Slashdot Mirror


User: bill_mcgonigle

bill_mcgonigle's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
18,097
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 18,097

  1. Re:XBMC on Best PC DVR Software, For Any Platform? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, C8Junction is CommissionJunction, NewEgg's affiliate partner. Ah, well, maybe you earned somebody else 3 cents. :)

  2. Re:Btrfs: kill off ext# please! on Linux Kernel 2.6.32 Released · · Score: 1

    BSD, Solaris and OSX all support UFS, as does Linux.... Linux also supports the hfs+ filesystem currently used by OSX, not sure if bsd/solaris do but there are bsd licensed drivers for it so no reason not to.

    Linux only sort-of, depends on flavor. I can't reliably mount a CF card r/w from pfSense (FreeBSD) under linux.

  3. only 1000%? on Brazilian Twin Mystery the Result of Nazi Experiment? · · Score: 1

    That's a fancy book-learned way of saying 10 times as many as normal.

    Which seems to fit nicely in a tail of a normal distribution for a very large set of numbers.

    A mysterious nazi mad scientist with mid-21st century medical science technology seems unnecessary.

  4. Re:Easy fix, or fixed easily? on Black Screen of Death Not Microsoft's Fault · · Score: 1

    Linux users often rant about how evil it is, largely based on not understanding it,

    Comprehension is quite difficult in the registry, it's not meant for human consumption. It's also not text, so unix people will shy away from it.

    It has some good ideas, so does /etc. Config::Any has some more.

    GNOME ain't doin it rite.

  5. Re:baaaaloney on SETI@Home Install Leads To School Tech Supervisor's Resignation · · Score: 1

    Not entirely. CPUs running hot are enduring more wear and tear

    See, he was just trying to make sure machines didn't fail just after their warranties had expired.

  6. Re:AUP? on SETI@Home Install Leads To School Tech Supervisor's Resignation · · Score: 1

    after decades of scientifically-rigorous research, nothing has been found yet

    Decades of time and the scope of existing searches are both really small in galactic terms. Without disputing your other arguments, it might be a thousand year project.

  7. Re:XBMC on Best PC DVR Software, For Any Platform? · · Score: 1

    Are they giving credit on the text-only affiliate links? I read that you needed to include images (not sure how they'd know).

  8. Re:The nice thing about POTS... on FCC Preparing Transition To VoIP Telephone Network · · Score: 1

    I can get more, but I have to risk my life crawling onto the roof to install a giant-sized antenna that cost $200+

    no, you just need to buy the "$350" antenna with free installation.

  9. So awesome, so conflicting on Recreating the Matrix In Legos · · Score: 1

    Great work, but it would be nice if there were a non-evil product to make it with.

    400 hours though - the surface characteristics of Lego plastic seem ideal for 3D rendering. Great practice of patience, guys.

  10. Re:Translation into sensible units on LHC Reaches Over One Trillion Electron Volts · · Score: 1

    1 trillion electron volts = 1 TeV

    Or the average kinetic energy of a flying mosquito.

    European, I'd imagine.

  11. Re:Stink filled Paint balls on Air Cannon Ties Pirates In Knots · · Score: 1

    Butyric acid smells almost exactly like vomit, and the smell sticks :)

    And apparently very slippery at sea. I have to admit to feeling little sympathy towards whale hunters with high tech search&destroy gear complaining that they might slip and fall because of the protesters, though.

  12. Re:Browning M2 - Accept No Substitutes on Air Cannon Ties Pirates In Knots · · Score: 1

    How difficult would it be to equip ships with Browning M2 [wikipedia.org] .50 machine guns and man a watch for incoming pirate vessels.

    You have to get the shipping insurance companies to stop mandating an unarmed crew in their policies.

    They care about the odds of the cargo being lost, not the welfare of the crew.

  13. Re:Pro-tip: Shoot them dead. on Air Cannon Ties Pirates In Knots · · Score: 1

    Fouling their prop doesn't require quite such a high standard of proof, and gets the job done, at least till they get their hands on some jet boats.

    The ransoms they're collecting are in the multi-million dollar range. Jet boat seems like a wise investment.

  14. Re:Nexenta on OpenSolaris Or FreeBSD? · · Score: 1

    It is buggy as hell.

    perhaps you could expand - I haven't hit any.

  15. Re:Adjusting for Inflation on Modeling the Economy As a Physics Problem · · Score: 1

    so the cost of everyday items now can't really be measured against the cost of items in 1920. Some things that were necessities in 1920 aren't anymore, and some things that are necessities now weren't even invented.

    But is the contents of the basket really important, if the basket is truly representative of what you need to live?

    If your timeframe is suitably large, a fine men's suit costs one ounce of gold, and a belt for it costs one once of silver, since Roman times. Compare against a fiat currency to get a rough measure of the effect of inflationary policy.

  16. Re:First Rev of New Architecture on Microsoft Advice Against Nehalem Xeons Snuffed Out · · Score: 1

    What benchmarks were you looking at? The Xeon 5500 CPUs are fast as hell. They no longer need slow FB-DIMMs. They use much less power and yet deliver more Performance.

    I don't have a handy link to give you, but the focus was on the cache, IIRC. They performed slower than the previous Xeons for certain workloads. The focus was work/cycle - agreed they're much better in work/Watt.

  17. Re:YOU ARE ALL WRONG. on New Theory of Gravity Decouples Space & Time · · Score: 1

    no, just sci.astro in the 90s.

    if only there had been real-world killfiles. :)

  18. Re:Hope/Change? on Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned · · Score: 1

    Probably. It would be good if we could do it. It would be REALLY good to repeal the 16th amendment, but that idea doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell.

    If you get the 17th you might stand a chance at the 16th. The States are well aware that the Federal income tax takes away a significant amount of their power.

  19. Re:Protip: Avoid banks at all cost! on EU About To Grant US Unlimited Access To Banking Data · · Score: 1

    You watched Zeitgeist, I take it? :)

    heh, I think the Zeitgeist people half understood The Money Masters and thought, "oh, wow, we should make a movie about this, but punch it up a notch." It was hard to watch.

  20. Re:Actually this is about *policy*, not science on Engaging With Climate Skeptics · · Score: 1

    Since the earth doesn't do crazy drastic things like that, in the span of 150 years, and we know that starting in around 1832 we've been releasing crazy amounts of previously-sequestered CO2 into the air, it follows that it's our fault.

    The major human releases didn't start until the start of the Industrial Revolution, some 30 years later.

    The seabed data I've seen says 1835, but 1832 is just as good a number. Let's assume that the releases started then and the Earth immediately responded with warmer temperatures, which seems unlikely - then we should have seen very significant warming this past decade with China and India really coming online.

    There's a lack of correlation and the current model's mechanism appears to be too sensitive in some instances and not sensitive enough in others, which suggests that the model isn't correct.

  21. Re:A question on Engaging With Climate Skeptics · · Score: 1

    Depends, what kind of scientist are you? are you a climatologist? the please present an alternative hypothesis, and propose a way to test it.

    Supposedly Lindzen is about to publish a paper that shows something opposite of the greenhouse effect on Earth based on a multi-year study from one of the recent NASA satellites.

  22. Re:You poor bastard on Home Router For High-Speed Connection? · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can only hope that you overcome the terrible burden of a 100 Mpbs internet connection thrust upon you and your residence, and somehow, god-willing, find a reason to keep on living

    Yeah, especially since he's going to hit his monthly cap in less than five minutes and get his account cancelled.

  23. Nexenta on OpenSolaris Or FreeBSD? · · Score: 1

    You probably want Nexenta. Only slightly behind OpenSolaris in terms of the Solaris kernel. Ubuntu userland, ZFS/GRUB-integrated apt.

  24. First Rev of New Architecture on Microsoft Advice Against Nehalem Xeons Snuffed Out · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Many of the benchmarking sites have also posted some poor results - I was thinking this might be a generation to skip, but now I wonder if a flaw has been discovered that could be fixed with a microcode upload. Might help the benchmarks too if it was a hidden variable.

  25. Re:Hope/Change? on Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned · · Score: 1

    The only solution is to raise up a contervailing power. The way our nation was designed, the counterweight to federal authority was state authority, but we've gutted that.

    The movement to repeal the 17th Amendment is gaining some steam. Though it's probably too late.