Slashdot Mirror


User: cptdondo

cptdondo's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
837
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 837

  1. Re:People still use dd-wrt? on Teach Your Router New Tricks With DD-WRT · · Score: 2
  2. sue on Robot Workforce Threatens Education-Intensive Jobs · · Score: 1

    the manufacturer and retire....

  3. Re:Misplaced paranoia. on DigiNotar Goes Bankrupt After Hack · · Score: 1

    I thought a part of TEMPEST was that the machine could not be connected to a LAN except to other TEMPEST machines... ISTR that our tempest machines had removable drives that were stored separately in a safe and only inserted when the machine was booted. No LAN connection was allowed at all outside the room.

  4. Re:Honest Question on White House Proposes "Wealthy Tax" · · Score: 1

    This is based on the premise that the middle class does not exist. Taxes from the wealthy do not immediately disappear down some "welfare recipient" black hole. Instead, they go to improve infrastructure - bridges, roads, etc, pay for gov't employees, most of whom actually do real work, etc.

    The GOP fantasy world consists of the uber-wealthy and the wetbacks, with no one else of consequence. In their minds the middle class has already been reduced to irrelevance.

    The real job creators are the middle class; we're the ones who go and actually buy things, go out for dinner, travel, and so on, and actually keep money flowing. The uber-rich shift money from one overseas shell corporation to another, which has nothing to do with job creation.

    You want jobs? Screw the rich, bring back the middle class.

    Oh, and the whole "cut taxes and regulations that are strangling the economy" - How's that working out? I see cutting taxes and regulations on banks has really improved the economy, so we need to do more of that, eh?

  5. Re:Azure on Windows Server 8 Is A Radical Departure From Previous Releases · · Score: 0

    The thing is, if you take one piece of shit and shove another piece of shit into it, no matter how perfectly you mix the two pieces of shit, no matter how well planned your shit mixing is, no matter how homogenous and compatible you make the two pieces of shit, all you'll ever wind up with is a larger pile of shit.

    On my wall. I wish I had modpoints. Those are words to live by!

  6. Re:Does Not Compute on Mr. President, There Is No (US) Engineer Shortage · · Score: 2

    Can you live without clean water? Can you live without reliable power? Can you live with bridges that collapse, buildings that pancake? Can your doctor provide "health" without all his / her instruments, MRIs, medicines?

    Sorry, but that is one of the most ignorant things I've ever heard. Without good engineering, modern civilization and all the things we take for granted will collapse. Thousands die when engineers fail. Doctors kill retail. Engineers kill wholesale.

  7. Re:Does Not Compute on Mr. President, There Is No (US) Engineer Shortage · · Score: 1

    That, and well-paid engineering jobs that earn respect in the public eye. No one blinks at a doctor pulling down $400K after a few years but engineer salaries are often flat across an engineering career. A lot of people think they can do engineering as well as an engineer. no one would operate on them selves, but they think that most of engineering is "common sense" and "anyone can do it". Either that or that engineers are dweebs who deserve no respect.

  8. Re:how did this yeast come to Schwechat, Austria? on Origins of Lager Found In Argentina · · Score: 1

    U Fleku in the Czech Republic has been making the same "dark lager" in the same place for something like 500 years in Prague. So yes, lager does predate the 1800s by quite a bit.

    I'm not sure when the first lager was brewed, but given the timeline someone (Vikings?) must have brought back the yeast. Good thing they didn't wash really well, eh?

  9. Re:Free OSS for lawyers? on Open Source For Lawyers? · · Score: 1

    Last time I checked, the majority of FOSS programmers and maintainers were paid for their efforts - including myself a couple of jobs back. Just because the software is free, doesn't mean the guy/gal working on it is unpaid.

    Plus FOSS software doesn't maintain itself. They pay for the maintenance contract.

  10. Re:GPS kills on How Does GPS Change Us? · · Score: 2

    Get the book "How to Stay Found" and practice it. My kids and I went out on a practice hike across broken backcountry (no trails, volcanic rock, very broken terrain with collapsed lava tubes, lots of obstacles.) My 13 year old daughter led us with a map and compass for 2 hours. My 10 year old son brought us back. At the end of 4 hours, we ended up about 100 yards from where we started.

    It's not brain surgery. But you have to have a clue and you have to practice.

    Sorry about the misuse of the words. "Rescues", not recoveries.

  11. Re:GPS kills on How Does GPS Change Us? · · Score: 1

    Those direction swill work in places like the Smokies, not in places like Oregon. Depending on where you start and which way you're pointed, "downhill" can mean 30+ miles of rough, volcanic wilderness before you hit a road. And some of the roads are less than well traveled. If you don't have a map and compass, chances are you don't have food or gear to allow you to spend the night in sub-freezing weather.

  12. Re:GPS kills on How Does GPS Change Us? · · Score: 2

    Well, yes. I just went through this a couple of weeks ago on a hiking trip. We hiked on snowed-over unmarked trails. Without a GPS it would have been impossible. OTOH we had compasses and maps to back up the GPS and constantly referred back to the printed maps and got a bearing by compass so we knew at all times which way to bail if the GPS died.

    But the USFS was busy recovering people from the same area who went in with a GPS and no maps, and then got totally lost when the GPS died. From what I gathered, 2 rescues / day.... These were unhurt parties who lost their way. No business being out there in the first place.

  13. Re:tl;dr on What Today's Coders Don't Know and Why It Matters · · Score: 2

    I don't miss the days of my PDP-8 programming. OTOH, I do a lot of embedded stuff as a hobby these days, and it's incredible to think that a lot of the newer programmers think you need huge resources to do even minor tasks. I sometimes choke at the megabytes of dependencies sucked into a small piece of code... Anyway, it's a bit of "Get off my lawn" and a bit of "when the car starts skidding, you really do need to understand oversteer, understeer, and torque steer to keep from getting wrapped around that light pole." And yes, I do know that torque steer has little to do with the first two. :-)

  14. Re:Funny to me... on Linus Torvalds Ditches GNOME 3 For Xfce · · Score: 1

    I guess for the first time (and last) I can say that I'm far, far ahead of Linus. I ditched Gnome for Xfce about 12 years ago.

  15. Re:Isn't that a given? on Space Station To Be Deorbited After 2020 · · Score: 1

    I'd guess that it would start tumbling first and fling off a whole bunch of debris before plunging into the atmosphere.

    You want to bring it down in one piece. It's the debris that's worrisome. The big pieces they can track. It's the nuts, wrenches, and other bits that give the controllers fits. A nut travelling at 3 km/s is a pretty deadly proijectile (even if your speed is pretty close to that....) A .22 rifle bullet travels at what, 300 m/s, weighs a lot less than a nut, and will kill you. A delta of 300 m/s is not so great in orbit.

  16. Re:Wow on Marooned Off Vesta · · Score: 0

    Wow dude, and this makes you feel worthwhile? It must really suck living in your grandma's basement.

    Why don't you get out and try to do something worthwhile with your life?

  17. Re:Don't sign it on RIAA Math: Sell 1 Million Albums, Still Owe $500k · · Score: 1

    When a single organization controls the distribution channels, you're screwed. You don't have to sign the contract, but you don't have an alternative employer.

    Ever tried to work in a strongly union state without being in the union? Ain't happening.

  18. Re:Learn Mandarin and buy Bitcoins on Why People Who Make Things Should Learn Chinese · · Score: 1

    I lived in Japan quite a while. Way back when. If you spoke well enough to communicate you could get a job.

    Today, I see ads for US engineers for jobs in Japan, and the ability to speak and write technical Japanese is a pre-requisite for engineers. So yes, it's absolutely true. If you want to succeed you are better off speaking the other guy's language.

  19. Re:Spoken like someone.. on Tilting Bike Uses Google Maps To Simulate Routes · · Score: 1

    Exercise bikes don't come with the same sense of accomplishment a real bike has. Results of real bicycle usage are far more measurable to me. Also, with a real bicycle on a real street, I can see lots of things and I need to concentrate more on what's going on around me instead of the exercise which means I an not thinking of the workout I have been getting which actually helps a LOT more than anything else. The very moment I think of "exercise" is the same moment I begin to feel tired.

    I teach indoor cycle, and what you say is true. You don't get the handling skills. OTOH I can take you to the edge of your aerobic capacity, and hold you there for a lot longer than most people will do on a real bike. It's a different form of exercise. Stationary bike skills don't translate to road bike skills.

  20. Re:Spoken like someone.. on Tilting Bike Uses Google Maps To Simulate Routes · · Score: 1

    I used to go to a gym where they had tilting recumbents, all wired together. The bikes had a big fan you drove with the pedals; the harder you went the more wind in your face. They had a big monitor to show you where you were. You could race preset courses against other riders on the network, or you could race against the computer.

    These things were cool! If you ran into something like a wall or a tree, the pedals would lock up. You could ride under water and have to dodge fish.

    I'm an endurance cyclist - I can ride 50 or a 100 miles at the drop of a hat - but I don't think I lasted more than 20 minutes on those things. Ever. So yes, it's a great workout, if it's done right it's hard and fun.

  21. Re:"Internet death penalty" on Law Professors vs the PROTECT IP Act · · Score: 1

    Then why are the teabaggers supporting the continuation of huge gov't subsidies to oil companies? Why are they supporting tax laws that exempt the wealthiest companies and shift the burden onto small business and individuals?

    The whole tea party is based on a failed premise that an individual can stand up to a multinational corporation and win. Maybe in a redneck shotgun fantasy; in reality the individual gets milked for every dime they have and thrown away in the end when they can no longer pay.

  22. Re:"Internet death penalty" on Law Professors vs the PROTECT IP Act · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Once you establish the precedent, you're on a slippery slope. This has been coming for a long time. A black person driving from Florida carrying a lot of cash is assumed to be a drug runner. Their car and cash are confiscated without a trial and they have to fight to get it back.

    A Hispanic person in Arizona must show ID to prove s/he is a citizen, otherwise they're assumed to be illegal.

    Now your website and your business can be taken away just on the accusation of violating some copyright somewhere.

    Ever read any of Niven's sci-fi? We're just about there. Next step, organ banks.

  23. Re:really? on Is There a Formula For a Hit Song? · · Score: 1

    Rutgers....

    Also they need some basic statistics analysis. While they force a linear "trend" some of those graphs clearly are crying out for something other than a straight line approximation.

  24. Re:Whether he improved on them is irrelevant on World's Best Chess Engine Outlawed and Disqualified · · Score: 1

    Your house is unlocked. Anyone can use it. Dumbass.

    Open Source - "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means"

    Just because something is released under an open source license doesn't mean anyone can copy it. Copyright doesn't go away just because you release something under an open source license.

  25. Re:Blaming environmentalists? on The Intentional Flooding of America's Heartland · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The authors premise is that had the ACE not abided by various environmentalists requests to mimic the natural flow of the river, then they would have been ready for this huge influx of water.

    And if they don't mimic the natural flow, then the environment around the river changes, and deer come in and eat people's yards, and invasive plants take hold, and native fish disappear so you can't fish anymore, and the same idiots who scream about this would scream about that.

    You can't cure stupidity.