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User: Caduceus1

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Comments · 86

  1. Again? on Samsung, Toshiba, Others Accused of LCD Price-Fixing · · Score: 1
  2. Make the parents pay a required fee, yet... on MA High School Forces All Students To Buy MacBooks · · Score: 1

    This is the same high school that apparently could afford to have the prom at Fenway Park...

  3. The Shat's been Shot by a Slash Dot... on William Shatner Takes On Social Networking · · Score: 1

    Set Phizzers on Reboot...

  4. Color-blindness and traffic lights... on Midwest Seeing Red Over 'Green' Traffic Lights · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Let's ignore the positional arguments for now - yes, everyone SHOULD know that the light on top is the red one, etc. But it is obviously not the case. Some people are just not that smart.

    I have always understood that the lenses which used to give lights their color, in the green case, was not really a pure green but had a tint of blue. This allowed those with green colorblindness to still distinguish the light from the others. However, it is VERY noticeable that the green LED lights are NOT the same color as the old lenses, but appear to be more of a true green. Is there a reason why they weren't made the same blue/green? Or did someone just forget?

    It may be possible, if they can't produce a blended LED, to simply include some blue LEDs in the matrix as well, which should to most of us produce a blended color.

    I have seen some red LED lights include a white flashing ring or center dot - this really brings attention to the light. Totally non-standard that I have seen though.

    With the LED matrix lights, it is now quite simple to create shaped lights. A distinctive square or rectangular (would likely require redesigned light fixtures) design on the stop light would make it more distinguishable.

    I remember the horizontal fixtures in Quebec - but I remember that the stop lights appeared on BOTH ends of the fixture - that is there were TWO lights on the outside when STOP.

    What needs to happen now is standards for future replacements and new installations so that they can be ready in the future.

  5. Many a job has been lost... on RAID's Days May Be Numbered · · Score: 1

    ...because someone thought that since they had RAID, they didn't need to back up the data...

    What gets me, especially in the Linux world, is the difficulty or sometimes the impossibility of monitoring the arrays for their state. We've had several controllers that we've only found out about bad disks on physical inspection. This limits the controllers we use and thus might be using a lesser-performing controller only because we can monitor it...

  6. Summary is wrong on NASA Hedges Their Bets On Return To Moon · · Score: 2, Informative

    The summary is quite incorrect. The current Ares plan has NOTHING to do with a "tricked out shuttle", but is in fact FAR MORE like the Apollo/Saturn program than the cheaper, alternate plan shown in the article. The alternate plan is to utilize a modified form of the Shuttle launch system, but without a shuttle, instead opting to put modules on top of the external tank instead of alongside it. Obviously some sort of engine mount would be needed on the bottom.

  7. Re:No accident on Microsoft Asks For a Refund From Laid-Off Workers [updated] · · Score: 1

    Sorry, I don't see the relevance of them screwing up and then demanding back dues vs. negotiating contracts. I'm not dissing the union or unions in general. I'm strictly talking about their screwups. (the vacation pay issue was not the union, but the payroll admins).

  8. Re:No accident on Microsoft Asks For a Refund From Laid-Off Workers [updated] · · Score: 1

    I went to work at a state university in a professional role which was under a union. I was told that I didn't have to join the union, but I'd have to pay the amount of dues anyways (I think it became an "administrative fee" then). So I was in the union.

    Except the union steward became ill around the time, and somehow the paperwork wasn't processed - and payroll failed to deduct the dues from my paycheck. Not having seen the dues on the paycheck before, I never realized they were missing.

    A year later they noticed the error - and demanded back dues for the previous year. Since they had the ability (and apparently the right as far as I could determine) just to take it out of my paycheck, it was easier just to pay it. It wasn't THAT much, but I was making less than half of what I make now at the time, so it was a little painful back then.

    They later screwed me again when I left, which was in the first month of the year, getting all my accrued vacation pay (I had taken one week of vacation over the years). They only withheld taxes as if that was all I would make that year, instead of based on my salary - so it qualified under the lowest tax bracket. I didn't know that, and come the next year's tax filings suddenly I owed several thousand dollars when I had never owed in any previous year...

  9. Re:Clearly... on Google Search Flagging Everything As Potentially Harmful · · Score: 1

    In a clear bit of irony, I reloaded this story, and right below the "its fixed" update is an ad inviting me to install Google Chrome...yeah, thinking twice about that now. :)

  10. Clearly... on Google Search Flagging Everything As Potentially Harmful · · Score: 5, Funny

    Skynet - er, Google - has become self-aware and has deemed that the entire Internet is harmful to us power sour - I mean, humans, and is protecting us for some reason it has not divulged yet...

  11. Not much different in the U.S. on Fraudsters Abusing Canada's Do-Not-Call List · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To DNC registry worked well for a while. But then unscrupulous telemarketers started figuring out how to issue bogus number identifications so you can't issue complaints against them, and using an automated system, claiming to be about your auto warranty, or your "credit card company" (not by name), and try to get you to press 1 - at which point you then establish a business relationship with the telemarketer/vendor and they are then exempt from harassing you forever more.

    Lately, we have been getting numerous phone calls from "Texas Guaranteed". And now, I'm getting phone calls from a "white pages/yellow pages" company to continue a listing for my fictional company which has never had a listing in any pages since it isn't really real. The funny part is these are from a real person, who gets rude when my wife says that she won't talk to them.

  12. Enough about I, Robot... on New Asimov Movies Coming · · Score: 1

    It wasn't even an Asimov story. They used the title and added the Three Laws, but it was NEVER based on Asimov's stories.

    The title wasn't even Asimov's...it was a short story by brothers Earl and Otto Binder in 1939, which was twice made into Outer Limits episodes, and the movie owes more to that story than Asimov.

    Bicentennial Man was also far from a lame movie.

    As for the trashing of Jackson, some people just have to get over the fact that MOVIES ARE NOT BOOKS, and BOOKS ARE NOT MOVIES. They shall never be the same. Jackson did a masterful job with the material and adapting it to the screen. Yes, he made changes, in order to make a MOVIE. He couldn't include everything - they were long enough as it was. His "additions" that Tolkienists get their orcs in a bunch about helped fill in the passive parts of the story without resorting to the lame attempts Lynch used (or much worse, the interminable narration of the Lynch-disowned "extended" version).

    The books and the movies are NOT the same. But they CAN be both good in their own right. Some people can't allow that though.

  13. And I almost thought I'd read something interestin on The Science of the Lightsaber · · Score: 1

    When I read the subject, I thought we'd at least get an intelligent discussion on how a Lightsaber could actually work...not this old crap with the guy lighting a cigarette again.

    I at least see the lightsaber as a variation of the Variable Sword from Larry Niven's Known Space universe, where the stasis field actually emits photons of a certain frequency, causing the colored light effect.

  14. Re:We have a problem on David Tennant Stands Down From "Doctor Who" · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, there is nothing about him personally knowing either Omega or Rassilon prior to him encountering them during the series - they are legendary Time Lord figures.

    And I don't remember any mention by Romana about his incarnations being that high.

    There is some debate about some images shown in the episode "Brain of Morbius" which some believe to be images of earlier incarnations of the Doctor, but it is explicitly stated elsewhere that the 1st Doctor we know of is indeed the first (either in "The Three Doctors" or The "Five Doctors" I believe).

  15. Re:We have a problem on David Tennant Stands Down From "Doctor Who" · · Score: 4, Informative

    It was the Colin Baker (6th) Doctor, not Tom, and the Valeyard wasn't the 11th Doctor. The wording was strange, but it was implied that it was his last, or 13th, incarnation. And since this is Doctor Who anyways, it is possible that particular incarnation will never come to be. Plus, if the ratings are there, the Doctor will obtain or be granted additional regenerations somehow, which has already been established as possible.

  16. Re:Oh, nonsense on How Big Should My Swap Partition Be? · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes, I believe it was the BSD memory manager (possibly earlier, V7 maybe) that had the 2xRAM rule. Less and you could have issues - more was wasted disk space.

    BSD was the foundation for SunOS (pre-Solaris 2.X), Ultrix, etc. so they all inherited this requirement - and from there the "requirement" became gospel on other systems.

    I've actually never heard the 2xRAM in relation to Windows, but it certainly predates it. I was setting up systems with 2xRAM when Windows was a DOS app... :)

  17. It isn't really a zoom on a single image on Microsoft Demos "Deep Zoom" Technology · · Score: 1

    These are pictures in pictures, which provides the "resolution". Even in the demo, you can see that the image of the stamp is too perfect to be on that envelope. And then the inset of the Beatles memorabilia is superimposed on the image of the HRC. And then the image of the dolls is superimposed on that image. So you are zooming in to successive images, not zooming in on a single true image and "magically" getting higher resolution like an episode of C.S.I.

    I don't see the same features on any other part of the demo image.

    I don't see what's so novel about it.

  18. So apparently... on RIAA Sues Homeless Man · · Score: 1

    ...you can only be sanctioned for being improper, but not being stupid.

  19. Re:What about FiOS? on Comcast Offers 50 Mbps Residential Speeds · · Score: 1

    FIOS supports cablecards, although they only have had single-stream cards ("S Cards") up to this point, so to get the dual-tuner functionality you'd need to get two S cards (I think they are/were $3 each). The TiVo HD model supports multi-stream cards ("M Cards"), so if you can get one you only need 1.

    You don't get any sort of two-way support (i.e. FIOS provided EPG, VOD, etc.) with cablecards in general. A future 2.0 spec provides that, but the TiVos are not built for that anyways.

    I will caution - getting the cards properly set up can be a long and tortuous adventure. It depends on the skill of the technician (you cannot get them self-installed), how happy the registration computer is that day, and whether you can convince them to be patient enough to register one card at a time.

  20. Re:What about FiOS? on Comcast Offers 50 Mbps Residential Speeds · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've got the same thing you have, and its definitely TiVo compatible - if you get the cablecards. My two TiVo HDs work like a charm - and I gave up a three dual-tuner networked DirecTiVo setup for it.

    Now, without the cablecard (since you have basic service), you should still pick up the clear QAM channels, but you won't get any programming guide data for them IIRC, which effectively neuters most of the useful TiVo features.

    Of course, if you get an antenna you can use the TiVo HD/Series 3 with it, and get programming data.

  21. More Helium coming... on Helium Crisis Approaching · · Score: 1

    So, now we have a use for that helium cloud that will hit our galaxy. We just have to conserve until then.

    Now, we just need to find a giant crude oil cloud on its way...

  22. Re:This is gonna sound silly, but... on Paramount Casts New James T. Kirk · · Score: 1

    His eyes remind me a lot of the late Jeffrey Hunter, who played Christopher Pike. However, they are talking about him for Kirk.

    And he has NOT been cast. The reports are only that he is in talks.

  23. Yeah...but make it the weekend. on Time Dimension To Become Space-like · · Score: 1

    Uhhh...whut?

    I don't care - I just hope it happens on the weekend so I don't have to go back to work.

  24. Disregard on Indiana Jones Gets Robbed · · Score: 1

    The font was too small on the date...the article is in fact from YESTERDAY.

    Nothing to see here. Move along.

  25. Thief apprehended - in the future?!? on Indiana Jones Gets Robbed · · Score: 1

    The article at IESB has apparently been updated - to say that the thief had been apprehended in a sting operation, at 4:00pm PST.

    Very interesting, considering that right now its 5:26pm EDT. That would make it 2:26pm PDT, and allowing for the timezone error, it would be 1:26pm PST. So he hasn't actually been apprehended yet.

    I wonder if this knowledge from the future will reach him in time to change his fate...