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User: Andy+Dodd

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  1. Re:Does it really matter? on Busybox Developer Responds To Andersen-SFLC Lawsuits · · Score: 1

    Based on other comments, it sounds like any copyright holder has an individual right to sue.

    So there is nothing legally stopping the current proceedings.

    However, it might (IANAL) be possible for the other developers to engage in legal proceedings indicating that lawsuits without proper negotiations are damaging their ability to negotiate peacefully with other companies.

  2. Re:Does it really matter? on Busybox Developer Responds To Andersen-SFLC Lawsuits · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think the issue is whether false claims have been made about Person A in the process of Person B suing Company C. Bruce's statement kind of implies that.

    Also, Bruce's statement implies that SFLC is using rather overzealous "sue without negotiation beforehand" techniques that are damaging to the business of some of the other Busybox developers, including himself. Whether he has a legal leg to stand on is unknown, either way it's kind of a "dick move" on the part of those involved in the lawsuit.

    It's just like the patent system - there are companies that are typically very reasonable in terms of patent license negotiations and consider a lawsuit to be an absolute last resort (I knew someone who worked for Lucent's IP licensing organization - lawsuits were an asbolute last resort for them.), while other companies prefer to patent troll and immediately open up with a lawsuit.

  3. Re:The Market on Why Is a Laptop's Battery Dearer Than a Lawnmower's? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yup, I wouldn't be surprised if the lawnmower variants have some chemistry/construction changes such that:
    1) The cells are slightly larger/heavier per Wh despite similar chemistry
    2) The cells are optimized for a somewhat different charge/discharge regime than a laptop

    The above could easily make significant changes to the cost of the batteries.

  4. Re:No on Is Console Gaming Dying? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah. Global economic meltdown + console sales expected to slow down as the generation goes on explains it.

    A 60% drop in sales for the Wii isn't exactly saying much considering the insane and unexpected "we can't keep up with demand" aka "license to print money" sales pace for the first year or two of the console's existence.

    Yeah, so it's not a license to print money any more - I'm sure Nintendo is still doing just fine.

  5. Re:Anonymous Coward on Science Gifts For Kids? · · Score: 1

    Some parents pressure a child into a career by pressuring them in high school/college.

    Smart parents (like mine) corrupt you before you're old enough realize it with Radio Shack electronics kits. :)

    In my case, they were the various spring-based N-in-1 kits. I see from other posts that the newer ones are harder for little kids to work with.

  6. Re:Unimpressed with 802.11n on Fast Wi-Fi's Slow Road To Standardization · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Basically any 802.11n system is going to be shit with legacy devices nearby. I believe this was one of the final barriers to standardization between Draft-N and final.

    So to get decent performance you MUST be in the 5 GHz range. However, there are almost no 5 GHz 802.11n routers out there with external antennas! (Curse Linksys for their move to "saucer" form factors across their entire 802.11 product line... 100% driven by form and aesthetics/marketing, not technical function.) End result is that in most situations, a G router with an external antenna (especially an upgraded one) will blow nearly any of the 11n devices on the market out there.

  7. Re:Adobe on Adobe Takes On Microsoft Role In E-book Market · · Score: 1

    "With the file open, remove access to the network share."

    I know of very few programs that don't misbehave when you yank out a whole filesystem from underneath them.

  8. Re:a cross platform standard format on Adobe Takes On Microsoft Role In E-book Market · · Score: 1

    PDF is pretty well supported by nearly everyone too. Even Amazon supports it (albeit with a PC-based converter in their case)

  9. Re:Old news for me at least on Iron Mountain's Experimental Room 48 · · Score: 1

    They mention in TFA that the geology of the Iron Mountain mine is somewhat unique in that it has a shale cap - the end result being that the mine area is very dry until you descend to the level of the lake.

  10. Re:Geothermal energy not renewable and cheap. on Iron Mountain's Experimental Room 48 · · Score: 1

    They kind of imply this as a "growth option/plan" in the TFA.

    The owner wants to pipe cold air down to the underground lake in the winter to freeze it, and use the lake for cooling.

    It reminds me of someone who built a year-round refrigerator that basically operated by freezing water into a giant chunk of ice in the winter, and then using that ice for cooling year round. They used a homebrew heatpipe system, and took advantage of what is normally a problem in heatpipes - they only work if your heat source is lower than your heat sink unless you take special measures (capillary channels in the heatpipe). Heatpipes meant for PCs have these capillaries so work in any orientation, but DIY ones are basically a gravity-driven thermal diode.

  11. Re:Common sense? on DVD-by-Mail Services Cleared In Patent Troll Case · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you RTFA, it appears they are only applying this to outstanding patent applications filed before October 1, 2009.

  12. Re:Tablet market seems like the ultimate niche on CrunchPad Being Re-branded As JooJoo · · Score: 2, Informative

    "If you can sell a device with a slow-refreshing screen that only does 16 levels of grayscale and supports no applications except a document viewer and (maybe) a stripped-down Web browser for $260"

    You forgot about the fact that the slow-refreshing screen uses basically no static power. The end result is that such devices have INCREDIBLE battery life.

  13. Re:Office Space re-enactment on What Do You Do When Printers Cost Less Than Ink? · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Damn it feels good to be a gangsta!

  14. Re:OpenVPN on Network Security While Traveling? · · Score: 1

    Great points.

    Yes, if you don't use SSL, you are at risk of getting sniffed at some point down the line. That said - The chances of you getting sniffed between your ISP connection and your bank are FAR slimmer than you getting sniffed by someone sharing the same wi-fi connection as you.

  15. Re:I don't even need to read the summary. on Are Ad Servers Bogging Down the Web? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Even more embarassing for Google - As I mentioned in another post, Google Analytics is one of the biggest offenders in the "makes page load stop and browser freeze for a few seconds" category.

  16. Re:Make it a statistic and they'll care on Are Ad Servers Bogging Down the Web? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yup. Second biggest offender is usually Google Analytics. Hell, I've often had Firefox hang while trying to pull up something from GA.

  17. Re:I would expect most brand-name ones would on Home Router For High-Speed Connection? · · Score: 1

    Not true.

    The simple reason: 95%+ of all customers (at least in the United States) have ISPs that are nowhere near fast enough to stress a router that is only capable of NATing at 30 Mbps. That's a HUGE market full of clueless users who will never notice that bottleneck. (The same users who think that 802.11n will make their 5-15 Mbps cable modem connection or 3 Mbps DSL connection go faster.)

  18. Re:He deserves it on Linus Torvalds For Nobel Peace Prize? · · Score: 1

    That's a very good point. For example, many people have had awful reliability problems with Dell machines.

    Meanwhile, I've had very good results with mine and so has my father. However, we have always purchased higher-end units: Inspiron 8000 or 9000 series units. (Those model line designators no longer exist, it's kind of hard to tell what's "high end" in the SOHO market with Dell now - it's pretty much overrated XPS or the Precision/Latitude lines if you want something decent.)

    I know someone who had an Inspiron 600m. What an epic turd that machine was, and based on what I've seen, had some serious design flaws in its grounding scheme. Something along the lines of loose screw -> galvanic corrosion -> grounding problem gets worse -> even more galvanic corrosion.

  19. Re:logmein.com on Simple, Free Web Remote PC Control? · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't be surprised if the Remote Assistance setup mechanism assumes UPnP support in your router.

    That lets it automatically forward the ports it needs for you, however, if UPnP support in the router is disabled or not present, you're going to have to manually port forward.

  20. Re:Kill the X Boondoggle Already on Samsung Sponsors the Development of Enlightenment · · Score: 1

    UNIX in general? (With Linux effectively being a re-implementation of UNIX.)

  21. Re:Labelling. on What's Coming In KDE 4.4 · · Score: 1

    There's no good workaround for GNOME's complete lack of edge flipping.

    Having to move your mouse down to the bottom of the screen or remember a hotkey to change desktops is nonintuitive. Dragging the mouse to the edge of a desktop to go to the next one is.

    It's understandable that if the feature is enabled by default it could confuse a user that has never touched multiple desktops before, but in KDE it is disabled by default. In GNOME, it is just plain disabled and Havoc refuses to add it. Next step for GNOME is complete removal of the multiple desktop paradigm, since without edge flipping there isn't much point to multiple desktops.

    There was a workaround for a while called Brightside, but it crashed frequently and ceased being maintained 2-3 years ago.

  22. Re:Network Manager + Hidden ESSID on What's Coming In KDE 4.4 · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you read the summary, networkmanager has been moved back to a tray applet for the time being.

    The NM plasma widget was, to my knowledge, never an official part of KDE 4.x upstream. It was a Kubuntu-specific thing.

    The NM applet in Kubuntu 9.10 is far better.

  23. Re:Every time it is thousands of bugs... on What's Coming In KDE 4.4 · · Score: 1

    "bugs" being entries in a ticket tracker DB like Bugzilla or Launchpad.

    Such DBs tend to be known for dupes.

  24. Re:System Activity feedback on What's Coming In KDE 4.4 · · Score: 1

    One thing I forgot to mention:

    Like many others, I'm oldskool/hardcore and almost always have a terminal open, and when something "odd" seems to be happening I fire up top.

    I guess the real "acid test" will be if my system ever becomes so wonky I can't fire up top and then type "kill", but hitting control-esc to bring up your app works.

  25. Re:System Activity feedback on What's Coming In KDE 4.4 · · Score: 1

    Here's my feedback:

    You're not getting feedback because the thing you're working on is well hidden. I didn't know it existed until I read your post.