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User: blueworm

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Comments · 161

  1. Re:How on Beer Fridge Caught Interfering With Cellular Network · · Score: 1

    Here's another link: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/fridge-fault-causes-telstra-mobile-network-blackouts/story-fni0fit3-1226655474358

  2. Re:Talk to HR on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Deal With Programmers Who Have Not Stayed Current? · · Score: 1

    No, don't do this. You'll be seen as a troublemaker in the organization and your mistakes will be scrutinized unfairly.

  3. depends on your position on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Deal With Programmers Who Have Not Stayed Current? · · Score: 1

    There's nothing you can do directly if you're not in a position to make management decisions. The only thing you can do is do what you do -- the best you can do it.

  4. Apple is a Bubble on Sealed-Box Macs: Should Computers Be Disposable? · · Score: 1

    Apple is a bubble that will burst soon enough. The only thing selling their products is style, and eventually people will fall out of love with the Apple style as they do with every style in computing, fashion, and computing fashion. The cheap hardware in Wintel, Lintel, LinMD, WinMD, etc... always sells more units total in a given fiscal year than Apple products sell, it's just that Apple sells for more per unit because they're designer clothing and Apple gets rich from their fans. They even have fans with access to government money to spend on thousands of Apple units in claim that it will help our children learn and grow, only just to get their hands on one shiny new Apple unit for themselves (http://goo.gl/rEb8M) .

    More people love a'la carte computing than the Apple approach, markets prove that. Newegg is still here selling PC components, Amazon and Wal Mart even sell PC components on their sites. I mean -- Dell and HP are even still here selling cheap PCs and even not-so-cheap ones. Apple definitely doesn't control the world even though they might have made huge piles of cash selling many luxury goods in a very short period of time.

  5. probability? on Ask Slashdot: Who Has Been Sued By the RIAA? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah I don't know anyone either, probably because thousands of people sued out of over three-hundred-million U.S. citizens doesn't make for a very high probability that you will personally meet someone who has been sued. The original submitter is a joke, and should never have been approved on this site.

  6. trash, no mention of phishing or trojans on Has iTunes Been Hacked? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No mention of keylogging trojans or phishing combined with ridiculous uneducated guessing makes these authors' ramblings pure trash. Apparently all the links are from Betanews, too; I'd like to see Betanews stick to talking about iThings and not security. Choice quotes interspersed with my reactions:

    "Apple's iTunes user logs themselves may have been compromised."

    All I can think of on this one is the time I had someone tell me that my router had "lost its ARP table".

    "... several of the victims that reported into Betanews on their experience are employed in IT -- obviously understanding the risks of improperly secured personal data."

    I'd hope these same IT employees someday understand the risks of improperly secured personal data by not browsing the web on their own PCs (no Windows implied).

  7. Re:Wild speculation! I did not hear/see Windows8. on Microsoft Shows Off Radical New UI, Could Be Used In Windows 8 · · Score: 1

    I agree -- It's definitely not Windows 8. Windows 8 will not run exclusively on touch surfaces; Microsoft can't sell Windows 8 by asking people to go out and buy a touch screen for untold multiples of hundreds of dollars.

  8. self-citing on techdirt? on FBI Prioritizes Copyright Over Missing Persons · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Does it seem to anybody else like Techdirt is actually just self-citing itself for its proof? I don't really see where it's shown that the FBI has copyright enforcement actually prioritized higher than missing persons here. I see references to people saying it's a major priority, but that doesn't actually mean it really is. I think we need some more evidence laid out a little more clearly than what Techdirt has done, at least.

  9. shut it down on Google's New Scheme To Avoid Unlicensed Music · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Google should say, "Because it is too difficult in the United States, the land of freedom, to offer a public venue for the sharing of creative works and the preservation of culture, we have opted to shut down youtube entirely. We sincerely hope that such services can return in a time less plagued by corruption and greed."

  10. not going to be successful on Texas Schools Board Rewriting US History · · Score: 1

    They won't be successful at it. They can construct whatever kind of information universe in public schools, but it doesn't mean it's what people are going to learn when they get to the next, and only real significant level. This is only going to devalue U.S. public schools even further.

  11. a different country for kids on 3rd-Grader Busted For Jolly Rancher Possession · · Score: 1

    There seems to be two Americas based on your age. One where you are expected to be independent and enjoy the ideals of free speech and general independence (note, this argument is based on ideals), and one where you are expected to bow to authority on a wide range of arbitrarily-defined rules or face harsh punishment. In essence, we have made it OK for kids to be subjected to a tightly controlled authoritarian type of environment during their most sensitive years of enculturation, and then upon finishing public school, we jettison them out into a world that preaches democratic ideals. It's just pure madness -- by the time somebody leaves the public school system they will not be prepared for a world of independence at all. What's worse -- by subjecting kids to harsh psychological treatment in schools for dong things which adults would not consider any type of offense, we're stacking up a negative mental burden on them before they even reach the most challenging parts of their lives. It doesn't just end with jolly ranchers either, politics and policy is a taboo subject in schools, too. I seem to recall people in my school getting detention hours for questioning the DARE program, which was later dismantled as being ineffective. Unfortunately, it seems public school in the U.S. is about mentally (and sometimes physically) beating kids down instead of embracing critical thinking.

  12. don't use the crack, don't play the games on Ubisoft's DRM Cracked — For Real This Time · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do not use the crack and do not play the games with DRM if we want to really see an end to DRM. Even playing the game without buying it can be good publicity that generates sales for those who would complain they are not selling enough. Resisting the temptation to consume products instead of creating our own is the real problem. Instead of consuming things because we feel we need to, if we do not agree with the product we should instead work to create our own. We cannot let self-doubts and temporary failures prevent us from being creative if we are to bring about a new creative renaissance without DRM.

  13. force is lack of moral authority on South Park's Episode 201 — the Expurgated Version · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Any time force is threatened, the threatening party has lost moral authority. If you seek to affect moral change in somebody, then your own representation of your ideals should be enough to convince them.

  14. Re:I wish Java won on Multi-Platform App Created Using Single Code Base · · Score: 1

    Java on the desktop is really fast now. I can generate a JAR file and my application launches from that when I double-click it in about two seconds. Java applets do take some time to launch, though.

    Anyway, for web graphics it seems like IDE plugins using Javascript/ECMAscript, HTML5, and WebGL will eventually make Flash obsolete, but it's still a bit early for that.

  15. Re:it's more about us, less about him on Perelman Urged To Accept $1m Prize · · Score: 1

    Adopting a humble lifestyle does money must be rejected, it simply means its use should tend be avoided in want of expensive or unnecessary things. While I cannot expect us to eliminate our worldly possessions, we can take steps to minimize the amount of physical things we own such that we cannot be easily controlled with threats against them (direct or otherwise). If you are unsatisfied with your job and have a few vehicles and a large house to maintain, expenses for these things makes saving money difficult, and in turn make exiting that job difficult, which makes it more likely for you to accept frustrating management decisions at work for fear of not being able to afford the upkeep for your investments in physical products. Variations of this scenario may be adapted to fit the idea expressed here, however the general argument remains the same.

  16. it's more about us, less about him on Perelman Urged To Accept $1m Prize · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This bit is more about our personal dissatisfaction with our lives, as the readers, having to do things we don't like for money. It's more about a dissatisfaction with the economic system and less about this mathematician, or ex-mathematician. This dissatisfaction leads us to react to any declination of money with shock. The real key to freedom is living with very little and very humbly such that we "work" less and live more enjoyably, where "work" is here defined as any activity done more for money and less for personal enjoyment.

    Even Richard M. Stallman himself has suggested this:

    "I live like a student, basically. And I like that, because it means that money is not telling me what to do."
    -- Richard M. Stallman
    http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/fsfs/rms-essays.pdf
    Pg. 164

  17. Re:I dont use... on What Free Antivirus Do You Install On Windows? · · Score: 1

    It's hard to argue for no antivirus at all, but at the same time there have been a large number of zero-day attacks such as the ones involving the flash vulnerabilities which antivirus did not detect. Sufficiently new malicious code which users are enticed to run has the ability to go unnoticed by up to date antivirus. While running no antivirus is probably a bad idea on principle, it's definitely becoming more marginalized as malware authors continue to develop a higher degree of sophistication in hiding themselves from it.

    Best practice is probably to install some kind of antivirus, but treat the PC as if it has no antivirus and develop some Internet "street smarts" -- to put it succinctly.

  18. GPU acceleration in MacOS on A Skeptical Comparison of HTML5 Video Playback To Flash · · Score: 1

    The Engadget stub article states that Adobe is "cut out of the loop" of GPU acceleration on the Mac platform, and as evidence links to three other articles (also Engadget):

    http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/28/adobe-on-flash-and-the-ipad-apple-is-continuing-to-impose-rest/
    http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/29/adobe-ups-passive-aggressive-stance-on-ipad-while-apple-promo-f/
    http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/adobe-got-7-million-iphone-and-ipod-touch-download-requests-for/

    All of which seem to detail the battle to get Flash on Apple's mobiles, and not a battle for GPU acceleration on MacOS. It would seem to me that if Flash isn't GPU accelerated on MacOS now, that they could take advantage of OpenGL to do so.

  19. make something beautiful on Correcting Poor Typing Technique? · · Score: 1

    Your typing skills are sufficient, make something beautiful instead of relearning typing.

  20. don't patronize the RIAA on Charles Nesson Ruled Jointly Liable To Pay RIAA · · Score: 1

    The RIAA and MPAA are still powerful because people still buy products which support them. Check RIAA.org 's list of member companies if you're buying anything music related. For movies, it's a bit easier, but the member studios are nonetheless listed on MPAA.org as well. People need to stop complaining and stop buying to starve these guys of cash more effectively.

  21. stop endorsing these companies on Overzealous Enforcement Means Even Legit Music Blogs Deleted · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Don't post anything related to a major music company to a blog -- it's that simple. If you don't agree with the takedown notices and the lawsuits, do some research and stop endorsing companies who do that type of thing. Stop sharing it and listening to it, because without sharing nothing can survive in the Internet age. The problem is people like music, but they've been so psychologically damaged into thinking that music making isn't a perfectly able to be learned iteratively that they feel they MUST consume music produced by these companies, and that simply isn't true. We need new musicians to make music and find ways to make money off of it through inclusion in other products such that they don't feel the need to be marketed by malicious record companies.

  22. Peanut Hysteria is more of a psychological issue on Air Canada Ordered To Provide Nut-Free Zone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can anybody provide any real evidence that nut allergies are triggered by the "smell" of nuts? I don't think so -- as far as I know they have to be aerosolized in a cooking spray or finely crushed and thrown into the air as "nut dust". I'm betting this woman is probably just a hypochondriac who thinks she's being affected by smelling nuts when she's not. This article http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=2417934 mentions that her claim is backed up a doctor's note saying that she has a reaction when in the general vicinity of nuts, but other than that there's no real evidence for this.

    Air Canada and other organizations should first order complete medical studies on people like this to get the facts before taking action. Clearly, the public needs more evidence because special treatment for allergy sufferers and public bans of nuts are getting out of hand.

    A quick Google search reveals the beginnings of a Britannica article which also indicates that banning nuts is a bad idea since nut allergy deaths are not unacceptably higher annually than deaths from lightning strikes and bee stings, and because banning creates a climate of oversensitivity: http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/35883327/Peanut-hysteria--or-is-it

  23. predictable comments on Bono Hopes Content Tracking Will Help Media Moguls · · Score: 1

    Bono is from the old business model with overpriced physical products, so his comments are predictable.

  24. Re:His voice... on The Definitive Evisceration of The Phantom Menace *NSFW* · · Score: 1

    This reviewer is definitely a reviewer I don't need to hear any more of. I shut it off after the first ten seconds. The ironic thing is the review itself is more intolerable than the movie it's trying to lambaste.

  25. phantom menace worse than this reviewer? on The Definitive Evisceration of The Phantom Menace *NSFW* · · Score: 1

    I'm going to have to say that the phantom menace is better than this review video. The reviewer's tone is so boring, so monotonic, that I can't watch more than 10 seconds of the video. George Lucas at least let me get to the end of _his_ film!