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User: Natchswing

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Comments · 169

  1. No advertisements! on Even Century Old Records Had Restrictive Licensing · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Look! Not a single paid advertisement on the site. The entire article even fits on one page.

  2. Re:EULA unenforceable under First Sale Doctrine on Even Century Old Records Had Restrictive Licensing · · Score: 1

    What if the record predates First Sale Doctrine (which this one does)? It appears that a similar restriction on books was the first case involving this doctrine.

  3. Re:Did they get ahold of Tesla's research? on Splashpower Boasts Wireless Power · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately all my books are packed right now so I can't give you a good listing. I remember "Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla" being a much better book.

  4. Re:Did they get ahold of Tesla's research? on Splashpower Boasts Wireless Power · · Score: 1

    Margaret's book has been an eyesore to Tesla for quite some time. It's widely considered one of the least accurate books about Tesla and his work.

  5. 1200 DPI of noise? on Searching for a Decent Scanner? · · Score: 1
    We bought an HP scanner at work. It quite happily bragged about 1200 DPI. I found that if you set it to anything higher than 300 DPI it scanned in noise. Patterned noise, but certainly noise. 300 DPI was just want you wanted to scan. Anything higher was noise.

    I emailed their tech support and got a "we'll get back to you soon" email followed by a "how to change your DPI" form letter. I replied back with the same message. Another "We'll get back to you soon" (WGBTYS) and a "how to scan small pictures" form letter. Once more and I got the "how to change your DPI" message.

    Over a dozen emails sent to them and I finally got a call from someone in India who couldn't speak English. I gave up.

    Their software is another story. I know three people with HP scanners that all have the same beautiful software. None of the buttons or pull-down menus have any text. NO TEXT. You just randomly click on empty buttons trying to guess which one does what. How can you put out software like this?

  6. Security through Obscurity on Hackers Forced Announcement of 10th Planet Find · · Score: 2, Funny

    When will corporations ever learn? Obscuring the knowledge of the 10th planet will not keep us safe from their eventual attempt to take over Earth.

  7. CBS News on CNN Now Offers Free Online Video · · Score: 1

    CBS News has always had free video. Why assume that it's only pressure from Fox.

  8. Wireless Network on Hackers, Meet Microsoft · · Score: 1
    This is news to anyone at Microsoft? I have a wireless connection here. I have specifically told XP not to connect to anything other than the preferred wireless network. The only preferred wireless connection is the router here in the house.

    I had the problem of the network connection regularly disabling itself and re-enabling itself. Turns out this is well documented on the internet but denied as an issue at Microsoft. Disable the zero wireless configuration service and it stops doing that.

    However, occasionally it refuses to connect to the preferred network after a reboot. It will show that the network is not connected. I tell it to connect and it will try connecting to the network. It gives the "repairing your network connection" while it looks. I have a normal connection while it's looking, but when it gives up I have no more connection.

    Other times, especially after a power flash, I'll notice that I'm connected to my neighbor's open wireless connection. Windows loves to connect to any random connection it can find.

    I'll reconnect to my wireless network and it will show "NOT CONNECTED - You are connected to this network." Well... which is it?

    I haven't found a way to stop Windows XP to connecting to any random network connection it finds. I swear I dated a girl like that once.

  9. Micahel Jackson! on Extending Pop Music Copyrights · · Score: 1
    > That means the Beatles' "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me," scheduled to to go into the public domain in 2013, would earn royalties for record companies until 2063.

    Michael Jackson owns the publishing rights to a nice chunk of beatles music. If Michael plans on holding out for a few more child molestation lawsuits before he dies he really needs that revenue source to be maintained.

    Think of the children! If this musical copyright expires there will be no money for the children to extract from Michael.

    1. Buy Beatles Album
    2. Sue Michael Jackson
    3. Profit!

    Hurting the copyright means hurting Michael Jackson means hurting the children!

  10. Where did this motor come from? on Electric Cars as Fast as Ferraris · · Score: 1

    A revolutionary motor just rusting in an old abandoned building. Who is John Galt?

  11. Re:A testament to OS X's stable nature on Mad as Hell, Switching to Mac · · Score: 1

    You could sit and watch me for the next two years and see if it happens again.

  12. Re:A testament to OS X's stable nature on Mad as Hell, Switching to Mac · · Score: 1

    If you're in the Daytona Beach area I'd be glad to show you.

  13. Re:A testament to OS X's stable nature on Mad as Hell, Switching to Mac · · Score: 1
    Actually I consider those *very* annoying. Most likely because I'm quite used to opening a bunch of windows. An occasional Windows-M to minimize them all is useful, but other than that the multiple desktops annoy me.

    I'll take multiple monitors over virtual desktops any day!

  14. Re:A testament to OS X's stable nature on Mad as Hell, Switching to Mac · · Score: 1
    > What, did you say something? I can't hear you over the fans!

    I *almost* mentioned that but didn't want to be too wordy in my post. It's actually not incredibly loud. The case is pretty big and unlike the tin foil and plastic Dell cases this thing has considerable heat capacity. I have no extra fans in this thing, just video card, 2 processors with fans, and dual power supplies with fans. Only 5! :)

  15. Re:A testament to OS X's stable nature on Mad as Hell, Switching to Mac · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I think Windows gets a bad rep. I don't know what you're doing with your machine but why do you instantly blame Windows?

    We'll start with the basics. Buy quality hardware. Buying a cheaper processor because you can overclock it and double the voltage while pumping koolaid into it is probably not within the design specs.

    I'm sitting at my work computer here so let me just take a look around at what we've got. Dual Xeon 2.4 ghz on a SuperMicro motherboard. Ultra 3 SCSI drives and a SuperMicro server case.

    What's running on it you ask? Windows 2000 Professional. I use it 5 days a week - and heavily too. Right now I see 45 windows open. Matlab with numerous graphs (with lots of data loaded on them and in the stack), Outlook, Excel, lots of note pads, lots of file directories, 3 SSH programs running, 5 Mozilla windows (most with multiple tabs), an HP48G emulator, Microsoft Streets and Trips, Mozilla Sunbird, Mozilla Thunderbird, Pro/ENGINEER 2001, RealVNC, Winamp, etc.

    This list is pretty typical. These programs regularly get closed and reopened depending on what I'm doing. Looking at my task manager I have 66 processes and 915MB of ram in use. The machine was last rebooted On February 8th due to an Internet Explorer upgrade (according to my event log). That's three months of regular use without a reboot.

    This OS was installed on July 25th, 2003. It has bluescreened once. ONCE!

    If any windows machine I build and use has a blue screen I typically assume it's a hardware failure. Windows 2000, while having numerous bugs, is incredibly stable. I've had only limited experience with XP so I can't comment too much.

    I don't know where you're buying your hardware or what you're doing with it, but try buying some quality hardware before you go blaming the software. I have more than my share of complaints about windows, but if it crashes regularly then maybe you should look someplace else for the cause. There are probably half a dozen machines in this lab, plus my home computer, girlfriend's computer, and laptop - all of which are quite stable.

  16. Void where prohibited by law. on Hack IIS6 Contest · · Score: 1
    Void where prohibited by law.

    Yeah, that about sums it up.

  17. First in the industry on Google Adds Satellite Imagery to Maps · · Score: 1

    How can this be first in the industry. Terraserver has been doing it for atleast 6 years and NASA's World Wind does a fantastic job.

  18. Re:copyright? on Privateer Remake Complete · · Score: 0

    Well, since it looks like most of the other linked Ultima projects have been cancelled due to being denied legal rights, I would assume the answer is, "not very happy."

  19. Re:The real use of Allofmp3.com on Allofmp3.com Wins Court Case · · Score: 1

    Fair enough! I retract my comment. :)

  20. Re:The real use of Allofmp3.com on Allofmp3.com Wins Court Case · · Score: 1
    > the website has all the music imaginable

    If "all the music imaginable" means a small sampling of currently over-played pop music, why, then yes!

    There is no obscure Pearl Jam CD, they're all available at your local Walmart.

  21. Proof? on Man Finds $1,000 Prize in EULA · · Score: 2, Insightful
    This sounds like some pretty good PR fluff. Does anyone have any proof this exists?

    Sounds like a great marketing idea.

    1. Get a friend of yours to say they got $1000 from your software
    2. Advertise the event on your website
    3. Include a fair share of advertisements on page
    4. Submit miracle story of how great EULA's are to slashdot
    5. People flock to your website to see what it's all about
    6. Profit

    Even underpants gnomes can figure this one out. Until somebody does an indepth report on the story I'll consider it a ploy and move on.

  22. Re: No supported upgrade path... on Red Hat Promises A More Vibrant Fedora · · Score: 1
    > I ran Fedora for a while. It was OK. But then another Fedora release came out, and there was no supported upgrade path--you had to reinstall again from scratch from a CD.

    I have three completely unique machines, each one was running redhat 9. Upgraded all of them to Fedora 1, then Fedora 2, then Fedora 3. Each one had one or two necessary tweaks that were documented everywhere, mainly by the YUM author.

    So reinstall from scratch doesn't seem like a necessary step to me. Did you actually try to upgrade?

  23. Re:I bet on Panera Bread Is The Largest Provider Of Free WiFi · · Score: 1

    It was Cucumber the 1st. Summer was over. I had just spinached a long day and I was busheled. I'm the kind of guy that works hard for his celery, and I don't like telling you I was feeling a bit wilted. But I didn't carrot all, because, otherwise, things were vine. I try never to dasparagus, and I don't sweat the truffles. I'm outstanding in my field, and I know that something good will turnip eventually.

    A bunch of things were going grape, and, soon, I'd be top banana. At least, that's my peeling. But that's enough corn -- lend me your ear, and lettuce continue.

    After dressing, I stalked over to the grain station. I got there just in lime to catch the nine-elemon as it plowed towards the core of Appleton, a lentil more than a melon and a half yeast of Cloveland.

    No one got off at Zucchini, so we continued on a rutaBaga. Passing my usual stop, I got avoCado. I haled a passing Yellow Cabbage and told the driver to cart me off to Broccolin. I was going to meet my brother across from the EggPlant, where he had a job at the Saffron station pumpkin gas.

    As soon as I saw his face, I knew he was in a yam. He told me his wife had been raisin cane. Her name was Peaches -- a soiled but radishing beauty with huge gourds. My brother had always been a chestnut but I could never figure out why she picked him. He was a skinny little stringbean who'd always suffered from Cerebral Parsley -- it was in our roots. Sure, we had tried to weed it out, but the problem still romained. He was used to having a tough row to hoe, but it irrigated me to see Arte-choke, and it bothered my brother to see his marriage go to seed.

    Like most mapled couples, they had a lot of growing to do. Shore, they had sown their wild oats, but just barley, if you peas. Finally, Peaches had given him an ultomato. She said, "I'm hip to your chive, and if you don't stop smoking that herb, I'm going to leaf you for Basil, you fruit!"

    He said he didn't realize it had kumquat so far. Onion other hand, even though Peaches could be the pits, I knew she'd never call the fuzz.

    So I said, "Hay, we're not farm from the MushRoom. Let's walk over."

    He said, "That's a very rice place! That's the same little bar where alfalfa my wife."

    When we got there, I pulled up a cherry and tried to produce small talk. I told him I hadn't seen Olive; not since I'd shelled off for a trip to Macadamia, when I told her we cantaloupe -- the thyme just wasn't ripe. She knew what I mint!

    When we left the MushRoom, we were pretty well juiced. I told Arte to say hello to the boysenberry, and that I'd orange to see him another time.

    Well, it all came out in the morning peppers: Arte caught Peaches that night with Basil, and Arte beet Basil bad, leaving him with two beautiful acres. Peaches? She was found in the garden -- she'd be pruned.

    Well, my little story is okra now. Maybe it's small potatoes. Me? Idaho. My name? "Wheat." My friends call be "Kernel." And that's life in the slaw lane. Thank you so mulch.

    It's a garden out there!

    Kip Adotta - "Life in the Slaw Lane"

  24. Incomplete List on Panera Bread Is The Largest Provider Of Free WiFi · · Score: 1

    That list is horribly incomplete. I've been to four Paneras in Florida that have Wi-Fi and aren't on that list.

  25. Awesome-O on Elektro, the Oldest U.S. Robot · · Score: 4, Funny

    I am Awesome-O. I generate movie scripts for the MPAA.