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User: randallman

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  1. Re:Stop the Hate Child!!! on Atlanta Gambled With Winter Storm and Lost · · Score: 1

    Driving on snow is fine. The snow at least gives you some traction. Driving on an ice rink ain't so easy. I live in Meridian MS (also have nice new Bridgestone's) and there were places I slid through with absolutely no exposed road and no gravel, sand, or even snow to get traction on.

  2. Re:Canadian driving on Atlanta Gambled With Winter Storm and Lost · · Score: 1

    While I agree one should keep a cool head and I agree with your driving suggestions, you should understand that many of the roads here you could ice skate on. No gravel. So Salt. Not even snow. Just pure slick ice. There was absolutely NOTHING to get traction on. Short of having chains, no tire or drivetrain could help. I had the pleasure of sledding down a hill this morning despite inching forward carefully. Luckily, I got into some snow on the side and regained traction.

  3. Re:Woot! on Intel Dev: GTK's Biggest Problem, and What Qt Does Better · · Score: 1

    Thanks for the nostalgia and laughter.

  4. Ubuntu Patched This Today! on Scientists Extract RSA Key From GnuPG Using Sound of CPU · · Score: 1

    Changelog:

    Changes for the versions:
    Installed version: 1.4.11-3ubuntu2.4
    Available version: 1.4.11-3ubuntu2.5

    Version 1.4.11-3ubuntu2.5:

        * SECURITY UPDATE: RSA Key Extraction via Low-Bandwidth Acoustic
            Cryptanalysis attack
            - debian/patches/CVE-2013-4576.dpatch: Use blinding for the RSA secret
                operation in cipher/random.*, cipher/rsa.c, g10/gpgv.c. Normalize the
                MPIs used as input to secret key functions in cipher/dsa.c,
                cipher/elgamal.c, cipher/rsa.c.
            - CVE-2013-4576

    Just wow.

  5. Re:Fix HD First on 4K Ultra HD Likely To Repeat the Failure of 3D Television · · Score: 1

    Wrong. MPEG2 (OTA is encoded with MPEG2) is certainly compressed and in my opinion is the worst offender when it comes to digital artifacts. AVC on the other hand looks much better even at lower bitrates. Despite using lower bitrates, content from online sources such as Netflix and Amazon look much better than OTA.
    Cable companies also use MPEG2, but I think they recompress the streams and the look truly awful.

  6. Re:Time to start on CryptoSeal Shuts Down Consumer VPN Service To Avoid Fighting NSA · · Score: 1

    Why not use S/MIME or PGP? Point to point encryption is the only way to secure messages.

  7. Re:Can you do better? on IE 11 Breaks Rendering For Google Products, and Outlook Too · · Score: 1

    I switched to fastmail after hosting my own mail server for 10+ years. I got tired of the spam fighting race. I use my own domain, IMAPS + Thunderbird for 2 years now and I've been very happy. Their webmail interface is very slick and faster than Thunderbird for some operations such as massive deletes.

  8. Supported System on Ask Slashdot: Are We Witnessing the Decline of Ubuntu? · · Score: 1

    After 10+ years of installing Linux (Redhat 6, Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu) on desktops and laptops I craved a supported system so I might finally have everything working 100%. I bought a Dell XPS Developer Edition that ships with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and I LOVE IT. Unity is fine. Most of all, everything works and is fully supported by Dell!!!

    Ubuntu LTS is a good system for vendors to support. They can't support several distros, especially when they change frequently. And I like that I don't have to dist-upgrade every year. By the time 3 years is up I'm ready for new hardware anyway or at least a fresh install. Longer support cycles and fewer technical issues mean I get more work done and enjoy my computer more.

    Just some little things I enjoy now. I can close my lid and after several days of sleeping (reliably), the battery charge is unchanged - and it's not hibernate (no POST). How cool is that? Built in 1920x1080 display and external display work without any problems (had strange problems with Ubuntu on Macbook Air before). Battery life between 5 and 7 hours depending on use.

    Ubuntu works with hardware vendors better than any other desktop Linux OS. And why you may not care, that in turn provides a nice platform for proprietary software such as Steam.

  9. Re:We're what 5 generations beyond NTFS now?! on OpenSUSE May Be First Major Distro To Adopt Btrfs By Default · · Score: 2

    Yes. I use it in conjunction with LXC and making clones is instant thanks to the BTRFS snapshots.

  10. Re:No. on Can GM Challenge Tesla With a Long-Range Electric Car? · · Score: 1

    The difference is GM just wants to make money. If they could they'd just keep producing the same automobiles unchanged for 100 years as long as people payed for them. They will not take substantial risks. They will not make disciplined plans to reduce CO2 output or prepare for oil shortages. They simply react to basic market forces like lemmings.

    For Tesla, making money is essential, but not their primary objective. Their mission, as Musk has stated numerous times is to produce an affordable EV as a contribution towards sustainable energy. Despite what "Atlas Shrugged" portrays their exists motivations other than money. And please don't post the "duty to shareholders", "maximize profits" BS.

    Tesla will produce an affordable EV. If the other auto makers aren't prepared, Tesla will have "the cars that people want to buy" and everyone else will be in a scurry trying to throw something together.

  11. Re:10% of the capacity of high-speed rail on Transport Expert Insists 'Don't Dismiss Wacky Hyperloop' · · Score: 1

    From the blog: "Some are wondering if this is a serious proposal or a ploy intended to derail the California High-Speed Rail project. Evidence seems to point to the latter. After all, the guy proposing this revolution in transit owns a car company."

    I quit reading there.

  12. Re:Siiiiigh, the SMC provides an ESTIMATE on Studying the Slow Decay of a Laptop Battery For an Entire Year · · Score: 1

    I find the most interesting figure to be the rate (in watts) reported by the OS. In Ubuntu, this can be seen with the Power Statistics app as an attribute of the battery. For instance, now with USB peripherals and an external monitor, it reports 9.2 watts. If I use the built in screen dimmed, unplug USB peripherals and turn off wireless, it goes to 4.5 watts. I can't do much about my battery, but I can (to some extent) do something about the OS using power.

  13. Re:He's too busy? on Elon Musk Admits He Is Too Busy To Build Hyperloop · · Score: 1

    He has 5 kids. Hopefully he'll pass on his positive traits and his kids will multiply Musk's achievements.

  14. Re:Summary: Microsoft is holding us back on Nokia: Microsoft Must Evolve To Make Windows Phone a Success · · Score: 1

    Correction: Android compatibility never happened. I thought it shipped on the n9 with MeeGo "Harmattan" (which I did not own), but it did not. Apologies.

  15. Summary: Microsoft is holding us back on Nokia: Microsoft Must Evolve To Make Windows Phone a Success · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So the gist of this article is that Nokia is doing fantastic things with hardware, but Microsoft isn't keeping up and holding Nokia back. If Nokia had control of the OS, they'd be in much better shape. They would have this freedom with Android AND instant access to its software market. And Maemo/Meego was a fine OS (I owned the n800 and n900), which shipped with Android app compatibility. It's clear that Windows Phone was a horrible choice. How could they not see this coming when everyone was yelling at them telling them they were making a mistake?

  16. Re:Dumbest story title, ever? on Smartest Light Bulbs Ever, Dumbest Idea Ever? · · Score: 1

    I've bought many LEDs over the past two years. You can now get good A19 bulbs for $10 to $15 and good br30 for $20 to $25. Things are moving fast in led lighting. In addition to established brands Toshiba and Phillips I've been impressed with bulbs from Kobi and G7. There are too many companies entering the market to count and plenty of junk to avoid (stuff at Lowes), but LEDs are certainly improving quickly.

  17. They better get ready. on Time Warner Cable: No Consumer Demand For Gigabit Internet · · Score: 1

    Chattanooga has fiber through https://www.epbfi.com/ From their website, 50/50 is $57.99, 100/100 is $69.99 up to 1G/1G @ $299.99. I think they they ran fiber on the power poles throughout the city. I don't know how they got around the monopolies, but I'm happy to see that they did. Though they're not cheap, the certainly demolish the incumbents' offerings on the mid to high end. My hope is that neighboring towns will feel the pressure of competition and we'll finally get to where we should have been 10-15 years ago.

  18. Re:MEGA was foolish to use PayPal in the 1st place on Mega Accepts Bitcoin; Email, Chat, Voice, Video, Mobile Coming Soon · · Score: 2

    ScatterBytes is NOT the backend for MEGA! I'm not sure how I gave that impression. I have however worked BitCoin into the service and to my delight, it has enabled the creation of registration free storage nodes. That means to run a storage node, all you'll need to provide is a BitCoin address to accept payments, and you can just put that in the configuration file. Uploading/Storing data still requires a verified email address because it seems necessary to me for billing. I'd like to support other payment options so I'm all ears.

    I haven't released the updated software yet so please be patient. Shortly, I'm going to be publishing a Debian repository for the client and server to make installation and updating easy. I've also got some new (512 MB RAM) Model B Raspberry Pi's in the mail which I'm going to setup as storage nodes. I think they'd make great storage nodes due to their low cost and low power consumption. I welcome any feedback.

    -Randall

  19. Re:PayPal? Are you kidding?? on Kim Dotcom Reveals Mega Will Offer 50GB of Free Storage · · Score: 1

    You make some good points. I value my privacy and others' so I do want to offer payment options that respect privacy. I've done some initial study on bitcoin including trading for currency as that would be essential. I would appreciate any suggestions on implementation using bitcoin.

  20. Re:Similar System - ScatterBytes on Kim Dotcom Reveals Mega Will Offer 50GB of Free Storage · · Score: 1

    It is 1.95 cents. That is a cent sign and there is no dollar sign. I will try to make it less confusing.

  21. Similar System - ScatterBytes on Kim Dotcom Reveals Mega Will Offer 50GB of Free Storage · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Disclaimer 1 - This is my system
    Disclaimer 2 - The System (ScatterBytes.net) is under heavy development and not currently online. I maybe shouldn't be advertising this on Slashdot, but I would like to get some feedback and if you are interested in adding a storage node or using a client, please respond here or through the website,

    https://www.scatterbytes.net/

    I currently only want people comfortable with a Linux and a CLI and with the stomach to host data on a system in beta.

    You get paid to be a storage node and other than being generally always on, it doesn't matter what type of equipment you use because the system is highly redundant and node outages are expected. Payments are handled through Paypal - both sending and receiving. I'm working on a guide to use a Raspberry Pi as a storage node so that initial costs and power usage will be minimal. The Pi would also double as media/file storage for a local network.

    As a client you choose how much redundancy you want. Anywhere from 2 to 20 (or more) mirrors for your data. You can also add parity. After encrypting and splitting a file, the client uploads the pieces to different storage nodes (assigned by a control node), which transfer those pieces to other storage nodes for replication. ALL communication is encrypted and nodes are verified using X.509 certificates signed by a scatterbytes.net CA. Files are encrypted by the client and only the client has the key so ONLY the client can read the data.

  22. Re:$1500 for a 1366x768 TN display. on Dell's Ubuntu Ultrabook Now On Sale; Costs $50 More Than Windows Version · · Score: 1

    Agreed. My ~ $1200 13" Macbook Air has a resolution of 1440x900 (16:10) . I would expect at least the same from any "high end" 13" ultrabook. Otherwise, I'm very interested. I prefer Linux and would pay to have hardware that is WELL supported. The Air is nice, but it has quirks with Linux.

  23. Donations on Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal Out Now; Raring Ringtail In the Works · · Score: 1

    I just donated $20 and am downloading. I really like how you can choose where you want your money to go.

    They've taken two approaches to raising funds (donations + shopping integration), while keeping Ubuntu free in the ways most of us care about vs. RedHat, who took a more restrictive route using their trademarks. If you like Ubuntu and are OK with either of these methods of fundraising, I suggest you support them. If they have more funds to make improvements and don't lose their way (queue the Unity comments), Ubuntu could easily surpass Windows and OS X in utility and value for the average user (not just for nerds and grandmas).

    I'm not saying it needs to, but how cool would it be for a Free software OS to become the new "industry standard" as Windows has been for the last 15 or so years. I think it takes a leader/company with big resources and a solid plan to make it happen. We'd still have our options as to alternate window managers, etc, but we'd finally be free of working with the black box that is Windows.

  24. Not Just Energy Used on Electric Car Environmental Impact: Power Source Matters · · Score: 1

    According to figure 1 in the study.

    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00532.x/full#f1

    The environmental impact of the battery production is more about other factors than energy used. From the figure freshwater eco-toxicity (FETP), mineral resource depletion (MDP), human toxicity (HTP), and terrestrial acidification (TAP) are the largest impact items from battery production. So maybe a little too much attention is being put on the energy use, which is represented by global warming (GWP) and is a relatively small part of the production "impact".

    From the article:

    Considering how the potential problem shifts mostly arise from material requirements of EV production, effective recycling programs and improved EV lifetimes would constitute an appropriate first response.

    This is the conclusion I came to. Most of the impact is not energy use, but other environmental factors, which can be addressed.

  25. Linus's Input on Write Cache on The Lies Disks and Their Drivers Tell · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think this is quite interesting.

    http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/drive_caches.html

    While I've often gotten the impression that the write cache opens up a large "write hole", Linus says that data is cached only for milliseconds, not held in the cache for several seconds. Still, I'd like to see battery backed caches in regular drives and/or controllers.

    Would be nice to hear from some drive firmware writers.