Slashdot Mirror


User: colinrichardday

colinrichardday's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
4,799
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 4,799

  1. Weakness of a theory on Mixed Outcome of Texas Textbook Vote · · Score: 1

    Are the proponents of this move really concerned with science? Do they ever say "teach the controversy" about other subjects? Indeed, whatever the scientific problems (if any) that the theory of evolution has, would they (or the teachers) address them?

  2. Re:not-so-good? on Mixed Outcome of Texas Textbook Vote · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It sounds as though they're assuming that creationism/intelligent design have scientific evidence.

  3. Re:incorrect on UK Libel Law Is a Global Threat To Web Free Speech · · Score: 1

    Hmm. . . What about this:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Zenger ?

  4. Re:Right to Free Speech != Right to Defame on UK Libel Law Is a Global Threat To Web Free Speech · · Score: 1

    I find the ruling disturbing, though. By the Fourteenth Amendment, Massachusetts is bound by the First Amendment, or so I thought.

  5. Re:No need for the labs! on RIP the Campus Computer Lab, 1960-2009 · · Score: 1

    I'm having trouble with PuTTy and OpenSSH (though it may be my ssh server). As for cygwin, yes I got X on it, but it was nontrivial (especially to end up with twm).

  6. Re:No need for the labs! on RIP the Campus Computer Lab, 1960-2009 · · Score: 1

    I remember trying to find an ssh client for Windows, and I spent more than 30 seconds. I also remember some years ago trying to compile X sources for Windows. It didn't work. Things may be simpler now, I'll have to check.

  7. How do outlaw hatred? on UN Attacks Free Speech · · Score: 1

    How do you outlaw hatred? How do you prosecute people for hating?

  8. Re:hmmm on UN Attacks Free Speech · · Score: 1

    Yeah, could you imagine Grant and Sherman as generals in a UN army/peacekeeping force? Or the UN trying to deal with 50 million armed people (damn, that Second Amendment is handy)?

  9. Re:No need for the labs! on RIP the Campus Computer Lab, 1960-2009 · · Score: 1

    ssh and X clients?

    They may be available for Microsoft Windows, but I suspect that their installation is nontrivial.

  10. Re:Intel, please on Red Hat — Stand Alone Or Get Bought? · · Score: 1

    So Intel's supporting a major Linux company would have no effect on Microsoft?

  11. Re:Still Important on RIP the Campus Computer Lab, 1960-2009 · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but getting Microsoft Office to run in OpenSuSE 11.0 is a bit daunting. Do UVA instructors allow students to use alternatives?

  12. Re:Repent now, the end is near on The Global Warming Heretic · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Church of GNU Emacs may be sillier than any major religion, but I'm pretty sure that there is a GNU Emacs.

  13. Re:Intel, please on Red Hat — Stand Alone Or Get Bought? · · Score: 1

    And how would Microsoft react to such a deal? Can Microsoft side with AMD and not hurt itself as much as it would hurt Intel, if it so chose?

  14. Re:FAIL on Data Preservation and How Ancient Egypt Got It Right · · Score: 1

    Nor does the author explain why metadata would be helpful. Perhaps Unix's lack of metadata is a feature, not a bug.

  15. Re:Almost pointless discussion on Data Preservation and How Ancient Egypt Got It Right · · Score: 1

    But the biggest problem is data format. People keep crowing about open formats, but that is nearly irrelevent. If I handed you a 10.5 inch tape reel with data from 1955 on it you couldn't read it without having (a) a tape reader mechanism, (b) a knowledge of BCD (the predecessor to EBCDIC) and (c) a knowledge of the format of the data being used. Having a 60-bit binary number spread across 10 characters is pretty useless unless you have some idea what that number represents. And there is the problem.

    Yeah, and imagine those poor archaeologists reading a LaTeX file trying to figure out what \theta and \frac mean.

  16. Re:The longer the better on Windows 7 RC Download Page Points To May Release · · Score: 1

    Now when XP first came out, it was reasonable to keep using 2k for quite awhile, but now that 4 gb of ram is like $50, saving the 128 mb of ram you get from running 2k over xp definitely isn't worth it.

    Except that no everyone can just pop in large amounts of RAM.

  17. Re:Grammar Nitpick on Proposal Suggests UK Students Study Wikipedia and Twitter · · Score: 1

    I believe that what you meant was that some people consider it improper to begin a sentence with a coordinate conjunction. One can start a sentence with a subordinate conjunction such as "if" or "because".

  18. Re:This is a very interesting project on Project Aims For 5x Increase In Python Performance · · Score: 1

    You can still have Janet Leigh over for a shower.

  19. Re:LIttle difference between choosing Linux and Ma on Red Hat CEO Questions Relevance of Desktop Linux · · Score: 1

    Nobody's saying the Mac isn't 'ready for the desktop'.

    In the case of Mac, its reputed ease of use/brilliant design compensates for the lack of apps.

  20. Re:Oh Yeah?! on Red Hat CEO Questions Relevance of Desktop Linux · · Score: 1

    The only stuff I can get without WINE is bash, GNU emacs, gcc, python, PostgreSQL, firefox, konqueror, ksudoku, TeX/LaTeX, opera, apache, . . .

  21. Re:True of False? on Texas Vote May Challenge Teaching of Evolution · · Score: 1

    Socialism and Communism retard natural selection and thus slow, stop or reverse evolution gains.

    Stalin was more into artificial selection. I also don't believe that the Soviets coddled drug users. They also had a motto than ran something like: Those who do not work will starve.

  22. Perhaps I'm too pedantic. . . on "Slacker DBs" vs. Old-Guard DBs · · Score: 1

    Let A={1, 2, 3} and B={4, 5}. Then the Cartesian product of A and B, denoted AxB, is {(1, 4), (1, 5), (2, 4), (2, 5), (3, 4), (3, 5)}, that is, the set of all ordered pairs whose first coordinates are in the first set and whose second coordinates are in the second set.

  23. Re:Old vs. New Simple DB's on "Slacker DBs" vs. Old-Guard DBs · · Score: 1

    I don't understand why people don't use Access more, It's not rocket science.

    Do they have access to Access, or do you expect them to buy it?

  24. Re:Constitutional protection is not enough on Strip-Search Case Tests Limits of 4th Amendment · · Score: 1

    You need to take the expensive proactive step of suing the government

    Proactive? You sue them before they do something wrong?

  25. Re:If this had been my child on Strip-Search Case Tests Limits of 4th Amendment · · Score: 1

    I can tell you, honestly, if this had been my child I would have been seeing red.

    From having their blood splatter in your eyes?