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User: [Dilbert]

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Comments · 55

  1. tux for prez on Do Geeks Have a Political Voice? · · Score: 1

    so why don't we do something?

    the numbers are definately there...

    what we need is a voice. something to rally behind....

    elect tux president!
    or maybe, start the "tech" party, a worldwide political organization of propellerheads like ourselves.
    if there was a tech party, i'd at least exercise my right to vote, which i don't currently.

  2. Re:Just copies? on Microsoft Invents Symbolic Links · · Score: 1
    (incidently the 80-90% figure is ridiculous -- you only get that if you're a complete moron, i would think)

    you would think, as a normal linux user... in windoze, half of the \winnt dir is duplicate CRAP. then half of \Program Files is duplicate crap too.

    I can see the figure realisticly being something like 60-70%, actually...

    remember, windows IS a complete moron.

  3. Re:Will this affect my Dell? on Intel Encounters Another Problem with RAMBUS · · Score: 1

    NO, it will not. I don't know how good the news.com article is, but the zdnet one i tried to have them post a day ago was rejected... it explained that concept. if you have RAMBUS ram, you're fine. if you have SDRAM, you're fine. if you have ECC SDRAM, you're fucked.

  4. Uhh, i sent this in a day and a half ago. on Intel Encounters Another Problem with RAMBUS · · Score: 0

    What IS this??

    I have been SHAFTED royally by /. like 4 times in the last few days, putting up a good story with a great writeup & link and then NOT getting it posted. Then a shittier writeup gets put up like a day after i post my submission.

    Is it possible they hate me??

  5. Re:Road trips in FRANCE on Net Access on an American Road Trip? · · Score: 1
    Power in france is wacky... Their plugs are two-pronged, straight cylendrical deals that are strange looking compared to the standard US "flat" plugs. Think ground on a 3-prong, but then put on a second one, then space them farther apart than a US 2 prong, and you basically have a french plug. :-P

    I *BELIEVE* that french power is 220V AC, not 240. In fact, I'm NEXT to positive.... Again the warnings about UK do apply though - your laptop MAY have a "switching" PS and would handle the line change fine provided you give it a plug adaptor.

    Phones - I honestly have no idea. During the 3 weeks I spent in france I think I actually LOOKED at one phone. the handset -> base connection is the same as ours, however, so you at least have that... The one phone i stared at was in a hotel and it was nice enough to provide a modem jack (std. RJ11) - this wasn't even a very classy hotel either, nor was it in a HUGE tourist area, comparitively. (in the south of france, near Avignon)

    ISPs - France DOES have AOL. God only knows WHY, it's fricking "AMERICA" online, not FRANCE... but i know there is AOL access there... wannadoo.fr is another big isp over there... i don't know if they offer any free stuff or whatever, but there is ALWAYS AOhell.

  6. The question that we all REALLY want answered on Ask Security Guru Dave Dittrich About DDoS Attacks · · Score: 1

    "Linn-ucks" or "Line-ucks"?

  7. Re:The truth about universities. on Where Can I Find NT Kernel Programmers? · · Score: 1

    You simply do not understand how the American higher education system is set up. Universities do not exist to train you a specific set of skills, they prepare you for you future by teaching you how to learn. In a CS program, it is done using some arbitrary programming language and computer platform because those skills are just that, arbitrary.

    That is the point i'm taking issue with here. The fact remains that students in other countries come out of school with much more EXPERIENCE than we Americans. I have no problem with "learning how to learn," but it should be supplemented with actual implementation and application. My point is that after I learn C++, etc. they can't then teach me MFC. Hell, even what i've seen so far in C++ has squat's worth of *nix in it either! I understand that i'm learning the algorithms and techniques that i'll need to use for the more advanced work, but I'm also disturbed that they sit here and spoon feed us material and expect us to regurgitate their answers. I would get punished in a data structures course if i used an unoptimized sorting algorithm - even if it was one that i came up with completely on my own and was entirely revolutionary.

    Schools teach you how to learn, yes. But they force you to learn THE WAY THEY WANT YOU TO, which is not always the best way. Ritchie's quote is exactly right, and I agree. But you can't learn what is "excessively relevant" unless you understand what it is you don't want to be relavent to! If I wanted to come up with my own router "OS," because of the way I will have been schooled, chances are that i'll come up with something extremely similar to IOS, even if I've never TOUCHED IOS before in my life. We need to learn these things precicely so we DON'T repeat ourselves.

    If I learned (using my current example) IOS at college, then when I get in the real world I won't spend 4 months trying to learn it. Those four months could be spent honing my skills even further, making me FAR better at the job than I would be in the previous case. Those are four months where i could, instead of studying so i can keep the job, be studying something entirely different so I can further extend my capabilities.

    I think our education system needs a serious revamp. I don't know HOW it should really be changed, but I know what I don't like about it. "I leave the redesign to the reader." :-P

    [Dilbert]

  8. This will probably get me FLAMED to all hell... on Where Can I Find NT Kernel Programmers? · · Score: 2

    Universities tend to churn out Unix-skilled people, not NT people...

    I think this is a problem. I mean, as much as I like *nix, we all know it is not the solution for everything. We would all love to see linux on all the desktops, but I don't see it happenning any time REAL soon.

    Yet real universities (i.e. Case Western Reserve) do not even OFFER courses in anything having to do with NT. I would love to get credit for taking a course in the Windows API - not because I'm obsessed with Windows, but because, let's face it, there is $$$ to be made in Windows. Hell, I can't even learn Cisco stuff at this school. I'm stuck with *nix-style programming on Windoze machines (we learn text-based stuff on VC++ or Codewarrior).

    The argument i've heard is that "that kind of thing is for tech schools." Fine. Then what the hell should I learn in CS at a university? Windows is important in our world now, and it shouldn't be overlooked. I'll come out of school and have to learn a WHOLE new method and style of programming to get the kind of job I want, assuming I stick with programming. I really wanna do networks, but as I said - I have to pay for CWRU and then pay Cisco for the router and the damn CCNA test. I want to learn skills I'm gonna need, not stuff I'm gonna need to FORGET.

    Hell, I'd go into NT kernel programming or driver writing, if only for the experience of it. Someone tell me what course number I need... oh, wait. Damn. One less job for me.

    I see this kind of thing as a problem with our educational system. Other countries have skilled workers in fields the moment they get out of higher education, yet American students come out with "the skills to learn what they need to do their job." I'll get out of school and get a job somewhere due to the reputation of my school -- but I'll have to spend 6 months there learning all the new skills I need for said job, when those could've easily been taught in school.

    Well, I'll probably get flamed to hell or moderated down for this Windows-slanted post, but oh well. These are my feelings on the issue, and i think it's big enough a deal to risk my karma. :-P

    --=[Dilbert]=--

  9. Re:The Calc Is A Tool on Graphing Calculators for Geeks? · · Score: 1

    I agree with you, but I also disagree.

    The 89 is so pimped out that it does EVERYTHING for you. I struggled around with an 85 for quite a while in pre-calc and part of calc 1. That is learning how to interface. I know how to get the 85 to spit out the answers to shit that some of my friends can't do with a 92+ or 89. I started on an 85 and learned that thing in and out - the only stuff i didn't use on it was polar coordinates... i recommend AGAINST starting with an 89, simply because it's TOO easy. Now that i've slogged through some calc, etc, i feel justified using my 89 to make it easier. NOW it is a tool, when i'm doing multiple derivitives/integrals and discrete math.

    In short, i scoff at you for "cheating" with the 89 on pre-calc, but i commend you for being of the correct mindset for the (to use the idiotic incorrect cliché) "new millennium." I actually agree with that method of learning, after you have learned the basic fundamentals. I just think that people shouldn't COMPLETELY slack on it and skip out on it by calculator-ing.

    But that's just my $0.02


  10. Re:I wonder... on Quake3 Demo Test Released · · Score: 1
    wow, your dad's a computer nazi :-)

    my solution to the problem is for me to be the geek in the family. i make the decisions for my parents. if i wanna lie a bit and get that niceass GFX card for quake, i usually can ;-)

    You have a multipurpose machine sitting there. explain to your dad that a computer is not just for work anymore. they haven't been since the advent of wolfenstein (or arguably earlier). i mean, jeez, there are people who buy a computer SOLELY for solitaire!! talk it over rationally with him. explain to him that your games aren't going to destroy his spreadsheets or .cpp files or anything. You might be able to get him to ok it...

    good luck

  11. Re:IBM Deskstars rule! on Thoughts on the IBM 13G Deskstar? · · Score: 1
    Yep they do.

    OK, my experiences...

    • seagate 350 mb - died after about 4 years of not steady usage, had a physical head crash - the head managed to get itself dug into the clearcoat on the disk surface and it tore a bit of a nick in the platter... plus the head was mostly ripped off the mounting arm.
    • IBM 540 MB to replace seagate - still working to this day.
    • IBM deskstar 22gxp 22gig (7200rpm, ata66) - Works great, had it about 3 months now, no problems, great speed.. but could be bigger, i've filled it.
    • IBM deskstar 22gxp 27.3 gig - 7200 rpm, ata66 - Just got this puppie, but went in fine and works fine, even after i accidentally bumped (a little not soft) it against another drive in the box!
    • i've also used about 4 different WD drives. can't say they're the best, but they're better than seagate disks. now i've heard seagate is great for SCSI, but i don't have SCSI so i haven't tried them.
    I'd say your best bet is IBM. Big Blue seems to know what they're doing these days, at least with disks. while you're at it, order me one of their 50 gig disks too, my 27.3 is filling at the moment...
  12. Re:Straight from a data recovery tech: on Thoughts on the IBM 13G Deskstar? · · Score: 1
    Apparently sudden power failures can cause the head to tap the platters because they lose the lift provided by the rapidly rotating surface.

    Your tech told you that? What kind of crack does he smoke? AFAIK, (from opening my dead seagateS) a head is mounted on a long metal arm. it's not getting lift from shit. Now in a zip disk this makes sense because as the speed drops the disk gets floppy, and this is why they tell you not to turn the machine off with a disk in a zip drive.

    but i'd talk to your tech buddy again on point #4. Not that UPSs are bad, but still, if a head tapped the platter, that'd be a PHYSICAL CRASH, and most likely the head would get ripped off its mounting arm.

    see my later post for my experiences with drives (many years worth)

  13. Re:Utterly utterly offensive on Uncle Robin's Advice for Lovelorn Geeks · · Score: 1
    I definitely have a preference for breast size - I won't mention what it is. But my favorite breasts are my wife's.

    Amen to that. Well, not really, your wife's breasts aren't my favorite ;-) But my girlfriend's are. I mean, they look nice and all that on their own, but it's really the fact that they are hers that makes me like them.

    And don't even get me started about attractive women that think they aren't. My gf isn't perfect in the sense that everyone would think she's attractive, but to me, she most certainly is. I think she's hot, and damn she's got a great personality too. But *every* time I tell her how beautiful she is, she kind of shrugs it off, with just a simple "thank you" and a smile. She didn't really get the idea until she came to visit me at school and I pointed out the looks she was getting from other guys... and even then she tried to pass it off. Maybe I can get her to read this... (She's not really a geek, nor does she like computers that much, but i could send her the link)

    I'm beginning to rant here, sorry, but I want to say it because I think it can really help people.

    Be honest. And when you fall in love, tell the person. My current (and only gf as of yet - i'm 18/in college) didn't think it was possible for me to love her when I told her I did - it was after we went out three times or so. But my gut told me that I had found someone REALLY special and not to let go, and I haven't. Even after some rocky times, we're still together. (but now it's long distance - that can be REAL HARD.)

    So now it's been 9, going on 10 months, and I've been truly happy the whole time. When you find love, it IS the best thing you will ever find. I hate to sound all sappy, but I can't really help it... I love this girl, and I would love to simply walk around outside yelling to the world that I love her. I guess this is the closest I can get without being put in a padded room. :-)

    If I do get you to read this - I love you Liz.

    Sorry again for my rant, Slashdot, but I'm pretty damn happy here and I just want to tell people what they can look forward to.

  14. There's always CWRU on High Intensity Computer Colleges? · · Score: 1
    Well, as is obvious from my e-mail, you can go to CWRU in Cleveland.

    granted, there aren't that many women. Kind of sucks, but i'm in a long distance relationship so it's not too huge an issue for me...

    but the engineering and CS are TOP NOTCH here. great stuff. Plus, it's versitile - you can get a BA in comp sci, which basically means you get the same computer experience as the BS people, but you don't have to take nasty hard physics or chem or calculus 4 or crazy shit like that. Oh yeah, it's pretty damn cheap compared to CMU and RPI and MIT, and they'll give you aid too. Quite a bit, if you're smart enuff. (1300+ SAT & top 15% == half tuition)

    it's a decent school. the only social life is in fraternities, but it's still cool.

  15. Wait a minute there... on Prototype 150GByte Read-Only Disk Demonstrated · · Score: 1
    Look at the picture in the article.

    It's just one of those "clear CDs" that come on the top (and sometimes bottom) of spindles. What a joke. :-)

    Actually, this would be really nice if/when it catches on. I can put all my pr0n on one CD-thing instead of my damn 3 towers of RAID5 that I have sitting next to my box. :-}

    And does this mean that this technology will involve some sort of UV light? If it's measuring fluorescence... I can see people having "black and white" parties with the new C-3D things sitting "read-side" up all over the place and looking really cool under the blacklights.

  16. Re:so, what do we do? on The Matrix DVD Troubles · · Score: 1
    DONT GET A SIGMA HOLLYWOOD PLUS!!

    that's what I have and it's not werkin. My DVD is Toshiba M1212, the player works fine... it's just the decoder, chokes on the disc for some reason. e-mailed Sigma, no response yet.

    ARRG.

    I didn't spend $$ on it to be stuck using the software decoder that came with my video card...

  17. Re:Cool on Zorb - Inflatable Human Hamster ball · · Score: 1
    IF you read some more, they mention that you can actually buy a ball to plug up an opening if you want it... i can see possibilities of complete-immersion zorbing, with a scuba tank.

    you get in, they fill it up with h2o. they plug it. then you roll down. the extra mass gets you really moving, and you would actually remain in one spot, theoretically, while it rolled down the hill.

    two problems - don't know if it can support the added weight of that much h2o, and if it did, it'd be one hell of a heavy thing to stop at the bottom.

  18. Re:Actually, the idiots are in Europe on Norwegian Company Claims to have Patented e-Commerce · · Score: 1
    I realize that.

    My point was that I'm surprised that more people/firms in the US aren't doing this and that we don't see a ton of it over here.

  19. Actually, it's amazing.... on Norwegian Company Claims to have Patented e-Commerce · · Score: 1
    It's truly amazing to me that this hasn't gotten worse than it is.

    Take a look at the amount of sheer idiots in the US today. Look at the kind of crap people think that they can do for a computer or that a computer can do for them. I find it really surprising that we don't have MORE shit like this here. (Pardon my language, but it gets it across best.) I don't really know, but that's my two cents.

    --

    This post made from a Sun Ultra5... coolness!

  20. Wow, good idea! on Expanding the use of XML in Linux? · · Score: 0
    I don't know XML.

    I'm aware that it is (in a way) a superset of HTML.

    We all know that HTML is cool.

    By association, we can assume (having never even used XML) that it is cool as well.

    Linux really could use a standard config system, and this is a proposal that sounds as though it really has some merit. Hopefully some guy at RedHat or Debian or Slack or YellowDog or TurboLinux or... (being distro agnostic here...)

    hopefully one of the distros picks up on it.

    It'd be cool. Truly Cool (tm).

  21. The OS that does it RIGHT (Was - Re:Figures.) on Microsoft Plays Linux Games at Work · · Score: 1
    Go take a gander at BeOS.

    You install stuff. It goes in one folder. You make a link to the executable wherever you want. DONE.

    (Except for the FEW rare cases that need some lib to be put somewhere... and even in those cases, BeOS has a very elegant deal going on... because the OS tree structure is ALWAYS the same, people put a link in the zip/tar file that says "drag libs here" and you do and they go right into the proper lib folder.)

    when you want to uninstall, you can just delete away. no registry. no complex tree structures to mess with (ie, linux)

    it's easy. it makes me happy. if only Be would run on my new machine... :-(

    please don't go BeBashing, I like it. it's not that i don't like linux - that's not true. I just think Be has it "TheRightWay (tm)"

    another $0.73 from me.

    Beep Codes: S-L-L-S-S = speaker error

  22. Re:You must be kidding on Corel Linux Beta Program · · Score: 1
    You've obviously missed my point.

    I agree that they want people who know what they're doing and a lot of general interest. Therin lies the key: general.

    We all know about linux already. We already support it. Even though Linux is a buzzword these days, people don't really know what it is. If Corel wants to spread their Linux as an alternative to Windows, one that is easy, etc, hey need to test the definition of "easy" on Johnny AOLScriptKiddie. I've been down this road with BeOS. They don't want to portray it as a Windows competitor, so it's going down the tubes with the MacOS. I think that Be is GREAT and would make an EXCELLENT home user system. But they don't tout it that way. Now Linux, OTOH, is MUCH harder to install. I know how, I run it, etc. But it's not just like click and go.(ala BeOS, or *gag* windows) Corel has to have a lot up their sleeve to get this onto people's desks instead of WinXX. And to do that, they need testing by the market they're pushing for, not by us geeks. Let the geeks play with debian and slack and RH (i'm distro agnostic, by the way). Whatever good things we bring to linux in general, Corel will add. My bet is if they have people coding stuff for their distro, those people have enough geek friends to pound out those sort of bugs. But Corel will need to do serious testing on EASE OF USE, not bugs.

    Whew, that was tiring.

    Time to go play quake. :-)

    Again, another $0.265 from me. Like it matters in the grand scheme of life anyway.

  23. Another issue we've all overlooked... on Corel Linux Beta Program · · Score: 3
    Before I go on to finish the subject, I want to say that I agree with the insightful few that have noted that Corel is possibly interested in testing "upgradability" from Win9x/NT (actually, I probably don't need the quotes - in most cases, linux is an upgrade from winblowz.) But also, please note that that page is probably a generic beta info page and noone's fixed it yet.

    But the thing I see people overlooking is the fact that this is most likely a limited beta program. From the site:

    How many people will be testing Corel LINUX?

    In order to ensure that the beta testing process can be properly administered, we will be limiting the number of registered beta testers for this first round of testing. The exact number of testers has not yet been determined.

    Ok so now everyone on /. is rushing in their forms, etc. You have to pause and think that Corel more than likely doesn't want too many geekmeisters like most slashdotters testing the thing. Yeah, there will be openings, but I bet that they are more interested in useability testing and interface bugs than security right now. What i'm attempting to drive at here is that their server is probably being swamped by the /. effect and thus making it difficult for johnny aolScriptKiddie to sign up for the program. now i'm not saying that johnny is any better at using linux than the general reader around here, but hey, this might be a way to pull johnny out of his stupidity as an AOL lamer and maybe get him on a decent OS and possibly let him learn a few new things too. I guess what I'm saying is that, from the perspective of the general advancement of linux, this story shouldn't have been posted: simply because of the tendancy /. has to flood sites with eager people.

    I don't know that Corel is having any problems, although I did read someone's post about having script errors on the beta submission page... I'd have to guess that they are feeling some strain.

    So for linux's sake, don't slashdot Corel!! :-)

    just my $0.34

    (oh, and sorry about the italic tags. This post is not lynx compatible. :-)

  24. Re:What if M$ bought... on Visio to be bought by Microsoft · · Score: 1

    Heh.
    This couldve become a 2 or 3 (funny) if you had just developed the idea...

    gcc needs to crash more often too, right in the middle of important builds. patch won't work right either, leaving you with a mangled kernel and you and your trusty 28.8 have to go redownload the 15MB sourceball again... (grr) M$ would dump all virtual terminals and get rid of /proc and /dev (can't let users know too much) and on top of it all, they'd mess with memory so that you keep running out of it. Then they'd finish it off by making the default shell their own variant of mc.

    Oh. Wait. If they just flip the / around, they'd have DOS. But I wouldn't put that past them. They'd repackage it a MS Unix and sell it to the newbies who are trying to jump on the bandwagon and who still believe that MS writes for their best interests.

  25. "Desktop Decoder" for AC-3? on The PC and ahe Video Entertainment Center? · · Score: 1

    I have a nice little DVD/gaming/hax0r d00d box I'm building. ;-)

    Hardware DVD decoding, all the perks. It will have SPDIF AC-3 output for sound.

    I also have a $400 AIWA mini-theater system that has Dolby 5.1 analog inputs.

    However, I DO NOT have an AC-3 decoder. I need something to take my SPDIF input (from DVD card) and make it into 5.1 Analog outs. The ONLY thing I've seen to do this is a part of the Creative/Cambridge SoundWorks "Dolby Digital 5.1" speaker system. It's $300 at BestBuy, and comes with a sweet-ass little AC-3 desktop-sized decoder box.

    Can I get a decoder somewhere, or is my best bet to go steal this thing from the display model @ Best Buy?? ;-)

    Thanks for any help...
    [Dilbert]
    {remove the _nospam...}