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User: ben.b

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Comments · 33

  1. Geek icon on James Bond's 'Q' Dies · · Score: 1

    Of course... Q worked in geek heaven. Any one of us would love to have access to his lab.

  2. Re:Doom made by 3D Realms? I think not. on Brazil Bans Doom, Duke Nukem and 4 Other Games · · Score: 1

    Well... "Duke Nukem" wasn't designed by 3D Realms either... that was Apogee. 3D Realms did "Duke Nukem 3D" :)

  3. Re:Linux close but no cigar on NSF awards $500,000 grant for Beowulf Cluster · · Score: 1

    I imagine a BSD variant would be best - still open source, but the TCP/IP stack is faster, so you'd probably lose less in inter-processor communication.

  4. Re:User Friendly BBS! on Are BBS-Like Communities Dead? · · Score: 1

    Woohoo! I haven't played LORD in years - the only time I ever considered getting into Pascal was to write extensions for that game. I think me and that bar maid have some catching up to do ;)

  5. Who needs a distro anyway? on Debian Freeze Rescheduled · · Score: 1

    Since when do you need a new version of a distribution to keep your system up to date? Just looking at the stuff I use the most (the kernel, X, Netscape, Enlightenment, Eterm, XMMS, Word Perfect, ssh, X-Chat, GIMP... the list goes on) - I built/installed all of it myself. No waiting for packages - or worse, a new distro release - to get new stuff. Sometimes I purposefully avoid packages because it's more fun to do it yourself (for me, anyway). And for small updates, you'll save time patching and rebuilding as opposed to downloading and installing a whole new package.

  6. Re:There is a problem with IPO's on Cobalt Public Date Announced · · Score: 5

    It seems to me like a lot of people misunderstand what an IPO is.

    If you buy a stock when it balloons to 80 or so, you haven't bought into the IPO; you've bought shares from someone who applied for and got IPO shares for 15 each, and is now selling them to you for 80. The way to make money off these things is to watch for the announcements and apply as quickly as possible (you need to fill out a SEC form that says you aren't related to any officers of the company and you know stuff about the market). If you are eligible, you can get shares pretty cheap (usually about 15 dollars) before trading starts. Then when it starts trading, if there is significant hype surrounding the company (always the case if it's posted on Slashdot) you'll be able to sell the shares for 5 times what you paid for them very early in the day.

    If you don't get the actual IPO, don't bother trying to buy the stock. If, however, you think the company will be a good long term investment, wait a while to see what happens the the price. It'll probably adjust to a normal price after a few days (a lot of people who get stuck with the stock at the end of the first day don't want to hold onto it).

  7. Herc w/ vid capture on Guillemot Acquires Hercules · · Score: 1

    I have a Hercules card that's about a year and a half old that's based on the Rendition Vertite chip and includes video capture - actually a pretty nice card.

  8. Re:Excellent on Coca Cola Supply and Demand · · Score: 1

    But you still need to be moderated down for your poor use of grammar :)

  9. Other forms of demand on Coca Cola Supply and Demand · · Score: 1

    My school really needs a system like this, except the price goes up when there are fewer sodas remaining. Then there'd always be soda left (we always run out and don't get refills for a week) that wouldn't be very hard to cheat out of the machine.

  10. Re:Why just geeks? - What I forgot to say on More Bad News From The Hellmouth · · Score: 1

    I got a bit sidetracked - this program doesn't seem to specifically target geeks - the questions that we've seen are just related to violence in general. Unless there are questions like "Do you read Slashdot?" you can't really say it's aimed at geeks.

  11. Why just geeks? on More Bad News From The Hellmouth · · Score: 1

    I don't see how this program unfairly targets geeks. We can't really make any conclusions about it when we don't even know all the questions on there.

    Profiling can be very effective if the questions are properly designed. Of course, this relies on the questions being asked to the "potential threat". It's hard to tell from the articles whether the questions are answered by an adminstrator based on what they know, or if they sit the kid down in front of the computer and have them take a test. Some of the questions (availability of guns) would be hard for anyone else to answer, but they'd be very awkward to ask someone. Therefore the student would probably lie, in which case a computer would not be effective - you need an experience psychologist who can sort of "read" the subject.

  12. Re:Sorry, had to try on Domain Registrars Not Legally Responsible for Domain Names · · Score: 1

    That happened to me once (right before karma went into effect). My one and only first post was moderated down before I even got to see it. I did learn my lesson though - I mostly focus on trying to write well written posts that might get me a point or two.

    Then I'll be eligible to moderate... buwahahaha... I mean, uh, so I can encourage thoughtful posts.

  13. Exceptions on Domain Registrars Not Legally Responsible for Domain Names · · Score: 2

    I wonder if it'd be ok if you registered a domain like "microsoft-tm-trademarkisthepropertyofmicrosoftcor porationallrightsreservedyaddayaddayaddl egalstuff.com". It's got a disclaimer built right in!

  14. Watch out on Uncle Robin's Advice for Lovelorn Geeks · · Score: 1

    I hope mentioning your wife's "imperfections" doesn't get you into serious trouble - I've head stories about that sort of thing - though I guess being a non-geek, she probably doesn't read Slashdot (Another plus for non-geeks: you can write about them on /.! :)

  15. Overclocking on Intel Releasing 700Mhz P3s · · Score: 1

    I'm curious about how their "cooler design" will affect overclocking - might have to try it on a 150MHz bus and see what happens... :)

  16. Re:FuckU FuckMe on Return of the Quickies · · Score: 1

    You know... that thing could actually work. In fact, it wouldn't be *that* hard to build... [ching-ching]

  17. Bad Hacker Movies Come True on Kill -9 With a Doom Shotgun · · Score: 1

    I used to always laugh at hacker movies (especially "Hackers" and "The Net") that made destroying a server look like a video game. Now if some script kiddies get this thing working against another computer, their little friends will probably be REALLY impressed.

  18. Re:mtv sucks on MTV Profiles "Hackers" · · Score: 1

    I was flipping through channels today and passed both MTV and VH1. MTV had a show about college kids on a boat. VH1 had a documentary on Kiss. Hrm...

  19. Re:Hahahahhahhahahhahaha on MTV Profiles "Hackers" · · Score: 1

    LoU is Legion of the Underground - I think they're the ones who declared "cyberwar" on China or Iraq or some place like that.

  20. Drool on Here come the PowerPC Linux systems · · Score: 0

    see subject

  21. Re:How's it being done? (Score:5) on Load Test the New Slashdot Setup · · Score: 1

    Well, (Score: 5) (Score: 1) makes it kinda obvious.

  22. BUG: Posting Comments on Load Test the New Slashdot Setup · · Score: 1

    No one seems to have mentioned this, but if you try to post a comment on the new servers, takes you back to the old slashdot server, ["Bad absolute links! Bad!" -ed.] so that aspect of the new servers isn't getting tested.

  23. Limitted Future on Silicon Chip Survival of the Fittest · · Score: 1

    You can really only do so much with genetic algorithms because while the most successful code/design is often better than anything a human could create, it is also almost totally unreadable by people; if you did an entire project genetically, you'd lose all control of it. Genetic algorithms are only useful for small sections that need to be as efficient as possible (similar to hand-optimizing software in assembly).

  24. Re:The *Marketing* Director? on IF bugs, THEN marketing director eats insects · · Score: 1

    If I wanted to guarantee results, I'd make the QA people eat bugs.

  25. Re:Yes, there are other parties involved on Melissa Virus Suspect Confesses · · Score: 1

    Plus all the people stupid enough to open the attachment. The message sounds suspicious as it is, especially when you didn't ask for any documents.