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User: akaina

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  1. Unfair comparison on January's Toast to Tech Evil · · Score: 1

    The problem, it transpired, was a 16-bit signed integer in a proprietary application written fifteen years ago by SBS International.

    Ah, the devilish temptation of premature memory optimization! Not something to which we in the free software world would *ever* fall victim. No, no, no. Well, maybe. Anyway, we'd certainly be able to manage a timely upgrade to cope with this problem. Well, maybe.


    I'm going to take a wild leap off a cliff here and venture that HAD the flight software been reviewed by thousands of eyes, the mistaked would have been avoided. But how can it be maintained if it's been locked up for 15 years?

    To compare this bug with one found in a Linux distro is completely unfair. That flight software was written back when the maintainer of said distro was probably still in highschool.

  2. Re:Good advice... on Joel Gives College Advice For Programmers · · Score: 1

    Yeah man, if you ever need any help coding, lemme know. Take care.

  3. Re:Good advice... on Joel Gives College Advice For Programmers · · Score: 1

    As a bit of personal advice, I would just like to warn you that going to school to learn how to program is like going to driver's ed to learn how to become a racecar driver.

    If you already work at a computer all day, get on a coding project ASAP. Make something up, but get started BEFORE you get to class.

    You learn very little about programming in school.

    I guarentee your boss will never run up to you saying "WHAT WILL WE DO WITHOUT A BI-DIRECTIONAL LINKED LIST?!?!?!"

  4. Re:He Doesn't Get It on Interview With Richard Stallman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you pull all the Linux based products off the market right now, I guarentee retailers would feel it. If you forced all IT companies into costly contracts for Windows, and therefore reduced the capabilities of their servers, I guarentee they would feel it.

    If you don't care about your freedoms, then you're an idiot who doesn't deserve to have them. The beauty is that if you think I'm wrong, by inference you must take Stallman's side as truth.

    You talk about RMS like he has "missed" something. Do you think a guy who has been fighting this hard since 1984 hasn't had time to contemplate his goal? I think perhaps it's you who has missed something.

    And on a more personal note, you're a fucking retard.

  5. Actual simulation images on The Coming Atlantic Mega-Tsunami · · Score: 1

    This PDF shows the movement based upon the simulation on page 3

    http://www.es.ucsc.edu/~ward/papers/La_Palma_grl .p df

  6. Reading the wrong way on Sun's COO Pretends Linux Belongs To Red Hat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You guys are really reading into this the wrong way.

    All that he's asserting is that it's Red Hat's flavor stands the best chance of taking marketshare.

    That's actually MORE tech-savvy than just saying the L word like everyone else. When you read the quote, think in terms of the COO and marketshare, not in terms of Richard Stallman.

    (puts on fire resistant suit)

  7. Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. on What Do People in the IT Field Do for Side Jobs? · · Score: 1

    I find everything not related to my programming projects as a distraction. I've got a life... I just think it's distracting. Family, parties, and girls are great, they're just distracting.

    If I could make the choice to be the best programmer in the world and have no social life as a trade, I would do it in a heart beat.

    Removing spyware is blue collar in my book (albeit easy blue collar work), it's right on par with tearing apart printers, or myriad other jobs that involve 'computers', but not necessarily 'computing'.

  8. I think they do... on Does Open Source Need Quality Standards? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... and rumor has it they're experimenting with this quality assurance idea called 'pier review'

  9. "concrete evidence" on The Eye: Evolution versus Creationism · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "When I saw this vertebrate-type molecule active in the cells of the Playtnereis brain - it was clear that these cells and the vertebrate rods and cones shared a molecular fingerprint. This was concrete evidence of common evolutionary origin. We had finally solved one of the big mysteries in human eye evolution."

    Can someone explain how this information is conclusive?

  10. Re:resolv.conf on Ask Unix Co-Creator Rob Pike · · Score: 1

    Actually "Move" becomes mv.

    Even assembly programmers get MOV... Unix gurus are just saddists.

  11. Biggest problem with Unix on Ask Unix Co-Creator Rob Pike · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Recently on the Google Labs Aptitude Test there was a question: "What's broken with Unix? How would you fix it?"

    What would you have put?

  12. hmmmmm... on How Well Do You Estimate? · · Score: 1

    ... I'de have to say well to-QUITE-well.

  13. Re:Not so "absurd" on iPod: Your Portable Corporate Hellraiser · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's all good and well, but there are these things that have been used for years to facilitate corporate espionage, they're called floppy disks.

    Also, what's the point of taking a watch? Unless they do a strip search, you'll always be able to get information out of the building.

  14. Why is it cheating when a consumer does it... on Best Buy Says Customers Not Always Right · · Score: 1

    ...but not when a business does it?

    "Then there are those customers that are just evil customers ... fundamentally they're out to cheat us," Selden said in a telephone interview. "It's not a large number of customers, but they can have a material impact on a business."

    Why isn't this type of predatory behavior only called on moral grounds when businesses do it? I don't see anyone calling cell phone, or banking institutions evil for invoking ungodly amounts of fees.

  15. Re:Brute force? Not exactly on The Future of Optical Fibre · · Score: 1

    Not so. This method is considerably slower than bruteforce because it relies on a randomization seed at each iteration.

    Genetic algorithms can only be shown to find optimal paths quickly when the the path is already known.

    Genetic algorithms are re-discovery algorithms. They are never well applied to situations with an unknown search space.

  16. Re:No thanks on Gaming PC Makers Take Aim at Lucrative Niche · · Score: 1

    If you think the gameplay, resolution, and adaptability of regular console games are enough, then more power to you. All you need is a word processor.

    But for the rest of the gaming crowd, FPS tweaks, modifying textures, sounds, levels, physics, gameplay, and aftergame mods like video capturing, and pushing hardware to the limit rule the day.

  17. Very surprised... on Is Your Computer Leaking Toxic Dust? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am very surprised at the reaction from the community here. I hate FUD spreading fear-mongers as much as the next geek, but this isn't the first time we've learned that we need to actively remove dangerous substances from daily interaction.

    Anyone here have exposed their kids to PB based paint? Anyone here use any DDT on their lawn this year?

    These chemicals are cummulative and the damage cannot be undone. Let's hope these kind of studies continue to educate law makers.

    We really shouldn't be so lax about infant technology that hasn't been fully explored.

  18. Re:This shouldn't come as a surprise.... on China Developing own Standards · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There isn't a dillema in China. China was given open access to the WTO by President Clinton who called them a "strategic ally".

    China is having a field day, and we should be very concerned that their form of government can reap the benefits of a free society without adhering to its rules.

  19. 800lb Gorilla (part 2) on China Developing own Standards · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Compatible with the 'rest of the world'? China IS the rest of the world. America occupies about 5% of the world population. Instead of worrying about China technologically cutting itself off, how about we worry about being compatible with their standards? I'm more worried that one day there will be 3 billion EVD players that won't read DVDs.

  20. Re:Great on FBI Plans Spammer Smackdown · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's mostly because junk mail has a punitive cost, whereas DoS on a web server costs real-time customer transactions.

    The FBI only gets involved when they have solid evidence that there is a loss of over $50,000 (or a number very near that).

  21. Pay-per-view on FBI Plans Spammer Smackdown · · Score: 0

    This sounds like it would make a great pay-per-view event. ... now if we could only get Alan Ralsky to make a stage entrance like Owen Heart...

  22. Forehead on RFID Implants for Spanish Revelers · · Score: 4, Funny

    "... anyone has chosen their forehead."

    Or right hand for that matter.

  23. I could see people using this on Freecache · · Score: 1

    I could see people using this to start their own pr0n sites.

    Perhaps there should be an alternative to scientific projects and OSS projects.

    freecache.fsf.org perhaps?

  24. Last card in the deck on Patents and the Penguin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Patents are the last card in the deck. Consider the fact that SCO was looking to generate revenue having exhausted all of its other streams. Everyone knows SCO had nothing to offer, and that's where part of their disdain came from.

    On the flip side there are small companies making a name - but most grass roots efforts can defeat them.

    IBM is no where near as close to closing its doors as Sun, so I don't know why everybody is worried about IBM.

  25. You lost me... on The War Of The Word · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Details like great design were not critical to most customers, so that didn't really make it into the products, except where it mattered to the customer. It's hard to fault this logic really - it is pure efficiency from a business perspective

    I'm sorry, but try as I may, you completely lost me after that comment.

    Short sighted design gives M$ a bad name among developers - and by people who use computers more than the "average consumer", like say: at work.

    Microsoft: Bottom line - push product - get money.

    There's nothing "pure" what-so-ever about this statement. You may as well be writing about how you learned to appreciate McDonalds.