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User: jonwil

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  1. I never use the phone book on Is the Number Up For the Residential Phone Book? · · Score: 1

    These days with Google and directory assistance (where I can call up and get the number of whoever I am calling) I have no need to use the phone book anymore. What would be usefull though is a much smaller directory containing esential/emergency/usefull numbers like the number you call when the power is out to find out how long its going to be out.

  2. What I want to ask the MPAA is this... on MPAA Dismisses COICA Free Speech Concerns · · Score: 1

    What I want to ask the MPAA is:
    "Copyright law has existed since long before the movie industry even existed and has always contained clear guidelines for what you do if you believe someone has copied your copyrighted works without your permission. What does the MPAA believe is wrong with the existing law and why do they think new laws are required?"

  3. Re:Finally a way to shut down FoxNews! on Internet Blacklist Back In Congress · · Score: 1

    I am sure there will be some kind of deliberatly inserted loophole that allows the big end of town (Fox, CNN, NBC, Warner, Disney, Microsoft etc) to avoid penalties whilst making the little guy (Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Wikileaks, Slashdot, Sourceforge, Pirate Bay etc) pay up bigtime.

  4. Re:Well, DUH... on New Rootkit Bypasses Windows Code-Signing Security · · Score: 1

    You can avoid the firewire thing by not having Firewire ports. Or by filling the firewire ports with glue or gunk or something else so they cant be used.

  5. Re:Well, DUH... on New Rootkit Bypasses Windows Code-Signing Security · · Score: 1

    This post here:
    https://lists.launchpad.net/coapp-developers/msg00757.html
    suggests that efforts are being made to convince VeriSign to provide cheap/free certificates for open source projects.
    Wont help if you are a proprietary company unwilling to open source the drivers but for "free hardware" developers it sounds like a good thing.

  6. Re:Compiling the kernel on The ~200 Line Linux Kernel Patch That Does Wonders · · Score: 1

    What I want to know is how this new kernel performs when you do a full Gentoo emerge update

  7. What happened to Canda? on Canada To Mandate ISP Deep Packet Inspection · · Score: 1

    Canada used to be viewed (especially in the post 9/11 world of "anti-terror" laws and restrictions) as a sane place to move to if you wanted to escape the crap going on in the USA. What happened to make Canada get so bad and is there another suitable country that is a viable alternative?

  8. Re:Vending machine industry in the USA is stagnant on 'Smart' Vending Machines Triple Sales · · Score: 1

    I am saying nothing about Canada, I am talking about Australia.
    Australia got rid of the $1 and $2 notes when we introduced the $1 and $2 coins.
    Carrying $1 and $2 coins is (IMO) much easier than carrying notes around.
    Plus parking meters and vending machines and payphones and stuff dont require bill acceptors (although some vending machines now take $5, $10 and $20 bills)

  9. Re:Should be fine... on Where Do I Go Now That Oracle Owns OpenOffice.org? · · Score: 1

    According to what I read on an MS blog somewhere, part of the problem was that some parts of VBA were actually compiled to x86 ASM or something as an optomization.

  10. Re:Vending machine industry in the USA is stagnant on 'Smart' Vending Machines Triple Sales · · Score: 1

    Unlike the US, we got rid of the $1 and $2 notes when we introduced the coins.

  11. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio on AMD Joins Intel's MeeGo OS Effort · · Score: 1

    Anything which brings more openness to the mobile GPU space is a good thing (right now everyone, Intel included, is using closed GPUs from the likes of NVIDIA and PowerVR)

  12. Re:Compiler on AMD Joins Intel's MeeGo OS Effort · · Score: 1

    GCC may be Open Source. But the Intel Compiler is NOT (and thats the one where Intel has been crippling the output on AMD chips)

  13. Re:Solaris 11 will be available in 2011 on Oracle Solaris 11 Express Released · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Illumos is the real future of OpenSolaris IMO.
    Efforts are being made to remove anything from OpenSolaris that is closed source (especially anything with limits on redistribution)

  14. Re: NOT A HELLUVALOT.... on Proposed ADA Requirements May Affect Public Internet Use · · Score: 1

    The answer for deaf people and movie theaters is simple, just do what the theaters around here do and run "open caption" sessions which are basically regular screenings that also have subtitles up on the main screen.
    Does not require expensive equipment in the theater and still allows deaf people to enjoy a film on the big screen.

  15. Re:Vending machine industry in the USA is stagnant on 'Smart' Vending Machines Triple Sales · · Score: 1

    Us aussies have been using one dollar coins since 1984 and we seem to have no problems fitting either the $1 or $2 coin in our pockets/wallets/purses/bags/etc
    We also got rid of our 1c and 2c coins

  16. Re:'Bout time? on Proposed ADA Requirements May Affect Public Internet Use · · Score: 1

    I suspect they want to make a seperate "mobile" version so they can keep loading down the main version with usless Flash video and whatever other junk the marketing department can come up with and yet still provide something that works on a mobile phone.

  17. Re:Fine with me on Proposed ADA Requirements May Affect Public Internet Use · · Score: 1

    Isnt Google already trialing technologies to do automatic voice recognition and captioning of videos?

  18. Re:Gold for salt. on China To Build Its Own Large Jetliner · · Score: 1

    If you can make money selling salt to someone indefinatly, why would you teach them how to make your own salt (regardless of how much they are offering for it)?

    Its the same with the drug companies who prefer treatments (with big ongoing costs) to cures (with a one-off cost and nothing further)

    And its why you will never be able to get a license for an MPEG encoder (e.g. H.264 or MP3) that allows you to redistribute it for free (because you cant pay per-unit royalties on a download from a web page)

  19. Re:Do we want DRM on the platform? on Why There's Still No Netflix App For Android · · Score: 1

    I will need to be buying a phone soon anyway because I will be switching carriers in a month or 2 when my contract runs out and my current phone is carrier locked (and not worth trying to unlock given its age)

  20. Re:Do we want DRM on the platform? on Why There's Still No Netflix App For Android · · Score: 1

    Show me an GSM/UMTS android handset with full support for custom ROMs, a physical QWERTY keyboard and the latest software and I will buy Android.
    Since no such Android phone exists, my next phone will be a Nokia N900.

  21. Re:PlayReady DRM on Why There's Still No Netflix App For Android · · Score: 1

    There are any number of DRM solutions already being used for MPAA films (iTunes on Windows XP for one AFAIK) that dont have this kind of hardware-enforced restrictions and will play content (certainly content at the resolutions that make sense for a phone) over any output and dont use any special API calls to do it and will store downloaded content on any disk (with the software enforcing any "no installing on removable disk" restrictions).

  22. Re:Too Easy on Why There's Still No Netflix App For Android · · Score: 1

    In the case of Netflix specifically, its a rental and not a purchase. So if there was no DRM, it would be almost impossible to stop someone renting the content and then saving a permanent copy (all without ever indicating to the outside world that such a thing had been done)

  23. Re:Should be fine... on Where Do I Go Now That Oracle Owns OpenOffice.org? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Considering that even Microsoft has trouble supporting VBA (i.e. the lack of VBA in various versions of Office on Mac), I wish the LibreOffice people luck in their efforts :)

  24. Re:Its getting deep on Why Unlocked Phones Don't Work In the US · · Score: 1

    You will get an AT&T phone that will work on T-Mobile but unless the phone has both AT&T frequency bands and T-Mobile frequency bands, you wont get 3G data.

  25. Re:Worried? on 3D Printing May Face Legal Challenges · · Score: 1

    A good thing for the LEGO idea would be to produce parts LEGO wont make but that fans think should exist. There are all sorts of such parts. The hard part would be getting the colors and finish right (especially trans-bits, gold/silver/metallic colors etc)