Slashdot Mirror


User: pedrop357

pedrop357's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
412
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 412

  1. Re:Can someone explain this guy's logic to me on Electric Company Wants Monthly Fee For Solar Users · · Score: 1

    Best of luck with that. People piss and moan about local car washes, liquor stores, day cares, etc. Good luck getting people to sit still when %BIGEVILPOWERCOMPANY% wants to put a "power plant" in their neighborhood.

  2. Re:Kind of disturbing... on Chinese Government To Mandate PC Censorware · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Basically, the same group of people who take the position that nearly every policy and action taken towards people under 18 is A-OK because people under 18 "have no rights" also seem to have no problem saddling that same group of people with huge amounts of unrequested debt.

  3. Re:Huh? on Microsoft Patents the Crippling of Operating Systems · · Score: 1

    Ahh yes. We had a 720 and it was funny to the little 3 or 4 pin wide chip that upgraded the interactive processing capacity.

    For you non-Power systems familiar people, IBM has used Capacity on Demand for years where you have a portion of the processors installed on your computer unavailable until you enter a code that permanently activates the processors or enables "trial" usage where you have a certain numer of processor-days to use for peak workloads, etc.
    They've also rolled out memory on demand that works the same way as it does with CPUs.

    I suppose having a smaller number of configurations available makes things cheaper and having the hardware on the system negates the need to shut down the system to add memory or service books (basically pluggable units with processor(s) and memory).

    IBM and others do the same with the operating systems, licensing OS400 (aka i5/OS / IBM i) per processor. I imagine AIX is the same way.

    As I understand it, the zSeries/System Z works the same way.

  4. Re:Did he still steal stuff? on NY Court Says Police Can't Track Suspect With GPS · · Score: 1

    Who would engage in discipline for not following proper procedures?
    Internal affairs? The DA?

    There are myriad examples of police officers getting with slap-on-the-wrist punishments for things that would net the average citizen 20+ years.

    Take, for example, the police involved in the Kathryn Johnston murder. I'm completely unaware of any cop involved getting more than 10 years. They lied to obtain a warrant, shot a woman and planted drugs in her house while she bled to death.
    What do you think the punishment would be for failing to secure a warrant? 1-day paid suspension?

    Think of the exclusionary rule like asset forfeiture. When a person engages in an illegal act, the tools they used as well as any assets acquired as a result are seized. It should remain the same way for evidence-if the government breaks the law by not securing a warrant, any rewards are removed. Thus, there is no incentive in not following procedure.

    If the government can seize lottery winnings because the ticket was bought with money alledgedly made from drug dealing, then the government has to deal with having everything they learned/obtained as a result of an improper search excluded.

  5. Yet, on Lithium In Water "Curbs Suicide" · · Score: 1

    If you swallow a bunch of lithium watch batteries, they'll say you're suicidal. What gives?

  6. Re:which state(s)? on The End of Tax-Free Internet Shopping? · · Score: 1

    At least those stores get services provided to them that could conceivably justify charging the sales tax.

    I wonder what service will Nevada provide for me to justify charging sales tax on something I bought from Newegg.

  7. Re:Phoenix has done screwed up. on Phoenix Police Seize PCs of a Blogger Critical of the Department · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Atlanta police "picked on" Kathryn Johnston and I never read anywhere that she did anything wrong or had any prior contact with them.

    It doesn't matter what you did, what you were accused of, or how many times you've been to court in the past. The police are not allowed to harass, assault, "pick on", or take any unlawful action against you.

    Your post is very similar to the posts I would expect from people who say things like "if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about" or "I don't get harassed by the police because I follow the law", etc. A lot of times, I find that they suggest or imply that it's OK for the police to violate someone's rights if they've "done something to deserve it"; this isn't true. Just because a person gets an attitude at a traffic stop, or was accused years ago of crimes and cried holy hell against the police department and city, does not mean 'the gloves come off' and the police can do what they want. That would allow them to come down on anyone, anytime as long as they can manufacture some flimsy justification.

    The police have rules to follow regardless of whether you the other person does or not and they are obligated to follow the law to the same degree they expect us to follow it. You can't really be enforcing the law if you break it.

    This guy is also doing the same thing some people do when they've been dealing with abusive government officials for so long, telling anyone who will hear.

  8. Re:Magic smoke on Companies Waste $2.8 Billion Per Year Powering Unused PCs · · Score: 1

    With some exceptions, those shorter power up/down cycle power generation units tend to be dirtier, less efficient, and/or more expensive-with emphasis on all 3.

    If power companies could get shorter cycling power generation equipment that performed, polluted, and cost the same, I'd imagine they'd jump on it. It would be "the way".

  9. Re:Where do they store 4.5TB off site on Internet Archive Gets 4.5PB Data Center Upgrade · · Score: 2, Insightful

    4.5TB isn't that bad. Heck, we have 1TB tapes right now. 5 of them can be carried in a small bag.

    It's the 4.5PB that the Internet Archive could use that's hard to store offsite. 4500 1TB tapes can be pretty unruly.

  10. Re:why? on New Lossless MP3 Format Explained · · Score: 1

    I imagine future players may be able to decode the lossless part and play it.

    I like the ability to rip to only one format and play the lossy version on my old devices and the lossless on my (future) lossless capable devices.

    I would dread having two copies of everything I might listen to. I currently just rip everything to 320kbps because it's the highest quality I can get out of the most portable format. If I could go as portable with a lossless option and the only caveat was a space premium, I jump on it in a heartbeat.

  11. Re:YAN... Oh, never mind. on Strip-Search Case Tests Limits of 4th Amendment · · Score: 1

    The 9th circuit also noted that it was unlikely that other students would take any pills stored in the girl's underwear.

    What this is really indicative of is a person who doesn't understand any significant limits to their mission. It displays a lack of perspective or understanding of severity. It never occurred to them that 'maybe this one gets away', that it's excessive and disproportionate to strip search someone over:
    a.)Prescription strength version of OTC pills, that is
    b.) based almost entirely on an accusation from a student who was actually CAUGHT WITH PILLS (who can either get some leniency or just take someone else down with them-spite, desire to see someone else suffer, etc. can all explain accusing someone else despite lack of direct benefit to the accuser) and they found
    c.)no substances in girl's possession and no record of anything in the past.

    The administration's statements about her being accused of serving alcohol at a party and acting unusual at a dance reek of someone reaching for anything to justify an inappropriate response to something.

    I'm of the opinion that school officials need less power because they just function soften kids up for adulthood where they will encounter cops and prosecutors who take a similar (offensive to the tenets of a free society) 'by any means necessary' approach to everything.

  12. Re:Been following this for awhile. on Strip-Search Case Tests Limits of 4th Amendment · · Score: 1

    I'm of the opinion that we should dissolve in loco parentis by say 7th grade and about the age where the state sees fit to try defendants as adults for certain crimes. Then, model the schools after universities/community colleges-absolve the school of any responsibilities that aren't carried by post secondary facilities, stop worrying about what the students wear or where they go to lunch or what they do after school. Handle disciplinary manners in the same manner as colleges-the whole committee thing for major offenses, appeals, etc. Since school attendance is compulsory, alternative schools for those expelled and denied appeal will need to be maintained.

    We've done the schools-becoming-more-like-prisons in increments for the last decades and it obviously hasn't done much positive for education-rights and the students' views of what rights are in a free society have suffered quite a bit of damage I'd say. It's time to try something different, something that works in other types of schools.

  13. Re:Access Point Wi-Fi - HOW?? on Linux Kernel 2.6.29 Released · · Score: 1

    I bought one at jefatech.com in 2007. It's a WIFI-Link WL-USB-RSMA.
    This link is the exact one I have.

    I only know how to do AP mode in Windows .

  14. Re:Access Point Wi-Fi? on Linux Kernel 2.6.29 Released · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's not the same thing. Bridge literally bridges the two NICs much like a switch (network people please correct me if I'm wrong). From what I've seen, ad-hoc is one client to one client, no more.

    I have a Zydas ZD1211 something or other USB 802.11b/g whose Windows driver allows to act as an access point. In my case at least, Windows doesn't provide the necessary options-I can choose ad-hoc or infrastructure client mode.

    I need the driver support for AP mode to set (useless) MAC filtering, SSID, broadcast SSID yes/no, encryption type and for it to be accessible (associative?) with more than one client at a time.

  15. Re:No Case Under US Law on Timetable App Developer Gets Nastygram From Transit Sydney · · Score: 1

    What's a turtle?
    You know what a tortoise is?
    Yeah
    Same thing.

    As a matter of fact I DO make up these questions myself. Mrs. Chief of Police helped me decorate the place though...

  16. Re:We need a destruction password in crypt! on US District Ct. Says Defendant Must Provide Decrypted Data · · Score: 1

    They would most likely make forensic copies first and operate off of one of them. Once it self-destructs, they would add a charge of destruction/tampering/obstruction.

    I would think this whole scenario would be one use for the plausible deniability features in several popular encryption programs.

  17. Re:Absurd on US District Ct. Says Defendant Must Provide Decrypted Data · · Score: 1

    I do have to wonder how much assistance you have to give the government to execute a search warrant. How much labor/time can they get from you?

    Let's say they have a warrant to search your property for buried stolen treasure-do you have to operate a backhoe at their behest for the next 10days/weeks/month til they find what they want, or must you merely give them access to your property.

    Let's say you had a custom boot loader that booted your encrypted OS-say it only boots to some super-minimal text input screen where you're required to enter all the boot instructions in hex/binary/c/assembly. Can the government require you to sit there and key it all in?

    What if you used your own custom program for encryption and had no source code and the binary was gone? Can the government require you to recode the program until it can be used to decrypt the container they're interested in?

    I realize there are differences in my hypotheticals and the case in question, but the question remains-how much assistance do you have to give the government in hanging you?

  18. Re:USB connectors on Universal Power Adapter Struggling For Support · · Score: 1

    I had a Blackberry that did the same thing. It wouldn't charge from my Belkin PDA wall or car charger which was just a USB port that supplied up to 2.5A @ 5v. It would show the little lightning bolt for about 3 seconds and then it would disappear.

    It did the same thing with powered USB hubs that weren't connected to a computer. Connect them to a computer and the charging would start and, at least once, continue charging even after disconnecting from the computer.

    My guess was that it was trying to negotiate power and after failing to do so, stopped charging.

  19. Re:What about VMWare Player? on VMware Releases Open Source Virtualization Client · · Score: 3, Informative

    I should have used preview
    https//NAMEORIP:8333
    insert the : after https

  20. Re:What about VMWare Player? on VMware Releases Open Source Virtualization Client · · Score: 3, Informative

    As of the latest version, VMWare Server still (quietly) comes with the Virtual Infrastructure Client.
    For windows installs, it's here:
    C:\program files\VMware\VMware Server\hostd\docroot\client\VMware-viclient.exe

    In the field "IP Address/Name", use https://name/ or IP%:8333
    You need the VMware authorization and VMware Host Agent service running, but can disable the VMware Server Web Access service if you don't use the web interface.

    I do wish they would update the viclient to use later hardware versions. As is it is right now, if you want to use the viclient, you're limited to VMs with HW version 4 and you can't do change hardware or connect/disconnect higher level virtual machines without going to the web interface.

  21. We've lost our minds as a nation on 6 Pennsylvania Teens Face Child Porn Charges For Pics of Selves · · Score: 1

    So, the theory is that teens don't have civil rights and/or have a lesser degree of civil rights due to their status as "children" or "minors" and even fewer civil rights in school under the theory that, in addition to being "minors", the school has to be able to ensure safety/security of its students and this need necessitates certain infringements on liberty.

    Of course, the teens are being tried as adults or almost like adults-most of the protections of the juvenile courts have been dissolved, rendering them as nothing more than kangaroo courts where kids are punished nearly like adults without the requisite protections.

    So, teens can searched at school for reasons/in manners that would not be allowed for adults, held to a reduced standard of rights/privileges as "minors". But, the fruits of that search can see them tried as/almost like adults and thus held to a full (relative to adults) standard of accountability/responsibility. In short, they're searched as children, then tried like adults.

    If they're "adjudicated delinquent" (found guilty in juvenile court speak) or found guilty in criminal court, there is nothing to stop them from being forced to register for life as sex offenders. Any concessions/reduced sentencing by a judge that says they won't have to register can always be undone by future legislation. See the Lautenberg amdendment and its affect on gun owners with decades old misdemeanor domestic violent convictions.

    We're screwed up as a nation to allow this kind of thing to keep happening. That it's happening to young people, who have the least amount of political and economic power, is an even bigger travesty.

    Any Governor who claims to care about families and children would use whatever power he had to stop this and/or pardon them (preemptively, if possible) to ensure that these kids aren't ground up in the legal system and/or their families needlessly disrupted or torn apart.

  22. Re:cancer? on X-Rays Emitted From Ordinary Scotch Tape · · Score: 1

    Nah. It's very cold in space.

  23. Excellent on Mainframe OpenSolaris Now Available · · Score: 1

    I'd still like to see Solaris and/or BSD come to the IBM Power Systems line. I think it'd be pretty cool to run Solaris or *BSD in an LPAR next to i5/OS and/or AIX.

  24. Re:Sears-Discover debacle anyone? on eBay To Disallow Checks and Money Orders In US · · Score: 1

    Maybe you are like so many US Americans-just in need of one or more maps.

  25. No one can leave? on How Do I Prevent Lan Party Theft? · · Score: 1

    I have serious doubts if you can do anything besides talk loudly to the person and attempt to document them leaving.

    If a person chooses to leave, you really can't stop them. You can ask them to stop, you can threaten them with bannanation if they refuse to submit to a check, but you can't use force to stop them or even get in their way. You may have some limited recourse as part of a citizen's arrest if you're sure they've actually stolen something.

    Putting hands on someone trying to leave could get you arrested or shot.