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User: mpetch

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  1. ISP Availability on How Ready Is IPv6 To Succeed IPv4? · · Score: 2

    Here in Canada Shaw communications doesn't make IPv6 available to residential customers. To compensate I have been using Hurricane Electric IPv6 tunnel for a few years now.

  2. Re:Hidden Files section? on Islamic State "Laptop of Doom" Hints At Plots Including Bubonic Plague · · Score: 1

    If you use a program like attrib on windows you can mark a directory as hidden and system. If you just mark it hidden then the folders are easily unhidden via file explorer. Marking it as system and hidden will prevent it from appearing even from file explorer. Although there are low level ways of finding such directories, it may be enough to fool a few extra people on the planet.

  3. And when you include end-of-life costs? on Brookings Study Calls Solar, Wind Power the Most Expensive Fossil Alternatives · · Score: 1

    They account for those costs in this particular study.

  4. Rather than Calculus... on Teaching Calculus To 5-Year-Olds · · Score: 1

    I think it might be more beneficial to teach statistics.

  5. The picture is a subset of the total servers. on OpenBSD Looking At Funding Shortfall In 2014 · · Score: 1

    The link to the picture does say this "see eg this picture, which shows a subset of the machines involved in building OpenBSD releases." . So it isn't clear just how much equipment Theo is "hiding" but it isn't all in that picture.

  6. Re:Wait, wait , WAIT a moment. on OpenBSD Looking At Funding Shortfall In 2014 · · Score: 1

    If he has an unregulated rate then the highest I have seen in the past 6 months is $0.12/kWh. However the rates quoted don't include these additional fees on an Enmax bill:

    Administrative Charge
    Delivery Charges
    Transmission Charge
    Rate Riders
    Local Access Fee.
    Then another 5% in federal taxes (GST) on top of it all.

    A 5 years fixed rate (just on the electricity charge) can be had for about $0.089/kWh (regulated rate). He could be worse off if he foolishly got a regulated rate through a company like Direct Energy.

    My Enmax bill is usually 50% higher than the posted pricer per kW/h when all the fees and charges are added.

  7. Formula1 visors & cameras on Next-Gen Windshield Wipers To Be Based On Jet Fighter "Forcefield" Tech · · Score: 1

    Wonder if McLaren considered putting this technology on Formula1 racing helmets to replace the tearoff strips, and to keep debris and rain off the onboard video cameras.

  8. Re:Slightly misleading. on Canada Post Announces the End of Urban Home Delivery · · Score: 1

    An interesting foot note is that Purolator is 90%+ owned by Canada Post.

  9. Re:judge will invalidate on Apple v. Samsung Jurors Speak, Skipped Prior Art For "Bogging Us Down" · · Score: 5, Informative

    If the jurors had read the courts instructions (which the foreman claimed they didn't need to) then it was about "damages". The court instructions made that clear "You should keep in mind that the damages you award are meant to compensate the patent holder and not to punish an infringer." The foreman told a court official that the verdict was arrived at without needing the court's instructions. However, the foreman had this to say after the trial "We wanted to make sure the message we sent was not just a slap on the wrist... We wanted to make sure it was sufficiently high to be painful, but not unreasonable." So I totally agree with you when you say this was about damages and not penalties from the judge's perspective. I would say that wasn't the case from the juries perspective. To me Hogan's statement suggests that the award itself WAS punishment. I don't know how else to read his comment.

  10. Re:2007 Mac Mini couldn't be upgraded on Mac OS X Mountain Lion Gets Three Million Downloads In 4 Days · · Score: 1

    PPC was a major architecture change when they shifted to Intel. I could understand that they didn't support the PPC systems through all of their future OS'es. The I64 bit Intel Mac Mini won't work for 2 reasons. 32Bit EFI (Although there is a work around for that). Not supporting a 5 year old video card is harder to swallow. Boot loading and video just seems to be a poor excuse for not being able to us Mountain Lion. At least the Mac Pro's prior to 2008 that Mountain Lion won't run on can be hacked to get around the 32bit EFI issue (although it isn't guaranteed to work), and the video card can be upgraded. If I were an pre-2008 Intel Mac Pro user who invested thousands of dollars only to find out that 4 years later I can't run (out of the box) a new OS - I wouldn't be happy.

  11. 2007 Mac Mini couldn't be upgraded on Mac OS X Mountain Lion Gets Three Million Downloads In 4 Days · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yesterday I went to the App Store, only to learn that my 2007 Mac Mini (Purchased in 2008) didn't have the hardware requirements to run OS/X Mountain Lion. I have a 64bit CPU, 2GB ram, but only have 32bit EFI. Apparently the video in this unit isn't supported. I was a bit surprised that 5 year old equipment just isn't worth it to Apple to support. If someone asks why I needed to upgrade - it was required to build and test some open source projects I work on.

  12. Re:What's the useful limit? on 60TB Disk Drives Could Be a Reality In 2016 · · Score: 5, Funny

    640TB

  13. Re:Change to Mathematics curriculum on X-Prize Founder Wants Ideas For Fixing Education · · Score: 1

    The link in my post was to another talk he gave. The one I meant to post was: http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_s_formula_for_changing_math_education.html

  14. Change to Mathematics curriculum on X-Prize Founder Wants Ideas For Fixing Education · · Score: 2

    I'll single out one facet of education, and that is mathematics. The pinnacle of pre-college math study is calculus. Arthur Benjamin(of Mathemagics fame) in my view has a simple solution for math education in school. Rather than making calculus the pinnacle, you make statistics the pinnacle. These days I feel that school doesn't teach what regular people need for life skills. We use statistics and probability every day in one form or another. Arthur Benjamin gave his talk about this at a TED convention, and it can be found here: ere http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_does_mathemagic.html . I think if people start breaking down education into core areas and start finding solutions to more specific problems that plague educational system. Art has a simple, but good idea.

  15. We can only hope... on Non-Copied Photo Is Ruled Copyright Infringement · · Score: 1

    That this judgement isn't reproduced in the future

  16. R and Python (Rpy2) on Ask Slashdot: Statistical Analysis Packages For Libraries? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have grown accustomed to doing statistical analysis using Python and R using http://rpy.sourceforge.net/rpy2

  17. Re:Given the process used, the title is misleading on A Few Million Virtual Monkeys Randomly Recreate Shakespeare · · Score: 1

    I totally agree. I thought it unbelievable that SINGLE monkey (or virtual instance) created the entire work. When I saw "9 characters at a time", I was thinking "Time to click the next Slashdot article"

  18. Re:MB stacks on Ask Slashdot: Clusters On the Cheap? · · Score: 1

    Good idea, we could recommend an Apple Crate II which previously appeared on /.

  19. Re:Recognized or not... on Apple Sued Over Use of iCloud Name · · Score: 1

    No, I am saying that Apple didn't do due diligence. if you think that all is needed is a search at USPTO you are sadly mistaken. Apple was not serious when it registered iCloud. They of course looked at who was registered, but clearly dismissed the ones that were not. I think that you assume that when registering a trademark that it is a simple go an search the USPTO and that is it. I believe Apple probably knew all about iCloud Communications but decided that it was easier to ignore it and plead ignorance. There is precedence for companies with unregistered trademarks being victorious if they can prove prior usage of the name for the purpose of conducting business and of course being in the same general business. As well, a serious company doesn't need to file a patent for every invention. It makes it a hell of a lot easier to battle it in court though! Again prior art from an unregistered entity can invalidate patents that are registered. Companies that may not patent everything or register every trademark does not mean they are not serious - but they definitely make it harder on themselves when they do have to fight.

  20. Re:Recognized or not... on Apple Sued Over Use of iCloud Name · · Score: 1

    USPTO is only good for registered or pending trademarks. It in no way covers those who are unregistered. You don't need a registered trademark at the USPTO to make a claim to a name - it just makes fighting it in court a lot easier. USPTO is only ONE tool that any serious company would use to find similar names in the same business.

  21. Re:Recognized or not... on Apple Sued Over Use of iCloud Name · · Score: 1

    This would never have happened if Apple had their own search engine. An Apple search engine would have told them about the existing iCloud Communications name. Now they can blame inferior products like Google and Bing for their troubles. ;-)

  22. I need to copyright a new UPS slogan fast on Ski Lifts Can Could Help Get Cargo Traffic Off the Road · · Score: 1

    UPS will need to change to "What can brown pull for you?"

  23. What would I do with 100x more? on UK Research Aims For 100x Speedup In Fiber-Based Broadband · · Score: 1

    Well clearly what would happen is that I'd run up my usage charges beyond my unlimited data plan (with a 20G limit) and then pay the ISP through the nose much faster than I could ever conceive of before!

  24. There be whales here on NASA Launches Micro Solar Sail · · Score: 1

    Hopefully the micro solar sail will give us enough power until Kirk returns with some humpbacks.

  25. Harper doesnt think Earth is older than 6000 yrs on Canadian Government Muzzling Scientists · · Score: 1

    Of course Mr. Harper needs to do this. We all know his party has to tow the line when it comes to the age of the planet. Floods 13,000 years ago could not have happened because God hadn't created the Earth.