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User: Nyall

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Comments · 191

  1. I find it easier to mitigate the damage. on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Keep Your Credit Card Secure? · · Score: 1

    I've watched my friends get hacked countless times. In the end everything gets taken care of, but for those few days while everything is cancelled or locked down they're broke. Which makes it hard to buy diapers. But fortunately they've got family in town. (I keep lecturing them about using cards at gas stations...)

    I've been the victim of credit card fraud once. But I've had cards preemptively cancelled multiple times because they were used at companies that got hacked (target, home depot, etc) I've also had cards cancelled because the issuer (usaa) was switching from mastercard to visa. Sometimes you get notice. Sometimes you don't

    So my solution is to keep multiple credit cards and multiple ATM cards. Two of which are normally left at home. Or if I'm travelling the backup cards are deep inside my backpack. If I get hacked or lose my wallet I still have options to pay for things.

  2. Re:Exponential does not just mean "a lot" ... on Extreme Reduction Gearing Device Offers an Amazing Gear Ratio · · Score: 2

    Hard to judge. They might be using it incorrectly or they might be using it in context of what this device is. The overall gear ratio is achieved by feeding one gear stage into the next. Where each additional stage providing a further multiplication. That sounds like exponential growth to me.

  3. huh? on Students Win Prize For Color-Changing Condoms That Detect STDs · · Score: 1

    This makes about as much sense as giving Popular Mechanics a lifetime achievement award for their invention of the flying car.

    I know I'm late to the bash party. And yeah, every once in a while a kiddy award for an idea gets onto slashdot. http://hardware.slashdot.org/s...

  4. Pretty please on Cyanogen Partners With Microsoft To Replace Google Apps · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Could the Cyanogen Mod group please file a trademark and sue Cyanogen inc for the brand confusion?

    I'd really appreciate it. Thanks

  5. Re:Call me crazy on Closure On the Linux Lockup Bug · · Score: 1

    Sorry for the bad post. Yes, the first link does not work, but it is what is documented in hpet.c as the reference. A sentence went missing somewhere saying that I couldn't find it. The second link, which does work, is what I've found so far. I have yet to find something newer which documents the latching behavior that was claimed.

    Sorry again for the bad post.
    -Nyall

  6. Re:Call me crazy on Closure On the Linux Lockup Bug · · Score: 1

    OK then. Where in this return statement are the lower 32 bits read first? I don't believe the bitwise or operator is a sequence point. (The logical one is)

    return readl(addr) | (((unsigned long long)readl(addr + 4)) http://www.intel.com/hardwared...

    but I did find the following, which documents the race condition I explained above.

    http://www.intel.com/content/d...

    I will search for newer documentation than a 1.0a.

  7. Call me crazy on Closure On the Linux Lockup Bug · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sorry if I've found the wrong stuff. I'm doing this via a quick googling...

    Is this really the code for reading and writing the HPET?

    http://www.cs.fsu.edu/~baker/d...

    I've been a powerpc programmer in aviation for a while. If you need to read the time base register (also a 64 bit up counter) you have to be aware that your read might coincide with the lower 32 bits incrementing and carrying into the upper 32 bits. So you read the upper 32 bits, read the lower 32 bits, then re-read the upper bits and make sure the upper bits didn't change. If they did repeat this process. But if they are the same then you combine the 32 bit halves into a 64 bit time and call it good.

  8. Pinball on Ask Slashdot: What Are the Best Games To Have In Your Collection? · · Score: 1

    Attack From Mars
    Monster Bash.

  9. Re:It's a question that WAS relevant on Research Shows RISC vs. CISC Doesn't Matter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think a large part of the confusion is that CISC often means accumulator architectures (x86, z80, etc) vs RISC which means general purpose register (ppc, sparc, arm, etc) In between you have variable width RISC like thumb2.

    As an occasional assembly programmer (PowerPC currently) I far prefer these RISC instructions. With x86 (12+ years ago) I would spend far more instructions juggling values into the appropriate registers, then doing the math, then juggling the results out so that more math could be done. With RISC, especially with 32 GPRs, that juggling is near eliminated to the prologue/epilogue. I hear x86 kept taking on more instructions and that AMD64 made it a more GPR like environment.

    -Samuel

  10. Re:Way to flatter thyself. on Dungeons & Dragons' Influence and Legacy · · Score: 1

    I guess I shouldn't use a technical term as a layman.
    And I guess I wasn't as depressed as I thought. Between you and the other poster, thanks for the perspective.

  11. Way to flatter thyself. on Dungeons & Dragons' Influence and Legacy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Depressed kids can always find outlets. I drew, listened to music, taught myself 68k assembly language for my calculator, read a lot, and lifted weights. I often reflect on how a depression based self education led to a career.

  12. Re:How many? on Aereo To SCOTUS: Shut Us Down and You Shut Down Cloud Storage · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Does Aereo remove the advertisements those broadcasters placed into the stream? If not then how are they taking away a source of revenue?

  13. Could someone answer this? on Netflix Blinks, Will Pay Comcast For Network Access · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm sure netflix has employees whose home internet is provided by Comcast. What would prevent them, or any other customer, from starting up a class action lawsuit (mandatory arbitration maybe) that Comcast isn't providing advertised bandwidth?

  14. trademarks not copyrights. on Full Screen Mario: Making the Case For Shorter Copyrights · · Score: 1

    You absolutely do not want company A to have the ability to pretend to be company B. It might seem trivial over Mario or Disney characters but symbology is how companies sign their 'good' name to a product.

  15. Re:What's in it for the customer? on Verizon To Kill All Unlimited Data Plans · · Score: 1

    They are allowing individuals to share data between devices. Meaning I can have 1 data plan for my phone and tablet.

  16. Re:Ugh. on Verizon To Kill All Unlimited Data Plans · · Score: 1

    I listen to pandora for several hours a day at work and I never go past 1.5 gigs a month.

  17. Re:Congratulations, Verizon on Verizon To Kill All Unlimited Data Plans · · Score: 1

    If they force me off my unlimited data plan, I will use that as a weapon to get out of my contract.

    Its the other way around. They are waiting for the contract to expire then forcing you off your unlimited plan.

  18. Re:For ISPs to use? on Microsoft-Funded Startup Aims To Kill BitTorrent Traffic · · Score: 1

    What if you were another peer uploading garbage that had sha-1 collisions? Yep its hard but I'm willing to bet they'd put the resources into this.

  19. Re:Peer ban hammer on Microsoft-Funded Startup Aims To Kill BitTorrent Traffic · · Score: 2

    fyi, Its SHA-1 according to wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol)

  20. Re:Peer ban hammer on Microsoft-Funded Startup Aims To Kill BitTorrent Traffic · · Score: 1

    Every once in a while an article makes slashdot about the advances in md5 collision. I really don't know what the state of the art is, but I'm willing to bet this start up is willing to throw a cluster of PS3s at this like others have done.

  21. Re:Further Alignment on Facebook Purchases 650 AOL Patents From Microsoft · · Score: 1

    First its $550 million. And yes it looks like microsoft has so far made a 550-240=310 million profit. But I can also see an advantage in facebook having their 900lb gorilla buddy microsoft being the one to go to AOL and negotiate for these patents. Namely if it was FB doing the negotiating that would have tipped their hand, then the patents might have been costlier.

    Also microsoft has a billion to throw around, while I'm not sure facebook has that pre-ipo.

  22. Re:Further Alignment on Facebook Purchases 650 AOL Patents From Microsoft · · Score: 1

    No direct payoff? Microsoft put 240 million into facebook in 2007.

    They are merely protecting an investment.

  23. 2 issues with smartphones on Power-Saving Web Pages: Real Or Myth? · · Score: 1

    Some phones have OLED screens that consume less power when displaying dark colors.

    Another reason is nighttime usability on a smartphone. Too much light is blinding after your pupils have dilated to accommodate the dark.

  24. sue them on Richard Clarke: All Major U.S. Firms Hacked By China · · Score: 1

    I'm wondering when/if a U.S. company is going to sue China and go after their assets. Namely the Chinese government's stake in U.S. debt.

  25. Re:Who are all these people who need 4G? on Huawei Claims 30Gbps Wireless 'Beyond LTE' · · Score: 1

    If they had free data at night, I'm pretty sure that'd lead to people running bit-torrent at those particular hours.