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User: just+fiddling+around

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  1. ATI is going down... on Microsoft to Turn to Driver Quality Ratings System · · Score: 1

    Wow, is ATI going down when the crash reports start being compiled... Too bad this will not detect unexpected behavior!

    Damn it, my All-in-wonder Radeon 7500 still doesn't work as advertised after 4 years!

  2. (semi)Automated attack on Using Laptops to Steal Cars · · Score: 1
    The thief does not have to remain in the car next to the target; only the attacker laptop has. So you have an empty car that unconspicuously remains parked beside yours for the whole shift, not a shady character looking over his shoulder.

    Even if some user monitoring is necessary on the attacker laptop, it could be done with a cellular remote link and VNC!

    Man, did I play too much Shadowrun...

  3. -1 magic pixie-think on Americans Are Seriously Sick · · Score: 1
    Damn, i tought you made sense until there:

    Your food is what you become - both in body and mind.

    What your mind becomes is a result of social environment, experiences and introspection. Barring serious deficiencies in your diet, food does NOT enter the equation.

    Plus, I will echo another poster in saying: if you need pills to supplement your vegan lifestyle, it is NOT healthy or natural.

    And i enjoy the occasionnal bloody steak and I am fully equipped to ingest it.

  4. Re: Smithy Code? on Judge Creates Own Da Vinci Code · · Score: 1
    I'd personnaly try getting a nice Flash result using Ming or JavaSWF.

    * ducks *

    Hey! If you do cheesy, might as well do it the cheesy way!

    * ducks *

  5. January sales on Apple Dumps PortalPlayer Chip · · Score: 1
    You obviously never worked in the retail industry, or are a troll.

    January and February are the 2 worst months in retail sales; people over-spend for Christmas, then take 2 months to pay the bills. The fact that an ex-niche product aimed at the rich (a 400$ discman-equivalent IS a rich boy's toy) became a normal consumer product explains that "huge" slump.

    Or maybe Levi's are in trouble because they have a 2-month decrease in sales every year.... you choose.

  6. Re:Disposal of nuclear waste could be trivial on Wildlife Defies Chernobyl Radiation · · Score: 1

    You are partly right, but U-235 is good enough to run CANDU reactors, and it IS fissile. Therefore, there may be a way to use the radioactive "waste" in a future design that does not need such heavy isotopes, without even reprocessing it.

  7. Note to self: on Mafia Boss Using Crook Crypto Captured · · Score: 1
    Do not keep copies of orders to henchmen after their execution.

    Now that this is taken care of, I'll order my henchmen to stop keeping logs of our communications.

  8. Re:Open Job Security on Developer Stress Crippling Game Innovation? · · Score: 1
    See, the problem is that you use the wrong way of valuing your trade. Doing the same intellectual work twice has no real value to the world. On the other hand, building on previous work is of value to the world.

    Let me demonstrate:
    The whole scientific research world is built with a "free-software-style" etiquette; I mean, they give away to the world all the results of their work, don't they? And to use them, you don't have to hire the original discoverer to re-do their previous work. Following your line of reasoning, the researcher's trade has no value.

  9. Wasn't this already covered? on Linus Says No GPLv3 for the Linux Kernel · · Score: 1

    In the V2 of the GPL, there was an obligation of making the usable, human-readable version of the code avaliable. Ergo: we shouldn't need keys to read the code.

    When you have the code, any "protection" of the executable generated can be easily stripped out, as can also be the case of output files of the app.

    Case closed?

  10. FNORD on Truckers Choose Hydrogen Power · · Score: 1

    You play too much INWO.

  11. Hope they get the standard right this time on Transcoding in 1/5 the Time with Help from the GPU · · Score: 1

    This is cool, but if the feeds that process generates is as nonstandard as the MPEG2 their Multimedia Center puts out, it is worthless.

    I can't use the files I recorded on anything but ATI's software and Pinnacle Videostudio (go figure, it understands the codec).

  12. The Almighty Book on Grand Theft Auto Retrospective · · Score: 1

    Come on!

    Books are not the pinnacle of intellectual achievement some people say. In fact, they are just like TV: some PBS (well, Shakespeare is on PBS), some "reality" TV (any star autobiography), and even some Shopping TV (Montignac weight-loss).

    The only difference between the two is that you get to enjoy a book on your terms: it's open when you open it, and you don't get reruns if you did not like it.

    Conclusion: books are not more productive than TV.

    But I think you have a point with the board games. (Axis and Allies!!!)

  13. Man, I -ing LOVE you on Are Skimpy Raises the New Normal? · · Score: 1

    You have the same feeling I got(higher-ups screw workers, sometimes), and you outlined how to react.

    Thanks.

  14. Wow! how high-tech! on New Battery Technology Powers For 12 Years · · Score: 0

    Imagine! they invented an inductive-charged device!

    My --ing razor has --ing been working that way since 1997. That's no --ing innovation.

    (sorry Mr.Pratchett)

  15. Legality of copying in Canada on Apple to Refund iPod Levy for Canadian Customers · · Score: 1
    In Canada's case, it's still legal to download and rip music that you've borrowed.

    It's not still legal, it is a right explicitly codified in law, which means it's not just permitted by some grey area like in the US. What pisses me off is, the same CRIA(A) that lobbied for copyright reform now lobbies to revert the law they forced on us, because we get something in return for the money.

  16. There goes my plan... on NRLB Redefines 'Your Own Time' · · Score: 1

    And I tought I had the perfect plan:

    1. Get secret clearance and defense job
    2. ???
    3. Get lucky with lots of sexy Russian spies!

    Damn rules!

  17. Intentional accounting fraud :-D on Death Penalty For Hackers? · · Score: 1

    CEO: It seems that some funds are missing, what happens?
    CFO: I can't fathom how this happened!
    Financial analyst (after a few months): The CFO diverted the funds in an offshore account in the Bermudas.
    CFO: ...so, THAT is what that button was for! Silly me!
    CEO: It is clear to me that this fraud was non-intentional.

  18. What's the use? on Coming Soon, Roadcasting · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't know why I should get a new expensive system, while FM transmitters are cheap and don't require a new radio in the listener's car...

  19. Re:yes but how does the battery work? on Nuclear Battery That Runs 10 Years · · Score: 1
    Well, to completely understand this, a B. Sc.-level class takes about 20 hours. Here is the crash course.

    Also, do not be fooled: KeV does not translate well to Volts. A Kilo electron-Volt is a quantum of energy, a really, really small part of a Joule. (to be exact, 1 eV = 1.602 176 53 × 10^19 Joules) Which means that to heat 1 gram of water by 1 degree celcius, this source needs to emit something like 10^12 electrons directly in it. Not much power, isn't it?

    From what I read in the Spectrum article, the trick is having a whole lot of units in parallel. As each unit is a few cubic microns big, they could jam a whole lot of them in a thumbmail-sized apparatus, plus shielding. Then you can generate interesting power.

    For the rest of the details, you'll have to dig the paper, because I am somewhat out of my depth!

  20. This is photovoltaics, revisited on Nuclear Battery That Runs 10 Years · · Score: 5, Informative
    For those of you who were not awake in the semiconductor course, a P-N junction is what a diode is made of. It is a junction between an electron-rich zone (the N) and a hole-rich zone (the P) in a semiconducting material. When "something" happens to the junction, the passage to the hole-rich zone is facilitated, making the electrons jump in the holes and generating current. In photovoltaics, the "something" is a photon hitting the junction; in this case, "something" is a radioactive particle.

    There is another way to make a "nuclear battery", which was discussed in the september 2004 issue of IEEE's Spectrum magazine (could not get a link...): by ionizing a bit of matter, it gets attracted to other matter (think static electricity). So you ionize a flat, piezoelectric part that's attached at one end over an unmovable base plate. The attraction makes the loose end of the part strain down to the base, and the piezoelectric nature of the part makes it generate electricity on the way.

  21. They should have spamvertized on Time Travelers' Convention · · Score: 1

    Like this guy ! Man was that spam refreshing...

  22. Don't do it Unix-style, or Linux-style, or .... on What Makes a Good Design Document? · · Score: 1

    Don't do it Unix-style, or Linux-style, or even worse, javadoc-style.

    These 3 approaches cover how all the nuts and bolts do their thing. That's good, and it *is* really bad. When I approach an existing system, I want a high-level description, which get broken in successively lower-level ones, until I get down to nuts'n bolts.

    That's the difference between facing a forest and a whole effin' bunch of trees.

  23. Re:Critical need on Novell Upgrades ZENworks Linux Management Software · · Score: 1

    In this context, "configuration management" means managing OS versions, patches, software installation, upgrading and removal and, at least with Zenworks, remote control and hardware inventory management.

    As you have assumed, those tasks get more difficult when you mix user types, tasks and profiles; at work, we have developers (a small minority of users), which get different software and permissions on their PC's than the rest of people. Zenworks manages that and separate shared directories for each unit in the shop.

    What I think is cool with that suite is that I do not face more than 2 hours downtime when I have my workstation upgraded.

  24. Re:So how was he caught? on P2P (More) Legal in France · · Score: 1

    The article does not say how he was caught, but it says that the guy shared the movies "with a few close friends"(approximate translation for "avec quelques copains").

    Since the quantity of movies was important (about 500 of 'em), maybe he was simply raided. Or one of the close friends decided to give him trouble.

    The article does not say that he downloaded without sharing. He probably did like everybody and got the stuff over Kazzaa or eDonkey.

  25. I call: Astroturf!!! on Canadian Government Going Big Brother? · · Score: 1

    Of course, facing bankrupcy for any illness is much better than getting "fixed", regardless of personal fortune. As for the MASH hospital style, nobody who has actually come in an hospital here would think that.