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User: pommiekiwifruit

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  1. German on Motorola A768 Phone Loaded With Open Source · · Score: 1

    ...and of course to a German, "funny" means enjoyable (something that is fun).

  2. GSM on Motorola A768 Phone Loaded With Open Source · · Score: 1

    The USA does have GSM but they transmit it on different frequencies than other places (1900MHz instead of 1800Mhz/900Mhz IIRC) so only special handsets can work there.

  3. Re:Why are so many Indians in American CS programs on Ask Indian Techies About 'Onshore Insourcing' · · Score: 1
    Indian culture glorifies engineering and math study.

    And being a doctor. Just look at the National Health Service in Britain for examples.

  4. Re:Quality of life on Ask Indian Techies About 'Onshore Insourcing' · · Score: 3, Funny
    Added to that was the stress of driving, of unreliable power situation, and of a host of other things that routinely plague an under-developed nation.

    Was that when you were working in India, or when you were working in California?

  5. At my school on California Man Sues Penis-Enlargment Firms · · Score: 1
    The teacher once told us that the length of a guy's willie was inversely proportional to the width of their vehicle's tires.

    The class jock immediately said "no wonder I drive a 10-speed bicycle"...

  6. Human Rights != EU law on Australia To Adopt U.S.-Style Copyright Laws · · Score: 1

    The european court of human rights (setup after WW2 caused a few problems with them) is NOT the european union. Many more countries are signed up to that than are members of the union.

  7. Batlow Australia on Preempting Hailstone Formation To Protect Cars · · Score: 4, Funny

    When I visited Batlow (the apple capital of NSW) over 14 years ago, they had sonic cannons for hail protection at the time. So yeah, slashdot, "news from the 1980s revisited". I hear that these new fangled phones that don't use wires are coming onto the market too (yup, I saw a homeless beggar using one at the weekend), so maybe slashdot will be reporting on that too? :-)

  8. Re:Linux x86 assembly? on Learning Computer Science via Assembly Language · · Score: 1

    68000? Luxury :-) Here it is in 6502..

  9. Re:Linux x86 assembly? on Learning Computer Science via Assembly Language · · Score: 1
    They didn't succeed in that notation then! Load up a Zilog Z80 based game in MAME (e.g. Pacman). Go into the debugger. Look at the disassembly.

    Perhaps the clue is the "80" part of the Z80 (8080 begat Z80 and 8086).

  10. Dest <- Src on Learning Computer Science via Assembly Language · · Score: 1
    The x86 and 6502 and Z80 all use the same system used in BASIC, Pascal, Fortran, Algol, C, C++, Java.

    I.e. Destination = Src

    It's the 68000 and ARM that got it wrong by doing things the COBOL way (MOVE src TO dest). Pah. And they got the high bytes in the wrong locations goddamnit, so that a value is different depending on its type (and multi-unit arithmatic is less sensible).

  11. Hah on Learning Computer Science via Assembly Language · · Score: 1
    On the processor I have onscreen in another window it is C style, dest instr src. For example:

    r1 += r2

    r3 = [bp+3]

    It may not be as traditional as other assemblers but it is straightforward to pickup.

  12. Re:Environmental Deception? on IC Failures Linked to Resin Series? · · Score: 1

    Well, a couple of litres of transformer oil that was recycled as food oil managed to bring down Belgium's food production chain, hurting the economy (Ouch. Don't tell Bush's ex-business partner Osama). So dioxins can be a pain.

  13. Re:Proof that spam works (sadly enough) on Spammer Profile: Scott Richter · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Yeah, but the Iraq trading cards is the only non-dodgy thing ever advertised by spam. Compared to fake drugs, fake degrees and genital enhancers. The sort of things that wouldn't even get advertised on QVC.

    Heck, I wanted to buy a deck! I just didn't (even from a web search) because I thought if that sort of things was advertised by spam it must be a con of some sort. So the spammer polluted the idea of me buying it from other companies on the web.

  14. Anchor Butter on Mario Monti Fines Microsoft 100 Million? · · Score: 1
    IIRC they did arrest the executives of Anchor Butter (New Zealand milk marketing board) for importing butter that was too high quality into the EU.

    Because the authorities thought it was "premium" butter it came under a different quota, which was exceeded.

    So the EU can do these things, it's just they do it to the wrong people.

  15. Does that mean the IRA on Trojan Horse Caused A Siberian Explosion · · Score: 1

    Weren't proper terrorists? After all, they often gave (sometimes inadequate) warnings to evacuate people.

  16. Re:how about: Kill Your TV. on Cable TV Versus Satellite TV? · · Score: 1

    He might have a braille output device, or a text-to-speech reader.

  17. No again on Trojan Horse Caused A Siberian Explosion · · Score: 1

    In the USA only Congress can declare war. So when the USA was bombing Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. that was a police action or a training exercise or something.

  18. Heriditary heads of government on Stallman Goes to India · · Score: 4, Insightful
    USA isn't the only country with a tradition of a heriditery head of state who retains power. India had Nehru/Indira/Ranjiv/Sonja. Pakistan had the Bhuttos.

    Perhaps they should both go down the european route of letting the "first family" have a ceremonial role (the Bushes and the Kennedys could share the duties in the USA) and letting commoners be elected to the executive jobs.

  19. Re:Forget cheap consoles..... on Xbox for $99? Xbox 2 in 2005? · · Score: 1

    I think a publisher would be deliriously happy if they could persuade a retailer to only take a markup of 11% (and the manufacturer didn't take such a huge cut either). Or have major retailers gone soft on their suppliers in the last few years?

  20. Re:If I had a dollar on Another Serious MSIE Hole · · Score: 1
    Well because I know the email addresses of people who send me email, but I don't know everyones' passwords for their ftp sites - if they have any and if the servers feel like working that day and if their sysadmin is feeling in a good mood.

    Also sending/receiving attachments (e.g. pictures) is handy when they can't speak English well and the text of their email doesn't make sense.

  21. Re:If I had a dollar on Another Serious MSIE Hole · · Score: 1
    There is no reason whatsoever to receive executable attachments

    Unless you, i don't know, are a software developer or something...

    e.g. we develop software, email it to our clients as a .bin file inside a .zip file, and their email program strips it out automatically. Its not even for an x86 processor...

    Needless to say it strips out any .exe files (with x86 code) as well (so we have to rename them before zipping them up). I fear the next version of outlook will look for magic numbers instead of file extensions within .zip files, so more tricks will be needed (e.g. encrypting a zip file and zipping it up with a long list of instructions).

    Of course the annoying thing is that microsoft keeps inventing new executable formats (.doc, .xls, .vbs, shell scrap files, .mp3 (via bugs), .tif (via bugs)) etc.

  22. Re:I'm not a game programmer on Trying Your Hand at Level Design? · · Score: 1

    Games are sold in more countries than just the USA. For example, several games developed in Japan are sold in Japan and Europe as well as the USA. The reverse may not apply of course...

  23. Re:Media Players? on EU's Mind 'made up' on Microsoft · · Score: 1

    But it doesn't play .sid files by default! 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20 ...

  24. Re:Way too much history behind this on Machine Vision Patents Thrown Out · · Score: 1

    There were lightbulbs before edison's (e.g. by Swann). It would be evil for him to claim all forms of lightbulb, instead of just the improvements his workshop had created.

  25. Re:Why do people keep clicking... on Today's Windows Virus - MyDoom / Novarg · · Score: 1
    Or as Outlook calls it "Britney Spears, J-Lo..."

    And if you save it, by default windows will hide the .exe extension as a service to trojan writers everywhere.