Slashdot Mirror


User: walterbyrd

walterbyrd's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
4,616
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 4,616

  1. Re:The problem is 18 months to get clearance. on RAND Study: Looser Civil Service Rules Would Ease Cybersecurity Shortage · · Score: 1

    Very good point. It used to take six months. Also, a TS lasted for five years, now, I think, it only lasts for two.

    Just more massive government inefficiency.

  2. Better than being stoned to death on Saudi Government Targeting Dissidents With Mobile Malware · · Score: 1

    Or having your hands/feet/head cut off. Or being sentenced to 100 lashes. Or being blown up in a terrorist attack.

    As Saudi attacks on infidels go, this seems fairly mild.

  3. Ward Churchill made $140K a year on Teaching College Is No Longer a Middle Class Job · · Score: 1

    And that was over ten years ago.

    Ward is the jackass who compared the 9/11 victims to Nazis, shortly after 9/11.

    Really, $140K a year to teach that kind of crap, and those coddled ivory tower bozos are still crying poverty?

  4. How amazingly convenient! on IRS Recycled Lerner Hard Drive · · Score: 0

    The hard crashed right after it was discovered that the IRS was involved in a partisan scam. Perfect timing.

    And this from an administration so well known for it's cover-ups - like the Benghazi cover-up.

    If this is what the government claims, then it must be true. We never get anything but 100% truth from our government, right?

  5. 1997 and badly disappointed on X Window System Turns 30 Years Old · · Score: 1

    I heard so much about Linux, and how it blew Windows away, in terms of performance.

    At the time, Windows 1995 ran acceptably well on a 386. Linux, with Gnome, was so slow, I could practically count the pixels as they appeared on my screen.

    These days, I use Linux, nearly exclusively. On modern hardware, I think Linux does just fine. But on 1990s era hardware, not so much.

  6. Cite your source? on Chinese Gov't Reveals Microsoft's Secret List of Android-Killer Patents · · Score: 1

    Certainly you would not make such a series of scathing allegations without solid proof.

    Would you?

  7. Did Apple start the "patent bully" thing? on Chinese Gov't Reveals Microsoft's Secret List of Android-Killer Patents · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Or is that just another idea that somebody else invented, but Apple perfected? Then Microsoft steals the idea from Apple?

    In the early 1990s, Apple was suing everybody over this "look and feel" nonsense.

    Apple has to be the ultimate patent trolling software company. Especially considering their patents are mostly over silly design issues that Apple did not even "invent."

    But as horrible as Apple is, Microsoft comes close.

  8. Why not just take vitamin pills? on "Super Bananas" May Save Millions of Lives In Africa · · Score: 1

    One tiny tablet, and you get all the vitamins you need, and then some.

  9. Getting erroneous statements from ATT for years on AT&T Says Customer Data Accessed To Unlock Smartphones · · Score: 1

    I constantly get statements from ATT saying "we have deducted this money from your bank account" I have been getting them for two years, at least.

    ATT tells me it is a glitch in their system, and not to worry about it.

    So far, no money has been wrong deducted, that I am aware of.

    However, I do not consider this to be confidence inspiring.

  10. Re:Why would I spend $400 on this? on HP (Re-)Announces a 14" Android Laptop · · Score: 1

    Faster boot? Faster shutdown? Less crapware? Less malware? Less rebooting? Less vendor lock-in? Longer battery life?

    I don't really know, but those are possibilities. All of those things certainly apply to ChromeOS.

  11. Re:Actual Facts on In First American TV Interview, Snowden Talks Accountability and Patriotism · · Score: 1

    > You forgot the one where he knowingly and intentionally violated the law.

    So did Rosa Parks.

    Maybe more relevant examples of such law breakers would be Ben Franklin, or Daniel Ellsberg?

  12. Benjamin Franklin? Daniel Ellsberg? on In First American TV Interview, Snowden Talks Accountability and Patriotism · · Score: 1

    Is Snowden in the same class as these patriots?

    > Like Edward Snowden, Benjamin Franklin Was Called a Traitor For Informing the People About the Actions of its Government
    http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/10/like-edward-snowden-benjamin-franklin-was-called-a-traitor-for-informing-the-people-about-the-actions-of-its-government.html

    > Pentagon Papers Leaker Daniel Ellsberg Praises Snowden, Manning
    http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/03/208602113/pentagon-papers-leaker-daniel-ellsberg-praises-snowden-manning

  13. Re:Sudden outbreak of common sense? on China Looks To Linux As Windows Alternative · · Score: 1

    I have used several. Right now I have a quad-core AMD 64-bit. I am using CentOS 6.5.

  14. Re:No ban on Win7 and MS just extended sales to Ch on China Looks To Linux As Windows Alternative · · Score: 1

    Gotta think long term.

    MS has been pulling the same scams for decades. Bottom line: you cannot trust Microsoft. Not now, not ever. MS is going to do everything it can to force people onto win8, everybody knows it.

    Maybe China has finally wised up?

  15. Re:Reverse Engineering. The problem is the ecosyst on China Looks To Linux As Windows Alternative · · Score: 1

    As soon as you reverse engineer windows, MS will change something so that your reverse engineered version is no longer compatible.

    Look at MS does with it's ms-office formats.

  16. Re:well i've got news for you china on China Looks To Linux As Windows Alternative · · Score: 2

    In linux, the source code is visible, makes it harder to hide stuff.

    In my experience - and I have quite a lot - linux is *far* more secure than windows.

    Closing ports, or whatever, is ridiculously simple. Finding hidden code in a binary distribution is much tougher.

  17. Re:Key to this. on China Looks To Linux As Windows Alternative · · Score: 1

    LibreOffice works for me.

    BTW: MS's nasty vendor lock-in scam is just another very good reason to ditch windows.

  18. Re:Sudden outbreak of common sense? on China Looks To Linux As Windows Alternative · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Certainly not true in my case.

    I think windows, especially after XP, is a total POS. Linux desktop blows it away in terms of speed, security, reliability, and everything else.

    Although I hardly use it anymore, I constantly have to muck with win7 on my laptop. Badly behaved apps put crap in my start up - making the boot time even slower. Every time I boot up, or shut down, I have to wait for updates. Sound stopped working for no apparent reason, had to fix something in the registry. On and on, one thing after another.

    Linux just works, and work well. After using windows, linux is like a breath of fresh air.

  19. Re:Maybe just get out of the middle east altogethe on U.S. Drone Attack Strategy Against Al-Qaeda May Be Wrong · · Score: 1

    So we just kill anybody who might, someday, be a potential threat? And don't worry about collateral damage either?

    We start doing that, and people with say, with some justification, that we are just a great bully. We start doing that and others will feel fully justified in attacking us in every possible way. Even our allies we snort that we are getting what we deserve.

    This not like WW2 where we had soldiers fighting soldiers. We are not fighting a nation that can ever negotiate any kind of peace.

    The more the US involves itself in mid-east affairs, the more they are motivated to attack the US. Nobody flew airplanes into building in Switzerland.

  20. Re:If you have the opportunity on U.S. Drone Attack Strategy Against Al-Qaeda May Be Wrong · · Score: 1

    > FTFY, after all, only idiots think their goal is to 'terrorize' the US when it's actual fighting to not be oppressed under US 'freedom' and 'capitalism'.

    I guess that explains why they kidnapped those 200 girls. No doubt those girls were going to oppress them.

    I guess that explains why Muslims kill other Muslims in terrorists attacks so often.

  21. Re:If you have the opportunity on U.S. Drone Attack Strategy Against Al-Qaeda May Be Wrong · · Score: 1

    > I support Israel's right to exist but I think they've done themselves no favors by being so repressive of the people who were living there before they took over.

    Repressive? How so?

    Is Israel, a Muslim has all the same rights as anybody else. In Israel, Palestinians can, and do: vote, hold public office, own property, and so on. This is very different than other mid-eastern nations, which would never give equal rights to a Palestinian.

  22. Re:If you have the opportunity on U.S. Drone Attack Strategy Against Al-Qaeda May Be Wrong · · Score: 1

    There are more than "pockets of support." Hamas, which rules Palestine, has it right it their charter, that their mission to kill all Jews, all over the world.

    The entire nation of Saudi lives by these rules.

    There have been over 23,000 Muslim terrorist attacks since 9/11, resulting in over 250,000 causalities.

    Go to youtube and watch videos of high-ranking Muslim clerics, and statesmen, preach bigotry, misogyny, and violence. Way beyond anything preached by the KKK or Nazis. And why not? They are preaching what is written.

  23. Re:If you have the opportunity on U.S. Drone Attack Strategy Against Al-Qaeda May Be Wrong · · Score: 1

    Jmc23 I suggest you actually take a look at Islamic holy books. The central themes are bigotry, misogyny, and violence. The Qur'an is, as much as anything, a manual on forcing infidels to submit.

    Islam is all about submitting to Islam, and forcing others to submit. "Kill the infidel where ever you find him." "Never have infidels as friends." "Feel free to lie to infidels." It's all there, and much more.

  24. Mod Parent up! on U.S. Drone Attack Strategy Against Al-Qaeda May Be Wrong · · Score: 1

      mrxak is on of the very few posters on slashdot who actually understands Islam.

  25. Re:Hmmmmm... on U.S. Drone Attack Strategy Against Al-Qaeda May Be Wrong · · Score: 1

    This situation is very different.

    In this situation there is no country to defeat. There is no centralized structure. It's not like fighting an elephant, it's like fighting a lot of ants.