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User: flonker

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Comments · 673

  1. Re:DRM - 1st step away from government copyrights. on DRM More Important Than Life or Security? · · Score: 1

    True story:
    My parents bought a new home. They had it custom built. It cost them quite a lot of money, but it was their dream home. A week or two after we had moved in, my mother was home alone. She was using the bathroom, and didn't close the bathroom door. She didn't think it was necessary. Much to her surprise, the real estate agent unlocked the front door to the house, and walked right in. She walked in on my mother while she was in the bathroom. My parents changed all the locks on their house that very night.

  2. Re:Live action version on Patriot Act Game Pokes Fun at Government · · Score: 1
  3. Re:My own sleep "experiments" on Are Alternative Sleeping Patterns Effective? · · Score: 1

    I've also had chronic insomnia for my entire adult life. I once found a book that could put me to sleep by page 5. I started reading it 10 times, and I never got past page 5. The first few times, I fell asleep at inconvenient times, such as on the train, or waiting somewhere for classes to start. But after that, I got to exploiting that book as a sleep aid. I wish I still had that book.

  4. Re:Greed on BellSouth Will Charge Providers For Performance · · Score: 1

    Google has that nice new "call the advertiser" feature. Simply have a note on the front page saying, "Bellsouth is intentionally degrading your service. Click here to talk to them about it."

  5. Re:Other issues on First Draft of GPL Version 3 Released · · Score: 1

    I think the issue is more than this.

    Company A makes a project that can save files.

    Company B takes A's project, and adds encryption with a set key to the saved files, and releases the source.

    Company A retrieves the key from B's source, and adds the capability of opening B's files.

    Company B sues company A for bypassing an "effective technological protection measure" under the DMCA.

  6. Re:Wow. on Scientists Spot Rare 'In Between' Black Hole · · Score: 1

    The theory more specifically states that "information" can't pass the event horizon. Hence, Hawking radiation. Same as "information" can't travel faster than the speed of light, although objects can. (neutrinos).

    IANA theoretical physicist and would appreciate any corrections.

  7. Re:The ZM300B-APS is NOT loud or expensive on A PC Case with External Power Supply? · · Score: 1

    For many years, I thought *I* was crazy for being able to hear the CRT whine. Do you have any idea what frequency or db it is at, and why most people can't hear it?

  8. Re:Could be big on Microsoft and MTV to Launch Music Service · · Score: 2, Informative

    MTV hasn't been Music Television in many years.

  9. Re:Think ahead on Fixing Windows Boxes that Crash After Blackouts? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You're better off using a marine battery. Car batteries are shallow cycle, meaning they put out large short bursts of current, ideal for ie. starting a car. Marine batteries are deep cycle, meaning that they're designed for a longer discharge.

  10. Re:We have the three rules. on Top 10 System Administrator Truths · · Score: 1
    Rule 3. Sometimes they are telling the truth. Yes sometimes what you think is impossible really is happening or looks like it is happening.
    Over the phone...
    C:\>ping 127.0.0.1
     
    Pinging ?.?.?.? with 32 bytes of data:
     
    Reply from ?.?.?.?: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
    Reply from ?.?.?.?: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
    Reply from ?.?.?.?: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
    Reply from ?.?.?.?: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
     
    Ping statistics for ?.?.?.?:
        Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
    Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
        Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
     
    C:\>
    End result, reinstalled the TCP/IP stack, everything worked.
  11. Re:I love the Internet, though... on France Hostile To Open Source Software? · · Score: 1

    If you donate your code to The Free Software Foundation, anonymously, they could both protect the code and host it. No need for a new service, one that already exists would be enough to provide the services desired.

    Further, you may not even need to do it anonymously. You donated your copyrights to another party. The other party is the one applying the license. You're in the clear.

  12. Re:Draconian measure? on Call of Duty 2 Causing Server Unrest · · Score: 1

    Allow six to twelve weeks of processing time.
    Game time, or real time?

  13. Re:Redundancy on Best CD or DVD Recordable Media for Longevity? · · Score: 1

    Assuming a cryptographically perfect 8 bit hash, and assuming we're hashing a 16 bit number. There are going to be 2^8 (256) collisions.

    Assuming a cryptographically perfect 4kbit hash and a 16mbit file, we have 2^(2^24 - 2^12) files (2^16,773,120 files) that match that hash. If the hash isn't cryptographically perfect, this number is the average number of collisions. Note that the files may only differ by a bit or two.

  14. Re:Redundancy on Best CD or DVD Recordable Media for Longevity? · · Score: 1

    Hashes are one way. There are an infinite number of files that have the same hash. The tricky part is finding them.

  15. Re:Anarchy Online did this on Massive Ads In Matrix Online · · Score: 1

    oops, wrong link. Customizing your AO ads...
    Still wondering if this will work in mxo.

  16. Re:Anarchy Online did this on Massive Ads In Matrix Online · · Score: 1

    Customizing your AO ads... I wonder if this will work in mxo.

  17. Re:SEC filings make good reads on Gizmondo Not Only Crappy But Funded By Mob · · Score: 1
  18. Re:And the lesson in all this? on Significant FBI Abuses of the Patriot Act · · Score: 1

    I read that as liberal AND environmentalist AND whacknuts. Only if all three labels are accurate, does it apply to a specific individual. Not all environmentalists are liberal or whacknuts, not all liberals are environmentalist or whacknuts, and not all whacknuts are liberal or environmentalists.

    However, there are a significant number of environmentalist whacknuts, and they do seem to be mostly liberals, at least from where I'm sitting.

  19. Re:Well it could be like my school on Students Banned from Blogging · · Score: 1

    ROFL. To add to that, start accusing other students of doing drugs, at random. That guy with asthma does steroids! (Well, his inhaler is full of them...) Throw enough poison in the information pool that their methods become useless.

  20. Re:So where are they? on Flexible Electronic Paper · · Score: 1

    The kit starts shipping November 1, 2005, for $3,000 + tax, shipping, & customs fees. "The kit comes pre-configured to operate as a simple electronic book reader."

  21. Re:Getting There... on Slashdot HTML 4.01 and CSS · · Score: 1

    I was thinking about allowing website to host their own alternate styles, with a method built in to the browser allowing the user to select which one they like. Basically, the browser downloads http://slashdot.org/styles.txt, which contains a list of stylesheet "user friendly" names and stylesheet URLs. Originally, it would only be one or two major sites that supported this, but with time, adoption could spread.

    However, in retrospect, I think your idea would be more popular. Not many sites would want to support multiple styles, however, many people want the websites they visit to be "better" for them. I hate the it.slashdot.org colour scheme. It gives me a headache if I look at it too long. So, there is a use for such an extension. Perhaps hosting the alternate styles elsewhere would be sufficient to override the designer's desire for one perfect design and layout.

  22. Re:Getting There... on Slashdot HTML 4.01 and CSS · · Score: 1

    Anyway, I'll be working on an alternate design right quick. I also expect to see a Firefox extension to load up a custom Slashdot stylesheet (and maybe a /. styles database site to find good ones).

    There's an idea in that sentence. Add a file named "styles.txt", similar to robots.txt, that lists all available styles. Expect others to follow. Start a new standard. (And, of course, have a client side style picker that works on multiple sites.)

  23. Re:Their reputation is being tarnished. on Intel Enters Anti-Virus Market · · Score: 1

    I think the problem is entirely different. General applications have privileges they shouldn't have. General applications should NOT be able to add themselves to the startup list (or any auto-run type list). General applications should NOT be able to modify executables. If these two conditions were true, viruses would be a lot less common.

  24. Re:Sandbox on The End of Signature-Based Antivirus Software? · · Score: 1

    You run into the halting problem, or a variation thereof. Let's assume a virus that only infects 1 out of 10 times. It has a 90% chance of getting through the sandbox. Let's assume you have a virus that doesn't start the "bad stuff" until the program has been running for 15 minutes. To catch that, you need to watch the program for 15 minutes in the sandbox.

  25. Re:Brownouts on New 1 Kilowatt PSU - Too Much Power? · · Score: 1

    As for the UPSes, standby vs. online is pretty much a non-issue for almost all electronics. IIRC, the response time for an APC UPS is half a cycle. APC UPSes are supposed to go off under any adverse power conditions, including brownouts.