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User: ChipMonk

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  1. here's a crazy question on Air Force Extends Plug-and-Play Spacecraft · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Could it be too much to ask, that this bus conform to an openly-specified standard, e.g., Wishbone?

    I'm not saying it has to be Wishbone. I'm just thinking that it might be nice to avoid re-inventing the wheel. This could also have the side-effect of lowering the cost to the government (and the taxpayer who actually pays for it).

  2. Re:Keyboard Shortcut in GNOME on Multiple-Display Power Tools For Linux? · · Score: 1

    Is that specific to Metacity?

  3. 5,000 machines, US$1M on SETI@Home Install Leads To School Tech Supervisor's Resignation · · Score: 1

    That works out to about $200 per machine. In what, electricity from no CPU idle?

    Other than that, I don't see where S@H costs any more on a system than the resource hog called "Windows Vista".

  4. how is that different from old mining towns? on Scientology Charged With Slavery, Human Trafficking · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
    Another day older and deeper in debt.
    Saint Peter, don'tcha call me 'cause I can't go,
    I owe my soul to the company store."

    That song reflected the reality of tens of thousands of people in Appalachia.

  5. Re:consult with a real security professional on Ethics of Releasing Non-Malicious Linux Malware? · · Score: 1

    Okay, it's more like the fake virus signatures that anti-virus vendors provide to let users test their products. "Click here to see if a virus alert pops up." I still think that could be a very useful tool for the SELinux crew. Probably they could integrate it into their automated tests.

  6. mod parent up on Ethics of Releasing Non-Malicious Linux Malware? · · Score: 1

    Too bad I've already commented on this thread, or I'd mod that up.

    But I'll also say that my mother runs Fedora 11, and the SELinux configuration is a lot better than in previous Fedora releases. The SELinux reports are all related to config files in her home directory, and those are carried over from previous Fedora installs. From what I can see, someone got a clue and cleaned up the general Fedora SELinux configuration in a big way.

  7. consult with a real security professional on Ethics of Releasing Non-Malicious Linux Malware? · · Score: 5, Informative

    Contact someone at SANS, or Bruce Schneier, or some such. Maybe even someone on the SELinux project; if this non-malicious malware is indeed as capable without SELinux as you claim, and SELinux mitigates/eliminates the danger, this could be good PR for them.

  8. Re:Mod parent up on Where the Global Warming Data Is · · Score: 1

    There are two problems with that:

    1. Conspiracy to commit a crime is still a crime, even if the conspirator(s) never go through with the plans.

    2. Just because this email isn't deleted, doesn't mean none were deleted. (This is a converse accident fallacy.)

  9. Texas Hill Country experience on Home Router For High-Speed Connection? · · Score: 1

    I stayed in a hole-in-the-wall town in February 2006. The motel had a fat-pipe kiosk in the main office. I was grateful to have it, because the cell phone service in the area was horrible.

  10. Re:Let's Do That on Where the Global Warming Data Is · · Score: 1

    Fuzz testing can still be valid. Does the hockey stick still appear with range-limited random data (like, say, -10C to 40C)?

    Eric Raymond says yes.

  11. Re:Go around? on Air Cannon Ties Pirates In Knots · · Score: 1

    With that much forward inertia, a wide enough net cast close enough to the boat would be impossible to avoid. Kind of like trying to miss the deer that just ran out in front of you. Never mind coming to a stop; can you even get your foot on the brake pedal before impact?

  12. Mod parent up on Where the Global Warming Data Is · · Score: 2, Informative

    The "statement" from the "beleaguered" "head" is nothing more than a distraction.

    From May 2008 comes this little tidbit (sorry about the formatting):

    Phil Jones wrote: > >> Mike, > Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? > Keith will do likewise. He's not in at the moment - minor family crisis. > > Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don't > have his new email address. > > We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.

    Right there is the reality of "deleted data" in clear violation of the FoIA.

  13. I'll admit right off, skeptic here on Engaging With Climate Skeptics · · Score: 1

    The article is using a very short-view definition of "record", both in sense of "recorded data" and "record amounts". Every year mentioned for comparison is from less than a decade earlier.

    Also, if they do have archaeological record of ice melt/freeze, how do the past 500 years compare, especially the year after Mt. Tabora exploded (1815)?

  14. Re:Maybe now the debate will actually occur? on Engaging With Climate Skeptics · · Score: 1

    It may be a fallacy, but that doesn't mean it is never appropriate.

    As a parallel counterexample, ad hominem is perfectly appropriate when Charles Manson is telling you that 1+2=3, and Barack Obama is married and has two daughters. You'd better seek some third-party verification.

  15. Re:Balls on Man Pleads Guilty To Selling Fake Chips To US Navy · · Score: 1

    Treason is not the only capital crime. But I think the rest of his natural life in Fort Leavenworth might be more appropriate in this case.

  16. Re:Did he cross the English Channel to speak with. on Jetman Attempts Intercontinental Flight · · Score: 1

    It's a semantic difference. Crossing the English Channel isn't an intercontinental journey, and doesn't involve leaving the EU.

  17. Re:In secret?! on Two Senators Call For ACTA Transparency · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    There's a wide gulf of difference between "transparency" and "nothing to see here, move along."

  18. until storm/nightfall/eclipse hit on Solar-Powered Plane Makes Runway Debut · · Score: 0

    I wouldn't want to be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean when it suddenly got dark.

    How well could a hybrid-energy airplane work? Would the solar cells provide more benefit in bright light than they would cost in fuel in the dark?

  19. Re:Practical joke on After 35 Years, Another Message Sent From Arecibo · · Score: 1

    Then we send them a decoded copy of "To Serve Man."

  20. Re:Zero Emissions are worse?? on Berkeley Engineers Have Some Bad News About Air Cars · · Score: 1

    When you figure in the special handling and storage required for hydrogen, as well as the proper and safe ventilation of the highly reactive oxygen, the energy cost incurred is still less than that of compressed air. These are not one-time expenses; they are ongoing, and must be figured into the actual energy cost.

  21. Re:Zero Emissions are worse?? on Berkeley Engineers Have Some Bad News About Air Cars · · Score: 0

    Hydrogen is yet another method of storing energy.

    And a vastly more efficient one, making this technology pointless.

    Uh, no. Hydrogen power is a net loss, due to the greater energy consumed in currently-available hydrogen production methods. Yes, that may change in the future, but for now, even a solar panel on the garage powering an air compressor incurs less energy loss.

  22. Re:"zero fuel"? on Berkeley Engineers Have Some Bad News About Air Cars · · Score: 1

    And that's even less efficient than solar on the car itself. Remember, no energy conversion is 100% efficient. The fewer conversion stages the better.

  23. Re:A Few Points on Microsoft Applies For Patent On Tufte's Sparklines · · Score: -1, Redundant

    The examiner will almost certainly come back with multiple rejections based on obviousness

    You have such faith in the Federal Gov't. I wish I were still as naive as you.

  24. Google *does* kowtow to China on Google Accused of Violating Copyright In China · · Score: 1

    To their shame. They took a lot of heat for it.

    "Do no evil"? Oh, please.

  25. Ah, yes, "billing trouble," the old euphemism on Smart Grid Could Pose Threat To Privacy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    for PEBKAC.

    In the days of mechanical telephone switches, the telco swore up and down that my mother hadn't paid the bill. When they sent out the guy to carry out the disconnect order, he said she could make one last phone call. She showed him the canceled check and told him he could make it to his boss, or he could disconnect the phone and never show his face on the property again. He said sorry, lady, I got my orders.

    The Nuremberg trials invalidated that excuse. (Aaaaand Godwin's Law is validated for this thread)

    They tried to make nice later. Mom told them to leave, or face criminal trespass charges. And for the next 16 years, we made do with no telephone. Mom and Dad finally relented, post-Bell breakup, when we had two elderly grandparents who were taking turns being ill.

    Now, four carrier buy-outs later, my parents are having "billing trouble" again while the new system owners figure out what the hell they're doing.