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User: jawtheshark

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  1. Re:Teaching 'recipies' is disempowering. on Free Geek Robbed · · Score: 1

    Telling someone "this is how you check email," and making them memorize some steps, which will stop working and leave them stranded with the next OS upgrade or interface change, is truly disempowering.

    I used to teach computer classes at a high school and that is exactly what they expect you to do. I have to admit that in the curriculum, nowhere is a product mentioned like Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Word... *but* it shows all over in the wording. Well, I should have known: our school system was sold out to Microsoft some years ago. *sigh*

    No wonder, I quit and went back to programming. I was an idealist, but I'm not in shape to fight the system all alone. All, other teachers seemed content the way it was.

  2. Re:Wha...? on How Often Do You Replace Your Hard Drives? · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure if you're being serious, but if you are: how do you build a cellphone jammer with disk magnets? I think I would like to build one.

  3. Re:computational statistics on What Math Courses Should We Teach CS Students? · · Score: 4, Funny

    Indeed, 87% of all computer science majors have no clue about statistics....

  4. Re:Pointless Comparison on PS3 and Wii — Head To Head · · Score: 1

    Hmmmm, strange... I like to eat the skin of apples, but I tolerate the skin of oranges at most as jam....

    Apart from that: your comparison stands...

  5. Re:Technically, PS3 wins - Heart, Wii wins on PS3 and Wii — Head To Head · · Score: 1

    Your Sega Game gear died? I still have mine in perfect working order, with half a dozen of games. However to "survive" the trip from Luxembourg to Antwerp (where I live, respectively where my grandparents lived) I needed their battery-expansion. That was essentially a big-ass-rechargable NiCad battery that you plugged into the thingy where you normally plug the 220V adapter. That lasted for 2 hours...

    My sister, with her Gameboy (Classic), did the trip with 4 classic AA rechargable NiCad batteries... both ways.

    I still have my GameGear, just to show to kids that think that their colour handhelds are something new. I had one in 1991... Damn kids ;-)

    I wonder how long it would last on modern NiMH AA cells... I never tried.

  6. Re:Let me get this straight. on Blu-ray Laser Gadget · · Score: 1

    She might be a freak, but she's frigging hot... ;-)

  7. Re:Basic version? Yes, please! on Time For Anti-Trust 2.0? · · Score: 1

    Actually, in this case it would be fair to blame Microsoft. Using a certain effect that is not guaranteed to be active on all installations should gracefully fall back: in the case of Aero, which is just eyecandy, the effect should just not be shown and revert to the basic window handling which we know from XP. So, the developer can use all Aero effects, but it would just not show in a more basic setup. No fundamental functionality should ever be based on "optional" components and it should not be even possible to enforce a certain effect.

    Our theoretical open source developer is safe *if* Microsoft coded Aero right... Which of course, I won't bet on.

  8. Re:What's wrong with his post? on New Zealand To Allow 'Text-Speak' On Exams · · Score: 5, Funny

    You spelling and grammar knowlegde is perfectly fine, as far as I can tell (I'm a non english speaker though). On the other hand, you have serious problems with comprehension.

  9. Re:Wii! on Worst Christmas Ever For Gadgets? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    PS3 versus Wii . For those that didn't see it yet, I found it hilarious.

  10. Look at the bright side on Worst Christmas Ever For Gadgets? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can use that skeleton for a real nice case mod ;-)

  11. Re:Duverger's Law on Is An Uninformed Vote Better Than No Vote? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but they didn't have a degree in game theory and relied on common sense ;-)

  12. Re:What? on PC Makers May Be Left On the Shelves · · Score: 1

    I think the parent poster got that right in it's own context. For normal users "upgrade" does mean getting a new computer. Don't forget that. I found a P-IV 1.9GHz/512Meg RAM in a dumpster for crying out loud! That is more than enough to run anything you need as a basic home user, yet somewhere someone decided that the machine had to be "upgraded". Heck, the machine of my wife was't far of that! (Until I "upgraded" it in the real sense of the word. 512Meg to 2Gig is a nice upgrade ;-) )

    Dumpster divers, like me, have glorious times ahead! :-D

  13. Re:Its scary on Groups Call For Investigation of MS Ad Service · · Score: 1

    I can't explain the bike reference, but the fact that your location has been revealed is quite easy. It's your IP address. I often get ads targeted to my region and they are not ad-words. It is, however, definitely the IP. When I'm at home "Luxembourg" shows up. I used to work for a company that had a huge intranet and their Internet connection was in the UK. When I surfed on that network, the ads were definitely targeted to UK surfers (which was odd, because I was in Luxembourg). Last week, I was in Brussels and, 'lo and behold: ads targeted to people in Brussels!

    It's all in the IP... The bike part, may indeed be due to data mining tough.

  14. Re:More than that, apparently. on New Windows Attack Can Disable Firewall · · Score: 1

    I see (and did not know), but does this mean that I can plug in a scanner and have it work without installing any drivers? That's what I look into a true "Universal" Serial Bus: it should provied at least a basic set of functions for any given devices. For a scanner that would be "acquire image", for a printer "print page". It doesn't help me if I need to install a driver. Point being: if it needs a driver, it will not work on non-Windows OSes. Well, you might get lucky, but you most certainly aren't going to be.

    The only two kinds of devices that will work without installing drivers are HID and MSD. Sure, my Wacom (=HID) needed a driver, but *only* to get the additional features. It is perfectly usable without those drivers.

  15. Re:Is Telstra not one of the biggest? on New Windows Attack Can Disable Firewall · · Score: 1

    I did not say that this stuff didn't exist. I said that all of these (except those that need USB for power only, like those fans, warmers, etc) will need custom drivers and that there is no common protocol. That's the problem. I buy a scanner it will not work unless I install their drivers. If it were true "Universal" Serial Bus, the operating system should support it right out of the box for at least the basic features.

    All those devices you mentioned are neither HID or MSD. I didn't say you can't use anything else, but you cannot use anything reliably because you cannot take your USB Ethernet device, plug it into another computer and expect it to run without changing the OS (e.g. install drivers). You can with both HID and MSD.

    So, don't be so sarcastic. I know USB can be used for other things, but I was talking about something completely different: Interoperability. You might have heard about that one.

  16. Re:Is Telstra not one of the biggest? on New Windows Attack Can Disable Firewall · · Score: 1

    :-) I skipped out on USB 1.0 and USB 1.1, that's why I probably never had any big problems with them.

  17. Re:Imagine... on Make Linux "Gorgeous," Says Ubuntu Leader · · Score: 1

    Progman.exe has been included in all Win9x versions plus the NT version up to (but not including) WinXP. (So NT4.0 and Win2000 had it)

    If I recall correctly one can enable it on a WinXP machine using the original CD.

  18. Re:Lack of testing? on New Windows Attack Can Disable Firewall · · Score: 1

    a little cut and paste from the NAT HOWTO

    Please, don't do that. At least try to understand *first* what you do before cutting and pasting it. Believe me, I learnt the hard way.

    My firewalls (two different sites) run on a P-III/768Meg and on an AMD64 2800+/1Gig, and that's pretty much overkill ;-) The P166 machines they replaced were doing fine, but the hardware was really getting old and I feared outages... So the next machines in line became firewalls ;-)

  19. Re:Is Telstra not one of the biggest? on New Windows Attack Can Disable Firewall · · Score: 1

    I'm not the guy that posted that he was annoyed, but I would also be.... Why? It is very simple: USB is only good for HID or Mass Storage Devices. For anything else: you're dependent on drivers. Not so with Ethernet. Ethernet "just works" on every computer that has a NIC, and no computer made in the last 4 years lacks one. That is why I can connect my OpenBSD machine to my ADSL connection with an Ethernet Modem (not Router... I jumped on the DSL bandwagon very early). With USB I would have been screwed and so I chose to pay more for the Ethernet version. (Which incidentally was intended for Macs because of the lack of USB drivers for the Mac, but I didn't tell them I didn't have a Mac)

    Always keep in mind: USB is only good for HID (Human Interface Devices) and Mass Storage Devices... It really is that simple.

  20. Re:FF 3.0 on Nine Reasons To Skip Firefox 2.0 · · Score: 1

    Oh, I thought that were Microsoft products? (Why do I feel as if a joke is wooshing over my head?)

  21. Re:Natural Complexity on Lab Created Diamonds Come to Market · · Score: 1

    Yeah, you should! Our wedding bands together (and we've got really nice ones) were less expensive than the engagement ring. (Not by much tough, getting married is expensive.)

  22. Re:Natural Complexity on Lab Created Diamonds Come to Market · · Score: 1

    Good point... I did marry a woman with more money that I have tough ;-)

  23. Re:Natural Complexity on Lab Created Diamonds Come to Market · · Score: 1

    I'll be buying an engagement ring soon, and I would really have preferred not to support DeBeers' monopoly...

    Do what I did and ask your future wife without a ring and then go shopping for a ring together. That's what I did, and ended up "only" paying 1000€ for the ring. (Which still is quite expensive, but at least it's not the double of my salary.) She ended up preferring a ring with a pearl, so screw DeBeers....

    Contrary to popular belief, the engagement ring is just a symbol and an intelligent woman will understand that. If you get a girl that doesn't understand that, you probably don't want to marry her in the first place. Then, of course, it could be also that European women don't flip on diamonds as much as US women. ;-)

  24. Re:Old PC Games on Civilization Comes to Steam · · Score: 1

    I don't need Civ III for that... Civ I already did that for me, and yes, I do play it from time to time in DosBox. Yes, I know there are opensource alternatives by now. *sigh*

  25. Re:The Netherlands on If Not America, Then Where? · · Score: 1

    though I know there is in other European countries, often actually higher than my Ph.D. student income

    Yes, I live in one of those countries. The minimum social salary is about 1500€ and if you tell that people in other countries, they think you have it good. Not so. For housing alone, you'd need at least 2/3 of that! If you are unemployed, hope that you get a job within 1 year because after that you are on your own! (=You don't get anything) I know, my brother has been in that situation.

    So, I understand where you come from, but before you say something like that first inform yourself about the conditions in those countries.

    Anyway, my country is pretty attractive for pretty much each foreigner.... I think half of the population is not native ;-)

    As for the sexual harassment: Yeah, I made some pretty nasty remarks and it was done off as a joke. In the US, I'd have lost my job and ended up in prison for the same remark. I'd tell about the situation, but the USies here would be too schocked ;-)