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User: iamacat

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  1. A minor "nice to have" after solving real problems on OpenBSD Activism Shows Drivers Can Be Freed · · Score: 1

    Most people would be happy to go to 10 different URLs and fill in forms with their name, address and e-mail (given a strong promise not to spam) as long as after downloading the firmware all the hardware they had worked and had sufficient software to control and use it.

    The real problems of free OSes are missing drivers, unstable drivers and drivers that need a recompile after installing the next kernel patch. Someone should just write kwine, a subsystem for running NT drivers under Linux. Must be a lot simplier that supporting Direct X games or other things in userland.

  2. Re:Huh? on More iPod Killers Introduced for the Holiday · · Score: 1

    Oh well, most of us are not accusing Microsoft of releasing Windows and Office and then not porting Office to run under Linux. There is no obligation for a company to help competition unless it's a remedy for their past abuses of monopoly status.

    The problem would be Apple dumping free music on the market at a loss just to prevent anyone from making money on a music store. Or developing a portable video player on which it had no intention to make money just to derail competition.

    But as it is, Apple is making good money on iPod and a modest income on the music store. Another company can do the same thing, and indeed there are many competing music stores and mp3 players.

    Of course, it's your personal right to choose a more flexible service or device, although it's a bit akward to demand a device that supports a particular flavor of DRM. Better just rip CDs and wait for a music service that has guts to offer MP3s. With existing high bitrate downloads that can be burned to CDs, what's the big deal?

  3. Re:Exceptions are suddenly viable? on C++ In The Linux kernel · · Score: 1

    Hardly so. The fact that exceptions meticiously execute destructors suggests that the program is expected to recover from the error and perhaps encounter the same error many times so that resource leaks become an issue. Exception handling would be very useful in kernel, to make sure it can run for possibly years without leaking memory and other resources in conditions like network errors in the middle of an NFS operation, full disks and hot-unplugged devices.

  4. Re:Linux on the Mac is for Masochists... on Ubuntu For PPC, And As A Live CD · · Score: 1

    Ok, I read the rant. The you complain about log file structure, and a missing DHCP command line client. The defining features of UNIX are multitasking/multi-user capabilities, a set of APIs that treat everything as a file rather than inventing a new interface for every entity (aka POSIX) and a collection of tools that support a powerful command line and scripts. Setup differences of BSD vs MacOSX vs Cygwin in that respect are trivial and not worth switching if you already have a working setup on one platform. OSX UI is another story entirely.

    Besides you were trying to switch from WEP to WPA and that's one radio button selection on AirPort setup utility. If you have a cheap wireless router with an intelectually challenging setup procedure, well that's not the notebook's problem.

  5. Re:incompatable with gpl on Hilary Rosen Loves Creative Commons · · Score: 1

    Oh well, you could release lyrics and music scores for each instrument. But by and large music is already "source code", so all you have to do is allow anyone who heard your derivitive song to distribute it further, as a recording or by singing it themselves.

  6. Re:Socially beneficial? on MP3s From The Phone Box · · Score: 1

    Are you saying people shouldn't be able to protect their identity when making phone calls, sending e-mail or mailing a letter? Like maybe you want to call a suicide hotline but would rather not be forcibly confined and medicated? I am scared to live in your country and more affraid I probably already do.

  7. Re:Interesting Thought on MP3s From The Phone Box · · Score: 1

    Are you saying iPod's battery will be drained in less than a minute it takes to transfer an mp3 album over 802.11? The radio can be turned off when not in use and take zero power, you know?

    The point of course is not syncing with your own computer - you need to charge over a wire anyway. But WiFi would be perfect for this service, MPEG4 camcoders unloading to the 40GB hard drive and a specially for somewhat less politically correct pear to pear "sync" of songs.

  8. Re:All machines are vulnerable to this on 'Opener' Malware Targets OS X · · Score: 1

    Any admin user can use sudo with their own password to gain root access. The reason they don't just use uid 0 is protection from accidents, not to prevent anything they would do on purpose.

    Given that people don't tend to be 100% careful with filesystem permissions, even non-admin user is not safe to run suspicious code under MacOSX, or Windows or Linux. Some kind of VM technology that limits damage to a single disk image file is a start.

  9. Re:Superiority.... on How Technology Failed in Iraq · · Score: 1

    So do you mean no matter what happens inside a country, the world should just watch and do nothing? Worked real well with Germany before WWII. In the meantime, I hear that Afganistan had elections with women as 41% of voters and there are no new mass graves dug in Yugoslavia recently.

    Of course Bush lied to American people about WMDs and it's a shame he is not impeached when Clinton was theatened for trivial matters. But on the other hand, Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro and Kim Jong should be removed from power for the sake of the people they govern and the WMDs they or their successors will eventually develop and conceal. Afterwards, all members of United Nations should step in, help with security and provide enough economic aid so that people don't want to fight and ruin their prosperity.

  10. Re:5MP is still crap if the flash sucks... on Samsung Producing 5 Megapixel Camera Phone · · Score: 1

    If you want "good" pictures, this phone wouldn't be an option, period.

    It depends on what kind of good pictures you are talking about. If you want a large, artsy shot of apples on the table, yes absolutely, get good optics. But if you want images where something interesting is happening, like the kind that might win Pulitzer award, this phone will absolutely take "good pictures", because people will always have it and will be able to pull it out and take a shot in a second when they see something happening.

  11. Re:Second Amendment on Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor · · Score: 1

    I let neither games nor the NRA define my sense of reality

    Entertain me then - where did you get the idea of an attacker with a hole in some internal organ chasing me around with a 3 foot metal pipe while I circle him with an empty gun rather than getting the hell out?

    And I would think you would be happy with a tranquilizer guns because you can fire several shots and make sure the guy is well hit. Yes, he might die, but police will administer an antidot and so might I - after tying him to a pipe in my bathroom with electric cords.

    You are precisely the kind of person I would keep away from guns because you are so bent on using excessive force and killing someone even if other options become available at only a small risk to yourself.

  12. Re:Wow on The Universal Off Button · · Score: 1

    I doubt you like spam much, yet isn't it an obsticle to concentrating on meaningful e-mail?

  13. Re:Second Amendment on Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor · · Score: 1

    I am talking about the kind of weapons needed to defeat US military. If you mean mild shizophrenics or even apparently healthy but unsupervised civilians like Timothy McVey should legally be allowed to have surfice to air missiles, I will be scared to fly if you ever became a polititian. If you mean a girl who had a psycotic episode long time ago should be able to buy a pepper spray or a single-shot pistol to protect herself against assult, I am all for it.

    Overall, I think people with mental disease would much rather not be given ability to kill people with a single squeeze of a finger. They have enough things to worry about already.

  14. Re:Second Amendment on Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor · · Score: 1

    Wow, either you played too much Silent Hill or NRA propoganda is far more impressive than I imagined. If I shoot and run, how far do you think a criminal (as opposed to a Navy SEAL) will chase me with "only" a collapsed lung or punctured liver? I think he better equip a horse whip instead of the 3 foot pipe, because he will be feeling woozy!

    More importantly, criminals are cowards. If someone knows that if he tries to rape a girl, he has 10% chance of dying and 75% chance of getting caught and sent to prison for really long time (either the girl survives and testifies, or he has to get medical treatment for the wound and the bullet has some kind of ID, or hopefully both), he will just look at some pr0n instead.

    Frankly, I wouldn't mind you using a 6 shot revolver for self defence from a mortal danger, except that once everyone has guns they would be inevitibly misused for duels, angry children shooting their parents/siblings, questionable self-defence like trying to kill running pickpockets and so on. I just wish that in most of these cases both parties survive and get out of jail before old age so that they can learn from their mistakes. At the same time, even a small chance of getting killed should discourage violent attacks.

    As for non-lethal weapons, who said anything about pepper spray? There are fast-acting tranquilizer darts, pistols that shoot nerve gas capsules, tazers.. strong stuff that might kill but tries to just incapacitate. If NRA dedicated their resources and lobbying power to develop and approve such weapons, I am sure they could come up with some reliable, low fatality stuff.

  15. Re:Second Amendment on Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor · · Score: 1

    So would you support the right of shizophrenics to bear arms, including the kind of weapons needed to overthrow a government with a modern army?

  16. Re:Second Amendment on Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor · · Score: 1

    Well, the problem is that if you own weapons powerful enough to take on modern US military, you can also kill hundreds of people before someone stops you. Given that 1% of population will develop schizophrenia, hardly a feasable idea.

    Look at Iraq - people have pleanty of regular weapons but they can not stop the foreign army from doing whatever it wants. The reason there is still resistance is because US is civilized to some degree and is limiting civilian casualties. Otherwise there would be carpet bombing of rebel strongholds and beheading of all the known relatives of hostage-takers.

  17. Re:Wow on The Universal Off Button · · Score: 0, Troll

    Well, watching TV everywhere is like being high on pot - you can not fully concentrate on anything else. If you get hooked and walk all over the place with a joint, and force everyone around to breeze your fumes and get stoned as well, maybe people who want their brains back will put a stop to it, even if they are the minority.

    As for finding another, quieter place, such a thing usually doesn't exist. What, you want people who need to talk or concentrate on something to find another airport?

  18. Re:Second Amendment on Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Somehow I suspect Second Amendment was talking about pistols, not mortars. Something you can use to repell bandits who show up at your house, but not to interfere with general public's "pursuit of happiness".

    If, despite common sense, second amendment advocates private ownership of nuclear bombs, well it's time for another amendment. How are snipper or automatic rifles necessary for self defence? Let everyone have manually loaded single-shot pistols, or better yet decent non/less-lethal weapons.

  19. Re:Webroot Spy Sweeper Enterprise and Lavasoft too on Spyware/Adware Prevention In Large Deployments? · · Score: 1

    You are purposly breaking an expensive, useful tool so that it can only do one function, and you are saying it's a good thing? Install Linux already, rate your employees on performance and let those who can get more use out of existing equipment do so. They might even find some productivity improving programs that everyone can adopt. I hear Japanese employees are getting small rewards even for useless inventions or suggestions.

  20. Re:Wow, good job for american propoganda machine on Linus Interviewed · · Score: 1

    How about those outsourced factory workers in capitalist India - think they get nice 8 hour days, air conditioning and modern living? Uhm.. If you are middle class in the world's richest country, you can't assume that's how things are working out for everyone.

    I grew up in "Soviet Russia" and it was screwed. Personally I am far better off in US. But I see a lot of homeless, people forced to work two jobs to provide for their family, programmers who are never allowed to take vacations... There is lots of room for improvement, and yes a big part of it is spending more tax money on social benefits rather than military, war on drugs, bailing out bankrupt companies...

  21. Wow, good job for american propoganda machine on Linus Interviewed · · Score: 3, Informative

    Communism is simply when everyone has access to resources that most people need to be happy - food, cloth, medicine, a place to live and so on. Imagine people getting a middle class salary as "welfare" if they don't otherwise make it. Obviously, in this case people must have some motivation to work other than the threat of poverty - for example sense of achivement, desire to improve life of other people and so on. Or with enough automatic production, perhaps most people don't have to work and the few jobs needed are filled by those eager to use their talent.

    This has never worked out and perhaps can not given the greedy and lazy human nature. Nevertheless, get your facts straight. Communism doesn't preclude variety of choices and you can make improvements or changes. You will just probably choose to give them away, because you don't need to make extra money in order to get what you want from life.

  22. Re:I WIN! on Obfuscated Vote Counting Contest · · Score: 1

    Yeah, this should be addressed right away!

    int bush = 0, kerry = 0, nader = 0, yada_yada = 0, l = 0;

    fd = fopen("ballots.str");
    while ((c = getc(fd)) != EOF) {
    switch (c) {
    case BUSH:
    bush += l;
    break;
    case KERRY:
    kerry += 1;
    break;
    case NADER:
    nader += 1;
    break;
    case YADA_YADA:
    yada_yada += 1;
    break;
    default:
    l++;
    }
    }
    printf("Bush %d, Kerry %d, Nader %d, YY %d, Other %d\n",
    bush, kerry, nader, yada_yada, l);

  23. Re:I have a feeling... on Kamikaze Novel Writing · · Score: 1

    Nope, it just has to be somewhat usable, even if it crashes every half an hour and occasionally corrupts data. Actually sounds like Word once you happen to use a combination of formatting that offends its sensibility.

  24. Nah, the sample they provide is already broken on Obfuscated Vote Counting Contest · · Score: 1

    It crashes if there are no votes (and who votes anyway??) and on many CPUs, like perhaps embedded controllers of voting machines, prints fradulant results. I mean, we all know only Bush will get less than 32768 votes, so everyone else is screwed. Here, see for yourself:

    int main () {
    int Input;
    unsigned long total=0;
    unsigned long Tally[256]={0};
    while ((Input=getchar())!=EOF) {
    unsigned char Vote=Input;
    if (!isspace(Vote)){
    Tally[Input]+=1;
    total+=1;
    }
    }
    printf("Kerry %d\n",Tally['K']);
    printf("Bush %d\n",Tally['B']);
    printf("Nader %d\n",Tally['N']);
    printf("Other %d\n",total-Tally['K']-Tally['B']-Tally['N']);
    return 0;
    }

  25. Re:I have a feeling... on Kamikaze Novel Writing · · Score: 1

    Seriously, I would love a code-writting competition with simular rules, provide that the program has to work at its intended function, even if it has lots of bugs.