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User: mdxi

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Comments · 79

  1. YAY HYPOCRISY on The Podjacker Threat · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Web 2.0!" say the bloggers. "Podcast!" say the bloggers. "RSS/ATOM!" say
    the bloggers. "Down with oppressive media! Democratize publishing!" say the
    bloggers. And now that things are finally becoming standardized, and
    XML-based, and easilly parsable and reusable, it turns out they don't LIKE
    it when someone reuses *their* stuff in a way they didn't envision.

    WHERE IS YOUR PRECIOUS "REMIX CULTURE" NOW?

    Assholes.

  2. Uhhh... on Upgrade Your G4 Cube to a Pentium M Processor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...the G4 Cube is already capable of running Linux.

  3. Old adage proven true on Robotic Arm Controlled By Monkey Thoughts · · Score: 4, Funny

    The article says the team's biggest problem is that after about 6 months tissue grown begins to interfere with transmission of signals to the probe.

    This will no doubt limit the adoption of monkey cyborgs in RTOS and embedded spaces, and proves the old adage, "Always mount a scratch monkey".

  4. Just want to go on record on From DM6 to Park City: Machinima at Sundance · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...as thinking that "Machinima" is the stupidest word ever (except for, maybe, "blogosphere"). It's just animation, people. Animation done with a video game and a software editing package. You could possibly take an extremist view and think of it as puppetry instead of animation, but there's still a perfectly good (pronouncable) word for that.

    You digibonerati really irritate me. Get back to work, eh?

  5. Sun has also done work in this area on Philips, ARM Collaborate On Asynchronous CPU · · Score: 2, Informative

    In 2001 they presented a paper on an asynch processor design called FLEETzero/FastSHIP. According to the patents list on this page, they're still doing work on it (see also here.)

  6. I hear... on The War Of The Virtual Worlds · · Score: 1

    ...that this is gonna be one of the launch titles for the PlayStation 3. Mmm, clusterfragging...

  7. Re:Interesting on Pizza From the Command Line · · Score: 5, Interesting

    DR SBAITSO was a front-end to an Eliza implementation, and is still the voice I hear in my head every time I see anything Eliza-esque.

    Also, back in the late 1980s, I actually used the text-to-speech that came with SoundBlaster to order pizza from the local Little Ceasar's.

  8. Re:Groklaw? on The Voice of Groklaw · · Score: 1

    Was this written by MarkovBlogger?

  9. No response from SSC on SSC vs LinuxGazette.net Continued · · Score: 1

    Last month I pitched a story idea to Don Marti (editor of Linux Journal) and he told me to contact Heather Mead (web editor for same). We agreed that I'd write a 3-part article to be run on the LJ website, with the first part due on December 3.

    As soon as this story broke on December 2, I emailed Heather asking for clarification and explanation from their side, as I was especially concerned about the apparent appropriation of other people's work, since I had been planning to place the articles on a website of my own after their run on the LJ website. To date I have received no reply.

  10. Turning X into Quartz on New X Proposal on Freedesktop.org · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...is all fine and good, but when do we get hot desktops, a la the SunRay environment?

    I want to be able to move around my house and just login at any xdm screen without having to shut down the session where I just was, dammit!

  11. Re:And don't tear about that antique dresser now! on Fight Woodworking Piracy: Add EULA Restrictions · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's "license" as in "tax", not "license" as in "purchase right to use".

    Government != commercial entity.

    Yet.

  12. Re:Finally ESR stops yapping and does some hacking on ESR to Shred SCO Claims? · · Score: 3, Insightful
    ESR is ok you know, but lately he has just been doing lots of ranting and soapboaxing...I was beginning to view him as just some big windbag

    Did you read the article? Those are some of the most self-aggrandizing quotes I've ever seen in real life. SCO lawyers should "be afraid" of him. He "perfected" the algorithm. His 1500 line program is a complete masterwork; both elegant beyond compare and a paragon of maintainability!

    You don't ever see, say, Linus, Larry, or RMS talking themselves up like that.

  13. Re:old man murray on On Videogame Journalism · · Score: 1
    Ignoring that breast implants are silicone and chips are silicon and the two are not readily interchangable, i'd just like to point out that Bambi went frmo a 32B to 38DD because she put on so much goddamned weight that her band size went up by six inches.


    Learn how bras work. It impresses girls.

  14. Re:Escape from "Trusted Computing" hell? on Chinese "Dragon" Chip On Sale · · Score: 1

    Actually, SPARC is a very open architecture. Existing SPARC CPUs are specific implementations of one of the reference SPARC design (v7,v8,v9). Commercially, Fujitsu and Sun design and make SPARCs, but INRIA has also produced one, a radiation-hardened design called the Leon, for use in ESA unmanned probes.

    All you need is the skill to design a specific implementation, a fab, and the money and materiel to put it into production :)

  15. GPL3? on O'Reilly on the Commoditization of Software · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To condense, O'Reilly says that licenses which allow you to modify and use code without releasing it because you aren't distributing it -- as is the case with Amazon and eBay -- are failures, because they don't force those changes and possible improvements back to the community.

    He does not, however, provide a solution or an alternative, or get into the question of whether Amazon and eBay actually are "distributing" the code by having millions of people outside their organizations use it every day. I believe this (the "ASP loophole") is one of the things being addressed by version 3 of the GPL (the current version dates to 1991, before the birth of the web). If the GPL does change to define, say, execution of programs via CGI interface, as distribution, it's hard to fully imagine what the repercussions will be.

  16. Re:Just one? on A Good Summer Read? · · Score: 1

    Aye, I'll third the nomination. Honor rules.

    And add everything by David Drake as well (harder core/edge military scifi; gripping stuff)

  17. Re:Fantasy? on A Good Summer Read? · · Score: 1

    Ever notice how Tolstoy tends to lovingly describe dresses? Especially dresses involving decolletage? Epic literature plus boobs. Mmm.

  18. What I've been reading lately on A Good Summer Read? · · Score: 1

    First off, I've gotten into Japanese author Murakami Haruki, who seems to get shoved into "cyberpunk" a lot because his books tend towards the unclassifiable and because half of them contain definite speculative themes. If he's scifi at all, it's soft scifi, for the focus is always on the characters and telling the stories through them. So far I've read "Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World" (which gets compared to PKD a lot) and "Sputnik Sweetheart", a purely character driven tale that will resonate with anyone who has ever had an unrequited "just a friend" relationship.

    I've also started reading the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (first book: "The Golden Compass"). Comparisons to Potter are inevitable but completely misguided; Potter is good entertainment, "Materials" is a modern classic. It's dark, deep, and wild. It feels like LOTR did the first time I read it. I like it so much I'm not going to say anything concrete about it, lest the smallest detail be spoiled.

    I have begun the "A Series Of Unfortunate Events" series by Lemony Snicket, but I'm personally a bit disappointed. I was expecting something with more Adamsian absurdity *in addition to* the cruelty, but what you actually get is far closer to Dickens, *minus* the 19th century sensibilities, the romances, and the length, *plus* a bone-dry wit. Many of my friends adore the series, though.

    Last, I picked up "The Boilerplate Rhino", one of the collections of David Quammen's essays from Outside magazine. Wonderful little tidbits of science writing that often go off in rather unexpected directions (great bathroom reading).

    You can get all of these through powells.com, which rules because it is a real bookstore in Portland, Oregon; has a huge selection including rare books; and is not Amazon or B&N (and no, I'm not connected with them in any way). HTH.

  19. Mechaphilosophy on Evangelion Live Action Movie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    While it's true that the original BattleTech mech designs were stolen lock, stock, and barrel from Macross, the two actually represent opposite ends of the giant robot thought spectrum.

    In Macross, giant robots move at the speed of a fighter jet and the grace of a ballet dancer, all the while spewing death in all directions. In BattleTech, mechs are clanky, lurching, usually unreliable, mobile gun platforms. Gundam is somewhere in the middle (the Gundams themselves usually being closer to Macross while the hapless rank-and-file mechs are closer to BattleTech).

    All that aside, this is a completely horrible idea. The worst bit, to me, is that ADV is producing it. These are the people who so totally respected the original work that they plastered English-language overlays on top of signage in the DVD edition of Eva. They are the single most mercenary distributor outside of the porn merchants, always willing to pander to the lowest common denominator for a few dollars more, and it certainly shows in this decision.

    So, do you think they'll use their usual crew of no-talent melodramatic hack voice "actors" onscreen, or will they just dub them over the unfortunates who do end up on screen?

  20. Re:Latest US Government cover-ups and lies on Top Physicist Advocates Scientific Self-Censorship · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yes, Agent Orange was an herbicide. But did you know that it wasn't the only one used? Many herbicides were used in the Vietnam conflict, their names coming from colored stripes on their containers. In addition to Orange, there were Agents Blue, Pink, Purple, and White. Once upon a time I had a chart of the effects of these chemicals, because they all had different actions. Agent Orange was a fairly standard defoliant: it made plants lose their leaves and die. The only other one I can remember is White, which made plants go into "growth overdrive" and explode themselves, bringing about disease, rot, and death.

    We had a lot of "innovative" weaponry in that era, like the Agents and a personal favorite of mine, antipersonnel mines loaded with slow-burning phosphorus/magnesium pellets instead of steel shrapnel. There were reports of the wounds of victims, who could take days to die, glowing sickly in the night.

    Lovely stuff.

  21. Re:Voting Records of Reps on NARA Goes Online · · Score: 4, Informative

    While it doesn't have the depth of analysis you desire, the raw information you want (adn much more) is available both in paper form and online at thomas.loc.gov, which is pretty much a one-stop shop for any sort of legislative information. You can even read complete transcripts of that fantastically exciting periodical "The Congressional Record".

  22. Not Funny. on Family Tech Support · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have nothing nice to say, so I'm saying this.

    Is Slashdot going to be like Segfault or K5 now? Send in your lame-ass "humor" and horribly overwrought fiction! Impress the moderators! Get published on the web! (Special slashdot clause: get published TWICE since none of the staff ever read the site) Be judged by your peers!

  23. Re:it's psychosomatic... on Shelter: A Quest for Non-Toxic Housing · · Score: 1

    Safe or not safe, it still tastes like crap. It's the wrong sweet (for lack of a better term), and it has a gnarly aftertaste. Sodium saccharine is also the wrong sweet but at least it doesn't linger. Give me regular old granulated sugar anyday, thanks.

    Note: I'm perfectly aware that taste is subjective, but I still hate Nutrasweet.

  24. Re:Ethics on Mitchell Kapor Leaves Groove Over TIA · · Score: 2, Informative
    Wrong. It is possible, though difficult, to work in computers without supporting Microsoft. I do it every day, though I had to go 5 months without work to find a place where I could do it.

    In my present job we use 100% Linux and OpenBSD, we write our systems in Perl, we are formally GPLing and releasing our work, we're gently pushing for our peer agencies across the state to join us, and they're starting to realize that not only have the best solution available, but that our methods give everyone the biggest payback for the least expenditure.

    Also, I *do* believe that Samba and WINE shouldn't exist, in much the same way that the GPL shouldn't have to exist. In an ideal world, we all work together and horrible hacks like WINE aren't needed. More viscerally, I feel that people who take the easy way out and fall back to WINE and friends for everything are being spineless, opportunistic cowards with no real ethics at all. "But gaming!" is no excuse; either start coding or go get a console. "But Word files!" is no excuse; tell people to send you plaintext/RDF/HTML/CSV/any other standard, interoperable format. The network effect of Office won't go away until people stop reflexively duck-and-covering before it.

    People say they wish they didn't have to put up with Microsoft. Well, that's only going to happen if you're willing to shut up and then put up, and work to make it happen.

  25. Castle fairly sucks on Lupin III Coming to Hollywood · · Score: 1
    Castle of Cagliostro, directed by Miyazaki is a great movie.

    No, actually it's pretty damned mediocre, both for Miyazaki and Lupin. Of course, it's hard to keep it fresh with 20-something movies and over 100 TV episodes, all with the SAME plot and jokes.

    Still, for my money, In Memory of Walther P-38 is a far better example of Lupin done right.