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User: bobalu

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  1. Seymour Cray off-topic to Cray Research? on Update From Cray World · · Score: 1

    How in the wide world of sports could a reference to the intelligence of Seymour Cray be off-topic to an article on Cray Research? Moderators: Put down the crack-pipe and try some cognac.

  2. actually per season on Baseball Fans Must Pay To Listen Online · · Score: 1

    Well, it was $10 per SEASON, not per month. But yeah, I think you've got the right idea with the TV and rabbit ears.

    Anyway, consider how fortunate you are:

    Until recently the only way you'd get something *close* to broadband was a real T1 for $1-3k per month depending on where you are and who you get it from.

    My first 17" monitor cost $1450 (just the tube, no PC with it!) My first 4 PCs were over $3k each, and I've gone through about 12 of them from '90 to '00.

    Oh, and I dropped $8K on a really nice Amiga in '87. Granted it had a touch-sensitive tablet, video digitizers, genlock, etc. etc., but still...

    So you may not want to bitch about the money *too* much.

  3. Repeat after me... on MS To Work To Make .NET Run OSes Beyond Windows · · Score: 3

    Embrace and extend, embrace and extend, embrace and extend....

    As the Talking Heads said so well:

    "Same as as it ever was, same as it ever was..."

  4. Re:Not a bargain on Samsung Introduces 24-Inch LCD · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I was just thinking I could get 10 21" flat-screen tubes for about that same price. So who needs picture-in-picture?

    Of course I might need to shore up the foundation of the house to handle the weight...

  5. Physicists Rule on Van Gogh... the Astronomer · · Score: 1

    'nuff said.

  6. Re:A Canticle For Leibowitz on Rebooting The World? · · Score: 1

    On the other hand, we may be 20 years away from near-immortality via biotech, heavily dependent on that "evil" technology. What if we just needed to be smart enough to get through a few more years?

  7. Re:Remember to keep a spare physics book in yer tr on Rebooting The World? · · Score: 1

    Hopefully the trunk still opens with a key! Put it in the trunk of a '66 Caddy, that'd do ya.

  8. help wanted: Scribe on Rebooting The World? · · Score: 1

    Help Wanted: Scribe

    To start immediately, the successful candidate will be able to write legibly and have extensive experience in making paper and ink.

    Please apply in person.

  9. The value of getting a PH.D on The DeCSS Haiku · · Score: 1

    This, folks, is the best reason to actually go through that crazy academic process so many of gave up on for one reason or another. As a proper professor with all the societal respect that engenders, Dr. Touretzky can take a position against these creeps and have a chance in the courts and the media. All of us scruffy hacks that didn't have the patience for more college should tip our hats to this guy in thanks.

    And I can't help but wonder if he's teaching the birds to sing the source. :-)

  10. Real name is Jon? on CowboyNeal Speaks · · Score: 1

    So what, like he isn't even a Neal at all, much less a real Cowboy Neal? I *am* depressed.

    Geez, where did all the heroes go...

  11. Never "just sign" on Making Sense Of An Employee IP Agreement · · Score: 2

    I've been hit by those things more than once. Got really burned by signing a no-compete with a defense contractor - it could have been a multi-year consulting job I threw away for a few grand. DON'T SIGN YOUR RIGHTS AWAY.

    As a contractor, I saw one that actually specified that if you were unable to complete the contract (i.e. 40 hrs/wk for X months) they were entitled to have YOU PAY THEM 125% of your hourly rate for every hour missed!!! I was like "what, are you on crack?" (The contract was to do HTML for the GOP convention in Philly, by the way. I passed.)

    Recently I went from contract to employee, and the NDA/non-comete they put in front of me was ridiculous, re. shopping carts, all copyrights, etc. etc. I said hey, my company is older than yours and I've done my own shopping cart stuff before yours existed! Do you really think I'm going to sign this? When they asked for a list of everything I wanted off-limits (Exhibit A), I hit them with about 60 websites, calculator programs, a shopping cart, etc. etc. and sent a copy to my laywer.

    As of this writing, they seem to have forgotten all about it.

  12. Indefensible on European Record Industry Goes After Personal Computers · · Score: 1

    I think these laws are totally indefensible. It's simply not right to charge me for something which I may never use. If I buy CD's then I shouldn't be paying more for my computers because someone else downloads MP3s. It's being judged guilty and fined before any crime is committed. AAAARRRRRGHHHHH.

  13. image you project? on Does Age Really Matter? · · Score: 1

    Two things:

    1) As a guy who came up when teens didn't have access to a PC because they didn't exist yet, it's understandable that an older boss might not "get" how much experience a young guy can have. I was finishing my associates when the first PC came out. If you had access to a computer before that it was probably because your father was an early hacker or worked somewhere that had a dial-up into a PDP or something. So there *were no* teenage hackers, really.

    2) There are a lot of smart people out there, but if they can't present themselves right they'll get no respect. You have to take a good look at yourself and how you interact with people. Do you whine when you don't get your way? Nag? Act like a "kid"? Act like everyone else is old and stupid? Sometime it takes a few years to know how to tell someone something without mentioning that if they had a clue they'd know it already. You'll see a lot of that on SlashDot. Overly critical, people here will say you're an idiot if you forget to close a Bold tag like another poster did today. Of course the people complaining about his idiocy will often have typos in their own posts, but still they felt they had the "moral authority" to say they'd never work for someone like that. Woof.

    I once worked with a guy about 22, very bright, who complained bitterly to the VP because I had opined that what he was trying to do probably wouldn't work. (Make huge mods to a program 2 hrs before a demo.) He said "I've been programming since I was 2 yrs old." I said, "Yeah, I've been programming since you were 2 years old too; I was working for Princeton U. at the time, who was your client?"

    Was he bright? Yup. Was he a pain in the ass? Yup.

  14. reasonable speed limits on Speeding To Become Impossible In UK? · · Score: 1

    It would help if they set reasonable speed limits instead of ones guaranteed to cause ticket revenue. Where I live there are a lot of 35 mph roads I could safely do 60 on. That's a recipe for encouraging people to break the law.

    A free society does not mean that people should be free to flaunt laws that are to everyone's benefit

    Perhaps you're not aware of it, but in America we have a tradition of breaking bad laws. It's actually sort of a citizen's duty and serves to keep us from dumping tea in the harbor again.

    I'm sure as hell not going to pay for the roads and infrastructure you'll need in order to drive around.

    Well, you are if you pay taxes. I don't say "I'm sure as hell not going to pay for bike paths so some tree-hugger can ride his recumbent bicycle to work."

    ---raju1kabir, pedestrian and cyclist

    Oh, so you just hate cars... nevermind. I see you morally-superior types all the time... going through red lights, taking up a lane of traffic at 20mph in a 45 zone... riding in the street instead of the bike path MY taxes paid for... yeah, I get the picture.

  15. Re:engineers on Speeding To Become Impossible In UK? · · Score: 1

    I have two kids, who I take to daycare in the back of my car. I don't want them killed by some maniac driving an SUV 20 m.p.h. over the speed limit

    Funny, I see a lot of problems with overworked moms who are too disracted by their kids to pay attention to the road.

    The parking lot at my school is like a death trap, with hormonal teenagers driving 45 mph.

    Something tells me GPS-limited speed isn't going to stop teenagers from being hormonal, or doing dumb stuff. And I'm not sure a parking lot is going to have a large enough footprint to be included in the system anyway. Technology is no substitute for paying attention. I've seen people doing 45 in a church parking lot to beat out someone else for a space. They weren't teenagers.

    As a pedestrian, I'm also tired of trying to cross the street at a crosswalk while pushing a kid in a stroller, and getting cut off by some crackhead making a right turn.

    Maybe you should consider moving to a smaller town to raise your kids. This isn't the 50's. Not many people expect baby carriages in a busy city. Maybe they think no mother would be crazy enough to do that and we should put you in jail for endangering your kids.

    How about having the signal kill the ignition on people's engine if a satellite detects that they're tailgating

    So the guy behind them can hit them in the ass when they sudenly stop? Now there's a safety innovation. You don't actually think things through much, do you? Ever consider running for Congress? You'd fit right in.

    or talking on their cell phone while they drive?

    This is not exactly life-threatening if you're not an idiot. Maybe they're reporting a drunk driver. Why not just take all those nasty cell towers down? Why not make everyone drive a golf cart? Would that make you happy? They only do 25.

    To borrow a line from Monty Python, "It's people like you what cause unrest." You want a nice neat technological fix for everything that bugs you. If you don't like your job or city or whatever try taking responsibility for it and changing your own life. That doesn't require restricting everyone else's and you don't have to wait for a bazillion dollar system to be put up by feds just in time for your kids to graduate from high school.

  16. emergency room? on Speeding To Become Impossible In UK? · · Score: 1

    I hope nobody has to get to the hospital in a hurry. Like, when you're helping someone cut a tree down and they get swiped by a chainsaw or something. No time to call an ambulance and "let the professionals" do over 40.

    Time for that '66 GTO I think.

  17. What is the purpose... on Build Your Own Set Top Box · · Score: 1

    But what is the purpose of buying hardware when you can build your own?

    Umm, so you can go home, plug it in and use it?

    Duh.

  18. good guy - kinda sad on New Boxes For Captain Crunch · · Score: 1

    I met John Draper at an Audio Engineering Society convention in 1981. He was talking to the guys from Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument) about Forth. Turns out he was a friend of Chris Hanley, who went on to buy A&R Studios in NYC, so we hung out for awhile and I visited him in Berkeley (maybe Oakland?). Strange guy, but he was basically responsible for my switch from hardware to software, and for that I thank him still and wish him well.

  19. Re:CCTV in the UK.. it's probably useless on What Privacy? UK DNA Database Could Grow Fast · · Score: 1

    Well, it's probably a lot cheaper that way... "oh, those are just camera cases to work as dummies, we didn't have enough money for real cameras".

    Just telling people they're being surveilled is enough to stop most people... apparently your thugs knew better.

  20. Re:Guns! on What Privacy? UK DNA Database Could Grow Fast · · Score: 1

    I don't think that argument holds up. It's one thing to bomb Sarajevo or Bhagdad back to the stone age, quiet another to take out NYC.

    They'd have to get those neutron bombs back online. And then find a new populace to do all the work.

  21. Re:Sale of database to insurers? on What Privacy? UK DNA Database Could Grow Fast · · Score: 1

    I weary of this NRA-inspired doublespeak

    I have no love of the NRA, but it's not doublespeak. That it seems unbelievable it could happen is a positive reflection on the stability of our society, but times change.

    As of 1998, the total US military strength was 1,389,558. (see http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan1999/b01251999_ bt028-99.html)

    The armed forces are setup to fight at least 2 theaters-of-war simultaneously. Not 100. We don't do guerilla stuff particularly well, and it's doubtful our preferred method of bombing the place back to the stone age would be desirable if the target was the World Trade Tower.

    If we figure about 100 million adult males, we have a 100-1 citizen/soldier ratio. One guy with an automatic weapon can easily hold off 100 citizens. But if 25 or 50 of those guys have guns, that soldier is in trouble. (He will also have the disadvantage of shooting his neighbors.)

    Yes, the military could secure a number of areas, like Washington, etc. But if there was a real widespread armed revolt they'd be in trouble.

  22. whaddaya mean "you"? on What Privacy? UK DNA Database Could Grow Fast · · Score: 1

    Um, I think the "you" in this case were British or Spanish citizens to start with, no? I mean, since the country wasn't really formed for another hundred or so years after the place was colonized?

    And given *when* that all happened, saying "you" did it is like blaming me for slavery because I'm white, even though my ancestors were starving in Ireland at the time.

    did your comment come with a total lack of European history

    Is that a rhetorical question? :-) Unfortunately true - history is probably far down the list of subjects Americans actually study.

  23. Re:Won't take long. - true on What Privacy? UK DNA Database Could Grow Fast · · Score: 1

    Yes, you're right. I think the guys in his family need to go on walkabout a bit more, eh?

  24. Speaker choice == religion on What Audio System Powers Your Home Theater? · · Score: 1

    When it comes to speakers, you just have to go and see for yourself, keeping your budget and space in mind. I've worked in studios with serious speakers like the old Urei 413s with 4000 watts behind them and anything other than that level is a compromise. For instance a lot of people here trash Bose, but if your viewing room is 15x10 you'll appreciate being able to have the speakers AND room for a chair. The flat-panel electrostatic stuff is great but takes a ton of power and can fry your cat if they're nosy. Just beware there are a lot of snake oil salesmen in the high-end audio stores, and a lot of people have a very peer-group-pressure mentatlity when it comes to what they think they "hear".

    Take a CD of something like Weather Report's Heavy Weather. "Birdland" is a great track to check out both high and low response.

  25. Re:Nut - that would make too much sense on Macs In Space II · · Score: 1

    Putting a Mac in space is like using a new Volkswagon Beetle as a spaceship. It's cute, but really out of place. Now don't get me wrong, there are lots of good reasons for people to use a Mac, and I have nothing against them except their way-too-high prices, but... for this kind of thing you have to be a "Believer" to sign on, and the Mac following is better at that than any other bunch.

    After all, they're SUPERCOMPUTERs, right?