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User: hicksw

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Comments · 441

  1. Real Old school on A Year After Ban On Loud TV Commercials: Has It Worked? · · Score: 1

    ISTR in the old days, watching TV sport with the sound OFF, and getting audio from a radio source. Moved to the UK, where there is public radio sports coverage, and get the video highlights later (free and no adverts, except for other BBC programs).

    What is this advertising of which you complain? I think the last advert I heard was for cranberry shortcake (Bob and Ray).
    --
    The United States Mint - One of the nation's leading producers of genuine U.S. currency.

  2. BT on Ask Slashdot: Practical Bitrot Detection For Backups? · · Score: 1

    Bit torrent?
    Set up your very own very private tracker(s).
    Create a torrent of the file trees to be duplicated and protected on the original host.
    Leech it at all the redundant sites.
    Wait for them all to complete the download and become seeds.
    From time to time, but not all at the same time, force a recheck on each member of the swarm, to detect corruption
    A failure should trigger a download to correct the corrupted block from the swarm.

    You can probably get better advice on how to handle a growing archive.
    I would probably try to add another torrent of the added files, then
    wait for the swarm to download those files.
    Then create a new torrent file that includes the old and the new in a single torrent and use that for the next forced recheck cycle.

    You probably want to have a few scripts to automate the rechecks and updates.
    --
    The world is coming to an end, but don't stop seeding

  3. Obama care? Not on Obama Praises NSA But Promises To Rein It In · · Score: 1

    Are you still hoping for a change, sucker?

    This man does not walk the walk.
    --
    Irrational fear is the new patriotism.

  4. Active-X on Google Is Building a Way To Launch Chrome Apps Without Installation · · Score: 1

    Does nobody remember Active-X?

    Don't download and run strange code. Ever.
    --
    There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

  5. Re:The name Sanjuro Kuwabatake on Meet the 'Assassination Market' Creator Who's Crowdfunding Murder With Bitcoins · · Score: 1

    ... "Sanjuro" is a standard alias for a 30 year old guy (it literally means "30 year old guy", more or less) ...

    and all this time I thought it meant, "Return of the Bodyguard"

    ...and I don't mean Kevin Costner.

  6. News for Timothy on SourceForge Appeals To Readers For Help Nixing Bad Ad Actors · · Score: 0

    Dear Timmie,

    Sourceforge is dead, just like Santa and the Tooth Fairy.

    And anything sourced from Timothy.
    Good night, sleep tight, get a real job in the morning.
    --
    Oblivion keeps looking better every day.

  7. Testing things that don't work... on ATF Tests Show 3D Printed Guns Can Explode · · Score: 1

    If the Federal Government is starting to test things to see if they work, how about:

    DHS (shoes off, what?)
    ATF (I've been away too long - what do you call the gang that killed all those people near Waco?)
    DEA (see below)
    War on Drugs
    killing random olive-skinned people in the MIddle East
    the quality/reliability of buyable congress-critters
    anything from the Chicago Democrat machine (POTUS)

    for a start.

    I used to have a copy of the Constitution, but it's not much use any more, so I put it up on eBay - no bids from the USA, but I got a derisory offer from China. Somebody had been watching Galaxy Quest and thought it was a historical document. Best offer, so I sold it. Hoping for positive feedback.
    --
    America is not a lie; it is a disappointment, because it used to be a hope.

  8. Revenue problems? on WikiLeaks Releases the Secret Draft Text of the TPP IP Rights Chapter · · Score: 1

    Does your state have a revenue problem?

    Try intellectual property taxes for quick relief!
    --
    In order to protect freedom it became necessary to destroy it.

  9. It plays better as Parody, not Satire on Critics Reassess Starship Troopers As a Misunderstood Masterpiece · · Score: 1

    The SST movie was closer to parody that satire.

    Parody pokes fun at an idea. One expects more style and irony in a satire.

    And, yes, I missed the jump suits. Now with CGI sorted out, maybe there can be a remake, but please, please, not in 3D. We could have two sequels, one from the odd numbered chapters, and another from the even numbered ones.

    BTW, the Japanese made an anime series from SST. It was a confession (love) story.
    --
    In order to protect freedom it became necessary to destroy it.

  10. The TLA beauty contest on F-Secure's Hypponen: The Internet Is a 'US Colony' · · Score: 1

    The NSA is just doing its job. Slipped up on a few corner cases, watching yanks.

    So is this the TSA's job?

    http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/10/25/1939214/feds-confiscate-investigative-reporters-confidential-files-during-raid

    Now THAT is EVIL. And probably LEGAL, for current values of law.
    --
    Let's outsource our government.

  11. Re:Speaking as a Brit on UK Police Seize 3D-Printed 'Gun Parts,' Which Are Actually Spare Printer Parts · · Score: 1

    Greater Manchester was cancelled in 1986 due to lack of interest.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Manchester
    --
    The universe - it's made of mistakes all the way down - Scott Meyer

  12. Wine anyone? on Windows 8.1 Rolls Out Today · · Score: 1

    Now is the time of Wine-for-Windows on the Desktop
    --
    On Fidonet, nobody knew I was a dog

  13. Flying robots (of deliverance) on Could Snowden Have Been Stopped In 2009? · · Score: 1

    I believe the correct term is Watchbirds.

    Thank you, Robert Sheckley.
    --
    On Fidonet, nobody knew I was a dog

  14. Length of ring finger on Most Cave Paintings Were Painted By Women, Says Penn State Researcher · · Score: 1

    Maybe the artists who signed/marked their pictures were girly-men with low testosterone (and short ring fingers). The real ballsy guys were out killing things.

    No, I didn't read the FA.
    --
    It was a drunk and stormy night. Four shots rang out "Drink us!"

  15. Why are the Brits so excited about Snowden? on Guardian Ignores MI5 Warnings, Vows To 'Publish More Snowden Leaks' · · Score: 1

    Snowden lifted files from US security, not GCHQ. Every UK operational detail that he and the Guardian might divulge was already in the hands of a foreign organisation, outside the control of the UK secret services.

    Snowden was merely the first NSA data leak that went public. There is little reason to believe he was the first NSA staff to walk out with a memory stick.

    If the Chinese realised what he had in Hong Kong, what riches would thay have offered him? Unless they already had most of it from routine espionage (see above).
    --
    How long does it take Airstrip One to unperson someone these days? Stand by.

  16. Re:I agree. on Cyborg Cockroach Sparks Ethics Debate · · Score: 1

    Members of Congress come to mind as a possibility...

    It's been done. They've all been wired up by their corporate sponsors.
    --
    On Fidonet, nobody knew I was a dog

  17. May the Force be with (not against) you on The Reporter's Fifth Amendment Paradox · · Score: 1

    The Fifth is about force, physical or otherwise.

    If the forces of law and order are not permitted to beat or browbeat statements of guilt from the accused, why should they be allowed to attack third parties? Evidence not freely given should be considered tainted, no matter who gives it, no matter what subject.

    Come on, where is an interventionist SCOTUS when we need one?
    --
    In the land of a million laws we are all criminals

  18. Re:Another damned collectivist on Why One Woman Says Sending Your Kid To Private School Is Evil · · Score: 1

    ...the people who can make the biggest difference lack the incentives to do so...

    On the contrary, we want our domestic servants to be able to help our offspring with their grammar and algebra homework.
    --
    then I went back to sleep and had the same nightmare again

  19. Re:How about no. on Syria: a Defining Moment For Chemical Weapons? · · Score: 1

    ...Lets just stay out of it...

    A pipeline runs through it.
    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

  20. Re:P2P HTTP would be great on The Pirate Bay Launches Browser To Evade ISP Blockades · · Score: 1

    How's this?

    Create a Magnet hash from the URL you seek.
    Use DHT to find a swarm and get a copy.
    If you can't find a swarm, and are not worried about privacy, GET the file and advertise the Magnet hash for a while.

    The minor drawback is that this gets slower as we flood the DHT hash space. The huge drawback is that this only works for static content. Not much of that around these days.

    Dynamic content forces us to each download our own personalised packets.
    Sadly, these mostly differ only in the (blocked) targeted adverts.
    --
    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.

  21. Noise on Other Agencies Clamor For Data NSA Compiles · · Score: 1

    How can we poison the well? Is there a non-defeatable way to spoof enough false metadata to make the fedgov harvesting a broken exercise?

    If they cannot trust their own data theft or "probable cause" can be denied, we might have a short-term win.

    Can we DDOS the spies?
    --
    then I went back to sleep and had the same nightmare again

  22. Re:Sequel on Signs Point To XKCD's Time Ending · · Score: 1

    I'm waiting for the sequel: More time

    He has already done it. It was called space , and it happened all at once.

    --
    then I went back to sleep and had the same nightmare again

  23. There might be a less dark side to this on Feds Allegedly Demanding User Passwords From Services · · Score: 1

    Hello, plausible deniability.

    If the man has all your authentication data, then anyone they give it to, leak it to, lose it to, might have done that nefarious interweb thing, posing as you.

    This seems to be indistinguishabe from identity theft.

    Not that that argument will get you anywhere in today's modern courthouse
    --
    then I went back to sleep and had the same nightmare again.

  24. Ask for advice? on Kernel Dev Tells Linus Torvalds To Stop Using Abusive Language · · Score: 1

    He should maybe ask Theo for some man-management/PR pointers? Politely.
    --
    God loves discontinuous functions -- like His beloved beetles, they're almost everywhere.

  25. Whodunit? on NSA Revelation Leads FTC To Propose "Reclaim Your Name" Initiative · · Score: 1

    And how does $BIGDATACO know that it is ME changing the data relating to me?