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User: Old+Aylesburian

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Comments · 27

  1. Who Will Pay For The Internet? on European Telecoms May Block Mobile Ads, Spelling Trouble For Google · · Score: 1

    The ads are paying for our 'free' service. No ads, no service. It's a simple equation.

  2. Thought Crime! on My High School CS Homework Is the Centerfold · · Score: 1

    Would it have been as reprehensible if it had been a similar picture of Grace Hopper? Or does is it tainted by where it was published?

  3. The spirit of Thomas Becket is not dead!

  4. Re:Utter madness on Court Mulls Revealing Secret Government Plan To Cut Cell Phone Service · · Score: 1

    Actually, the incremental inconvenience will be minor. After the bombings in London, the users brought all the available cell phone and wired phone systems down simply by volume of traffic.

  5. You can always strike out the offending clause and initial the strikeout. The other party then has the option of accepting this, or not, as they choose. (They always make you sign first, I have noticed).

    In any case such clauses were ruled unlawful in UK courts years ago as they prevent you using your skills.

  6. Re:Never Use Goto on Empirical Study On How C Devs Use Goto In Practice Says "Not Harmful" · · Score: 1

    I don't recall ever handling an N greater than one (mostly malloc/free), but would probably continue as at present where a block that reserves a resource also releases it at the same level of nesting. I don't always keep to the single entry/single exit paradigm, but would in this case. Using a goto would make it easy to accidentally skip the release and thereby cause resource leakage.

  7. Never Use Goto on Empirical Study On How C Devs Use Goto In Practice Says "Not Harmful" · · Score: 1

    I have written a hell of a lot of c and c++ in the last quarter of a century and have never used goto. I have used setjmp/longjmp though.

  8. Re:KB3013455 on Microsoft Fixes Critical Remotely Exploitable Windows Root-Level Design Bug · · Score: 1

    To be fair the problem may have been caused by a local configuration e.g. I have many fonts and work in three scripts, one of which is right-to-left. The testers might simply have overlooked that particular case. OTOH...

  9. After successfully forcing the machine to reboot into safe mode last night (to stop a perpetual cyclic restart) I found that the screen fonts were being incorrectly rendered to the point of being unreadable. Hours later it turned out to be KB3013455, now uninstalled. Today several sites say that this affects Vista and several flavours of Windows Server.

  10. Bank Security on If a Financial Institution Mishandles My Data, What Recourse Do I Have? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I live in the UK. My bank wants me to sign up for internet banking, but they will not use email to request an appointment. Apparently the internet is safe enough for _my_ money, but not _their_ letters.

  11. Pascal on Justified: Visual Basic Over Python For an Intro To Programming · · Score: 1

    It teaches good habits (but with the demise of Turbo Pascal I am unable to suggest a worthy compiler).

    I was taught Fortran originally and now spend my time working in C on embedded processors, which shows the futility of trying to teach a 'useful' language. Several other languages and assemblers have also passed through my brain in the intervening forty years or so, including Basic, but I still think that Pascal is the only suitable pedagogical language.

  12. Re:Simple answer is: on Who's Responsible When Your Semi-Autonomous Shopping Bot Purchases Drugs Online? · · Score: 1

    If I buy drugs and give them to you then we are both guilty of offenses. The robot cannot own anything, so although it may be difficult to pin the purchase function, clearly the possession charge must be answered.

  13. Re:huh? on Why We're Not Going To See Sub-orbital Airliners · · Score: 1

    It certainly was loud. I was in the next plane to take off from the same Heathrow runway on several occasions and can tell you that it is the only plane I ever heard above the noise of my own aircraft (usually Tristar, if memory serves). It was worth it! One of the most beautiful planes flying.

  14. Perspiration on Should Video Games Be In the Olympics? · · Score: 1

    My touchstone is that if it doesn't make you sweat then it isn't a sport. Darts and snooker are entertaining, and require skill, but are not sports.

  15. Peaky Blinders on Proposed Theme Park Would Put BBC Shows On Display · · Score: 1

    Get mugged by a brummie character?

  16. Microsoft? on Here's What Your Car Could Look Like In 2030 · · Score: 1

    Aargh!!! All those jokes about 'If Microsoft Made Cars' are going to come true!

  17. Re:He was one of a team on Goodbye, World? 5 Languages That Might Not Be Long For This World · · Score: 1

    Wrong. He was *in* your team, but not *of* your team.

  18. Numbers on US Navy Develops Robot Boat Swarm To Overwhelm Enemies · · Score: 1

    40 people will keep a better watch than one. Consider: 40 total with one asleep leaves 39 active lookouts. One person, asleep, leaves zero.

  19. A must read: The Darfsteller by Walter M Miller Jr. Tells of an aging ex-actor in an age of robotic performers who gets to play one last time when a key 'character' breaks down.

  20. Safety on UK To Allow Driverless Cars By January · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just needs a requirement for a man to walk ahead carrying a red flag.

  21. Underhand Behaviour on Zenimax Accuses John Carmack of Stealing VR Tech · · Score: 1

    This smacks of a sneaky way to enforce a 'non competition' clause in an employees contract. Fortunately, in the UK, these are seen as a constraint on trade and are generally unenforceable.

  22. Yet another example of attempted USA extraterritorialism.

  23. Pascal User Manual And Report on Ask Slashdot: Books for a Comp Sci Graduate Student? · · Score: 1

    Wirth's classic, more for the style than the content.

  24. EPOC on Nokia Had a Production-Ready Web Tablet 13 Years Ago · · Score: 1

    I am still using my EPOC based pocket computer. It's called a Psion.

  25. Re:BASIC is where M$ got its start on Born To RUN: Dartmouth Throwing BASIC a 50th B-Day Party · · Score: 1

    WAIT 6502,1