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User: Chris+Mattern

Chris+Mattern's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 7,102

  1. Re:small dual screens is kind of a dumb idea on Meet the Laptop of 2015 · · Score: 1

    Yes, it would've taken additional space. The one screen twice the size model would not fold up to fit in your pocket. It also would've been more expensive extending the touch screen to twice the area, and, for that matter, two LCD screens are a lot cheaper than one LCD screen twice the size anyways. It makes sense from a lot of different angles.

  2. Re:Old Technologies that are still kicking... on Why OldTech Keeps Kicking · · Score: 1

    Heh. My first job involving computers was being a tape monkey. Literally, my eight hour shift, I would watch a 3270 terminal for tape mount requests and mount the tapes requested. When I wasn't doing that, I was reshelving tapes, pulling new scratch tapes and cleaning the drives, which looked like this. Later I advanced to other computer operator duties and finally graduated to system administration, but hanging tapes was part of my job description for some years.

  3. Re:What's the REAL significance of any of this? on The Coming Digital Presidency · · Score: 1

    You tripped over the OP's admittedly rather tangled syntax. That's what he was saying--that Joe Sixpack trusts the TV more than the Internet.

  4. Re:Why is this reported? on Nuclear Nose Cones Mistakenly Shipped to Taiwan · · Score: 1

    Two main reasons:

    1) This involves NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

    2) The *next* time we send nuclear weapon components to the wrong address, the recipient might not be nice enough to send them back. And they might wind up somewhere we wouldn't like.

  5. Re:Don't fully understand his arguments on ODF Editor Says ODF Loses If OOXML Does · · Score: 1

    In other news, Mr. Durusau was reported saying, "Do you like my hat? It's made of MONEY!"

  6. Re:I want to go back 40 years... on What Will Life Be Like In 2008? · · Score: 1

    Why? Nowadays you can make tens of thousands of dollars just by helping some Nigerian move money around!

  7. Re:Where's my Intelligence Pill? on What Will Life Be Like In 2008? · · Score: 4, Funny

    You should've remembered to take your memory pill. But then, that's the trick, isn't it?

  8. Re:You're missing the point on Does It Suck To Be An Engineering Student? · · Score: 3, Funny

    A kid smearing finger-paint has no boundaries (literally--ask any mother about all the places the paint gets to), works quickly, and does it with ease and joy, exploring very basic aspects of vision. I propose we populate modern art galleries with children's finger paintings instead of having to pay ridiculous sums to all these grown-ups doing finger painting.

  9. Re:Not really the point on White House Says Hard Drives Were Destroyed · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Data retention policies that mandate the destruction of data after a certain amount of time are generally implemented for legal reasons, not to save on storage costs or costs of safeguarding the data (although those are nice bonuses). The problem comes when the data is subpoenaed as evidence in a court case and the data is found to have been deleted. If the court decides you deleted the data in order to prevent the court from seeing it, you are in a WHOLE lot of trouble. But if your lawyers can show you have a policy of always deleting this kind of data in this kind of manner, it shows you didn't delete just this data with the specific intent of hiding evidence, and you're off the hook.

  10. Re:abra-ca-de-ridiculous! on MD Bill Would Criminalize Theft of Wireless Access · · Score: 1

    Is it also considered trespassing when my neighbors' WAP radio waves invade the airspace around my house and above my yard?


    If you can demonstrate that the RF radiation from his WAP are interfering with the proper operation of electrical equipment (including radios or a WAP of your own) on your property, then, yes, that is against the law and you can take him to court and make correct the situation. You might want to read the FCC-mandated notice you get with any piece of potentially RF transmitting equipment you buy. Often it's put right on the case.
  11. Re:Nice name for a group on The International Cyber Cop Unit · · Score: 1

    Looks more Welsh to me. W as a vowel and all...

  12. Re:Minor discrepancy...MAJOR problem. on Sequoia Vote Machine Can't Do Simple Arithmetic? · · Score: 0, Troll

    Perhaps the error was on Mr. Felton's side... what method did he use to count the votes?

    He used the "look at the vote totals the machine printed" method.


    No, he didn't. He's saying the the vote totals the machine printed are *wrong*. Therefore he must have used some other method to count the votes to come up with a total that says the machine is wrong.
  13. Re:You cannot prove correctness at all on Sequoia Vote Machine Can't Do Simple Arithmetic? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mathematically speaking, proving a program correct from the source code is in generaly impossible


    Arbitrary program code cannot be proven correct, true. However, program code can be designed to be provable.
  14. Re:That's nothing on Archive Formats Kill Antivirus Products · · Score: 1

    Actually, now it's *over* nine thousaaaaaand!!

  15. Re:hmm, actually, if only for virus protection... on Archive Formats Kill Antivirus Products · · Score: 2, Funny

    Are you kidding? Do you know how long it's been since Eniac came out with security update patches?

  16. Re:hmm... on Vista Service Pack 1 Is Out · · Score: 1

    "This is bad. Very bad!"

    "Let Microsoft inflict a bug-ridden patch on us? I don't *think* so!"

  17. Re:What Languages? on What Programming Languages Should You Learn Next? · · Score: 4, Funny

    FORTH learn to want I would why?

  18. Re:Why no go back to horses sometime? on 100-Year-Old Electric Car Design Makes a Comeback · · Score: 1

    nteresting little factoid... If you look at the German Eastern front in WWII, and Poland and Russia, more troops rode on the back of a horse in WWII than rode in a vehicle!


    Not quite true. What you meant to say is more troops rode in horse-drawn vehicles than rode in motor vehicles. Not all that many rode on the back of a horse, although the Russians did have some success with horse cavalry in Pripet Marshes.
  19. Re:And? on UK Police Want DNA of 'Potential Offenders' · · Score: 1

    I'll just be taking your computer and car, then. People didn't need
    those things for 50,000 years, you don't either.

  20. Ogopogo? on What's Your Favorite Monster? · · Score: 1

    Igopogo!

  21. Re:Sounds like an abuse cool technology on Google's New Patent on Commercial Breaks · · Score: 1

    Oh, the US has had what gets called "Paid Product Programming" for years and years; the UK probably got it from us. I will admit, you don't generally get commercials interrupting the commercial, though; the sponsor paid his money to have an hour or two, and he gets it without interruption.

  22. Re:More tanks on America's Robot Army · · Score: 1

    Doesn't sound like a tank as long as it has wheels.

  23. Re:they're not building the containment vessels on Samurai-Sword Maker May Cool Nuclear Revival · · Score: 1

    Hey, don't blame them until you've tasted whale for yourself. It's blubberlicious!

  24. Re:Nice, but how does it compare on Samurai-Sword Maker May Cool Nuclear Revival · · Score: 2, Funny

    And afterwards, it can still slice this tomato clean as a whistle!

  25. Re:Slightly sensationalist summary I feel on Samurai-Sword Maker May Cool Nuclear Revival · · Score: 1

    The Russians cast their own pressure vessels.


    The Russians also had Chernobyl. No offense, but I'm not in favor of following Russian examples in nuclear power without *serious* rechecking.