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User: SEWilco

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  1. Re:Celebrating? on UNIVAC's 50th Anniversary · · Score: 1
    Vacuum. There's nothing like it. Give nothing more.

    Sponsored by the Vacuum Consumption Board.

  2. GMT on Render 3-D Wireframe to Postscript? · · Score: 1

    GMT, the Generic Mapping Tool perhaps. The page does mention quite an assortment of processing possibilities, including 3-D coordinates and surface rendering.

  3. Re:Uhh, no on Creeping Toward 10 Qbits: Atomic Computing · · Score: 1

    Rather than depend upon a single 2048 bit key I'd rather use my pocket atomic encryption computer. It's...no, that's some lint...that's a pebble, some sand, dried mud -- wait, that will work. A little water and I put it in this message encrypter to make a cup of really hot tea...

  4. eBay: Reverse Gift Register on Geek Weddings and Gift Registries? · · Score: 1

    Too late. Everyone's already gotten your stuff. Be happy with what you end up with...and have an "eBay reverse gift registration" with the stuff that duplicates what you already have.

  5. Re:Were does this story say these will be free? on Free Linux Based Web-Appliances (From Spanish Bank) · · Score: 1

    So the bank can still give out toasters. But now by having an IR or USB port they can be Internet-interfaced toasters. [OK, so there's a secondary silliness about most toasters having two infrared ports...]

  6. "Secure", Thus Others "Insecure" on Development of the Secure PC Proceeds · · Score: 2
    I'm sure the "Secure" name tested better than "Fragile", "Copy-Restricted", "Upgrade-Limited", or "Frustration Model".

    Obviously, these "Secure" computers are better than the others which must be "Insecure". Ironic to have the "Secure" label on Microsoft products, particularly as this makes the product even more fragile.

  7. Re:Blessing in Disguise on Cloned Animals Show Grave Health Problems · · Score: 1

    Super Humans aren't needed. The dumb ones are doing just fine in the governments.

  8. Re:Funny! on Mandelbrot Set Originally Found In 13th Century (Early April's Fool) · · Score: 1

    Ah, but did you understand the reference to Adventure, the popular text-based game?

  9. Re:?Microsoft Corporation? on Don't Trust Code Signed by 'Microsoft Corporation' · · Score: 3

    No, it's due to the effects of the nonstandard "smart quotes" plague.

  10. Free My Soul! on Mandelbrot Set Originally Found In 13th Century (Early April's Fool) · · Score: 1

    My soul is trapped in a maze of twisty little passages, all different.

  11. Re:If you give a man a GPL'ed radio... on DoD developing Linux-based "Soldier's Radio" · · Score: 2
    A soldier is a member of the military organization. The GPL gives the organization rights to the source code, not that individual.

    However, whoever gets one of these radios on the military surplus market with some of the code still in memory will have GPL rights to the source code.

  12. ?Microsoft Corporation? on Don't Trust Code Signed by 'Microsoft Corporation' · · Score: 2

    Following the instructions in the warning, I'll beware of stuff from ?Microsoft Corporation?, as opposed to "Microsoft Corporation".

  13. I want my Indrema on Whisperings from Indrema · · Score: 2

    I've been waiting for two holiday shopping seasons for a Linux-compatible DVD player and the Indrema looks like a great excuse for getting one. I am looking forward to all the other stuff it will do.

  14. Save Fuel By Ride-Sharing on Broadband From On High But Not In Orbit · · Score: 1
    Just contract with those guys that are supposedly flying grid patterns across the USA making contrails with assorted chemicals.

    (Actually, in addition to high-altitude contrails are an indicator of not spraying the Earth, any concerted contrail activity would be visible in satellite photos and impossible to hide.)

  15. I'm Using The Pilot Skin on Broadband From On High But Not In Orbit · · Score: 1

    And the pilots will have the best ping time of everyone to the onboard FPS servers.

  16. Time-Wasting Morons on U.S. Congress And Email · · Score: 1
    I'm in favor of the proposal that on even-numbered years Congress can pass or repeal laws. On odd-numbered years Congress can only repeal laws (with some difficult-to-achieve exception for emergencies). There are too many laws and they're too complex.

    While we're amending the Constitution, do the same for the Executive branch. There are too many regulations also.

  17. Re:What would have happened... on Where Is The Innovation? · · Score: 2

    If the web browser was patented, we'd have had to wait 17 years after 1960 for Ted Nelson's patent to expire. As that's only 1977, and the first commercial microcomputer had appeared only two years earlier, we'd not have had browsers in our homes immediately. And if we waited for Ted...well, we're still waiting for transpublishing and Project Xanadu to become popular. It took several more years for reasonable graphics to show up and make graphical web browsing practical. Commodore's Amiga and others had reasonable graphics, but it wasn't until VGA came out that graphics on most personal computers began to approach TV resolutions.

  18. Perpetual Maintenance on Tombstones That Last? · · Score: 1
    I have news for you, youngster. Graves get maintenance. Unless you're going to get yourself buried out on the family farm, you buy or lease that burial plot from the cementery. In most places, part of the money goes in a maintenance fund -- if there's enough money in the fund, the interest income will pay for the maintenance forever. Some contracts only reserve the land for a specified time, and sometimes the cementery operation goes out of business and abandons the land.

    Actually, your best bet for a perpetual monument is to have a separate well-funded foundation which is in charge of maintaining the monument. Of course, to be fail-safe you should have several cooperating foundations which are geographically disperse and operating under the protection of unrelated governments, so as to avoid destruction by war, economic, political, religious, or legal changes.

    Certainly, the foundation would have paid the cementery for its maximum maintenance fund. But your foundation would be responsible for monitoring that maintenance is suitable and deal with special situations. If the cementery closes, a highway is routed through your final resting place, or molten rock dissolves your monument, then the foundation would have funding and specifications for building a replacement at a suitable site.

    Or just write a great book, one which you'd be proud to have as your memorial, and hope that libraries and Project Gutenberg will preserve it for you.

  19. Bookmark Managers on Ordering the Chaos of Bookmarks? · · Score: 1
  20. Re:best evidence is rising sea level on Firm Evidence for Greenhouse Effect · · Score: 2

    Hey, I found the TOPEX data before you did. Look for TOPEX in here and you'll see that the sea level rise was mostly due to an El Nino. Oh, wonderful..the TOPEX site data has been adjusted to match tide gauges, but no mention whether they used the IPCC adjustments or just raw tide gauge data.

  21. Re:Ice age looming on Firm Evidence for Greenhouse Effect · · Score: 2
    Yes, it's too bad that the sea level is rising and Manhattan has water in the streets. Can you be more specific than "major problems"?

    I know what site the link was on. Quit attacking the messenger and deal with the message. What is wrong with their analysis of the IPCC sea level studies (chapter 11 of "Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis")?

    Is PGR being used to change lowering levels to rising levels? Were the simulated ice levels tinkered with to produce the desired result, and if not then how were the ice levels determined? Does the glacial melting simulation match the geological 120 to 130 meter rise? Is the IPCC indeed predicting that southern oceans will rise less than other oceans, and why?

  22. Re:NCR Patents on NCR Claims Palm Infringes As "Personal Terminal" · · Score: 2
    The first is patent number 4,634,845 January 6, 1987. The first claims would also describe a TV remote control with a display, but then the claims include personal identification numbers, two-way communication, and a financial account access application (with Web services, any browser qualifies). The size of a credit card is mentioned, so any computer "small enough" qualifies.

    The second is patent number 4,689,478 August 25, 1987. It mentions the other patent but I can't wade through the pronouns...I think this is an interface module which would be used for transactions, whether standalone or mounted on an ATM. There's a lot of references to interfaces, a modem and a light shield to control the link to the pocket device described by the first patent.

  23. Red Escolar on Mexico City Adopting Linux; Software Rent Savings Go to Fight Poverty · · Score: 1

    You're referring to the Mexico-wide Red Escolar project. The Status page says one state is testing it.

  24. Re:Do it in Microcode on The Fastest Web Language On The 'Net? · · Score: 3
    Better yet, design your own microprocessor for the game and write the entire thing in microcode.

    Well, it certainly makes for fast software development time when the entire program is:

    RUN
    HALT
    But the firmware development and maintenance will take some time.
  25. Re:An analogy on Firm Evidence for Greenhouse Effect · · Score: 2

    We also stopped allowing the prairie across the central plains of the USA from burning during the summer. Should we burn Kansas and Iowa every year? Oh, I'm sorry, you did say the only thing that had changed was adding smokestacks...I must be wrong.