Slashdot Mirror


User: Fulcrum+of+Evil

Fulcrum+of+Evil's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
9,475
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 9,475

  1. Re:Linux competitiveness. on Details of Linux-in-Munich Deal Revealed · · Score: 1

    I'm afraid I'm not following the line of logic here.

    It's simple: free or not, you still have to upgrade every few years, simply due to changing hardware standards.

  2. Re:Linux competitiveness. on Details of Linux-in-Munich Deal Revealed · · Score: 1

    What the hell is this myth that some magic switch gets thrown that makes all of your computers stop working, forcing you to put a new version on? Don't want the new version? Keep using the old one!

    This is no myth - PCs are built and supported with the assumption that you will keep them for, at most, 5-7 years and certainly not past 10. If you look at the stuff that ran on computers in 1993 and then tried to run those versions of that software on new hardware, it would likely not work, or at least require constant tweaking to fix a hail of minor problems. Sure, with free software, you don't have to pay for new software, but you still need to update it every so often.

  3. Re:Serious Question on Want 12Mbits/sec for $21? Move to Japan. · · Score: 2, Funny

    Compare the size of Japan and the USA.

    Now compare the size of Japan with the USA minux the midwest.

  4. Re:Serious Question on Want 12Mbits/sec for $21? Move to Japan. · · Score: 0

    ,i> That's not what 'dark fibre' means. Dark fibre is 'private' fibre - a physical run of fibre that your traffic, and only your traffic, passes over. It's 'dark' 'cos it's 'secure', not 'cos the light is turned off.

    Almost all fibre is private. Nice troll, though. The real problem with dark fibre is that it is a: mostly long haul, not metropolitan, where the demand is, and b: it's been laid because it's both cheap and necessary to lay additional strands (for fault tolerance).

  5. Re:what else is there? on LinuxTag: 40% Growth Over Last Year · · Score: 1

    Actually, people do go to conferences about vacuum cleaners and washing machines. Those of the latter variety are held all the time by GE/Whirlpool/Maytag/etc. to show off their latest models to appliance dealers.

    Very true, but when was the last time you heard about it on the radio. I think that parent poster was referring to the people that actually use the product.

  6. Re:more visible? on Big Brother Gets a Brain · · Score: 1

    Unless your car is painted some absurdly flat black, your taillights are broken, and you drive around on moonless nights, I highly doubt the license plate makes a significant difference in your visibility to other drivers...

    Well, if you drive a corvette or a porsche or most any other sports car, the license plate is about the only thing that's vertical and flat.

  7. Re:Its amazing on Big Brother Gets a Brain · · Score: 1

    So, genius, how exactly do you expect to prevent terrorist attacks, and minimize friendly casualties in the event of an urban battle, yet still not preserve the "privacy" you expect when you're walking around outside? And why do you expect it again? You know you're outside, right?

    Put your money where your mouth is: wear a homing beacon. It's not as if these methods will prevent a terrorist attack anyway.

  8. Re:Well, I bow to your research. on Funding for TIA All But Dead · · Score: 1

    How, exactly, do you know 9/11 will only work once, and why make it a 9/11 scenario.

    Because it changed the fundamental assumption in plane hijackings: cooperate and noone gets hurt. I'm making it a 9/11 scenario in response to the bit about being covered in burning jet fuel.

    Why hijack a plane if you can buy one.

    Why buy one if you can steal it and hide it in Africa (a 727, by the way).

  9. Re:Ashcroft not completely the bad guy here. on Funding for TIA All But Dead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Think about it: he's got a threat out there with a demonstrated ability to perform mass killings, and he'd prefer not to die in a fireball of aviation fuel. Neither would his boss, his boss' replacement, nor any of his immediate colleagues.

    Utterly irrelevant. You can only do the 9/11 trick once. After that, hijacking a plane becomes suicide by violent business executive. More to the point, none of this TIA crap would help catch terrorists. What would have worked is if we listned to the warning signs (flight school with concerns about a student who only needs to know how to steer planes, killing an FBI investigation because it got too close to the Saudi royal family) and, perhaps, stop funding these guys ourselves (both Saddam and OBL were our buddies back in the 80's. Of course we could also stop being so belligerent with the rest of the world, but that'll never happen with Bush the lesser in office.

  10. Re:Multigen creator on SGI Releases New Workstations · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The "Multigen Creator" software they come with for 3-d rendering absolutely sucks and it's ridiculously slow when you have more then 20 polygons on the screen too. This is on an 02.

    The O2 was new around 1997 (6 years ago) and was pitched as a lowend 'affordable' computer. It has shared video ram for chrissakes!

  11. Re:Peoplesoft poisoning the well? on PeopleSoft Deflects Oracle Takeover, So Far · · Score: 4, Informative

    That is a pretty sneaky tactic. I am not sure if there is any legality to it, but it might not matter.

    Funny, I thought it was a fairly common practice. Typically, it's called a 'poison pill'.

  12. Re:No easy answer on "Quick 'n Dirty" vs. "Correct and Proper"? · · Score: 1

    If you could sue over software not working as advertised, the world would be a very different place.

    When the software in question is built on contract, failure to deliver software on time can and does involve lots of lawyers.

  13. Re:One reason why we need to absolve money on "Quick 'n Dirty" vs. "Correct and Proper"? · · Score: 1

    Just because they didn't have money and most didn't have the concept of land as property, doesn't mean they didn't desire to accumulate wealth.

    What ever gave you that idea? The indians had a fully developed sense of land as property, it's the colonists that didn't respect land rights.

  14. Re:Where to receive more information... on Sony Recalls 18,000 VAIO Laptops · · Score: 1

    Geesh, even better would be to put your own address in there. Imagine that, a couple free laptops for the folks not double checking the address.

    Granted, you'd probably want to move next week lest you have pissed off geeks messing with your house.

    Nothing like a little mail fraud to get the FBI on your ass...

  15. Re:check what's there. on JSP and Tag Libraries for Web Development · · Score: 0

    if it doesn't include JSTL and JSF technologies.

    Gee brain, I dunno, What's the Joint Strike Fighter have to do with Java?

  16. Re:Apache 2.1...? on Software Code Quality Of Apache Analyzed · · Score: 1

    Actually, this is the correct way to write software. Reduce the number of lines. Increase the speed of execution. I mean, after it's compiled, why do you care?

    I care because I have to maintain that rotting pile of garbage. Anyway, complicated pointer tricks do little to speed execution, but if you want that, why don't you update gcc's optimizer? Then we can all get the speed of unspeakable ugly code with the benefit of maintainability.

  17. Re:/.-centric summary. on Microsoft Considers $10 Billion Dividend · · Score: 0

    Go to any one of zillions of online computer merchants and you can order an OS-less PC.

    Good, now go to Dell or HPaq and try the same trick. You can't do it, and it's because of Gates' arm twisting.

  18. Re:I agree with Lexmark on Lexmark DMCA Case Winds On · · Score: 1

    I have stated a fact that most refills are junk and this is the method of quality control Lexmark uses. Do you think it fair that they sell the printer below cost just to have someone who is cheap send it back when they damage it with cheap ink so that Lexmark can lose even more money on it?

    It's not quality control - it's their business model to lose money on the printer and make it back on the ink. Sure, it sucks to have someone come and take the ink market from you, but that's just a bad business decision, not something to protect legally.

  19. Re:I loved the IBM model M keyboard key caps... on A Condensed History Of The Keyboard · · Score: 1

    What we need are the _[]x window buttons on the keyboard so that we can minimize, maxamize and close windows with 1 push of a keyboard button.

    <bigot mode="X11">Then get a real window system.</bigot>

  20. Re:only if you're clueful on Opensource Code More Refined Than Closed? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When you can't code above your level how will you ever improve it?

    By failing. That's how you usually learn.

  21. Re:End of the book... on The Bug · · Score: 1

    Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

    Frankly sir, I think you're the devil.

  22. Re:It's all about perception on Managing IT As An Investment · · Score: 1

    For example, why spend garganuan amounts of money for integrated voice-mail and e-mail, etc. etc. on a single-point-of-failure "cluster", when $30 answering machines are probably more reliable and fit the need like a glove, and are disposable.

    I work in a 3000 person company and I don't think that the IT guys would appreciate 1000 $30 answeing machines very much. Also, you $30 machine won't handle digital phone systems very well and will const $30000+ to maintain.

  23. Re:No, really? on Technology Buying Slump · · Score: 1

    Most computer parts are good for about 5 years tops

    Please explain that old IBM big iron in the basement that is over 15 years old and still a core of the business

    Well, I would point out that an IBM mainframe isn't most computer parts. 10 Years between IPL doesn't translate into a 5 year service life.

    I have several Pentium I 166 NON MMX servers that are much older than 5 years and are doing their job absolutely perfectly, just like the day they came out of the box.

    Good for you. What's your plan for when they break? If it were me, I'd have replaced them already - $2000 every 5 years isn't a whole lot of money to avoid hardware failures from age.

  24. Re:The right tools on Technology Buying Slump · · Score: 1

    No serious admins run Windows

    Serious admins run what they're paid to run. They may have some say in what that is, and they certainly take all possible precautions to make their systems run well, but they're still a lot of admins running windows, like it or not.

  25. Re:He's right on X-Box Hackers Trying to Blackmail Microsoft? · · Score: 1

    If you have a plaintext and known equivalent ciphertext, IIRC it's trivial to extract the key.

    Then you recall wrong. That's only true for an XOR cipher. Known plaintext attacks are easier than straight cracking, but it's still very hard.