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User: milgr

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Comments · 147

  1. A donation to his favorite cause on Ask Slashdot: Gifts For a 90-Year-Old, Tech-Savvy Dad? · · Score: 1

    Does he really need or want more stuff?

  2. Re:USB and disk Speed on Ask Slashdot: Simple Way To Backup 24TB of Data Onto USB HDDs ? · · Score: 2, Informative

    The LHC generates a petabyte per second.

  3. Free songs require credit card on Google Music Goes Live With Google+ Integration · · Score: 1

    I was surprised that Google requires a valid credit card number for free songs.

  4. Re:Comparing high end to low end on The History of Ethernet · · Score: 1

    I haven't seen thicknet or thinnet equipment in years. I think that at one point the first company I worked for had a bridge between their thicknet twisted pair networks, but there is little equipment available to talk to thinnet or thicknet today.

  5. Comparing high end to low end on The History of Ethernet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In the 1980s, ethernet tended to be over Thinnet or Thicknet. I seem to recall speeds of 1-3Mbps over those technologies. Twisted pair came out somewhere around 1990 at 10Mbps.

    Today I mostly use 1Gps, but deal with servers that are 10G.40G and 100G will be standard in datacenters in a few years.

    The blurb indicates that Ethernet is the only technology that we are using from 30 years ago. Back then all the machines I used had Memory, cpus, displays, and keyboards. The particualr technology changed - just like Ethernet technology's changes.

  6. Re:Solution... on Tabnapping Scams Around the Corner? · · Score: 1
    The tabs are related... they are all web pages. I have about 25 tabs open in each of 2 Firefox windows. I also have numerous other windows on each of 7 virtual screens on each of 2 physical screens. Before the days of tabs, it was challenging to find the correct window. Now, for a web page I merely look in my browser tab list.

    Hmm... maybe I should create a new SELinux sandbox for Firefox for each web page I visit, and avoid tabs.

  7. Too wordy on Learning Python, 4th Edition · · Score: 4, Informative

    I bought this book about a month ago. I had my doubts about a book this size, and my doubts were realized.

    I learned C from K&R first edition. K&R is about 150 pages (from memory). It covers all of the language succinctly and completely. Actually, it covers most of the language twice - first in tutorial form then in specification form. It is a fine resource.

    Why should a book on Python be over 1000 pages? I started reading this book the same way I read K&R - from the beginning. Unlike K&R, after 50 pages I barely got to coding. Within each section the language is quite verbose. I suspect that the authors were paid by the word or the page.

    On a positive note, I was able to use this book as a reference book as the index is quite reasonable.

    I would recommend this book to those insomniacs who are interested in learning Python.

  8. Some examples would be useful on FOSS Sexism Claims Met With Ire and Denial · · Score: 2, Informative
    I search the post an linked articles for concrete examples of sexism. I found some - about 4 indirections away from slashdot. http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO.html links to some eight year old posts that are sexist.

    All of the high-tech companies that I've worked for have many more men than women. Most of the applications for positions are from men.

    In over 20 years in the industry, I only remember observing one sexist incident.

  9. Re:Apples and Oranges on Is Cloud Computing the Hotel California of Tech? · · Score: 1

    OK, the article doesn't list Facebook and MySpace as cloud applications, but it does list Twitter and Google apps. I just generalized it a bit.

  10. Re:Apples and Oranges on Is Cloud Computing the Hotel California of Tech? · · Score: 1, Informative
    According to wikipedia, Facebook and MySpace are cloud applications. On the other hand, I usually just consider them web applications.

    I usually think of Cloud Computing in terms of places to run virtual machines - Like Amazon's EC2, or a private cloud. There should be no problem getting data off of a cloud infrastructure.

  11. Re:PRIMOS? on Old Operating Systems Never Die · · Score: 1
    I haven't touched Primos since fixing some Y2K issues in it in 1999.

    I suspect that there are a few people running Primos in their basements.

  12. RFC 1149 on (Near) Constant Internet While RV'ing? · · Score: 4, Funny

    Implementable anywhere an RV can go. Latency leaves something to be desired.

  13. Re:Do not underestimate Western-security procedure on Computer Spies Breach $300B Fighter-Jet Project · · Score: 1

    Planting fake data reminds me of one of the tricks in The Cuckoo's Egg. Hmm... that book is about a computer security breach quite a few years ago.

  14. Re:Why? on US Broadband Won't Catch Up With Japan's For 101 Years · · Score: 1

    I've had it for over a year. Recently I complained that they were raising my telephone rates. They now charge me $30 less, and they upped my speed from 5/2 to 10/2.

    On the other hand, I moved away from NYC over 20 years ago. Verizon serves my community. We even have broadband competition. I could switch to Comcast or RCN broadband. Ny neighbor with RCN broadband gets 20Mbs.

    I understand that it is aggravating not having broadband choices. I suppose that I lucked out where I was living.

  15. Re:Why? on US Broadband Won't Catch Up With Japan's For 101 Years · · Score: 1

    Your rates seem to be off. According to Verizon,
    you could get 50/20 for $139.95/month.

  16. Re:No on GDocs vs. ThinkFree vs. Zoho vs. MS Office · · Score: 1

    At my recent college reunion, I talked with a colleague who was setting up a new company. Initially she plans to use Google services and not buy Microsoft Office (or exchange). Google apps handle most of the Microsoft Office capabilities that the employees need.

    She is saving thousands of dollars in not paying for Office. She doesn't need anyone administering an exchange server.

    Admittedly, I didn't ask her about security concerns.

  17. Re:ssh + vnc on Persistent Terminals For a Dedicated Computing Box? · · Score: 1


    2) VNC totally sucks performance-wise.

    I use VNC all the time. The way to get good performance is to minimize the number of colors and color changes. I set the background to a solid color. My performance this way is almost as good as being at work. It doesn't hurt that my connection is 5Mb, but I think that I used VNC over a dialup connection years ago.

  18. Re:Nothing on Gates' Last Day At Microsoft · · Score: 0, Redundant

    He's the Chairman. Balmer is the CEO.

  19. What does the student get out of this? on IT Students Contract Out Coursework To India · · Score: 1

    The point of coursework is to teach or reinforce material. If the student gets someone else to do the work for them, the point of the work is lost.

    When I went to college, I paid thousands of dollars a year to go to a university where I earn an excellent education. Why would I want to squander that opportunity by paying someone else to do my work?

  20. Some web apps use less bandwidth than others on Dealing With Dialup · · Score: 1
    I use fastmail. The default mode is designed to use fairly minimal bandwidth. It should be responsive no matter how you access it -- imap4, pop3, or web interface.

    I am sure that there are other services, but I haven't used dialup for years. I have been using fastmail since I had dialup.

  21. Re:ACM and referals on For CS Majors, How Important Is the "Where?" · · Score: 1

    if you have a particular company in mind, you may want to go to a school that has a lot of it's alumni working at that company. That assumes that the company is still around in 4 years. In the past 20 years I have worked an average of 5 years for each of 4 companies. My current employer still exists largely as it did 5 years ago (though it is quite a bit larger than then). 2 companies are essentially completely gone, and one has merged, and is nothing like when I started there.

    There is no way that I could select a school based on targeting a company in 4 years.

    As to a liberal arts or technical school, I would and did opt for the liberal arts college. There was a decent CS department when I was there. I got to interact with plenty of people who were interested in other areas. The course that I needed to force myself to attend was a history course (one history course was required). One pf my favorite courses was in the humanities.

    Do the liberal arts courses help with my career? They helped me improve my writing ability. They encouraged me to expand my horizons. They gave me more to talk about than just high tech.

    One more thing, college is what you make of it. I have a friend who dropped out of college because he felt that he wasn't learning anything. He wasn't going to class except for exams, and was getting B's. Other people push themselves to take hard courses, and work real hard. They find that they learn a lot.

  22. Massachuetts got it right on All Fifty States May Face Voting Machine Lawsuit · · Score: 1

    Where I vote in Massachusetts, we use a pen to fill in ovals next to each candidate for whom we wish to vote. If we wish to vote for a write-in candidate, we fill in a box next to an empty line, and fill in the name (and maybe address) on the blank line. We bring the ballot over to a box, state our name and address. If the list indicates that we have a valid name and have not previously voted in the current election, we slide the ballot into a box - which counts the ballot.

    It is straight forward to use a machine to tally the votes. Similar machines tally scores on standardized tests. The ballots may be counted by hand. Typically it is only necessary to hand count write-in votes if the election is sufficiently close.

  23. Re:Funny you mention this on Cooling Challenges an Issue In Rackspace Outage · · Score: 1

    That graph doesn't look bad. It indicates that the high temerature was 92F.
    Where I work, the AC in one of the two main labs goes out. I have seen thermometers register 120F. And, the computer equipment keeps running until someone notices and asks people to shut down equipment that is not currently needed.

    One of the labs has exterior windows. Once when the AC failed in the middle of the winter, they removed a pane of glass to help cool the lab (this kept the temperature to the low 90's with some equipment turned off). More recently they replaced to plate glass windows with sliding windows so it is easier to open them.

    Did I mention that our equipment generates a lot of heat? A couple of years ago 1 fully populated frame required 5 tons of cooling. I think that newer equipment generates even more heat.

  24. Re:LOL on Slashdot Charity Buyers Donate Over $10,000 To the EFF · · Score: 2, Funny

    Perhaps they should have paid for some advanced technology to handle the slashdot effect.

  25. Re:Jitterbug on Where In the US Can You Get Just a Cell Phone? · · Score: 1

    Sometimes the problem is with the phone. I signed up with Cingular for a go phone. At first I chose a Sony Ericson phone because it looked the best for the bucks. Unfortunately, I couldn't get reception in half of my town. I returned the phone and got a Nokia phone. Now I can get reception in 80% of town. Unfortunately, the sound quality is lousy for this model. Not a big surprise considering that I paid only $30 for the phone.