Slashdot Mirror


User: TykeClone

TykeClone's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
1,873
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 1,873

  1. Re:BusinessWeek on GPL on Free Can Mean Big Money - The Open Source Economy · · Score: 1

    They can vote?

  2. Re:Format? on The Cost of Computer Naivete · · Score: 1

    It would have taken less time to backup the hard drive and then reformat and reinstall everything and copy the data (the important stuff) back into the system.

  3. Re:To be fair to Microsoft on The Cost of Computer Naivete · · Score: 1
    When I'm done cleaning up a Windows machine, I've got a maintenance document that I hand to the user with the bill. This document tells them exactly what to do weekly (check for antivirus updates, run adaware) and to check for critical updates for Windows itself. They're getting both some education and a repaired machine, and I've handed out enough of those documents that there's no incremental cost in time for producing them.

    That way if they bring it back and haven't followed the recipe, I don't feel too bad charging them again.

  4. Re:Public code, written laws and software in court on California Should use Open Source and VoIP · · Score: 1

    Still sounds like the problem is the agency and not necessarily the software.

  5. Re:Progressive taxes are worse than regular ones on Pay To Have Your Phone Tapped · · Score: 1
    Yeah - like refused to take care of Social Security while it was still just 15.3% of your pay. Like refusing to raise the retirement age a couple of years or distribute cigarettes at school.

    In all honesty, the time will come when the retirement age will be raised, the distributions will be lessened, and the FICA taxes will go up. We probably won't be smart enough to say "fuck off", but I'm sure that our children will.

  6. Re:Progressive taxes are worse than regular ones on Pay To Have Your Phone Tapped · · Score: 1
    BTW, neither of your two examples are technically taxes. We pay social security to pay for the previous generation's retirement. Presumably, our kids will pay for social security to pay for our retirement. I'm less certain about medicare but I think it works similarly.

    We pay for the previous generation - the next generation is likely smarter than we are and will kick us out on our collective asses.

  7. Re:Har on Pay To Have Your Phone Tapped · · Score: 1

    Just like the rest of the taxes that are applied to your phonebill are easy to trace. Looking my last cell phone bill, taxes make up about 9% of that total. God only knows what is taxed on the land line and DSL.

  8. Re:This is really part of Check 21 on Federal Reserve To Use Internet For Money Transfer · · Score: 1
    Good luck!

    Fedline itself has nothing to do with Check 21, but it is the delivery method of the images. I suppose that you could wait for those files to download in the morning, but most every other bank wants to get on with processing the checks.

  9. Re:Mmmmm! on Federal Reserve To Use Internet For Money Transfer · · Score: 1
    Encrypted data is encrypted data - and the amount of data transmissions won't affect anyone else.

    The $64,000 question is whether or not they've got the security thing figured out - and I think that the people running Fedline (as opposed to the rest of the FRB or government) have that as one of their highest interests.

    Up until now, all of the services that are available on Fedline for the Web are "not critical" - services that don't transfer money.

  10. Re:Public code, written laws and software in court on California Should use Open Source and VoIP · · Score: 1
    That still doesn't give him an appeal. It just means that you can see how lazy the government programmers were.

    ---

    Disclaimer: I used to do a bit of programming for a municipal hospital and have likely insulted my own work.

  11. Re:Public code, written laws and software in court on California Should use Open Source and VoIP · · Score: 1
    Then, logically, you should have owed no child support.

    I have issues with government agencies that can basically tell you to do something or that you owe something and give you no rights for appeal. Sounds like the family deal in California is that way. In Iowa, the DNR is like that (careful not to have them fly over your land during a flood to declare it a "wetland").

  12. This is really part of Check 21 on Federal Reserve To Use Internet For Money Transfer · · Score: 1
    The old FedLine terminals have needed replacing for years.

    With the advent of Check 21, banks will now be able to exchange check images instead of physical documents for presentment. The existing Fedline infrastructure (old DOS machines on 16KBS modems (at best)) is insufficient to handle this kind of traffic.

    Fedline for the web has been "happening" for some time now - each application in Fedline is being ported over to their web application suite.

  13. Re:Mmmmm! on Federal Reserve To Use Internet For Money Transfer · · Score: 1
    If you were to see the current Fedline system you'd see that they had no choice. They're basically stuck using old DOS machines and require ISA slots for the encryption boards. The Fed has to move forward on something because these encryption boards are getting harder and harder to find.

    Right around 2000, they were going to port the existing system to a Windows NT platform, but didn't get it to work.

  14. Re:VPN and PGP encrypt! on Federal Reserve To Use Internet For Money Transfer · · Score: 3, Informative
    That was the old Fedline system. They are now in the process of phasing that out in favor of an internet based Fedline system.

    MICR files have already moved, but wires and such have not.

  15. Re:Not enough Politicians on Software for the Grass Roots · · Score: 3, Insightful
    When the federal government starts getting into road and school issues - truly local things - then they're out of their area. If these kinds of things are limited to state and local governments (as intended by the framers of the Constitution) then we wouldn't need to worry about federal district sizes - the federal government should really not make much difference in a citezen's day to day life.

    The problem that we have is a bunch of elected officials (in city, state, or federal government) that need to be doing something - and doing something is often worse than doing nothing.

  16. Re:Not enough Politicians on Software for the Grass Roots · · Score: 1

    A better answer might be to get the federal government out of business that should be handled by the states.

  17. Re:Public code, written laws and software in court on California Should use Open Source and VoIP · · Score: 1

    Sounds more like you were abused by a too powerful government entity (no appeal!) than by closed source software.

  18. Re:No IT department? on California Should use Open Source and VoIP · · Score: 3, Funny
    It means that before vendors had to bribe a bunch of smaller IT depts, this way they only have to bribe one to get the same result.

    That right there increases the efficiency of the state government!

  19. Re:what ought to be done to your media on Wired on Defeating the Olympics Censorship · · Score: 1
    Good God man - they're actually showing sports during a sporting event?

    Actually, if you follow college basketball you can see that coverage during the season isn't too bad - there isn't too much of that human interest stuff. Until they get to the tournament. Then (CBS in this case) is bound and determined to shove that crap down your throat.

    The human interest stuff is apparently part of the "US sports broadcastsing formula" that can't be avoided.

  20. Re:Meanwhile, in the city... on Getting Serious About Fuel Cells · · Score: 1
    Living in Iowa, I see wind farms growing like corn in the summer. During most of the year, we have a pretty good steady source of wind power. The problem with wind power (in Iowa at least) is July and August - it gets hotter than blazes and there is little wind.

    I took a look at that wind-power link and I find it intriguing. To be honest, I think that every farmer should have a windmall - producing electrical power instead of drawing water.

  21. Re:Meanwhile, in the city... on Getting Serious About Fuel Cells · · Score: 1

    I've never been involved in building a house or a truly major renovation, but would you be able to add on those extra rooms later on for less than the $40K?

  22. Re:Why Fuel Cells? on Getting Serious About Fuel Cells · · Score: 1

    Not necessarily. Not sure about biodiesel, but when ethanol is produced from corn, the corn is diverted from animal feed (as opposed to the sweet corn that you and I eat). After the ethanol is produced, what is left is still usable as feed!

  23. Re:Meanwhile, in the city... on Getting Serious About Fuel Cells · · Score: 1

    Not sure about Canada, but when's the last time a new nuclear power plant was built in the United States? I think it was something on the order of 20 years ago!

  24. Re:Meanwhile, in the city... on Getting Serious About Fuel Cells · · Score: 1
    Does the incremental cost increase substantially going from a modest house to a bigger house?

    If I were to build a new house to replace the one I'm in now, I would imagine that it would cost more than $100K just on time and materials (I live in a rural town and purchased the house for less than $30K). If I were to "make it nicer" and increase the size of the rooms I suspect that it wouldn't cost that much more.

    I think that what your seeing is that it costs so much to build a house of any reasonable size that those building them make them bigger because it's an affordable upgrade.

  25. Re:Crush on Spam's U.S. Roots · · Score: 2, Insightful
    One Time DISC0UNT 0RDER for V1@GRA, Via*gra*

    That's certainly US English :)

    The most effective thing to do is to come down hard on the businesses using SPAM to advertise.