Slashdot Mirror


User: Gonzoman

Gonzoman's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
81
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 81

  1. Re:That seems affordable on Former Director of the ISS Division At NASA Talks About Science Behind 'Elysium' · · Score: 1

    With apologies to Hitchhikers Guide:

    After the rich are all on the station we can throw it into the sun. That should give the rest of us a chance fix some of the problems here on earth.

  2. Re:And what of the Dick ? on Hallibuton Pleads Guilty To Destroying Simulation Data From 2010 Gulf Oil Spill · · Score: 1

    "You know you're powerful when you shoot someone in the face, and he apologizes to you." -- Jon Stewart

  3. Re:Where on Bushfire Threatens Major Telescope · · Score: 1
  4. Re:China isn't a real military threat. on US Military Designates Julian Assange an "Enemy of State" · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No, Hitler's big mistake was invading the Soviet Union. Western Europe was a sideshow compared to the Eastern front.

  5. Re:exactly! on NASA May Send Landers To Europa In 2020 · · Score: 1

    I worked on the DEW line back during the late '70s and early '80s. The vacuum tubes for our comm equipment and radar (finest 1950's tech) came from Poland, which was part of the Warsaw Pact.

  6. Re:My Pet Rock Is Better on TSA Facing Death By a Thousand Cuts · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The terrorists do no need a successful attack, only an attempt.

    I really think that there is someone orchestrating these attacks with a bizarre sense of humour. He gets some idiot to put a bomb in his shoe and now you need to take your shoes off to fly. So then he gets another idiot to put a bomb in his underwear and now full body scans. I can't wait to see what's next.

    I think it was Mao who said that if your enemy is not by nature oppressive, you must force him to become so. Somebody has read the book.

  7. Re:Who will pay the damages? Compensation? on Fired Techie Created Virtual Chaos At Pharma Co. · · Score: 1

    Control H (0x08) is the ASCII code for backspace.

  8. Re:It depends on the objective. on Why the US Govt Should Be Happy About Wikileaks · · Score: 0

    The United States offers a host of pretty compelling benefits, not among the least of which is the protection of our vast military, to our allies and friends.

    It seems that what we need is protection from is the vast US military.

    (Mafia Boss) Nice country you have there. It would be a shame if it got invaded.

  9. Re:Right on! on Usage Based Billing In Canada To Be Rescinded · · Score: 1

    My internet is provided by Sasktel which is a crown corporation. There are no bandwidth caps that I am aware of.

  10. Re:Actually... on Lies, Damned Lies and Cat Statistics · · Score: 1

    "Sort of how like in the article it wasn't just "cats sometimes have more kittens" or "cats kill a lot of birds" that got to be circulated into near impossible to debunk, but catchier stuff with numbers, like "an unspayed cat can produce 42,000 cats in 5 years" or "a cat can kill a billion birds". Sounds more scientific that way. It practically implies that you have a scientific study somewhere that backs it up to within one significant digit."

    I think I can debunk the statement about cats.

    I'm pretty sure that it takes two cats to produce any offspring.

  11. Re:mail on Using Outlook From Orbit · · Score: 1

    I use 5 bit Baudot code on punched tape. RYRYRYRYRY....

  12. Re:Citation Needed on ELF Knocks Down AM Towers To Save Earth, Intercoms · · Score: 1

    The AM radio in my car does not have a quarter wave dipole, yet it seems to receive AM signals just fine. Impedance matching is important for transmitters, not so much for receivers.

  13. Re:Details on benefits on What Questions Should a Prospective Employee Ask? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Where is this American "freedom" I keep hearing about? It seems than Americans are free to become slaves to their corporate masters.

    We have acceptable labour legislation and single payer health care where I live. I get 3 weeks vacation after a year of employment, overtime after 40 hours a week, protection from many workplace abuses and I can quit my job without losing my health care.

    These are basic rights which any worker should have. Economic freedom is also freedom.

  14. Re:Asking about hours on What Questions Should a Prospective Employee Ask? · · Score: 1

    I would not take a salaried position if the work hours were not specified, and provisions for overtime laid out. Anything longer than 40 hours a week puts one in the wage slave category.

    I often work overtime, but I generally take it as lieu time (at time and a half). This makes for a better work/real life balance and keeps my employer honest.

    Job interviews need to go both ways. I am selling my skills to the employer, but they also need to show me why I should work for them.

  15. Re:Very true on The Case For Working With Your Hands · · Score: 1

    I have a great deal of job security because of my hardware skills.

    At my last job interview, the focus was not me selling myself to the company, but rather the opposite. This allowed me to negotiate my starting salary upward. My server and networking skills were a factor, but the main emphasis was on my skills with printers and hardware.

    The company was bought by a larger company. I was high on the list of those to be retained which allowed another salary negotiation (upward).

    I get a great deal of satisfaction from my work. I enjoy working with my hands, and the troubleshooting provides intellectual challenge.

    And even this year, when the company had frozen salaries, I got a raise.

  16. Re:Linux eeePC is ready to go on Lenovo On the Future of the Netbook · · Score: 1

    Ubuntu 9.04 on my Acer netbook works perfectly right after installation. No tweeks etc. required. A co-worker installed XP on his Dell netbook. He spent days getting it to work and he has multiple problems, mostly related to wireless and power management. The other day, he needed to set up a router and asked to borrow my usb to serial cable. He needed to find drivers for it, whereas I just plug it in and it is automaticly configured.

    Which of these operating systems "just works"?

  17. Re:I Hope They Get Anti-Piracy to Work This Time on Windows 7 Anti-Piracy Plans · · Score: 1

    Maybe I'm just old and cranky, but I would tell them to piss off. They do not seem like nice people. It is counter productive to spend your valuable time enabling their bad behaviour.

  18. Re:buzz builder? on Microsoft Leaks Windows 7 RC Date — Before May 5 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I bave Windows 7 a try. The installation not only overwrote grub, it also wiped my Linux boot partition out of the partition table. Those had fairly simple work arounds, (use fdisk to recreate the partition table, reinstall grub) but this is not nice behaviour :).

    Given the performance issues, I will stay with XP for the three or four Windows apps I cannot do without.

  19. Re:Your choice on How Do You Deal With Pirated Programs At Work? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If I want documentation of a verbal discussion I have had with someone, I will send an email saying "This is my understanding of our conversation. Please respond if your understanding is different." This is an open and non confrontational method of doing this, and keeps everyone on the same page.

  20. Re:Duh on Is Microsoft Improving Its Image? · · Score: 1

    I don't think it is the OEMs. I tried the Windows 7 beta. 700 MB or ram usage before opening any applications. 9Gb footprint on the hard drive before installing applications. It may be lighter than Vista, but it still seems bloated to me.

    Ubuntu installs into less than 2 Gb with all your standard applications and runs well on a system with less ram than Windows 7 takes to load the OS.

    Windows 7 is almost as pretty as KDE 4 though . . .

  21. Re:Riaa-Radar on How Do You Find New Non-RIAA Music? · · Score: 1

    Well, being an old SOM, I mostly buy cd's released by bands from the '60s and '70s

  22. Re:Office Live Documents? Hmm... on Microsoft Faces Fight Against Online Office Rival · · Score: 1

    For Christ sake Microsoft rules all. (can I get my payment now please?)

    Now, I don't use any microsoft software.. can someone explain how this affects me?

  23. Re:Natural Born Killer on Saddam Hussein Sentenced to Death · · Score: 1
    Only since the beginning of their liberation, they've actually being dying by the thousands.
    Make that hundreds of thousands and I'll agree with you. To paraphrase the book of Samuel: Saddam has killed his thousands, Bush has killed his ten thousands.
  24. Re:Great... on 11-year-old Proves Locks Not So Secure · · Score: 1

    Yeah, we lived in a small town in Alberta and recently sold our house. It took us a long time to find the keys as we hadn't locked the doors since we had moved in. Of course a noisy yet cowardly dog may have been some deterent.

  25. Re:Shameless repost from sci.physics... on NASA Science Under Attack · · Score: 1

    I think John Cleese covered this ground

    http://www.stephaniemiller.com/declarationofrevoca tion.htm/