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User: mr_zorg

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  1. Re:Only Marginally Good News on Retailers Press For Unified HD DVD Format · · Score: 1
    ...but minus several hundred for insisting that the copy protection be severe, including the prohibition of analog HD.

    Bzzt. You fell pray to one of the classic blunders. The poster tacked on a completely irrelevant bit of information on to a useful story simply to emphasize a pet peve of his/hers and the editors allowed it. The bit about restricting analog HD was an earlier story from the HD-DVD camp, and has nothing to do with this plea from the VSDA to avoid a format war.

    I hate it when they do that...

  2. Re:Dying in tiny slices on Russia's Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered · · Score: 1
    "Millions of people will boot their Macs every day; if you can shave 30 seconds off that boot time, it's the equivalent of three human lives every day". If that concept is true...
    It's not. I usually (re)boot my Mac about once a week, at most. Besides, some quick math shows about 84 million mac users would need to be booting (and saving 30 seconds) every day just to equal a single human life time...
  3. Re:Or Put Another Way... on New Study Finds VOIP is Getting Better · · Score: 1
    If any call has a 5.2% chance of failing, there is a 5.2% chance that a person will die...

    You're right. Duh. Even though I read the original post that way, for whatever reason when typing the post I treated it as though it was 5.2% of every 24 hours. Which is a completely different thing.

    So, in effect, the "critical" failure rate would be only 99.99999818%. Now, tell me, is that so bad?

    I'd say that would be rather horrible, but I believe you meant to say that that would be the success rate :).

    You're right, of course, that is what I meant to say. But it apparently wasn't right anway. You've completely bamboozled me with the rest of your post, so I'm guessing you are a mathematician of some sort... I stand corrected. :-)

  4. Re:Or Put Another Way... on New Study Finds VOIP is Getting Better · · Score: 2, Interesting
    ...Also, I don't believe the 94.8% is based on 24/7 usage. I was under the impression that it was how many calls were dropped or not received.

    I agree, I was under that same impression. And in my book, that really isn't too bad. That means only 1 out of every 16 calls will have a problem. I wish my cell phone had that kind of reliability! I also believe, unlike other posters, that reliability figure probably includes not only the VOIP failure but the ISP being down too.

    To the poster who was complaining about needing 911 to be 100% reliable I say, "have you ever tried calling 911 in a major metropolitan area?" You'll get a busy signal or be on hold longer than it would take you to redial on your VOIP phone.

    Just for the sake of argument, let's say that most people only make ONE life threatening 911 call in their lifetime. Now let's say they have an 80 year lifespan, and the call lasts 15 minutes. That's 0.000035% of your life where you really need to be worried about your VOIP not working. Given a 5.2% max failure rate, that mean there's only a 0.00000182% chance of that failure occurring during the 0.000035% of your life where you really need it to work. So, in effect, the "critical" failure rate would be only 99.99999818%. Now, tell me, is that so bad? P.S. Since I'm not mathematician, I probably botched the math, in which case mod me funny... But If I happened to get the math right, mod me insightful!

  5. Re:answer work e-mail at home?" on Websurfing Damaging U.S. Productivity? · · Score: 1
    Uh...zero. Why would I want to answer work email at home. I don't, nor do I answer phone calls from work on my mobile when I've left work. If they want to arrange paying me to do either, that's fine, but they haven't. I'm suprised this is even an issue.
    And you wonder why you got laid off from your last three jobs during their downsizing? You probably also wonder why you're still a junior engineer... You need to make yourself invaluable!
  6. Re:Boot times disk/network bound on Intel Developer Macs Outperform G5s · · Score: 1

    10 seconds really doesn't seem all that much faster. My PowerBook G4 notebook only takes 16 seconds... And there's no way it can compete with the faster hard drives of a desktop.

  7. Re:Well, I offered it to them... on Drupal Needs a New Home · · Score: 1
    Yikes! Fixed. The database connection broke overnight... strange. Thanks for the heads-up.
    And to think, Simpli touts "100% guaranteed network uptime". Well, I suppose the network probably was up -- just not the servers. :-) What a joke.
  8. Re:Why not run a web server on Tivo??? on Peter Seebach Pokes Around His TiVo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, *BUT* if you're one of those people with a DirecTiVo, you don't get any of those spiffy things. DirecTV won't allow it. But I really like the integration such units offer -- you just can't match it with a standalone unit. So, hacking becomes a way to GET those features on your DirecTiVo...

  9. Dupe on Vehicle for Cockroaches · · Score: 1
  10. Re:Translated into English... on Microsoft To Pay IBM In Antitrust Settlement · · Score: 1
    I won't be surprised at all if one of the confidential clauses is that some of the $700MM get used to settle peacefully with SCO before the GPL's proven.
    I would. IBM likes the GPL...
  11. Re:Will Apple counter it? on Amazon Patents User Viewing Histories · · Score: 1

    Really? That's too bad...

  12. Will Apple counter it? on Amazon Patents User Viewing Histories · · Score: 1

    Granted, Amazon was doing it first, but Apple's iTunes is probably the single largest infringer of this "patent"... It does all of those things. Perhaps Apple will try and get it overturned?

  13. Re:Strategy? on First Look at Apple's Intel Developer Macs · · Score: 1, Insightful
    A simpler explaination is that Windows XP has already been ported to practically every x86 chipset and common peripheral, so it's no surprise it works.
    Yes, it's no surprise it works, but it is also the very same reason it doesn't work well. You know the old saying, "jack of all trades, master of none?" One of the reasons OS X is so stable and cool is limited hardware support...
  14. Re:Can we stop... on Microsoft Wants P2P Avalanche to Crush BitTorrent · · Score: 1
    Microsoft! Making P2P downloads of large files easier! Really!
    Why the surprise? Can you imagine the savings on their bandwidth bills if they start distributing all those massive windows update patches via a BT like system? Maybe the wouldn't need Akamai so much anymore...
  15. Old news? on Google Scholar: Not Ready for Prime Time? · · Score: 1

    Google Scholar has been around for ages now... Why is this news?

  16. And this is why... on PC Prices Reach $300 Milestone · · Score: 1
    Now, PCs cost less than some telephones--and less than a lot of TV sets--and can be found in roughly three-quarters of U.S. homes. But while they are priced like consumer electronics, the machines still aren't even remotely as easy to use, and the trend lines there aren't particularly encouraging.'"
    Ding. Ding. Ding. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the real reason Apple is moving to Intel. Having whetted the public's appetite with the iPod, they now want to be the computer in every home that is as easy to use as most consumer electronics. And only Intel can handle the volume that would entail...
  17. Re:Google is great! on Google Takes Top Spot From Time Warner · · Score: 1
    Google is truly a remarkable company. Innovation at its best... There's probably not a day in my life that I don't use Google at least ten times. I don't know where I'd be without it. One day, I aspire to work for Google myself... Keep up the good work, guys.
    Google is where they are because they don't hire dumb-asses like us.
  18. Re:You can have my PowerPC... on Apple Switching to Intel · · Score: 1
    Heat output was one of the reasons for switching to x86 in the first place.
    Given that one of the chief complaints people have had with Intel is power consumption and heat output, does anyone else find this highly ironic that Apple is moving to Intel to avoid the very thing we fault them for? Granted, Intel finally seems to have gotten a clue and is working hard to remedy this problem. I guess Apple is privvy to more detailed information on just how well they're doing on that front.
  19. You can have my PowerPC... on Apple Switching to Intel · · Score: 1

    You can have my PowerPC when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

  20. Does this mean lower power usage? on Electric Cars as Fast as Ferraris · · Score: 1
    "Size for size, we can provide 400% more torque than any type of motor currently available," says managing director John Bryant."
    I'm not an electrical engineer, but does this mean that it could provide the same level of torque needed to get (and keep) a car moving at 1/4 the power requirements of current electric motors?
  21. Re:In other galactic news.. on 60% Of U.S. Believe Life Exists On Other Planets · · Score: 1
    Meanwhile, only a resounding 5% of life on other planets believes that there is intelligent life on Earth.
    And they'd be right, of course...
  22. Re:Crazy on Mad as Hell, Switching to Mac · · Score: 1
    How is this different from Mac software?
    The main difference is that Mac OS X takes security very seriously and its architecture make it very difficult for poorly written software to hose you up. Windows, on the other hand, has its root as a single user, non-networked operating system. Multi-user and networking were bolted on much later. What Micrsoft needs to do is throw it away and "start over" like Apple did.
  23. Just ask Chrichton on Wormholes Unstable (BBC) · · Score: 1

    Anybody who watched Farscape knows that already! But tell these guys to ask John Chrichton, as he's figured it all out...

  24. Re:Specialization. on Paul Graham: Hiring is Obsolete · · Score: 1

    Oh, you mean like a temp agency?

  25. If it makes it more portable... on OpenOffice 2.0 Criticized on Use of Java · · Score: 1

    If it makes it more portable, I say go for it. As long as there's a JVM available for my platform, I don't care...