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User: CastrTroy

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  1. Re:Pretty scary. on Social Engineering Using USB Drives · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Believe it or not, the banks' #1 concern is not privacy of the customer's data. The #1 concern is accuracy of the data. The most important thing is that the money is where it is supposed to be. This is the reason that banks spend so much on their computer systems. Not to keep the information secret, but to keep it accurate.

  2. Re:Build it somewhere cold on The Soaring Costs for New Data Center Projects · · Score: 1

    That really depends on the use of the data centre. If you are serving internet content, then it's probably fast enough. 6000 KM road distance,from alaska to texas. Trave time of 0.02 seconds. It's not great, but not terrible. Good enough form most people. Plus you could probably cust that distance in half by putting cable under the water.

  3. Re:Detroit? on The Soaring Costs for New Data Center Projects · · Score: 1

    Yeah, because we don't have any taxes in canada. In Ontario we have 15% sales tax, plus 6% provincial income tax (on the lowest income bracket), plus %16 federal income tax(on the lowest income bracket).

  4. Re:Dodgy consequences on Harvard Scientists to Clone Human Embryos · · Score: 1

    To start, I think women should be able to get an abortion if they want, but... I can understand the part about harm coming to the mother being a cause for abortion. Ending one life to save another could be ok, but what level of harm to the mother is necessary for the abortion to take place. And just because the woman was raped, doesn't mean you should cause more harm by ending the baby's life.

  5. Re:AJAX is the key on Google Launches Online Spreadsheet System · · Score: 1

    I seem to recall that Microsoft came up with XMLHttpRequest, which isn't quite AJAX, but is a really nice thing to have when you are doing AJAX. Before XMLHttpRequest you had to use hidden frames to load your content. It was kind of kludgy. Microsoft didn't really invent AJAX, just provided a useful tool to make AJAX apps easier to program. Now, if they could only get transparent PNGs working. (Yes, I know they work in IE7)

  6. Re:What If Based On .... on Would Vendor Liability for Bugs Kill OSS? · · Score: 1

    Yes, but that's per user. 1 bug per week at $1000 per bug, with 1 million users would be 1 billion dollars per week. not even microsoft could keep up with that kind of cost.

  7. Re:Getting Away with Murder on Would Vendor Liability for Bugs Kill OSS? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I graduated from software engineering and find that the problem is simple. Nobody wants to pay for engineered software. Most people pirate windows as it is, and that's at the cost of a couple hundred dollars. Throw software engineering into the mix, to make it free of bugs, and it would probably cost $2000. There are places where software engineering is done, but that generally only occurs where peoples lives or billions of dollars are at stake. I wouldn't pay $2000 for a home OS, because it wouldn't be worth my money. Plus, how do you control the varaiables. Building a home OS, you want it to be able to run any program the user clicks, yet, this is counter productive, because you have no idea what that program is going to do, or how it is going to interact with your system. Having never run that program on you OS, how are you supposed to sign off, saying that the OS won't crash when running that program. You could be pretty sure, but you couldn't be 100% sure. This is even more true for drivers and such, where much closer contact with the hardware is needed. There are places where people would rather just pay for something cheap, and have it work 80% of the time, rather than pay 15 times as much to have it work 100% of the time.

  8. Music makes a lot of difference on Memoirs of a Videogame Music Composer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The music in a game can make a huge difference in how fun the game is. The good games (metroid prime comes to mind), draw you in with the right music, playing the right music at the right time. Other games just take music from top 40 rock bands and call that a sound track. In some games this works well, but in others, it works terribly. Music doesn't usually make or break a game, but it can be the difference between a good game, and a great game. And it's not quality that matters, but music that fits the mood of the game. I'd much rather have crappy midi music than high quality CD music if the Midi music created better atmosphere.

  9. Re:prepayment on Movies Delivered Via Television Signal · · Score: 1

    I live in Ottawa, Ontario Canada, So presumably we both have Bell. It's currently $19 for a basic phone line in Ottawa. I would imagine winnipeg would be about the same, since they are both major urban centres. Add $3 a month tax, and you have $22. Not cheap, but definitely not $40.

  10. Re:Gas Mileage on ISPs Offer Faster Speeds, Why Don't We Get Them? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The question is, How do you know the speed tests you are doing on your connection are accurate. Maybe your connection is capable of 6 Mbps between your house, and you local router, but the rest of the internet doesn't go that fast. The speed tests are run on computers, often many miles if not hundreds of miles from your house. They are also under load. Can you really expect them to send 6 Mbps to 100 users? I find that I usually get amazing speeds by visiting the newsgroup servers on my ISP. The speeds are phenomenal. This is often the only place you can get speeds that they advertise. It's not like your ISP can control how fast Google serves pages.

  11. Re:And along those lines on What's Missing From File / Disk Encryption? · · Score: 1

    If you're worried about your files being corrupted, then you should probably be backing up your data. It is not the encryption system's job to worry about whether or not encrypted data is recoverable. However, I'm sure that they could build in some parity that would allow the data to be decrypted even if some bytes were damaged. This redundancy of data also might make the encryption easier to break. The simple answer is, if you want to make sure you're files aren't lost, then keep backups. Because when the entire file gets corrupted, it doesn't matter whether you're using encryption or not.

  12. Re:With a battery life of 2 hours on Alienware GeForce 7900 SLI Notebook Tested · · Score: 1

    I think you've just found the ultimate box for LAN Parties.

  13. Re:Why go through the trouble? on First StarOffice Virus Sighted · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Here's my new virus. I put it in a spreadsheet, it's just 1 line of code. =SUM(A1:A50). When put in cell A51, it automatically gets run every time you load the spreadsheet, and will run when you change the contents of A1 through A50. Just because you can make a program perform a function without user interaction doesn't mean you can run malicious code that will mess with the system/user files, or mess with the hardware in malicious ways.

  14. A Virus on First StarOffice Virus Sighted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is this really a virus. It downloads and displays and image with adult content, and displays it. It doesn't run any malicious code, doesn't touch your file system, and doesn't leave any trace after it has run. Sure, you may get in trouble at work, if it downloads the single image, but I think that most IT departments would understand, and wouldn't be able to do much for you for downloading a single image with adult content.

  15. Re:in other words on Microsoft Launches First Shared Source Contest · · Score: 1

    So does microsoft. Like Visual Studio Express and SQL Server Developer version. There's lots of other free stuff from microsoft. All only available for MS Windows, but what do you really expect.

  16. Re:Who cares? on How the PS3 Hit $600 · · Score: 1

    Nintendo is also pushing the idea that games don't have to be expensive to make either. I read that their dev kits are somewhere around $2000, which is 1/5th of what the others charge (AFAIK). Not to mention that they haven't gone, and used all new hardware that very few people even know how to program for (like Sony PS3). Nintendo is pushing the idea of single games that everyone will be able to afford, and that anybody will have the skill level to play. I'm semi hard-core gamer, or used to be more hardcore, but I just find it a lot more fun to just sit down and play a game, and not have to worry about spending $1000 on gaming, or about having to spend my entire life getting good enough to beat the games.

  17. Re:Pasting for the PS3 because it invents not copi on How the PS3 Hit $600 · · Score: 1

    Yes, but with DVD on the PS2, everybody knew that DVD was going to be the format that movies were sold on, and it offered tons of advantages over VHS. And, when compared to XBox (New system from microsoft, don't know how good it will be), and GameCube (uses small discs and is purple, can't play DVD), it was maybe the most attractive system. This time, we're not sure sure if Blu-ray is going to be the next DVD, or whether it's going to go they way of UMD/MiniDisc/LaserDisc. We also don't know what exclusive games are going to be released for PS3, or whether the developers will release games that will take advantage of it's full processing potential, since they will want their games to run on at least the XBox 360, if not the Wii also.

  18. Re:This will haunt them on How the PS3 Hit $600 · · Score: 1

    Maybe the book is a large format world atlas. I'm sure those pictures could take up quite a few gigs uncompressed.

  19. Re:PS3 will rule in 2008 on The Potential of Science With the Cell Processor · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    The problem with the PS3 will be that it will take companies a lot of time and money to develop games for it. They won't do this until they know there will be enough consumers to buy their games. The consumers on the other hand, won't buy it unless there are good games for it. Kind of a catch 22 if you ask me. Nintendo's model on the other hand, is to make it really cheap and easy to design games for the Wii, so there isn't so much risk involved for the developers. There also isn't so much risk for the consumers, because the system itself is so much cheaper than the competition.

  20. Re:Where to start on Starting an Education in IT? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think the only good programmers, and the only programmers I like to work with, are those who are passionate about programming. The people who see it as a job, or a way to get money, are not the kind of people that I enjoy working with. Most of the time they know less, because programming is work, so they don't do as much on their spare time, and didn't spend every spare second in high school (where there are the most spare seconds, and your brain is a sponge) learning about computers. Sports professionals are the same way. You don't get to the NBA by cheating through 4 years of college, and lying on a resume. You get to the NBA by practising every day of your life from the time you are 5, and knowing that this is what you really want to do with your life.

  21. Re:It's total hogwash on BSA Claims 35% of Software is Pirated · · Score: 1

    If what you're buying is crap, then for sure you don't want to shell out, even every 5 years. And that is why most people don't buy software. They don't see value in it. They watch their cable TV daily, and think it's worth it. However their computer is just something they are forced to use when they want to get something done like type up a resume, or send pictures to a friend. The other reason they spend more on cable is because it's a subscription, and it seems like less to the user. I seriously think that MS would make more money, if they just charged a $20 a month fee for all your software, and you got automatic updates as soon as new stuff came available. Mind you, at that point people might actually expect a new version more than once every 5 years. But they could also eliminate this whole version debacle, and just release small updates as they become available.

  22. Re:It's total hogwash on BSA Claims 35% of Software is Pirated · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, but for the average Joe who buys the $399 Dell box, even $90 can be a lot for a single program. If you spend $90 on elements, $200 on an office suite, $30 on a decent DVD burning program, $30 on a program to unzip files, and all the other software they need to run their computer, then all of a sudden that $399 Dell costs a lot more than $399. Granted, the software is the part that makes the computer actually work, but It still costs way too much. I think that if you gave most users the choice between Gimp and paying for Photoshop that most would choose GIMP. That's what I do. Whenever somebody asks me for a copy of photoshop, I point them to GIMP. They won't pay for anything, so they use GIMP. Most people find it easy and useful enough that they don't miss photoshop, and don't have to worry about what happens when something on their computer gets messed up, and they have to reinstall. People have a bad habit of losing pirated software, because they pay nothing for it.

  23. Re:Freedom and Cost on U.S. Pressures ISPs on Data Retention · · Score: 1

    By wearing your seatbelt, you drive more safely and in control and you are performing a public good

    How does this make any sense? I would think that someone who is more likely to be injured in a crash, to drive more safely. If there is a 100% chance that you will die in an accident, you had better make sure that you don't get in an accident. However, if there is a 100% chance that you won't get injured, then why would you even worry about whether or not you got in an accident.

  24. Re:Simple Solution on U.S. Pressures ISPs on Data Retention · · Score: 1

    Maybe you could use a new technology called HTTPS to ecrypt your HTTP Get command. Sure they could track which server you connect to, but not which pages are requested, nor the data that is sent back. A proxy system that did the requests for you would hide who was getting which pages.

  25. Re:Do they realize the scope? on U.S. Pressures ISPs on Data Retention · · Score: 1

    Even if they implemented the system, and figured they did have enough space to store it all, couldn't everybody just start sending and receiving garbage 24 hours a day in order to clog the system. Some kind of P2P clog the log system?