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User: simonbp

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Comments · 144

  1. Re:Slackware 2.0.12 on X Window System Turns 30 Years Old · · Score: 1

    You mean back before the 20-odd years of kernel 2.6?

    Also, you gotta love the Slackware package management system: "Here's a tarball. Just untar it (as root) in the root directory and hope it doesn't clobber anything you care about."

  2. Re:"HTML5 video" doesn't actually exist. on Netflix Ditches Silverlight For HTML5 On Macs · · Score: 1

    "very recent versions of Chrome"

    It's been supported for around a year now on the ARM chromebooks. Which, combined with their HDMI output, makes them great Netflix boxes for on the road.

  3. Re:So what's the alternative? on Why You Shouldn't Use Spreadsheets For Important Work · · Score: 2

    Python plus Numpy. Plus Pandas if working with large amounts of data.

  4. Really? on Teachers Union: Computers Can Negatively Impact Children's Ability To Learn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And sitting in a boring classroom for hours on end enhances their ability to learn?

  5. Predictive Power on How Well Do Our Climate Models Match Our Observations? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's because you are looking at climate models calibrated against that data that you are comparing to. Circular logic.

    If you look at the predictions from past IPCC reports, very few of their predicted temperature profiles match the later observed conditions. That is a failure of the models' predictive power. That doesn't mean there isn't warming, just that the Earth's climate is a more complex system than can be accurately simulated with modern computing hardware.

  6. Re:Just be honest - it's not for *US* on Slashdot Tries Something New; Audience Responds! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    About their unemployment plans?

    We all would love a backend update (that's what most of us do), but I think it's clear that there would be a substantial net loss of users by changing the user interface so radically. That benefits nobody (except maybe the design team).

  7. Re:Editors are scared on Is Intel Selling Bay Trail Chips Below Cost? · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Because all the editors that cared left long ago.

    The fucked-up beta is the latest fuck-up in a long decline. OMG Ponies was more usable than beta.

  8. Sample Texts on UK Council To Send Obese People 'Motivational' Texts Telling Them To Use Stairs · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Get off your arse and walk, fatso!"
    "Put down the fork, you slob!"
    "You're disgusting! No one will ever love you!"

    "Be sure to vote in Council elections next Tuesday!"

  9. Short Cuts on Silicon Brains That Think As Fast As a Fly Can Smell · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's the last thing we need: robot overlords who keep taking shortcuts. Next thing you know, they'll kill all humans and then go bankrupt from ill-advised mortgages!

  10. Re:You mean, doomed like iPads? And ChromeBooks? on PC Makers Plan Rebellion Against Microsoft At CES · · Score: 1

    I don't know good your adb-fu is is, but it's not that hard to package and sideload a console program on an unlocked device.

    That said, the definition of Linux distribution is that it builds an operating system around the Linux kernel, which Android does. It just has its own peculiar user interface.

  11. Readership on Linux Voice Passes Its Crowdfunding Target · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm sure all eight people who still buy physical computer magazines will quite excited.

  12. It's official on This Whole Bitcoin Thing Could Be Big, Says Bank of America · · Score: 1, Troll

    Whelp, it's official. If Bank of America thinks it's a great investment, Bitcoin is going to expand rapidly to biggest bubble anyone has ever seen, and then murder several developed economies when it bursts. Look for the Countrywide Bitcoin Exchange coming soon!

    Could be worse though, they haven't come out with a Beanie Baby Bitcoin yet...

  13. Re:Does FlyKly work... on Patent Battle May Loom Over 'Copenhagen Wheel' Electric Bike · · Score: 1

    Careful...hipster-hating is the new cool thing. And slavishly doing the new cool thing...makes you a hipster.

    Man, I was hating hipsters years before it was cool. These hipster-hating hipsters are ruining everything!

  14. Re:Asia is playing catch up on Chinese Chang'e-3 Lunar Rover On Its Way After Successful Launch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually the Apollo missions did deploy a few UV telescopes on the lunar surface. They weren't much better than Earth-orbit telescopes, and so noone has bothered since. The radar is more interesting, but probably of limited utility given the power requirements to actually penetrate deep enough to see the layered mare deposits.

    Where China is decades behind the US, Europe, and Japan is that they don't really release their science products. US missions legally must release all raw and processed data after a short proprietary period (typically a year). Europe and Japan take longer, but still do usually release all their raw data. China does not, and often waits until after the mission is over before releasing even highly processed versions of the data. The lack of raw data (and opacity of how it is processed) means that it is hard to compare to other sources, and belies any claim to actual scientific motivation.

  15. Re: Stupid judge/jury. on Jury Finds Newegg Infringed Patent, Owes $2.3 Million · · Score: 1

    Good. If it really easy to get a patent overthrown, only patents which are strongly defensible will be granted. And then everyone (but the patent trolls) wins.

  16. Re:A link between DPR and an early Bitcoiner on Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Regardless if there was an official link, it is probably true that Bitcoin really took off when illegal/quasi-legal enterprises like Silk Road started using them. That's not to say Silk Road created Bitcoin or that all Bitcoin commerce is illegal, just that it would never have grown to real prominence without it.

  17. Re:Approved by GCHQ? on Australia Spied On Indonesian President · · Score: 1

    Thanks Obama!

  18. Re:Why do you find it interesting? on Dell's New Sputnik 3 Mates Touchscreen With Ubuntu · · Score: 2

    It doesn't come with Windows or OSX.

    Not exactly hard to do, but still exceedingly rare for laptops in the US.

  19. Re:Tempting... but no thanks. on FCC App Lets Android Users Measure Mobile Broadband Speed · · Score: 2

    What precisely are you afraid of? And I'm being serious, what could the app access that you find worrying? It does grab your location, but that is trivial for any law enforcement agency these days.

    If this app helps the FCC ensure that wireless companies are honest, I'm all for it.

  20. Get it now on Venezuela: Cheap Television Sets For All! · · Score: 2

    Get it now, because no one in their right might is going to import electronics into Venezuela anytime soon.

    Isn't vaguely socialist dictatorship great?

  21. Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these! It would be the slowest, worst cluster ever!

  22. Re:WTF? on Why Internet Explorer Still Dominates South Korea. · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't get on too high of a horse; Microsoft is also looking at Netflix and saying "WTF? Even we don't use Silverlight anymore."

  23. Yahooblr on Silicon Valley Could Be Heading For a New Stock Collapse. · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yahoo's recent desperate moves (e.e. buying Tumblr) are hardly indicative of the industry, but rather one company that really shouldn't be as big as it is. Silicon Valley as a whole is a lot more healthy than Yahoo.

  24. Re:WWW on Can There Be a Non-US Internet? · · Score: 1

    *word

  25. Re:WWW on Can There Be a Non-US Internet? · · Score: 1

    The government of Switzerland may disagree that Geneva is an international city. Cosmopolitan might be the world you are looking for.

    Also, it wasn't the web that prevented closed-garden internets, but rather universities. Until the mid 1990s, nearly everyone on the Internet (on any protocol) was at a university or research institute (like CERN). The universities weren't trying to make a profit, so they embraced an open architecture. It was US dominated, because then as now, most large research universities are in the US. Then, mainly US companies took that university network and popularized it. So, it's very much the fault of the US university system that the internet is so open.