    The problem with that argument is that nobody would mistake a green traffic light for a web site. This isn't one of those frivolous suits, this is a genuine case of where people could mistake one company for another.

  14. Re:Did they suspend morons? on CMU Cuts off Net Access for 71 Students Over MP3s · · Score: 1

    Of course they're accountable. Are you accountable if you don't know how to drive, but you get in a car and run someone over?

  15. Re:My Friends were hit on CMU Cuts off Net Access for 71 Students Over MP3s · · Score: 1

    I think it's only a matter of time before you're hit too.. just because they targeted SMB sharing this time doesn't mean they won't target FTP the next time. My school tracks students who upload large amounts of data, and then sniffs their traffic at the router level. There's nothing illegal about this - you're using their network hardware, aren't you? They have a right to sniff your traffic and see what stuff you're uploading. Unless you encrypt the entire stream of data, passwords offer no real security.

  16. Re:so what if they CHARGE $$$ (how much?) on Phish Offers Archive Concert in MP3 · · Score: 1

    Actually it's $15 which strikes me as odd because you can go out and pick up a live Phish album for not much more than this. And you can listen to it more than once. And it is good quality. And you can listen in your car. Like someone else mentioned i'd be surprised if the band had much of a say in it. Phish allows people to trade live MP3's as long as they don't compete with official releases - why would they webcast something for $15 that you could download for free, and better quality?

  17. They are REALLY tough.. on Notebooks for Rough People · · Score: 1

    I saw one of these at PCexpo that had a bullet hole in it.. the bullet had entered through the screen, hit the keyboard and was stopped (!) by the hard drive, or whatever protective material is around the hard drive..

    The rep told me it booted fine with an external keyboard and monitor.. no data was lost and the only things that broke were the screen and the kb.

    Unfortunately he couldn't tell me any details of how the laptop managed to take a bullet, he said the police were still investigating whatever case it was related to.

  18. What's the difference between a bug and an issue? on Microsoft Clarifies Linux Myths · · Score: 1
    If you ask Microsoft, it depends what OS you're running:

    Linux system administrators must spend huge amounts of time understanding the latest Linux bugs and determining what to do about them. This is made complex due to the fact that there isn't a central location for security issues to be reported and fixed. In contrast Microsoft provides a single security repository for notification and fixes of security related issues.

    Notice how when they refer to Linux, they're bugs.. but when they talk about Windows, they're only issues.. the fud runs deep in this article. Maybe we should start calling Windows a "computer speed control system" but keep calling Linux an operating system..

  19. Re:Firewall passing BattleNet on Battle.Net Games Through Linux Firewalls? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but if it uses TCP it should probably play nice and just let the client open a connection and use that, rather than opening a new connection back.. I don't think it uses TCP though, most games don't.

    It's strange, I have a 386 running 2.0.37 masquerading for my home and I didn't have to do anything like this to get games to work. Half-life, Q2 and Kingpin all work fine. Haven't tried any battle.net games though.

    Also, the command I used is ipfwadm - is that obsolete now? That means people need to change their startup scripts if they go to 2.2...

  20. boy, you're a hypocrite.. on Illegal File Formats? · · Score: 1
    Hey buddy, hit the back button and re-read before you flame me. You said:

    Fraunhofers patent is on _their_ algorithm that can be used to create mp3. I don't violate any license from them by having mp3 files.

    I said:

    They don't impose any restrictions on software that only plays MP3s though, or on the distribution of MP3 files.

    Of course you don't violate their license by having MP3 files. I never said they tried to enforce their patents on users of MP3 encoders, or users of MP3 files.. only on the companies that make encoders. If that was the case we'd all be using some other format.

    Actually you're dead wrong on why BladeEnc is legal - The only reason it is legal is because it is developed in Sweden, which doesn't recognize software patents. Fraunhofer DOES receive royalties from companies such as Xing who make their own high bitrate encoders - even if they have been developed in a "clean-room" environment. Ever wonder why the only free MP3 encoders you see are either low-bitrate, illegal, or made in Sweden?

    Only one here talking out of their ass is you.. do some reading before you go and tell me I'm wrong.

  21. Patents can make for illegal file formats on Illegal File Formats? · · Score: 1

    If someone holds the patent on a file format, you could be violating their patent by using that format. I know of no patented formats where the patent holder prohibits people from just using the format, but there are some notable patents - mostly for compression and encryption mechanisms. The LZW compression algorithm used in .GIF and .Z files is patented by Unisys. They charge royalties for commercial software that creates GIF files.

    Also, MP3 itself is a patented format - Fraunhofer institute doesn't allow ANY free software for MP3 creation - they want a ridiculous amount of money per unit of software distributed. They don't impose any restrictions on software that only plays MP3s though, or on the distribution of MP3 files.

    IANAL but I believe it's not a criminal offense, violating someone's patent. Using these formats in ways that violate patents isn't illegal, you will just get your ass sued off. There's no file format that can land you in jail.

  22. 100 Mbps? on 2.3TB drives for $50 · · Score: 3
    One thing that stands out in this article - the "data access time" is quoted as 100Mbps. However, data access times aren't measured in megabits/sec.. they are measured in milliseconds, or hopefully for this invention, microseconds (do microseconds come after milliseconds?). 100Mbps could be the data transfer rate. If that's correct, this device is actually really slow - 12.5 MB/s. much slower than both IDE and SCSI's current speeds.

    This means it probably wouldn't find its way into servers until its speed problems were corrected.. It'd even be a little slow for PCs..

    and about what we'd do with it. Back around 10 years ago when 30 meg hard drives were roomy, nobody could think of what we'd do with PCs that had 20,000 megs of storage like today's PCs do.. I'm sure we'll find ways to use the extra space.

  23. Re:[OT] bladeenc on Microsoft's New Audio Format Cracked · · Score: 1

    blade enc is good. you might be talking about the frequency cutoff it has at lower bitrates, which is true - but you really can't hear the highest frequencies on anything but the best headphones.. i'm sure the range at 128kbps is just fine for the rio crowd. however even at 128 it can only hold what, like 30 minutes of audio? when you start going below 128 that's when it really sounds ugly..

  24. Re:Intel learning on Intel exiting graphics chips market · · Score: 1

    and intel dropping out of business would be a bad thing.. why?

  25. Re:YARTCESP on FreeType posts patent warning · · Score: 1

    What if the process for making steel 20 times faster is never allowed to be marketed and sold, because someone holds the patent on making steel the old way?

    This example would never happen, but it does happen often with software. FreeType is faster and less bloated than the TrueType support developed by Apple and MS. This is the problem with software patents - better software can be suppressed because someone thought of it first. It's not the idea that counts, its the implementation.