Slashdot Mirror


User: Chris+Mattern

Chris+Mattern's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
7,102
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 7,102

  1. Re:monoculture is a problem on Bye Bye Bananas — the Return of Panama Disease · · Score: 1

    A little of Cinnamon, cloves, chili powder, a couple of green chilies, a clove of garlic, a pinch of turmeric and a little bit of coriander powder and mint leaves if you can find them.


    You can have some plantain in there, too. I mean, if you really want to.
  2. How many servers did you say were down? on Explosion At ThePlanet Datacenter Drops 9,000 Servers · · Score: 0

    It's over NINE THOUSAAAAAND!

  3. Re:The consequences might not be as fun on Comcast Briefly Loses Control of Its Domain Name · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Since when did the monetary cost of a crime determine its punishment?


    Since always, basically. The prime example would be theft, which has always been both a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on how much is stolen.

    The premeditated murder of a drug dealer and the premeditated murder of famous Hollywood celebrity certainly have different economic impacts, but both are capital offenses punishable by (at the very least) life imprisonment.


    With crimes against persons, any monetary impact is considered so secondary as to not be worthy of consideration, generally (a few centuries back, this wasn't the case; in medieval law, if you murdered somebody rich and important, the penalty was indeed greater than if you murdered a serf). With crimes against property, the monetary impact is basically the point. This was a crime against property.
  4. Re:n = 15 on Consumer Reports Gets Its Game On · · Score: 1

    Between a Wii game that you actually play and a gym you never go to, the Wii will be the one that makes a lot more idfference in your condition.

  5. Re:necessity the mother of invention on How Does a Poor Economy Affect Tech Innovation? · · Score: 1

    Save your pennies if you really want it. 15% down payment and an adequate and steady income (the old standard was that you didn't buy a house that cost more than three times your yearly salary) and the banks will be knocking down your door.

  6. Re:Consider the do it yourself way... on Parent-Friendly Wireless Bridge To Span 500 Meters? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Uh huh. Then there's the little matter of getting the right-of-way. I don't imagine that all that 500 meters is on their property.

  7. Re:PGP on How Would You Prefer To Send Sensitive Data? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes.

    However, it is practical to have a large enough keyspace that "enough brute force" cannot be realistically achieved, even assuming machines millions of times faster than the fastest currently available.

  8. Re:Too much UNIX for me on FBI Wiretapping Audit Secrets Uncovered Via Ctrl+C · · Score: 1

    "Ctrl+C" isn't just "Windows" standard, it's actually coming from much older days.


    Um, no it isn't. CUA was introduced in 1987. Windows was first released in 1985 and CUA mostly codified the Windows interface. CUA is a Windows-centric standard.
  9. Re:Dramatic efficiency improvements unlikely. on Hairy Solar Cells Could Mean Higher Efficiency · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, but who's gonna build the catchium reactors?

  10. Re:Unauthorized signal reception on Shopping Centers Track Customers Via Cell Phone Signals · · Score: 1

    Observers means people who have to be paid: expensive. Cameras also mean people who have to be paid, since current image processing technology isn't up to the task of analyzing the video feed. Tracking mobile phones can be done automatically and tabulated automatically: cheap.

  11. Re:I have the answer... on Galaxies Twice As Bright As Previously Thought · · Score: 1

    Oh, for heaven's sake, call them Zerg. Nobody's called them Xenomorphs since Chau Sara was incinerated.

  12. Re:ridiculous on Black Holes Don't Trap Information Forever · · Score: 1

    what do they mean not a continuum? Now we're gonna run out of time?


    No, they mean it's not continuous. It's quantized.
  13. Re:More diabolical than that on Black Holes Don't Trap Information Forever · · Score: 1

    Well, actually, the quantum unit of information is a bit.

  14. Re:Case in point on Early Review Calls New Indiana Jones Film Dreadful · · Score: 1

    No good comic book to movie adaptions?

    I have one word to say to that: Hellboy.

  15. Re:A good trailer on Early Review Calls New Indiana Jones Film Dreadful · · Score: 1

    Cute, but in my opinion, they cheated by photoshopping frames.

  16. Re:Black holes - not hairy on Black Holes Don't Trap Information Forever · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But if information can escape a black hole, that cannot be true. The information must be in there, and must be itself a characteristic of the black hole.

  17. Re:Wait... what? on Swiss Man Flies With Jet Powered Wing · · Score: 1

    Most jet airplanes, and all piston-powered planes, have a thrust-to-weight ratio of less than one, yet they still manage to climb. It's called "aerodynamics". All it means is he can't point straight up and keep going.

  18. Heck, I'll share my secret on A Walk Through the Hard Drive Recovery Process · · Score: 1

    Here it is. Nothing helps a hard disk recovery like 500 Gigs of mirrored backup goodness.

  19. Re:What the hell on DataStorm V1.0, a Full-Auto Floppy Disk Cannon · · Score: 1

    Why isn't it amusing?


    Because (a) it plays an audio clip without warning, which should never happen, and (b) not every one has Flash.

    If a transcript of this video was created, and pictures demonstrated the device, it would be ok?

    Yes, that would be much better.

    Why?

    Because it would suffer from neither of the two problems cited above.

    What if it had links to the demos and just had the "padding" as text?

    Not as good, as you're still shutting out people who don't have Flash or don't want to hear audio, but better, since the user is not presented with an audio/visual clip without warning.

    Would that be ok?

    Acceptable but not perfect.

    So why not the entire thing?

    See the first answer above.
  20. Re:A rare topic on What Is the Oldest Code Written Still Running? · · Score: 1

    I would've told him "I-E-F-B-R-F-O-U-R-T-E-E-N". I wonder if he would catch on that that's longer than eight characters.

  21. Re:re-development cost on Microsoft Prefers Flash To Silverlight · · Score: 1

    The top of the pyramid may be crap, but the bottom is still pretty sharp from what I understand.


    Wait a minute...the *bottom* of the pyramid is sharp? You mean the Egyptians built all theirs upside-down?
  22. Re:re-development cost on Microsoft Prefers Flash To Silverlight · · Score: 1

    They have existing flash code and developers, why would they re-write and re-train?


    Exactly the point. Everybody has existing Flash code and developers. They won't re-write and re-train. You have just stated why Silverlight is dead, dead, dead.
  23. Re:People inside? on NASA Will Man Destruct Switch Just In Case · · Score: 4, Informative

    Didn't RTFA, but are they planning on blowing it up with people inside, if something goes wrong.


    Yes, they are. They always have. *Every* NASA rocket launch includes a self-destruct to prevent ground casualties. This includes the manned missions. In such cases where it would be used, the crew is either dead or will unavoidably be dead very shortly, and the lives on the ground must be saved.
  24. Re:Old concept in a new world on Patent Attorney On Why We Need To Rethink Intellectual Property · · Score: 1

    The lives saved a medicine that was created are better than the lives lost because no-one could afford to create it.

  25. Re:This is ironic ... on R2D2-Shaped DVD and Videogame Projector · · Score: 1

    It also got modded Informative :-).