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User: tdvaughan

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Comments · 119

  1. Re:One person? on Find DARPA's Balloons, Win $40K · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Actually, the real challenge will be stopping people from placing fake balloons that look just like the real ones. It's what I would do if I really wanted to win the prize.

  2. Re:It's Only $5 on Unusual Physics Engine Game Ported To Linux · · Score: 4, Informative

    Watch out what password you use when you register on their site - they send it back to you as plain text in an email. Sigh...

  3. Re:Its like music on Defining an Indie Game Developer · · Score: 1

    Should an indepentendly produced and published game, released in January, that then gets picked up by a publisher in July, be exempt from any Indie awards for that year given in December?

    Depends on when it was submitted to the award panel?

  4. Re:Just goofing around on Google Labs Offers Table-Based Search Results · · Score: 1

    Memes is surprisingly accurate - and, hilariously, it also counts Ron Paul as one. Which, when you come to think about it...

  5. Re:RIAA? on Obamas Give Queen Elizabeth an iPod · · Score: 1

    Hilariously, it's still illegal in the UK to copy a CD that you have legitimately bought on to iTunes.

  6. Re:What you REALLY NEED on Best FOSS Help Desk Software For Small Firms? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but you need the data to decide on a good response. Turns out that the best way to get data on support requests is through a ticket tracking system.

  7. What about sumo wrestling? on Japan Imposes "Fine On Fat" · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I had the impression this sport was hugely popular over there (got that from reading Freakonomics). Will they make an exception for wrestlers?

  8. Re:Article Summary on Five Ideas That Will Reinvent Computing · · Score: 2, Informative

    Extreme peer to peer
    So....like multicast?

  9. Re:Coincidence? on SCO Wanted To Gag Torvalds, Moglen · · Score: 1

    Oh dear God no. Seeing how he's responded to something as simple as a request for an interview I think his ego is going to respond to this news by imploding under its own mass.

  10. Re:Spherical projection on Mapping the Blogosphere · · Score: 1

    Cartogrophers map the earth, which is the surface of an (almost) sphere. Imagine the earth as a sphere full of interconnected tunnels. Now try to figure out how to map that in 2D and you'll see why the project mentioned didn't do that.

  11. Re:This is retarded on Novell May be Banned from Distributing Linux · · Score: 1

    RMS's definition of freedom has repeatedly been shown to be thoroughly pragmatic (see Bitkeeper fiasco) as well as idealistic. In this case, I suspect, the pragmatism will be along the lines of "supporting MS's FUD about their IP being in Linux is a bad idea". Business adoption of Linux will proceed with or without Novell and their attempt to abuse the GPL.

  12. Ow, my brain... on Ballmer Sounds Off · · Score: 4, Funny
    I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation.

    Coming from anyone else, I can cope with the picture that brings up in my mind. But from Ballmer?

  13. Re:How is the list done? on Comprehensive Airport Wi-Fi Guide · · Score: 2, Informative

    Price doesn't matter with a little know-how. NSTX will break through most captive portals by tunnelling IP over DNS.

  14. Re:And the goal is ... on Warren Ellis Curates new Webcomic Site · · Score: 1

    They might do, at first. But separating the wheat from the chaff is going to be a full-time job, and you'll only do well if your work is good enough in the first place. At which point you've got just as much chance as you do by hosting it yourself.

  15. Re:Why Baltimore? on Does the NSA Need More Electricity? · · Score: 1

    The most likely answer IMHO is that the security structure required for the projects that the NSA is working on is more difficult to distribute than the computing infrastructure. Sure, you can stick a computer anywhere but it's easier to have the associated personnel, documents, command structure etc. in a single place.

  16. I enjoyed it.... on Why Beyond Good and Evil Tanked · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...until I got stuck by one of the game's several game-destroying bugs and couldn't get any further. After that I was afraid to play it again in case it happened again.

  17. Re:Insurance fraud.... on RFID-enabled Vehicles: Pinch My Ride · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can still steal the car by towing it away which is insurable against. If, however, they find evidence that the car was driven then they assume that the owner was complicit in the car's theft as they believe that the car is only drivable with the keys in the ignition.

  18. Re:I have another question on The Super Stars of New Social Media · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Simple answer: they don't afford it. They just hope to be acquired soon by someone who will monetise their user base and apply a business plan to it. Either that or they've perfected the first major implementation of multicast without telling anyone.

  19. Re:Of Course That's the Point on Linus Speaks Out On GPLv3 · · Score: 1

    What I don't seem to be getting is how a software license can have any effect on a hardware distributor/vendor. If they want to lock their hardware onto a particular version of the Linux kernel, how does the GPL3 stop them?

    What if they hire an independent developer to create some anti-freedom code and release it as GPL? Who's breaching the terms of the GPL if they choose to make their hardware run only that code? While I might agree with what RMS is after, the license appears to have such an easy workaround that it may as well be useless.

  20. This is what SSH tunnels are for on Turning Network Free-Riders' Lives Upside Down · · Score: 3, Informative

    I just moved into a new flat and as it took a while to get internet access, I had to "steal" someone else's wireless (although I take the position that if they want to beam radition through my property, I can do what I want with it). I took the strongest unsecured signal but because (being a sneaky bastard) I know what I would do if I ran an unsecured wireless access point I just tunnelled everything through an SSH tunnel to a proxy at work.

  21. Re:Do you really need MS Office? on PowerPoint ZeroDay Vulnerability Exploited · · Score: 4, Funny

    And I don't get the feeling, when I run it, that I'm running a code base that has hundreds of undocumented backdoors, caused deliberately, or accidentally.

    I, too, have become so much safer since I turned off my antivirus software and instead relied on good old, tried-and-tested intuition to detect malicious software and vulnerabilities.

  22. Re:well... on IBM using Napoleon Dynamite Quote to Encrypt Data · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hm....so what you're saying is that if it's a lapse in security then it's a lapse in security but if it's an easter egg then it's an easter egg? I like the way you're thinking!

  23. Talk about Caveat Emptor... on New Caldera Promised · · Score: 3, Interesting
    FTFA:

    The Company wishes to advise readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include the failure of the products described above to operate as designed due to incompatibility with some platforms or other defects; our reliance on developers in the open source community; new and changing technologies and customer acceptance of those technologies; the Company's ability to compete effectively with other companies; failure of our brand to achieve the broad recognition necessary to succeed; unenforceability of the GNU general public license; our reliance on third party developers of components of our software offerings; claims of infringement of third-party intellectual property rights; and disruption in the Company's distribution sales channel.

    Sounds like someone at SCO is covering their arse...

  24. Slashdotted, see it on YouTube on Dvorak Admits To Trolling Mac Users · · Score: 3, Informative

    Link to the video. The sound was out of sync for me, but he basically comes across as a smug arse.

  25. Edward Castronova? on Second Life Looks At Scaling Problems · · Score: 4, Funny

    "They're succeeding because of their radically different approach to this business," said Edward Castronova, an expert on virtual worlds and the world's greatest sterile lover.