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User: mla_anderson

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Comments · 315

  1. Re:Can the guys in Africa use it? on 10Gbps Wireless Transfers · · Score: 1

    3*10^8/10^4 != 3*10^6

    It would be 30,000m or 30km.

  2. And... on Star Wars Producer Says Box Office is Doomed · · Score: 1

    they'll be putting Hollywood out of business, possibly within the next three years."

    He says this like it's a bad thing.

  3. Re:Hams have done this for years on Email Over High-Frequency Radio in West Africa · · Score: 2, Informative
    Well the no-code-tech license is fairly easy. I think the youngest to obtain it was a 7 year old girl. A friend's son got his at 8. Basic math and a half-way decent memory is all that's required.

    I however took four years of university for mine. (got my BSEE first)

  4. Re:It's sad really on Email Over High-Frequency Radio in West Africa · · Score: 1
    I have friends working in the bush to help the Africans. They use packet radio (not on ham bands AFAIK) for email, have for several years.

    They only have solar power and batteries so all their equipment has to be low power, they have a pretty nice setup...but I still like having my DSL.

  5. Re:Please can someone explain to me ... on New "Secure" Xbox Cracked In Under A Week · · Score: 1

    In the very near future Linux will make a wonderful HTPC OS. At that point an Xbox minus Win2K will make a nice HTPC.

  6. Re:Not only that on Generation Wrecked · · Score: 1

    That's for sure.

    Before the crash service was the pits even in the nicer family restaurants, now even fast food places have good service.

    So quality of service is a lagging indicator of economy dropping, but perhaps it's a leading indicator of the economy picking up?

  7. Re:Cars and Planes? on Walk-Thru Virtual Environment · · Score: 1

    I believe they do and that solves a host of other problems that would come with depending on stored data:

    1. Stored data does not include the idiot coming at you at 200mph.
    2. Stored data would require precise location fixes to be useful. "Ah shucks, the GPS went out...BANG!
    3. Stored data does not generally keep up with construction....big hole!
    4. ...
  8. Re:FTP? on SANS/FBI Release Top 20 Security Vulnerabilities · · Score: 1

    Yeah, WinSCP is probably the best of the Windows GUI SFTP clients.

  9. Re:My apologies to RMS on GNU/Hurd Gets POSIX Threads · · Score: 1

    And how is it that the "most important developer" of the most widely used free software does not stand for free software?

  10. Re:Silly question on XFS merged in Linux 2.5 · · Score: 1

    I went to Ext3 on the desktop for one reason: my kids had the bad habit of hitting the power button on the computer because it made lights blink and noises.

    This usually happened in the middle of the day and I would have to walk my wife through fsck over the phone. With Ext3 it just boots back up again...and now that I did it the kids lost interest in the power button

  11. Re:Why we won't see it in the near future on More on GM's New Fuel Cell Cars · · Score: 1
    "Hundreds of thousands of jobs...all gone."

    But I wonder who we'll be buying hydrogen from?

  12. Re:Is it okay to buy printers? on Bruce Perens Canned by HP · · Score: 1

    Printer manufacturers make their money on the consumables, so it should more than even things out.

  13. Re:A Scientific Measure of Caffeine? on Gaming Fuel: 4-way Shootout · · Score: 1

    Maybe that explains why I like to hold my coffee in my mouth for a bit.

  14. Re:Exactly, the difference is if you don't like MS on Is Red Hat the Microsoft of Linux? · · Score: 1
    Windows isn't worth a damn in the server either.

    However, Linux on the desktop works great, I use it every day.

  15. Re:Don't write a client; use a Web interface on Can We Finally Ditch Exchange? · · Score: 1

    The reason a web interface is not easily done is PDAs. People want to be able to sync with a PDA and there's not a good way to do that with a web only interface.

  16. Re:Why Bayesian Analysis isn't so hot on Paul Graham on Fighting Spam · · Score: 1

    I'm not an expert on Bayesian analysis, however my procedure will work for his algorithms whether or not they are actually good Bayesian analysis.

  17. Re:Please explain the LISP code on Paul Graham on Fighting Spam · · Score: 1
    Can you explain the second bit of code:

    (let ((prod (apply #'* probs)))

    (/ prod (+ prod (apply #'* (mapcar #'(lambda (x) (- 1 x))probs)))))
  18. Re:TMDA? on Paul Graham on Fighting Spam · · Score: 1

    And the auto reply from the last place you bought online will be rejected and the site blacklisted.

  19. Re:Why Bayesian Analysis isn't so hot on Paul Graham on Fighting Spam · · Score: 2, Insightful
    If you keep the two original hashes along with the probability hash you can simply update the word count of the two originals and rebuild the probability hash. This could be fairly simple.

    1. Mail arrives
    2. Mail is scanned
    3. Good/Bad hash is updated
    4. Mail is delivered (if necessary)
    Then at the end of the day regenerate the probability hash.
  20. Re:Can someone translate this? on Paul Graham on Fighting Spam · · Score: 1
    This is pseudo perl and done after only a couple of minutes of learning how lisp operates, but I think I have the gist of it.

    I haven't figured out the second algorithm yet.

    # Procedure to determine probabilities of words
    $ngood = number of good emails;
    $nbad = number of bad emails;
    %good = hash of word count in good emails;
    %bad = hash of word count in bad emails;

    $g = 2 * $good{$word};
    $b = $bad{$word};
    if ($g + $b > 5)
    {

    $prob{$word} = max(0.01, min(0.99, min(1, $b/$nbad) / (min(1, $g/$ngood) + min(1, $b/$nbad)));
    }

    Where the min and max functions would return the min/max of the arguments passed.

  21. Re:just typical texas law enforcment on WarTalking Arrest · · Score: 1

    I didn't realize that incest marriage was a requirement of the law in Texas.

  22. Re:Please do the first one!! on Douglas Adams, Narnia, and Trailers · · Score: 1

    IIRC the original order was "The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe" first, and the Magician's Nephew as #5 or something like that. It wasn't until recently (last 10 - 15 yrs) that the order was changed, either order works for me...I had to fight my sisters for our copies so I took the series in what ever order I could.

  23. Re:Looking at it the wrong way. on Lycoris Desktop/LX update 2 Released · · Score: 1
    At the risk of looking like a sales person I would have to say that RedHat comes very close to these standards. (I do not work for RedHat I use their products.)

    1. They have canned installations, workstation would be the best choice for home users.
    2. The partitioning can be done automagically.
    3. Most devices are detected at install, a dial-up application is installed to the desktop.
    4. Installing new software is not as easy...but add Ximian Gnome and it does very well.
    However if the networking portion of Licoris' distribution works well that would add the missing capability. It's becoming very common for families to have networks in the home. Good support for MS networks both from a serving standpoint and a browsing standpoint will make it psychologically easier to integrate a Linux box into the network.

    I have one Linux server, one dual boot Linux/Windows workstation, and one plain Windows machine. After about 6 months of work everything is nicely integrated on the network. (I have to save up for wireless before getting the PDAs on the network.) If Lycoris can deliver a distro that can do that the first day they have my support.

    BTW, the dual boot machine spends most of it's time in Linux. We go to Windows to play games and do our books (it's a pain to move from one version of accounting software to another). All our normal office work is done in Open Office and Evolution. My scanner, webcam, and CF reader aren't even configured in Windows. Linux on the desktop is far from dead.

  24. Re:Where's the Source? on Lycoris Desktop/LX update 2 Released · · Score: 1

    That's nice, but the iso images are marked unretrievable.

  25. Re:HP Dumb-Ass Decision on HP: Rival Printers Mean No More HPs Through Dell · · Score: 1
    HP Printers are crap, I do have one, it's in the closet. The printer on my desk is a Canon...it just works and Canon has their own Linux drivers.

    At work we put our HP lasers in the junk heap and moved to Xerox. We have much fewer problems now.