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User: Sarcazmo

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Comments · 195

  1. Re:Joy of joys on Intel To Redesign PC With "Grantsdale" Chip · · Score: 1

    SATA, higher areal densities (Maxtor has 320GB+ drives planned for release very soon) or 10,000 RPM SATA drives will pretty much eliminate the bottleneck at the hard disk.

    Modern ATA drives are already pushing 25-50 MB/Sec, doubling the capacity also doubles this sustained rate. Within a year we will likely see single drives that are able to max out the initial 150MB/Sec SATA spec.

    I think we should be more concerned that most people are still on 100Mbit LANs. Duplicating a single 200GB hard disk over 100Mbit LAN takes ages. Gigabit is still pretty expensive, compared to how extremely cheap 100Mbit is. An example, we checked into adding a 8 port copper Gbit card to our Cisco at work, and I think the figure was something like $5000. We have a few fiber Gbit slots, but just the GBIC for those costs around $400 a port.

    I just have the feeling that by the time Gbit becomes cheap enough for the masses (i.e. someone is heard saying "we might as well go Gbit, it's not much more expensive"), it will already be obselete.

    Not to mention that there are a whole lot of crappy Gbit NICs that can do no where near Gbit speeds.

  2. Re:Computer clocks, atomic clocks, etc... on Venezuela Falling Behind · · Score: 1

    Digital clocks often use the 60 hz AC signal for sync because it is usually much more stable than a crystal.

    Crystals are affected by many factors such as temperature, external vibrations, and it is more expensive to make them accurate than to just rely on the AC clock. In the US at least, the 60 hz AC is extremely stable in the long run.

    Crystals used for clocking simple computers really don't need to be very stable, it doesn't matter if the computer runs at a few hertz either way, as long as the whole system is following the beat of the same drum.

  3. Re:OSS Concerns? on Congress Asks Universities To Enforce Copyrights · · Score: 1

    Yeah, it is a not very well publicized fact about RH Advanced server, I don't think many open source news sites would run a story on it because Red Hat is such a huge contributer to the community at large. As far as I can tell it doesn't violate the GPL, since they still give you the source with any GPLed AS component, it's only the OS as a complete package that is subject to the EULA.

    As far as where the line is drawn with regard to that, no one likely knows. I'm not sure, but there may be some closed source parts of AS that they can use to give the EULA some teeth.

  4. Re:OSS Concerns? on Congress Asks Universities To Enforce Copyrights · · Score: 1

    Can't you install that on a bunch of boxen for the after you pay the $1500 price tag?

    No, actually sorta the opposite. If you were to get all the open source packages that comprise RH Advanced Server (if you can somehow get them without buying it) and use them without paying the $1500, you are then free to use them however you want.

    However, if you pay the cash then you have agreed to the services agreement, which says that you must license each copy of RHAS on a per-server basis, and gives RH the right to audit you to ensure compliance.

    The EULAs are all up on redhat.com if you would like to read them.

  5. Re:ISPs will be next, and be libel on Congress Asks Universities To Enforce Copyrights · · Score: 0, Troll

    Well, the liberals are attempting it with guns. At least in that case, there are big lobbies and corporations fighting against it, rather than for it.

  6. Re:The Nerd Myth on Why Nerds Are Unpopular · · Score: 1

    I agree about high school, but for me, middle school was the stereotypical hell-hole for someone smart. By the time high school rolled around, the kids that fucked with me were old enough to drop out of school, and usually did. (Another argument for the abolishment of compulsory education)

    In high school, I was mostly respected for intellect and skills. I wasn't really part of the "in" crowd, but they all knew me, and I was friends with some of them. I definitely didn't get fucked with like in middle school.

  7. Re:You're never paranoid enough... on Should you Fear Google? · · Score: 1

    Living in a dorm presents a strange legal situation. For example, it's perfectly legal for a school official or an RA to search your room randomly, or break in whenever they want to. Now, in the aforementioned situation, the question boils down to, "Was the RA acting as an agent of the police, or as a school official?" when he opened the door.

    The detention may have been lawful, if, like most people, he didn't question whether he could leave, or if he did, they said something like "We really need to ask you some questions", or "If you won't talk to us now, we will go get a warrant", all common tactics to dodge a firm answer to the question whether the person is being detained (under de-facto arrest) or not.

    This shit happens all the time. Is COPS still a TV show? You could see questionable searches and questionable detentions all the time on there.

  8. Re:NOT the same as computer security disclosures on Science Editors Urge Nondisclosure Of Bioterror Info · · Score: 1

    The common person could take steps to mitigate the potential impact. We aren't helpless sheep. Security is a process, not a product.

  9. Re:Forget the article - look at the photo! on Crack Windows XP With... Windows 2000 · · Score: 1

    But, do you remember the diff'rent strokes usenet sex story?

    I've unfortunately lost it, and can't find it in google news.

    It included the line "WOO WOO I GET SPANKING".

  10. Re:how about rsync? on FTP: Better Than HTTP, Or Obsolete? · · Score: 1

    Thanks for the info. Too bad you likely posted too late in the story to get modded up, your's is the most informative response.

  11. Re:how about rsync? on FTP: Better Than HTTP, Or Obsolete? · · Score: 1

    Why MD5? Wouldn't a simple CRC be a better choice? Rsync over ssh, as it normally used over insecure networks already insures a secure download, so why waste time with MD5 when a much simpler hashing algorithm could be used?

  12. Re:Civil disobedience is better on IEEE Wants Congress To Re-Examine DMCA · · Score: 1

    So then, I take it you are opposed to the GPL.

  13. Re:Linux? on Microsoft Applies For .NET Patent · · Score: 1

    MS has a POSIX compatibility pack that makes it unixish enough to call it POSIX in the government's eyes. I don't know if it is available for recent versions of Windows, but I know the NT series had it, it was the only way MS could convince the government to run their stuff in roles that called for a POSIX (unixish) system.

  14. Re:Civil disobedience is better on IEEE Wants Congress To Re-Examine DMCA · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You seem very confused. Who said copyright was a "right"? I sure didn't. It's an artifical scheme designed to give authors some control over the distribution of their work.

    EULA is not a contract

    Last I checked, the only legal basis for most of an EULA is under contract law, debatable as that may be.

    Copyrights as EULA enforcement devices is pretty weak, as most of it is covered under contract law, but certain EULAs may allow certain actions that may fall under the realm of copyright law, and violating other contractual clauses of the EULA may terminate the whole thing, including the parts covered by copyright law.

    Think site licenses, which also grant rights normally reserved under copyright (i.e. the limited right to copy), in addition to EULA terms. In cases like that, both sets of law must come into play.

    And what if someone sent you $100 in an envelope that said on the outside "by opening this I have the right to send thugs over and collect $200 in interest from you and your friends that you share it with" - this is fradulent contract law in any other context.

    Your example is sleezy, but not fraudulent. Sleezy companies already do this! Haven't you ever gotten a "check" in the mail, usually for several hundred or thousand dollars, but upon careful inspection, it turns out the check is really a loan with a huge rate of interest? Anyone with good credit can attest to getting these. If the notice that it is loan is not prominent, then it could be argued that it was fraudulent, since both parties were not well informed of the terms of the contract, but if it was printed prominently in a place you would likely see it, then I seriously doubt it would be declared an invalid contract in court.

    I'm temped to add IANAL, but if you are getting legal advice from some anonymous guy on the internet, you would probably be stupid enough to just think it was a reference to my homosexuality anyway.

  15. Re:Civil disobedience is better on IEEE Wants Congress To Re-Examine DMCA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think civil disobedience of copyrights whenever possible (like people are doing now) is a much more effective way

    I guess you mean people should freely steal GPL code and not comply with it then.

    Get it straight. Copyright is not a bad thing. Copyright is a good thing that is being twisted and abused to do bad things. We need to end copyright abuse, not copyrights.

    A lot of what is opposed doesn't really fall under copyright per se, but under contract law, when you are talking about EULAs that have terrible clauses in them that infringe on basic rights. Copyright is only the means that is often used as an enforcement method for these EULAs.

    The DMCA is bad for other reasons, it likely violates due process in regard to the "guilty until proven innocent" stance that ISPs must take when they get a DMCA complaint.

    The DMCA anti-circumvention clause violates basic property ownership rights, that are heavily implied in the constitution and in common law.

    The other issue with copyrights are their length, and the extensions, as seen in the Lessig case, terms so long that they actually hinder the creation of new works.

    None of this points to an inherent problem with copyrights.

  16. Re:Linux? on Microsoft Applies For .NET Patent · · Score: 1

    But with Mac OS X, there's Windows compatible, and then there's "Everything else" compatible.

    Windows is the only incompatible OS these days, everything else is unixish. (Yeah, OK the few people still running VMS can flame me now).

  17. Re:Linux? on Microsoft Applies For .NET Patent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Linux has had platform independent coding since the days of Java,

    Back up, most unix-ish C code can be compiled on any vaguely unix-like system with very little modification. I'd call that platform independence, wouldn't you?

    Imagine that, and without the overhead of a bloated VM to slow things way down.

  18. Re:Bernhard Rosenkraenzer (bero)'s article on Shared Source vs. Open Source · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And it's less confusing that shared source is proprietary and open source is Free? To the lay person, they would sound like the same thing.

    Face it, MS is making up their own terminology here, so we should stick to ours too. He who controls the language controls the mind too.

  19. Re:I get four a week. on NYTimes: Tangled Up in Spam · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you just want a fake email address that is "valid", use whatever@example.com

    example.com is an official internet blackhole, sanctioned by RFC. It is what everyone is supposed to use in books, demonstrations, etc, similar to 555-XXXX phone numbers on TV.

  20. Re:Google on Pixar Eclipses Sun with Linux/Intel · · Score: 1

    These guys are probably using cheap arse IDE controllers.

    Well yeah, of course. SCSI would at least double the cost of the machines, if not triple or more. Assuming $500 extra per machine to go SCSI, $500 X 15,000 is 7.5 million dollars. It's a lot cheaper to just pay some lackies $25,000 a year to swap hard disks all day.

  21. Re:MIT on Arrested for Planting Spyware on College Compus · · Score: 1

    So how do you make a public machine, where random people can come in off the street a multi-user system?

    Easy, when someone comes into the library or whatnot, the clerk runs a little program that generates a random login and password and creates the account on an open workstation. You hand the user a little card with their assigned workstation number, and their login and password. When they leave, they give the clerk the card back, and he deletes the account. It could be automated with barcodes or whatnot if you need high volume.

    For something like a college where all the students have ID cards, it gets even easier, since they can just use something like NIS or LDAP or Kerberous logins that are valid on any machine. That's what my college did in the public labs.

  22. Re:deja vu? on Corporate Espionage Leads To Faulty Motherboards · · Score: 1

    If it's burning out power supplies, you have incredibly cheap power supplies. A good power supply should never burn out due to something external happening to it power wise.

  23. Re:Invoking Godwin's Law so soon? on Circuit Court Okays Vote Swapping Site · · Score: 1

    Holy crap, I can't spell tonight. Just pretend all those words are spelled right. :)

  24. Re:Invoking Godwin's Law so soon? on Circuit Court Okays Vote Swapping Site · · Score: 1

    responds to forces other than money

    The Greens are completely about money. The Green party platform is chock-full of socalist wealth redistribution. Nearly every plank is about them taking my money in taxes and giving it to someone else.

    Remeber, after all, Nazi just means "National Socalist", so it's really not a bad comparision.

    I'm a Libertarian, so don't act like people are afraid of more than two parties, we are afraid of socalists that want to ruin the economy is all.

  25. Re:CD *burners*? on Instant Concert CDs? · · Score: 1

    My point was, it doesn't matter how fast a CD can be pressed, a CD press is no more portable than a 4 color litho paper press.

    A typical example of a small CD press.

    I believe making masters for a CD press is not a trivial matter either, similar to making plates for a litho press. I work at a litho printing company, in case you couldn't tell, the CD process seems similar to litho printing.

    Higher speed robotic CD burning replication equipment is a whole lot more portable, and one unit can easily crank out 30+ disks in 5 minutes. I'd imagine they would need several such units (10 or more) at a large venue.