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User: PhilMills

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Comments · 47

  1. Re:I wonder... on RIAA Sues Nearly 500 New Swappers · · Score: 1

    Sucks if you're the poor sucker who ends up being the beta tester...

    But hey - your death sentance will no doubt benefit later users.

  2. Re:It's less than 7 lbs on Acer Plans A 16 lb. Notebook · · Score: 1

    No it's not. Observe how the box next to that line item does not have a little check-mark graphic in it. The only "Feature" that's checked is "all-in-one design". The specs on that page clearly state that it's between 14 and 16 pounds (with another 2 pounds for the AC adapter).

  3. Re:Where's the Subaru Brat? on Worst Cars Of All Time Rated · · Score: 1

    Well, I can certainly say that at least one of 'em got turned into a sub-compact 12 or 15 years ago. Silly thing decided to rear-end my dad's '77 F-250. Completely destroyed the Brat, and my dad got a check from the Brat's insurance. He pocketed the insurance money and lived with the half-dollar sized dent in his bumper.

    I don't have much good to say about Fords, but if I have to get into an accident, there's something comforting about a truck-shaped block of Detroit steel.

  4. Toaster: Check on Linux-Controlled Segway Robot · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well... an Athlon 800, anyway.

  5. Re:But what does it actually sound like??? on AAC vs. OGG vs. MP3 · · Score: 1

    Our NPR station in Northern Colorado has a WMA feed for it's online listeners. It's moderately low bitrate (probably 64K or so). It does fine through spoken-word segments, but as soon as the audio gets interesting (and especially if the audience breaks into appluse) it's just like listening to a tin can. Bleah.

    However, I just noticed that they also put up an MP3 feed. Yay for them!

  6. Re:More Convience For Average People on Gentoo Linux Rethinks Package Management System · · Score: 1
    With Gentoo you type:
    # emerge enlightenment ...with debian type:
    # apt-get install enlightenment
    Either distro will then install E, X, and all required libs/programs.


    You make that sound so trivial. My newly-loaded Gentoo box took about 24hrs (athlon 800, 512MB RAM) to emerge KDE by itself. God have mercy on your soul if you type "#emerge enlightenment" without a functional X-server already going.

  7. Re:Cable?! on Groovy Wristomo Cell Phone Announced · · Score: 1

    I dunno... I kind of hope it's got a headphone jack on it somewhere. We could finally live up to all those sci-fi movies where people have data/power cables strapped to their bulging biceps going down to some wrist-based doodad. Think of how amazingly futuristic you'd look.

    Though, a bluetooth headset is equally futuristic...

    Random humor: does it have a truly hands-free option for the paraplegics of society?

    -PhilMills

  8. Re:pretty obvious, don't you think? on Slashback: Rocketry, Pythonation, Scoffing · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Besides, it's not like you can't use more than one engine per rocket."

    Ah, yes, the classic Slashdot answer: Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those!

    -PhilMills

  9. Re:Erm... on The Reality of Online Reputation · · Score: 1

    Well, there goes his online reputation. ...

    Oh, wait, this is Slashdot. Never mind.

  10. Re:Dave Barry is Not Funny on Dave Barry Answers Alert Slashdot Readers' Questions · · Score: 1

    I think the parent's got something, there. He's got a style that does something for me: "talk, talk, talk, non-sequitor, talk...". It flows in a very self-consistant way in that the whole thing takes itself very matter-of-fact-ly while being completely bizarre. The narrator/book in HHGttG has much the same manner.

  11. Seems obligatory.... on Slashback: Bankruptcy, SUVdiving, Singalongs · · Score: 1

    In Soviet Russia, the source code examines you.

  12. Re:Ask for battery time while you're at it. on Is Remote Keyless Entry Any Safer Than It Used to Be? · · Score: 1

    I drive a 2001 Saturn SW2, which has a little keyfob-style clicker common to most GM vehicles. The battery in it has lasted for about 25 months so far. The range has dropped slightly, but it's still ~20', which is fine for me.

    The battery is easily replaceable and widely available. Of course, I'm single and lazy, so I will probably just switch to the keyfob for the 2nd set of keys if this one runs out. ;-)

  13. UT2003 and Linux on Anand Tours ATI and NVIDIA · · Score: 1

    NVIDIA is definitely the way to go for that game, but only if you've got something better than a TNT2 Pro. I had the joy of encountering the first game ever that outright refused to run on my hardware last night. What really irritates me is that the Windows version of the UT2003 demo accepts and loves that TNT2Pro card (well, likes it anyway - it runs).

  14. Ti leaves... on Alton Brown Answers, At Last · · Score: 1
    Y'know, when I first read the questions for the interview (and the actual article about the lava cooking), I kept thinking, "Gee, cooking with molten lava is nifty and all, but titanium leaves just seems to be going a little overboard."

    I suppose it'd get you that "extra-crispy" skin on your chicken...

  15. Re:Harvey Mudd? on Fully Endowed FW Olin College of Engineering Opens · · Score: 1

    Dude, that's Harcourt Mudd. Maybe Harvey's his smarter brother or something, but no, not the same guy.

  16. Re:Harvey Mudd? on Fully Endowed FW Olin College of Engineering Opens · · Score: 1

    West Dorm it is.

    He also related some anecdote about a recent Christmas where they arranged the Christmas lights on their building into a large phallus that faced the dorms of the girls' college across the way.

    Ah, modern education.

  17. Re:Harvey Mudd? on Fully Endowed FW Olin College of Engineering Opens · · Score: 2, Funny

    I dunno about that - my little brother is busy doing the HMC ("If you say it fast enough, it sounds like 'Harvard Med'." - HMC recruiting brochure I got) thing. As best as I can tell, his educational curriculum seems to involve chemical dependancy and blowing shit up while trying to destroy opposing dorms using only the sheer sonic power of their subwoofers.

    I'll grant you it's "well-rounded", but I'm sure there's cheaper ways to spend time blowing things up while getting plastered.

  18. Creative & EAX on The State of PC Audio · · Score: 1

    I've got to agree with this: EAX on my Creative SB PCI-512 bites the big one. The reverb is so outrageously over done (when playing HalfLife:OpFor, anyway) that the game's unplayable for me.

  19. Having read the interview... on CDs Want To Be Free · · Score: 1

    Fightcloud burns CDs on demand, prints a label on them and then ships the CD out in a slimline case.

    I suppose the artist had to ship them one original "master" disc that FC uses as the image for the rest, but I doubt that'll really break anybody's wallet.

  20. Ambiance, baby, ambiance. on Tattered Cover v. Thornton Reversed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's Tattered Cover's big selling point with me (besides 4 floors of selection and a coffee bar). Big leather chairs everywhere to test-read your selections, floor-to ceiling wooden bookcases w/ step ladders all over, bookcases all the way up the stairwell... and a distinct shortage of clerks wandering the store asking you if they can help you every five minutes. Peace and quiet while shopping is a rare thing these days. If I can't find something, there's help desks readily available for me to ask.

    Man, I can lose hours in there.

  21. Re:leaving the country anytime soon ? on Warwick Gets a Few More Wires · · Score: 1

    Screw that! There's no way I'm letting MS filter my nerve impulses! Linux or BSD, maybe...

    philmills

  22. Re:Measure user happiness on It's Not About Lines of Code · · Score: 2, Funny

    "No. of Bugs Fixed" is a great way to open the system up to some massive exploitation.
    IIRC, there was a Dilbert comic about this a few years ago: PHB decides to change the work metrics, and selects #OfBugsFound/Fixed. Wally, resourceful as ever, is seen a panel or two later saying "I'm gonna code myself up a new minivan this afternoon."

    PhilMills

  23. Chicken or egg? on Fox Explains Why SSSCA Is Bad · · Score: 2, Insightful
    You assert:

    Okay, assume that statement is fully true, and major labels pay radio stations big bucks to play their manufactured hitmaker of the week. This is keeping the interesting artists off the air?
    Wrong.
    Somebody listens to it. Someone buys the albums. N'Sync didn't get big because of major label payola, they got big because some clown looked at a shelf in a record store, and said, 'I want THIS one!'

    Wrong.
    Think about this: why do people say "I want THIS one!"? I don't know of anyone who trolls the local music shop buying albums because the cover art is keen or because the band has some uber-cool name like "59 Pink Wallabies". People buy records from music stores because they say "Hey - I recognize the name of that band. I heard them on the radio on the way to work yesterday." Give the local "interesting" stuff some air time and their albums (assuming they aren't crap) will go flying off the shelves, too!


    philmills

  24. Article cites Cryptonomicon on LED Lights: Friend or Foe? · · Score: 1
    From page 3 of the article:

    But with the exception of a work of fiction, in which one character uses the LEDs on a computer keyboard to send information in Morse code [Stephenson 1999]...


    Credit where credit is due. Excellent book, also.

  25. Nor Opera 6.0 on How the Wayback Machine Works · · Score: 1

    Same symptoms. I had to start up IE5.5 for the first time this month to use archive.org.