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User: feronti

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  1. Re:This is a common problem for OSS on Mozilla Firefox Not In Violation of US Export Rules · · Score: 1

    The loss to US businesses is in the overhead of ensuring compliance. The cost of non-compliance is incredibly high; my company is currently listed as a restricted company because someone forgot to label some component specs that were covered under ITAR, and those specs then were sent to a non-US company. We now have to waste almost an hour a month on training that basically boils down to "If you're sending something outside the company, make sure to clear it with Trade Compliance first." Not to mention the huge fines and loss of business as a result of being restricted.

  2. Re:Welcome to the Moon! on Alternative Orion Missions Proposed · · Score: 1

    Interestingly (and off-topic), Lewis and Clark did design their own canoe... a folding cast-iron boat:

    "In February 1803 Congress approved Jefferson's request to fund an expedition. By mid-March Lewis was on his way from Washington DC, to the US Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, in present-day West Virginia, to gather military hardware for the trip.........."

    "Lewis also wanted the arsenal workers to do him a special favor. He asked them to build a collapsible iron-framed boat he designed himself. Lewis referred to this as" my darling project," but the armory workers had difficulty
    executing Lewis' design for the boat, and the endeavor wound up keeping Lewis in Harpers Ferry for more than a month. When it was finished, however , Lewis was pleased. The frame weighed just 100 pounds but the completed craft would be capable of carrying about 1700 pounds!

    I'd attribute the source, but I don't know it:)

  3. Re:Bad idea on PG&E Makes Deal For Solar Power From Space · · Score: 1

    That does not, however, discount the redundancy's usefulness for eliminating single-instance failures such as a gamma-ray flipping a bit in memory. These kinds of failures are extremely rare on earth, but common enough on-orbit that many space-rated single board computers used for satellites have some kind of hardware voting mechanism.

  4. Re:This is an old argument which will not fly on Is the Relational Database Doomed? · · Score: 1

    It saddens me that someone who apparently works with relational databases every day has no idea who invented them in the first place. What are they teaching kids these days, anyway?

  5. Re:might as well guinea pig at that point on Doctors Will Test Gene Editing On HIV Patients · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Wow. It seems to really work. Amazing, since the root of this thread is now modded Redundant. Which way will I go?

  6. Re:Lack of knowledge not an excuse on Teachers Need an Open Source Education · · Score: 1

    When making the argument that someone is inferior, it generally helps to make a sound argument. Or even a coherent one.

  7. Re:Discuss/Consider = Action? on Obama Moves To Link Pentagon With NASA · · Score: 1

    Part of it is because of how well disciplined Obama's staff is. It doesn't leak, they don't float trial balloons; they discuss something internally until they've come up with what they feel is the best solution, and then they release it. Basically, if they say they're going to do something, they've already done the analysis and had the discussion. At that point, it's more about convincing everyone that it's a good idea. At least that was true during the campaign... as Obama's staff grows larger, it'll be interesting to see how true that continues to be.

  8. Re:Interesting on Lenovo Service Disables Laptops With a Text Message · · Score: 2, Insightful

    An Estes igniter probably couldn't do it unless you dipped it in extra pyrogen. A Daveyfire electric match, on the other hand would probably be able to do it, though... they're used to ignite AP composite motors in high power rockets. Or, you could use the exhaust from a small (say a D or an E) AP motor... it has the benefit of lasting a lot longer than the match would, and doesn't need a LEP to get a hold of (Daveyfires are also used to ignite pyrotechnic displays, and other low-explosives, so IIRC, you need a permit to get them).

  9. Re:Space for love? Sure. on Oldest Nuclear Family Found Murdered In Germany · · Score: 1

    Seriously?

  10. Re:Iraq on Discuss the US Presidential Election & the War · · Score: 1

    Recognized by whom?

  11. Re:Multiplayer LAN on Starcraft 2 To Be a Trilogy · · Score: 1

    That's not true. You could spawn your copy to I think up to 7 of your friends. They couldn't _host_ a game, but they could play in any game that you hosted.

  12. Re:Copyright infringement != Theft on Ars Examines Outlandish "Lost To Piracy" Claims and Figures · · Score: 1

    Um... it's Skywalker.

  13. Re:Both sides... on Obama & McCain Conflicting On Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    That's because you, like most Americans, don't understand Liberalism.

  14. Re:Does this imply FTL? on "Dark Flow" Outside Observable Universe · · Score: 1

    That'll teach you to use a condom.

  15. Re:Obama favored, 59-31% on Scott Adams's Political Survey of Economists · · Score: 1

    Perhaps because they chose their party affiliation based on what they really believe? And that they think their party's candidate actually represents those beliefs?

  16. Re:It could be just us on Shuttle Retirement In 2010 Under Review · · Score: 1

    You both keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means... Fatalism. I think what you're looking for is defeatism.

  17. Re:Ockham's Razor tells me.... on Why Corporates Hate Perl · · Score: 1

    How do you measure whether you're on schedule to deliver the deliverable on time? A good metric allows you to make predictions prior to completion. Otherwise, what's the point in measuring it at all?

  18. Re:Ground Up: The Next Generation on Should Addictive Tech Come With a Health Warning? · · Score: 1

    Ever heard of an adrenaline junkie? They're generally physically fit and lead extremely active lives... to the point they put themselves at high risk of injuring themselves and thereby needing those more serious health resources.

    But in general, I'd probably still be inclined to believe that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. But it's no guarantee.

  19. Re:binfmt... on Google Funds Work for Photoshop on Linux · · Score: 1

    Well, you learn something new every day. Next question... do any of the distros configure it by default?

  20. Re:WINE is an interesting strategy on Google Funds Work for Photoshop on Linux · · Score: 1

    The missing piece is the ability for the user to just double click on the application or type in its name at a command line and have it run. It'd probably have to be a kernel module that would look at the binary, realize it was a windows binary, and run it automatically under wine. It may not have to be in the kernel (I'm actually not that well versed in how a program gets loaded in Linux... I'll let someone smarter correct me:) but it should probably be somewhere below the shell so that it worked no matter what environment you were in... bash, GNOME, KDE, whatever.

  21. Re:US military spending on People Believe NASA Funded As Well As US Military · · Score: 1

    You know, you're right. It is unfortunate that violating the Constitution is not considered a "high crime". The problem though, is not that this administration has violated the Constitution (again, you're right, every president has), but that it has done so in a consistent systematic way that has progressively shrunk the rights of Americans. To be honest, I don't think the suspension of elections is likely, nor do I think that the administration would get away with it. I find it more likely that the elections will be manipulated to put in place a successor that will just be more of the same. Even if that doesn't happen the fact remains that the Office of the President has grown far too powerful; it is far easier to give or steal power away from the people than it is to wrest it back from those who have usurped it. Free societies have become police states before, and they have done so by following the path we've been following for the past eight years.

    As for why someone in power would try to suspend elections, I would think that would be fairly obvious--those in power wish to stay in power. No one seeks power because they want to give it away.

  22. Re:US military spending on People Believe NASA Funded As Well As US Military · · Score: 1

    Um, the charge is fucking over the Constitution. Seems like a good enough charge to me. And if Congress won't do it, well, maybe we need to get rid of them, too. After all, they should've been doing their fucking jobs and preventing the president from fucking over the Constitution in the first place, not granting him legal loopholes to do it. But believe me, my reasons for wanting him impeached go far beyond the fact that I don't like him. Though I totally agree with you that free and fair elections are the right way to remove someone legally in place, if they're illegally in place and no one will impeach them, it's unlikely you'll get those free and fair elections, isn't it? Also, at this point, removing Bush from office won't necessarily fix the problem anyway... just because the faces change doesn't suddenly remove all the power that the Office of the President has stolen from Congress and the People.

  23. Re:Stupid Slashdot headline on C# Memory Leak Torpedoed Princeton's DARPA Chances · · Score: 1

    That's what deterministic garbage collectors like IBM's Metronome are for. Real-time programmers really should start reading... it seems none of the embedded people I've talked to have any idea what kind of research is being done in their own field. Though I guess the same could be said of all programmers, really. It's kind of sad.

  24. Re:US military spending on People Believe NASA Funded As Well As US Military · · Score: 1

    Sure, there's an election scheduled. But as time goes on I become more and more skeptical that it will actually happen, or if it does that it will be free and fair. We are extremely close to being a police state, and Bush & Co. have been following the script for creating one fairly closely. One of the upcoming steps is suspension of elections for "security" reasons. The other option is they put in a hand-picked successor by manipulating the election. Either way, waiting for next year's election may be too late.

  25. Re:Organs == big bucks on Cross-Selling Online Scams and Security Issues · · Score: 1

    You'll certainly be dead after the harvesting. Personally, I'd prefer to be dead before the harvesting.