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User: cexshun

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  1. Re:SKYWARN does that. on Tornado Scientists Butt Heads With Storm Chasers · · Score: 2, Informative

    I participate in SKYWARN as a licensed HAM operator and we are careful to not call ourselves chasers. We are trained spotters. We have gone through training to SPOT super cells and the classic warning signs of tornadoes. And yes, we are what trigger tornado watches and warnings through a direct line of communication with the NWS.

  2. Re:Make Magazine on Modern Day Equivalent of Byte/Compute! Magazine? · · Score: 1

    Make is to DIY what iPod is to MP3 players.

  3. Re:Make on Modern Day Equivalent of Byte/Compute! Magazine? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are you serious? Make is crap! Once a month, you'll get an article about actually MAKING something. Other then that, it's 50 articles about knitting bicycle seats or turning a nerf gun "steampunk". Make has become nothing more then hipster fashion.

  4. Re:Uh, no. They didn't. on Has Apple Created the Perfect Board Game Platform? · · Score: 1

    Don't forget:

    Carcasonne
    Agricola
    Last Night on Earth
    Pandemic
    Ticket to Ride
    Steam
    and many more

    There are TONS of great board games out there that are fun to play and don't follow the "roll the dice and race to a finish line" concept.

  5. Chicago trading experience as a Sys Admin on Stock Market Manipulation By Millisecond Trading · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was a Sys Admin for a day trading company in Chicago.

    We had a 100mb serial line direct to all of the major markets that we traded in. We also traded the European markets. Trades were taking upwards of 300ms to complete. So, we spent $25mil USD to build a data center in Germany. We could then use Citrix to remote into this data center and trade, We still had traders that would scream for us when a trade took >100ms on the local markets. And we came running and scoured network logs trying to find the bottleneck.

    We replicated all traffic to certain ports on the Cisco and had Wireshark running constantly, even after hours. Every millisecond counted. And seeing that the owner of the company personally made $3mil profit every quarter, it seemed to be working.

  6. Re:Let me be the first one to say it ... on Pirate Bay Trial Ends In Jail Sentences · · Score: 1
    TPB is just linking to material. They don't host it. Yes, they 'make it easier to infringe', but the line between what TPB is doing and what e.g. the roads are doing (helping bank robbers get away, the horror!) is one of degree

    I've never agreed with this. This is a horrible argument, and I'm appalled at the people that fool themselves into believing it.

    I support drug reform, so I setup a service. All of the local drug dealers have GPS trackers on them so I know where they are and how to contact them. Someone comes to me and asks me where to get weed. I look up the GPS location of the weed dealer, hand the customer the phone number and location. Next guy asks for cocaine. I lookup the coke location, hand the customer the number and location.

    This is EXACTLY what TPB are doing. In the above scenario, do you honestly think I wouldn't get any jail time for my service? I mean, I'm not making any money. Some of my clients are medicinal users, so they can legal have the drugs. I'm not offering any drugs myself.

  7. Re:10,000 years on Work Progresses On 10,000 Year Clock · · Score: 1

    Depends. The Mayans did this centuries ago. We seem to think that when their clock runs out in 2012, the universe ends. Some of the more sane among us doubt the apocalypse, but still theorize some cosmically significant event that can change the world. What will the civilization after us think about OUR clock? I can only hope they are sane enough to take it as it is, a random and arbitrary cutoff number.

  8. Re:My hints on Reasonable Hardware For Home VM Experimentation? · · Score: 1

    For storage server, I don't think I'd agree with 6x drives in RAID1+0. That many drives on a nice controller, I'd strongly advise RAID5. The only downfall of RAID5 is that you need a minimum of 3 disks. We already have 6 disks here.

  9. Re:I'm guessing VMWare isn't that worried on Citrix XenServer Virtualization Platform Now Free · · Score: 1

    The free version of Xenserver does not include HA, which is crucial in our environment. Also, no load balancing servers on Xenserver. We need the ability to move a VM to a new server for load balancing purposes. Considering these 2 factors, We will not be leaving ESX anytime soon.

  10. Re:if you think it's over... on Pirate Bay Day 3 — Defense Requests Dismissal · · Score: 1

    I hear this arguement a lot. And while I agree with it, I also disagree with it.

    Let's say I know several drug dealers. In order for them to not be caught, they all hop in cars and drive around mobile. Someone comes to me and says they are looking for pot. I check my GPS tracker and tell them where to find the drug dealer. Next guy asks for coke, so I check the GPS tracker on the coke dealer, and arrange another meeting.

    While I am not selling anything, I highly doubt someone who participated in this type of racket would not be charged with anything. The current geek mentality is very much all or nothing. I.E. "If this is illegal, then so is selling maps to the star's homes". People need to realize that lines are drawn and there are limits. Life, and the law, are not all or nothing propositions.

  11. Re:There's no way they'll abuse this on Washington State Wants DNA From All Arrestees · · Score: 1

    Just as the police can "accidentally" serve a warrant to the wrong person and find evidence to charge this person with a crime. Since the warrant was issued "in good faith", it can then be upheld in court.

    Under this new legislation, I can already see the number of "we thought we destroyed the DNA, but evidentially we forgot." Since it is in "good faith" that the police destroy DNA, I assume that old DNA will be able to be used as evidence?

  12. Re:I've been using linux since the mid nineties. on The Secret Lives of Ubuntu and Debian Users · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yep. I started with Slackware. Used it for a good 6 years solid. Got a new PC, and I figured I earned the right to use an easy, "just works" distro. Back then, dependency hell was a daily occurrence. With Ubuntu, I've only once ran into dependency issues. I must say, I do occasionally miss the random error resulting from running make, and then spending an hour trying to figure out wtf is going on. Plus, my wife and my 4 year old can both easily use my computer.

  13. Re:Open Source on Breathalyzer Source Code Ruling Upheld · · Score: 2

    Nope. Congress will just pass a bill granting the manufacturer retroactive immunity.

  14. Re:There is only one keyboard on The Best Keyboards For Every Occasion · · Score: 1

    Here ya go.
    http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cfm/fa/items.main/parentcat/11298/subcatid/0/id/124184
    I personally have 2 of these for my IBM Ms, and they both work flawlessly.

  15. Re:Just some answers on Freelance Web Developer Best Practices? · · Score: 1

    This is why, in my contracts, I include 3 change requests. They can request 3 _specific_ changes to the design, and this is included in the quote. However, all other changes are billed out at an agreed upon hourly fee.

  16. Re:Privacy on Verizon Employees Fired For Snooping Obama's Record · · Score: 1

    Couldn't you cut that figure in half? Since a phone call must be at LEAST a 2 party call? So me calling you for 30 mins would just be 1 recording covering 60 minutes between us, not 30 minutes each. So each person spending 900 minutes per month HAS to be talking to another person on Earth.

  17. Re:They lost focus on What Happened To Palm? · · Score: 1

    Personally, I think the problem is that the PalmOS platform runs just as Windows 3.1 ran. Need to upgrade the interface with the times. Replaced my PalmTX with a Windows Mobile Smartphone and absolutely love it. Also, I know this isn't necessarily restricted to Palm, but every Palm I've had has had unacceptable digitizer drift at about the 1 year mark, right when the warranty expires. And a new digitizer costs as much as a new unit. My old HP Jornadas never had drift issues. Time will tell on my smartphone.

  18. Re:Who Goes to the Store for Guns? on Supreme Court Holds Right to Bear Arms Applies to Individuals · · Score: 1

    Indiana. As far as our gun related crimes, "In 2004, 639 people died from firearm-related injuries in Indiana."

    639 in 1 year. And we have the most lax gun laws in the nation. Would you be willing to mug people in allies when there is a good chance that they are armed?

  19. HOPE vs DEFCON on Last "Hackers On Planet Earth" Conference In July · · Score: 1

    If my company is making me choose 1 conference, should I choose HOPE or DEFCON? HOPE seems less expensive and has more "mainstream" keynote speakers, but DEFCON seems to have much MUCH more substance. Any tips for someone who has not attended either and must choose?

  20. Re:It's not a church on Internet Group Declares War on Scientology · · Score: 1

    You do know the Bible is a copyrighted work, don't you?

  21. Re:OSS does not eliminate old rules. on What is an Open Source Company Really Worth? · · Score: 1

    How do I value a company? A company is only worth as much as someone will pay for it, regardless of what the books say. Something I learned a long time ago collecting baseball cards after I bought my first price guide.

  22. Re:I would blame this on... on Firefox Struggling to Compete as Corporate Browser · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, here's something that may help. We use this to deploy FF in our AD environment.

    FF Community Edition

    Allows you to install over AD and has a snap-in allowing certain settings to be controlled over AD. The packages are free, or you can have them make a custom package with specific extensions for a fee.
  23. Re:"code" is probably in the hardware on Breathalyzer Source Code Revealed · · Score: 1

    Actually, according to the American Prosecutors Research Institute

    Generally, following the lead established by the United States Supreme Court, state courts have held that there is no constitutional violation if the blood is taken pursuant to a valid search warrant or as an exception to the search warrant requirement, i.e., exigent circumstances or search incident to a lawful arrest. Schmerber v. California, 86 S. Ct. 1826 (1966).

  24. Re:"code" is probably in the hardware on Breathalyzer Source Code Revealed · · Score: 1

    Well, I have many friends in local law enforcement. This will not necessarily work. The local prosecutor had a death of a loved one due to a drunk driver. If you refuse a sobriety test, the officer simply calls the prosecutor. The prosecutor then gets a warrant to take your blood. At this point, if you refuse, it can be taken by force. So at best, this tactic gives you maybe 20 minutes to sober up as much as possible. So you lose your license for refusing a test, and you still have to take the test anyway.

  25. Makes my decision even harder. Dell vs System76 on Dell to Offer More Linux PCs · · Score: 1

    I've been shopping for a replacement desktop and am at a loss. I've narrowed it down to 3 companies.
    Dell
    System76
    Zareason

    Dell, by far, has the best pricing. System76 has the best support. Zareason has good pricing and encourages you to open up the PC and play with it. Zareason even includes a screwdriver with every purchase.

    I'm very afraid of the Shuttle form factor from Zareason due to heat reasons and expandability. My main 2 choices are probably Dell and System76. I'm drawn between price vs support here. I have 6 years Slackware experience, so I am in doubt that I really need to pay the extra money for 1 year support on Ubuntu.

    Pricing out 2 comparable budget desktop PCs from Dell and System76 results in quite a price difference. Although the System76 does use the 1066 FSB CPUs vs the 800FSB that Dell offers.

    System76
    Intel E6300
    1GB RAM
    160GB HDD
    DVD-RW
    NVIDIA 6200
    Total Price:$734.00

    Dell
    Intel E4300
    1GB RAM
    160GB HDD
    DVD-RW
    NVIDIA 8300
    Total Price:$479.00

    That's quite a difference for systems that are relatively similar. Anybody have any insight? Buying my first house for my family makes the Value vs. Fanboy-ism a much more difficult decision.