Slashdot Mirror


User: aaronrp

aaronrp's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
81
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 81

  1. Atlantic Cities article on driverless cars on California To Join Nevada With Rules For Autonomous Cars · · Score: 1
  2. Re:National Pinball Museum on Slashdot Visits the Seattle Pinball Museum (Video) · · Score: 1

    I've been to the one in Alameda, CA. http://pacificpinball.org/ It's a free play museum, but also has some information on the machines giving the history of them in context. It's not something I'd go back to every week, but it was fun to do once.

  3. Hooray! on AT&T Officially Ends Plans To Acquire T-Mobile USA · · Score: 2

    Our cell phone oligopoly will have four participants instead of three!

  4. Re:I'm going to quote an old robot saying on Blogger Fined $60K For Telling the Truth · · Score: 1
  5. Re:Huh? on After IPv4, How Will the Internet Function? · · Score: 1

    One phone for family, one phone for work, one phone for the girlfriend, one for the wife, one for the other girlfriend...

  6. Humph on Dr. Who's Sonic Screwdriver Exists · · Score: 3, Funny

    Like The Master, I want a laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic?

  7. Re:China on Environmental Watchdogs Confused By E-Waste Practices · · Score: 1

    If the problem were only China, maybe, but of course there are lots of even lower-regulation countries in the world.

  8. Re:The scary thing on James Webb Space Telescope Cost Overruns Adding Up · · Score: 0

    A URL for a wall?

  9. PageMaker on Recalling Windows 1.0 At 25 Years · · Score: 3, Informative
    Aldus PageMaker 3 ran under Windows 2. It came with the run-time version of Windows (that could only be used with that one application), but ran properly under the full Windows 2. We used it for typesetting in college. At the time, PageMaker was the "it" program.

    I think the original Balance of Power game ran under Windows 1 run-time.

  10. Re:pros? on Mr. Pike, Tear Down This ASCII Wall! · · Score: 1

    The advantage of course is lack of ambiguity. Is this particular asterisk used to mark a comment, multiplication, repetition of strings, or exponentiation?
    I tend to agree that too many symbols would be confusing, but if done judiciously, I think it makes a certain amount of sense. For example, I find irritating perl's use of the brace for three separate purposes ( hash keys, anonymous hash construction, and code blocks). Separate symbols would be nice.
    Of course, you could do the same thing with multiple-character symbols (maybe [[ and ]] could delimit hash keys and anonymous hashes). Either way, it's two keystrokes.

  11. Re:Moderate/Conservatives are the quiet majority on From Apple To Xbox, Tech Companies Lean Left · · Score: 1

    The primary system is not particularly functional. It is extremely uncommon for an incumbent to face a credible challenger, much less be defeated in the primary. This lessens its utility, especially in the US House of Representatives with its gerrymandered district boundaries meaning few seats turn over.

    Having said that, given the Canadian situation I can understand how you'd prefer our system. As someone who has studied Canadian politics, I admire greatly much of what has been done there since 1945, but I don't think much of the Westminster system as it has evolved in Canada or the UK.

  12. Re:Launchpad not limited to App Store on Beware the Garden of Steven · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, as near as I can tell this article made up the bit about Launchpad only working with App Store apps out of whole cloth.

    I don't blame people for being worried that Apple wants to turn Mac OS into a walled garden. We've seen it with iOS (and, for the record, I think it's unconscionable). But it does appear that, at least for now, that's not the case. I'm not very worried about it myself, because I think people use Macs very differently than they use iOS devices, and Apple knows that. But it's not unreasonable to have that fear. I think it's a mistake for Apple not to make it very clear, from the start, that an iOS-style lockdown for the Mac is not part of their plans, now or ever.

  13. Candian board members on Brilliant Pics of Bizarre Sea Critters · · Score: 1

    There are a couple of Canadian members of the steering committee. I wonder if they got pressure to make the census voluntary?

  14. People who believe this... on Onion Story Gets Blown Out of Proportion · · Score: 1

    are .

  15. Patent office employees on USPTO Grants Bezos Patent On '60s-Era Chargebacks · · Score: 1
    Cool. Sit at home, get the patent applications, post the patent to Slashdot, watch people do the "prior art" search for you for free, deny patent based on that prior art, collect a hefty salary.

    Plus you get to say you do the same job as Einstein.

  16. I wish I'd had a cell phone on Best Smartphone Plan Covering US and Canada? · · Score: 1
    I was a college student from 1988 through 1992, mostly at UC Santa Cruz. I had my own phone line whenever I could, so I could talk to my family, whatever part time employer I had, etc. Over those four years I lived in eight dorm rooms and two apartments, not counting two summers living with my mom. Either we had land phones, which cost $35 every time I moved into a new place (in 1990 dollars), or -- during the year I lived in Vancouver, BC, where UBC didn't have phone jacks in the rooms -- amazingly high telephone credit card costs on my dad's phone bill.

    Cell phones back then were big, bulky, and expensive; I don't think I ever seriously considered getting one (although at one point my dad got one for business). I only wish I could have had what today's students have access to.

  17. Old school addresses on Does a Lame E-Mail Address Really Matter? · · Score: 2, Funny

    I prefer the following:

    UUCP: {world}!ucbvax!ucscc!ucscb!aaronrp

  18. Heads of state on Sir Patrick Stewart · · Score: 1
    Of course, lots of parliamentary-style governments do this with a non-heriditary head of state. For example, Ireland, Germany, and India all have presidents who are heads of state, while their prime ministers are the heads of government.

    I can understand why the UK keeps the tradition of the monarchy, and why Canada, with its less than successful history of constitutional amendment, does. I don't really understand why the other Commonwealth Realms keep the monarchy, though. Queen of Australia? (Queen in Right of Tasmania?) Queen of Belize?

    New Zealand abolished knighthoods under one government and re-established them this year under another one.

    (Note that Commonwealth *Realms* are those that kept the monarchy; there are also many republics in the Commonwealth, such as India.)

  19. Re:Imaginations are running wild here! on Apple Not Disabling OS X Atom Support After All · · Score: 1

    It seems likely Apple wouldn't intentionally break compatibility, even if at this point there's no Apple products using Atom. Wouldn't they want to keep their options open, just in case they decide they want to release an Atom machine sometime in the future? Maybe someday can figure out how to make a premium netbook that will make them enough money to be worthwhile.

  20. Re:Not News!! on In Test, Windows 7 Vulnerable To 8 Out of 10 Viruses · · Score: 1
  21. Re:It just confirms a long held theory on Mainstream Press "Cringes" At Win7 Launch Parties · · Score: 1

    That Microsoft is in fact the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.

    Yes - this is "Windows 7 - Share and Enjoy!" Mod parent up.

  22. Re:People use base 10 on Apple Kicks HDD Marketing Debate Into High Gear · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...due to the nature of computers, they use base 2. If people can't deal with that, they probably shouldn't be using a computer in the first place.

    Because using an iPod, or Microsoft Word, or Facebook requires mathematical literacy?

  23. People use base 10 on Apple Kicks HDD Marketing Debate Into High Gear · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And people who manufacture things for people should adhere to that standard. Computers are the means, not the end.

  24. Not only cursive... on 26 Years Old and Can't Write In Cursive · · Score: 1
    Do you know how few people are really good at using a composing stick these days? Darned few.

    I am one of the many people who remember learning cursive but now never do it (and I'm 39). Every once in a while when bored I will write out the alphabet, just to prove I remember it.

  25. Re:Everything old is new again on Disney Strikes Against Net Neutrality · · Score: 1