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User: autocracy

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  1. Re:How? on Cambered Tires Can Improve Fuel Economy · · Score: 1

    The compressor is central to the vehicle and the air lines enter the tires through the center of the hub. Check out http://auto.howstuffworks.com/self-inflating-tire2.htm. Yay current technology!

  2. Re:"Negative Effects" on Cambered Tires Can Improve Fuel Economy · · Score: 1

    Ehh, he's not trolling. All season tires a compromise of everything but how long the rubber lasts. My move from all-seasons to different summer & winter tires has been a night & day difference in traction. Summers let me take stupidly tight & fast turns that unnerve anybody new to my car. Winters (and a limited slip differential) let me crawl over any snow or ice that doesn't reach the bottom of my car's frame. Very entertaining when the 4wd SUV next door is being shoveled out.

  3. Re:Network meltdown due to hub cross-connects on Stupid Data Center Tricks · · Score: 1

    I built a loopback plug. Two wires that connected 1 and 2 to 3 and 6. Plug it into one port and you're done.

  4. Re:Network meltdown due to hub cross-connects on Stupid Data Center Tricks · · Score: 1

    I built a loopback plug. Two wires connecting 1 and 2 to 3 and 6.

  5. Re:In a Volvo? on Building the Zero-Fatality Car · · Score: 1

    Mmkay. Bring it.

  6. Re:FUD on FBI May Get Easier Access To Internet Activity · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In this post-Reichstag world... (Soviet Russia secures YOU?)

  7. Can't hurt? on Amateur Radio In the Backcountry? · · Score: 1

    Do it. I can hit a repeater that's 40 miles away using a 5 watt handheld in my house. Mountain to mountain, I've done 150 miles (Cadillac to Washington). It's not fool-proof, and you'll have to know a lot more than you would with a cell phone. Map the local repeaters, know the tones...

    That said, for the cost, a spectacular tool. I've used mine to start a search & rescue for friends of mine who were lost in a place with no phone service. I bring my VX-8r whenever I go backpacking.

    KB1PNB

  8. Re:they did WHAT? on Talk On Chinese Cyber Army Pulled From Black Hat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Try DEFCON. DEFCON talks have been cancelled in the past by court orders against the speakers, but I'm not aware of DEFCON ever dropping a talk due to pressure.

    Also: lower cost, much of the same material, more material above that, and beer.

  9. Re:Indeed on A Composer's-Eye View of the Copyright Wars · · Score: 1

    True, but the rules apply the same. An overdrawn debit card cannot be forcibly recovered.

  10. Re:Indeed on A Composer's-Eye View of the Copyright Wars · · Score: 1

    I'm not aware myself of any law that restricts minors from having cards. I am aware that they can disclaim all liability, so if a bank were to issue a card to a minor, the minor could not be held legally responsible for it if they decided to not pay. This is why banks require a parent's involvement -- so that the parent is liable.

  11. Re:HF Trading reduces spread, increases liquidity on Flash Crash Analysis of May 6 Stock Market Plunge · · Score: 1

    Synchronized clock. All trade requests queue and are executed once every n (in this example, five) seconds. So, whatever you ask for at 1:57:22 will be fulfilled at 1:57:25. If it can't be fulfilled, you'll get an exception notice.

  12. Re:Parents are the Biggest Factor on Teaching Fifth Graders Engineering · · Score: 1

    It means the kid was adopted?

  13. What I'd hack up: on Best Telephone For Datacenters? · · Score: 1

    Get a throat microphone and a secret-service type earpiece. Wires from those are very standard mono jacks and if you can't find the parts to convert them into the right plug at Radioshack, you can certainly buy the bare plug ends and solder up a harness in 15 minutes.

  14. Umm, misinterpreted? on Arizona Backs Off Its Speed Camera Program · · Score: 4, Informative

    ".. Worker being struck by a vehicle," does not always mean that they were hit by a passenger car. Sometimes it does, but I suspect that the majority of those incidents were along the line of, "run over by a (backhoe | forklift | dumptruck)."

    In fact, "In 54 percent (274) of the cases, a truck struck the worker. Of these trucks, 36 percent were dump trucks, 21 percent were pickup trucks, and 19 percent were semitrailer, tractor trailer, or trailer trucks. Automobiles were the source in 28 percent (143) of all cases of struck by vehicle or mobile equipment at road construction sites. Finally, construction machinery, which includes backhoes, levelers, planers, scrapers, steamrollers, and road pavers, accounted for 11 percent (56) of the struck by vehicle or mobile equipment fatalities." In short, we tend to run over our own.

    This data is also over a seven year period. Please read your own data, and note that it points to traffic not being the primary cause of of death for workers. Most of those trucks and some of those cars are probably workers. I pity the poor bastard that was taken out by a steamroller.

  15. Re:Video on Wikileaks Releases Video of Journalist Killings · · Score: 1

    I strongly assume that the optics that the helicopter crew are looking through are of a higher resolution than the recording system.

  16. Well, I know which country hosts my next VPS on MP3 Player Tax Proposed In Canada · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just saying... :)

  17. It's a HUGE issues with my disc brakes on Should I Take Toyota's Software Update? · · Score: 1

    My pads for my disc brakes are quite stiff and have immense stopping power under high load. High temperature pads are great that way. The downside: nothing sucks the feeling out of your heart like dropping the pedal to the floor and having a delay while the water evaporates off the brakes enough that they can heat up and begin really stopping the car.

    Summer tire to winter tire transitions are also rather annoying...

  18. Dropped mine once on Owners Smash iPhones To Get Upgrades, Says Insurance Company · · Score: 1

    I upgraded to the new 3GS. A few weeks later I was out rock climbing. While being lowered down, my wallet and phone decided to simultaneously vacate their respective pockets. The wallet was fine, but the phone's screen took a beating. Thankfully the cost I had to pay with my AMEX was equal to the cost of the repair, and AMEX covered it. Of course, I've gotten fed up enough with how Apple deals with the unlocking / tethering / app store details that when I'm done with this term, I'm going somewhere else.

    There, now /. has another comment everyone can read and think, "Who cares?"

  19. Crime? on 'Iceman' Gets 13 Years For 2nd Hacking Offense · · Score: 1

    You could argue with that statement that people who smoke pot have turned to crime.

    I think the key determination in saying one has turned to crime is that crime is at least intended to be a source of income. He had broken the law before, yes. This phrase about turning to crime means something else specific in my mind... like his credit card ring in the second instance.

  20. Re:Settlement on RIAA Confusion In Tenenbaum & Thomas Cases? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Depends on the jurisdiction. Stealing a paragraph from a 2002 Maine Supreme Court decision:

    Nugent’s second point on appeal, that he had a right to a jury trial in
    this speeding infraction case, is resolved by our ruling in State v. Anton, 463 A.2d
    703 (Me. 1983). In Anton a right to a jury trial in a speeding infraction case was
    asserted, based on the Maine Constitution. We held that (1) “traffic infraction
    proceedings are not ‘criminal prosecutions’ for which the right to trial by jury is
    guaranteed by article I, section 6 of the Maine Constitution,” id. at 708, and (2)
    there is no civil jury trial right for traffic infraction proceedings afforded by
    article I, section 20 of the Maine Constitution, id. at 708-09. The scholarly
    review of the law undertaken by Justice Godfrey in Anton remains good law
    today. There is no right to a jury trial in traffic infraction cases.

  21. Digitzor link uesless on Google Switching To EXT4 Filesystem · · Score: 5, Informative

    I managed to ease a pageview out of it. That said, the /. summary says all they say, and you're all better served by the source they point to, which is what SHOULD have been in the article summary instead of the Digitzor site.

    See http://lists.openwall.net/linux-ext4/2010/01/04/8

  22. Actually... on Does a Lame E-Mail Address Really Matter? · · Score: 3, Funny

    I won't show up to an interview with a cravat, but I do wear a top hat and bridge coat when I walk to work in the winter. It's quite a bit of fun. I work at a CPA firm.

  23. Re:Nope on Managing Young Sys Admins At Oregon State Open Source Lab · · Score: 1

    Well, I don't intend to have a big back-and-forth on it, but I work professionally at a CPA firm. I'm entering my 5th year there. It is their policy that interns are near graduation, and staff have degrees. I was brought in at the end of my freshman year. In that time, I've become the resident expert on Unix related audits, designed and maintained several systems that deal with varying types of medical billing information for every hospital in my state, and I know most of the legal requirements of my state since I review compliance with them. I audited the state lottery three years running, and was lead on-site on the last year I did. I've got more stories and other companies behind that. COBIT, SOX, SAS 70, HIPAA... they're as much a part of my world as the shell is.

    I'm not trying to build a resume for you, and I think I've made enough point of the experience... five years defined there. When an entire department's technical students rally over replacing an admin, something is wrong. A month's pay doesn't have to dictate that the students even know I exist... but they ought to be able to rely on the lab machines to be operable, their files to be reliably stored, and their OS to carry the correct libraries for the assigned projects.

    My post isn't a novel, and it was never to convince you... or anybody else that I'm qualified. It was a short, informative, and successful response to its parent -- not all Universities do that (I think most don't), and here's my example. It's not ignorant, it just didn't have to be more than it was. To the effect of all that you said above, one of the greatest traits I think I have is that I know when I'm in over my head, and I'm acutely aware of when I'm pushing past where I've been.

    At the same time, so painfully, your post is that arrogant. You treat me as if I've stormed in saying, "This guy is doing it all wrong... what an idiot... I know SO much better." In fairness, my post does say he's not doing his job well, but it's not my voice... it's the collective carried complaints of an entire department of students who use those machines. I didn't charge in, and I never campaigned for it. I was asked if I would accept should they be able to convince the department, and I accepted. They were unable to do so, and my life goes on. Your own post, in three words that really matter: temper yourself some.

  24. Nope on Managing Young Sys Admins At Oregon State Open Source Lab · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The members of the CS department at my college actually petitioned to have me take over as their lab admin. The incumbent staff admin was notorious for breaking things and making it a chore to use the systems. Despite the complaints against him and requests specifically to hire me on, the department chair kept the incumbent.

    I found it all very amusing, especially since I'm not a CS student. I'm just well-known enough to the group. I'm also greatly amused by how often I get asked for help when I'm around there, specifically one case where a student was in a 390-something class. I replied, "We really don't know each other at all, and I'm not a CS student. What made you think I am a good person to ask?" He said he'd just seen me help with enough other people's problems... and so I gave him a hand too.

    Long-windedness aside, my university only uses students to provide, "Cean the viruses off your personal computer," services.

  25. To implement a software radio? on MagicJack Femtocell Gates Cell Traffic to VoIP · · Score: 1

    Hundreds of dollars hard. Maybe $100 when mass-produced.

    Besides which, if it was standalone then they'd lose their advertising revenue. For me, the ads in software on my machine are a complete turnoff. For that, I've never installed it.