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User: holygoat

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Comments · 82

  1. Re:Rate of incoming new bugs v.s. outgoing fixed b on Firefox 4, A Huge Pile of Bugs · · Score: 1

    A large part of the purpose of a Firefox beta is to gather feedback on new features. If new features can't be gradually rolled out in betas, then when can they be?

    *RC*s should be stable, with no new features. "Beta" just means "it's still being worked on, but you can out this fairly stable version".

  2. Re:Who cares about bugs? on Firefox 4, A Huge Pile of Bugs · · Score: 1

    Did you file a bug?

  3. Re:Why not wait? on Firefox 4, A Huge Pile of Bugs · · Score: 1

    Sounds like you're running lots of crummy add-ons, or you're leaving pages open that are doing lots of bad Javascript stuff (e.g., never letting go of objects so they can be collected). That's the main cause of memory bloat.

  4. Re:Why not wait? on Firefox 4, A Huge Pile of Bugs · · Score: 1

    I'm using vertical tree tabs in FF4 right now. You might need to disable add-on compatibility checking, if the author has been slow doing so.

  5. Re:Not being seen on An Early Look At Next-Gen Shooter Bodycount · · Score: 1

    If it doesn't stop projectiles, but stops the enemy seeing you, the term is "concealment", not "cover".

  6. "Finally"? on Microsoft Finally To Patch 17-Year-Old Bug · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't it a little disingenuous to say "finally" when the bug was discovered last month?

    That it was introduced 17 years ago doesn't mean that Microsoft has been tardy about fixing it...

  7. Re:Wait hold on mugger... on Gun With Wireless Arming Signal Goes On Sale Soon · · Score: 1

    Many guns don't have safeties: neither of my wife's guns do.

  8. Re:Wait hold on mugger... on Gun With Wireless Arming Signal Goes On Sale Soon · · Score: 1

    I moved from the UK to the US about 5 years ago. I feel perfectly safe at home with a gun. Objectively, subjectively, and statistically, I am safer here with a gun, and I'd like to keep it that way.

  9. Re:1984 came late... on Full Body Scanners Violate Child Porn Laws · · Score: 5, Informative

    Um...

    http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/britain-to-put-cctv-cameras-inside-private-homes/

    "£400 million ($668 million) will be spend on installing and monitoring CCTV cameras in the homes of private citizens. Why? To make sure the kids are doing their homework, going to bed early and eating their vegetables. The scheme has, astonishingly, already been running in 2,000 family homes. The government’s “children’s secretary” Ed Balls is behind the plan, which is aimed at problem, antisocial families. The idea is that, if a child has a more stable home life, he or she will be less likely to stray into crime and drugs."

  10. Why would I bring my own laptop? on Cubicle Security For Laptops, Electronics? · · Score: 2, Funny

    You try working on Windows all day. I'd far rather bring my own Mac to work.

  11. Re:I wouldn't be so cavalier about it on Tellme Founder Tells Yahoo Not to Worry Over Microsoft Takeover · · Score: 1

    Have you thought about the consequences that would have on employee retention?

  12. What the hell are you talking about? on Tellme Founder Tells Yahoo Not to Worry Over Microsoft Takeover · · Score: 1

    Tellme has never been involved in anything like that.

  13. Re:Define:tool on Tool Use Is Just a Trick of the Mind · · Score: 1

    It's interesting that you say this... I have noticed that when I'm really wrestling with a problem, I feel more comfortable if I unplug my laptop from my external display and keyboard, and sit it on my lap.

    Something about getting closer to, and interacting more directly with, the machine.

  14. You have got it wrong. on Indian Software Firm Outsourcing Jobs To US · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You're avoiding all of the dubious benefits of Hungarian notation -- capturing semantic information that isn't provided by your environment -- whilst hitting its main problem head-on.

    What happens if you change the type of iNumEmps to long, or long long? You'd better hope you remember to change all of the relevant variable names throughout your code.

    What you do offers you no benefits, but increases your maintenance burden. Stop doing it.

  15. It's not civil disobedience on Man Arrested for Refusing to Show Drivers License · · Score: 1

    He wasn't breaking any laws, so how could it be civil disobedience? More accurately, it's civil *obedience*!

  16. Macvim on TextMate · · Score: 2, Informative

    You mean like the native Carbon gvim for Mac?

    The first hit for "mac vim" on Google: http://macvim.org/OSX/index.php

    It's beautiful and I use it every day.

  17. Not BS at all. on Britain to Pilot GPS Speed Governors · · Score: 1

    No, they're absolutely right. In fact, my second car (a 2-litre 2000-reg Accord), being insured just before my 21st birthday, having held a clean license for 4 years, cost me £2300 for comprehensive insurance. That's about $4000. Many insurers simply wouldn't insure me on that car. The rates weren't much lower for my brother on a slightly older 1.6l Civic.

    When I was 17/18, there's no way I could consider having my own insurance -- most young drivers in the UK are named on their parents' insurance, because the rates are simply extortionate unless you're a lottery winner.

    Last year my car cost me £1200; this year should be £900, and that's for a male who's almost 23, with 2 years' NCB and a clean license for over 5 years.

    British insurance is an utter joke -- after paying all this, you wouldn't be able to afford to use it for most accidents anyway, as the excess would be $900, and would ruin your premiums if you made a claim.

  18. Re:You missed the point! on Using the Semantic Web to Enhance Search · · Score: 1

    What do you think RSS 1.0 is?

  19. Re:You missed the point! on Using the Semantic Web to Enhance Search · · Score: 1

    "Webservices have no need for semantic web"

    Ignoring your grammar, I would reply: tell that to the people trying to develop Web Services standards! Specifically, I'd point you to OWL-S, and its simpler, ad-hoc cousins.

    One of the most common uses of the Semantic Web at present is describing PEOPLE (FOAF, as used by LiveJournal and countless others). Do you not see that the Semantic Web goes beyond a Web of human-readable documents into a machine-understandable Web of data? You don't find pages on the Semantic Web, you ask questions. Focusing on tagging HTML pages is hopelessly naive.

    *sigh*

  20. You missed the point! on Using the Semantic Web to Enhance Search · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The Semantic Web is about describing resources, not tagging pages.

    Indeed, you might output RDF from your processing of Web pages.

    Extracting information from semi-structured text is very different to making logical assertions about resources.

  21. Two points... on Do You Want to Live Forever? · · Score: 1

    Firstly, can you imagine how many regrets you would have by 300? After that long, if your life wasn't going swimmingly (and it wouldn't be -- anyone you loved would have met an untimely end through accumulated chance) you'd have eternity to regret it.

    Secondly, I'm not convinced that our abilities to mentally adapt would be sufficient -- we already have difficult after a mere 40 years or so, so we'd be increasingly left behind and isolated, living in our little ruts and habits.

    In addition, just imagine some people from 1600 being alive today...

  22. Except he's terribly wrong... on Going from a 'Web of links' to a 'Web of meaning' · · Score: 1

    ... as pointed out by the incomparable Paul Ford.

    Don't believe everything you read - this Slashdot story is a great example.

  23. Not according to the standard. on Spammers Start Abusing Cell Phones · · Score: 1

    You were unlucky --- perhaps you weren't using a standard network? The GSM Standard specifies 160 characters if using a Latin alphabet, or 70 if you use non-Latin alphabets like Arabic or Chinese.

    Furthermore, many places and phones (e.g. pretty much everyone in the UK) now support multipart SMS, where the sender splits up a long message (320 chars or more) into multiple parts, and the receiver puts it back together at the receiving end.

    Sorry.

  24. Re:XML?!?!? *sigh* on RDF For Desktop Metadata? · · Score: 1

    Firstly, RDF is not XML; its canonical exchange format encodes to XML, but there are plenty of other representations.

    Secondly, please explain how the implicitly-described files in your NTFS streams can be seamlessly shared over the Web in a composable way.

    The point of RDF on the desktop is that it does statement-level meta-data very well, and is Web-integrated.

  25. DEVONthink for the Mac on RDF For Desktop Metadata? · · Score: 1

    If you use a Mac, you might be interested in DEVONthink (and it's little brother, DEVONnote). It does (2), and very well.

    It text indexes all supported Mac document files (Web, RTF, text, PDF, etc.), and can store anything (links, movies, PDFs, whatever). You can then do very fast search.

    Have a look.