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User: ianezz

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  1. Re:vs TIFF files? on FLIF: Free Lossless Image Format · · Score: 2

    How well does it work relative to TIFF files?

    Well, if you refer to the final size for lossless encoding, remember that TIFF image data can be compressed using various algorithms and the format can be extended, so your mileage may vary. Nonetheless, just for this aspect, it should compare better than the usual TIFF containing LZW compressed data, though (but I'm not sure this is still the most common lossless compression scheme being used for TIFF).

    Plus, it behaves nicely on incremental decoding (less bytes to transfer to have a general idea of the whole picture). Adding further image metadata (e.g. EXIF tags) shouldn't be a big problem once the (compressed) image data format is stable.

  2. Re:MORE BLOAT! on Microsoft Integrates Autodesk's 3D Printing Platform Spark Into Windows 10 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    A "lean" OS an OS where you easily add/enable just the pieces you want/need, not one that comes with everything and the kitchen sink preinstalled and enabled "just in case somebody needs it". The whole point of an OS is to ease the development, installation and execution of programs in form of libraries and applications, and the only reason behind bundling and preinstalling something that's non-essential to the vast majority of users is simply to promote that application/library/framework/whatever for reasons that are based on commercial agreements between manufacturers, not on technical merit or usefulness for the end users. Are you still in the "we sell solutions, not programs" monolithic boat of the '90? The rest of the world is going faster, developing software for uses that you couldn't ever anticipate, on hardware that's not typical, and that's possbile only if your OS is a simple and reliable building block that scales well up and down and doesn't get in the way of doing unusual things.

  3. Bomb number 20 went off. on Hubble Spots Star Explosion Astronomers Can't Explain · · Score: 2

    It's just the the Dark Star hippies blowing up unstable stars for fun & profit.

  4. Did I miss anything?

    Bet you can fit two of them in the Slashdot cruiser, unless CowboyNeal loaded the trunk with hot grits.

  5. Re:But does it matter any more? on Windows 10 IE With Spartan Engine Performance Vs. Chrome and Firefox · · Score: 1

    Competition makes them good, and story may repeat itself. I remember using the native IE 4.x ports on Solaris and HP-UX back in the times when Netscape Navigator was THE browser (late '90). Then, once IE gained market, they disappeared at once.

    See here

  6. Re:polish != Polish on Critical Git Security Vulnerability Announced · · Score: 1

    There's a simplier answer to that: to be case-insensitive, you have to agree to a character encoding first, or write it down somewhere along with the name, and then you need additional code to deal with equivalences between characters in that encoding.

    To be case sensitive, *nix-style, is straightforward: you just aren't allowed to use byte 0x00 (C string terminator) and 0x2F ("/" in ASCII encoding) when encoding file names. Everything else is just fine, regardless of encoding (and endianess, just in case you used multibyte characters). To compare names you just compare sequence of bytes up to the C string terminator, and two are names are equal if their bytes are equal. End of it.

    This, and the fact that forcing down policies on file naming is a task better suited to user interfaces than kernels or system libraries (this way, an UI can always be as case-insensitive as it wants/needs to be).

  7. Meh logical and sensible on Windows Tax Shot Down In Italy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, according to the original article on La Repubblica (hint: I'm Italian), the judgement came from the Cassazione, so it is as definitive as it can be in Italy (I know, I know...).

  8. Really nice, but... on Duolingo is a Free, Crowdsourced Language Learning App (Video) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm trying it these days (to refresh and improve my German), and I have to say I've become sort of addicted. I can't really vouch on the quality of their courses, since the only one available for speakers of my mother tongue (English for Italian speakers) isn't that good yet (fine for most lessions, but the more advanced ones have definitively weird italian translations that could throw you off a bit). Hopefully, the courses for English speaking people are better. The web interface for the courses seems to be well-thought (lots of easy keyboard shortcuts) and works surprisingly well, didn't try the mobile applications yet.

    On the other side, for what I could see, the translations you are kindly asked to do "to repay" them are usually poorly-written descriptions of commercial articles/ads, nothing really interesting, and the related web interface has some rough spots (just some quirks, but they get distracting).

    That being said, I believe it's still the best online resource I've seen yet to get your feet wet with a foreign language (provided you know English)

  9. Emacs, Vim on Ask Slashdot: Correlation Between Text Editor and Programming Language? · · Score: 1

    GNU Emacs for every programming language but Java (C, C++, SQL, Tcl, Python, Perl, Javascript, shell scripting), XML, HTML and CSS. Because it's the same on all platforms and ELisp comes to the rescue when I need it. Vim for configuration files (because vi is everywhere and it's the same on all platforms). Eclipse for Java code, because it does the job and because of the plugins that sometimes are required (but for large edits, I use GNU Emacs as an external editor - because it's faster). After 20+ years in the field, I have to have a really good reason to try other editors. These fill all my needs.

  10. Not Linux, XENIX !!!! on First Phone Out of Microsoft-Nokia -- and It's an Android · · Score: 1

    Wish I had mod points. You made my day :-)

  11. Re:two-hands control on Nokia Unveils OLED Phone You Control By Bending · · Score: 1

    Uhm, perhaps it's just me, but other than when doing the pinch gesture to zoom in/out, I use my phone with one hand (a Samsung Galaxy S2). And there are other ways to zoom (albeit more awkward).

  12. Am I the only one... on Mozilla Labs Introduces the Webian Shell · · Score: 1

    ... whose first thought after reading "Webian" was "Debian for wabbits"?

  13. Re:Here's how it goes: on BBC Site Uses Cookies To Inform Visitors of Anti-Cookie Law · · Score: 1

    Back in the day, I remember a setting on iBrowse (Amiga) that caused the browser to ask before accepting each and every cookie. I don't see that setting on my current browsers, though I may just be overlooking it

    Firefox has such setting, with the option to ask what to do for every cookie a website tries to set/update (which quiclky gets annoying), plus an option in to remember your choice for all subsequent cookies from that website. It's there in Preferences->Privacy->History->Use custom settings.

  14. No X servers required on servers... on Ask Slashdot: Best Linux Distro For Computational Cluster? · · Score: 1

    It has to have an X-windows server since we use that remotely from our Windows

    Just to clear out a misconception that arises from time to time: you do not need an X server on a server exactly in the same way you don't need a web browser on your HTTP server. To understand that, you can think of an X server as a "browser" for the X protocol. On the server you just need some support libraries (which help applications in talking the X protocol).

  15. Re:But there's no status bar on Firefox 4 Beta 12 Released; Fixes Over 650 Bugs · · Score: 1

    its still better than the in-the-address-bar approach

    Uhm, but now a malicious page can probably display a fake destination just by using CSS and Javascript (just make up a pop-up at the bottom left corner of the window).

  16. Re:anyone else here... on Apple Releases IOS 4.3 Beta To Developers · · Score: 1

    Anyone else here miss the days when ios meant Cisco?

    Not really, but reading "Apple" next to "IOS" still makes me rise an eyebrow.

  17. Re:Here is the list. on NASA Names Best & Worst Sci-Fi Movies of All Time · · Score: 1

    I find it interesting that NASA showed no love for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

    I'd say that's because of the story bottom line: human intelligence as a gift from aliens refusing any further contact until men can fly into space. And men creating their human-like intelligences. Fascinating? A lot (I still watch it in awe from time to time). Realistic? The possibility of that actually happening are frankly remote, but not plateally impossible (so that's why 2001 doesn't make it in neither category).

  18. Re:It will prety much suck for quite some time. on After IPv4, How Will the Internet Function? · · Score: 1

    It's difficult to manipulate binary digits in hexadecimal, too. I don't see any advantage to this.

    One hex digit represents exactly 4 binary digits. One octal digit represents exactly 3 binary digits. A decimal digit represents... something between 3 and 4 binary digits. ;-)

  19. Here's a Jeopardy! hint. on IBM's Question-Answering System "Watson" Revisited · · Score: 0

    The answer is 42.

  20. Re:using vendor API's !welcome? on How To Get Rejected From the App Store · · Score: 0, Troll

    Didn't Micro$oft have API's that they used and didn't want anyone else to use? Didn't they get lambasted for that?

    Apple is not (yet?) a monopoly.

  21. Re:I don't get it on Quantum Teleportation Achieved Over 16 km In China · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since you cannot determine the state of an entangled particle, you cannot use it to "transmit" information until after you let the other end know, through conventional channels, what each possible state actually stands for

    As far as I know (very little, please correct me if I'm wrong), you can't neither predict nor influence the outcome of measurements, but you can be sure they will be the same at both ends, unless someone is eavesdropping in the middle. The flow of measures can then be used as a one time pad to encrypt something at one end, transmit it over a conventional channel, and decrypt it at the other end.

  22. Re:Really? on NASA Finds Cause of Voyager 2 Glitch · · Score: 4, Funny

    M-x butterfly. Cosmic rays, but on purpose.

  23. Re:Let Me Add to the List; I'm Good at This Too on BSA Says Software Theft Exceeded $51B In 2009 · · Score: 2, Informative

    So what kind of logic is that? If I point at your car and say "Give it to me" and you go "Ok" and hand me the keys then there'll be no theft

    Poor analogy, indeed, since you can't create exact copies of someone's car for cents.

  24. Re:Doesn't make sense on Free Software To Save Us From Social Networks · · Score: 1
    In a nutshell, I understand it as
    • run your own server in your home;
    • keep your data on it (on encrypted storage) instead of keeping it in some remote datacenter;
    • use a policy to carefully select who can access to it (i.e. your friends);
    • in case of emergency, unplug it from the wall;
    • encrypted backups go onto your friend's servers.

    Basically, Freenet on a wall-plug computer.

  25. Re:Effective viewing angle? on No Glasses Needed For TI's New 3D Display · · Score: 1

    But much more than 5% of the global spending power.

    100 times more?