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User: gringer

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  1. Re:If we are voting, I vote for Castrix on Cuba Launches Own Linux Variation · · Score: 1

    I thought Castrix came before Unix

  2. What about a timeout? on Edit-Approval System Proposed For English-Language Wikipedia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Set up a timeout limit, with a fallback to what happens now. In other words, if an edit hasn't been approved or rejected in days/hours (with a default, but customisable per article), the edit is flagged as "approved via timeout".

  3. Re: GIMP on Ubuntu Mobile Looks At Qt As GNOME Alternative · · Score: 1

    8. GIMP is GTK+

    8a. GTK+ is The GIMP Toolkit.

  4. Re:Too Many Filetypes / Too Much Incompatability on Can a Small Business Migrate Smoothly To OpenOffice.org v3? · · Score: 1

    Use LaTeX, it does the typesetting for you*!

    * unfortunately, you need to learn a strange new language in the process:

    \documentclass[a4paper]{article}
    \begin{document}
    \section{The Benefit of \latex}
    \label{sec:benefits-latex}
    I'm not talking about the rubber kind, but \latex can be used to do many things. For example, see \pageref{sec:benefits-latex}, Section~\ref{sec:benefits-latex}, where I discuss the function $f(x)=\sqrt{x^3-4x^2+1}$.

    Apologies if I've got syntax incorrect. This has all been typed from memory -- I would be very surprised if it compiles correctly.
    \end{document}

  5. Re:Just pipe it on Visualizing Complex Data Sets? · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure if you're jesting about that, but I wrote a patch for xscreensaver to allow just that functionality for the xmatrix hack. Looks great for things like 'ps -eo command'. See any version from 5.04 onwards.

    I wrote this after noticing the DNA encoding and thinking, "hey. Wouldn't it be great if I could feed this with real DNA sequence?"

    Unfortunately, I had to send the same stream to each of the feeders on the screen, which means it can only show one vertical line of data, rather than 40 or so.

  6. Re:Desktop Holder on Second Prototype of the $200 Open Source Tablet · · Score: 1

    Alternatively, you could say that Lego is a mass word (like water, wood, or platinum). In NZ, I'm used to us talking about having 'Lego' to do stuff with. If you're wanting to refer to individual pieces, it's a Lego block, Lego brick, or Lego piece (or 'n blocks of Lego').

    Wikipedia uses the word 'Lego', with the only mention of 'Legos' in the article coming from just one of the many references: here.

    Quoting from the discussion:

    only five year olds and americans call them "legos".

    However, that discussion also points out that there have been trademark dilution concerns by the company regarding the use of 'Legos' instead of their preferred 'Lego', suggesting that the prevalence of that use is higher that what I've experienced in little old New Zealand.

  7. Re:Please... on Windows 7's Media Hype Having the Opposite Effect As Vista's · · Score: 1

    by Colin Smith (2679)

    We like to keep a modicum of decency in these forums

    by moderatorrater (1095745)

    You must be new here...

    Based on the user ID (a fairly good indicator of /. age, especially at the magnitude of difference between you and him), I'd probably say that he's just had a really long vacation. I would say that... except that doesn't agree with his posting history. Maybe he just has amnesia.

  8. Re:r-project.org on The Power of the R Programming Language · · Score: 4, Informative

    With multi-core processors becoming more and more prevalent, R's developers should remedy this as soon as possible.

    Already done. There's an R package called SNOW that allows you to handle code running in parallel.

  9. Re:Show me some example code on The Power of the R Programming Language · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Okay, I'll take you up on that... here's some code that takes in a vector of genotypes (as a factor with levels AA,AC,CC,XX), and a matrix of columns to be used for different bootstraps, and spits out a list of genotype counts for those bootstraps:


    ## matmap -- maps a vector onto a matrix of indexes to the vector
    ## (a hack to get round something that R doesn't seem to do by default)
    matmap <- function(vector.in, matrix.indices){
        res <- vector.in[matrix.indices];
        if(is.null(dim(matrix.indices))){
            dim(res) <- c(length(matrix.indices),1);
        } else {
            dim(res) <- dim(matrix.indices);
        }
        return(res);
    }
    ## generate table based on genotype frequencies
    GTcounts <- function(in.genotypes, columns.pop){
        gt.table <- apply(matmap(in.genotypes,columns.pop),2,tabulate, nbins = 4);
        rownames(gt.table) <- levels(in.genotypes);
        return(gt.table);
    }

    Out of the [imperative] languages I know, only octave/matlab have a chance out doing better than that in terms of lines of code. And when you're writing code, being able to avoid duplication and mindless for loops is a really useful feature.

  10. Re:Be Warned on OLPC Downsizes Half of Its Staff, Cuts Sugar · · Score: 4, Informative

    Then again, it looks like they're not dropping Sugar completely, just "Passing on the development of the Sugar Operating System to the community."

  11. Be Warned on OLPC Downsizes Half of Its Staff, Cuts Sugar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you're changing your original goals (I'm thinking particularly about Sugar here) mid-way through, you'll crash faster.

  12. HDAPS on Lenovo To Bring Wii-Inspired Input To PCs · · Score: 1

    reminds me of the Thinkpad Hard Disk Active Protection System (accelerometers near the hard drive) which had a linux driver that allowed it to be used as a joystick. Quite fun for playing neverball...

  13. Re:yea it does on Google Tells Users To Drop IE6 · · Score: 1

    you didn't think you're comment through at all (or proof-read for grammar).

    Well, look whose talking!

  14. Re: brain chemicals on Facebook Nudity Policy Draws Nursing Moms' Ire · · Score: 1

    And that those same chemicals are released during sex, helping to bond the partners together?

    http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18925365.500

  15. paying for homework? on Microsoft Invents $1.15/Hour Homework Fee For Kids · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't it be better to pay the students for homework, and ask for money when they play games?

  16. Re:only one thing to say on Microsoft Invents $1.15/Hour Homework Fee For Kids · · Score: 1

    I'm somewhat interested in why you'd choose to spend several hundred dollars for an application that you'd use a few hours per year when there's a somewhat equivalent FOSS program, Inkscape. The "few hours" bit suggests that you may be more willing to let slide a few of the differences, particularly if this is a program that you've only recently purchased.

    Are there any features that AI has that are a "must have" for you?

  17. Take a cue from computer games? on Shuttleworth Proposes Overhaul of Desktop Notifications · · Score: 1

    There are a few computer games that I have played that have notification systems. They are usually somewhat unobtrusive, give some indication that an event has happened, but don't show you the message or event until you interact with them.

    One in particular that I'm thinking of is Theme Hospital, where a little icon would pop up at the bottom of the screen and slide across, waiting for you to click on it to see the message (and deal with the situation as necessary). Once the event was dealt with (sometimes even without your interaction), the icon would disappear. There were different icons for information / decisions / visits, which made it easier to prioritise your management of the notifications.

    Other ones I can think of were "goal/achievement reached" notifications (different game). You'd know something had happened, but not what it was until clicking on the message area of the screen.

  18. 36 unread massages! on The Slow Bruteforce Botnet(s) May Be Learning · · Score: 1

    Hello friend,

    You seem to be disadvantaged at the moment in not having a lifetime partner. Please click here to find hot singles in your area:

    http://tinyurl.com/6y7jgl

    John was a good boy, but decided to deliver papers every day. His water bottle covered the monster in goat cheese, dripping feta all over the refrigerator. Entranced by the spoon, susan covered the salad with some plastic wrap, then turned over the next page of the book.

    [this botnet parody message was brought to you by the letter 'Y']

  19. Re:LaTeX on Tools & Surprises For a Tech Book Author? · · Score: 4, Informative

    emacs, latex, auctex, flyspell -- wonderful combination. Oh, and you'll probably want git/svn for revision control (as suggested previously). There's also a latexdiff program floating around that can put changebars into your output file.

    Flyspell allows you to have the wavy line spellchecker functionality that is fairly common now. It distinguishes between non-dictionary words that appear only once and non-dictionary words that appear more than once.

    No makefile is necessary if you're using auctex. It's just C-c c for latex, bibtex, latex, latex, (pre)view.

    The makeidx package allows you to create indexes (e.g. \index{ancestry!genomic}).

    Yes, it's a learning curve, and the best way to start with emacs/latex is to work off some already written latex files, but the results that come out the other end are worth that effort.

  20. Re:Film and TV producers also call for action on RIAA To Stop Prosecuting Individual File Sharers · · Score: 1

    Dear Sir,

    We are a group of UK film and TV producers, directors and writers. We are concerned that the successes of the creative industries in the UK are being undermined by the illegal online file-sharing [today.com] of film and TV.

    We are so far able to proceed £3,000,000,000 for reimbursements to creators of our music, but are having danger with legal costs in getting those reimbursements to the creators.

    As a creator of the very population musical track, "le derintecacia", you are entitled to a 0.04% portion of this money (two million pounds). In order to greet this money, you can please help us out with our legal costs. Let us your contact details so we can arrange for you to submit an advanced payment of £700 to help enclose our expenses.

    Mr G. H. Herteford
    Williamshire
    England

  21. No sex if you want to do it this way on Baby To Be Born Without the Gene For Breast Cancer · · Score: 1

    One of the disadvantages of Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD, which is what they used here) is that it requires implantation of a screened egg. That means all the lovely things that go with IVF [fertility] treatment -- drugs to synchronise your period with something a bit more predictable, in-vitro fertilisation, multiple embryos, and a few blood tests along the way.

    If you want to make babies the usual way (i.e. by having sex), then you can't use this technique to screen for less desirable traits.

  22. Why all the fuss about brains? on Brain Electrodes That Screw On the Skin · · Score: 1

    Just use one of these things on the arm, strap an rs232 adapter onto it, and use it for nerve-computer communication.

  23. Re:PJ does have her moments on Groklaw Summarizes the Lori Drew Verdict · · Score: 1

    There's a million ways to be anonymous

    It's difficult to encrypt behaviour. If you don't know who a particular user is via direct tracing methods, you can make a fairly good guess based on their activities.

  24. ICS? on Atheros Hardware Abstraction Layer Source Is Released · · Score: 1

    What's the ICS license? I think someone may have got their acronyms mixed up... of course, that person may be me.

  25. Re:Leisure Suit Larry on Entertainment Software Association Following RIAA? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, that question would be good at stopping piracy:

    Is this software pirated?
    a. Yes.
    b. I'm not talking.
    c. No. (How could you even ask!)
    d. No, just borrowed.
    Correct answer: c.