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User: Skuld-Chan

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  1. Re:This is the best case scenario on Oracle Hasn't Killed Java -- But There's Still Time · · Score: 1

    Well yeah - if they could figure out how to screw it up I wouldn't have to support it anymore. I work with a bunch of Oracle developers and I think Oracle are trying their hardest to screw up Java, but the problem is - all the universities teach Java and there are so many Java developers out there.

  2. Re:PDFLib on Ask Slashdot: Best PDF Handling Library? · · Score: 2

    You know whats funny is PDFLib is what Adobe calls the set of core tech libraries to generate PDF files inside their own apps. (source: used to work at Adobe - on Acrobat no less)

  3. Re:ATO - GoA 4 on Driverless Buses Ruled Out For London, For Now · · Score: 1

    You didn't even read my post - I was on a train where they did stop for someone that was on the tracks - it was a very bone jarring stop too - like so fast that if I wasn't holding on to something for dear life I would have broken my nose.

    I'll give you they can't stop for everyone, but there would be conditions where they could and should.

  4. Re:ATO - GoA 4 on Driverless Buses Ruled Out For London, For Now · · Score: 1

    Right - so how many of those suicides would have been prevented if a driver saw someone on the track and was able to stop the train successfully?

    I've been on the Max where we stopped and I saw a whole set of clothes/shoes on the platform - there was a kid in his undies about a mile up the track that the driver saw, did a very hard stop quickly enough and was able to get help for this youth.

    See what I'm saying? Train tracks are probably the most controlled environment for AI to exist, but if you can't handle this seemingly simple condition (obstruction on the track) how can you navigate a far more complicated roadway?

  5. Re:I'm officially old I guess on Driverless Buses Ruled Out For London, For Now · · Score: 1

    Why is he wrong? I agree speech recognition is a complex problem, but today its only marginally better than when I was a child and I was born in 76. I love to play around with Google now and show it off to friends - but its not perfect - I'd say its about 60%-70% on simple stuff - Google now seems about as good as the IBM speech recognition system I got to play with in the 90's and that was pretty mind blowing.

    I also used do document imaging at a university, and even the best OCR engines with the best images (often type written forms...) off the best scanners weren't 100% accurate and still had to be manually indexed by a human in the QA phase of the workflow. Driving AI on a live street in London to me sounds like 20 times as complicated a problem to solve than solving human speech patterns or recognizing type written text on paper. Not only would you have to understand moving a 20+ ton bus around in commuter traffic, but you'd also have to understand signals (hand signals, car signals, and traffic signals - imagine understanding a traffic signal where its been preempted by an emergency vehicle) and recognize speech patterns inside and outside the bus.

    I've been to London and I think the bus situation there is a lot more complex than where I live now (Portland), but I've seen streets in Portland OR where a bus driver has to cross over the bike lane safely, unload/pickup people, and then cross back over the bike lane with 20+ bikes flowing through there - dozens of times in just a few miles. You could introduce bugs that could get people killed.

  6. Re:ATO - GoA 4 on Driverless Buses Ruled Out For London, For Now · · Score: 1

    25 people have died on the Portland Max tracks (driver operated trains). 54 people have died on BC's Skytrain tracks (automatic trains).

  7. Re:Why are Zorro cards worth anything at all? on The Almost Forgotten Story of the Amiga 2000 · · Score: 1

    I'd have to agree with the parent - most of what your talking about is nonsense.

    I had an emplant board too - all it did is provide Mac serial (for appletalk) and a place to put roms, but I've never seen anyone use the sockets for that (admittedly we just downloaded them - and the software had full support for just using soft roms). It also had a slow speed scsi interface that no-one used.

    Otherwise it was a stupid waste of money - shapeshifter was just as fast.

    I really honestly can't think of any Zorro cards I wish I had still. The Rentina was buggy, the Fastlane was buggy and the VLAB was buggy. The DPS PAR was awesome, but you don't need one of those anymore. The Toaster/Flyer was awesome too - but likewise - you don't need one of those anymore - and getting it to work with a more modern workflow is a lot of work.

    Oh we also tried out the Centaur Opalvision - because we hoped to use the never released roaster chip (to replace the video toaster). It was hacky, but colorful :).

  8. Re:It was pretty cool in its day on The Almost Forgotten Story of the Amiga 2000 · · Score: 1

    There's a app call degrader that I used to use to make all kinds of demos work on my A4000 no problem. By the the time the A1200 came along - most demo coders fixed a lot of these timing assumptions and I had no problem running a lot of this software on a more modern machine.

  9. Its not illegal but... on The View From Inside A Fireworks Show · · Score: 1

    Lately the media have latched onto anything drone related and put it in a bad light - and while I think the video is awesome (I'd love to do one myself!) - the media is yet again putting this in a bad light - driving the FAA further to action. I suspect too that if the pyro-technicians/firefighters below knew he was up there they would have stopped the show.

    And when these "media controversies" come out its its always the DJI Phantom. When I first got into making model aircraft - the DJI kits were top notch - they didn't make pre-made aircraft like they do now. I think the process of building them from scratch, and working with the local model aircraft club taught you a certain amount of respect and safety for the devices themselves. Right now I can go down to a hobby shop - plunk down $1200 dollars and be flying within 30 minutes or less without any prior experience flying a model aircraft - quadcopters are deceptively simple to fly and lead inexperienced pilots to take risks others might not.

    Lets face it though - the amount of views he's received has paid for this phantom setup - so the only risk was getting the video back off the gopro device.

  10. Re:Dup on Florida Man Faces $48k Fine For Jamming Drivers' Cellphones · · Score: 1

    Even better - this got duped yesterday on Reddit - coincidence?

    http://www.reddit.com/r/techno...

  11. Re:Administrators on Teaching College Is No Longer a Middle Class Job · · Score: 2

    I can confirm this - I work at a university. The executive management there is decrying a 6-7 million dollar shortfall, but the employee to management ratio is 2:1 (2 employees per manager) at a school with 30-35k students and about 800 full time employees - and apparently 400 managers.

    The shortfall just happens to equal the amount of money paid to the "executive" staff - including 180k a year for their "chief of diversity" - a woman who was a humanities major.

  12. Re:Another Goverment Run on Oregon vs. Oracle: the Battle of Blame Heats Up · · Score: 1

    You know whats funny about this - the internet which you used to post this was a government run project that was delivered on time and under budget (source: I heard that on one of Cringely's interviews with one of the principle architects on PBS)

  13. Re:Excellent on Registry Hack Enables Continued Updates For Windows XP · · Score: 1

    Internal WSUS - duh...

  14. Re:Excellent on Registry Hack Enables Continued Updates For Windows XP · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think if your a company that relies on XP (not the POS edition) and you haven't isolated them on a special - no internet vlan - you have bigger issues than making sure your XP machine has security updates.

  15. That is far faster than on Quad Lasers Deliver Fast, Earth-Based Internet To the Moon · · Score: 3, Funny
  16. Re:Astro-turfing Democrat on HP Makes More Money, Cuts 16,000 Jobs · · Score: 1

    Do you remember her campaign? Vote for me - I know how to run a government like a business. It turns out - no she doesn't.

    I'm sorry - but if you dish it out you have to take it too.

  17. Re:Innovation? on HP Makes More Money, Cuts 16,000 Jobs · · Score: 1

    Its funny - the CEO at most corps are one of the few employees with an empoyment contract.

  18. Re: Public transit on Swedish Fare Dodgers Organize Against Transportation Authorities · · Score: 1
  19. Re: Public transit on Swedish Fare Dodgers Organize Against Transportation Authorities · · Score: 1

    Why not? The infrastructure in place to keep cars rolling along costs more than public transit - and in America at least the cost is mostly footed by the county/state and federal government.

    If you think vehicle and gas taxes cover it - your fooling yourself.

  20. Re:Surprisingly Infrequent on Emory University SCCM Server Accidentally Reformats All Computers Campus-wide · · Score: 1

    in 2012 you can also silo your admins and set it up so its impossible (without messing up security) to re-image machines you don't own (like servers, or another departments desktops).

  21. Re:Surprisingly Infrequent on Emory University SCCM Server Accidentally Reformats All Computers Campus-wide · · Score: 1

    I know a SCCM Microsoft PFE who has told me horror stories about customers doing this and paving their exchange server with Windows 7. I think it happens, but you don't read about it on a publicly readable website.

    Its happen in my IT shop - although not nearly as bad as this story implies.

    In our current CM 2012 environment we split Servers and Desktops and limited by security scope who can run queries and add servers to collections.

  22. Re:Sounds like IT incompetence on Emory University SCCM Server Accidentally Reformats All Computers Campus-wide · · Score: 1

    We had a similar incident at the place I work - the tech did a select * from r_system on a live required deployment - they shut off the DP (distribution point) after about 450 machines got imaged. I was actually impressed how efficient it was :).

    For those who don't know - that query basically tells the site server to build a collection of every computer (including servers) with a forced deployment of a new OS. CM 2012 will actually warn you if you type that kind of query in - so you'd have to click through that warning and keep going.

  23. Re:mac systems may not even boot with Partition ty on Emory University SCCM Server Accidentally Reformats All Computers Campus-wide · · Score: 1

    SCCM only suports PXE booting to run a task sequence - Mac's can't really boot off PXE.

  24. I should clarify - there's two ways to image a PC with CM 2012 (formerly SCCM) - if the deployment is setup this way: via PXE or via the agent. Linux and Mac clients don't support task sequence deployments.

  25. OSD is only supported on Windows. (source: I'm a CM 2012 admin).