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User: magwm

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  1. Re:Doesn't make any mention of.. on Backblaze Dishes On Drive Reliability In their 50k+ Disk Data Center · · Score: 1

    ext4

  2. it is NOT a sin to be homosexual on OKCupid Warns Off Mozilla Firefox Users Over Gay Rights · · Score: 2

    This is very insightful, but let me correct.. it is NOT a sin to BE homosexual at all.. it is a sin to engage in homosexual acts - whether one is homosexual or not.

    This is a very important issue, especially for the many gay people who believe and are Christian. and there are many.

  3. democratic decisions can not be unpopular on Scientists Say People Aren't Smart Enough For Democracy To Flourish · · Score: 2

    I've been thinking lately about this, as I live in a country where somewhat less thank intellingent beings have been making 'policy' fore some time (Italy)

    How can it be that politicians who need/want to be re-voted again next term can make decisions that are _not_ popular for a population?

    Politicians will always have to choose options that are as pleasurable as possible for many (so as to be voted again), but this is hardly ever the best option, as mostly any form of government has to take (liberty/money) from all and redistribute/manage it for all.

    People, mostly anyone smart and less smart, when presented with different parties' programs will naturally choose the one that pleases them most.

    So, what we got is someone ho did away with some unpopular taxes (and was chosen as PM again) only to make financial things for the whole of the country much, much worse.

    argh.

  4. link calculations to something useful? on Mint It Yourself With a Browser-Based Bitcoin Miner · · Score: 1

    Would it not be possible to link these calculation speed to anything useful, let's see folding@home or the likes, or anything like good old seti@home? I would gladly make my server run a little hotter while doing something useful WHILE minting some bitcoin...

    my 2€ct..

  5. it works for me! on Boot Linux In Your Browser · · Score: 1

    works fine in my FF4 4.01, boots real quickly, compiles simple C..!! nice, sir! now a network stack would help much to get some code/extra sw into it.. pasting would not work.. regretfully.

  6. absolutely yes on Is Attending a CS Conference Worth the Time? · · Score: 1

    I second all those that said YES for networking reasons. If you want to continue working/researching in CS, you should absolutely get in contact with as many people as you can that share interests and physically interact with them in all sorts of ways. Internet is not the only way you know.
    As for job opportunities, same thing. it's one big job interview out there.. ;)
    Also, don't fill up all your available time when you'll be there, take time to get comfortable with the surroundings, and make some business/contact cards.

  7. Re:News to me on Wikileaks Publishes 500,000 9/11 Pager Messages · · Score: 1

    nope, here in europe (northern Italy) often text messages arrive hours late. And many events (concerts, demonstrations, feasts, you name it) interfere with sms delivery. It is true that it depends much on the carrier and if the message is being sent between two carriers. vodafone-tim is a bad pair.

    that said, I've never seen a pager, too...
    my 2€cts

  8. ok upgrading from fluxbuntu on Some Early Adopters Stung By Ubuntu's Karmic Koala · · Score: 1

    I have a HP compaq nx6110 laptop that was originally a fluxbuntu 8.04 install (y'know, thought it would be slow and all). upgraded to gnome-desktop which to my surprise worked beautifully. upgraded to 9.04 which worked quite perfectly. only had to install f-spot from svn as it was lacking some features. upgraded to karmic. no problem at all! cheers!

  9. Jack Vance on What Belongs In a High School Sci-Fi/Fantasy Lit Class? · · Score: 1

    I can't imagine I'm seeing so few refereces to Vance's worlds. Planet of Adventure is just fantastic, and most of his other stories are sublime exercises in the exploration of men's capabilities and particularities. the daemon princes are another fantastic creation. Yet the amount of _science_ fiction is always accurately measured agains the amount of social fiction.

    my 2cts

  10. Zoneminder on Is Cheap Video Surveillance Possible? · · Score: 1

    Zoneminder is excellent. I installed it on ubuntu with a cheapo bt878 video card and a regular outside camera. total cost ~50 euro not counting the pc which is an old athlon 1000.. processor use sits at 40% alltime

    you can define a zone inside the image area, and record only if motion is detected. it has a nice interface to view the camera remotely and the history of motion events.

    definitely not hi-res (NTSC), but with a good lens and e correct angle it just records what I need..

  11. silverlight on Microsoft Launches IT Superhero Comic · · Score: 1

    I _was_ going to give it a try. the first comic is boring. then oh my I had to install silverlight to see the rest of them? they must be desperate. xkcd here i come!

    M

  12. Re:IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS and a VIDEO on Pope Cancels Speech After Scientists Protest · · Score: 1

    Finally a comment from someone who has a real understanding of the situation. I have followed the situation closely, and there are a few points I would like to make:

    1 - the Pope HAD been invited! It is the rector of the university and the board who invited him, and it was in their right to do so. He apparently accepted and later decided not to come because of a relatively small group of students (ca. 200) promising to create riots during his speech.

    2 - the letter some 70 professors wrote (out of some 1000 associated professors..) was to protest against the Pope speaking during the OPENING of the academic year. at any other moment - one of the critic professors said on TV tonight - he would have been welcome.

    3 - from a catholic point of view, Ratzinger is doing and has been doing steady work to bring science and faith together. Of course he does that from a theological point of view. His writings are - I have read some and tried to read others - written in a clear but heavily academic style, and hard to follow if one does not have the patience to study and read the citations.

    4 - Actually, the dogmas on which theology builds are not that many (while researching I found that the principal dogmas are 10 .. http://www.fisicamente.net/index-1124.htm - Italian, sorry .. )
    while theology puts a number of dogmas as foundations, the whole rest of it is constructed by reason and not by revealed truth. the scientific method is applied as much as in 'traditional' science.

    my 2cts (urocents)

  13. Re:sharing Wi-fi? on Research Projects You Should Know About · · Score: 1

    share and enjoy!

    Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Marketing Division

    It is not entirely clear why the SCC has not yet collapsed, since nothing they produce ever works properly or performs to expectations. When a person asks for a drink from the Nutrimatic Drink Dispenser, the dispenser probes the customer's taste sensors and pleasure receptors of the brain. Despite its sophisticated artificial intelligence, it always dispenses the same drink: a concoction that tastes "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea".

  14. just make sure you get the right ones on Work Begins on Arctic Seed Vault · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hope for them that the seeds stored are not like those nice monsanto F1 hybrids that freak out (become sterile) after one generation.. wouldn't do mucht to restore much on a global scale..

    Actually, it would be wiser to hibernate some of the more 'weedlike' or 'wild' crops, those that are not yet GM'ed to the final product, so that a fast start can be made to produce lots of initial raw material. (the 'wilder' the plant, the faster it multiplies, mostly.. and the offspring can be crossed with many a cultivated type of crop)

    Then, i have some very interesting seed of my own here, not exactly plantlike but it does conserve well frozen.. just in case there happens to be a male-only extinction...

  15. Re:May I be the first to say... on Google's Secretive Data Center · · Score: 1


    Microsoft is irrelevant
    Yahoo is irrelevant
    Net Neutrality is irrelevant

    we are Google, you will now surrender unconditionally and service ... us.

  16. Where is that 'do not listen' button on Google Researchers Create TV Audio Analysis System · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'd hate google desktop (or any other google utilitty) spying on my mic to discover my musical preft or anyting else. no tv in my home, but what about the speed at which i type or the general noise in my home or how often my phone goes off or how hard or long my baby cries.. do not listen on my mic, please: 'click' . imagine how many things can be recorded and easily recognized in a home. and many a pc/laptop/headset has a builtin mic, useful to skype, which can thus be used. horror.

  17. Re:FC2 to DapperDrake migration anyone on New Enterprise-Level Ubuntu Due This Week · · Score: 1

    yeah. now how would that take into account my website at /var/www/html/* and the php settings and the webmin settings etc etc.

    no thanks what is an enterprise ready system if it doesnt import the old system?

    grrr. bytheway my box is at www.gadis.it .

  18. Re:FC2 to DapperDrake migration anyone on New Enterprise-Level Ubuntu Due This Week · · Score: 1

    that sucks bigtime.. even if I use webmin to administer the system?

  19. FC2 to DapperDrake migration anyone on New Enterprise-Level Ubuntu Due This Week · · Score: 1

    is there a painless migration utility or method to migrate our obsolete FC2 server s to this fine new release??

  20. genesis on Data Suggests Early Universe was Superfluid · · Score: 1
    this shreds new light on the first verses of the bible!! because it says (Genesis 1, 2-3):

    .. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

    so, must we interpret literally after all? first the waters (fluid) and then the light (big bang)!

    personally, i just think like Zaphod Beeblebrox that it's all a Gib Gnab..

  21. using sound instead on Anti-Spam Webforms Leave Out The Blind · · Score: 1

    Actually there are some sites (www.marktplaats.nl) that while asking to recognize numers visually, offers a link to a sound file, which blind users can click on and recognize the numbers in a sound file instead. pretty easily done, and it runs with perl too.. methinks

    ciao
    M

  22. fantastic on National Do Not Call List Opens for Registrations · · Score: 1

    when is this going to be applied in euroland?

  23. Re:waiting to buy? on Extra Scenes in TTT Extended Edition DVD · · Score: 1

    indeed. it's Silmarillion..

  24. Missing feature on Future Army Battle Uniforms - Wired, Lethal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why is there no SEP(Somebody Elses Problem)-field included in this nice suit?

    ouch - this is really bad for the eyes.. Zaphod

  25. Via C3 processor benchmarks.. on Lindows Releases Inexpensive Subnotebook · · Score: 1

    do not look so well... not even compared to a celeron! this is the link http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2002q1/via-c3/i ndex.x?pg=1