Slashdot Mirror


User: Zerth

Zerth's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
2,152
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 2,152

  1. Re:Fired him first? on The Trial of Terry Childs Begins · · Score: 2, Informative

    He was also ordered to surrender them to someone department policy said he was not allowed to tell and who was likely to screw things up and blame it on him.

    He did the responsible thing and insisted on following policy in a manner that ensured the network continued to function.

  2. Re:Too bad the US can't comprehend this concept on Microsoft Fined In India For Using "Money Power" Against Pirates · · Score: 1

    Except where you are sure you'll win, but run out of money before the case is over and your lawyer isn't willing or unable to work for free temporarily, even with a guaranteed payoff in the end, so you lose and go into debt.

  3. Re:Limitations of e-paper on B&N Nook Successfully Opened · · Score: 1

    Netbooks can view YouTube. Readers with electronic paper displays can't.

    Well, good thing this also has an LCD.

  4. Re:Free and open comms on Israeli ISPs Caught Interfering With P2P Traffic · · Score: 2, Informative

    If it is happening even without the router, it is a bit suspicious that visiting speedtest fixes it. However, your router may be causing problems on its own, many cheaper routers can fill their NAT tables while torrenting.

    If you've got a router that can adjust the length of time an entry is in the table, shorten it down to a few minutes.

  5. Re:Parent pushback on Poorer Children More Likely To Get Antipsychotics · · Score: 1

    Definitely, I've a relatively who does welfare counseling and getting somebody in at all is a pain. Not just because of the jobs, but because whatever hacked up system schedules them seems to insist on picking the furthest possible facility.

    That, and the system usually only cover enough sessions to figure out why they're messed up, whereupon it is either drugs or punching a cop to get committed and score some long-term care.

  6. Re:Electronics Set on Science Gifts For Kids? · · Score: 1

    You think that's bad, when I was a kid I ran out of wire and mistook some solid-core solder for wire when doing the same thing.

    Fortunately, my dad asked my why on earth I was wrapping solder around a nail before I hooked up the terminals, so I didn't get my first nasty solder burn until a few years later.

  7. Re:Get them a box with no cat on Science Gifts For Kids? · · Score: 1

    Or you could speculate on what kind of cat you'd get from the quantum froth if you chopped the box in half with a black hole.

    If you got the anti-cat of the virtual pair, would you call it a dog?

  8. Re:you bet I've had similar concerns on Best Way To Clear Your Name Online? · · Score: 1

    First, find somebody with the same name as you. If you can't find such a person, make a website on a freebie host and invent them. Put up a blog and post about trampy adventures that invariably end in failure. Add a picture from national geographic.

    Second, give up the gmail address. If your email isn't all over the net in legit forms, get something completely different. If you are unlucky enough to have used it in other places, get one that looks the same, but is slightly wrong. Complain about the dick that took your name and how you have trouble yourself remembering to misspell it in your sigs. You'll still want to transition to something different eventually.

  9. Re:about time, Kindle sucks on Five Top Publishers Plan Rival to Kindle Format · · Score: 1

    The kindle has sound. It even does audiobooks like audible(although the storage is a bit limited for that). The fonts are a software design choice, not a hardware restriction.

    I'd rather have better dpi and contrast before color, but then most of my textbooks consisted of text and b/w graphs.

    ePub support would be nice, though.

  10. Re:I don't see any difference between software... on A Critical Look At Open Licensing For Hardware · · Score: 1

    Have you never heard of FPGA? I just saw an ad on /., unfortunately the brand escapes me, for one that came with a license to a pentium class 86 compatible design and had enough gates left over for network, io and a LED controller for less than $300.

    Do your revs on that, then print to copper when you're done.

  11. Re: Wait on Adobe Takes On Microsoft Role In E-book Market · · Score: 1

    It'd be nice if somebody came up with a cheapish, nondestructive paperback digitizer.

    If you don't mind slicing off the binding you can just get a drop scanner for ~250, but I'm a bit squeamish about that.

    Hardbacks are easy, there's at least one DIY system thats pretty fast.

  12. Re:Obvious (?) question on Super Strength Substance Approaching Human Trials · · Score: 1

    So... What's the effective dose again?

    On the other hand, Biotang? Could they have chosen a less-legit sounding name?

  13. Re:The new way to shut ppl down who you don't like on Questionable "Best Effort" Copyright Enforcement · · Score: 1

    You can get torrents to work with a proxy. You just appear to be behind a firewall, so only connection your client initiate will work.

  14. Re:The problem is misunderstoood... on Data-Sifting For Timely Intelligence Still an Elusive Goal · · Score: 1

    It's in that place where I put that thing that time. --Ramon Sanchez

  15. Re:Silly on TSA's Sloppy Redacting Reveals All · · Score: 1

    The ones I found most interesting are where they instruct them to mark the boarding pass in a way that indicates the person carrying it can breeze through security as an unchecked selectee.

    I hope this is different at every airport, but I have a feeling that it isn't different and that TSA employees carry pens with them when they fly so they can mark themselves exempt.

  16. Re:Pointless hype on How Does the New Google DNS Perform? (and Why?) · · Score: 1

    My provider blocks raw VPN because they want business class $$$ for it.

    If my ISP already screws with DNS, why do you think they aren't all-around jerks?

    Deleting a line from the config to use the remote DNS for all my traffic actually made life easier, if slightly laggier.

  17. Re:Pointless hype on How Does the New Google DNS Perform? (and Why?) · · Score: 1

    I ssh tunnel all my traffic to a rented box as it is, so I've got that already.

    Now if you only wanted your DNS done, and didn't have a secure relay, then that'd require some changes on Google's end, but isn't anything particularly weird on the client end.

  18. Re:WiFi on Barnes & Noble's Nook, Reviewed · · Score: 1

    The Kindle DX reads PDFs natively, the kindle 2 supposedly just got updated to also do so, but I haven't tried yet. Either way, you can convert it on your own with free software instead of sending it in.

    All of them can read txt, html, mobi, even jpg and a bunch of formats I never use.

    Just remember to back up your books to a computer so they can't 1984 you.

  19. Re:Idle computer resources on SETI@home Project Responds To School Firing · · Score: 1

    The gals in the call center love me in winter because their side of the building runs colder then where the thermostat is. I got maintainance to install a blower over my drop ceiling that pushes all the heat from my racks towards them.

  20. I know Canada is a bit strict on Play With LEGOs, Get Arrested By SWAT Team · · Score: 1

    But with something like 3% of Canadians having handgun licenses, is this really that scary?

    What if he had been an out of uniform security guard doing some cleaning?

    Glad I never repaint my office nerf guns.

  21. Real soon now on MIT & Harvard On Brain-Inspired A.I. Vision · · Score: 0

    One of these guys will read about GA, realize this has been done before in other problem spaces, and already has a name.

    Try not to get stuck on a local maxima!

  22. Re:Publisher friendly? on Hearst Launching Kindle Competitor and Platform "By Publishers, For Publishers" · · Score: 1

    Filters already exist outside of publishers, called "reviewers" or "friends" or "preference correlation graphs". Publishers are only filters because they are a chokepoint in the system.

    You might find that certain reviewers carry more power than others and try to bribe them to review your book, but if the reviewer just rubberstamps books for pay, they won't have any weight when correlated with a reader's preference database.

    Similarly, editors are only middlemen if they work for the publishers. If an author contracts them directly, that's the same as them buying electricty for their computer or ink for their typewriter. It may add to the cost of writing, but it isn't an element imposed between the buyer and writer to make up for the inefficiency of the writer doing all the work to market/print/stock/sell his own work.

    When getting your book in front of buyers was several full time jobs, publishers were necessary. As it become easier to contract editors, market, print or sell through places like Amazon for almost no upfront cost, and reviews of your work can be googled, then publishers as a conglomerate become less necessary.

    I've bought more small/new authors since Amazon started carrying them, as I mentioned, because the system allows me to take more chances at less risk. I pay less, authors make more, and Amazon compares my purchases to the purchases of people who bought it befor me, as well as providing a rating system. Print publishers don't provide that.

  23. Re:Open their blinders with amazing apps on Why Open Source Phones Still Fail · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Iphone ecosystem is a good example. An example of a phone where I'll have to install anti-virus for my relatives and make sure they are up to date on patches, otherwise their phone will get owned and I'll have to waste a weekend fixing it.

    Let's not go there.

  24. Re:5th Element - Fact not fiction? on Organovo Has Its First Commercial 3D Bio-Printer · · Score: 3, Informative

    There was the assumption the extra strands of the genome stored the layout & weights of the brain's connections to encode her native language and motor skills instead of just the bootstrap that humans have.

    She was still ignorant of current facts and English, until she speed-read the encyclopedia.

  25. Re:Publisher friendly? on Hearst Launching Kindle Competitor and Platform "By Publishers, For Publishers" · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, Amazon has also been getting rid of the other middleman, publishers. I've been finding a few decent short to novel length ebooks in Amazon's self-published section for quite cheap($2-4).

    Until somebody starts reviewing them, they aren't easy to find and there is a much higher chance of crap without the filter of marketability, but that filter works both ways. I've read a few I know would never have been put in print because they were too niche.

    Plus, I know the authors get a better cut than if I had bought the hardback.