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User: labnet

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  1. Re:Mostly pointless on Raspberry Pi Compute Module Release · · Score: 2

    You are one the money. Our company has done exactly this. An imx.287 with ram, rom, eth. Laid out on sodimm module. I did the layout and it took me 8 layers and plated in hole vias to do it. The hardest part of these designs is the impedance and length matching between cpu and dram.
    The advantage of this design is being able to fit it too a 2 layer board, and upgrade cpu without having to change the baseboard.

  2. Re:Is it not obvious? They have dirt on him! on Why No Executive Order To Stop NSA Metadata Collection? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've read his autobiography. He is a political nobody, with no family of note, who was an average community organiser in Chicago, who happens to have brilliant oratory skills. That means he is bankrolled by someone very powerful, and thus will do what he is told.

  3. Re:Because you think Google is any better? on Why No One Trusts Facebook To Power the Future · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Which is why we need a pure peer to peer social messaging system. Call it torrents for facebook. There is no reason for centralisation of social data. Features like
    - meta data and messaging data is spread around different peers as encrypted chunks so it can be rebuit on any new device you sign up to.
    - grouping like google circles.
    - expiry option on messages and images.

    Perhaps there is already someone doing this?

  4. Will be POE like on USB Reversable Cable Images Emerge · · Score: 1

    It will most likely be similar to POE.
    After negotiation (at 5v), a higher voltage up to 48v is supplied, or at least a voltage that allows the device to remain within SELV (Safety Extra Low Voltage) standards. At 48v, you are looking at around 2Amps, which is what existing USB cables can do.

    One other point. Although micro USB is rated for lots of insertions, the overmould is too big and allows too much leverage on the socket which is breakeing sockets (way worse than breaing the cables plug).
    Apple got this right with the thunderbolt connector in that the strain relief is very small so it is more difficult to transfer force to the device socket.

  5. Industrial Equipment on Ask Slashdot: Preparing For Windows XP EOL? · · Score: 1

    We have Surface Mount Asembly Equipment that runs Windows NT4 and Windows 2000.
    Suprisingly, it all still networks OK. (But of course on its own isolated subnet)

    There is ZERO chance any of this industrial equimpent will ever have an OS update.

  6. Re:But there's nothing wrong with Bitcoin! on Cryptocurrency Exchange Vircurex To Freeze Customer Accounts · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's the people, goddammit!

    No, It's because Bitcoin is stupid.
    It can't expand and shrink to fit economic use.
    Money is convenient form barter and needs to represent the productive capital of its users and to remain stable for a given capital. (Eg an apple is worth 1 dollar from year to year, not 1 dollar today, then 10 dollars next week)
    As more people use it, scarcity increases its value, making early adopters insanely rich. The crypto bit of bit coin may be sound, but it's economic utility is not.

  7. I'm a twitter Luddite. on Twitter Turns 8; May Drop Hashtags and @replies · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I still don't get twitter.
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/...
    Now get off my lawn.

  8. Re:STOP FUCKING CHANGING THINGS WHERE IT'S NOT NEE on Firefox 29 Beta Arrives With UI Overhaul And CSS3 Variables · · Score: 1

    Yes this. Even GMAIL sucks more every year.
    Best ms office. 2003.
    Best gmail. 2 years ago.
    Best windows. 7
    Best firefox. Around 10.

    Note all the underlying systems are get betting, its just the ui's sucking more.

  9. Re:Most Transparent Ever! on Obama Administration Transparency Getting Worse · · Score: 1

    “This is the most transparent administration in history,” -- Barack Obama, February 2013

    "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." -- Napoleon, Animal Farm, by George Orwell

    I read his autobiography. He is a nobody who came from Chicago, thus sombody owns hiss ass; I'm just not sure who.

  10. Re:I must be tired... on EU Votes For Universal Phone Charger · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, they already have dangerous 230V when 120V works just fine... Stupid Euros...

    Except 120v requires twice as much copper, and higher currents, causing more fires. You also have the worst mains power connector in the developed world and measure your cable in feet. Stupid yanks.

  11. Re:Ringing in my Ears on It's True: Some People Just Don't Like Music · · Score: 4, Informative

    Which is called tinnitus.
    If you put anyone in a sound proof room for long enough, they will eventually hear noises.
    The most common form of tinnitus is a high pitch ringing and the most common source is now believed to be in neural cortex (related to memory and overactive neurone feedback) rather than the ear, although the original source is often a defect in ear mechanism, such as a loss at a certain frequency where the brain is attempting to compensate.
    In my case, it is 24x7 for the last 15 years. I can hold a hair dryer up to my head and still hear it.
    The only medically accepted treatments are habituation(TRT)/masking which is teaching your brain to break the fight/flight response.
    There are other techniques that have variable results, such as xanax, hypnosis, vegas nerve stimulation, notched music, and playing tones either side of the tinnitus frequency.
    I heard a quote recently that if you could hear pain, that would be the sound of tinnitus.

  12. Re:Regulation of currency on MtGox Sets Up Call Center For Worried Bitcoiners · · Score: 1

    Bit coin is stupid because it can't expand and shrink to fit economic use.
    Money is convenient form barter and needs to represent the productive capital of its users and to remain stable for a given capital. (Eg an apple is worth 1dollar from year to year, 1 dollar today, then 10 dollars next week)
    As more people use it, scarcity increases its value, making early adopters insanely rich. See the con.

  13. Re:Mt.Gox has a long history of problems, Bitcoin on Mt. Gox Gone? Apparent Theft Shakes Bitcoin World · · Score: 1

    Finally, someone who gets it.
    Bit coin is stupid.
    Money supply needs to grow and contract depending on the number of users and the value they create.
    Fixing the number bit coins made it a type of ponzi, where thee early adopters were bound to make a squillion as the supply side tightened. I have no symapthy for investors.

  14. Re:What can be done? on How Mobile Apps Are Reinventing the Worst of the Software Industry · · Score: 4, Insightful

    98% of the functionality of these apps could have been done in a web page in '98.

    Exactly this. I'm so sick of going to some special interest forum, only having the page hijacked by, would you like to install our app. Wtf. Apps are becoming like web urls, but not as convenient.

  15. Re:Force them to warrenty whole unit.. on Customer: Dell Denies Speaker Repair Under Warranty, Blames VLC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well you are getting warmer.(Well warmer than any of the other posts I've read yet)

    There are only two ways to destroy a speaker.
    Overpowering (99%+ of cases), and Mechanical failure due to cone overextension.
    Speakers are rated in Watts (RMS) and appear like a resistor that varies a bit with frequency.
    If you take a 1W(RMS) speaker and match it to a 1W(RMS) amplifier, there is still a chance you can damage the speaker by overdriving it with a square wave which has 1.4 times the energy of a sine wave.
    Thus because VLC has 200% volume function, you could take a peaklimited song and clip it from a 'sine' to a 'square' wave and damage the speaker. Unlikely, but possible and good engineer would take this into account when designing the system.

  16. DICE & Timmy in the lair Ep2 on Why Robot Trucks Could Be Headed To Afghanistan (And Everywhere Else) · · Score: 1

    DICE: Pass me a cuban timmy.
    TIMOTHY: A Habanos or a Cubatabaco sir?
    DICE: Timmy my boy. You don't get to sit in the big chair without getting a fidel.
    TIMOTHY: A fidel sir?
    DICE: Yes, finest cuban a man could ever have. Rolled by Fidel Castro himself; In fact I'm suprised the man didn't hand deliver it.
    TIMOTHY: You sound kind of... powerful sir.
    DICE: Timy you have no idea of my power. I'm going squash all those /.ers 'till bitcoins start popping out their asses.
    TIMOTHY: How sir?
    DICE: Beta. Haven't you seen it Timy. It's brilliant. I've had the finest MBA's from Harvard & Princeton working day and night on this. I pulled a lot a favours to get this level of talent and I'll be **ucked if some geratric old world BBS has beens are stopping me. Timmy, it's the future. Web 2.0 is yesterdays news. Its a new paradigm. Young people can't think more than a 160 characters so why should beta. Big fonts Timmy.. and pictures. People don't like reading Timmy. The chineese had it right all along. Picture words. Its the future timmy. Ride my coat tails Son. Well be Rich.. Rich I say...

  17. DICE & Timothy in the lair on Major Internet Censorship Bill Passes In Turkey · · Score: 1

    First time accepted submitter maratumba

    DICE: timothy, this is exactly what we need, fresh meat, web 2.0, it's all the rage
    TIMOTHY: Thank you sir. btw, I hope you don't mind me saying, I love the new beta.
    DICE: Why thank you timothy. I hear the feedback has been voluminous. A loyal liutenant like you deserves a promotion, a big future I say.
    TIMOTHY: 'blush'
    DICE: In fact son, your management material, CEO even.
    TIMOTHY: 'evil grin'
    DICE: In fact, after all the abuse those asshole /. users have heaped on you, you should be CEO.
    TIMOTHY: 'bigger evil grin'
    DICE: **uk them. All those /.ers about to go to a retirement village anyway. I'm suprised if anyof them can read anything under a 16 point font. **uck I should have been putting an text to speech on beta but the &*kers are probabbly deaf too. Cut em off Timy. Beta is the new black. We'll be rich together. Rich I say......

  18. Re:Its a conspiracy I say on New Zealand Spy Agency Deleted Evidence About Its Illegal Spying On Kim Dotcom · · Score: 1

    :) Made my day AC

  19. Re:Beta feedback helps on QuakeNet: Government-Sponsored Attacks On IRC Networks · · Score: 2

    Soul skill. I've managed a company for 20 years. I have two jobs. Manage problems and add value. If a customer or employee comes with a problem, the first thing I do is acknowledge the problem (whether I agree or not) by restating the problem in my own words. This 1. Helps me understand the problem 2. Defuses the initial emotion from complainant. /. Management has always been opaque, but in this case lack of communication has caused the biggest protest I have ever seen here. Yet this is the first grain of acknowlegment from a stakeholder and in a forum post rather than a banner announcement.
    DICE needs to man up and have the empowered decision maker communicate directly by acknowledging the problem; being the beta site significantly reduces the community experience by using too much whitespace, reducing information density, and breaking below threshold comment summarisation; then detail a course of action. Even if management is bloody minded enough to continue with beta, at least have enough fortitude and character to tell the community. If you are having tough internal debates, make us a part of the debate so it can bring clarity to your conversation.
    Silence is the the worst way to deal with crisis.

  20. Its a conspiracy I say on New Zealand Spy Agency Deleted Evidence About Its Illegal Spying On Kim Dotcom · · Score: 0

    Maybe microsoft secretly bought dice and pland to emrace, extend and extinguish /.
    Better to boil the frog and have the users disperse than shock them into making a competing site.

  21. Why Beta Sucks. on Designer Seeds Thought To Be Latest Target By Chinese · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Way too much vertical white space, which is more precious than dehydrated unicorn testciles thanks to 16:9 screens.
    2. A More Button. WTF! The bandwidth for text is cheap. Give me the whole converstaion.
    3. Coonversation context is lost because I can't see summarised comments nested under modded up comments.
    4. Thick borders. 1 pixel is enough.

  22. Re:There's no default title in a reply in slashdot on Fire Destroys Iron Mountain Data Warehouse, Argentina's Bank Records Lost · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My big issue with it is the crazy amounts of wasted whitespace. This is a trend in site layout that needs to die.

    Here Here. Slashdotters like data density. We extract lots of information very quickly. eg. Having a UID next to a user name infers how long they have been in the community.
    It is like pixel density in monitors which has gone backwards in the last 10 years, and now is only just starting to progress again with 4k displays. I want more data density, less white space.

  23. Re:Time for another letter on US Federal Judge Rules Suspicionless Border Searches of Laptops Constitutional · · Score: 1

    Hmmm, thats probably more an American cultural thing of not being able to read compound sentances.
    I have found when writing to americans ( I know, gross generalisation) that I need to bullet point my points, with the bullet point not exceeding 20 words.

  24. Re:Mistake on The Real Story of Hacking Together the Commodore C128 · · Score: 0

    Yeah, that's trivial to do on a modern computer too. A trivial loadable kernel module in linux could do so, for example.

    Simply loop through a sequence of poking two random numbers, and incrementing a number that you print.

    What?

    That is what it says, write a random value to a random memory location in a loop.

    Every time, the system will do different things.

    What ?

    Of course it will. Sometimes you random memory location will be the memory mapped to the screen and a character will show up. Sometimes you'll change a return address on the stack and run some random code.

    If you did this on a modern computer, eventually it'd corrupt system files and the thing wouldn't boot.

    WHAT?

    That's true, eventually you'll write over some file data just before it is flushed to disk and trash a file required for booting. Or screw with memory the file system is using and mess that up on the next write (though given the use of checksums that's pretty unlikely). The key is eventually since you'll have to run it a *lot* of times before it does something like that before crashing itself.

    And of course not when running as a normal user process.

    And you have just descibed why Evolution can't work!

  25. Or maybe it's the vaccine on U.S. Measles Cases Triple In 2013 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Just last month, a friends kids class had 8 become infected with measles, but they were all vaccinated.