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User: snevig

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  1. Re:Misc Titles on Ask Slashdot: What Are the Books Everyone Should Read? · · Score: 1

    Came to add The Source. Since you've already mentioned it, I'll just add that it's my favourite book of all time. I've read it at least 6 times and I've wound up with two copies of it in my "library" of a couple of dozen books.

    Another favourite which isn't yet in the comments is Sarum by Edward Rutherford.

  2. Re:Firefox - Too little, too late on Firefox 9 Released, JavaScript Performance Greatly Improved · · Score: 1

    Chrome spawns one thread for each tab, extension and plug-in in addition to a "Browser" thread and a "GPU Process" thread. A summary of the processes is provided in Chrome's task manager (Shift + Esc or right-click on Chrome's chrome and select Task Manager).

    Chrome uses significantly more resources than Firefox however it does not suffer from the horrid memory leaks that have plagued Firefox for years: Mozilla Gets "Tough" on Firefox Memory Leaks

    As the article states, the memory leaks are a well-known problem. It's an issue that the developers do not seem to be able to fix.

    Chrome's performance is exceptional and stable. Firefox's performance is also exceptional at first launch but it can degrade in a matter of minutes to a choppy, annoying experience. If you're using Firefox and haven't already done so, try the Memory Restart add-on. Be sure to display the add-on bar to watch the memory inflate. In my experience, performance starts to degrade around 600 MB.

    In a world where RAM is dirt cheap, Chrome is welcome to all it wants to use as long as it maintains its performance. I have 8 GB of RAM installed and rarely see total usage beyond 3 GB.

    I switched to Chrome yesterday after at least five years of primary Firefox usage. I'm a bit sad to leave Firefox behind, but I had tired of restarting it four or five times a day just to keep the memory in check.

    Ironically, it was the Google toolbar that had kept me tied to Firefox for the last year. I'm now using the Context Search extension in Chrome to achieve similar functionality to the Google toolbar "buttons" in Firefox.

  3. KISS on Schooling Microsoft On Random Browser Selection · · Score: 1

    An array can be easily randomized in JavaScript by simply assigning a fixed random number to each element of the array:

    function randomizeArray(a){var i,b=[];for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)b.push([a[i],Math.random()]);b.sort(randomizeArraySort);for(i=0;i<b.length;i++)b[i]=b[i][0];return b;}

    function randomizeArraySort(a,b){return a[1]<b[1]?-1:a[1]>b[1]?1:0;}


    usage example:

    alert(randomizeArray(["a","b","c","d","e"]));

  4. Open Source Adoption on UK Government Boosts Open Source Adoption · · Score: 1

    Is that where you get the full DNA of a child prior to adoption?

  5. Suggestion on How to Prevent Form Spam Without Captchas · · Score: 1
    In this example, the action of the form is not set until the user clicks on submit. I believe this should foil most bots. The javascript can easily be obfuscated to make it even more difficult for a bot to do its dirty work.

    <html>
    <head>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    function submit1(){
    var o=document.getElementById("form1");
    o.action="test.asp";
    o.submit();
    }
    </script>
    </head>
    <body>
    <form id=form1>
    <table>
    <tr><td>First Name:</td><td><input name=fname></td></tr>
    <tr><td>Last Name:</td><td><input name=lname></td></tr>
    <tr><td>Email Address:</td><td><input name=email></td></tr>
    </table>
    </form>
    <input type=button onclick="submit1();" value=Submit>
    </body>
    </html>
  6. Dupe of a lame article on New Keyboard Has Just 53 Keys · · Score: 1

    http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/25/001 9242&from=rss

    Posted by samzenpus on Monday January 24, @11:06PM
    from the learn-to-type-again dept.

    An anonymous reader writes "There are two keyboard standards today - QWERTY and DVORAK. QWERTY, the one we usually have, was used on the first commercially produced typewriter in 1873. Ironically, QWERTY was actually designed to slow down the typist to prevent jamming the keys, and we've been stuck with that layout since. New Standard Keyboards offers new "alphabetical" keyboard. This keyboard has just 53-keys (instead of 101) and offers user-friendly benefits and quick data entry."

  7. AJAX in Space! on Space Spiders to Assemble Satellites in Orbit · · Score: 3, Funny

    oh wait...

  8. So what we have is... on To Flush Or Not To Flush · · Score: 3, Funny

    the ultimate pissing contest. :P

  9. Nice but... on Advances in New Western Digital Drives · · Score: 2, Informative

    Storage Review has the Hitachi 7K500 as the best desktop performer out there right now.

    Their review of the WD2500KS compares it to the Hitachi 7K400 and the WD clearly loses out.

    The 7K500 is compared to the 7K400 in its review and the next-gen performance boost is quite clear.

  10. Ironic on Unit Test Your Aspects · · Score: 5, Funny

    There's a javascript error in the article. Line 8, Char 76: Unterminated string constant

  11. Bad case of caps? on PCs Plagued by Bad Capacitors · · Score: 0

    Well, my doctor said... huh? oh, ok... never mind

  12. Curse you! on Cursing as Peephole Into Brain Architecture · · Score: 0

    I curse you from this day on to never have rest, to die alone and in pain, may your lungs burn, may you go to prison to become the pox ridden sex slave of everyone there, I curse you with skin ulcers and boils, and rotting of the flesh, your body will become so foul that even the hyenas, rats and maggots will not be able to eat your diseased meat.

  13. Up Periscope on Scuba-Doo Underwater Scooter · · Score: -1

    weird

  14. April Fools? on Simpsons Actors on Strike · · Score: 1

    Fark ran this on April 1st and I thought it was a joke. Joke's on me I guess; and you too... must be nice to make $125,000 per day. Of course the 200% raise they actors are looking for would be even nicer :P

  15. It won't be cheap on Debunking the Trillion-Dollar Space Myth · · Score: 1

    Let's consider the cost of a single launch of the Space Shuttle into LEO: $500 million according to a recent issue of Popular Science.

    Now let's take into account that the longest Shuttle mission to date was just shy of 17 days.

    A Mars mission will last up to three years and will be immeasurably more complex than the week long 1969 Moon landing mission. The article goes on to say that future propulsion technologies promise to halve or third the travel time to Mars, but a mission of even one year in length presents huge technological challenges.

    So in order to get to Mars, a transport vechicle for the one to three year mission still must be designed, tested and built. For the first five years of this effort, Predident Bush has ear-marked $12 billion - $2.4 billion / yr or the equivalent of four Shuttle launches. IMHO, it does not sound like a serious proposal.

    How much money would it take? Given the track record of NASA and all their various contractors, I doubt $1 trillion is all that far off the mark at all. If it were to take 20 years to get to the point of an actual launch, that would work out to a <sarcasm>mere<\sarcasm> $50 billion / year.

  16. Silent until... on Review of Silent 400w Power Supply · · Score: 1

    The only time I ever notice my machines are producing noise is when I read about some new "silent" cooling system.

  17. On time? on Earth Travel On Time, Again · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hmmm... don't think that'll help my procrastination.

  18. Re:Scrambled *and* not stored? on Police and Lawyers Love E-ZPass · · Score: 1

    I think they're talking about data they use for traffic conditions. They monitor the flow of cars with E-ZPasses passing by a station to get an idea of traffic conditions at the station. They don't store the data by card id, primarily because the cost of storing that kind of data would be prohibitive.

  19. Incriminate yourself by not using the card... on Police and Lawyers Love E-ZPass · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you keep a daily routine & use the EZ Pass on your way to & from work, you would incriminate yourself if you didn't use the card, say, on the way home the same day someone in your office was murdered after hours. It would be circumstantial evidence, but nonetheless it would give the police cause to put your life under a microscope.

    I think there may have been a Law & Order episode that revolved around this idea.

  20. This is Newsworthy? on Microsoft: Patches, Patches Everywhere! · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Good grief, Charlie Brown, /.'s blatant anti-M$ obsession is becomming embarrasingly transparent for this glitch to be newsworthy.

  21. Google: Linux vs. M$ on Why Microsoft Wants to Buy Google · · Score: 1

    Linux = 13,100,000
    Microsoft = 10,100,000

  22. Re:Wielding their Mighty Sword on FCC Proposes Fining AT&T Over DNC Violation · · Score: 1

    What a ridiculous compaison... good for a laugh

  23. Wielding their Mighty Sword on FCC Proposes Fining AT&T Over DNC Violation · · Score: 1

    Someone posted the opinion that $780,000 is just a slap on the wrist for a company as big as AT&T. Somehow, I doubt that AT&T will agree with that sentiment. IMHO, a fine of $10,000 per phone call is excessive. Perhaps the FCC has previously warned AT&T to honor DNC requests; the article fails to mention this fact & I couldn't be bothered to read the FCC's press release. If they've never even warned AT&T in the past, this is overkill. I'm not a big fan of AT&T, not for that matter the FCC... I'm just of the opinion that the punishment should fit the crime.

  24. Programming on Nanotechnology: Nanoscale Particles A Health Hazard? · · Score: 0

    Just imagine the ill-effects of a bug in their programming!

  25. Digital is King! on To Digitize or Not Digitize the Family Photo Album? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I waited years to buy a digital camera. I wanted a digital camera that took pictures as good quality (or better) as 35mm. The Canon D30 is the first digital camera that has received critical acclaim for its ability to take photos which surpass the quality of 35mm cameras. So I bought one of these cameras and a nice 28-135mm lens and entered the digital realm. I also bought a 1GB IBM microdrive for the camera which holds about 800 photos. This camera takes absolutely fantastic photos. I use a very inexpensive inkjet printer, the Canon BJC-8200 to print photos on glossy photo paper and visitors to my home are astounded when I tell them that all the photos hung around my home were taken with a digital camera and printed on an inkjet printer. They look at least as good as traditional photos.

    There are several advantages to digital photos over 35mm:

    1. Since my microdrive holds 800 photos and each digital photo has no real cost to me (besides a small amount of battery power), I will often take several photos of the same subject / scene whereas with a 35mm I might only take one photo because of the cost of film.

    2. Before printing a digital photo, you have the opportunity to crop, enhance and edit it. While you can certainly crop, enhance and even edit 35mm photos, it takes far less time and money to do so with digital. I use Adobe Photoshop for this purpose. Besides providing tools to do simple enhancements, Photoshop also has many built-in filters (and more available third-party) which are a lot of fun to play with.

    3. Digitial albums are extremely easy to organize. I use directories to create albums. I create a new folder under the "My Photos" folder for each new event. I use the naming convention "YYYY-MM-DD Event Name" for each subfolder, so it's easy to browse the albums in chronological order.

    4. Digital photos are far more permanent than prints. Formats may change over time, but you'll always be able to convert to the new formats. The key is to keep copies of both the original photos AND the ones you've spent the time editing. I backup all my photos onto CD. While you only have one copy of a 35mm negative, you can easily create as many copis of your photos CDs as you like and share these with friends and family members or just store them for safekeeping.

    5. Digital photos are much easier to share. I live a great distance from the rest of my family and use my photos to help stay in touch. When I first got my digital camera, I kept my online photos at zing.com. Unfortunately, they went the way of the dodo about a year ago. They made a deal with ophoto.com before unplugging and all my albums were transferred, but I didn't like ophoto's interface all that much and eventually found a new home for my photos at ImageStation. It's a free service and it's owned by Sony, so hopefully it will prove to have some staying power. If you're interested, please visit my photos. I have over a hundred albums online - I think this one is the best.

    I also started digitizing my older 35mm and APS photos using a film scanner. A film scanner produces far better quality digital photos than a flatbed scanner does, so consider investing in one if you want to digitize / preserve your old photos. I can recommend the Canon CanoScan FS 2710 that I bought. It was inexpensive and besides producing much higher quality photos than a flatbed scanner, it's also a lot faster!