Slashdot Mirror


User: cheezus_es_lard

cheezus_es_lard's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
94
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 94

  1. Re:D'oh on Creative Goes After Driver Modder · · Score: 1

    Ah, yes. The endangered 'Hope In Mankind' critter is seldom seen these days, but rears it's ugly head in my psyche on occasion as well, much to the disdain of the 800 lb 'Cynicism And Self-Interest' oliphaunt who runs the show most of the time...

  2. Re:personal experience says no freaking way on In The US, Email Is Only For Old People · · Score: 1

    Some of us learned to type without training programs, the old fashioned way. Thank you, IRC, for my 80+wpm.

    cheez@EFNet

  3. Re:I've read about this before. on Ex AT&T Tech Says NSA Monitors All Web Traffic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A couple of notes. AT&T is one carrier- it's likely the other US carriers, such as Qwest, Verizon, etc. are all doing the same thing. CALEA has done a lot for voice in the auto-intercept arena, and they're all compliant with it- hence the presence of automatically-receptive departments at the telcos who _already deal with these people_. Installing splitters and a 'secret room' isn't that far fetched, considering that most CO facilities already use 10% splitters on their fiber backbones for testing purposes, installing another set to route to the NSA doesn't seem that hard. In the dark room, have yourself a bunch of fiber gear designed to recreate the incoming signal and coupled with packet re-assemblers which reconstitute the data streams and mine those that are tagged interesting, and route them directly over DS-3, OC-3 or better (who knows how much dark fiber NSA's got in use?? 49 billion buys a lot...) into the NSA's intercept facility. All of a sudden diverse paths, multihoming, even Tor seem less capable of obfuscating your data's origins- your different paths are all re-constituted at NSA, and then mined for intel. Combine this with a broader-scale mining of data focused on terrorism, drugs, any topic of interest, and you have a massively broad filter capable of doing heuristics on national trends on any different topic, as well as a tool for law enforcement to gather intel for both domestic (warrantless wiretaps, anyone) and foreign surveillance- large portions of Internet transit the USA.

    People used to talk about the acres of computing facilities at the NSA. They're on the bleeding edge in all their tech- and you think they can't reconstitute some diversely-pathed packet data? Encryption? Please. If it's electronic, it's insecure. Get it through your heads.

    love and peace.
    -cheez

  4. Re:Admins to blame? on Call For Halt To Wikipedia Webcomic Deletions · · Score: 1

    It sounds to me as if the need to conserve storage is not the issue- in today's storage environment, I'm surprised there is ANY debate on this point. Instead, it's Wikipedia's desire to make available on physical media that is at issue. My opinion is that the articles being put on physical media should be selected by editors for 'edition' type output, and 'non-notable' or 'trivia' articles could be excluded.

    In no case does it make sense to me that Wikipedia would not allow pages to exist for any reason other than accuracy. I once attempted to create stub pages for the local broadcast radio market, listing out all of the stations and backfilling with data from their own web sites. All but one were deleted, due to 'lack of data' in the article. IMO, these should be left until someone else with interest finds them lacking and fills them out further. Deletion sets the research done back to the beginning, which I would think to be contrary to the interest of maintaining accurate data.

  5. Slashdotting the IEEE? Isn't that just cruel? on Cracking Go · · Score: 1

    I would have hoped they'd be well hosted. Instead, "Please pardon our appearance"

    "The IEEE Spectrum Online website is temporarily unavailable while we work to upgrade our features. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Please check back with us in a day or two to see the new and improved Spectrum Online website. Thank you."

    is IEEE-ese for 'Please someone resurrect our melted processors'

  6. Re:Up to 72 hours later. on House Approves Warrantless Wiretapping Extension · · Score: 1

    If it's valid for the government to monitor communications without a warrant, what law exists that precludes civilian access to the same? The only reason your neighbor can't read your mail is because it's against federal law- if we are systematically tearing down protections of communications from government interception, what prevents individuals from using these precedents as their case against prosecution for the same?

    This is regardless of the origin/destination of the communications. Where in the past, the content of phone calls is treated much as your mail, it's still illegal for your neighbor OR your police force to open your mailbox and read the to/from on your mail, sans warrant. So according to the government, if I put a pen trap on your phone line, it's acceptable, but not if I listen to your calls- or if I record only the URLs you visit on your computer. The method they make it illegal is via 'unauthorized access to systems/networks' laws.

    I still see a need for a reconciliation here, between protections afforded the U.S. Mail and that given to computers and telephones. If your mailbox requires a warrant to be opened, they should require a warrant to run a pen register or to intercept to/from fields in email.

  7. Re:Well they told me when I signed up on Verizon Copper Cutoff Traps Customers · · Score: 2, Informative

    I would love to see that kind of flexibility. When I had copper service here in the D/FW metroplex, I found out that Verizon was the only local service provider which serviced my area. My last-mile copper came from Verizon. And while I could have any of a number of ISPs for Internet service, they were all peered into the VZ DSL Switching network, and their peer bandwidth was generally a lot less than that of the VZ uplink I was tied to- making VZ the only choice for anything faster than 54mbps split over every customer of that 3rd Party Network Service Provider.

    As far as local voice service, Verizon was it. Long distance, sure, AT&T, whoever else you like- but only Verizon for the local. No other competition- they own the local Class 5 and noone else offers any kind of local switching in this area.

  8. Re:The cult of Global Warming on FAA Plans to Clean Up the Skies · · Score: 1

    I wasn't trying to invent these technologies- I'm aware they exist, and I'm aware they're ready to go into production in most cases, including your capacitance issues- taken care of with modern capacitance arrays and nanotech batteries. They just need some kind of spur to force them into production- such as a government subsidy or drive to make this reality, or the demonstration by a small company, as with http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com/, where they will demonstrate to the world how usable and economical the electric car can be, and then your average behemoth car manufacturing conglomerate will fall in line.

    What is needed to force the issue is governmental regulation- without emissions controls, most companies will always do the capitalist thing, which is whatever is best for the bottom line. And that includes selling the fucking earth we live on out from under our feet- ask my friend who declined to allow an oil company to drill under her house, and they did so anyhow, finding oil and not paying her a penny for her mineral rights.

    peace.

  9. Re:The cult of Global Warming on FAA Plans to Clean Up the Skies · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What kills me about these arguments is pretty basic. IF there is an impact from our emissions on our planet, which MAY be negative, and which CAN be avoided, or perhaps lightened, by the decrease in output- why not decrease output? The economic argument is hogwash- these same companies (auto/truck manufacturers, jet engine/aircraft manufacturers) spend millions of dollars in R&D on their products; the spur of forced investment into this field will encourage economic growth, as this cutting edge field matures in whichever country pioneers it. In addition to creating an entire new sector, much as the Ethanol push has done in the USA, and while some companies may suffer, much as with the Prius and other hybrid cars, offering an alternative to the standard high emission models will appeal to some consumers and drive the development of this field and the advancement of technologies and the companies bringing them to market. Forced adoption of these technologies will further spur growth and investment. Again, while some incumbent companies may suffer due to their lack of foresight or corporate dexterity, any loss to these companies in jobs will be made up, likely with gains, in the new industry.

    The argument that other nations are advancing and will surpass our output is also pointless. As a market leader, the USA has the ability to establish products worldwide. The adoption of these products here will spur copycat import products, and likely will result in their use in these developing first-world nations. In addition, the USA can use it's trade imbalances and leverage with these countries to spur their adoption of these technologies- where they're not already leading us, that is, as in India with their 100% natural gas taxi and bus fleets.

    A few technological innovations which could help stem or prevent the devastating impacts of global warming are listed below; some are really basic concepts, too.

    -Zero-emissions gasoline engines via gas/emissions recovery and storage (exchanged for empty containers at gas stations)
    -Biodiesel-producing algae capable of processing the CO2, waste heat, and other emissions from coal-fired power plants and growing from it (already under testing in labs)
    -Battery-powered cars (big capacitors, big nanotech batteries, potentially fuel cells, no problems)
    -Zero-emissions factory environments (heat, water vapor, co2, etc recovered and reused/processed/stored)

    All of these technologies can bring American companies into the 21st century and revolutionize the entire world's concepts of how to deal with emissions- and potentially save a large percentage of the human race while doing it, and reaping enormous profits.

    I like to show people this chart: Wikipedia CO2/Temp Chart because most people, when they see exactly how far off of the normal scale we are, understand that doing ANYTHING is better than saying 'we don't know enough to do anything about it yet!' We all bear a shared responsibility for this planet, and we should do what we can to attempt to preserve it for our descendants.

    love and peace.

  10. Re:Fresh ground on What is Your Favorite Way to Make Coffee? · · Score: 1

    I have to say, the coffee selection at World Market (Cost Plus) is quite stunning and reasonably priced; 12.99 for 2lbs of Kauai Peaberry is hard to beat, as is the same for a Kona blend (I believe 40%). They also offer a membership card with a free lb for every 10 you buy.

    I was shopping at Central Market until I found the World Market selection, and now my coffee bill is down by about a third.

    love and peace
    -cheez

  11. Re:We're Giving It Away on Will the U.S. Lose Control of the Internet? · · Score: 1

    The only thing Bush understood about 'The Stranger' was that if a Marine in a movie can read it, and makes a point of doing so, then the President should be able to read it, and make a point of doing so. I doubt his comprehension of it was nearly as great as that of A. Swofford's.

    peace

  12. Poor topic on Copper Wire As Fast As Fiber? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Copper Wire as Fast as Fiber? What a misleading topic. How about 'Copper Outside Plant can rival current FTTH speeds,' as this is much less inflammatory and more on target with what is intended to be said. With such a general topic there's no telling what the story is actually about, and in this case, it's not any of the following:

    -Copper Outside Plant transmits data at OC-192 speeds
    -Lab makes Copper transmit OC-48 speeds
    -Copper Wire discovered to have same frequency versatility of fiber
    -Police Cables allow bacon to move at speed of light

    Sheesh.

    love and peace
    -cheez

  13. Re:Better timeline on GUIs From 1984 to the Present · · Score: 0

    Slashdotted already. What a travesty. Lots of bored geeks on Sundays, I guess...

  14. Re:Don't Fear the Penguin on Linux Now 25% of Dell's Server Business · · Score: 1

    Consider it a contribution to the open-source community. If you do get it recorded, though, I would _love_ a copy.

    peace

  15. Don't Fear the Penguin on Linux Now 25% of Dell's Server Business · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't Fear the Penguin
    (to the tune of Don't Fear The Reaper, by Blue Oyster Cult)

    Servers powered on
    Hackers don't fear the penguin
    Nor do the geeks, the nerds and the brains, we can be like they are
    Come on baby, don't fear the penguin
    Baby take my hand, don't fear the penguin
    Baby I'm a slack man...

    ISO burn is done
    laptop powered on
    Romeo and Juliet
    Today would be kids of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Romeo and Juliet
    40,000 men and women installed today, like Romeo and Juliet
    40,000 men and women installed today, we can run fedora
    Come on baby, don't fear the penguin
    Baby read your man, don't fear the penguin
    Your computer will fly, don't fear the penguin
    Baby read your man

    Love of ubuntu is fun
    PCs, Macs and Suns
    All of them can run a distro
    Boot it up and watch the daemons run
    The windows were cracked when linus appeared
    Bill's users grew discontent over many years
    Then one day acceptance of the GPL, happened to spur adoption again
    And then linux, owned the desktop
    And they ran to it, and bid their windows goodbye
    They looked backward and said goodbye, she had become like they are
    She had booted debian, she had adopted .ogg
    Come on baby, don't fear the penguin

    (no, I'm not bored. at all.)

  16. I've had FiOS since November 2004 on The Fiber to the Premises Install Process · · Score: 4, Informative

    I was one of the first people in my town to get wired for it; we happen to have the headquarters of the old GTE entity in the city limits, and they piloted the service to the towns their execs lived in. I got lucky in the old broadband roulette game.

    All things considered, the biggest annoyance is the fact that the power is no longer line-supplied. That 12v battery in my garage has been replaced twice already. Sooner or later, Verizon quits paying for them; I have no idea when, but soon.

    My FiOS is set up similarly to that of the article, except my run comes into the NID outside, has the power source and battery separate, and splits off 3 phone lines, my WAN IP interface, and my FiOS TV connection (which goes to a splitter/grounding block in the attic).

    All in all it's definately worth the speed at 45 a month. I'm paying about $230 a month after you roll in my 3 phone lines ($85) Internet@15/2mbps ($45) and FiOS TV ($100)

    They offer a 5mbit, 15mbit and 30mbit connection, but the last I checked, they priced the 30/15 connection at $199 a month.

    peace

  17. Re:This happens all the time... on Faking a Company · · Score: 1

    What's amusing is the amount of gravity that the statement 'a network of more than 50 electronics factories' is given. That's like saying 'he's ordered from every major online distributor in the U.S.!'. In this day of commodity everything, any of these places will manufacture whatever you want if you throw the data at them, so if anything, that just shows the length of time this scam had been running. The fact that they had placed orders with more than 50 factories doesn't make those more than 50 factories complicit in anything, just in completing orders from Bizarro-NEC.

    When hub is Bizarro-NEC and the spokes are the 50 factories, that's not a network, that's one company doing business.

    $0.02 deposited

  18. Image Enhancement on Rockstar's Family-Friendly Shocker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's a little money on a ping-pong game if it gives you the ability to say "My company doesn't make SOLELY violent games, Senator..."

  19. How's about we just say "Please place ads here"? on Equipment Suppliers You Can Trust? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I wonder how many of these posts will be lacking a 'Full Disclosure' announcement... or have a false one?

    I guess this is a Create-Your-Own-Slashvertisement?

  20. Re:Nightmare on U.S. Ecommerce To Be Broadly Taxed? · · Score: 1

    I'm sure Wal*Mart also supports it because they have never garnered any of the no-tax benefit from Ecommerce, seeing as they have a brick-and-mortar presence in every state, they have to pay state sales taxes regardless. Makes sense to me they are backing this, since they're already locked into it.

  21. Re:Mnemonics on Singing Science · · Score: 1

    My favorite was "All People Seem To Need Double Penetration"

  22. Re:Each Protocol Has Its Good Points on What Makes a Good IM Client? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd like to see the ability for you to have speech recognition, but also text to speech... I mean, if you're using the same client, you can train your client to recognize your voice, and also record the information on it; timbre, pitch, tone, etc... store that in a profile and have the client transmit it automatically (if desired) the first time your buddy tries to text-to-speech your incoming IMs. The recieving client could apply the settings from your profile to your incoming messages, reading them in a voice similar to your own (I'd expect eerily similar as the technology developed). I can't imagine this being that difficult, and with modern processing capabilities, rendering speedy text-to-speech isn't that hard, so I don't see why it couldn't be reasonably usable.

    Aside from the obvious creep-out and privacy invasion issues, are there any technical reasons this would be hard, and is anyone working on something like this?

    just curious ;-)

  23. ONLY ferrous items... on Lunar 'Lawnmower' Devised for Moon Colonists · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Unfortunately I can't imagine this working. The moon isn't _entirely_ made up of ferrous metals, so the dust must have some composition that is not ferrous, and therefore is not affected by the magnetic field. Is possible ionization of the other dust molecules enough to keep them out of suspension? I mean, even if the clumps trap some dust, more will be around to float, right?

  24. Re:I thought... on Mom Makes Website, Gets Sued for $2 Million · · Score: 5, Informative
  25. Re:I thought... on Mom Makes Website, Gets Sued for $2 Million · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From TFA:
    The statement of claim outlines stories by Lanteigne involving diesel oil spills on subdivision sites, unlocked oil tanks, roofers working without proper safety equipment and possible contamination of soil and water.

    Activa claims the website has caused damage to its reputation and launched the lawsuit only after Lanteigne refused to apologize and take down the site.

    --end cut--
    So, it appears she is stating on the website that they have been spilling oil, etc., even possibly as a one-liner somewhere, and not documenting with photographs. If I were her, I'd find some law firm to take the case on pro-bono and spend my money getting GreenPeace out there to do soil/water testing to _prove_ that there has been oil spilled.

    Voila, case won, and probably legislation started about this corporate behaviour too, so good for Mom.

    I sure hope she has pictures of these spills, to start with... ;-)

    Peace!
    -cheez