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User: Tower

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  1. Rest well, Roblimo.

    A big part of early /. success.

  2. Professionals need screens that do not double as a mirror.

    This. Always this. The glossy screens look nice until you need to use them. I don't need to be watching everything behind me and have my eyes constantly focusing on the movement.

  3. Re:Why would anyone want this? on Meet UbuntuBSD, UNIX For Human Beings · · Score: 1

    The 3c509 was a great ISA 10Mb NIC and had the BNC and AUI connectors. By 2004, I think the 905 probably would have been it - that one was PCI and 10/100. I had plenty of each over time.

  4. Re:In "oil" country no less! on Next Texas Energy Boom: Solar · · Score: 2

    Yeah. In the car industry that is pretty standard. I think it was Ford who was a year or two behind on the dual sliding doors on minivans and ran ads about how unsafe that was... until theirs was available. And the execs rotate around and they use different ad companies so they can all blame it on the last guy if anyone does ask.

  5. Re:bottlenecks on Intel and Micron Unveil 3D XPoint Memory, 1000x Speed and Endurance Over Flash · · Score: 2

    You just attach it directly to the PCIe bus with a dedicated controller like PCIe SSDs today rather than through the existing SATA ports http://www.engadget.com/2015/0... . Over time, the other interfaces will catch up. x4 Gen3 PCIe goes pretty quickly...

  6. In any case, can you make Linux use a swapfile permanently?

    Yes, you just add a line to fstab to make it permanent. There's a brazillian guides on Google that will show you how.

    But I don't read Portuguese, you insensitive clod!

  7. Re:Defective on 17-Year-Old Radio Astronomy Mystery Traced Back To Kitchen Microwave · · Score: 1

    I haven't seen a microwave with a door button in ages. Just pull.

  8. Re:Browser Makers Should Get The Message on Ask Slashdot: Most Useful Browser Extensions? · · Score: 2

    Having a setting for that would be nice, but I much prefer my new tabs to pop to the back. I will usually scan through a page and open the set of links I want to read, then read them after the page I'm on, or switch and dive into one, but a lot of times it is just to build the queue. On my phone, I open them just so I can read them on a real screen later, since I can see my tabs and history from all devices.

  9. Re:This has been going on for a while on Iowa Wants To Let You Carry Your Driver's License On Your Phone · · Score: 2

    Wish I could find the "Sad But True +1" Mod

  10. Re:About half are below average.... on Ask Slashdot: What Portion of Developers Are Bad At What They Do? · · Score: 2, Funny

    This, of course, depends significantly on whether by "average" you mean the mode, median, or mean, which in a non-bellcurve distribution such as a programmers or software engineers can be very different.

  11. Re:Reach for the stars on Ask Slashdot: Pros and Cons of Homeschooling? · · Score: 1

    We currently have a children in the public school system, in a school that has a very good attitude and community feel to it, and we know the teachers well... but we are considering homeschooling.

    One note that hang true to me is that 27 other (5th/7th/9th graders) is not socialization as much as entry to Lord of the Flies... those kids need to learn the same skills, and can't provide them, where in a homeschooling setting you can have more interaction across age groups, with adults, and take the time to present positive role models, whereas our school teachers are not in a situation where they can do that when being forced to teach standarized testing to an overly large group instead of a broad based curriculum.

  12. Re:track record on US Air Force Selects Boeing 747-8 To Replace Air Force One · · Score: 1

    I'd be afraid he might come to a sudden arboreal stop!

  13. Re:One good turn... on James Watson's Nobel Prize Medal Will Be Returned To Him · · Score: 1

    Yes, but that mortgage is subtracted from the market value of the home for calculating net worth, so it isn't directly negative.

  14. Re:Can you be more specific? on Google and Others Sued For Automating Email · · Score: 1

    The point is, the abstract could describe this as "A method wherein the ice cream is scooped with a bare hand" and it wouldn't matter, because the specific claims are all that matters. In this patent, there are 66, like...

    44. The system of claim 41, further comprising:

    a repository of predetermined responses, one or more of the predetermined responses being selected by the knowledge base for proposed delivery to the source; and

    an electronic router for forwarding the electronic message to the human operator when the classifier indicates that a response to the electronic message requires assistance from a human operator, the router delivering the predetermined response to the source when the human operator deems the response appropriate.

    45. The system of claim 44, wherein the classifier categorizes the electronic message into at least one of a plurality of sub-categories based on subject matter content of the electronic message.

    *Those* are what matters.

  15. Re:Hm... on Next-Gen Processor Unveiled · · Score: 1

    Or, for example, the Cell, which (depending on the data size) can operate on 128 bit vectors (16 8-bit integers, 8 16-bit integers, 4 32-bit integers, or 4 single precision floating-point numbers). And yes, it is multi-core as well, with 8 SPEs on a single ship.

  16. Re:FYI on Sony Says Nobody Will Ever Use All the Power of a PS3 · · Score: 1

    Well - unless your cache is going to be as slow as regular system memory, 4GB would cost an arm and a leg (and perhaps a kidney). Cache is fast and expensive... very expensive per MB. a 1000x L2 cache holding price constant (not gonna happen) would slow down the system dramatically, since that cache couldn't be clocked at the processor rate. Take a look at the price difference between two otherwise identical processors - one with 1MB of L2 and one with 2MB (or 512KB and 1MBm or 2MB and 4MB).

    The iPod analogy is similar, but not the same, as the storage on the iPod can be slow, even slower for the large size and it won't degrade the user experience - the iPod shuffle (1GB) and the 80GB iPod are 2 orders of magnitude apart in storage, but they both play the same songs in the same time. That and battery life isn't necessarily a linear inverse of storage capacity.

    But yes, increasing one component of a system 1000x will never speed the whole up that much.

  17. Re:And with 9 shut down options to boot... on Vista an Uneasy Sleeper · · Score: 1

    No, this problem has already been solved... the only remaining one is "b'bye".

    Pretty simple ;-)

  18. Re:Vista: An Enigma Wrapped In a Paradox on Why Vista Took So Long · · Score: 1

    >Don't you have a Windows key?

    I only do on the keyboard attached to my docking strip... Thinkpad (T42p, so not pre-1995) doesn't have winkeys. My primary keyboard at home doesn't have winkeys either, which is easier to deal with, since they didn't steal the part of Ctl and Alt that I always hit... so that falls under your Model M argument. Laptops. Mostly No Windows Keys.

  19. Re:This is bullshit on How To Get Rid of the Cubicle? · · Score: 1

    Or just check their status on the approved business chat client... if they are Do Not Disturb... well, that was easy, and you didn't even have to get up. Since you can't send them a message, perhaps they don't want you to barrel into their office, either.

  20. Re:How much electricity? on 500 Miles on a 5-Minute Recharge? · · Score: 1

    >People need to learn that a "tankful of gas" is not a universal unit of measurement, and has no basis for comparison to almost anyone else.

    How so? I thought that I could directly compare the 12 gallon (gasoline) tank in my 1994 VW Jetta with the 40 gallon (diesel) tank on a 1983 Chevy Suburban? At least, I could get the same mileage, as long as the Jetta was inside the Suburban...

  21. Re:Siberian cats on Hypoallergenic Cats · · Score: 1

    Well, one of my friends had two of those. He was mildly allergic to cats (mostly the contact allergies), and they were much better with these than most. I am affected by far more severe cat allergies (pretty much the only thing that triggers my asthma these days), and I could stay in their house with less effects than homes with normal cats. However, I wouldn't be able to live in a house with them. Better, but nowhere near hypoallergenic.

    For people with mild cases, this would probably work.

    On the other hand, my father an I are allergic to dogs, and are able to live with dogs with hair, not fur (we own a bichon frise and my parents have a shitzu). For somebody whose eyes puff up severely if I rub them after petting a lab or golden, having a dog that doesn't require me to avoid my own couch or wash my hands every 5 minutes is great.

  22. Thompson's Teeth on 10 Terrible Portrayals of Technology in Film · · Score: 1

    "The only teeth strong enough to eat other teeth."

    Just can't get enough Futurama.

  23. Re:Bogus on Will the Wii Work? · · Score: 1

    Indeed it is working now (though not on the first try) ... I was getting generated errors from Google Video "We're sorry, but this video may not be available." with both IE and FF earlier.

  24. Re:Bogus on Will the Wii Work? · · Score: 1

    Looks like this link is dead... any description or other posting of this one?

  25. Re:well, on Measuring the Energy You Use? · · Score: 1

    I have a few in my garage as well (the reflector style - really covered spirals) - been replacing those as the old ones burn out. 3/6 are CFL now. Can't tell the difference, really.

    There are some globe CF bulbs where the spirals or loops are hidden that don't look so bad in those cases, and I have some candelabra CFLs (4W) that look fine, since the chandelier has frosted glass, so you can only see the tips and not the base. Not all fixtures look good that way, though.