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User: Overzeetop

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Comments · 8,297

  1. Re:At $15,000 a year...... on Updating Free Software in the Enterprise? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They are, but just imagine the spike in help desk calls for the client side support. And the amount of labor to switch just the word templates over to OO.

    (I've done it for a small office, and it wan't pretty. None of the corporate standards switched, so everytime wo opened an old document, the formatting was toast. Trivial, though annoying, for you and me, but "the world is coming to an end"-level crisis for older, entrenched, barely-computer-literate secrateries. And, no, you can't just fire them all - they're the ones who can walk into an office, listen to a minute and a half of drivel from a $150/hr principal, then turn it into a formatted letter saying exactly the right thing and ready for signature.

  2. Re:Photovoltaics on Green buildings, Green Server Farms? · · Score: 1

    Except that photovoltaics currently take more energy to produce than they will provide in their useful lifetimes (you get less than 1wh total output for every 1 wh it takes during the manufacturing process), so they're actually not "green" yet.

    Recent advances may be close to changing that, but we're not there yet. Photovoltaics are far more useful as off-grid power sources than as low-cost alternatives to fossil fuel power. Sad but true.

  3. XMRadio Alternative? on Yahoo Introduces Competitor for iTunes · · Score: 1

    Yes, yes, two totally different beasts...sort of.

    There will be segment which doesn't/can't use Yahoo as a radio service. But many technophiles (which would probably include everyone under 25) would be able to do so if Yahoo made it "easy" for them.

    With the proper software on each end, you could hook your DAP to you computer in the evening and sync to your "library" which would get a few extra tunes each day, based on your preferences (think iTunes, with a million song "local" library). The software transfers "enough" music to cover the day - you can d/l 2 to 24 hours onto a device pretty easily (Okay, the latter will require a 2G device) with a playlist or three. Now you've got one to three "favorite" channels, and you can skip the songs you don't like.

    As you listen more, the YahooClient downloads extra songs to keep the mix fresh, and you can snag any extras you want. With a daily dock, you're golden.

    Heck, if Yahoo were thinking, they'd consider adding some news to the mix - say Morning Edition. You can get that in a few seconds before you leave for the morning commute. It would get auto-loaded and set at the front of your playlist for the day.

    Why might this work? $5/month vs $13/month. If you only listen to music, that looks like a bargain. Most folks only need 100 channels of music because they want to find the two or three they like. Heck, my wife has XM and she listens to only one channel. But its one that _she_ likes.

  4. Re:"Ordinary users" on Sober.P Worm Accounts for 5% of all Email Traffic · · Score: 1

    Yes, but if his job is to support windows pcs, he's not doing it. He should be fired, and he should look for a job in a Linux shop. I wouldn't hire a Mac person any sooner than I'd hire a Linux guru. I don't run mac or linux. A majority of my client base uses software that happens to be written only for windows, I don't have a choice in that aspect.

    Alhtough he may have the perfect technical solution to the problem, it is not always the most effective business solution. I have a brother-in-law with an attitude like this. He is relatively smart. He has been through one to two jobs a year for his entire post-college life. He still doesn't understand that being right is not good enough, even when you really are right.

  5. Re:Confused on Kansas Challenges Definition of Science · · Score: 1

    why include "more adequate" at all? How about more accurate (or accurate and precise)? More demostrable?

    Adequate, or more precisely "more adequate" is the lynchpin in their intellegent design goals. It needs not be accurate, precise, demostrable, or provable...it merely needs to be adequate. And creationism is adquate for those folks.

  6. MAJOR FUD ALERT! on Researchers Make Bendable Concrete · · Score: 1

    Okay according to TFA:

    "the ECC is 37 percent less expensive, consumes 40 percent less energy, and produces 39 percent less carbon dioxide (a major cause of global warming) than regular concrete."

    That's fanstastic, but my bull-shit-o-meter is going off... Yup, the very next sentense is:

    " based on the assumption that ECC lasts twice as long as regular concrete"

    Okay, so lets get out our calculators:

    (1-.37) * 2 = 1.26, or 26% more expensive in capital

    (1-.4) * 2 = 1.2 or 20% more energy to make and

    (1-.39) * 2 = 1.22 or 22% more CO2 emissions to make.

    Since the claims of double longevity are speculative, I would base any potential of the system on - at best - an eqiuvalent lifespan.

    One item they don't mention is whether they have significantly changed the modulus of elasticity or the yield strength to get their results. I would suspect that the latter is the case, with the tensile allowables getting the only bump.

    Most concrete can withstand 3500-4000psi in practice. I would guess 90% of concrete is "spec'd" at 2500-3000psi, and most ready mix plants pad by 500-1000psi to make sure they get the required struength. At a 3000psi alloable, the tensile stress is about 250psi. Increasing that to 3000 through fibers would make the material act more like a traditoinal material.

    Actually, that's what happens in concrete for buildings. We don't design for that 250psi tensile strength, we design for 3000psi compression, and then embed steel to take the tension stresses. Using high-tensile steel, prestressed concrete effectively "pre-compresses" the concrete to increaee its capacity. Anyone who believes concrete is not flexible has never seen a "double tee" bridge girder after they cut the prestressing steel and take it out of the forms. The fom nive little arcs. The weight of the bridge topping (road surface) then weights the bema down until it is nearly flat again.

    This may have implications in the near term for specialty applications, but I don't really see it as sliced bread for the industry in the near future.

  7. Re:More statisitics than a soap ad on Researchers Make Bendable Concrete · · Score: 1

    Of course, concrete cracking is not a big deal, most of the time. Concrete is not used in tension - that's what steel is for.

    There are several ways to measure cracking in ductile materials, and more for concrete (curing shrinkage is one that is not even service related).

    Most of your energy redutcions are probably from reducing the amount of portland cement in the concrete mix. Portland takes an enormous amount of energy to produce.

  8. Re:This is about US engineering conservatism on Researchers Make Bendable Concrete · · Score: 1

    Cost-benefit, baby - that's what its all about. If you have 12B for a road and the new material costs $16B, you're going to build it out of traditional materials. Remeber, that extra $4B isn't just $4B, it's $4B + 4% for $4B a year.

    Oh, you say it will last twice as long? Fantastic. So, will the manufacturers offer a guarantee of this? Will they escrow the cost of removal of the existing road and replacement in traditional materials, including labor and disposal, should the material fail during its promised lifetime? No? That's what I thought. Go guild your own road and get back to me in 100 years with your actual, demostrated lifecycle costs, then we'll talk.

  9. Re:Concrete Roads on Researchers Make Bendable Concrete · · Score: 1

    Oh, but man is it a bitch to fix when you have problems.

  10. Re:For the inevitable /.ing on When is 720p Not 720p? · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's all well and good, but I'm afraid I tend to agree with them. If content providers want to "do it right" they should ditch the 1950's interlacing and get with the 1980s.

    He's leaving one step out. 1080i is 540 lines scanned 60 times per second, offset by half a vertical pitch. 720p is 720 lines scanned at 30 times persecond.

    To try and take two frames which are not occuring at the same instant, stitch them together, remove the motion artifacts, resample, and then display is just plain silly. And frought with errors, as you are expecting a computer to determine which parts of the motion (over 1/60 of a second) to keep and which to throw away.

    If you wanted high fidelity, you'd spend the money for a 1080p60 system. Then it wouldn't matter. Except that you would complain about the quality, because each frame you see was upsampled from only 540 lines of resolution.

    It all comes back to the fact the the FCC let the industry choose this "18 formats is good" spec.

    Personally, I'm in favor of an olympic standard mayonaise, but...no...wait...awww hell, I give up.

  11. Re:Another giant step backward... on The Pseudoscience of Intelligent Design · · Score: 1

    Well, they didn't use those words exactly. I believe it goes something like this:

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

    That was based on the writing of Thomas Jefferson, who believed that there should be "a wall of separation between church and state".

    So, no, it's not written into the constitution. But it might as well be.

  12. Re:3,000-square-foot on Space Elevator Group to Open Nanotube Factory · · Score: 1

    But seriously, this plant isn't going to turn out entire space elevators, just the raw materials; or, more likely, materials for a prototype.

    They'll build the first one on a showstring, in hopes of proving it can be mass produced?

    I think the physics and logistics are the largest hurdles, not the nanotubes themselves. Then again, I think their nuts, so that may bias my opinion. I suspect Michael Griffen probably supports this "prize" 'cause it takes a really good laugh to deal with the stress of being at the top.

    And, yes, I am a (former) rocket scientist.

  13. Re:Safety Concerns on NASA Preparing Manned Hubble Service Mission · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Thank god we didn't attempt any shuttle missions before there was an ISS. That would have been waaaaaaay to dangerous.

  14. Re:What's In Your Box? on Microsoft To Add A Black Box To Windows · · Score: 1

    Should have mentioned Windows-E is my favorite, since it opens up a new explorer window at "My Computer."

    I have shortcuts ctrl-alt-* for most of my favorite apps, but sometimes background programs will steal the hotkeys, which can be annoying. It takse some trial and error to get a good set. Ctrl-Alt-F is Firefox for me, but Ctrl-Alt-T was taken by the video app, so Ctrl-Alt-M is Thunderbird (Mail).

  15. Re:digital market on DirecTV's 1st MPEG4 Satellite Launch Successful · · Score: 1

    I don't think the price will drop in any meaningful way. Don't forget that they're going to have to roll out all new equipment (MPEG4) in order to receive these signals, and that is going to me a massive turnover for existing customers (13.9 million of them, many with more than one STB) over the next three years. That's, of course, in addition to the four(?) birds their putting up.

    This actually will put them on, programming-wise, on an equal footing with the local cablecos. IT would be nice if they would see fit to spot beam TWC as well, so I can get a local forcast (my current beef), but if they put up all the local HD channels I'll be happy. One local has a subchannel devoted to the local weather, so that would be good enough.

  16. Re:Satellites are linear not digital on DirecTV's 1st MPEG4 Satellite Launch Successful · · Score: 4, Funny

    I find that a beer helps. No, really, patience is required in pointing these multi-bird dishes, and I find a cold beer helps calm the nerves and give you somehting to do during the process.

    I've re-mounted my 3LNB D* dish several times, and I always take out a receiver and an old 13" TV with me to do the job. It may take 30 minuts or so to get it just right, but hey, I' mostly sitting on my butt drinking a beer and watching TV (well, the set upscreen).

    Besides, nothing gives the new neighbors a first impression like seeing the "new guy" sitting on his roof watching TV and drinking a beer.

  17. Re:Yeah, but what about high speed internet? on DirecTV's 1st MPEG4 Satellite Launch Successful · · Score: 1

    I buy cable internet separately. When they tell me my $30 intro price is over, I offer to cancel and get DSL. I haven't been denied a price extension yet. Heck, I'm paying less than their "bundled" customers.

  18. Re:Sat better than cable? Whatever... on DirecTV's 1st MPEG4 Satellite Launch Successful · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Man, I'd like to have your cable company. SD D* was superior to all the cable channels on my old network, and about the same cost as D*, if you count the TiVo service.

    I've seen my (new) local Adelphia service, and SD looks about the same. I can't say how reliable it is vs D*, as I don't subscribe to cable (a friend has it). If it's anything like the cablemodem sevice, I can live without it. I probably lose 10% of my surf time in any given month to cable outages. In five years with D*, I've lost signal four times - twice due to monstor thunderstorms, and twice with the local feeds died in CO.

    I haven't seen HD yet to compare, as I'm not up for dropping money on an HD D* set right now. Adelphia wants about $45/mo for basic cable service and $55 for digital cable (not including HD). Real TiVo is $13/mo extra and I don't get multi-channel capability. I've got two DTiVos with service for $55/mo from D*.

    Cable can kiss my scrawny white ass already. If the rumors are correct about the new D* system, I'm staying with satellite. 4 tuner headend recorder plus HD or SD set top boxes for the TVs? I'm there, no question. THough I hope that TiVo will have a hand in the interface, it sounds like I'km going to lose that feature, but then it will be no worse than Adelphia's home-grown ungly-child DVR, so the prize still goes to D*.

  19. Re:Is anyone surprised by this? Anyone? on White House: No Kerry Supporters at IATC Meeting · · Score: 1

    I'd say some are. It's a free country, remember?

    The problem is that anyone who spoke out against it - even if they were right - got the smackdown. It was a steamroller affair. So is this.

    The fact that you punish a real criminal for every thousand innocent public executions down not make the policy right.

  20. Re:I miss Heathkit on Soldering For Non-Solderers? · · Score: 1

    Man, so do I. I almost built an entire R/C aircraft. If it hadn't taken six years to get the darned thing together I might have been able to test and fly it before I left highschool. Still, it did teach me how to solder, though not very well. Getting good required peeking over the shoulders of the techs at NASA to see how "experts" got the pretty silver to dance. I'm still not great, but I can fix just about anything in a jam, at least temporarily.

  21. Re:What's In Your Box? on Microsoft To Add A Black Box To Windows · · Score: 1

    Ooooooh...nice shortcut key. I love keyboard commands, cause sifting though the buttons in windoes is so tedious. If the computer management had an embeded shortcut, that'd be even better. Someday I'll have to find them. Somewhere.

    (Remeber when the manual used to come with all this info. I remember the MX-80 printer manual had a whole section on how to code to fire the individual pins on the printhead. Boy are those days gone)

  22. Re:Commodity phones, the end of innovation? on Dell to Get Into Cell Phones in 2006 · · Score: 1

    Have you shopped for cell phones lately? I'd say we're already there. Heck, most phones won't work with all carriers, and manufatruers will make carrier specific models. It's not like you can go buy a phone, then chose your provider. A bunch of buy-'em-cheap clones might be the only force great enough to change that model here in the US. Otherwise, it's vendor lock-in and data-crippled phones forever. (What do you mean my new 810 has a USB port, but the only way to get multimedia is via a wireless pay service? *evil laugherter in background*)

  23. Re:Cost on First 500 Terabytes Transmitted via LHCGlobal Grid · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a golf course to me :-)

  24. Re:Shock and Bah on White House: No Kerry Supporters at IATC Meeting · · Score: 1

    My first thought: Of course dissent isn't outlawed - the power is much more legitimate when it has been "properly elected." I don't put that in quotes because I think the election was tampered with or rigged, but rather that an election gives the winner more stature than an appointed or self-declared government. The current administation is more powerful because the demovrats exist, not in spite of them. Some actions they take may be checked, but the ones that carry have far more weight than if there was no opposition at all.

    Every "good" must have its "evil." If it doesn't, it must create one.

  25. Re:Is anyone surprised by this? Anyone? on White House: No Kerry Supporters at IATC Meeting · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They can't be good at manipulating the media. The Republicans have told me that the media is all left wing biased, so it must be true. Every time I hear W did this or W did that, I know that - if it was bad - it's a lie by those left wing media nut-jobs, and if it's good, it's only because he has done SO well that the media can't help but admit it because it's so obvious they can't even lie about it.

    Sorry. This call for patirotism is the new McCarthyism. If you're against the leaders, your a subversive terrorist. It too shall pass, I justhope that it doesn't spiral too much farther out of control. Unfortunately, emotions are a great source of power, and the strongest emotions for most americans are hate a fear. President Bush, or at least his advisors, know this implicitly, and have played their hand extremely well. My advise to the Democrats - quit thinking that the rules matter. Quit thinking that if you get caught, you can make the electorate believe that the rules _don't_ matter. They haven't (re)learned how to cheat and get away with it.

    *shrug* I just hope the current administration doesn't screw things up so badly that it will take decades to repair the damage. Of course, I usually say that no matter who is in power...both major sides seem to think that certain extremeist issues are part of "core values". Then again, I'm sure some of my core values are "extremist" to some folks. You just can't win.