Slashdot Mirror


User: nukenerd

nukenerd's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
2,223
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 2,223

  1. Re:I can't wait for the Linus Torvalds rant over t on OEMs Allowed To Lock Secure Boot In Windows 10 Computers · · Score: 1

    Make no mistake. This is a literal and direct attack on Linux.

    This isn't about Linux. People who buy a pre-built system from one of the big OEMs have no intention of installing an alternative OS, so this is a non-issue for them.

    We nearly all started with a pre-built system. What Microsoft want is to prevent someone with such a system from trying out Linux, perhaps with a live CD, and liking it.

    I started with a pre-built (did not have the knowledge back then to try anything else) pe-loaded with Windows, but have built my own ever since running Linux. Microsoft wont stop me now or ever, I am a lost cause to them; but they'd love to stop others following my path. That is what this is about.

  2. But ..... on Microsoft Offers Pirates Amnesty and Free Windows 10 Upgrades · · Score: 1

    But will it come with a full set of manuals ?

  3. Re:where do I sign up on Microsoft Offers Pirates Amnesty and Free Windows 10 Upgrades · · Score: 1

    Have hokey windows97 license which has been used very occasionally for years

    Windows97 ? You must have been scammed. I'm running Windows99 myself and I'm sure it's genuine.

  4. Where the $900 ? on Cuba Approves First Public Wi-Fi Hub In Havana · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm unclear : where exactly is this $900 per month coming from and going to ?

  5. Re:Or, it could be unrelated to actually extending on Elon Musk Pledges To End "Range Anxiety" For Tesla Model S · · Score: 1

    They have been testing a single swapping station with a limited number of cars. Maybe they are now planning to build more

    How will an OTA software update build more battery swapping stations?

  6. Re:HOWTO on How To Execute People In the 21st Century · · Score: 1

    .. the definition of "punishment". One central requirement is that the person punished can learn something from it.

    Thanks for sharing your definition. It is not what my dictionaries say, they are about it being a penalty, not a school lesson. Try this one as it's handy. How does prison fit into your definition? From what I've heard, not much learning takes place there that is not orthogonal to the issue of ethics.

    You remind me of a corny schoolboy joke :-

    Judge [to condemed burglar] ; "I hope you have learned from this my man!"
    Burglar : "Yes m'Lord, I've learned not to get caught next time."

  7. Re:Your justice system is flawed, too. on How To Execute People In the 21st Century · · Score: 1
    Mod parent up.

    In a Machiavellian sense, he (some policital criminal) could be used, for example, as a figurehead to drum up support from the people who he was able to drum up support from before, in order to follow a political agenda ....... I could think of many dozens of ways he could himself cause trouble, and I can think of many more dozens of ways he could be symbolically used by someone else to cause trouble.

    We saw that with IRA prisoners in the UK. Even in prison they continued to make waves, make news (such as hunger strikes), and even continue to administrate campaigns via the communications of visitors which the civil rights people insist on being allowed. OTOH, once someone is executed, the news media (and they are what matters) soon lose interest as long as there is no mystery about it - which is why assasination keeps someone "alive" in the public mind more than execution does.

    Whichever side you are on (and this applies to "both" sides") these are just facts, in a Machiavellian sense.

  8. Re:HOWTO on How To Execute People In the 21st Century · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry you're too simple minded to realize ...... how many innocents had their lives taken by it.

    As the alternative to execution is life (or at least long) imprisonment, the "innocent" people are still going to be unjustly punished, have their "life" stolen from them. By your argument we must never punish anyone for anything, in case the verdict is wrong.

  9. Re: HOWTO on How To Execute People In the 21st Century · · Score: 1

    You do realize that it costs significantly more money to see a death-penalty case from start to finish than it does to see a case where the penalty is life without parole? ...... There are many more appeals steps that are expensive through the legal system.

    Only because the USA's lunatic legal system and the fact that lawyers are allowed to make perpetual work for themselves. These endless cycles of appeal are allowed even when it is bleedin' obvious that the guy is guilty - in fact they don't even claim that in many cases, instead claiming some bullshit excuse.

    Not so long ago, the condemned were take straight out and hung, and the total cost was half-a-crown to the hangman. I would not advocate a return to that, but some common sense needs injecting here.

    It costs twice as much to house a death-row inmate during the appeals .... Also putting a person in jail for life, without parole, means they are never "left to their own".

    Why does it cost any more to house someone on death row than "in jail for life" ? Talking about the housing here, not the appeals nonsense.

  10. Re:OK, but... on Mike Godwin Interviewed · · Score: 1

    Nazi Germany serves as a well-known historical example of how certain policies can have disastrous effects, .... the onus is on those who advocate for such policies to explain clearly what immutable safeguards will be in place to prevent such a state from occurring.

    History shows that nothing ever occurs the same way twice. There are just too many factors (both random and non-random) involved. I think the onus is on those who advocate ANY policy to try to show that it will not go pear shaped. Just saying it is the opposite of what Hitler would have done is not good enough.

  11. Re:OK, but... on Mike Godwin Interviewed · · Score: 1

    Hitler with his silly hair cut and ridiculous mustache

    May I remind you that the mustache and haircut was pretty common in that time. ...... this particular style also was used by a plenty of people who did a lot of good.

    What has "people who did a lot of good" have to do with it? The fact is that the style was quite common at the time. Charlie Chaplin had one. It was Hitler who made it go out of fashion (like the name "Adolf" too). Despite that there were plenty of old farts who still wore Chaplin-Hitler type mustaches in the 1950's and 60's. One of my schoolteachers did - we called him "Hitler".

  12. Re:State-funded Businesses on BBC Returns To Making Computers For Schools · · Score: 1

    The BBC, a profoundly well-known tax-funded State organization

    Not tax funded. It is funded by the TV licence fee, a different thing.

    then shafted every other business in that home computing field by adding their name to the product and taking a cut of the profits ... thus decimating the choice of computers available to them by reducing competition by heavily favouring one particular computer.

    What BS - sounds like you are airing a pet issue . Were you in the UK at that time? I was, and the BBC micro cetainly did not "shaft" every or any other business. Amstrad and Sinclair computers were much more popular. I only knew one person who bought a BBC micro, he was middle-aged and bought it second-hand. The BBC micros had the image of being geared to education and wee thus rather boring.

    A quick visit to Wikipedia confirms that only 1.5 million BBCs were sold. Amstrad sold 3 million CPCs around that time and 8 million PCWs. Meanwhile Sinclair sold 5 million Spectrums.

    These days, so many "respected" organisations sell their name to be attached to commercial products (my Alma Mater even rents its name to be put on credit cards) that surely people realise it means nothing anymore.

  13. What are the Specs? on BBC Returns To Making Computers For Schools · · Score: 2
    FTFA :-

    "The BBC does not see Micro Bit as a rival to ... Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Galileo and Kano, but rather hopes it will act as a "springboard" to these more complex machines ....it will be compatible with three coding languages - Touch Develop, Python and C++.

    It has a C++ compiler but is not complex? Seriously, intoducing kids to coding using C++? Things like the RPi don't need a springboard to reach them anyway. All these things can be used as simple as you like or as complex as you like. What OS is this thing using anyway?

    the BBC is being careful not to repeat the mistakes of the BBC Microcomputer launch, which angered rivals such as Sinclair

    Why was "angering" Sinclair a "mistake"? He was just another micro manufacturer so was hardly to be expected to welcome a new rival. Couldn't they have told him to f#@k off?

    the BBC is working with several partners, including chip-designer Arm, Microsoft and Samsung, to get the end product right.

    Microsoft? Now they are angering me.

  14. Re:Well... are we surprised? on Knock-Off Apple Watches Hit the Chinese Market Less Than 24 Hours After Launch · · Score: 1

    I don't think Apple is too worried about this, except if consumers are fooled into buying one. No one wants to show off a knock-off status symbol. It defeats the entire purpose.

    But someone who buys a knock-off is not generally going to announce to people that it is a knock-off. So, if it looks the part, the knock-off is going to be just as effective as a staus symbol as the real thing.

    Or just as ineffective. The very existence of the knock-offs defeats the status symbol, because even if you buy that $10,000 one, people are just going to assume that it is a knock-off.

    I knew a woman who owned a really large diamond, worn in a necklace. When people saw it they would ask if it was real, and she would say "Of course not!". But it was real. Either she did not want to look super-vain, or did not want to risk it being stolen. I suppose she had it for self-gratification or as an investement, but as a status symbol it was pointless.

  15. Re: Why is this a surprise? on Knock-Off Apple Watches Hit the Chinese Market Less Than 24 Hours After Launch · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can't tell the difference between a bar of gold, and a bar of gold hollowed out and filled with lead*.

    Archimedes sorted that problem years ago.

  16. Re:This is good on edX Welcomes 'The University of Microsoft' Into Its Fold · · Score: 1

    Then you're also in favour of demolishing the William Gates building at several universities

    No, but I'd take his f#@king name off the wall.

  17. Re:This is good on edX Welcomes 'The University of Microsoft' Into Its Fold · · Score: 1

    Microsoft are losing ground to Google, Amazon Web Services etc ... so they've decided a free course is the best way to get people using their product

    Ah, the old .. market share = competence argument. I guess Linux is the single most worst desktop operating system ever built.

    What did the GP statement have to do with competence? As for market share, then Rolls Royces and top-end BMWs must be the worse cars you can buy.

    A teacher cannot be a billboard.

    By that logic, nobody should be teaching mechanics how to repair a Subaru, cuz.. y know all mechanics should know how every single car works.

    Yes, in principle they should. Car mechanics should be able, and do, move between different dealerships. They soon pick up the differences. (I have been a manager at one and have seen it.)

    I know that universities and their courses have been debased in recent years, but it should not be a universitiy's place to be vendor specific. I did an engineering degree course without any vendor specific-ness whatsoever, including eg how gas turbines worked. We learned to do the fluid flow and thermodynamic calculations. Subsequently, in my job as a marine engineer, I was sent by my employer to a course at Rolls-Royce specifically on running and repairing Olympus gas tubines. It was meant mainly for skilled mechanics and was not what I would describe as university level stuff.

  18. Re:Laws of thermodynamics don't apply at GoodYear on New Concept Tire Could Recharge Car Battery · · Score: 1

    many posts here assume that it's the heat of the tire that is being converted to electricity. In fact, it's the flexing of the tires that is being converted

    That is not what TFA said :- The concept “BHO3” tire “offers the possibility” of helping recharge the batteries of electric cars by transforming heat from a rolling tire into electrical energy, Goodyear officials said

    I'm not sure whether it will work effectively, but let's wait and see.

    Save the wait; it won't.

  19. Re:The majority? on Daylight Saving Time Change On Sunday For N. America · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    insurance research shows that accidents increase when you lose an hour of sleep.

    Why TF do you lose an hour of sleep, unless you have to get up to clean the church on a Sunday morning or something? As I said, I get up on a Sunday morning when I wake up, like any other Sunday. The following night, the same hours sleep as on any other Sunday night. What are you doing to lose an hour's sleep?

    Must be nice living in a country that's so out of touch with reality... or you're just being a jerk.

    Nice troll. Which part of coping with clocks changing makes me or anyone else a jerk ?

  20. Re:The majority? on Daylight Saving Time Change On Sunday For N. America · · Score: 2

    Yeah, most people ....... still have to waste time adjusting to [DST], though. ...... Only morning people actually like it, because they get to be extra smug for the following week while their co-workers, friends, and neighbors adjust.

    Adjust ? Perhaps it is different in the US, but in the UK I can honestly say that I have never heard anyone complain that they found it hard to "adjust". They might complain about the flaff to adjust their clocks, but that is about it.

    The change only affects Sunday, and I and most people don't give a shit about the time on a Sunday morning. I just get up when I wake up. You then have a whole day to "adjust", if you need it.

  21. Re:No time zones, no DST, centons on Daylight Saving Time Change On Sunday For N. America · · Score: 1

    but [DST] makes no sense in this day in age (we're not all farmers anymore)..to shift the day back and forth twice a year by an hour.

    WTF have farmers got to do with it? They of all people live their own hours (I live next to a farm).

  22. Re:Nice on NBC Thinks Connected Gloves and "Bullet Time" Can Make Boxing Cool · · Score: 1

    You realize that boxing isn't some new concept, right?

    Your point being ?

  23. That's Easy on FTC Announces $50k In Prizes For Robocaller Trap Software · · Score: 1

    the FTC is asking contestants to create a technical solution for consumers that will identify unwanted robocalls

    That's easy. All of them.

    How do I collect my prize?

  24. Re:Nice on NBC Thinks Connected Gloves and "Bullet Time" Can Make Boxing Cool · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Boxing doesn't cause Parkinson's disease.

    Well, whatever it causes (and they will claim it causes everything), I can see lawers running through the data in 20-30 years time when these guys have become vegetables, to sue the crap out of their opponent, the promoter, the ref, the NBC, the audience, Government, TV companies, you, me, God, and the lost tribes of the Amazon, for not stepping in to stop the freak show before it happened.

  25. Re:Fascinating ship on Paul Allen Helps Find Sunken Japanese WWII Battleship Musashi Off Philippines · · Score: 1

    The age of the dreadnought-style battleship was on its way out by this point

    the dreadnaughts [sic] were long gone by this time, they didn't even survive WWI. see "all or nothing armor"

    You mean they were all sunk?!

    Seriously, it depends on what you mean by a Dreadnought. The term is often used to mean any battleship built after HMS Deadnought if it had more than two main turrets, turbines, and could exceed 20 kts. OTOH, any battleship with >= 13.5" guns (starting with the British Orion class of 1912) is often described as a "Super-Dreadnought". Then there was a further type (starting with the British Queen Elizabeth class of 1915) with guns >= 14" and speed > 25 kts described as the "Fast Battleship" type; most WW2 battleships were of this last type.

    But plenty of the earlier types survived WWI. The USS Arkensas was a 12" gun Dreadnought built in 1911 and was active right through WW2, supporting the Normandy and Okinawa landings. The 1912 Texas class of 1912 was used similarly, and even had reciprocating engines, so arguably was a pre-Dreadnought. The British were still using HMS Centurion, a super-Dreadnought of 1913, for secondary roles in WW2.

    Minor navies also had old Dreadnoughts well into WW2 and after. Turkey had the ex-German Goeben, renamed Yavuz, a battle-cruiser of the Dreadnought era, until about the 1980's I believe (becoming a museum at some point). Greece and some South American nations also had old Dreadnoughts for years after they were obsolete