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  1. Re:Thought about something like this on Will The Next Generation of Spacecraft Land In the Water? · · Score: 1

    Finally, my scuba diving hobby comes in handy on Slashdot. It's actually a pretty simple calculation. For every 33 feet you descend in water, you add one atmosphere of pressure. One atmosphere is 14.7 psi.

    P = 14.7 psi
    D = 5280 * 2 = 10560 feet
    TP = P*(D/33) + P = 14.7*320 + P = 4704 + P = 4704 + 14.7 = 4718.7

    So at 2 miles you have 4,718.7 psi bearing down on you. This is assuming I haven't screwed up some mundane detail along the way.

  2. Re:"both UNIX based" on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon vs. Mac OS X Leopard · · Score: 1

    A user accustomed to Unix will find OSX fundamentally different

    A user accustomed to Linux will find BSD to be fundamentally different. For instance, try starting a service on FreeBSD by typing /etc/init.d/service_name. You'll find that you need to replace /etc/init.d/ with /etc/rc.d/. You'll also find that the way you manage installed software on FreeBSD to be fundamentally different than how you would on Linux. In addition, you will also find on FreeBSD that Bash isn't the default shell. Imagine logging in to a new account and finding that you have been dumped into Sh for a shell.

    To make things even clearer, imagine if you open up the comparisons to UNIX. You'll find that OS X, FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, and AIX are all fundamentally different. The Unix world is actually pretty diverse.

  3. Re:Not a spec of Bias. on Jimmy Wales Says Students 'Should Use' Wikipedia · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The real question is what kind of school actually lets you cite an article from an encyclopedia? I've never been able to do so at either the high school or the college level.

  4. Re:Crime and Punishment on US Bot Herder Admits Infecting 250K Machines · · Score: 1

    Rape is a capital crime in some states, although rapists are seldomly sentenced to death.

  5. Re:who says it was accidental? on US Democrats Accidentally Publish Whistleblowers' Email Addresses · · Score: 1

    Not to get off topic, but you must be talking about Edwin Edwards.

  6. Re:cheating has to happen on Tracking Online Cheaters in Poker · · Score: 1

    You'll notice certain patterns of play that just don't make sense. Especially when they start trying to pump the pot and then suddenly one of them folds for no good reason.

  7. Re:What's the difference? on MPAA Chases Uploads, Ignores Open Sales of DVD-Rs? · · Score: 1

    "ethnically impaired"

    Is that anything like being white? Sorry, couldn't resist :)

  8. Re:internet censorship in Myanmar brought to you b on Internet Blackout in Myanmar Stalls Citizen Report · · Score: 1

    According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortinet, they utilize a 100% indirect sales model. So how again can you actually demonize this company?

  9. Re:Meh, you could do worse, I suppose on Best Presidential Candidate for Nerds? · · Score: 1

    Jesus, you are just as biggotted as the people that used to give me dirty looks for being a white male dating a black woman in the deep south. For being a "liberal" you happen to be one of the most intolerant people I have ever come across.

  10. Re:Linux patches? on Microsoft Patches 19 Flaws, 6 in Vista · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think they call that RHEL 5.

  11. Re:rear projection on $90,000 103in HDTV · · Score: 1

    We had the same thing happen, except with a piano.

  12. Re:Tool safety on PHP Application Insecurity - PHP or Devs Fault? · · Score: 1

    You can always use ini_set to override some of the settings in php.ini if you are in a hosting environment.

  13. Re:There's always a way around the law. on Craigslist Fair Housing Act Suit Dismissed · · Score: 1

    I'd be extremely interested to find out where this is since it is in complete odds with my own personal experiences living in Louisiana all my life. If you story is true, then it is the exception rather than the norm.

  14. Re:It turns out my information was outdated. on Oracle to Compete With Red Hat for Linux Support · · Score: 1

    Enterprise licenses for both Windows 2003 and SQL Server contributed to the majority of the cost increase for the Windows solution. For the record, we wanted to go with the Windows solution but the client is anti-microsoft.

  15. Re:More Reasons to Hate Us on North Korea Returns To The Table · · Score: 1

    I'm not saying the sanctions are a bad idea, I'm just saying that there's gotta be a better way to pressure this guy--and I don't mean militarily. How about we increase worthless goods like blankets & food & water and only keep out things like cognac & caviar? How about we freely distribute unbiased publications of the history of Asia and the Korean peninsula? Come on, use your imagination here, you're a freaking government!


    We've been giving North Korea humanitarian aid for years now. Unfortunantly he decides to feed his troops instead of his people with it.
  16. Re:It turns out my information was outdated. on Oracle to Compete With Red Hat for Linux Support · · Score: 1

    The RedHat solution will be a whole lot cheaper than the equivalent Windows system. I've been working for a client for the past 8 months on a web-based application for managing their entire operation. We are talking over $300k in development costs so far. At the beginning of the project, we spec'd out two systems: a two machine cluster running RedHat ES and a two machine cluster running Windows 2003 Enterprise. Both systems included a terabyte of direct attached storage.

    Long story short, the Linux cluster cost around $20k while the Windows cluster cost around $42k.

  17. Re:Plenty of Room on U.S. Population Hits 300 Million · · Score: 1

    I have yet to meet anyone my age in Louisiana that can't read. And the South has two car manufacturing plants that I know of. A GM plant in Shreveport, LA and a Nissan plant in Tennessee. And for the record, this Southerner makes more than you and your wife combined.

  18. Re:good comment on Judge Clears Bully For Publishing · · Score: 1

    Are you implying that you americans defeated Htiler with the help of small firearms?
    I am sure that the Sherman tanks, the flying fortresses and other military equipment didn't matter at all... no, Hitler was defeated by your hand guns!

    Of course it mattered, but ultimately WWII came down to boots on the ground, just like in any war. It hasn't been until the last 10 or 15 years that air power has had such a devastating effect on the outcome of modern wars. Korea and Vietnam are excellent examples of this. And even today, it still comes down to boots on the ground. Afghanistan and Iraq are both excellent modern examples.

    But ultimately, WWII was primarily a ground war. Altogether the big three Allied Powers lost nearly 17,000,000 people in WWII. That breaks down to around 400,000 for the US, 400,000 for the UK and around 12,000,000 for the Russians.

    And as for the Sherman tanks, that is a horrible example. The Sherman was considered a death trap by its crew. It's armor was too thin and its main battle gun was underpowered. The only saving grace it had was the fact that we were able to produce them in great numbers. But make no mistake, if a Sherman went up against any of the tanks that the Germans had it would lose.


    What do you mean? That you sent a militia to the British side? And the british didn't do anything by themself?

    No, of course the United States didn't do it alone. The British were in the fight well before we were. But the entire time that we were supposedly a neutral power during WWII, the United States was supplying the British and the Russians with weapons and supplies to fight against the Germans. When we finally did enter the war in December of 1941, we actually had 7 Army Aviators officially participating in the Battle of Britain. And even to this day, the UK is still making payments on the equipment that we supplied them under Lend-Lease.


    Really, get a grip on reality.
    Hitler was defeated by Russian T-34 tanks and russian soldiers.

    In terms of the Eastern Front, Hitler was defeated by his own miscalculations. He believed that he could take Russia in three months before the harsh Russian winter set in. As a result, when winter did come his troops were ill-equipped to fight in the harsh winter climate. Hitler also made the mistake of disregarding the advice of his best generals, sending them back to Germany and replacing them with officers that would simply say yes to his line of thinking. Instead of keeping the initiative and continuing his advance to take Moscow, he diverted his attention to taking the Ukraine and gave the Russians time to bring in reinforcements from Siberia. In short, Hitler was his own worst enemy in this respect.

    But in the end, both the United States and the Soviet Union were rushing towards Berlin and arrived there within days of each other. The Soviet Union got there first and hence Germany's surrender to Soviet forces. But to say that the Soviet Union defeated Germany would be inaccurate.
  19. Re:good comment on Judge Clears Bully For Publishing · · Score: 1

    And I know you didn't just go there! So you think you saved the world, do you? Were you in WWII? Were your buddies? Even your parents?
    I have all the respect in the world for those that actually fought in the war, but none for the brats that try to abuse it to their own end.

    I have one Great Uncle that served both in WWII and Korea on my mothers side. He eventually retired as a Lt. Colonel after 30 years of service. I had two Great Uncles on my father's side that both fought in WWII. Of course my parents and I are too young, but that was a rhetorical question.

    As for the United States participation as a whole, they were instrumental in the liberation of North Africa, Italy, France and the capture of Germany. That already says a lot. Then factor in the fact that we were also giving aid to the Russians and British prior to our entry into the war, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the United States was instrumental in the defeat of the Axis Powers. So no, we might not single handedly be responsible for saving the world, but it is hard to say that we didn't have a great deal to do with it. And FYI, the UK is still making payments for the supplies that we gave them under the Lend-Lease program. That should say a lot.


    While we're there, how about you take a look at your own hands, and tell me if all the native
    american blood was worth not having to speak british english or, god forbid, learning the language
    of all the natives you brutally murdered and harassed so that you could have a country of your own
    at all.

    First of all, my family didn't come to the United States until the 1850's during the Irish Potato Famine. There's very little that my family personally had to do with the extermination of Native Americans. Secondly, I have Cherokee ancestry in my family which makes that statement even more ridiculous. If you want to get accusatory, Sweden had a colony in the New World too. So your country has some blood on its hands too. Not to mention the French, the British, and the Spanish.
  20. Re:good comment on Judge Clears Bully For Publishing · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You seriously overestimate the number of gun owners in the United States. Most people I know have not even held a gun, let alone owned or shot one. We are not afraid to go out on the streets at night. It's not like there is blood just constantly flowing down main street. And frankly, you should be happy that the United States has had such a deep ingrained gun culture. It's one of the reasons that you aren't speaking German as your primary language.

  21. Re:good comment on Judge Clears Bully For Publishing · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Lawful gun owners rarely commit any crimes with their weapons. I've owned guns since I was 8 and I have never once killed someone. Guns aren't the problem, people are. And as long as people have criminal inclinations then there will be problems with violence. That is why in the UK the police wear vests that are intended to stop a knife blade instead of a bullet. You are trying to fix a social problem through legislation which never works. And if I remember correctly, the violent crime rate in the UK went up when that country all but banned private gun ownership.

  22. Re:fan failure, not battery life, the issue on smcFanControl — Cool Your MacBook Pro · · Score: 1

    The labor will be quite expensive. The sister company that I work for owns a small chain of PC repair shops. You would be looking at around $150 in labor and we are on the cheap side. You can expect most dedicated Apple repair shops to charge somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 for this service. And as for doing the repair work yourself, I have sworn to never work on another Apple laptop again. It's that much of a nightmare to take apart and put back together.

  23. Re:That really sucks on Hans Reiser Arrested On Suspicion of Murder · · Score: 1

    Personally, I doubt the committment of many American states, especially southern ones, to the principles of democracy

    Wide spread institutionalized racism in the South is long dead. Why must you continue to judge us by something that hasn't existed for over 20 years?

  24. Re:Hate speech vs conspiracy on Three Years in Prison for Posting Hatespeak · · Score: 1

    You left out that US law also requires one act to further this conspiracy for it to be prosecutable, such as buying a ski mask for the robbery. Giving the gun to the assassin would constitute conspiracy but saying "Let's rob bank X at time Y" would not.

  25. Re:gross generalizations on Hacking the Governator · · Score: 2, Funny

    Being a person of Irish descent, I would say thank you for the whiskey!