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User: dunng808

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  1. Re:Talking out of your ass. on Liberal Saudi Web Forum Founder Sentenced To 600 Lashes and 7 Years In Prison · · Score: 1

    So, you don't actually have anything to say.

  2. Re:Maybe this is how the rings formed on Saturn's Tidal Tugs Energize Enceladus' Icy Plumes · · Score: 1

    Sounds like an interesting place to visit. Those geysers shooting up sound kind of sexy. How long until Sandals opens a resort there?

  3. Re:Don't worry.... on Ubuntu Forum Security Breach · · Score: -1, Troll

    I recall when open-source software was deemed secure. Windows was the paper tiger. What happened?

  4. Re:seems the Mac premium is disappearing on 13-Inch Haswell-Powered MacBook Air With PCIe SSD Tested · · Score: 1

    Is there a way to connect an optical drive so that games that require them can be played? Sorry, don't know any specific titles, I ask on behalf of my two sons.

  5. Re:No updates in 6 years? on FLAC Gets First Update In 6 Years · · Score: 1

    I remember using mp3.com

  6. Re:Glad to see some real pushback on Google Asks Government For More Transparency, Other Groups Push Back Against NSA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    David Drummond got it just right. I do think wide scale monitoring should stop, but shedding some light on what really is happening is necessary to gain the voter's trust.

    Big Government is more than just government. These are people, with agendas, who will abuse their power to achieve their personal objectives, wrapped in a shroud of doing what's right for the country. Then there is political party affiliation, where too often people are loyal to the point of treading on their opponents rights. Big Government puts power in the hands of individual people, and that is where it is abused.

  7. Re:I'm part of that in-between age bracket on 400 Pinball Machines and Counting at the Texas Pinball Festival (Video) · · Score: 1

    I'm old enough to remember the walls of every beer and pizza join around Campaign-Urbana crammed with pinball machines and guys like me going for a free game after a pitcher of Old Milwaukee. The clatter of thumpers and bumpers, the constant bells. Bump bump ... Tilt! Just after grad school Atari released the home version of Pong. I bought one, might still be in my attic.

    Never heard anything about pinball games creating mass murderers. Juvenile delinquents hanging around pool halls, sure, but shooting people with guns?

  8. Re:with frickin' lasers! on Navy To Deploy Lasers On Ship In 2014 · · Score: 1

    What, no photon torpedoes?

  9. Re:Kids these days... on Direct-to-Vinyl Recording Makes a Comeback (Video) · · Score: 1

    You are on the right track. Back in the 70's Audio mag did some stories which proposed that the warmth of tube sound comes from how the amp reacts when over-driven. A transistor amp clips hard and produces odd numbered harmonics. A tube amp has a softer transition into clipping and produces even numbered harmonics. (Maybe not odd vs. even as much as which dominates.) Even numbered harmonics blend in better with original frequencies while odd numbered harmonics stand out from the original, so equal amounts do not produce an equal effect. A waveform enriched by second and fourth harmonics will sound richer and fatter, which a waveform enriched by third and fifth harmonics will sound rough and buzzy.

    Generally we are talking about clipping of transients.

    Analog tape also introduces clipping, and a well made pro deck (15ips half track stereo or better) will do so gently. Digital equipment clips extremely hard, so max level must never be exceeded. A digital recording can contain transients at much higher levels relative to the main waveform body, thus pushing the playback amps into clipping. And if these are transistors, the clipping sounds ugly.

    Why do IC op-amps sound worse that discrete transistor amps? Could be that to create the necessary resistors the IC designers use a bunch of transistors, which exacerbate the problem.

  10. Re:AppInventor on Ask Slashdot: Which Google Project Didn't Deserve To Die? · · Score: 1
  11. Re:6502 assembly ... on 30 Years of the Apple Lisa and the Apple IIe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My first computer was an Ohio Scientific. 6502, 4k RAM. I added 4K (maxed the MB) and purchased the assembler. Loved coding up assembly code, wrote my own terminal emulator, had to wire in the RS232 interface. Shunned the Apple ][ because OSI did lower case and had graphic gliphs in upper 128 bytes of character generator, great for writing games. Apple ][ only had solid colored blocks, but could do hi-res graphics (cough) if you could afford 48k RAM. My second computer was an IBM Portable Computer (sewing machine case luggable) used for work. Third computer was an Apple Proforma, last of the 68020 family. My kids loved that one. Several fruit colored iMacs, skipped the basket ball version, have a couple flat screen iMacs, MacBooks, you name it. But I prefer my Fujitsu running FreeBSD.

    I was working at a retail computer store when the Lisa came out. I recall sales falling through the floor with no new product, customers flocking to the new IBM PC (sold exclusively at IBM stores). Our store had to hire and train a Lisa specialist. He would spend an hour prepping for a demo, setting up a word processing window and a spreadsheet window to show how cool cut and paste was. He did not set that up in front of the client because of how long it took to load those two programs. I think he sold one.

    The //e was introduced with the slogan "Apple II forever!" I doubted it then but was impressed by the longevity of the e and the c. Pleasantly surprised that the Lisa and Mac survived adolescence. Many Apple retailers did not, as they lacked the cash reserves Apple had amassed.

  12. Re:The idea of Teleportation on Mathematical Breakthrough Sets Out Rules For More Effective Teleportation · · Score: 1

    The universe would not tolerate more than one of me.

    Now, turning to Bill Cosby, "What's a qubit?"

  13. Re:Then why didn't that happen with notebooks? on College CIO Predicts Tablets Will Kill Smart Boards · · Score: 1

    Jumping in here although there are many places in this thread where I would like to comment.

    Some points made by others I agree with: 1) Laptops were too expensive, big, and heavy, 2) battery life was not good enough, compounded by OS designers resource-hungry designs, 3) teachers set in their ways, 4) lack of software compatibility, 5) inadequate WiFi coverage and bandwidth.

    Over ten years ago I started the Open Slate Project to develop an educational solution similar to what Mr. Fowlkes describes, and I certainly agree with the article's headline. In my concept, an app called Super Chalk Board functions in a client-server manner to transmit data, including live, even hand drawn, input from any slate to any slate or group within the classroom. The display is in layers (think GIMP or Photoshop) with the top layer being notes made by the slate user (student). The slate would have enough storage to hold a reasonable amount of material locally, so that review, study, even homework assignments can be done without a network connection. Sessions would be recorded so that a student who missed class could download the session from home or when they return.

    While searching for a way to implement Super Chalk Board I came across Squeak Smalltalk and am convinced that it would made the ideal foundation for Open Slate's software, which I dubbed Chalk Dust. I have used a book morph to create a sample of a first generation Chalk Dust application. Still not networked, but even so rich in potential. Much has been done by the Etoys team to bring Squeak to young children.

    The Open Slate Project has been languishing lately but the rise in inexpensive hardware has inspired me to restart it. Anyone interested can look over the somewhat outdated site and sign up for our (low volume) mailing list. Always looking for contributors, or help of any kind for that matter.

  14. Why not? on Ask Slashdot: Geekiest Way To Cook a Turkey? · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hang it above my EICO HF-87 vacuum tube amp and play the LA Phil recording of the music from Star Wars *real loud* Trick will be to catch the drippings so that they don't gum up the EL-34 / 6CA7 tubes. Good thing my AR turntable and HF-85 preamp are well away from the power amp. The result is the clearest sounding turkey possible.

  15. Re:so Plato was right, then on Why Dissonant Music Sounds 'Wrong' · · Score: 4, Informative

    typo, sorry, that is Harry Partch

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Partch

  16. Re:so Plato was right, then on Why Dissonant Music Sounds 'Wrong' · · Score: 4, Informative

    Pythagoras. I first learned this lesson from a book by Harry Parth, but this works:

    http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geometry/unit3/unit3.html

  17. Re:All your packets are belong to... on Why Google Went Offline Today · · Score: 1

    Truthy

  18. Re:oh god on Ask Slashdot: Finding Legacy UnixWare Installation Media? · · Score: 1

    How long has it been since that meme appeared here? Nice flash-back, nice end to the week. Thanks!

  19. Re:Basement Are Better for Isolation on Thousands of Lab Mice Lost In Sandy Flooding · · Score: 1

    Cue up "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and we will all join in on the refrain.

  20. Re:Business as usual with republicain on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 1

    Easy solution:

    mv "Library of Congress" "Library of Republican Congress"

  21. Not so bad on HTC Losing Ground Faster Than RIM or Nokia · · Score: 1

    I love my HTC One. For many years now, when my cell phone battery goes bad I cannot find one from qualified sources, and the made-in-China crap available on eBay doesn't last a month. Besides, the phone tech is soo outdated I want a new phone, and my provider's plan "forces" the upgrade to be almost free. As in beer, anyway. The One has more memory than I'll ever use, and I have it automatically uploading to Google and DropBox so if I have to delete photos I already have them saved in multiple places.

    One reason I chose HTC was their support for professional cycling. So I was a bit pissed when they dropped the team. Now that the sport is eating its tail (I refer to the Lance Armstrong debacle) it will be even harder to get major corporations to sponsor teams. Most recent example: Rabobank, not only a team sponsor but a major sponsor of the Tour of California. Their guy won this year, and now the team is gone. Sad.

  22. Re:I hope on Nissan Develops Emergency Auto-Steering System · · Score: 1

    Examples ...

  23. Re:THERE GOES CABLE! on FCC To Allow Cable Companies To Encrypt Over-the-Air Channels · · Score: 1

    That describes my two sons, both in their twenties. Also, I find it ironic to pay for ad supported OTA content when so often the ads are for my cable company. All I really need to be happy are HBO and TCM. Well, no, Comedy Channel for Daily Show and Colbert Report.

  24. Re:Thanks on Thanks For Reading: 15 Years of News For Nerds · · Score: 1

    I still prefer FreeBSD, in spite of the constant death notices.

  25. Better than SMS? Or will it suffer from the same gender/age bias?