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User: PaintyThePirate

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  1. OLPC OS Swings? on Intel Porting Android To x86 For Netbooks and Tablets · · Score: 1

    What OLPC OS swings? The ones being shipped today, like million plus that have been distributed over the last few years, still use Sugar on top of customized Fedora.

  2. Re:flexible specs on Cherrypal Mini-Laptop Now Runs Android · · Score: 1

    From what I've heard, those are the best case specs. http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/devel/2010-May/028512.html

  3. Re:Good thing on New Litigation Targets 20,000 BitTorrent-Using Downloaders · · Score: 1

    It is incredibly depressing that even without further copyright extensions, movies being released today will very likely never be out of copyright within our lifetimes.

  4. Re:show off your programming skills on Best Way To Land Entry-Level Job? · · Score: 1

    Agreed. It's a little known fact that you can apply to GSoC as long as you are still a student as of April 26, 2010. It's likely what got me interviews, and eventually my job.

    FOSS projects tend not to care about who you know, where you studied, or what your GPA was, as much as they care about your creativity, your drive, and your skills.

  5. Re:C14 isn't used for rocks... on Carbon-14 Dating Reveals 5% of Vintage Wines May Be Frauds · · Score: 1

    This is the point I also came here to make. Samarium-neodymium dating is used for older stuff, like those rocks.

  6. Re:Too Bad No Creative Commons on C-Span Posts Full Archives Online · · Score: 4, Informative

    Check out the rights page. All of the footage of Congress and various Federal events is under the Public Domain. It's annoyingly still flash video, but you can legally rip it from the site and do whatever you want with it. Same with the subtitles.

    It's nice to see copyright law working correctly for once.

  7. Re:Time-Based Filesystem on Time To Take the Internet Seriously · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Interestingly, this is the approach that OLPC and now Sugar Labs have taken for file access in Sugar, using the Journal activity. This is also the direction Gnome is heading in, with Zeitgeist and its GUIs.

    It's a little strange at first, and it certainly can't replace normal file browsers completely, but it ends up being pretty convenient in day to day use. Of course, these aren't filesystems, just layers atop them.

  8. Re:Legal Questions of Virtual Activity? on Examining Virtual Crimes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Bad analogy. The real life equivalent of what you're saying is getting convicted for shooting at a paper target. These laws are about harassing human beings over the medium of video games.

    That's not to say the laws aren't ridiculous, just that your example isn't an argument against it.

  9. Re:Microsoft builds Linux powered OpenPC on 100% Free Software Compatible PC Launches · · Score: 3, Informative

    I agreed with you until I saw what the PC actually was. That is, built entirely from off the shelf components. You can buy the Mini-ITX motherboard they use that with comes with a 1.6Ghz Atom for £64.60 on Amazon.co.uk. The case, power supply, and RAM are all quite ordinary. You can in fact build this exact computer for at least £100 less on your own.

    I would have been more impressed if they pulled an OLPC and used a FOSS BIOS and designed a motherboard.

  10. Re:Small Correction: on New XBMC Port Promises ARM-Powered HD In the Palm of Your Hand · · Score: 1

    Indeed. Apparently they are releasing Rev C4 of it soon with a 720Mhz processor though.

  11. Re:Heh on Asimov Estate Authorizes New I, Robot Books · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, that would be the same if Asimov rose from the dead and decided to write three more books.

  12. Re:Bill Gates is a geek? on Microsoft's Lost Decade · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sure he is. He's even got a paper published on bounds on the Pancake sorting problem.

  13. Re:Upgrade the Captchas on jQuery Dev Bemoans Overwhelming Spam On Google Groups · · Score: 1

    Google bought ReCAPTCHA recently. I hope its only a matter of time before they integrate it.

  14. In after some FUD on Sparc Sends SparkFun Electronics C&D Letter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sun has nothing to do with this. SPARC International owns the trademark, not Sun.

  15. Re:Why are they paying retailers? on Google Takes On Amazon With Own E-Book Store · · Score: 4, Informative
    I was confused too. The summary is missing this key piece of information:

    "Google Editions allows retail partners to sell their books, especially those who haven't invested in a digital platform," he said. "We expect the majority (of customers) will go to retail partners not to Google. We are a wholesaler, a book distributor."

  16. Re:More on the "iPod for books" on Will Books Be Napsterized? · · Score: 1

    It was an analogy to checking something out and returning it.

    What I mean is a subscription plan where you can read the e-books as long as you are a subscriber to the service. When you stop paying, you can no longer read the e-books. Something exactly like Rhapsody or Zune Pass, except that people consume books differently than music.

    I suppose it would also be possible to emulate the scarcity of physical books at a library by having a limit to the number of "checked out" e-books at a time and/or having due dates for returning them. Both would be annoying though, and an example of DRM implemented poorly.

  17. Re:More on the "iPod for books" on Will Books Be Napsterized? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On the other hand, a well stocked digital library that functions like Netflix or like a physical library with a reasonable monthly fee could nip mainstream e-book piracy in the bud.

    This isn't quite like Rhapsody or Zune Pass or similar music subscription schemes where you would end up with an annoying pile of encrypted data when your subscription runs out or the company folds. Well, it is, but most people are content with checking out a book once, reading it, and checking it back in.

    Of course, something like this could only be possible with DRM and e-book reader support for that DRM, which despite what you hear on Slashdot, can be useful when implemented properly.

  18. Re:'52 Citroen DS on '09 Malibu Vs. '59 Bel Air Crash Test · · Score: 1

    You're posting to slashdot while driving? I think you may want to watch the video in the linked article...

  19. Re:no windows? on ARM Attacks Intel's Netbook Stranglehold · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wouldn't be so sure about that. There are significantly more ARM devices out there than x86, Sparc, and Power combined.

    Phone like devices are getting larger and more powerful, and laptops/tablets are getting smaller and lower power. It is converging on a market space where ARM has no competition, and is exactly where the A9 would thrive. Microsoft is even entering the game with the Zune HD packing an Nvidia Tegra. This is not a low volume niche either. Think of the iPhone, Android devices, PSP, DS/DSi, Windows Mobile phones, etc.

    That is just on the mobile end too. It makes no sense to stick Windows Embedded and a Celeron in a router, network storage, or a printer when Linux/A9 is cheaper and as powerful.

  20. Re:hackable cams already available on Open Source Camera For Computational Photography · · Score: 1

    Indeed. For example, the CHDK way of doing HDR photography is a script that shoots a sequence of images at different exposure levels so you can post process them into a single image later on your PC.

    Per TFA, the Frankencamera plans to take the pictures and then do the stitching and blending on the camera itself.

  21. Re:Listen up camera manufacturers on Open Source Camera For Computational Photography · · Score: 2, Interesting

    None of the cameras you suggested would fit in a sane person's pocket. Pocket sized implies something more along the lines of a Canon Powershot, complete with a tiny sensor and mediocre optics.

    Though, with CHDK, you can do some nifty things with them.

  22. Re:Lots of usable tech hitting the dumpster.... on 88% of Electronics Exports Reused, Not Dumped · · Score: 5, Insightful

    GGP does have a point though. An 8 year old computer is still mostly capable of modern computing needs: surfing the internet, sending email, word processing, etc. On the other hand, a computer from 1991 was not quite as useful in 1999. That would be a 486 in the world of Pentium IIIs (well, IIIs were getting common by then anyway).

  23. Re:Cameras with face recognition? on "Terminator Vision" Is Here For the iPhone · · Score: 1

    Note that face recognition is a significantly harder task than face detection, which is what most modern high end point and shoots are capable of. Recognition means identifying who each face belongs to.

    Anyway, while the summary only mentions the iPhone, TFA is actually about AR on phones in general.

  24. Re:Yummy! on Charlie Stross, Paul Krugman Discuss the Future · · Score: 1

    Not likely vat grown human will be a legal food source. Long Pork was just word candy; keep in mind the speakers are science fiction authors.

    Even if there are no viral/prion concerns, it'll never happen; at least not in the US. The FDA or USDA would see to that.

  25. Re:entirely not the problem on Ivan Krstić Says Negroponte's Wrong About Sugar and OLPC · · Score: 2, Informative

    Are you kidding? There are ~900,000 Sugar-powered XO's in the hands of kids around the world. There are a few hundred Windows powered ones.