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User: stevew

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  1. Re:WORD: NUKE EM NOW !! on US Cyber Command Discloses Offensive Cyberwarfare Capabilities · · Score: 1

    I think we're in for a whole new Code War. I'm sorry - I just couldn't help myself.

  2. Re:Easy to say on Boeing Touts Fighter Jet To Rival F-35 — At Half the Price · · Score: 1

    "Isn't as stealty" is an understatement. The SH has no significant stealth technology. It is a 1970's design that is supped up. It's a great plane for it's era, but it isn't going to survive the next 50 years in the expected high-threat environment.

    In any place where the environment is protected by SAMS the SH requires jamming and perhaps Wild Weasel type missions to accompany it. F35 wont require that.

    The other thing I don't get. We already HAVE the SH deployed. Why will we buy more of the same?

  3. Re:Sort of interesting, but... on The Hacker Who Found the Secrets of the Next Xbox and PlayStation · · Score: 1

    No - simply no. He broke in to a private network without permission That is equivalent to "Entering" of a Breaking and Entering charge in the US in a brick/mortar situation. There is not ethical difference between the two. What he did with his ill-gotten gains aren't relevant to the discussion. That is the same thing as killing someone today, then joining Amnesty International the next day?!?

  4. Re:I say cut the F-35 on There Is Plenty To Cut At the Pentagon · · Score: 0, Troll

    You have never paid premiums. These are not savings accounts, they are taxes. Social security is the biggest ponzie scheme ever invented. That being said:

    The 2011 defense budget was $687Billion. We are running a $1.6Trillion deficit per year right now and have been during the current administration. If you cut defense out completely we would have a $900 billion deficit PER YEAR!

    The left needs to get off their political high horse and admit that we have a huge problem and it is called a huge and abusive government across the entire range of their activities.

    Lastly - there ARE other models to pay for ones retirement. I believe it is Chile that has a system that is based on savings plans. Maybe that model. They did a transfer from one system to the other over time. Those on the current system stayed, while those entering the system stared on the new system.

    We are to involved at calling each other names to look for fresh answers.

  5. Re:Cuts both ways on Billionaires Secretly Fund Vast Climate Denial Network · · Score: 1, Troll

    So the Tea Party is just astro-turfing? Yet the Occupy Wall Street is grass roots?

    It is more a matter whether your Ox is being GORED! (Pun intentional!)

  6. Re:Big deal... on Billionaires Secretly Fund Vast Climate Denial Network · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    How is it different than George Soros paying for the opposite services? (Which is also occurring!) It only amounts to one side adopting the other sides tricks and using them effectively for the first time.

    What a shocker!

  7. Re:Kid's artwork? on School Board Considers Copyright Ownership of Student and Teacher Works · · Score: 1

    In CA we've had protection from this nonsense since the 1980s.

    It is a reasonable for a company to claim ownership of something you do on their time. It is completely unfair for them to claim ownership of things you develop on your own time. In my mind, even if they are home work assignments, anything designed by the kids is theirs. End of discussion.

    However, teachers doing lesson plans on their own time for their employment? That becomes gray in my mind. I guess the best policy is get your work done during work hours. I suspect that isn't a realistic statement though.

  8. Re:cypress psoc on Ask Slashdot: Best Electronics Prototyping Platform? · · Score: 1

    There are different generations of PSOC - PSOC1 runs on a proprietary 8 bit micro, PSOC3 uses the 8051, and PSOC5 uses the M3 ARM processor. So depending on what you're familiar with you choose the processor you're most comfortable with.

  9. Re: Halted on Steve Jobs Movie Clip Historically Inaccurate, Says Woz · · Score: 2

    The comment about Halted needs a little context. Halted (still in business) is an Electronics part store in the Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale off of Central Expressway & Lawerence for those who care..) I is the place you go when you need the odd-ball capacitor or resistor for your electronics project. Lots of good quality junk there.

  10. Re:A clear example of how lobbying hurts everyone on The New Ethanol Blend May Damage Your Vehicle · · Score: 1

    Some people can't seem to see the comparison between a state EPA making stupid decisions with poor science, or ignoring science and economics or even covering it up and perhaps the Federal EPA doing the same thing! THAT is the moral of the story.

    Most decisions by bureaucrats SUCK!

    To paraphrase Ronald Reagan - the most feared statement in the English language should be "I'm from the government and I'm here to help!"

    The MTBE story is about suppression of science that doesn't fit your political agenda. It's about screwing the public because of a political agenda.

    Also - the claims that Ethanol can harm engines (a similarity with MTBE) isn't something that's made up. It is why the manufacturers are saying it will void your warranties! Then there is the little bit about it is carbon neutral. BS! It takes more more energy to make it than you recover by using it in your car engine. If you don't accept those facts, then you have a promising career ahead of you as a bureaucrat!

  11. Re:A clear example of how lobbying hurts everyone on The New Ethanol Blend May Damage Your Vehicle · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yep - this is right up there with the MTBE debacle in CA about 10 years ago.

    The Cal EPA (yes California has it's own set of idiot Environmental Regulators) decided that we needed Oxygenation in our fuel mix. The Refiners had this great additive that they had NO market for called MTBE that they claimed would do the job. A report was done describing the effect of use of the additive. CalEPA literally removed dozens of pages of negative results from the report documenting that the additive would corrode the neoprene used in Gas Hoses in most vehicles! Did I mention that MTBE is a major carcinogen!

    So the state merrily adopts the stuff!

    Well, sure enough, CHP starts to have a huge number of car fires in their patrol vehicles as proof that the original report (the suppressed part) was correct! The bureaucrats can't sweep that CHP fleet numbers under the rug.

    Then the stuff starts showing up in drinking water all over the place!

    The bureaucrats are running around in circles (think circular firing squads) pointing fingers at each other. Turns out that once MTBE enters the Ecosystem, it doesn't leave. The bureaucrats (without any scientific basis) start banning motorboats on reservoirs arguing that they must be all leaking the stuff. Nope - rain! The stuff is in the air, and the rain is bringing it down into the entire water shed.

    Finally tally - 20K drinking wells are polluted with the stuff.

    Next - it turns out that MTBE doesn't really do the original job it was claimed to!

    Well - the public is incensed! How could this all happen! This is about the time the rest of the original report shows up documenting the fact that MTBE destroys gas engines. Everything from lawn mowers to cars had problems with the stuff. A new form of gas hosing was invented to contain this mess.

    The public outrage grows and eventually the governor decrees that the stuff will not be allowed into CA gas.

    Final insult. The biggest manufacturer of the stuff sues CA for 1 billion dollars because of voided contract with them - and wins!

    Excuse me - I've seen this movie before and know how it ends.

     

  12. Re:Anybody using Ada? on Ada 2012 Language Approved As Standard By ISO · · Score: 2

    This very argument happens in chip design where we have two languages VHDL & Verilog. VHDL is very much done in the Ada Model and is a direct descendant where Verilog comes by way of C. There was a language shoot out back in the late 90s when this argument had more life with similar results. Verilog lets you get things done in about half the amount of text and about twice as fast as writing the equivalent in VHDL. Verilog gives you every chance to mess-up, i.e. it doesn't hold your hand. VHDL smothers you with compile-time warnings, Interface checking, etc.

    Both have a large number of followers now-a-days. VHDL is strong in the FPGA community (pushed by Xilinx) and in Europe. Verilog has more adherents in the US & Asia.

    What it comes down to in my line of work is time - Verilog + Linter is faster than VHDL in getting the job done. (IMHO!)

  13. Re:Pay the $3.99 on Ask Slashdot: Where Do You Draw the Line On GPL V2 Derived Works and Fees? · · Score: 1

    A link to an FTP site where you can down load the code works as an medium of exchange.

    Sheesh!

  14. What's up! on Apple Claims Ignorance of Jury Foreman's Previous Tangle With Samsung · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why did it take them so bloody long to reply then?

  15. Re:Because the 35 year olds have gained wisdom on It's Hard For Techies Over 40 To Stay Relevant, Says SAP Lab Director · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some other points not brought up - since the guy is in India, there are some specific Indian Culture issues working here too. The big one that has been pointed out to me by Indian folks I've worked with is that Mom & Dad expect their kids to be MANAGERS within a couple of years of graduating or the kids are considered failures! So even FINDING someone in India with 15 years of relevant experience is HARD. They DO exist, but more than likely, they came over to the US then went back home!

    Finally - having just gone through a project with 3 oldsters pushing 50+ & three young guns just out of school (one a PHD & the other two youngsters Masters degree holders) I can tell you with certainty that the company took over a year recovering from the mistakes made by the newbies.

    BS to the whole thing. I'm 56 and still a working technologist.

  16. Re:shame on Toshiba Pursues Copyright Claim Against Laptop Manual Site · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How is a company defending a legitimate copyright imply anything about the quality of their machines.

    We are all about enforcement of the GPL to protect our rights in the free software movement, yet when a company uses EXACTLY the same laws that give us the freedom to choose alternate software everyone gets up-in-arms about the big bad business pursuing a claim against someone who has essentially stolen their copyrighted work and is using it to make money?

  17. Re:SDR on iPhone Interface For Ham Radio Mates Old With New · · Score: 1

    It has already been done, but the RP doesn't have enough horse power by itself, it takes two! Look up ghpsdr & John Melton (the original author) He has some blog entries about getting this going.

  18. Re:There are a swack of good open tools already on iPhone Interface For Ham Radio Mates Old With New · · Score: 1

    Yep - the Computer Interface to our Radios is wired into the guts of Linux. The ham radio digital protocol AX25 has been supported by Linux since the early days, almost as long as Linux has had a TCP/IP stack! Why you might ask?? Well - Alan Cox is a ham!

  19. Re:SDR on iPhone Interface For Ham Radio Mates Old With New · · Score: 2

    Let me be a little more specific for you - ghpsdr3-alex is what you are looking for. This is really two apps. The first is the processing software that hooks up to very simple hardware the implements the Software Defined Radio, all the signal processing, etc. Then there This is usually run on a PC. This software is capable of registering itself so it can be found through the internet. Then there is a graphical piece of software with clients for PC, Android and Iphone that let you see the Pan Adapter display of a chunk of spectrum and play back the audio for whatever you've tuned in. This is the control head for the processing software (Think client-server).

  20. Re:The court didn't ask for an apology... on Apple Posts Non-Apology To Samsung · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe it isn't such a bad idea? If individuals had to publicly humiliate themselves for bringing false and expensive lawsuits, maybe there would be fewer of them. But then - I've always thought we should bring back the racks!

  21. Re:Looks like the AG actually read the law on Texas Attorney General Warns International Election Observers · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dude - get your Damn story straight! The Bush DOJ DID prosecute them. Then the new appointee from the Obama administration canceled the prosecution, i.e. interfered with the process. Several career prosecutors quite over the affair. I LOVE how you guys try to rewrite history.

  22. Re:Balance on Shut Up and Play Nice: How the Western World Is Limiting Free Speech · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you live in the US - you really don't understand how the First Amendment operates.

    You are correct that the right is limited - but it is ONLY limited by that speech which might create a public panic, etc. Yelling FIRE! in a crowed room is against the law. However - saying something that is hurtful to someone else is NOT and CANNOT be illegal, for within that realm comes ALL political speech which is fundamental to the operating of a democratic form of government.

    As soon as you start limiting such speech you manage to disenfranchise some segment of the population to the vagaries of the majority. If the offended minority can't stand up and defend themselves VERBALLY - what is left? It becomes a two way street.

    What CAN NOT be allowed is for the minority's offense to itself become illegal, or for that minority to cause violence to the person causing the offense. THAT is where we draw the line in the US. Mr. Ban Ki-Moon can jump off of the UN building if he doesn't like it.

  23. Re:Nothing to see here on US Agricultural Economists Say Bacon Shortage Is Hogwash · · Score: 1

    Yes it was - but it was all a rumor put out by the New York Mayor's office. This is the next thing Bloomberg is planning on banning from entering New York City. So he figured he get ahead of the curve and justify his ban on the fact that there was ALREADY a shortage!

  24. Re:Fortunately, Romney isn't a Democrat on Torvalds Uses Profanity To Lambaste Romney Remarks · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Of course, it is sometimes a matter of interpretation what the purpose of anybody's words is..."

    This is the entire problem with the any description of "Hate Speech." It is left to the eye of the beholder - which is the very definition of subjective.

    How can you have free speech when another persons interpretation can turn it into a crime?

    Look - there is nothing in the Constitution about being guaranteed a right to not be uncomfortable with what someone else says, but rather the guarantee is to the person causing the discomfort! If someone chooses to make an extreme comment - then judge them as you will, but it shouldn't be a crime unless someone is harmed physically, or property is destroyed by the person doing the speaking!

  25. Re:Automation versus human instinct on iPhone 5 A6 SoC Teardown: ARM Cores Appear To Be Laid Out By Hand · · Score: 5, Informative

    Okay - I'm stepping in here because I actually do chip design for a living. The difference between hand laid-out and machine generated chips can be as much as a 5X performance difference. The facts are that physical design isn't the same as compiler writing. It's a harder problem to crack - first it's a multi-dimensional problem. Next, it has to follow the laws of physics, themselves complicated ;-)

    Both processes DO rely on the quality of input. When my designs don't run fast enough, the likely fix is to go back to the source and fix it there instead of trying to come up with some fix within placement and routing. The other simple fact is that in timing a physical design - you have to consider EVERY path that the logic takes in parallel. There is not such thing as the "inner-most" loop of the algorithm for determining where the performance goes. Finally once you have a good architecture for timing, the placement of the physical gates dominates the process.

    A human - with their common sense is always going to give better performance than an algorithm. I mentioned a 5X difference between hand-drawn & compiled hardware. That is about what I see on a daily basis between what my tools can do for me, and what Intel gets out of their hand-drawn designs for a given technology node.