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User: PPH

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Comments · 16,789

  1. Does Mars Express ... on Mars "Webcam" To Be Made Available For Public Use · · Score: 1

    ... have a selfie stick?

  2. Re:Okay on Major Museums Start Banning Selfie Sticks · · Score: 1

    Actually, many museums restrict the use of tripods (and monopods).

  3. Re:Good news or bad news? on Game of Drones: As US Dithers, Rivals Get a Head Start · · Score: 1

    And how is "sensible" defined?

    Energy/damage potential equivalent to a bird strike. Something which aircraft certification already has to deal with. Operating ceilings can be estblished based on the minimums allowed for GA planes and helicopters. Keep drones below these operating minimums.

  4. Re:Icon wanted on Classic Mac Icons Archive Bought By MOMA · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You are just asking for a Goatse link, right?

  5. Minimize heat? on New Concept Tire Could Recharge Car Battery · · Score: 1

    Instead of trying to harvest it.

    The internal pump idea isn't bad. Optimize tire pressure for operating conditions is a pretty good idea. But one that vehicles with portal axles have used for many decades.

  6. Mainstream Productivity on Ultralight Convertibles Approaching Desktop Performance · · Score: 1

    ow do they define "productivity models"? The last big company I worked for defined "productivity applications" as things like Outlook e-mail (so your boss could get in touch with you whenever) and calendars (so your boss could see what you were up to). Real work got done on UNIX workstations.

  7. Re:This is good on Make Those Brown Eyes Blue · · Score: 1

    I think it actually works the other way around. With light colored irises, the constriction becomes much more evident and that is a signal for disinterest. People with very dark pigmentation appear to be dialated all the time resulting in a misread cue. It's why people appear more attactive in dimly lit locations and why people used to use belladonna.

    I have a (female) friend with very dark (almost black) irises. She is OK looking but she can't keep guys from hitting on her. Even when she makes every attempt to exude a "f*ck off" attitude.

  8. Serial Port anywhere? on GSM/GPS Tracking Device Found On Activist's Car At Circumvention Tech Festival · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There are ways to poke around inside one of these if you can inject commands and read from the GPRS modem port. Many chipsets implement at extended AT command set. There are registers with IP addresses of the target server for the data sent.

  9. Re:"engine manifold" on Laser Takes Out Truck Engine From a Mile Away · · Score: 1

    or the sight of the hood melting away might be enough to distract him into crashing.

    So, ineffective against GM truck drivers. Can't tell if it was a laser or typical operation.

  10. Have some fun on GSM/GPS Tracking Device Found On Activist's Car At Circumvention Tech Festival · · Score: 5, Funny

    Take SIM out of GPS/GSM device. Install in cheap phone. Pass around between your friends to call sex lines (do they still exist?) order contraband, make srange calls at 3AM to various powerful political figures.

    Then see who's ass they go after in law enforcement.

  11. Re: What is systemd exactly? on Ubuntu To Officially Switch To systemd Next Monday · · Score: 2

    But, why do that when a 4-line config file can do most of what you need.

    Because the systemd supporters seem to think that they can second guess what "we" need. Without understanding the requirements of a few dozen subsystems that have evolved over time.

  12. Re:What is systemd exactly? on Ubuntu To Officially Switch To systemd Next Monday · · Score: 4, Interesting

    then you need to know that "sudo service apache2 restart" is now "sudo systemctl restart apache2" (probably) and that is about all you need to know.

    But the System V "apache2" is a shell script. On my minimalist laptop, its about 300 lines long. On an actual production server, I imagine the admins have added quite a bit of additional status checking, cleanup and initialization smarts to this script and it is several times as long.

    Back when systemd was first proposed, one of its goals was to "speed up" booting by eliminating init scripts. Each which consumed some resources starting its own bash instance. It was actually a bunch of people unfamiliar with modern o/s operation who were getting butthurt over the fact that a freshly booted *NIX system had "consumed" several thousand process IDs. Seriously. I split my sides over this argument, having run many systems that have 'wrapped around' PID numbers several times.

    Now, all of this shell script pre-processing is gone*. Systemd seeks to 'clean up' the boot process by launching executables directly. And this is what many sysadmins are upset about. They will have to find a new home for all the startup processing that they have tuned. And that will break stuff until the conversion is done.

    *Or the service developers will just arrange to have systemd run their old System V scripts. Which puts us right back to where we started.

  13. Re:Simple Solution on Apple, Google, Bringing Low-Pay Support Employees In-House · · Score: 1

    bleeding money like a sieve,

    Which is a pretty accurate description of a startup company. So the GST system penalizes companies that are trying to get off the ground. In spite of al the loopholes and other funy business in the US tax code, this is one of its benefits. Low/no taxes on new businesss give them a chance to get started and eventually become tax revenue sources.

  14. Re:Simple Solution on Apple, Google, Bringing Low-Pay Support Employees In-House · · Score: 1

    Actually, you've got that backwards. Businesses pay sales taxes on materials consumed within the business. But not on materials used in the final product. So that's the accounting nightmare. Taxing everything would make accounting much simpler.

  15. Re:The real issue is not the technology. on How Activists Tried To Destroy GPS With Axes · · Score: 1

    The real issue is the governments that are refusing to tell us how they are using the technologies.

    We are the enemy. Telling us anything would be providing information to the enemy.

  16. Conventional war more lethal? on How Activists Tried To Destroy GPS With Axes · · Score: 1

    And nuclear war winnable?

    This guy is a moron. GPS (and other technologies) make precision guided munitions possible. Which means smaller and fewer warheads are needed to take out a target. So, they reduce collateral damage and the need to escalate to strategies like carpet bombing. Or nuke the entire region to take out a few select targets.

  17. For me ... on In 10 Years, Every Human Connected To the Internet Will Have a Timeline · · Score: 1

    ... the 1980's were a blur. Now, they'll be a pixelated blur.

  18. He won't be ... on Harrison Ford's Plane Crashes On Golf Course · · Score: 2

    ... making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs anytime soon.

  19. Re:Yes, but it's about social control, not driving on Would You Need a License To Drive a Self-Driving Car? · · Score: 1

    Not really. If I want to travel and not be subject to social control, what's to stop me from hailing an Uber cab? The government has shown no interest in controlling .....

    Umm. Never mind.

  20. Re:The article is flawed, of course. on Would You Need a License To Drive a Self-Driving Car? · · Score: 1

    Or cope with sleeping bus drivers.

  21. Bulgarian Air Bags on Inside the Weird World of 3D Printed Body Parts · · Score: 1

    FTW!

  22. TV Cop Shows on A Critical Look At CSI: Cyber · · Score: 1

    Foyle's War* is good. Beyond that, I'm not so sure.

    *No BS high tech crap.

  23. Re:Better idea on Why We Should Stop Hiding File-Name Extensions · · Score: 1

    I'll re-state my position again. File names, like permissions, dates and various flags are attributes of a file on one particular system. If extension .EXE means executable, when your .exe file is moved to my server for storage, if I choose to deny executable pemission, I must rename it. Now, its broken. Because nobody who subsequently downloads it will know what it was.

  24. Location not revealed on Lost City Discovered In Honduran Rain Forest · · Score: 1

    ... until after airing of the Survivor series.

    Monkey God played by Jeff Probst

  25. Re:Go to your friendly local printer on Ask Slashdot: Wireless Microphone For Stand-up Meetings? · · Score: 1

    blue-sky corporate bullshit canvasses

    Or some material from despair.com