Slashdot Mirror


User: morcheeba

morcheeba's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
1,516
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 1,516

  1. show me the upgrades!! on NYT: The New Breed of Gaming Laptops Get Serious · · Score: 1

    My 1998 Dell Inspiron 7000 had an upgradable video card, but AFAIK, only two cards were ever offered. The only difference was memory size, and since I had bought the bigger size to start with, I could never upgrade.

    So, my stance on laptop upgrade cards is "show me the upgrades!". Even buying from a large company didn't assure me future improvements, and I wonder if that isn't part of a company's business plan - why actuall get around to selling the upgrade when you can sell a new laptop?

  2. MAC adress lookup-howto on 500 EURO reward for finding car by finding laptop · · Score: 1

    If you've got ethereal installed, look at file /usr/share/ethereal/manuf and search for the first three bytes of the MAC address:

    00:30:BD BelkinComp # BELKIN COMPONENTS

    This file is a merging of two sources:

    The IEEE public OUI listing:
    http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml
    http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt ...and...

    Michael Patton's "Ethernet Codes Master Page":
    http://www.cavebear.com/CaveBear/Ethernet/
    ftp://ftp.cavebear.com/pub/Ethernet.txt

    Hey, my old company is even in that file!

  3. G5 Hardware Specs on IBM Plans Collaboration On Power Architecture · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm still waiting on IBM to release it's PowerPC 970 (aka G5) hardware specs so that I can see what its high-speed bus looks like. The only thing publically available now is some fairly-broad "powerpc family" software arch documents - no electrical specs or 970-specific info.

  4. Re:standardize on iPod: This Season's Must-Have for Muggers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    you're blaming the company?!

    first you should blame the muggers.

    then maybe you should blame people who have flashy things in questionable surroundings.

    *last* should be the company. Are you going to blame every luxury product manufacturer? And then every manufacturer of anything of value? "Apparently McDonalds would rather see their customers mugged than produce Big Macs made out of radioactive dirt? (because someone might try to steal clean dirt)"

  5. Re:The "Bomb" on Low Levels Expose Mysterious Objects In Salt Lake · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nah, they wouldn't do that. Ok, maybe there's an abandoned NUCLEAR BOMB 75 miles from my house, but what's the chances of that happening again?

    no, seriously, I agree with the tank theory.

  6. Re:optical mice on Simputer Available? · · Score: 1

    I agree... sorry, that was a thought that crossed my mind, but I didn't put it into my post. There may be problems with what they actually do with the data, but (like you said) it's not the technology's fault.

    OT:
    I wish a cell phone had an accelerometer and could judge it's situation to provide the correct ring. This would also include a sample from it's microphone (which would be easy to do with existing hardware) and select the correct thing:
    - use the vibrator only when it's likely in contact with a person - if it's been sitting on the table, then use a light ding instead
    - otherwise, if its on your person, sense the ambient noise & ring loudly only if needed. (there would be a pocket/hip/purse setting to know how much above ambient it needs to be to get to your ear)

  7. optical mice on Simputer Available? · · Score: 1

    a little video camera connected to an custom image processing ASIC seems like an over-engineered solution to a trivial problem. But, it reduces the parts count and maintence, and one day I suspect it'll soon be cheaper to manufacture than mechanical mice.

    Accelerometers may sound spiffy today, but in reality, it's just a special process applied to the chips & can be made in bulk. The lack of dust openings and the ability to integrate into other chips may also make it cheaper in the long run.

  8. price on Two-Fisted Computing · · Score: 2, Informative

    it's also $599 on their net store!! (most of their other controllers are $499 except for the low-cost $399 and the $299 keyboard version)

  9. portable 6 DOF spaceball + 8 buttons on Two-Fisted Computing · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's a miniture spaceball with a six degree-of-freedom knob and 8 programmable buttons. website picture and pdf.

    Looks nice, but the buttons are placed around the rim and look like they'd be easy to confuse because they're identical.

    (sorry for using the words spaceball, knob, and rim in this post)

  10. that depends on the fashion... on Wearable Technology Fashion Show · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "form follows function" is a central bauhaus tenet - I've got a bauhaus-styled watch and car, and you've probably seen these chairs. It is a fashion, it is functional, and in my eye, it's beautiful.

  11. Re:Pretty sweeping on Kahle vs Ashcroft: Copyright Battle Continues · · Score: 1

    GPL has the copyright notice, so it'll still get protection. But, unless you register, you can't win extra damages when someone violates your copyright. IANAL.

  12. domain name hijackers on 100-Year Domain Renewals? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Even if you get the 100-year renewel, Verisign could still give it away. They've got a history of not properly authenticating transfer requests, so you're not really buying any piece of mind.

  13. Nuclear Detection System (NUDET) on Delta 2 Rocket Launches 50th GPS Satellite · · Score: 1

    yep, gps has nuclear blast detectors. I'm not sure if it's the original purpose, but the two roles are very similar (both requiring accurate high-altitude clocks and a little trig).

    I programmed for an old TRANSIT reciever and it's amazing these things ever worked. Basically, you had to listen for the satellite's signal and follow the doppler over the course of about 10 minutes. Knowing the orbit and the doppler profile would put you at one of two places on the earth, and you had to estimate from your previous position to tell which one. And you couldn't move a significant distance in those 10 minutes.

  14. VAT & taxes on Getting A Laptop With The Low U.S. Dollar · · Score: 2, Informative

    The $2999 includes a 17.5% VAT ($446), whereas the $2049 price doesn't include 8.625% NY tax ($176). I don't know the UK import laws, but be prepared if they ding you with an import tax (which may be the full VAT) when you come back with your new computer.

  15. Lucy's home page on Meet Lucy, The Orangutan Robot · · Score: 4, Informative

    Lucy's home page is an even better place for technical details, including an anatomical overview and scrapbook pictures

  16. Re:LGM on UFO Streaks Through Martian sky · · Score: 1

    that makes sense... astronauts wouldn't have seen a shooting star on the moon because there is no atmosphere -- and they'd have to be a lot luckier to see an impact.

  17. alien abduction insurance? on Startup to Offer Open Source Insurance · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure, I guess it makes sense because there have been more documented cases of alien abuductions than documented copied lines of UNIX.

  18. seek times & a book recomendation on Guinness's World's Smallest Hard Drive Record · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, seek times tend to improve the smaller the disk. It's less mass to move, over a shorter distance. Seagate claims their new 2.5" 10k RPM server-class drive has a 15% faster seek speed than 3.5" drives.

    The book The Innovator's Dilemma has a great case study of hard drives, from 14", 8", 5.25", 3.5", 2.5", and beyond and explains why the advantages that each smaller size offers (and why virtually none of the companies that are best at one size manage to sell well into the next smaller size). It's a great book.

  19. Re:Protocol faster than DSL? on BIC-TCP 6,000 Times Quicker Than DSL · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yep, it looks like the article makes no sense at all.

    Dr. Rhee, who made that comparison, also made another factual error: "TCP was originally designed in the 1980s when Internet speeds were much slower and bandwidths much smaller" -- Tcp was actually invented in 1974. Not that major, but you wouldn't expect a guy who "has been researching network congestion solutions for at least a decade" to miss the mark by so much.

    Hopefully the reporter was confused, but since it was a press release, you'd think that it would have had time to go through some review.

  20. or fax it. on MPAA Puts Words in Mouth of CA Attorney General · · Score: 1

    I worked at a place that had some old-school secrataries that were incredible typists. I had a two-page document they needed, but it was in the wrong format. I was about to go back downstairs to my office to save it in another format, but they said it would be easier to retype... sure enough, a few minutes later when the smoke cleared from the keyboard, they had my document retyped, error-free. Amazing.

  21. Re:Reply From Builder (Colin Mayhew) on Build a Robot out of a Car? · · Score: 1

    Yep, I think the dip is the biggest giveaway. After stopping, you see the suspension recover qutie a bit. The guy claimed he didn't use brakes, but the way the robot caught the car there is nothing to push down on the front -- except torque created by braking at the wheels.

  22. Truck dismount on G-rated Simulation Games? · · Score: 1

    The guy who wrote Porrasturvat ("Stair Dismount") now has a version with trucks. It will definitely keep their attention for a day or so, and it uses a very realistic physics model.

  23. transcoding on ExtremeTech Wages War of the Codecs · · Score: 1

    Exactly! You wouldn't test OGG vs. WMV vs AAC with a source of already-compressed MP3, so why do it with videos? Unless people are using their existing video clips, this isn't a good test... and if people are using their video clips, then they should be testing a variety of source (example: my camera produces quicktime clips, not MPEG).

  24. Re:double edged sword on Apple Sued in France for iPod Music Royalties · · Score: 1

    Of course I understand that.. What I'm saying is that they have rights beyond money, and those rights can't be satisfied with just money. Example: an artist may want a limited edition song... if there are a zillion copies of the song made anyway, it doesn't matter that they are paid some royalty; their wishes aren't being respected.

  25. Re:double edged sword on Apple Sued in France for iPod Music Royalties · · Score: 1

    I agree that a ASCAP-type all-you-can-eat media license would be better, but if I pay a media tax, I want those rights spelled out and guaranteed (just like you do when you get an ASCAP license).

    Money vs. rights is another topic, though. An artist may want things other than money -- for example, rights to control commercial usage. Or the right to not have it distributed at all (example: pamela anderson video).