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User: rtz

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Comments · 27

  1. Re:Range of electric vehicles? on Austria Converts Phone Booths To EV Chargers · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, but you missed an important part of the story, I'll let you find the mistake yourself.

    Hint: You're about one half of a large rotating thing wrong.

  2. Re:Not a bug on Apps That Rely On Ext3's Commit Interval May Lose Data In Ext4 · · Score: 1

    I disagree. "Writing software properly" apparently means taking on a huge burden for simple operations.

    And the point is, it's a burden you can't avoid, and never could

    The magical fairy god mother file system that handles everyting for you doesn't exist, and never did.

    If you want database like data integrity, use a database, and take the performance hit.

  3. Re:Bull on Apps That Rely On Ext3's Commit Interval May Lose Data In Ext4 · · Score: 1

    [...] do what application developers actually want. fsync here asks for something entirely different and imposes a stupefying performance penalty.

    Do you realise that what you want is equivalent to having the FS do the fsync for you? If it is "stupefyingly slow" when you do the fsync, why should the fsync that the FS does be any faster?

  4. Re:how is this different from Progress ? on Spacecraft Crashes Into Satellite · · Score: 2, Informative

    One big difference is that Progress needs guidance beacons on the ISS, DART is supposed to be self-contained, able to dock using only it's own sensors.

  5. Re:Obligatory Dilbert Quote on Deep Brain Stimulation as Depression Treatment · · Score: 1

    In the current political climate in the US, what's the difference?

  6. Re:Uhmm... on Radiation Robot Makes Troops Safer · · Score: 1

    Did you even bother to RTFA? Neutrons make irradiated matter radioactive, but gamma rays contaminate no more than ordinary light would.

    The cylinder encasing the cobalt didn't break, they just couldn't move it back inside it's shielding. As soon as they managed to get it back, you could return to the room and dance a polka or whatever.

  7. Re:Bind Variable? on How Should an Application's Logs Work? · · Score: 1

    To me, the performance boost by re-using prepared statements is one of the least important reasons to use bind variables.

    With bind variables you are sidestepping the entire problem of escaping special characters in your data, and many charset problems are solved automatically by the database driver.

    SQL injection becomes almost[*] impossible, that alone justifies using it everywhere (IMHO).

    [*] Only almost, because sometimes outside parameters are used to choose the name of a table or column, bind variables can't save you there.

  8. Re:isn't that kinda pointless? on Slashback: Passports, Microscopes, IQ Points · · Score: 1

    Because the RFID chip will contain much more information (biometric data etc) than could practically be stored in OCR form or transferered over a half bent, oxidized copper contact.

  9. Re:DNS? on Loophole found in Internet Domain Naming · · Score: 1
    IP addresses are for n00bs. REAL hackers memorize MAC addresses.


    So that's why the real hackers are gone, they never leave their local subnet.
  10. Re:I see your bullshit and raise you a horseshit on Senator Calls on NASA to Service Hubble · · Score: 1
    Even though it would be cheaper to send up a brand new "hubble" with more capabilities than it would to repair the current one?


    Nice try, but there is no way you will get a new telescope for the cost of a service mission, and it will not be in place for at least a decade. In the mean time, Hubble is dead and we're stuck with ground based observations. No matter how big a ground observatory is, and no matter how clever its adaptive optics, it will not be able to observe in the frequencies that are absorbed by the atmosphere.

    No one is arguing against a successor to Hubble, but we need to keep Hubble alive until the replacement is in place.
  11. Re:I wonder... on Experts Suggest Replacing Definition of Kilogram · · Score: 1

    Yes, there are quite a few kilograms spread over the world. (at least one in every industrialized country), but there's only _one_ "the" kilogram. All the others are regularly recalibrated against the real thing, in Paris.

  12. They probably just want to guard their own domains on Google Eyes Domain Registration Market · · Score: 1

    google becoming a registrar doesn't have to mean anything at all, really. There's a trend where big companies become registrars just get more control over their own domains. This let's them have a tighter hold than if they have to rely on a third party to stop hijackings etc.

    To a big corporation the cost of becoming a registrar is nothing, at least when you compare it to the cost of having your domain hijacked and off-line (or worse, used for phishing etc) for several days. Just look at the Panix debacle, where a big UK ISP had their domain hi-jacked for more than a weekend.

    Article 1
    Article 2

  13. Re:I keep backups on my iPod on Backing Up is Hard to Do? · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is a very simple shell script that deletes the backup file already on the iPod, then does a 'tar czf - $HOME' and pipes it ...

    No. Don't do this, as it _will_ bite you, no exceptions. Never delete the old files before the new backup is down on the platter, preferably checked in some way. Yes, you will need more disk, but there really is no alternative.

    I lost ten years of email and personal files to a dying Deathstar because I was foolish enough to not be paranoid enough about my backups.

    Nowadays I keep (automatic) nightly backups for at least a month, with an (also automatic) off-site copy of every dump file saved on my computer at work. (VDSL rocks.)

    Nothing instills backup discipline like listening to your disk doing its russian tractor impression just when you deleted the old backup to make room for a new one.

  14. Re:Must have been quite powerful on Distress Signal Emitted By Flat-Screen TV · · Score: 1

    And I wonder how powerful that signal must have been to have caused such interference. Either that, or the receiving satellites must be having one hell of a resolution capability.

    Not necessarily, all the satellite needs to have is the capability to pinpoint the signal to a region. The position can then be triangulated using ordinary equipment.

    Remember that this is an emergency frequency, it is deliberately kept clear from any interference.

  15. Re:Emergency Calls? on France to Allow Cell Phone Jamming · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nope. According to the article;

    "Devedjian specified however that emergency calls and calls made outside theaters and other performance spaces must not be affected."


    So they indeed have to implement some sort of selective jamming.
  16. Re:It is not Googles responsibility on Optimizing News Sites For Google News · · Score: 1

    If people would actually bother to RTFA, they would see that the leaning is probably an unfortunate side-effect of how names are used differently in different media.

    The word combination "John Kerry" is more likely to be used in fringe media, while mainstream media use something like "Senator Kerry", or just "Kerry". This is especially true in the article headlines, where mainstream media very rarely use the first name. Also, articles trying to denounce Kerry are more likely to use "John Kerry" repeatedly, which skews the results even more.

    Since "John Kerry" is what people search for, it's the opinionated articles that show up.

  17. Re:No pretesting? on Human-powered Helicopter Fails to Lift Off · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ugh, people are so stupid. Test things you morons!.

    Well, they just did...

  18. Re:I hope they go ahead with this mission on NASA Urged to Reconsider Shuttle Mission to HST · · Score: 3, Insightful


    The Hubble was built in 1985. So, your analogy is a bit off base. It would be more like repairing that old 128k MacIntosh you bought back then. There's a time to repair, and there's a time to move on to newer technology.

    If all you had was that 128k Macintosh, and you knew you wouldn't be able to get a replacement for another decade (at best), then it would make very good sense to repair it.

  19. Yes new, many decades ago. on Robots That Serve Beyond The Vacuum · · Score: 1

    What's so new with this? I've seen machines like this (perhaps a little less automated, although the automation in this one appears to be only slightly more advanced than an egg timer) in laundry shops and dry cleaners for as long as I can remember.

    And a machine like this only does half the job. You still have to iron the creases so you can fold the shirt.

  20. Re:brain-dead tail-gating idiots on Intelligent Road Studs · · Score: 1

    Not in Sweden, but every now and then the papers are having fun with some multimillionaire in Finland who is caught speeding, having to pay a medium sized fortune because of it.

  21. Re:650 tons of material. on Space Elevators Going Up · · Score: 1

    The article states that we could build the elevator in two years, once we have the 650 tons already manufactered, and the ability to turn it into a usable cable.

    They speculate that we will be there in about a dozen years.

  22. Re:free software - no more on USENIX Responds to SCO; Fyodor Pulls NMap · · Score: 5, Informative

    RTFA, they are not changing the license. They are invoking a clause in the existing license.

  23. Re:saw it coming on Intel Shifting 64-bit Plans · · Score: 1

    Things are never this easy, there are always loads of code that makes weird assumptions about the sizes of pointers and ints, casts one into another carelessly, etc.

    Even in a higher level language where you don't have pointers as such, the int size can bite you, when you're doing low level bit stuff, or relying on a counter to roll over to zero predictably.

    Of course, the code should be written to always explicitly use a type of the apropriate size you need, but the world is full of things that should be done, but aren't.

  24. Maglevs? More like... on Scientists Create New Form of Matter · · Score: 4, Funny

    more efficient electric motors, and (our favorite) cheaper maglev trains.

    Maglevs are cool, but the real slashdotter wants to know how it will help build space elevators.

  25. But were are they hiding the sulphur? on US Army Pursues Hydrogen Fuel Concepts · · Score: 1

    Although the article isn't entirely clear on the subject, I guess the fuel will have to be converted in the vehicle, otherwise you get all the usual problems with storing the hydrogen.

    This means that all the waste products (sulphur, carbon compounds etc) must either be stored on board, to be collected/processed later, or vented to the atmosphere.

    Perhaps I'm overly cynic, but given the extra cost of handling the waste, they will probably just dump it. Not much gain emissions-wise then.