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User: SwedishChef

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  1. Who gives a crap... on New York Times Halves Monthly Free Article Views To Ten · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    I pay almost zero attention to east coast media; mostly because they don't pay any attention to the west coast (except for Hollywood).

  2. I *AM* a grandparent.... on Why Linux Can't 'Sell' On the Desktop · · Score: 1

    And I've used Linux since 1994. Although Grandma still uses Windows. Go figure.

  3. Notice how the "crypto guys" are the "old guys"??? on NSA Building US's Biggest Spy Center · · Score: 1

    I wonder if that sentence says more than they intended it to. Could it be that the skills of the NSA people are eroding just like the skills at CIA did? I knew that CIA was in trouble - tradecraft-wise - when a COS let an asset into their HQ and he blew half the station to kingdom come. No one would have done that in the old days. Maybe NSA is having the same problem.

  4. Time to learn who's boss around here... on UK Plan Would Use CCTV To Stop Uninsured Drivers From Refueling · · Score: 1

    And, apparently, it's the insurance companies. In the USA the insurance companies have to share power with the bankers and the Wall Street traders. The UK clearly has a more efficient system.

  5. Re:Even CIA officers have families... on Chinese Spies Used Fake Facebook Profile To Friend NATO Officials · · Score: 1

    I apologize if this is a personal question, but, just out of curiosity, why did you friend serve for 26 years if it made his family unhappy?

    First of all, it's difficult to look for a job when you're in Djibouti (I don't think he was... but he did serve in some seriously nasty places). It's also not easy to leave if you are, like most CIA staffers, overseas most of the time... you don't have a lot of US contacts (because you don't live in the USA) and you don't have a base of operations. Thirdly, you might not find it surprising to discover that there is not much of a one-to-one mapping of job requirements for a former CIA officer moving into the job market in the USA.

    But I think the biggest reason is that, like many people, hope springs eternal and most assignments are just 2 or 3 years long. And while they weren't always "happy" they were not always unhappy; if that makes any sense. Also, the longer you stay with the Agency the easier it is to adapt to a new area and it's a small cadre of staff officers (most of the Afghanistan and Iraq "CIA" people are contractors not staffers); every station you go to you find old friends. And everyone hopes for that dream job in Paris or Rio or Buenos Aires. The Agency knows all this so they dish out a plum assignment now and then so you get to live in a house and not an apartment for a couple of years. And even get rotated back to the USA where the HQ types are all getting promoted to division chief spots.

    And the life wears on you, for sure. Kids come home from school and say, "Daddy.... Bobby says you'rr a CIA agent... are you?" And your college pals (and in-laws, often) think you're a flake who can't keep a job. Plus the possible dangers your family face. The Soviet KGB and the CIA maintained a clear "family is off-limits" policy but modern terrorists have no such scruples.

    It's not like the movies.

  6. Even CIA officers have families... on Chinese Spies Used Fake Facebook Profile To Friend NATO Officials · · Score: 5, Informative

    A friend of mine who retired from CIA after 26 years once told me that his family was only happy for six of those years... and not six consecutive years. Cut off from family and friends back home and in contact only by letters and the occasional "home leave" of a month or two, he was trying to fit back in to the country he spent his life trying to serve (back in the days when the Agency was less of an operational force and more of an intelligence gathering organization). I can see how Facebook would have made their lives more enjoyable with all the family and friends news (and even minutia). I'm sure it's a security risk par excellance but I can certainly understand why they'd do it. And I can especially understand why a wife, stuck inside an apartment in Djibouti trying to order six months of canned food from Denmark, might.

    I don't expect Slashdot readers to grok it, though.

  7. Re:In my opinion, CenturyTel is run by idiots... on Ask Slashdot: What Is an Acceptable Broadband Latency? · · Score: 1

    I didn't read beyond the first page but I can't see that you made any egregious mistakes. You are, in short, correct that the "private" IP addresses are not to be routable. Apparently this is commonplace. I wonder how many VPNs have broken down because of this. Just goes to show you that you should pick a private IP subnet way out of the way of the first 100 or so.

    Thanks for your post. :)

  8. In my opinion, CenturyTel is run by idiots... on Ask Slashdot: What Is an Acceptable Broadband Latency? · · Score: 2

    I had a VPN customer on CenturyLink and a previous network engineer had put their home office LAN on 192.168.1.xxx (which is pretty common). The outlying offices were on 10.x.x.x subnets. One day, suddenly, no one could reach the home office file server. I discovered that there was a whole collection of computers with 192.168.1.xxx addresses on the WAN side of the routers. This, of course, broke the VPN links. He didn't just have them on that subnet but he had addressed one as 192.168.1.1 and up through a numerical sequence. When I finally got through to the chief admin guy (in Portland, OR) and told him he had internal IP addresses on a routable network he responded that the WAN side of our network was his INTERNAL network and he saw nothing wrong with putting a bunch of servers on those IP addresses. Nothing could convince him otherwise, either... because he was studying to take his Cisco Certified Network Administrator test.

    We readdressed the home office (that was fun!) and then moved to a better provider; one who at least would listen.

  9. Re:What I don't understand ... on How Steve Jobs Patent-Trolled Bill Gates · · Score: 1

    LOL... ok... you get the vote! :)

  10. What I don't understand ... on How Steve Jobs Patent-Trolled Bill Gates · · Score: 1

    Why would Bill Gates invest in Apple if Jobs admitted that Apple wouldn't survive long enough to win a patent lawsuit against MS anyway? Something's fishy. Gates could just wait 'em out and let Apple go away and gobble up the patents. Must be something more to the story.

    But I have no trouble believing that MS was infringing... I don't think they (or, probably, anyone else back then) paid much attention to "patents". They were paying more attention to copyright but even then, not very much.

  11. Re:FUCK YES on Remastered Star Trek: the Next Generation Blu-ray a Huge Leap Forward · · Score: 1

    I bought one for our motor home... $58 at Costco!!!

  12. Re:What I'd like to know is.... on France's Bold Drunk-Driving Legislation - Every Car To Carry a Breathalyzer · · Score: 1

    Good link. Not many seem to find this issue significant. I'm amazed at the irony of selling booze and gasoline at the same outlet and then being surprised that so many people drink and drive.

  13. What I'd like to know is.... on France's Bold Drunk-Driving Legislation - Every Car To Carry a Breathalyzer · · Score: 1

    So who was the rocket scientist who decided to sell alcohol products where people buy fuel for their cars?

  14. It's not just dynamic... on Physics Is (NP-)Hard · · Score: 2

    It's chaotic!

  15. Re:Bring it on on Obayashi To Build Space Elevator By 2050 · · Score: 1

    And they've been predicting that everyone would have a flying car since the late 1940s. Hell, most people car barely control their non-flying car. And just imagine the fun a terrorist in a Cessna would have running into the "space elevator".

  16. How about people in the PNW? on Aging Eyes Blamed For Seniors' Health Woes · · Score: 1

    What does this theory say about the poor folks who live in places like Seattle and Portland? Are they all doomed to a dismal old age at age 45? This would mean I waited too long to move away. :P

  17. Re:Should government rule our schools? on Tech Billionaire-Backed Charter School Under Fire In Chicago · · Score: 1

    Look at it like a toll road versus a freeway. You pay for the public roadways regardless of whether or not you choose to take the toll road. If you take the free roads to work you may forego certain benefits but at least you're getting something for your money. If you take the toll road you pay extra for whatever benefits you feel you get. Either way, it's your choice. Would you advocate a refund of the money paid out in taxes for the miles you traveled on the toll road? If so, expect lots more traffic on the toll road.

  18. Re:My Father's Cataract Surgery on Followup: Ultraviolet Vision After Cataract Surgery · · Score: 1

    Well... in all fairness I had already left my smart-ass comment. :)

  19. Re:My Father's Cataract Surgery on Followup: Ultraviolet Vision After Cataract Surgery · · Score: 1

    Wonderful story. It's life-transforming for almost everyone who gets the surgery; certainly it was for me. I was mid-50s when I had the surgery. My mother had gone blind from cataracts in the 1960s so I knew it would happen but I was unprepared for the impact it would make. I could swim, kayak and ski without worrying about glasses fogging. And lights at night were pinpoints.

    Happy for your father and for you. :)

  20. I didn't get U/V vision... on Followup: Ultraviolet Vision After Cataract Surgery · · Score: 1

    But I did get X-ray vision... it's not as good as you'd think. For one thing, I'm never going in to the senior center ever again!!!

  21. Put it on its own subnet.... on Ask Slashdot: Making a Tablet Run Only One Application? · · Score: 1

    And give it a bogus default gateway.

  22. Search craigslist using "linux" as a keyword... on Ask Slashdot: Where Are the Open Source Jobs? · · Score: 2

    You'll be surprised what you can find in the major markets. Seattle, for instance, often has lots of jobs asking for some experience with Linux.

  23. Re:No correlation on TomTom Satnavs To Set Insurance Prices · · Score: 1

    I hate to disabuse you but my experience with low-competence speeders is that they often tailgate (trying to make the person in front move over) and also often ignore a free lane apparently under the impression that "slower traffic move right" means "slower than ME") and they single-mindedly seem to insist that everyone has to get out of their way.

    But I have also, like you, seen drivers who seem to have a "comfort zone" a car-length behind and won't pass even when given a chance. Some have offered up the idea that staying close helps traffic by increasing the capacity of the highway system but I think that the constant braking required of drivers who follow too closely cancels this out.

    My attitude is that it's an intelligence test and finding a way through traffic without slowing everyone else down is what produces a winner. I often hang back and let a few very-high-speed drivers go by to collect the cops; I'll follow them 1/2 mile behind. I use their sudden application of brake lights to tell me when their radar detectors have gone off. :)

  24. Re:The silver lining on TomTom Satnavs To Set Insurance Prices · · Score: 1

    One of the leading causes of accidents is following too closely and a GPS will not measure that. If tailgating can be correlated to speeding (e.g.: people who speed also follow too closely) then I'd say there could be a good outcome from using this data. Otherwise, not so much...

  25. If he patented this in 1993 he could be in trouble on Man Claiming He Invented the Internet Sues · · Score: 1

    Mostly because the Internet - and the world wide web - existed prior to 1993. In fact, in 1990 the amateur radio operators in the Puget Sound area used a tcp/ip over 2-meter network that was linked to the Internet through one ham's occupation at a major industrial corporation in the area. Most of us weren't using a GUI web browser but we were using Lynx ( http://people.cc.ku.edu/~grobe/early-lynx.html ).