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User: SEWilco

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  1. Re:I assume you're talking to me... on Communication and the Open Source Community · · Score: 1

    < humor >
    Actually in most programming projects there tend to be very few people on the team who have been programming for 20 years. Darned if I know why...
    < /humor >

  2. Re:I already submitted this! on Happy Pi Day! · · Score: 1
    Remember, the mammals have to be trained. Training occurs by repetition. :-)

    Actually, try to discuss Slashdot here.

  3. Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits on Happy Pi Day! · · Score: 1

    The other 4,000,000,000 digits of Pi are considered proprietary as they have great commercial value for decoding the Bible Code in the German King James edition...

  4. Re:Old News on Date Pagers · · Score: 1

    Now that potential moderators have read that, carry on further moderation discussion here please.

  5. Re:Cluster? on Date Pagers · · Score: 1
    It may seem that way, particularly if the application running on them is running through all the possible combinations of desirable characteristics...

    And then when you start talking to the girl you have to figure out what broadcast characteristics her pager matched.

  6. Re:Goodie! on Date Pagers · · Score: 1
    "I'd love to have something that clued me in to a girl within 50m with a Sparc"
    Isn't that what the multicolored pens are for?
  7. It's All Old, With New Press Coverage on Communication and the Open Source Community · · Score: 1
    You're forgetting that "traditional programming" often involved rooms full of programmers working together, and often not all were in the same room nor working at the same time. The coordination problems are the same, with Open Source the coordinator often tends to be a volunteer (or several volunteers).

    There also are a bunch of us professional programmers with 20 years of experience who have adopted Linux and are actually applying our experience to Open Source. Sometimes you'll find data structures and program designs that look odd or sleek, and you just don't know that they came from someone who uses such tricks of the trade routinely.

    For that matter, 30 years ago the mainframe manufacturers had source code available to customers and BBSes where we shared patches and quirks. Slashdot and Freshmeat are merely prettier.

  8. Second Star To The Right on Communication and the Open Source Community · · Score: 2
    A little imagination, please.

    I'd rather be able to sail toward fish and turn up toward tide pool with a little sidewinder than be restricted by the user interface which you're looking at but merely wrapped around you.

  9. Software-defined Radios on FCC Wants to Open Bandwidth Market · · Score: 1
    Notice in the last paragraph they mention software radios? That's the key to this flexibility the FCC is proposing.

    A radio whose frequencies can be programmed will allow devices to reconfigure themselves for various RF conditions. A worldwide service could have a few frequencies on which it broadcasts the local configuration information. In NY, radios may know that at this time of day they can use several dozen frequencies (and which frequencies), while the same radio in Dublin may only have a few frequencies available. The radios can be programmed for whatever the service provider has locally contracted for (if a country does not have this auctioning process, the frequencies simply will not change as often).

  10. Re:Computer-mediated COMMUNITIES on Communication and the Open Source Community · · Score: 1

    Oh, I'd forgotten. Twenty years ago I also did a paper for a college English Communication class about online pronoun difficulties (how to refer to someone when you don't know if "he" or "she" is suitable) and emoticon use (smileys).

  11. Re:Software Development in HS? on Linux & Education - How To Get It For Your School · · Score: 1
    Yes, just do your programming assignments with Linux tools. Even if the class is oriented toward MS-Windows, you can probably get permission from the teacher ahead of time to hand in equivalent work. Teachers can be quite flexible, particularly when they see that you're learning and handing in work which is at least similar to the rest. Or if you already have enough credits for graduation, you don't have to care too much what they do to your grade...

    You might have to also hand in printouts of screenshots to show the program running, and the teacher can view the source code to confirm that it looks like you're indeed doing some work. Or see if there's an old 486 you can put Linux on so they can test your work -- and if they end up using it as an in-house Web server then so much the better.

    I was doing similar things in high school. Wrote a drug-identification program instead of an essay for Health class. Handed in Assembly-language programs in BASIC class. Handed in programs done on the TTY 33ASR at the college rather than the computer the high school was using (the college sold computing accounts to students). My FORTRAN programs had the required flowcharts, but they were on the right hand side of the printout because they were generated by a program on a magnetic tape from the manufacturer's user association (I knew FORTRAN, but wanted to sit through the course to get updated, and to get college credit).

  12. Re:Try the money angle on Linux & Education - How To Get It For Your School · · Score: 1

    Um... It's also hard to keep MS-Windows running. It can be easier with Unix/Linux for classes where non-administrative logins are sufficient. For a class which requires system administration access then the machines become more fragile, although not as fragile as any Win98 machine with anything being installed.

  13. Packaging System? on Ask Patrick Volkerding, Slackware Founder · · Score: 5

    Are you considering any packaging and dependency system, or do you consider tarballs as all a true hacker needs?

  14. This 70's Show on Communication and the Open Source Community · · Score: 2
    All this has been in the Computer-Mediated Communications literature since the 1970's (yes, we had computers then). I'm still surprised there aren't better methods yet.

    This /. BBS has a prettier look but is very similar to forums back then (and PLATO had graphics then, even if only in orange-on-black), although now there's a Web to point links at. IRC is old hat also, there were talk programs on hundred-user systems with dozens of participants -- using a network instead of a central computer is only an implementation detail.

  15. Copy right on Part One: In A Virtual World, Who Owns Ideas? · · Score: 1
  16. Re:Does it matter who??? on James Gleick On Software Patents · · Score: 1
    The contents of the NY Times article were completely obvious to me. However, the components were assembled much better than I would have accomplished. His skills as a writer did contribute much to the article.

    And I hope he gets a patent on walking and chewing gum, as although much has been written about accomplishing it I am not aware of anything in the industrial literature about a procedure for it.

  17. Re:anonimity? what's that? on White House E-Mail Hidden From Justice Dept. · · Score: 2

    Don't forget that David Letterman almost died after Hillary visited. :-)

  18. Auction the satellites on R.I.P. Iridium · · Score: 1

    Recent Iridium stories have mentioned auctioning, but as the corporation seems to have run out of funding there is even less chance of funding. There has been speculation at this point that companies who are interested in the Iridium system will wait for bankruptcy, then negotiate for the assets at a cut rate. Others have noted that everyone already knows they're desperate and any one interested can negotiate right now.

  19. Anti-satellite? on R.I.P. Iridium · · Score: 1
    The only anti-satellite device which could be tested on them is one which gently grabs it and then changes its speed (slower or faster won't matter, once it gets out of its orbit it will tend to hit the atmosphere soon).

    The simplest would be a remotely controlled drone with a net and conductive weighted wires -- the net for satellite capture when speed almost matched, then release weights and any tumbling will pull the wires out; the conductive wires generate electricity due to the Earth's magnetic field and slow the whole thing down.

    But first someone has to build and launch a bunch of the things...

  20. Re:Visual pathways in the brain on $6 System-On-A-Chip Mimics Human Vision · · Score: 1
    It sounds to me like they're doing analysis about as complex as the frog's eye (see the classic 1959 paper). Not enough to equal our processing, but a nice package for an intelligent perceptual peripheral.

    Feel free to buy an evaluation kit and see what experimentation shows. They've had them for two years, and there's mention on the net of a 1998 video describing and showing their technology. If you really like the tech, the article says they're auctioning it soon so you can get the whole package...

  21. Re:Yet another cliched view of native americans on Gov Says Existing Laws Enough to Fight Cybercrime · · Score: 1

    Define the meaning of a feather with a red spot.

  22. Re:Sigh on Gov Says Existing Laws Enough to Fight Cybercrime · · Score: 1
    "Native Americans lived there in relative peace and harmony"
    Please give us your definition of the word commonly known as "Sioux" and why the Chippewa (Ojibway) used that term...
  23. Re:What no "Net Force"? on Gov Says Existing Laws Enough to Fight Cybercrime · · Score: 1

    Please, no references to the TV version. Only references to the book version are relevant.

  24. Re:Of course there are on Gov Says Existing Laws Enough to Fight Cybercrime · · Score: 1
    You missed the point. Do not stick "computer" ahead of any of those, and do not think up new penalty levels. Breaking & entering laws are fine, whether a computer is involved or not.

    Break a $200 door and steal a $200 TV and you'll get the same penalty as making a system administrator use $400 of his time cleaning up a mess (actually, that's probably not enough money for most situations...).

  25. Could it be... SATAN? on Gov Says Existing Laws Enough to Fight Cybercrime · · Score: 1
    If a company requests a security examination, the examiners can legally do to that company whatever the company says they can do. If someone does the same thing without permission it's vandalism, breaking & entering, property damage, or theft. An obvious example is the first act of the movie Sneakers . And any real system security auditor would simply give the administrator a description of the problems, not abuse them until discovered. The administrator would also be in a position to trust that no damage was done or back doors had been installed, and would be able to stop employees who discover the activity in progress from wasting time dealing with an apparent threat.

    Been there, done that.