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User: OblongPlatypus

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Comments · 344

  1. Re:No. on Shatner May Return to Star Trek (Briefly?) · · Score: 2, Funny

    Um, have you even watched the show? They don't care about timeline; they'll just have that guy from the future show up and bring the captain to whichever point in time Kirk would be about 70.

  2. Adam Arkin ...? on Anti-HIV Virus Developed · · Score: 1

    ...but that's the guy from Chicago Hope (!)

  3. 2D barcode? on Semacode - Hyperlinks For The Real World · · Score: 1

    Am I missing something here? Aren't regular barcodes also 2D?

  4. Searching skills on Putting Google to the Test · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Question 3: Who is the vice chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on back care?

    Google - 6min 27sec (3rd)

    Quote: "Unfortunately, "back" is rather a common word, and is turning up in all sorts of irrelevant documents..."

    Entering "back care" in quotation marks got me the answer in 25 seconds, much less than either of the "offline" sources. If they're going to have an accurate test, at least make sure the person performing it knows how to use a search engine.

    Or maybe I'm wrong; maybe most people don't have these basic searching skills, in which case the test is accurate after all?

  5. Re:QC and evesdropping on New Quantum Cryptography Speed Record · · Score: 5, Funny

    But if you sent "attack at dawn", then realized an enemy had been eavesdropping, wouldn't you just attack at dusk instead?

    Then again, the enemy would know that you knew he was eavesdropping, so he might anticipate that...

    Somehow, this reminds me of Vizzini.

  6. Remote upgrade to Fedora Core 1? on Red Hat Linux 9 Reaches End-of-Life · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm managing a remotely hosted Redhat 9 server. Does anyone know how risky (or even possible) it would be for me to upgrade to Fedora Cora 1 by simply pointing my sources.list at an FC1 repository and doing an apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade?

  7. Re:What's The Point? on Install iPod Update in Linux · · Score: 0, Troll

    Steps 1-8 in the article describe how to get the firmware. There are tons of alternatives to those steps; all it takes is for someone to put the firmware on the net somewhere, or for you to borrow a friend's PC, or just have him email you the .exe file, ... and the list goes on. Personally I used VMWare to extract the file.

    As for iTunes; as others have mentioned, there are several improvements in this update that don't rely on iTunes. And this method will work for any past and future updates as well.

  8. Re:What's The Point? on Install iPod Update in Linux · · Score: 3, Informative

    Possibly less exotic: VMWare won't recognize my firewire card, but it'll let me download and extract setup.exe just fine. Basically, there are tons of ways to get the firmware that don't involve using a computer that could do the actual update.

    I've actually already used this procedure, for the previous update: The exact same method has been described here for ages.

  9. Re:refresh rate is not an issue on Sony Launches First Commercial Electronic Paper Display Reader · · Score: 1

    Of course, reading the parent again, I realize a 5 fps refresh rate doesn't necessarily mean it'll show 5 new pages per second. So it'll be perfectly usable as an e-book reader.

    My point is that you won't be running any games or window managers (or anything else that requires animation) with this technology.

  10. Re:refresh rate is not an issue on Sony Launches First Commercial Electronic Paper Display Reader · · Score: 1

    5 frames per second would make it last for a little more than half an hour on those 3 AAA batteries.

  11. Parallel to William Gibson on The Zenith Angle · · Score: 4, Informative

    William Gibson has been doing the same thing; also a sci-fi writer, his latest novel Pattern Recognition is set in the present just like The Zenith Angle.

    Personally I'm a big fan of Gibson, but have read very little by Sterling. Can anyone who's read both comment on similarities and differences between the two?

  12. Re:I didn't get... on GE Reaches OLED Milestone · · Score: 2, Informative
  13. Quote-mania on Perl's Extreme Makeover · · Score: 3, Funny

    CmdrTaco wrote: "PurdueGraphicsMan writes "There's an article over at Yahoo! about the upcoming version of Perl (version 6) and some of the new features (RFC list). From the article: "Although Perl 5's expressions are the most sophisticated available and aspired to by other programming languages, "no one pretends for a moment that they're anything but hideously ugly," said Damian Conway, a core Perl developer and associate professor at Monash University in Australia."""

    Four levels of quotes; fun...

  14. Re:for anyone who doesn't know, use these tools on Spyware Masquerading as Spyware Removal Software · · Score: 1

    It's funny because it's true!

  15. Re:Right, that's his real name. on Author signs MyDoom virus · · Score: 1

    INCONCEIVABLE!

  16. Re:well technically.... on Is Your Silver-based Thermal Paste Really Silver? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    99% of what advertisers tell you is probably just-barely-legal bullshit.

    So is that (Barely Legal) (Bull Shit), as in bullshit from an 18 year old porn actress?

    Or (Barely Legal Bull) (Shit), as in the feces of an 18 year old bull?

  17. Re:*BOOM*! on Oscar Screener Leak Traced · · Score: 1

    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

  18. Re:Wrong headline! on Can Manned Spaceflight Save the Economy? · · Score: 1

    No problem, just call him Welshy :)

  19. Re:Not a problem in Opera on New IE Bug Hides Real Site Address · · Score: 1

    That was before IE6. Funnily enough, no one seemed to think IE5/Win was a joke even though IE5/Mac was much better. Now IE6 is much better than either IE5, but anyone who uses Mozilla or Opera know that any IE is a joke in comparison.

  20. Re:FAT Chance! on Microsoft to Charge for FAT File System · · Score: 1

    He didn't think it was funny, though. And if you weren't even trying to be funny, it's just even more stupid.

  21. Re:Relatively static? on Breaking the Gigapixel Barrier · · Score: 1

    The critical time here isn't the full time to take all the images, it's whatever time it took him to take the images which contain the shadow line. Maybe 3 minutes or so?

  22. Re:I wished postgresql was as easy to use as MySQL on PostgreSQL 7.4 Released · · Score: 1

    No, it means you attract.

  23. Re:The courts will work this out....eventually on The Computer Owner - Guilty or Not Guilty? · · Score: 1

    I would assume that, had the emails not been real, the other party would have protested and demanded a cross-check with ISP logs.

  24. Re:No ":" in title == good on Shrek 2 Trailer Released · · Score: 4, Funny
  25. Re:Too easy on New Moon System Around Uranus · · Score: 1

    I'm just surprised no one's made any comment about how the headline must be directed at J-Lo...