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User: IainHere

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Comments · 112

  1. Re:Mouse wheel support on The Future of Emacs · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are you sure that shouldn't be mouse-whe.el?

  2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge Agreed... on Music Should Be Heard But Not Understood · · Score: 1
    ...well, sort of. Unfortunately I can't find the exact quote online, so a paraphrase will have to do, but Coleridge believed that,

    Poetry is best when only dimly and not precisely understood, [ancient] Greek poetry has depth because each word conceals several meanings.

    I think it was in an essay on the English language, in which he claimed that the fact we have many synonyms made English prose superior. He gave the example that the line, "All the pomp and prodigality of heaven" would need to be rendered in German as equivalent to "pomp and wastefulness".

    Perhaps Warner/Chapell music picked up a copy of Coleridge's essays and thought it was about time someone acted on them.

  3. Re:13 new things in flock on Firefox-based Social Browser Flock Launches · · Score: 1
    13. shelf: a web scrapbook that helps you organizae stuff you want to blog

    The shelf shows the URL, and allows me to drag the shelved text into another window. But there seems to be no way to revisit the URL - this would seem to be a pretty common usage, so you can look at the context of what you're blogging about. Am I missing something obvious (except re-typing the URL, which isn't a reasonable answer for e.g. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=165939&cid=138 42293)?

  4. Google now indexing graduates! on Google Maps Graduates · · Score: 1

    I read the title "Google Maps Graduates", assumed the final word was a noun, and thought that Google had indexed everyone graduating from university - so that http://graduates.google.com/ would allow employers to search for everyone receiving a "first in natural sciences from Cambridge after 2001".

    Further confused when I scan read the summary as "Another great stride in Google's quest to conquer the internet; graduation."

    It's only a matter of time.

  5. Grow up and grow a pair on A Pay Cut for Personal Growth? · · Score: 1
    Seriously, no-one here can offer you any useful advise. It's up to you.

    • Do you enjoy your current job?
    • Do you need the extra money?
    • Do you think you'll enjoy the other job more?

    I'm currently working out my notice at a software development and management job, and I'm taking a university research post. It pays less, but I don't really need the money, and I know I'll enjoy the research job more. It really is as simple as that. That doesn't make the decision any easier if there are complications - in my case, I have three young children, one of them only a month old, and the new job is a long way away. But stuff like that no stranger can help you with.

    That said, TAKE THE INTERESTING JOB AND GET OUT OF MANAGEMENT NOW!

  6. Full text on Help Beta Test Slashdot CSS · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since the site is slashdotted, here's the article text (it's funny, laugh!)

    <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
                            "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
    <html>
    <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
    <meta name="description" content="Slash + CSS -- article related to Slash.">
    <title>Slashcode | Slash + CSS</title>

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen, projection" href="//www.slashcode.com/base.css" >
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen, projection" href="//www.slashcode.com/comments.css" >
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen, projection" href="//www.slashcode.com/ostgnavbar.css" >
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen, projection" href="//www.slashcode.com/slashcode.css" title="Slashcode" >
    <link rel="Alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen, projection" href="//www.slashcode.com/slashdot.css" title="Slashdot" >
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" href="//www.slashcode.com/print.css" >

    <!-- start template: ID 169, ssihead;misc;default -->

    Sorry - I'm not allowed to show you any more because it violats the posting filter. Stay tuned for the next exciting installment.

  7. Re:Home ! Office on What Business Can Learn from Open Source · · Score: 1

    Murray Gell-Mann must have been mistaken when he famously described Feynman's problem solving algorithm as: (1) write down the problem; (2) think very hard; (3) write down the answer.

    You're telling us that Gell-Mann meant to say: (1) think; (2) walk around and try things out; (3) read slashdot and freshmeat and see what's going on.

    Somehow, I don't think that the Feynmen of today have much to fear.

  8. Re:Close Window 'X' on Windows Longhorn Beta Screenshots · · Score: 4, Funny

    [After short pause to restart browser and find location in thread]

    I can verify the above statement.

    [Hangs head in shame]

  9. Re:Why? on The First Annual Underhanded C Contest · · Score: 1
    simulacrum25 said,

    Who is behind this and what is their motivations? What will they do with the ideas submitted in this contest? In a day of professional computer hackers, this is not a contest to have.

    Dicionary.com describes simulacrum as,

    1. An image; a representation.
    2. An insubstantial, superficial, or vague likeness or semblance.

    So, Mr Simulacrum25 (if that is indeed your real name!), care to tell us why you're so scared of other people looking in to ways of secretly concealing information in otherwise innocent looking image files?

  10. Re:Big name != "real" on Who Isn't Paying Attention to ROBOTS.TXT? · · Score: 1

    For what it's worth (not much) I think your approach is perfect. And very funny. My favourite example for people who didn't follow the link:

    # Another bot that ignores * disallows, even though they claim they follow the protocol.
    # And what the hell is with Yahoo-VerticalCrawler-FormerWebCrawler in the agent? Pick a name!
    # This may be the same bot that was listed as FAST above, but it gets a special list.
    # Dirty, dirty bot. I kind of hope this is ignored so I get to block by IP.
    # Update: It is! I do!
    User-agent: fast
    Disallow: /

  11. A quick synopsis on Gulf Stream Slowdown in Progress? · · Score: 1

    Briefish synopsis:

    Recent measurements show that one of the three mechanisms believed to drive the Gulf Stream is decreasing more than expected. The result could be that the Gulf Stream turns off, meaning that warm currents from the equator are no longer brought to Northern Europe and North East America. This may happen in a decade, which might decrease our temperature by 5-8 degrees. Or it might happen over the next couple of centuries, which might actually be beneficial because it could counteract global warming. Or it might not happen at all, since no-one can actually predict this stuff.

    Seems to me that we'd be better off not worrying about it. And no, I'm not a denier of global warming, I don't drive a SUV. Actually, I model fluid flow for a living, albeit on much smaller scales than oceanographic, and the kind of uncertainty involved in this almost makes it non-science. There are much more important issues than this to get worked up about - for example watch the videos on this site, and then try to tell me you care more about the Gulf Stream. Note that I think it's great this research is ongoing, but until they actually have something to report, the media should look into things that we actually know about, such as [insert your favourite here].

  12. Re:windows cvs on KDE Switches to Subversion · · Score: 1

    You say you're interested in it "for private use"; in that case *you don't need a server* - all you need is to download TortoiseSVN. You don't need to worry about installing Apache, or BDB.

    It's so easy, I'll describe the process in full:

    1) Right click on folder where you want to create your repository.
    2) Select "TortoiseSVN->Create Repository Here" - select "Native Filesystem (FSFS)"
    3) Right click on directory you want to put under version control, and select "TortoiseSVN->Import"
    4) Right click on folder where you want your working copy to be, select "Export", and type in the location of your repository (in format "file:///C:/myrepos").
    5) Make changes to working copy, check in, check logs, all new files to the repository, blame, all from right clicks on the files/folders in the working directory.

    Note that, for (3), if you don't want to put EVERYTHING under revision control (eg object files, exes), first make a copy of your files and delete the things you don't want to include. Then proceed to (3) using your "tidy" directory.

  13. Re:windows cvs on KDE Switches to Subversion · · Score: 1

    Subversion on Windows, for local use and with FSFS, has no dependencies.

    I tested like this:

    1) Copied my FSFS repository from Debian to vfat partition of WinXP machine.
    2) Installed TortoiseSVN on WinXP.
    3) Checked out and updated, played with, committed to, repository on WinXP.

    I know this excludes the "create repository on WinXP" step, but svnadmin is downloadable for Windows without needing to install any other dependencies. All of this shows that:

    1) The OP can use SVN for their own personal projects on Windows without worrying about installing BDB or any Apache stuff (libapr being part of the installation set, the end user doesn't need to know about it). In fact, no services are running at all, and;
    2) I have far too much spare time!

    Most places that talk about svn are discussing its use in a multi-user client-server setup, which of course is more complicated. I was just trying to say that, if you're working alone, but want to have revision control, svn is much simpler than most tutorials imply.

  14. Re:No per file version numbers. on KDE Switches to Subversion · · Score: 1

    use SVN's log feature [...] I'm not sure the commandline for it

    The syntax for that command is (you'll like this):
    svn log foo.bar

  15. Re:windows cvs on KDE Switches to Subversion · · Score: 1

    This has strayed rather offtopic, but let's continue, since I might learn something: I use svn with the file system repository. I certainly don't have apache installed, but you're right - "apt-get remove libapr0" does warn that subversion will be removed. I based my above assertion on the fact that, when using FSFS and a command-line interface to the repository (as in a local, single user setup, although you can NFS mount the repository so long as you don't use BDB), there is no subversion service required to be running - all changes to the repository are done through the client svn commands. So why does it need libapr?

    It seems that libapr0 is a "free library of C data structures and routines, forming a system portability layer to as many operating systems as possible, including Unix, MS Win32, BeOS, and OS/2.", which explains the dependency. I'm very suprised that you have found it necessary to install Apache just for that. It still seems likely to me that a Windows version should be runnable without any dependency issues - my initial reading about svn scared me off slightly, because I thought I was going to have to install all of that stuff just to handle local revision control. My intention was to tell the OP that such a headache isn't necessary. In any case, thanks for the info!

    Iain.

  16. Re:windows cvs on KDE Switches to Subversion · · Score: 1

    Can't tell if you're trolling, but this being a Subversion story and all, try googling it.

    You could even try reading the fine Subversion red manual. Note that, for a simple setup using the file based repository (FSFS), you don't need any fancy-dan Apache or BDB, just subversion itself.

  17. Re:Now witness the power... on Alienware's Star Wars PCs · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Holy crap, that's awesome

    Just wish I had mod points


    I find your lack of mod points disturbing...

  18. Re:Now witness the power... on Alienware's Star Wars PCs · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tarkin: Would you prefer another advert, a lucrative advert? Then name the vendor! I grow tired of asking this so it'll be the last time: Where is the sales base?
    Princess Leia: Kuro5hin. They're on Kuro5hin.
    Governor Tarkin: There. See, Lord Vader, she can be reasonable. Continue with the operation. You may advertise when ready.
    Princess Leia: What?
    Governor Tarkin: You're far too trusting. Kuro5hin is too obscure to make an effective demonstration - but don't worry; we'll deal with your rusty's friends soon enough.

  19. Hey! Lighten up! on Hitchhiker's Movie is Bad, says Adams Biographer · · Score: 1
    OK, so according to the review, the film omits the following:

    • The Guide entry on 'Stress and nervous tension'
    • Eddie's back-up personality
    • Arthur marvelling at actually standing on another planet
    • Marvin humming like Pink Floyd
    • Ford, Zaphod and Trillian exploring Magrathea
    • Arthur and Marvin watching the Magrathean sunset (they do still watch it, they just don't discuss it)
    • The Guide entry on Veet Voojagig and the biros
    • Joo Janta 200 Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses
    • [etc]

    But it sounds like, out of a sense of balance and fairness, they've added:
    • The Guide jumping a shark.
  20. Re:Google Gulp too! on Google Ride Finder Announced · · Score: 1

    My favourite part, from the Google Gulp FAQ:

    9. I mean, isn't this whole invite-only thing kind of bogus?

    Dude, it's like you've never even heard of viral marketing.

  21. Charles Foster Kane on Microsoft Fails to Comply With EU Requirements · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Fining Microsoft a few million dollars reminds me of something Orson Welles said as Citizen Kane:


    You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars next year.

    You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place - in 60 years.

  22. Re:Incentive to switch on Interview with Josh Berkus of PostgreSQL · · Score: 1

    Of course, this will be great for their marketshare. But it just seems like a missed opportunity given the bigger picture.

    But let's not worry; it's too late now. It'll always be too late. Fortunately!

    (If you don't get it, don't mod)

  23. Re:Mod parent 'funny' on British Government Considers Tax on Computers · · Score: 1

    Nonsense. I was making a joke about him having "Alan Partridge" as a nick. Neither of the accounts are particularly new (I've had mine a few years - can't remember exactly how long). Check my posting history - I already have excellent karma (until this gets modded offtopic).

  24. Re:Hard to enforce on British Government Considers Tax on Computers · · Score: 1

    Do you travel around in a horse-drawn trap as well?

    No, Alan. This is ridiculous. You'll be accusing me of forcing a hind-legless donkey to carry me around next.

    I suppose you haven't seen the fottage of the 11th September 2001 attacks on the WTC in New York.

    Actually, I was very thankful I didn't have a TV on that day - my (young) children didn't need to know about or see that. I saw it for the first time in "Bowling for Columbine", and spectacular isn't the word.

  25. Re:you see on British Government Considers Tax on Computers · · Score: 1

    I'm sure your points are valid, but you should mention your personal interest in maintaining the TV License Fee:

    Alan Partridge - BBC local radio presenter.