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User: dickens

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  1. Remington 476 on Ask Slashdot: Best Way To Destroy Hard Drives? · · Score: 1

    This is inexpensive and very effective. You can even do two at once with a 3" nail!

  2. Mr Creedy! on UK To Shut Down Social Networks? · · Score: 1

    We are being buried beneath the avalanche of your inadequacies, Mr. Creedy!

    What we need right now is a clear message to the people of this country. This message must be read in every newspaper, heard on every radio and seen on every television. This message will resound throughout the entire InterLink.

  3. Re:Why? on Cellphone Carriers Try To Control Signal Boosters · · Score: 1

    The Verizon box works well, too. I have two of them deployed, one in an office above an industrial plant. The whole plant downstairs gets good service. The bandwidth used is small, but you do want to reserve some otherwise when your internet is flat-out your cellphone calls will stutter. Also it has to be able to see a window for GPS/E911 (they give you a long cord for the GPS antenna)

  4. Re:SSH on Tunneling Under the Great Firewall? · · Score: 1

    First, see here.

    Then, consider that the net effect of legalism is this: Laws are very strict and punishments brutal. Then the laws are largely ignored and unenforced. This gives those with power, from local law enforcement on up, the ability to inflict any degree of suffering on anyone at any time for any reason. And they'll only be following the letter of the law! Get it?

  5. .com? on Anti-Speed Camera Activist Buys Police Department's Web Domain · · Score: 1

    Why the heck does a municipal government organization have a .com address anyway?

  6. Re:Double Bag on The Race To Beer With 50% Alcohol By Volume · · Score: 1

    Yikes!

  7. Double Bag on The Race To Beer With 50% Alcohol By Volume · · Score: 1

    I thought Long Trail Double Bag was pretty stiff at 7.2%. I can't see why you would call this beer. That would be like calling brandy "extreme wine" - sure you could do that but why?

  8. It's even on my keyboard! on Decency Group Says "$#*!" Is Indecent · · Score: 1

    It says right here !@$%^&*() ! !

    As the author of an acceptable use policy for dozens of employees I feel a sudden urge to hire more lawyers.

  9. Brother on HP Explains Why Printer Ink Is So Expensive · · Score: 1

    Yeah me too. I have a Brother HL-5250DN at home and after 18 months I am still using the original toner cartridge. And the drum unit and toner are separate.

    Ethernet, duplexer, $250, no brainer.

    Their fax machines are built like tanks, I know from experience. Now I have half-a dozen of the small printers in service at my company, and there have been no failures or complaints yet.

    And you know what the best part is ? A tiny driver install. Not a 80MB "minimal" driver download from HP or several hundred for all the crap you get with the consumer HP drivers.

  10. "try again later" on Google Voice Now Gives Priority to Students · · Score: 1

    I've been using Google Voice to make calls and last night got a "try again later" for the first time. So maybe all the lines were used by .edu users. I actually have a .edu address that is just forwarded to gmail.. maybe I'll invite myself if I ever get invites.

    For some reason GV's systems make my voice more intelligible to my 70yo mom, who has a mild hearing loss. We've decided this is not an illusion...trying multiple calls from both my land line and mobile with and without GV. It always sounds better to her if GV makes the call.

  11. Re:C-whatever on C Programming Language Back At Number 1 · · Score: 1

    What's interesting to him (gp) is probably not universally interesting.

  12. Re:still more... on Six Atoms of Element 117 Produced · · Score: 1

    I laughed out loud when I heard that in Avatar. People were looking at me.

    Back in the 1970s I remember someone explaining (with a wink) that their motorcycle engine didn't burn up at some insane compression ratio because their pistons were made of unobtainium. It was applied in the trade press to lots of parts on "works" bikes. It's probably older than that.

  13. Re:Pepper spray is torturous. on Indian Military Hopes to Weaponize the Searing "Ghost Pepper" · · Score: 1

    So should that tool be a pistol instead?

    Why yes, in the case gp cites, of course. If I look like a suspect being sought, the cop certainly should point his gun at me and tell me to get on the ground, whereupon I would immediately comply.

    I once witnessed an assault with a 5-cell mag-lite. Later the cops both testified that they they had left it in the car, and hasn't even brought it with them. Luckily I was standing out of the way, looking terrified with my hands up.

    The victim was the suspect's brother - it was mistaken identity. He *was* an asshole but didn't deserve the extra crease on his skull.

  14. Re:Microsoft wins on Google vs. China — Who's Got the Most To Lose? · · Score: 1

    It's very hard for me to see how China's reputation could suffer in any way in the first place. They're pretty much in the basement to begin with.

  15. Re:I do. on If ET Calls, Who Speaks For Humanity? · · Score: 2, Funny

    I was thinking John Boehner. Can you imagine the glee with which he's going to be made to eat his words?

  16. Re:Iran threatens with a "punch" for Feb. 11th on Iran Suspends Google's Email Service · · Score: 1

    Something tells me that would also result in the 9th-century scenario.

  17. Re:Probably true, even. on UK Gov't Says "No Evidence" IE Is Less Secure · · Score: 1

    I have seen several instances of presumably trustworthy sites serving ads that contain drive-by attempts. The ad brokers will sell to anyone..

  18. Re:Probably true, even. on UK Gov't Says "No Evidence" IE Is Less Secure · · Score: 1

    So true. and do you even have the bandwidth to install IE8 and stay up to date? Bottom-tier ADSL is barely enough.

    Keeping IE up to date involves constantly clicking "ok", and "yes I remember you own my frigging computer" and "yeah sure go ahead whatever will get this to stop". Over and over again.

    Staying up to date with Firefox means clicking "ok, install that update that is already downloaded and ready to install in 20 seconds without a reboot or other kinds of pain".

    Of course you need to keep Windows and IE up to date anyway or your system will probably be vulnerable even if you never use IE deliberately and hide every icon that starts it.

  19. Re:Are you serious, or just killing time? on Powerful Linux ISP Router Distribution? · · Score: 1

    yeah PITA that.. I carry a real 10baseT hub (with thinwire and AUI ports even) in my bag in case I have to sniff a network that has an un-managed switch.

  20. Re:But what about all the other painters? on Rudolph the Cadmium-Nosed Reindeer · · Score: 1

    If you believe Kirk Douglas's portrayal of Van Gogh in the 1956 movie "Lust for Life" (which I thought was very good) he was a very sloppy painter indeed.

    However, they don't use Cad Yellow, or Lead White or Paris Green (arsenic) or Vermillion (mercury) much these days. Heck, they don't use regular paint thinner any more (my mom is an artist) since if you throw it around all day for years it *will* make you sick.

    The replacements are simply not the same, but of course nobody really *wants* to die for their art...

  21. Makes nice paints on Rudolph the Cadmium-Nosed Reindeer · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually there is another nice thing you can say about cadmium. It makes lovely yellow and orange pigments. Sort of like lead white. Van Gogh may have absorbed or ingested enough to cause or exacerbate his mental disorders.

  22. Re:I'll optimize your new PC for free. on Best Buy $39.95 "Optimization" At Best a Waste of Money · · Score: 1

    oh if I had mod points...

  23. Re:Crap HD Quality on BBC Lowers HDTV Bitrate; Users Notice · · Score: 1

    I've never seen a film in which I could not see every one of the reel-change signals. Is that weird? I don't have the best vision, either.

  24. Re:Cringely: Expect thermonuclear warfare over Chr on Chrome OS, Present and Future · · Score: 1

    get your 50 yard line seats now...

  25. Re:False! on Chrome OS, Present and Future · · Score: 1

    With an SSD? 30 seconds is not impressive at all.