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User: nasty_penguin

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  1. Re:They haven't done that on KDE Gets The Hat · · Score: 1

    I believe that galean runs on top of the mozilla engine. They compement eachother, so one was never meant to replace the other.

  2. Re:no on Can We Finally Ditch Exchange? · · Score: 1

    It would be more correct to say that it is no longer binary compatible. Thankfully all software that I use is open source, and can be readily compiled (by myself or a distributor such as Mandrake). It is the proprietary software makers problem that he didn't release the source code.

  3. Re:An education in font terms woudl be nice first on Microsoft Typography Withdraws Free Web Fonts · · Score: 1

    The best fixed width font is DEC-terminal

  4. Re:Technically... on Is Linux or Windows Easier To Install? · · Score: 1

    What, you are to stupid to type the following command;

    md5sum -c md5-checklist #

  5. Re:Technically... on Is Linux or Windows Easier To Install? · · Score: 1

    Didn't you optimize your harddrives with the hdparm package. Look for a file called /etc/sysconfig/harddisks and uncomment the setting of environment variables that set the various harddisk optimizations.

    If this file is not there you need install hdparm package.

    The nice thing about linux is that problems are easy to solve.

  6. Re:Not necessarily right, but.... on Verizon's Solution to Terrorism: Eliminate Verizon Competitors · · Score: 1

    I think your logic on natural monopolies are quite correct. In Canada, as an example, telco's must have their rate increases through the Canadian Radio and Telecomunications Commission (CRTC). This is done by standard telephony practices of measuring grade of service (GOS). In British Columbia (Canadian province), our hydro has been a crown corperation since 1966. Prior to 1974, we had private auto insurance. Instead of basing the rates on the driver's previous driving record, they based the rates on the accident rate of the drivers demographic group as a whole. This, and the fact that there was little Canadian content in the insurance industry of the day (all that money going to the USA). Since the insurance industry, like any other private business is motivated by profit, some less reputable insurance corporations were really difficult to collect claims. Under the Insurance Corperation of British Columbia, First time driver pays the basic rate, 10% discount per each year of violation free driving up to 40%. Of course a similar method is used to penalise drivers that do violate the British Columbia Motor Vehicle Act. Thus the 18 year old male who drives safetly will pay less than the careless 60 year old lady (under the private insurance scheme, it would have been the other way around).

    Essential services seem to be natural monopolies. ICBC is kind of essential in that you must be insured to operate a motor vehicle in the province of British Columbia. Our neighbour to the East, the province of Alberta is not so lucky.

  7. Re:Second-hand radiation not a threat on Study Links Cell Phones and Eye Cancer · · Score: 1

    The same logic applies to lazers. Althouth the angle of is very small with lazers, the area of illumination still increases with the square of distance, and so this means that the intensity decreases with the square of distance

  8. Re:Second-hand radiation not a threat on Study Links Cell Phones and Eye Cancer · · Score: 1

    The radiation from directional antennas also decreases
    with the sqare of distance. In the case of a directional
    antenna (e.g. an antenna with a paraboloid reflector) the
    radiation is limited to a portion of the surface of the sphere
    repressenting all points equidistant from the source.
    Actually the radiation is more greatly directed in direction.
    The angle of radiation is taken to be the angle between
    directions that are 3.01dB (half power points) below the
    direction of maximum radiation. Since the surface area of
    a given amount of spheradians of surface angle (as
    opposed to arc angle which is measured in radians) is
    indeed proportional to the square of the radius of said
    surface angle.

    For clarity, the spheradians of a given area on the
    surface of a sphere is the ratio of this area, to the square
    of the radius of said sphere. This means that there are 4*pi
    speradians in a complete sphere (just as there are 2*pi
    radians in a complete circle).

    The area of a given surface angle (s_a) is given by;

    A=s_a * r^2, where r is the radius of curvature for this
    surface area. This means that the amount of area in this
    surface angle is proportional to the square of radius. Since
    the power that the antenna has outputed still spreads out
    over a surface area that increases with square of radius,
    the intensity of the radiation decreases with the square of
    distance

    The amount of power relative to a dipole antenna that
    the antenna outputs in the direction of maximum radiation
    (expressed in db, and notated by dBd) is the gain of the
    antenna.

    It is true that the directionality/gain of the antenna
    increases the risk do to increased radiation in a curtain
    direction (at the expense of the other directions), the
    intensity is still inverely proportional to the square of
    distance.

  9. Re:big deal on Study Links Cell Phones and Eye Cancer · · Score: 1

    Cellphones have a power output of 600mW. Since milli (m) in the SI means 10^-3, 600mW = 0.6W. The radiation intensity (assuming isotropic radiation) at 1 meter is only;

    [0.6W]/(4 * pi * [1m]^2)=0.047 W/m^2 or if you prefer, 47mW/m^2.

    since a dipole antenna is 2.14dB above isotropic in directions of maximum radiation, the radiation intensity at 1 meter is 78 mW/m^2 or 7.8 uW/cm^2 (microwatts per square centimeter)

  10. centi means 0.01 on Study Links Cell Phones and Eye Cancer · · Score: 1

    Ooops, I should have said centi means 10^-2, or in a form that computer people will recognise, 1e-2

  11. Re:Learn metric and mathematics on Study Links Cell Phones and Eye Cancer · · Score: 1

    Since centi (c), in the SI means 10^-1, this means that 5 cm = 0.05 m

    Since radiation intensity (e.g. W/m^2) is inversly proportional to the square of distance from the source, this means that;

    P1 = (r0/r1)^2 * P0

    P0, P1 are radiation intensities at r0, r1 respectively distances from source.

    Doing some algebra, we get;

    N= P1/P0= (r0/r1)^2 . I have used N to represent the power ratio of the two points (P1/P0)

    Using the above data we have;

    N=([0.05m]/[1m])^2 = (0.05)^2 = 0.0025

    This means that at one meter (r1) from the source, the radiation is 0.0025 (ie. 0.25%) as intense as it is at 5cm=0.05m (r0)

  12. Re:Great Nigger on Study Links Cell Phones and Eye Cancer · · Score: 1

    There have been many great cultures in africa. The Egyptian empire, the phenicians were african. There were also many other great african kingdoms. You sir, are completely ignorant of world cultures.

    Because you are not aware of any african phylosophers does not mean that there are no african phylosophers.

    I really think that school children should learn about world history and culture. This could probably prevent a lot of ugly racism, ans the above poster has amply demonstrated/

  13. space industry profitable since 1996 on Clinton Says NASA's Budget Should Be Increased · · Score: 2

    I believe that Scientific American had an article explaining that the space program (net world wide) has been turning a profit since 1996. I do not recall which issue it was in, but I am sure a /. reader will have a copy.

    Lots of valuable meteorological, geological, biological, oceanographic, etc. information is dirived from earth observation satelites, which has great commercial and scientific value. Industries that build space equipment develop cutting edge science and technology. This advancement in the sciences leads to yet more developments in science.

    Granted, some missions are not profitable at the current time. However, it is foolish to let the short term loss allow a project that could lead to future posibilities of profit to society at large. The fact that we are taking the `baby steps' of exploring the solar system today, means that we would be able to take advantage of valuable resources that can be found on planets such as mars. Take the robot mission to mars in 1996, this mission showed the feasability of using robots controlled remotely from earth. Can you imagine the posibility of robot miners of mars in the next 50 years. These missions use advanced propultion systems, communications systems and electronics. This all means that humankind is getting practical experiences in the technology of the future.

    It may be possible to develop some kind of warp drive and explore the galaxy some day. Before one can be a marathon runner, he must first learn to crawl as an infant.

  14. Re:Christmas on Free Cable Modem From The Shack · · Score: 1

    This is assuming that christmas is a christian holiday. The fact of the matter is that most cultures around the world have feastivities around the winder solstice. The comming of the shortest day of the year means that the days are starting to get longer, and there is hope for spring. The christian church adopted the old pagen European customs, and changed the significance of the meaning of this holiday to repressent the birth of christ. The christian church had done this to many aspects of pagen European culture. To win over converts, the church found that adopting the more enjoyable aspects of pre-christian Europe was very effective.

    As an aside, the devil that is part of christian mythology was actually adapted from the god of festivity from the original pagan mythology.

    It should be noted that I am a Canadian athiest who celebrates the winter festivities. I don't believe christmas has anything to do with christ.

    Do not flame back about the first six letters of the word christmas, it was the christian church who coined the word. I am sure the various european cultures had their own word for the winter festival for 1000s of years before the christian church came to power around the fall of the Roman empire in the 5th century AD (476AD is commonly cited in the history books)

  15. mpaa whois info - express feeelings or disable on Hollywood Dealt Setback in California DeCSS Case · · Score: 1

    /* whois mpaa.com */

    Registrant:
    Management Partners and Associates (MPAA2-DOM)
    8285 135th Street West Suite 100
    Apple Valley, MN 55124 US

    Domain Name: MPAA.COM

    Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
    Pal-Freeman, Bill (BP716) bill.pal-freeman@MPAA.COM
    ManagementPartners
    7935 133rd St W
    Apple Valley, MN 55124
    612-953-4478 (FAX) 612-953-3058
    Technical Contact:
    Hostmaster Account (HA2-ORG) hostmaster@AGILITI.COM
    Agiliti/gofast.net Inc.
    4300 MarketPointe Drive, Suite 100
    Bloomington, MN 55435
    US
    main 952.918.2000 - support 651.265.4777 or 1.866.AGILITI Fax- 952.918.2100

    Record last updated on 27-Oct-2000.
    Record expires on 26-Apr-2010.
    Record created on 25-Apr-1996.
    Database last updated on 15-Dec-2000 23:37:31 EST.

    Domain servers in listed order:

    NS.GOFAST.NET 209.46.63.1
    NS2.GOFAST.NET 209.46.63.6

    /* whois mpaa.org */

    Registrant:
    THE MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATIONOF AMERICA, INC. (MPAA-DOM)
    15503 Ventura Boulevard
    Encino, CA 91436 US

    Domain Name: MPAA.ORG

    Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
    Egge, Paul (PE420) pegge@MPAA.ORG
    MPAA
    15503 Ventura Boulevard
    Encino, CA 91436
    818-995-6600 (FAX) 818-382-1795
    Technical Contact:
    Pilot Network Services, Inc. (PILOT3) hostinfo@PILOT.NET
    Network Information and Support Center
    1080 Marina Village Parkway
    Alameda, CA 94501
    US
    (510) 433-7890

    Record last updated on 22-Nov-2000.
    Record expires on 23-Aug-2010.
    Record created on 22-Aug-1995.
    Database last updated on 15-Dec-2000 23:33:17 EST.

    Domain servers in listed order:

    NS.PILOT.NET 198.232.147.10
    NS13.PILOT.NET 198.232.147.13

  16. Re:The article has at least one thing wrong... on Hollywood Dealt Setback in California DeCSS Case · · Score: 1

    I am glad you said this. This clean room copying is exactly what Compaq computers did back in 1982 when I was just starting out on computers. One set of engineers worked with the actual BIOS chip, that was required to operate the M$DO$ of the day. Another set of engineers, who signed sworn legal documents saying that they have never seen the original product, and had no contact with the first group of engineers. The second group of engineers clean room copied the BIOS from the specifications generated by the first group of engineers.

    On the issue of abusive law suits. This is a combination of the litigious nature of US society, and the endowedness of the interests behind these nuisance lawsuits (as they are refered to in the British countries; Canada, Australia, UK, etc.). What I do not understand is why US law waits to the retaliation stage of nuicance lawsuits. In Canada (and probably other British based coutries), it is an offence to abuse the (publicly funded) judicial system with nuisance lawsuits. In Canada, it is considered blackmail/harasment to send a letter threatening legal action. One may send a polite letter requesting that certain behaviour be modified. Creditors are not allowed to phone people in the middle of the night with threatening phone calls, as this is also considered harassment under Canadian law.

  17. Re:Here's your Reality Check on ESR: Microsoft Could Collapse In 6 Months (updated) · · Score: 1

    Another point on DVD, in relation to proprietary standards. As a hacker and internet systems administrator by trade, I can tell you proprietary standards should be avoided whenever and wherever possible (speaking as a systems administrator). I like open standards, that are published by non proprietary bodies such as ISO. I agree with Linux Torvolds, that standards should be methods etc. that work and commited to writing, and not made up stuff that will be put to practice later (see interview with Linux Torvolds, Linux Magazine 2000 December edition).

    I point out the problems with proprietary standards (using MP3 as an example). The MP3 standard is a closed standard that was developed by the musical recording industry (in the early 1980s, which is about when CDs came out, as I can recall). This protocol is not very efficient, as there was also an open standard that used compression etc. The open standards files are about 0.1 the size of an MP3 of the same song. Although the open standard is technically superior to the closed standard, it did not prevail because of the likes of M$haft, who stuck with MP3, and so most music on the net is in this inferior standard.

    Open standards, are good for the end users, since the technology is not dependent on a given supplier, availability of competing software that uses the same protocols etc. and better interconnectivity between computer systems that use open standards.

  18. Re:Here's your Reality Check on ESR: Microsoft Could Collapse In 6 Months (updated) · · Score: 1

    I relation to your comment on DVD. Check out http://www.linuxvideo.org/

    Even if the above is not available -- have you ever heard of reverse engineering. The original IBM PC clone by compaq in 1982 (Yes, I am old enough to have been computing at that period in history) used a reverse engineered BIOS so that it would work with the M$DOS of the time. It was ruled perfectly legal, as they did not acually copy the binary information burned into the ROM chip, but instead did a `black box' analysis of the chip, i.e. comparing input to output, and experimenting to see the behaviour of this chip, and then independently designing code that will do the same thing.

    Quite clearly similar techniques can be used with DVD, and it is quite likely that the Livid folks used such a method.

  19. Re:We're not there yet on ESR: Microsoft Could Collapse In 6 Months (updated) · · Score: 1

    >Well, okay, that and a need for easier-to-use >install routines for new software - though I hear
    >there are projects underway for that, too.

    If you check out Mandrake >= 7.1 (possibly other distros.) you will notice that URPMI is installed, with a nice GUI front end available. It allows me to search for the RPM containing a specified file (just like a *.deb package). This system stores a database of which RPMs are stored on which CD (very handy on a multi-CD distribution). Checkout www.linux-mandrake.com/

  20. Re:fsck time grows exponentially with disk size! on Intel Creates 30-Nanometer Transistors · · Score: 1

    If / is read only, how would the system change the contents of /etc/mtab when a drive is mounted/umounted.

  21. Re:Christmas isn't about presents on Gifts For Geeks · · Score: 1

    Christmas never had anything to do with that mythical figure known to christians as jesus christ. In europe it was an old pagen winter festival. If you look at cultures around the world (christians are incapable of understanding non-western culture), it is almost universal to have some festive occation around the time of the winter solstice. The sun is very important to peoples over the world, and many cultures will recognize the day of the year that the sun appears furthest south in the sky.

  22. Re:About as acurate as... on Intel Creates 30-Nanometer Transistors · · Score: 1

    30nm * 10^5 = 3mm, I have never seen a sheet of paper that is 3 millimetres thick, have you?

  23. Re:Not that strange. on Linus Torvalds Announces Autobiography · · Score: 1

    How can one write an autobiography if they are dead? Look up autobiography in the dictionary.

  24. Re:yeah but i don't buy that on The New Geography · · Score: 1

    In what way are American's culturally programmed to be successful.

    Do you really think that folks in other countries are lacking what it takes to be successful?

    This attitude is a product of the way American History is taught. It is taught in a way that incourages blind patriotism, and not in a manner that encourages students to think critically in the social sciences.

    I recommend reading "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Lauren. This volume explains the fallacies of American History, as it is taught in US highscools.

  25. Academic Masterbation on The New Geography · · Score: 1

    This book was undoubtedly written by an academic in the social sciences. The academic community is full of all too many person's who are seeking tenure. As we all know, the best way of attaining tenure is to publish. Publishers are very much for profit organizations, and would obviously sell works that sell well, either because of the scholarly content of the work, or that it appeals to mass readership.

    I think that a book that says that the digital economy will bring poverty to many communities, it will probably sell well (another appocolypse tale).

    My take on things;

    Throughout history, there have been many instances of a technology causing much social upheaval. A great technological innovation usually brings about great change. It takes sometime for society at large to ajust to a rapid change. The mechanization in the industrial revolution, greatly changed the nature of the work force, and it did take some time for all effected to adjust to the new economy.

    I would perhaps compare the so called `digital revolution' to the 19th century industrial revolution. There will be some problems in certain areas, but these sectors will eventually adapt, and folks will soon wonder what people did without the assistance of computer technology, global networking, etc...

    Just my 2E-2 $