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User: JWSmythe

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  1. Re:I smell a rat on IBM Patenting Airport Profiling Technology · · Score: 1

        No offense intended to the Stallman, but if he stinks, I don't want to sit beside him. I guess some people have a fetish for things unwashed, but I'm not one of them.

  2. Re:I smell a rat on IBM Patenting Airport Profiling Technology · · Score: 1

        Maybe they'll put the olfactory sensors to good use, and make sure folks have at least showered before they fly. There's nothing like sitting beside someone who hasn't showered in a week, for an 8 hour flight. Ick.

       

  3. Re:What is the bandwith to iceland anyways? on Iceland's Data Center Push Finally Gets Traction · · Score: 2, Interesting

        I actually feel real bad for them. Have you ever monitored large amounts of traffic? The majority is so boring, you wouldn't even want to see it. :) Oh look, someone just updated their MySpace profile. "Lolz, I my kitty jest jumped off me bed! Dat wuz da bomb." [warning: keyword "bomb"] {sigh}

  4. Re:Hilarious editors on Iceland's Data Center Push Finally Gets Traction · · Score: 1

        That depends on your definition of a "long time" I guess. It'd probably be measured in milliseconds. :)

        For some reason, it makes me remember the old McDonald's Big Mac ad, keeping the hot side hot, and the cold side cold. :)

  5. Re:Hilarious editors on Iceland's Data Center Push Finally Gets Traction · · Score: 1

        As far as earthquakes go, consider how many folks host at or near One Wilshire (Los Angeles) or the Silicon Valley.

        Volcano's are another concern though. You can build a good building that can be shaken pretty hard, but I don't think there's a building yet that can really handle direct contact with a lava flow.

  6. Re:What is the bandwith to iceland anyways? on Iceland's Data Center Push Finally Gets Traction · · Score: 3, Interesting

        From what I understand, it's really pretty good. A lot of the transatlantic bandwidth goes up and over, rather than straight across underwater. It helps to have repeaters occasionally, and it's nice if you can service them with a quick drive, rather than a submarine dive. :) It's suppose to make for a very nice place to have service, with fast pipes pointing towards the Northeast US and Western Europe.

        In an ideal world, if you had to locate for customers in both the US and Europe, it would be a great place. I know routing doesn't always cooperate as well as you'd like though.

        Way back when, I had servers in New York, and in Germany (among other places). Many European customers complained about the speeds to the German datacenter. Some of those were even in the same city in Germany as our equipment. The ones that sent me traceroutes showed that they were being routed from Germany to New York, and then back to Germany. Needless to say, the latency on that was a nightmare. In the end, we moved all of our European traffic to New York, and we started getting thank you notes from all over Europe. We didn't announce what we did, but they could tell the difference in speed. Most of the customers assumed that we simply changed the operation in Europe. They were completely unaware that they were being served out of New York. Well, except the few who knew enough to run a traceroute. :)

        So, the Iceland datacenters may be a wonderful thing, or they may be a project that dies in it's infancy.

        I know a lot of folks like having their servers within reach. That is, somewhere they can drive to from their home or office in a reasonable amount of time. I've seen with customers all over. Just because they live in god forsaken (and bandwidth limited) nowhere, they'll still host locally.

  7. Re:Jumped the shark on The Weird Science of Tossing Stones Into a Lake · · Score: 1

    Ummmm, it jumped the shark a few years ago. We just hang out here out of morbid curiosity. Kinda like watching the last few years of the Cosby show. Oh wait, that one bit it on the pilot. We only watched for one reason (warning, video acid trip).

  8. Re:Who cares? on Microsoft Says Upgrade To IE8, Even Though It's Vulnerable · · Score: 0

        The same works for anywhere with the file explorer, among other places. The claim was that they did it to simplify. The reality was that it was so integrated into the OS, that it couldn't be completely separated.

        I'm not on a MS machine right now, so I can't give any other examples. :) I'm pretty sure you can click start->run (or whatever variation for that version of Win), and put in a URL, and it'll fire up MSIE.

  9. Re:Faulty Products. A comparison. on Microsoft Says Upgrade To IE8, Even Though It's Vulnerable · · Score: 1

        I did some reading up on this. I don't use Firestone tires, nor do I drive a Ford, so I didn't follow it too carefully. Last I heard, there was talk of a defect in the Ford assembly line that compromised the tires at the factory. That talk seems to have gone away though.

        What I did find is, after rollover problems were found in their pre-sales testing, they reduced the recommended tire pressure from 30psi to 26psi. I guess it was a problem where the tires were too hard, so they softened them up a little to keep the truck from rolling over, possibly because of the high CG. This minor reduction in pressure wouldn't lower the CG much (like 0.0090") The rated max tire pressure was 35psi, which would cause problems if driven at highway speeds for a long duration. Depending on the tire, 30psi cold could easily become 35psi on a long trip. 26psi wouldn't be enough to make the tire overheat.

        Car & Driver magazine did a test in the Explorers, inducing a blowout. With professional drivers on a closed course, the blowouts did not cause a rollover. It was likely a combination of a mechanical failure (blown tire) and poor emergency driving skills.

  10. Re:Year of the linux desktop on Next Linux Kernel Due Early March · · Score: 2, Informative

        Nope, just 2.6.33. Even less exciting is that 2.6.33-rc4 was available 5 days ago.

        This isn't news, but what should we expect of a late night update, eh?

  11. Re:"Not for ________ use" on Wii Balance Board Gives $18,000 Medical Device a Run For Its Money · · Score: 1

        Now that, I do remember. There were web sites that were specializing in showing those pictures. It wasn't just swimsuits, but quite many different thin cloths worked.

        As I recall, they weren't released to market as such, but they were a pretty easy hardware hack. After it became a problem, I do recall that they made it a harder hack, but it is still perfectly possible. Just google "xray cam". I know, it's not xray, but that's what folks started calling it.

  12. Re:There are three types of lies. on How To Misuse Statistics · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, no, 100% of the sample group were surprised by TFA.

        Of course, "TFA" is the street name of our carefully selected poll taker. He's 6'5", a serious body builder, and covered in tattoos. He waited in a dark alley, and would jump out and ask the simple question "Are you surprised motherf***er?"

        Another thing we noted in the study was that conducting such a study can be very profitable. 60% of the people dropped their wallet or purse. The other 40% groveled before dropping their belongings.

        Next time, we're aiming for a larger sample group.

  13. Re:"Not for ________ use" on Wii Balance Board Gives $18,000 Medical Device a Run For Its Money · · Score: 4, Interesting

        There are different levels of IR.

        The IR that most people are familiar with is just below the visible spectrum, which lets stuff like the Sony camera shoot in the dark, with an IR emitter. Basically, a light that it can see by.

        Thermal imaging IR is "long IR", which shows heat. Anyone above 0 degrees kelvin puts off light at very low frequencies that we can't see. And no, there's no such animal as a $500 thermal imaging camera. You're looking at a starting price of about $3K. If Sony, or anyone else, were to produce a camera that retails at $500, they'd definitely do it. It's not a privacy concern that keeps the price high, it's the simple fact that the components are still very expensive.

        Seeing through walls is pure scifi. You'd see the temperature of the wall. You may (just may) see something through a wall, if it's hot or cold enough to change the temperature of the wall. Like, you could see the general shape of a fire through a wall, because it's heating the wall. In scifi it works through "suspension of reality". You believe what you're shown, because it's necessary to the plot. Some people don't understand an impossible technology used in a movie, so they assume that it's real.

        You'd be able to see through a glass window though, assuming nothing pesky like blinds are in the way. So, a couple having sex in a dark room, seen through an open window, is perfectly possible. Either IR would work, but that isn't quite what was suggested.

  14. Re:"The case will continue...." on Tower Switch-Off Embarrasses Electrosensitives · · Score: 1

        I blame my hearing on old age, gunfire, and way too much time working in datacenters. :)

        Then again, I hear a lot of things that people miss. I think it's more of a matter of environmental awareness than hearing acuity though. Just like I spot things that people with perfect vision don't necessarily see, even though mine isn't perfect and I am in serious need of new glasses.

        I do know that I could hear high pitches better than a lot of people when I was young. When I was about 19 I took a hearing test, which showed that I could hear high pitches above normal and low pitches at an average level. It explained why I always tuned stereos for a little extra bass. Now when I tune them, people say it's fine.

  15. Re:do... on CMU Web-Scraping Learns English, One Word At a Time · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think I see the problem with their code.

    while (1){
        read_the_web();
      };
     
      explain_everything();

    All they've done is reproduce the typical office worker. It just sits around and surfs the net all day, without coming back with an answer.

  16. 42? on CMU Web-Scraping Learns English, One Word At a Time · · Score: 1

        How come every time I ask Nell what the answer is to life, all it responds with is "42". When I ask what 42 means, it tells me that I'll need a bigger computer.

  17. Re:"The case will continue...." on Tower Switch-Off Embarrasses Electrosensitives · · Score: 0

    You know, this is a valid point.

        They jumped to the conclusion that it was EM radiation that was causing their symptoms. That was a mistake. They should look at other things. There are an awful lot of other things to look for too.

        I'll just hit a few what if's, but there are a lot of possibilities that should be investigated properly.

        What if the metal used in the tower construction was recycled and has a significant amount of radioactive materials present? This has come up in the news recently.

        What if, when they dug for the base of the tower, they opened up a pocket of toxic gas, which has been leaking since the construction began?

        What if, since the construction crews first came to the site, the local grocery store changed to a new vendor for a common product (like milk, meat, etc) and that source is tainted.

        All that they have really established is that the problem has started since the tower was constructed. That gives a time when the symptoms started. They haven't conclusively shown the actual cause.

        I had a quick look, and that is a suburb of a metro area. It could be an industrial cause, completely unrelated to the tower.

        I love the "I'm allergic to EM" folks. 99.9% nutjobs. :) I know I was "EM sensitive". Ok, not like the nutjobs say, but I'll continue. When I was a kid, I could hear the capacitors in old CRT's. A room full of monitors would give me a headache. As I got older, my hearing has decreased in the high pitch ranges. That, and monitors have gotten a lot better. :) When someone replaced their old noisy monitor with a newer one, I could tell before I walked into the room. :)

      That is perfectly normal. If you've heard about the cricket ringtone, you know what I'm talking about. Kids can hear the high pitched chirping. Adults generally can't.

  18. Re:Are you serious, or just killing time? on Powerful Linux ISP Router Distribution? · · Score: 1

        Yes! Thank you. :) I had just woken up when I wrote that, and couldn't think of the term.

  19. Re:Are you serious, or just killing time? on Powerful Linux ISP Router Distribution? · · Score: 1

        I don't deny that they exist, but your sample group was insufficient to determine if all cheap switches are really switches.

        Damn, I can't think of the name of the graph. It's too early in the morning. But think of the overlapping circle chart. Some Slashdot users are men. Some Slashdot users use Linux. Therefore all men use Linux. :)

  20. Re:Are you serious, or just killing time? on Powerful Linux ISP Router Distribution? · · Score: 1

        Now you kids hush up, and get off my lawn! :)

  21. Re:Are you serious, or just killing time? on Powerful Linux ISP Router Distribution? · · Score: 3, Interesting

        I don't believe in overselling customers. I believe customers appreciate the fact that I'm looking to milk them for extra money. Really, I can score one big scale, or I can build a relationship and continue with them as needed. I've had customers not call for years because they didn't need anything, but the minute they do, I'm there for them.

        Growth is a funny thing. A lot of places I've seen have had 4 desks with the intention of growing, and years later they still have exactly 4 desks. One place had a dozen or so servers with high hopes for the future. Those high hopes were a serious understatement. Their partial T3 became multiple GigE circuits, and their dozen server became over 100. Even the first big growth spurt overgrew the agreed upon server naming convention and it had to be changed after two years.

        One place I worked at, which was growing rapidly, they were set up with a bunch of hubs (I'll explain the hubs thing in a moment), and terrible links between the suites (multiple suites in a complex). It was terrible. Literally, it was normal to have >100ms pings between suites on a good day. I got 6 Cisco Catalyst 2924XL-EN's with 4 port 100baseFX cards, deployed one switch per suite, and ran fiber between all the suites. Total expense was about $600. Then the economy took a dump. They started downsizing, and I believe they were down to something like 5 desks and 3 servers (don't ask).

        Ok, now the hubs thing. I say "hubs" for any low end consumer grade unmanaged "switch". For some manufacturers, it was a marketing ploy to say "switch", which just meant "auto speed switching", where it would handle 10baseT/100baseT/100baseTX, but was still a hub (you could see all traffic on all ports). Some really are switches, but usually not at the level of a real managed switch. If you can get 5 ports for $20, it's a hub. :) I have seen some recently that act like a hub, which is really sad. Well, not just act. They'll even have a single collision light on the front. Oh, there's a big hint. :)

  22. Re:Are you serious, or just killing time? on Powerful Linux ISP Router Distribution? · · Score: 1

        Cisco (and others) make ungodly money because they are perceived as the "best". I won't argue that too much though.

        For low end stuff, there are cheaper options. Do you need a Cisco Catalyst to handle 3 desks on a fairly slow DSL line, who aren't doing outrageous sharing between each other? No. Do you have 100 desks, then sure. Could you do the 3 desk operation with a Linux machine and 4 network cards? Sure. In this example, it's cheaper to pick up a cheap hub, than to take even a salvage machine and put 4 network cards in it.

        What I've seen is bandwidth constraints on the bus. What can pass more traffic, purpose built high end networking hardware, or a PC based machine? If he's only passing 80Mb/s through to his upstream, then hey, go with Linux. If he's passing 800Mb/s, then he needs serious equipment and shouldn't even consider going with a PC based Linux machine.

        I've done some really neat stuff in Linux that I couldn't do anywhere near as easily on Cisco equipment. But, it depends on the purpose. I really do love Cisco gear. :)

        I do have to wonder about his infrastructure though. If he's setting up a WISP, does he have little Linux boxes strapped to towers?

        I will agree with you, just about any Linux distro may do what he wants, and there are only the rare exceptions where things won't just work across distros. Without knowing more about the business, there's no way to guess at what his business requirements are.

  23. Re:use noscript! on Tynt Insight Is Watching You Cut and Paste · · Score: 0, Troll

        I never claimed I was editing for the front page, and they aren't paying me for it.

        But' If' It' Would' Make' You' Happy' Gramma' Nazzi', Here's Some' Apostrophes' For' You'.

        I know. I know. Don't feel the trolls.

  24. Re:use noscript! on Tynt Insight Is Watching You Cut and Paste · · Score: 0, Troll

        It's gone downhill since they outsourced the editor responsibilities to the cheapest bidder in India. This is what we get for 2 Indian Rupee's a week. I'm fairly pleased most of the words even show up. :)

        The way the US economy is going, I may as well start heading that way. Anyone know a cheap way to get to India from the US? 2 Rupee's is more than the $0 a lot of us are making. Yea! Outsourcing!

       

  25. Re:Get rid of unnecessary one and zero keys on Does Your PC Really Need a SysRq Button Anymore? · · Score: 1

        I learned to type on a mechanical typewriter. I thought it was a Singer, but I haven't been able to find the picture of it that I recognize. There's an interesting list here. It has been about 25 years since I've last seen the one I used, but I do vaguely remember the 1/l thing. Ahhh, the good ol' days of do it right the first time, or you'll be retyping the whole page. :)

        Ya, things got pretty complex with those machines. For the one I used, each key was mechanically linked to an arm with the striker of the letter on it. Some others used other methods (see the above link). With omissions of the 1,0 and others, it was still packed with mechanical linkages, and it would have added unnecessary cost to a rather expensive device. I do remember, if you typed too fast, and weren't precise with your movements, the arms would bind on each other. Unfortunately, since I learned on that, I typed hard, and killed off quite a few computer keyboards. :) They'd survive about 3 months. I tried to type gently, but when I started writing fast, I'd type harder. People still notice I do that when I'm typing really fast, but it's not anywhere near as hard as was required for the mechanical typewriter. :)