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User: xtal

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  1. Bandwidth is cheap, cheap, cheap on Time Warner Boosts Broadband Customer Speed — But Only Near Google Fiber · · Score: 1

    Most people have been sold a bill of goods.

    Bandwidth is cheap. Very, very cheap. Getting cheaper all the time. Once it's fiber to the home, the rest is all done. Top tier providers get bandwidth so cheap it's almost free.

    It should be a national embarassment there's not gigabit infrastructure everywhere. Props to Google for helping out the shame.. and may they eat the lunch of all the incumbents.

  2. PKZip? on What Early Software Was Influential Enough To Deserve Acclaim? · · Score: 1

    Major impact. Patent battles. Still used today.

    Confusing as hell command line switches to create an archive. What more do you want?

  3. Good programmers don't need much on Ask Slashdot: Job Search Or More Education? · · Score: 1

    I'm getting my grey beard. I'm an EE; I don't do tech so much anymore, but I've done enough and .. seen things.

    The myth that good programmers cannot find work is just that. What is a myth is how common "good" programmers are. I only know a few, "good" programmers. Some of them have degrees, some of them do not. The common thread is that based on their demonstrated proficiency and speed, none of those people are out of work, ever. Spanned over decades.

    Go out and hack on some projects. You will be noticed, and you will find work. I know very few people who can write device drivers for linux - and the ones who can, don't have much problem with finding work. GPA not required.

    If you have real tech chops and can't find work, you need to learn how to network and go get out and hack on some things, work on the kernel, write some apps and give them away.

    Oh.. and get off my lawn.

  4. Don't buy hardware with skulls on it on Intel Leaving Desktop Motherboard Business · · Score: 1

    My last foray into an Intel motherboard was a
    X58 adorned with skulls. It didn't work very well.

    I replaced it with an Asus.

    The fact intel is making hardware adorned with skulls is confusing enough. An amendum to the don't buy audio equipment named after natural disasters rule of thumb, you shouldn't buy computer gear with skulls on it.

    Enthusiast hardware isn't going anywhere, but it will be getting more expensive. Intel is a chip company not a motherboard company after all.

  5. No support for the occularly challenged on Ibex Virtual Reality Desktop Beta For Mac Released · · Score: 1

    Come on guys, put in the support for people glasses.

    Like.. there aren't a lot of nerds who wear glasses or anything.

    I'll even volunteer to test.

  6. Missiles are still armed and on a hair trigger on The World Remains Five Minutes From Midnight · · Score: 1

    Has everyone forgotten this?

    It's _insane_, people go off about the environment, and everything else, but right now, there are between 3-5,000 nuclear weapons aimed at every major population center on earth.

    People are crazy.

  7. 20 tablet? How about a 8.5x11" one? on The Best and Worst From CES 2013 · · Score: 2

    Peferably with E-Ink, that I can write on, in similar DPI to a fine engineering pencil?

    I want one for specification sheets and notes. That's it. Doesn't really even need much of a OS. I have a desk full of paper. I will gladly pay $$$$$ for this device.. and I am sure that others will too.

    The retina ipad is good, but it's not paper.

  8. Not so concerned about Brad.. on Google Fiber Draws Startups To Kansas City · · Score: 1

    What happened to Kiki? :)

  9. Re:Good and Bad on Nuclear Rocket Petition On White House Website · · Score: 1

    I wish they'd spend more time protesting nuclear weapons. You know, the ones aimed at them.

  10. Insanity on Australian Spy Agency Seeks Permission To Hack Third-Party Computers · · Score: 2

    So what happens when one of these third parties is detained as a spy, if their compromised computer is detected at a border? Depending on where you go, taking a machine with you sounds like it could actually put your life - or at least, your freedom - at risk?

    Have we given up even maintaining the facade of the rule of law now?

  11. Standing desks suck on Ask Slashdot: How To Stay Fit In the Office? · · Score: 1

    Just get up and walk around and think every 15 or 20 or 30 minutes. You're paid to think, after all.

    People might think you're strange, but thinking walking around works for me. Good for your circulation, head, gives your wrists a break, etc.

    I'm looking at 40 coming up and I'm still in good shape. I credit that technique and never learning to "properly" type.

  12. Re:Time to burn some points. HEY MBA STUPID PEOPLE on Change the ThinkPad and It Will Die · · Score: 1

    The device is cheap.

    Plastic comes in grades. The cheap shit plastic appears to be the most popular. This is the industry term in injection molding; the "shit plastic".

    I'm drunk and ranting about a cheap plastic shit disease nobody is talking about and from what I can see, appears to be endemic and terminal in consumer devices manufactured today.

    Help stop the pain. Don't buy cheap plastic shit.

  13. Re:Time to burn some points. HEY MBA STUPID PEOPLE on Change the ThinkPad and It Will Die · · Score: 1

    If your Blackberry Bold is feeling as solid as an iphone, something else is leaking into your food..

  14. Time to burn some points. HEY MBA STUPID PEOPLE! on Change the ThinkPad and It Will Die · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I love technology.

    You pick up a blackberry. It feels like a cheap plastic piece of shit.

    You pick up a acer. It feels like a cheap plastic piece of shit.

    You pick up a HP. It feels like a cheap plastic piece of shit.

    You pick up a (insert anything electronic and mass produced that the bean counters got at). It feels like a cheap plastic piece of shit.

    This is because.. they are cheap pieces of shit.

    Pick up a nice Thinkpad. It does not feel like a cheap piece of shit. Especially the old ones.

    Pick up ANYTHING APPLE. It does not feel like a cheap piece of shit.

    If you are in charge of decisions at a large company publicly traded and cannot figure out what you do to your product image.. those little cents you save here and there, all turn your products in to cheap feeling plastic pieces of shit. Your brand also turns into a piece of shit. I feel sad for HP. At least SGI died.

    Rant off.

  15. Yeah, well, buy me a decent screen on Campaign To Remove Paper From Offices · · Score: 1

    I work for the government and print thousands of pages a month.

    I am not reading all that (and yes, I have to read it all) on low-DPI crap monitors that are issued to me, and nobody in my department has any power to change right on up.

    Until I have a 30" high DPI display at work - like I have at home - my eyes will be reading off the printed page.

  16. Re:Math Degree on Ask Slashdot: CS Degree While Working Full Time? · · Score: 1

    This is definitely not my experience here in Canada, as a employer and when I was an employee. If you have a BA or BSc. (better) in Math, pure or applied, and have some sort of background or portfolio of code to give that some applied or practical chops, you're just fine.

    CS is an all around bad option IMO. Either do engineering or do mathematics. There isn't a lot of advantage for most over either, and a lot of downside.

  17. TPMS / auto wireless security is a safety issue on Pirate Radio Station In Florida Jams Automotive Electronics · · Score: 1

    If you set off a TPMS warning, traction and stability control disengage on most vehicles. Combined with dangerous weather and/or people who are used to these systems, all manner of problems can be imagined.

    The TPMS systems are very basic and there is information floating around on how to disrupt them..

    Interesting times.

  18. Not sure where you work.. on Lax SSH Key Management A "Big Problem" · · Score: 1

    Unmanaged keys are most certainly a pretty serious security vulnerability, and I agree - in my experience it is endemic.

    Key management - signing, validation, revocation - doesn't happen for free. Everything worthwhile requires effort.

  19. Nothing new here on ISP Data Caps Just a 'Cash Cow' · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the exact behaviour you'd expect from a largely-monopoly or entrenched oligopoly market.

    Governments or municipalities should own the infrastructure. Everything should be fiber. Most of the costs in those rollouts are administrative, not technical in nature.

    There is a huge economic cost in not having gigabit FTTH infrastructure; it's big enough that companies like Google are stepping in.

  20. Re:And yet... on 27 Reported Killed In Connecticut Elementary School Shooting · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The cure is worse than the disease.

  21. Re:The Invisible Unicorn Argument. on Has the Mythical Unicorn of Materials Science Finally Been Found? · · Score: 1

    Science may, however, sufficiently advanced, make us Gods. Or extinct.

    The older I get, the more positive I am that it will be one of the two.

  22. Everything is openly available on Army Tests Autonomous Black Hawk Helicopter · · Score: 1

    The control algorithms, IMU processing, hell even very good terrain data are all openly available. Some time in a engineering library searching papers will even turn up reams of applications to helicopters specifically.

    Even very good image systems are available.

    What's changed is the processors to make use of all those are both rediculously cheap and light.

    Human pilots.. your time is coming.

  23. Re:"Plastic Gun" on Wiki Weapon Project Test-Fires a (Partly) 3D-Printed Rifle · · Score: 1

    There are lots of resins and this is a very active area. New products are coming on the market all the time, and the materials are well understood.

    More to the point, the cost of printing metal alloys directly is dropping quite rapidly. Printed metal is very durable, can be machined and in some cases, even surface finished. It is likely only a matter of time before this technology becomes available in a low-cost format.

    Exciting times.

  24. Re:Legitimate speech? Excuse me what? on Internet Freedom Won't Be Controlled, Says UN Telcom Chief · · Score: 1

    [quote]
    Is false advertisement legitimate?
    Is libel legitimate?
    Is fraud legitimate?
    Is perjury legitimate?
    Is publishing private data (say, the username/password to your banking site) legitimate?
    [/quote]

    In the moral sense.. all words are indeed legimate. You are free to refute or counter. I admire the American ideal of freedom of speech quite highly and it is unique.. and it is very much part of what makes the internet special.

  25. Re:Why click without reading? on Adobe EULA Demands 7000 Years a Day From Humankind · · Score: 1

    Canadian law actually considers this. IANAL, but I think they use a "reasonable person" test, e.g., you are bound to what a "reasonable person" would.

    Of course, the judge gets to decide what that means, but I think it's well established nobody reads the things.