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User: russx2

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Comments · 91

  1. Re:Buy one, steal ten on A Chip on DVDs Could Prevent Theft · · Score: 1

    So just get the till operators to scribble their signature over the receipt once returned. +1 for old school tech!

  2. Re:Is it a mandatory minimum? on DoD Warez Leader Faces 10 Years in Jail · · Score: 1

    By that definition all kinds of thugs would not be in jail.

    According to the dictionary, a thug is a cruel or vicious ruffian, robber, or murderer. Yep, (potentially) belong in jail.

    Financial fraudsters - like the guy who broke Barings bank - would walk despite wiping out millions of peoples savings.

    This is comparing (real) theft of millions of dollars to copying intellectual property. Yes, the DoD guy was potentially depriving the software industry of an undetermined amount of revenue but this is clearly not the same. By any stretch. The net result of distributing pirated software could be achieved by writing and giving away a competitive free version; less people buy the original product. He's effectively redirected potential customers attention by offering (for free) an alternative source. It's not right, but it's not worth ten years in jail.

    I know Slashdot is a haven of piracy-sympathisers

    It's not about sympathising with the act of software piracy. It's about the screwed up nature of the legal system where 10 years of a young man's life can be taken away for copying some software. Not murdering, not raping, not even stealing (in the dictionary sense). This is a civil matter. Fine the hell out of him. Don't put him in jail.

  3. Re:If it won't work with what you need... on Software Missing From Vista's "Official Apps" · · Score: 1

    "Vista is awsome! I absolutely love it! But I can't run this app, or that app, and my favorite game won't run on it. Vista rocks!"

    Thankfully, aside from the usual fanboys, this doesn't seem to be the general consensus. And rightfully so.

    You know, when Windows 2000 first came out it had massive compatibility issues with hardware (lack of drivers) and software. But people understood that this was a radical change (merging of NT-based system with classical consumer OS).

    Now Vista's here and it's kind of like, huh? This is just an (arguably) pretty XP right? Why does nothing work? And why do I have to keep clicking 'Yes' all the time?

  4. Re:Print view on PC World's 20 Most Innovative Products of 2006 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think someone needs to chillage

  5. Re:cut MS some slack on Microsoft Insists IE7 is Standards Compliant · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why not just go on doing the same old, bad job on the pages rendered on quirks mode, and then render correctly and compliantly on pages that specify proper DOCTYPEs etc.?

    Yes, it's true IE6 has a quirks mode and 'standards' mode, deciding which mode to use based on a valid doctype or not. However, the problem IE has now is that by following standards more closely in IE7 they potentially break compatibility with IE6 'standards' mode. Pages without a valid doctype can still be rendered as always by the quirks mode so they are not the problem.

    Most of the problems will stem from all the inventive IE-targetted CSS hacks out there - tan hack, holly hack, star-html hack etc. that abused IEs improper understanding of CSS rules and will potentially break in IE7.

  6. Re:Get the syntax right, at least on PHP 5 Objects, Patterns and Practice · · Score: 1
    Getting even more pedantic here but, assuming the server is OK with
    <? ?>
    style syntax (which I believe is on by default now), this wins:
    <?='Who cares?'?>
    Another 3 characters saved ;-)
  7. Re:Not really new, but interesting on Check Boxes and Radio Buttons Conquered by DHTML · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When I turn off Javascript, the page stops working properly.

    On what browser/platform?

    I highly doubt this is the case because, as the author explains, all 'magic' extras are written AFTER the normal elements have loaded. So without javascript, nothing changes.

    What I suspect you have done is disabled Javascript in your browser and then tried to use it - without refreshing the page. I've just tried in this in Firefox and it seems to be the case. I don't think the chances of someone disabling Javascript mid-way through using the page are worth worrying about ;-)

    Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

  8. More like a voice controlled remote control on Voice-Controlled Robosapien · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't get me wrong, this is cool and all, but this isn't really a voice controlled Robosapien.

    All the hardcore voice-recognition stuff happens on the PC which then just sends the movement commands via infrared to the Robosapien - just like the included infrared remote control.

    Good idea though - just not exactly portable.

  9. Firebird more popular than Postgresql? on 'Most Important Ever' MySQL Reaches Beta · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From the article:

    "It [MySQL] accounted for 40 percent of open source database deployments, while Firebird and PostgreSQL accounted for 39 percent and 11 percent of deployments respectively."

    Are these stats really true? Despite being a firebird user myself, I'd always assumed postgresql was a much bigger, more widely used product.

    Unless of course the author is including *all* databases based on the Interbase code in that percentage?

  10. Re:CSS itself is overused on Printing XML: Why CSS Is Better than XSL · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The web is changing. It's not all about what browser we are using on a given wintel/linux/mac computer. It's about providing content in an easily parsable format. Presentation should always come a second to well structured, meaningful markup.

    What about disabled access to your webpages through some speech browser and the like. What about mobile devices. Provide your content in a well structured format and you can be sure any (half modern) current device can see your pages as well as anything in the future.

    The web is not a print medium. Design your sites so slight differences in spacing etc. are irrelevant. A well designed CSS-driven site will degrade nicely in Netscape 4 (basically @import to exclude it and other archaic browsers) and at the same time be accessible to everyone on any device.

    A couple of years ago I would have agreed with you. Now the average browser is more than capable of displaying CSS based designs. Alright CSS may require a few hacks here and there for IE and such but a few nasty bits of CSS is far more preferable than some hacked together HTML using tables for layouts.

  11. Re:We are tricked into working so much on Do You Want to Live Forever? · · Score: 1

    Message reads: Ungood crimethinker. Now unperson.

  12. Re:Some Jokes on Pair Arrested After Telling Lawyer Jokes · · Score: 1

    Why is it not acceptable to tell jokes about black people, yet lawyer jokes are OK? Both disparage and humiliate a group of people for little better reason than "I don't like them".

    Well, rather obviously, it's because one is discriminating against a group of people for how they are physically - and therefore holds no basis. Whereas being a lawyer is a choice - a career. Alright there are still good lawyers (so the rumors go), but, by and large by their nature, in general they're scum ;-)

  13. Re:Common sense? on Dispute Continues Over Posthumous Yahoo! Mail · · Score: 1

    Maybe him 'keeping a journal' was facilitated by e-mailing himself via yahoo. Reasonable when you have a shared terminal I guess.

    Even if this was the case, I still don't believe his parents have any right to access his e-mail. No matter how much you love your family/friends/whatever you will always have certain things to hide no matter how innocuous.

  14. Re:Work around for filtering search by date on Google Revises Usenet Search · · Score: 1

    That's the old groups search. Try the new groups.

  15. BitTorrent != Sharing ? on The Music Man · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ok, so this guy claims he only downloads and never, ever shares his music (and hence he's not a pirate). And yet he claims to get a lot of his music from torrents... Unless he's satisfied with very slow download speeds (and being a complete leech!) I think I'm seeing a flaw here.

  16. Re:How Slashdot Works... in FireFox. on How Computers Work... in 1971 · · Score: 1

    A quick ctrl +, ctrl - can sort the problem in a fraction of a second. Still not great though I'll give you.

  17. Re:Why not just checksum the "timestamp" program? on Internet Chess Club Security Defeated · · Score: 1

    If you think about what you're suggesting, you'll realise you're only 'protecting' one hackable program with another.

    Right, so our timestamp binary can easily be modified. So we'll get another client-side program to check the validity of the binary and send us the checksum so we can be sure. See? It would just mean an extra (simple) step to hack. Just crack the checking app to send back a faked checksum.

  18. Re:Wait... on Robot Eats Flies to Generate Power · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, and bye bye to the dragonflies who dine on them. So then we can knock a few breeds of bird off the non-extinct list who find their daily quota of dragon-like flies diminishing. And then of course the algaes around lakes grow out of control killing off the fish.

    Everything has its place in the chain :-)

  19. Re:YRO? on Make Money Fast · · Score: 1

    Just guessing here, but I'd assume a 10 dollar bill wrapped around a small match book would like a small wad o' cash, no?

  20. The 'Guy on Making Stuff Out Of Broken Computer Equipment? · · Score: 1

    I think this is one of those submissions we should ignore and pretend doesn't exist... just like the squid.

  21. Re:This is a rather stupid story. on Gmail Cracks Down on Third-Party Notifiers · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes, it seems as if you're right. Just tried this, entered the wrong password for my account about 5 - 6 times and up pops the image-verification scheme.

    Article seemingly null and void.

  22. Re:It is kind of funny... on Netscape 7.2 Released · · Score: 1

    A lot of big educational institutions still are using Netscape 4.7 (at least, in the UK). With big labs of computers it's a tough job to reconfigure everything to work with the latest browser and there is a risk of downtime (laziness wins I guess).

    And let's face it, NS4.7 really isn't that bad a browser. Yes, I've cursed it more times than I'm comfortable remembering but that was primarily with getting aesthetics to look right. It's comparatively secure and just works on the majority of well designed pages.

  23. Re:The amount of piracy going on on Doom 3 Gets Reviews, Piracy Questions, Exultation · · Score: 1

    The last time id used shareware was for Doom (1)

    Except of course the original quake, where the first of the 4 episodes was released as shareware.

  24. Re:Indian gigmail on How Does Gmail Stack Up In The Webmail World? · · Score: 1

    Half a billion dollars a month for roughly a gig of storage seems like the more costly solution to be honest.

  25. Re:why not city busses? on WiFi On Two Wheels · · Score: 0, Funny

    Depends if you're on the bus.