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User: Chazmati

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Comments · 248

  1. Re:Throw it out? on Sklyarov Tells U.S. Court, 'I'm no hacker' · · Score: 1

    What about manufacturing technology that is designed to circumvent a technological measure that controls access to a work NOT protected under this title, such as mentioned above? That's legal, right? I mean, if it's okay to break an e-book for fair use (I'll trust Henry V .009 here), is that work still considered "protected" by the DMCA?

    I suppose it's still protected for unfair use. What a poorly defined law. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Good thing Skylarov is Russian, maybe he's got a chance.

  2. Susan Calvin? on Will Smith as I, Robot · · Score: 2

    It depends on what they're looking for in the movie. I have this sinking feeling that they're trying to snatch a quick hit by leveraging the box office power of Will Smith, in which case I'd put money on Halle Berry.

    Maybe they'll even change the little girl in the "Robbie" story to a boy so they can cast Haley Joel Osment. That's if they even include the Robbie story.

    On the other hand, it would be great if someone at Fox is a big fan of the original stories and wants to bring it to the big screen without fscking the whole thing up. I like the idea of preserving the building-sized computers and giving it the 'retro' look of a future envisioned in the 40's.

  3. Re:Hard not to be biased on Testing an Orange SPV 'Smartphone' · · Score: 2

    That's what I'm saying, it's out of focus but you can't always blame the camera for that. The image looks smooth (low per-pixel noise) and the colors are okay.

    Now the 640x480 shots off my Sony camcorder look like ass. There are noticable jaggies and the S/N ratio is awful. Bright lighting helps with the S/N ratio, but it's a generally inferior image. The video looks great because you don't need the same level of quality for motion as for stills.

    Hard to say if the phone could turn out a decent image or not. Sounds like the guy had an axe to grind with Microsoft (but who doesn't). Maybe he took some pictures that had sharp focus and picked one of the bad ones to display and rant about.

  4. Hard not to be biased on Testing an Orange SPV 'Smartphone' · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As this is Microsoft we're talking about. And although the review sounds pretty awful, I have to say the picture didn't look *that* bad. Out of focus, to be sure, but it sounded as if he tried to get in real close to make the most of the low resolution. Probably operator error, although they probably could have designed in a better minimum focusing distance.

    Now the issues with the slow refresh and the delay between the shutter sound and the actual image capture, that would be extremely
    annoying, and it doesn't sound like a software update is going to fix the serious lack of processing power.

    But how does a product like this even get released? Is it the post-dot-com-bust competition, the "business at the speed of thought" mentality that is responsible for pushing out a product that can't even be a good phone first, and secondly has all these garbage features tacked on? Being a visionary is one thing, and there's a place for that (show us at Comdex or whatever) but delivering on the vision is completely another.

    I'm stumped as to how this thing made it out the door. Is it the market researchers? Did they ever put one of these phones in someone's hands? Or did they ask questions like "What would you like in a phone" and then screw up the consumer vision by sacrificing the most fundamental (and implicitly necessary) features?

    And does rushing this SPV phone out the door REALLY help them compete against Symbian?

  5. Re:Seems nice enough on Ellen Feiss Interview · · Score: 2

    But not ignorant and naive enough to go on Letterman and Leno. I tend to agree with her, an appearance like that could have burned out her fame--maybe because she IS just a nice-enough kid, and Leno or Letterman would have revealed that.

    She's got enough character/looks/style to stand out from the other 15-year-olds (even on Slashdot, ha ha). Once her image "floats" for a while maybe she'll hook up with something bigger that a single late-night talk show appearance.

  6. Re:Don't click that link! on LOTR Director's Cut Reviewed · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Half of them!

  7. Audio distributions on Red Hat 8.0 Reviewed · · Score: 2

    Have you seen Agnula, the GNU/Linux audio distribution that's in development?

    Or Planet CCRMA?

  8. Re:As 3DFX learned the hard way on VisionTek Folds · · Score: 2

    That's what I'm saying. It doesn't make any sense that a technology change (such as die size) would lead to massive retooling costs for a PCB manufacturer. Did you read the parent post to which I replied?

  9. Re:As 3DFX learned the hard way on VisionTek Folds · · Score: 2

    Why would a change to die size affect the PCB assembly line? Couldn't a 'pick-and-place' machine pick up a .13 um chip just as easily as a .18 um chip?

    Or are you saying that the 13-odd video card vendors mentioned in this post by Fejji are actually fabbing the GF4 silicon? That doesn't seem right.

  10. Mutiple machines? on POV-Ray 3.5 Rendered · · Score: 2

    What about multiple processors? I haven't been able to hook up with www.povray.org yet (./ effect) so no flames about not reading the change log.

    But it always bugged me that POVRAY didn't have better support for multiprocessor systems. Oh sure, you could run two instances of Povray for the top and bottom halves of your image, then splice them together; but why dump that on the end user? Wouldn't it be trivial for the developers to assign each successive pixel to a new process?

    I hope 3.5 will automagically detect and use multiple processors. Then I'll worry about getting multiple machines hooked up. :)

  11. Works on Win2k on Video Games Found To Decrease Brain Activity · · Score: 2

    I'm running great with Win2K on my dual Celeron box with 192 MB RAM, SB128 audio and Abit GF4 Ti4200 video. I was surprised to hear people were having so much trouble.

  12. Re:Oh great on XBox + UltimateTV for $500 · · Score: 2

    I thought that selling below cost was illegal. Years back, in the pre-digital camera era--at least before digital cameras were popular and affordable at the consumer level--Fuji was getting into trouble for 'dumping' film in the US. The intent, of course, was to gain market share and eventually recap the loss. I remember because I grew up in Rochester, NY where Kodak was big. I suppose this was a US law to protect US businesses from foreign competition, and as such it wouldn't apply to a domestic business selling in the US.

    I know, I'm talking about completely different products, film is generally interchangeable from brand to brand and no one will notice the difference. Not so with gaming consoles.

  13. Re:Top 10 Things I learned from Attack of the Clon on How Yoda Became an Action Star · · Score: 2

    Aww, I totally missed that. I was sure the head was going to fall out of the helmet as Boba picked it up.

  14. Don't do anything rash on Trek Prop Collecting · · Score: 5, Funny

    Before anyone sells their house for this low-budget TV show prop, give that Hoagy guy a call... if he can build his own cityscape he can probably set you up with a real nice Kirkholder for much less!

    Props to Hoagy. He should be working for Hollywood.

  15. Re:$150,000 on Will Digital Cinema Wipe-Out Today's Movie Theaters? · · Score: 2

    1280:1024 is almost square (well, 1.25:1)

    When you project onto 16:9 it seems like you'd have much better vertical resolution than horizontal. Is this the case?

    Sounds like those funky SVCD pixels... 480x480 for an NTSC 4:3 format.

  16. Humor on Open Source 3D Hardware · · Score: 1

    I was just kidding, by the way.

  17. I can see the FAQ now... on Open Source 3D Hardware · · Score: 5, Funny

    Q: I grabbed Manticore from CVS, but it won't compile on my x86 1.8 GHz P4.
    A: Manticore is a hardware project. You must fabricate the chip using the VHDL files.

    Q: Help, I can't get Manticore to fab.
    A: Are you using an Applied Materials Silicon Etch DPS II Centura 300 etcher? This is the only machine we have access to, we can't support other models.

    Q: I produced a wafer, what next?
    A: Many people use a dremel tool to cut the chip to size and mount in a 432-pin test carrier.

    Q: Do you have a PCB design for AGP4x?
    A: Check the mailing lists, most of the PCB layout guys are quite active there.

    Q: I finally have my Manticore graphics card. Where can I find the drivers?
    A: We need software developers! See http://www.manticore.org/contribute.html for details

  18. Smoking man on The Truth Revealed · · Score: 5, Informative

    I mostly agree, and especially about smoking man returing. Was I supposed to feel some long overdue sense of closure to see him die in a super inferno slow-motion death scene? I had already written him off.

    Besides, he was looking cooler than ever, Anasazi-style.

  19. Worthless patents? on The Magic Box Hoax · · Score: 2

    Actually, patents are anything but worthless. Patents (even if they're not completely accurate) can bring down huge right-to-practice issues on all sorts of companies. And even if you are granted a patent, your competitors can patent improvements around your patent and box you in.

    It's kind of sad that patents have evolved into legal bargaining points. But that's how the game is played.

    BTW, IANAL...

  20. C|Net's article on Megaspammer Monsterhut Loses On Appeal · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's a decent, if outdated, summary of the case here .

  21. Re:From the depositions on Megaspammer Monsterhut Loses On Appeal · · Score: 2

    Well it sounded like the PaeTec VP had some actual e-mail messages (from MonsterHut) that fit Pelow's definition of spam. Amazing that it dragged on for so long.

    And seriously, read his deposition (if you haven't). It's laughable.

  22. From the depositions on Megaspammer Monsterhut Loses On Appeal · · Score: 2
    I read some of the depositions. The PaeTec VP of engineering said they use Verio, and Verio's contract prohibits PaeTec from engaging in spamming or permitting any of its customers from engaging in spamming. So it should be no surprise that their Acceptible Use Policy specifically prohibits spamming (defined as unsolicited commercial mass e-mailing).

    The CEO of MonsterHut (Todd P. Pelow, if anyone wants to drop an unsolicated flaming bag of shit at his door) responded in a deposition: "MonsterHut has never agreed that what they have done is spam. Spam is mail without accurate headers, with no opt-out mechanism and without an honest subject line." and furthermore "They send targeted e-mail to those who have opted in to the world of the Internet and said 'Yes I would accept offers that may interest me'."

    This guy is whacked. Opted in to the world of the Internet? So when I signed up with my ISP it was the green light for MonsterHut? He seemed to think that their Addendum to the PaeTec contract would protect them; the pertinent bits are
    "MonsterHut Inc. agrees not to exceed a total of 2 percent in e-mail complaints as a result of the total amount of Target Email Marketing Distribution MonsterHut Inc. sends out. PaeTec agrees not to terminate MonsterHut, Inc.'s Internet Services provided the 2 percent complaint limit of the total amount of Email Marketing Distribution is not exceeded, and provided that MonsterHut Inc.'s Internet Services otherwise complies with this Agreement and with application law.

    By arguing that MonsterHut doesn't send spam, he thinks it would be almost impossible for PaeTec to prove that their victims hadn't opted in at some point in their Internet lives. And if it's not spam, what's the big deal? They were under the 2% complaint rate. What an ass.

    I read enough to find them guilty as charged. :)

    For those who want to double-check this, I was reading from here and here.

  23. Re:Faster controllers are SCSI, too on IDE, SCSI And Recording Everything · · Score: 1

    Really? Do you have some link or another for that? Every time I search Google for "66 MHz 64 bit IDE controller" or similar variations I get motherboards, pages of both IDE and SCSI inventories, and generally NOT any 64/66 IDE controllers. Even when I use "-scsi -motherboard".

    Which in a way proves to me that high-bandwidth IDE controllers are rare if not vaporware. And I'd probably buy one if I could find it.

  24. Faster controllers are SCSI, too on IDE, SCSI And Recording Everything · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I haven't seen any IDE controllers that sport a 64-bit/66 MHz PCI bus interface. SCSI already has PCI-X dual-channel U160/U320 controllers. Check out LSI Logic

    IDE RAID is fine, it's cheap, but with newer IDE drives pushing 50 MB/sec (sustained) you could max out a standard PCI bus with three drives. Need more throughput? Then you're stuck waiting for PCI-X IDE RAID controllers, or at least 64-bit/66 MHz versions. And in the meantime, SCSI will just get faster.

  25. Re:Hemos uses Outlook on Will Evolution Exchange Microsoft? · · Score: 1

    If Hemos jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?

    :)