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User: stoploss

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  1. Re:Finally someone decides to do something on Fork of Systemd Leads To Lightweight Uselessd · · Score: 2

    You have my upmod if I had points.

    This is exactly my perspective. Init has been in need of these features (like allowing true inter-daemon dependencies and not shoehorning everything into one runlevel or another).

    But, yes, I'm not looking for an MCP—just an improvement on init. I wonder if this project will get any traction.

  2. Re:why does the CRTC need this list? on Canadian Regulator Threatens To Impose New Netflix Regulation · · Score: 1

    Our nation was founded on the premise of joint defence against encroachment from the south, and here we are 147 years later, still facing 10 to 1 odds. With your attitude, you won't remain Canadian for long.

    Oh, trust us: we don't want any of your land or your citizenry. Hell, you can keep the tar sands and everything else. Yes, there was a risk a long time ago, but it's been over for, what, 150+ years now? First you beat us in the War of 1812 invasion, then we had some bellicose posturing about the undefined border by British Columbia, then... what? Are you seriously losing sleep over threats like the Maine timber war from about 200 years ago?

    What some of us *would* like to do is to ship the segment of our population I call "closeted Canadians" up to you. They would fit right in, help you with that ratio you're unnecessarily concerned about, and would agree with your cultural perspectives on removing firearm rights, socialism, taxation levels, etc. We would welcome any "closeted Americans" you would like to ship to us.

    -stoploss, American

  3. Re:Please describe exactly on Emails Cast Unflattering Light On Internal Politics of Healthcare.gov Rollout · · Score: 1

    Don't worry about the troll. His entire post can be summarized from one line:

    Your premium helps keep it cheap for them. So why the complaints here?

    Which can be trivially restated as:

    Having the government take money from you under color of law is making things less expensive for me. I can't understand why that would upset you.

    I have paid approximately 30k in premiums in 6 years and have never used the insurance at all. It was ludicrous that Obamacare was going to force me to lose my HSA-compatible individual policy and replace it with a non-HSA compatible plan that included maternity coverage. That's "useful", given that I'm biologically male and incapable of maternity.

    Instead, I dropped my plan and saved money by skewing the demographics of a different, low-risk actuarial class pool (a bunch of 20 year olds) that I couldn't join before. Now my premium is $130/month, no thanks to Obamacare.

    Fuck the ACA.

  4. Re:911 was down for us Friday night on Apple Outrages Users By Automatically Installing U2's Album On Their Devices · · Score: 1

    I first ran into this about 5 years ago when I had a machine that had 6 GB of RAM (not 8, because the moron Apple firmware developers decided that the motherboard should only be able to address 6 GB max in two slots, and heaven forbid you install two 4 GB sticks...).

    Despite not having much memory consumed, I was having my machine "freeze" to thrash VM for 20+ seconds because the moronic memory manager paged memory to disk aggressively. So, I'm sitting here with 2 GB active on 6 GB physical and it's frozen / beachballing due to thrash in order to page in shit it never should have paged out. Fuckers.

    So, I decided to turn off paging. Should be simple, right? Configuring VM is simple GUI maneuver in Windows, so Apple should make it a breeze too, right? Right?

    Yeah. I only found out about the shitty handling of OOM conditions about 18 months later, after I really started using a bunch of RAM (multiple VM's, etc).

    This memory management aspect of Mac OS just really sucks from a user standpoint. People shouldn't have to deal with sharp corners on their machine's memory manager. I swear, even RAM Doubler by Connectix was more user friendly than OS X's implementation.

  5. Re:I hate to be this guy... on NASA's Manned Rocket Contract: $4.2 Billion To Boeing, $2.6 Billion To SpaceX · · Score: 1

    Have you ever thought that, perhaps, by feeding someone less fortunate, they stopped trying to help themselves , and ended up worse off then if you'd just stopped being a hand-wringing idiot and drove your civic that you earned?

    No, he hasn't, and his kind won't stop until they take away your civic, too. Because, you know, you didn't earn that.

  6. Re:Renew this! on If Tesla Can Run Its Gigafactory On 100% Renewables, Why Can't Others? · · Score: 1

    You failed to rescue your pedantry.

    I never said hydrocarbons *had* to be burned. Yes, in my first example I mentioned them being burned, but you switched discussion contexts so I decided to do the same. Now you're continuing to discuss hydrocarbons in heat engines and comparing them to theoretical maximum efficiencies of lithium, while simultaneously implying I'm using strawmen. That's irony.

    As I said, using hydrocarbons in a fuel cell bypasses the Carnot efficiency limits because a fuel cell is not a heat engine and therefore your comments about heat engines are irrelevant, and we can just ignore your second and third paragraphs.

    Or, I suppose I can turn the tables and do what you did by comparing the theoretical max efficiency of hydrocarbons in a fuel cell against some inefficient application of lithium.

    The point of all of this is that once you decide to pedant a joke, you had best be sure your facts and pedantry are completely, unambiguously correct. mdsolar decided to take us down this path, and you joined in.

  7. Re:911 was down for us Friday night on Apple Outrages Users By Automatically Installing U2's Album On Their Devices · · Score: 1

    It's so nice that Apple's memory management system is so atavistic and hard to configure. Even Windows has a GUI for this configuration, which incidentally *also* includes an option to turn off the paging file.

    Let's compare what happens if you disable paging and subsequently exhaust your physical memory, Windows vs Mac OS.

    On Windows, an app may fail to launch, or a running app may close unexpectedly. Windows will then display a useful message in your systray and continue running without any problems. Close a few apps to free some RAM and try again.

    On Max OS, it's even simpler: your entire fucking machine will hard-lock and you will be required to initiate an ACPI shutdown, (or yank the power cord, should you find that more satisfying). It's like something out of the System 7.5 days, except you don't even get a bomb dialog in Mac OS X.

    The Mac OS memory management system is a toy. dynamic_pager sucks.

  8. Re:Renew this! on If Tesla Can Run Its Gigafactory On 100% Renewables, Why Can't Others? · · Score: 1

    Okay, for the last time: there are nuclear fusion reactions that produce lithium. These reactions can happen both in supernovas as well as non-Big Bang nuclear fusion. None of this is really under debate. If you want to continue perseverating, feel free to peruse "Thermonuclear Reaction Rates V" by Caughlan & Fowler in order to educate yourself.

    For you aspies out there, perhaps your hint that the entire suggestion might be absurd is the allegation that Tesla could harvest additional lithium by triggering supernovas on demand and harvesting from the output. Go ponder that for a while. Perhaps you might even learn to grok humor.

    FFS, I don't mind being pedanted on a joke, but the incompetence being displayed is just sad.

  9. Re:Location, location, location. on Technological Solution For Texting While Driving Struggles For Traction · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not going to give a third party who is not strictly regulated in how and what can be done with this information permission to track my location 24/7 in order to tell if I'm driving my car or someone else is just to disable communications.

    This. I can't believe he thought his solution was reasonable when "all" it has to do is have a database of where your family works, goes to school, which cars you own, and, of course track your entire family's location 24/7.

    FFS, I'm an engineer and I take special delight in degenerate solutions, but this is fucked up.

    Maybe this is a degenerate solutions competitive. Okay, let me try one of my own: we will have one member of the Stasi handcuffed to every licensed driver in the country, 24/365. Their job will be to monitor everyone's driving and ensure that the law is being abided. No, of *course* the Stasi member won't share the personal, private aspects of your life with the government... they're just there to keep everyone safe!

  10. Re:Renew this! on If Tesla Can Run Its Gigafactory On 100% Renewables, Why Can't Others? · · Score: 1

    Lithium battery discharge is a reversible process, so the original state can be recovered by input of the same amount of energy as was originally extracted from the system.

    Ooookkkaayy. Time for you to take remedial thermodynamics if you believe recharging or restoring lithium batteries is a 100% efficient process.

    And, for that matter, who said the hydrocarbons had to be burned? Since you're imagining a 100% efficient lithium restoration process, now I'm countering with a 100% efficient solid oxide fuel cell that extracts the energy from the hydrocarbons without burning them, thereby bypassing the Carnot efficiency limit. You know, because it's not applicable because it's not a heat engine. This SOFC technology is real, it's just the 100% efficiency part that's obviously imaginary.

    Just drop the pedantry and enjoy the transient amusement from the obvious absurdity of the joke.

  11. Re:Renew this! on If Tesla Can Run Its Gigafactory On 100% Renewables, Why Can't Others? · · Score: 1

    You failed your pedantry yet again.

    Go read the joke. Did I say they used "stellar nuclear fusion, with peaking capacity provided by supernovas"? No, I didn't. I specifically stated nuclear fusion. You projected the stellar part.

    Just stop. You're digging yourself deeper in the hole.

  12. Re:Renew this! on If Tesla Can Run Its Gigafactory On 100% Renewables, Why Can't Others? · · Score: 1

    Hi. This was obviously a joke. However, if you want to be literal then I will point out that lithium can be formed via other fusion reactions besides the big bang, and, furthermore, that a supernova will indeed form lithium.

    Finally, it's disingenuous to say that the lithium is not destroyed/is recyclable and simultaneously assert that fossil fuels *are* destroyed when used. Unless you're going to assert that burning fossil fuels is a nuclear reaction, then all the constituent elements are still present and can be recycled back to hydrocarbon form by using energy in the proper reaction context. Just like lithium from the batteries can be recycled using energy in the proper reaction context.

    If you're going to pedant a joke, at least do it correctly.

  13. Re:Technobabble... on The State of ZFS On Linux · · Score: 1

    Thanks for the info. FYI, RAID-5 or 6 is *not* equivalent to RAID-Z or Z2 due to the issue of the write hole.

    Despite your assertion to the contrary, a cursory google showed no proof that raid with btrfs can circumvent the write hole issue, because it is a problem beneath the filesystem. The "layering violations" ZFS uses to effect the fix are what made raid-z(n) possible. I would be interested if you can provide a citation showing the write hole has been precluded in btrfs raid.

    Also, it doesn't look like btrfs includes support for cache devices.

  14. Re:Technobabble... on The State of ZFS On Linux · · Score: 1

    Ah, so there is an equivalent to RAID-Z (1, 2, etc, and no, MD is not an acceptable substitute), the ability to use a ZIL type log device (and bring it on/take it offline without dismount), dedupe, and probably other features I'm forgetting but haven't bothered to check again since I last compared them about two years ago?

  15. Re:Renew this! on If Tesla Can Run Its Gigafactory On 100% Renewables, Why Can't Others? · · Score: 3, Funny

    How does Tesla renew the lithium?

    The standard way: nuclear fusion, with peaking capacity provided by supernovas.

  16. Re:Technobabble... on The State of ZFS On Linux · · Score: 1

    Haha, and conversely ZFS' "rampant layering violations" approach confers advantages that btrfs cannot match. However, most Linux users will just go with what their distro rolls out.

    It is somewhat ironic that Oracle is primarily responsible for both ZFS and btrfs, given that btrfs was developed because Oracle wasn't willing to dual license ZFS.

  17. Re:Technobabble... on The State of ZFS On Linux · · Score: 1

    No, the insinuation is that ZFS is approximately a decade more mature and proven than that upstart knockoff, btrfs.

  18. Re: Unfamiliar on The State of ZFS On Linux · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dedup easily needs 5GB of RAM per TB.

    For general usage (no dedup), 1GB per TB is a good rule of thumb.

    This. Don't starve the ARC. You wouldn't like it when it's angry.

  19. Re:Why just guns? on Using Wearable Tech To Track Gun Use · · Score: 1

    A stab wound on the other hand, especially a deep one, is very severe once the blade has been pulled out and can be deadly even if pressure is being continually applied.

    Which is why I have QuikClot in my glove compartment. There are accounts of it saving people's lives after they sever their femoral artery.

    If you can stomach it, here's a video of a pig getting its femoral artery/vein transected and quikclot stopping the bleed. There are many such demonstrations on YouTube.

    Where do you buy it? On Amazon, like everything else.

  20. Re:Who cares? on Home Depot Confirms Breach of Its Payment Systems · · Score: 1

    The card issuers are the ones I am angry with for how they handle the problem. I don't care about Home Depot, Target, or any of these other breachers. I don't have any liability either way.

    Fwiw, it seems counterproductive to "boycott" a merchant by .. giving them more of your money... besides, there is no law in the US to force anyone to accept payment in any form of cash or coins. If you believe there is such a law, please cite a credible source that states that explicitly.

  21. Re:Who cares? on Home Depot Confirms Breach of Its Payment Systems · · Score: 3, Interesting

    We get worked up because, inevitably, one day soon (and without warning) our credit cards will stop working, our automated recurring card charges that are on file with our utility companies will bounce, and we will get a letter from our CC company saying:
    "A data breach at an undisclosed partner has occurred and we are therefore issuing you a new card, which will arrive in several more days under separate cover, for no reason other than to increase the inconvenience for you. In the meantime, enjoy the fact that we only sent this letter after we disabled your card so you are only finding out about our unilateral action officially now, several days after your card stopped working. Be grateful we are working to 'protect' you, maggot, even though you have zero fucking liability for fraud anyway."

    It's a goddamn pain in the ass to deal with this, and we are not compensated for the hassle or the bounced payment charges that happen through no fault of our own.

  22. Re:SHA1 is not encryption on Why Google Is Pushing For a Web Free of SHA-1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The summary writers really need to stop adding terminology willy-nilly. SHA1 is a hashing function, not an encryption.

    Yes, SHA-1 is a hashing algorithm, and anyone even remotely confused about the distinction should avert their eyes and NOT click on this link to an elucidating comment from a few years ago that indicated something... rather surprising... about the nature of hashing and encryption.

    Strange, eh?

  23. Re:We're worried about CO2 and global warming? on Two Explorers Descend Into An Active Volcano, and Live to Tell About It · · Score: 1

    Ah, I guess the above anti-capitalist was trolling. I didn't check the values that were quoted. That will teach me.

    Looks like $200/tonne is the price ceiling for refined bulk sulfur. Let's say these workers haul 300 kg of *ore* per day. Even if that's pure sulfur that could skip refinement it would only be worth $~70. Suddenly, paying $15/worker/day doesn't seem like a predatory wage.

    Troll overstated the value of the ore by an order of magnitude.

    Still, the workers should be provided with safety gear.

  24. Re:We're worried about CO2 and global warming? on Two Explorers Descend Into An Active Volcano, and Live to Tell About It · · Score: 1

    I wonder what the ideal solution is in this scenario. If proper safety gear were provided (as it should be) would it be worn? We have such problems in the US, for example, during the recovery operation at the WTC many of the workers simply didn't wear their masks even when they were provided.

    Also, paying too high a wage relative to the local economy may cause issues. Imagine if a dangerous job were available here that paid 10x what a median household income is.

    Perhaps the "best" solution would be to pay double the current gross pay for 1/4 the work and spread the risk around. That is to say, cap the number of hours to ~1/4 what they currently work while doubling their current take-home pay. Employ 4x the current number of workers, more benefit to the local economy, less harmful exposure. And, of course, make wearing the employer-provided safety gear mandatory, while doing whatever possible to increase workplace safety (inasmuch as that is possible within an active fucking volcano).

    The guys in this Slashdot post were tourists. In contrast, these people breaking their bodies to work in the volcano are doing it to feed their families, while shortening their lives in the process. They know it's happening, but they do it anyway. That is true mettle. Far more so than descending into a volcano with some cameras and giggling at how daring one is.

  25. Re:We're worried about CO2 and global warming? on Two Explorers Descend Into An Active Volcano, and Live to Tell About It · · Score: 5, Informative

    FTA: "In the belly of the beast, gases like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and hydrochloric acid" HYDROCHLORIC ACID GAS? Screw the CO2, the last thing I want anywhere is air that literally eats you alive from the inside out!

    As you tacitly requested, here's your daily dose of depression:

    BBC: Sulphur mining in an active volcano

    tl;dr: the workers can't afford masks, so the gases cack their lungs and dissolve their teeth while they're working in the volcano.

    You're welcome.