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User: John.P.Jones

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Comments · 219

  1. E = mc^2 on Japanese Company Says Laws of Physics Don't Apply — to Cars · · Score: 1

    There is not exactly one way, you could just substitute the second part of the equation above by the first and voila, a net gain of about 9x10^16 J per liter of H20. The way it looks is that a compact fusion generator is only slightly more plausible than a perfect mass-energy exchanger, unless you have a magnetic monopole and an anti-monopole laying around.

  2. Use the online chat on Dell Found Guilty of Fraud, False Advertising · · Score: 1

    I have never had good luck with talking with Dell on the phone but the online chat tech support option has usually been very effective. That is of course if you have a machine that is running to chat with them, preferably a different machine than the one you are inquiring about.

  3. Good on Astronauts Hook Up Harmony in Lengthy Spacewalk · · Score: 2, Funny

    Good, now they won't need to have all those extra remote control's floating around the ISS, Harmonies are great.

  4. Re:Same thing only different. on Monitor Draws Zero Power In Standby · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Ah, hibernation I remember it fondly. Upon discovering my new PowerBook G4 didn't support such an advanced feature I nearly returned it. Since then when I'm not using my laptop it is constantly drawing enough power to refresh the RAM and pulse its LED. It is never off for more than an hour. I wish Apple would get with it and implement hibernation.

  5. Re:Too bad apples lawyers do not understand Law. on Apple Makes $831 On Each AT&T iPhone · · Score: 1

    The law requires them to accept dollars as a form of payment not cash, they can require you to charge $400 on a credit card, they just can't require you to charge 250 Euro, or whatever, to your card.

  6. Re:DP Approach on Content-Aware Image Resizing · · Score: 1

    I agree, the entire novelty here is in the idea, the implementation is a rather quite straightforward application of well known, generic techniques. Sounds like the problem statement would make a reasonable question on a introductory graduate algorithms class (using CLR as a text.)

  7. That's odd it says 10.4.10 on Next Version of Windows? Call it '7' · · Score: 4, Funny

    I must be ahead a few versions, it says 10.4.10

  8. Prepaid Phone on Where In the US Can You Get Just a Cell Phone? · · Score: 1

    At least on AT&T, you can put your standard rate plan card in a cheap ($20) prepaid phone and toss the prepaid starter card. I did this after my old phone went for a swim while I was still under contract, waiting for the iPhone. Easy as pie, the phone isn't so great but its a cheap and simple solution.

  9. Re:How about this: on Scientists Attempt to Replace Crude Oil With Sugars · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hey smart boy, what do you think people's metabolisms do with the fuel? I'll tell you, they burn it (in a controlled fashion) and release (gasp) CO2!

    The advantage of biofuel techniques is we are releasing CO2 that has been recently removed from the atmosphere versus large sums of it that has been stored away for millions of years (oil). That is a profound difference because its sustainable, rather than using up limited resources at an unsustainable rate and changing our environment.

    Other than that, I agree with your general statement that biofuel is overrated and alternative fuels are underutilized and that we can do better.

  10. Calm down on Linux (Car) Crashes At Indy 500 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Everyone, try not to Panic!

  11. Re:You're kidding, right? on Michigan Man Charged for Using Free WiFi · · Score: 1

    You better believe the DA knew he was breaking the law.

    The prosecutor should be fired.

  12. Webster is fine on A Succinct Definition of the Internet? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Internet (noun): an electronic communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the world.

    I think this is a servicable, sucinct, definition. Of course, I would have split it in two as follows...

    Internet (proper noun): the global internetwork based on the Internet Protocol.
    internetwork (noun): an electronic communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities.

    but I'm a bit pedantic.

  13. How about this? on AMD's New DRM · · Score: 1

    Remember how you used to have all these CDs laying around to listen to music?
    Isn't it so much nicer to have all your music available form a central, easilly reproducable source?
    You know all those DVDs laying around your living room?
    Wouldn't it be nice if you could do with your movies what you did with your music?
    Well you can't because...

  14. Scalar Graphics vs Vector Graphics on 1080p, Human Vision, and Reality · · Score: 1

    What we have today is Scalar graphics, each location on the screen obtains a scalar value (brightness, color). What we need is a vector display (no, not vector like an oscilloscope), where each location fires aimed photons at a perscribed angle. This would result in a virtual window pane (and truly insane bandwidth requirements). In addition to 3d without glasses this would bring true depth of field to the image, you would have to focus further on far away objects than near ones.

    Of course, capturing this sort of video would be an entirely different challenge.

  15. DNSSEC keys on ICANN Wants Immunity · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is all about the recent request for access to the DNSSEC root keys. As a firm proponent of DNSSEC I agree, In ACSAC 2005 I published a paper proposing the IKS (Internet Key Service) a distributed domain-name based certificate authority grounded in DNSSEC and the sole authority of ICANN to assign domains. A functionally deployed DNSSEC would allow us to bootstrap strong end-to-end cryptography. Allowing the US government to spoof DNS entries would seriously impair DNSSEC and greatly damage my work.

  16. KIE2ES: Keep it End-to-End Stupid on PayPal Asks E-mail Services to Block Messages · · Score: 1

    It should be sufficient to let the client handle this, domain's wishing that all mail from their domain should be signed can ADVERTIZE this fact and clients wishing to RESPECT that advertizement can verify signatures and filter incoming mail accordingly.

    I guess I am just old-fashioned eh?

  17. What about other licenses? on USDTV Subscribers Gouged For Linux USB Keys · · Score: 1

    I don't know anything about this company but I have a general GPL question that this may serve as a good example of...

    What if they had licensed lots of other code and disobeyed the GPL by merging from them both? They couldn't release the code and they couldn't not release the code either. I suppose that the other license (the restrictive one) would win out. They could be sued for breaking the GPL but the result of the lawsuit couldn't be opening the code so what would you get from a defunct company?

  18. If JPEG can't microsoft can't on Microsoft Move to be the End of JPEG? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If JPEG can't develop a standard to effectively replace JPEG (JPEG2000) then I really don't see much hope for Microsoft in doing so.

  19. No on Secure Private Key Storage for UNIX? · · Score: 4, Informative

    OpenSSL was just certified FIPS 140-2, that is NOT however level 2 it is version 2 of the standard. It was certified FIPS 140-2 level 1.

  20. Re:Those around him... on Recording Your Entire Life · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'd say that once the last person who knew anyone in the life recording is dead the personal connection is gone and the recording can be viewed entirely as a historical matter. Practically speaking, that would be two lifetimes after the death of the person being recorded, roughly 225 years (maybe more in the future). Frankly at that point, any right to privacy anyone in the recording has is expired because anyone who may have known them is dead. Privacy doesn't last forever, eventually historical importance (if any) takes precedence. I don't wory about anyone living 300 years from now seeing my life, neither should you. Fortunately all copyrights in the material will have expired prior to that as well.

  21. Re:Technolgy can't fix legal/economic problems on Digital Credentials Offer Enhanced Privacy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    > What is the chance that VISA/MC/AMEX will re-engineer their systems to be privacy-preserving?

    Much better when there is a well understood solution to the problem. The technology is a necessary not a sufficient condition for fixing these problems. No it won't magically solve our problems but that doesn't negate the use of developing the technology.

  22. Fair Tax on California Balks At Internet Sales Tax · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I direct you to FairTax.org where the dream lives on, although I believe its more like 23% to be revenue neutral.

  23. I better mow then on Your House Is About To Be Photographed · · Score: 2, Funny

    No more putting off mowing the lawn.

  24. Re:It works for me... on Study Finds Bank of America SiteKey is Flawed · · Score: 1

    That is a good idea, particularly if each image had a different hot area (click on the dog's nose or the horse's mouth), then the image would be actively participating in the user interaction more. A user would almost certainly notice that the image wasn't correct.

  25. It works for me... on Study Finds Bank of America SiteKey is Flawed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them pay attention to security concerns...

    The BofA login is helpful to me, I fully expect to see my login token when I login to my account and would not login if I didn't see it. Some people won't pay attention and there isn't ANYTHING that BofA could do to prevent that (that isn't outrageously inconvinient for me.)