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User: MichaelSmith

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Comments · 11,670

  1. Re:How long will IPv6 last? on Military Pressuring Vendors On IPv6 · · Score: 0

    In my intranet I want each node to have a hostname so that I can reach it to access services. For this to work I need to give each node a static IP address. So how can I do that without private addresses?

  2. Boy am I in trouble on Microsoft Puts the Kibosh On Kinect Sex Game Plans · · Score: 1

    'This isn't the first example of a technology being used in ways not intended by its manufacturer, and it won't be the last,' a Microsoft spokesman said in a statement.

    I spent hours last night playing strip connect four with my wife.

  3. Re:Yo dawg, I heard on Assange Secret Swedish Police Report Leaked · · Score: 1

    And, what, exactly, prevents him from being extradited to the U.S. from the U.K.?

    Politically and legally the UK is more independent than many other countries. The UK has a bigger economy and is less likely to be influenced by economic or trade issues for example. I am an Australian like Assange and I reckon he is safer in the UK than his home country.

  4. Re:They have data centres in Texas? on FBI Defend Raids On Texas Datacenter · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess that's what they call it when somebody brings the state library's book back.

    If I had to guess I'd say more than 665...

    Why else would they need a book depository?

  5. Re:BYOB on Best Open Source Genealogy Software? · · Score: 1

    Then I would suggest that individuals post whatever genealogical information they can scratch up, and a crawler stitch it together.

  6. Re:Why are you so obsessed with genealogy ? on Best Open Source Genealogy Software? · · Score: 1

    Genealogy is popular here in Australia. My wife's family are Malaysians, originally from China. They have a lot of interest in their origins. My son has friends with immediate family from Europe, north and south America and Asia. Pretty much everywhere in fact. What is the next generation going to look like?

  7. Re:Holiday gift? on Best Open Source Genealogy Software? · · Score: 1

    I'm looking to build a family tree for a holiday gift.

    To be presented in what year?

    This year: text.

  8. Re:BYOB on Best Open Source Genealogy Software? · · Score: 2

    I wonder if a data exchange standard exists? Possibly in the form of an XML schema?

  9. Re:Obama achieved something on Senate Repeals 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' · · Score: 1

    The European Union seems to have a good distributed model, however power is increasingly being taken away from individual nations within the union. See for example the current saga over Julian Assange. It could be argued that big governments inevitably accumulate power from those below them, and that this process will continue until they are somehow cleaned out. Its hard to see that not being a violent process. The dissolution of the USSR is perhaps the most gentle scenario I an imagine, but the USSR weakened over time.

  10. Re:Obama achieved something on Senate Repeals 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' · · Score: 1

    You sound like a monarchist

  11. Re:Stupid on Senate Repeals 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' · · Score: 1

    OMG slashdot is approaching two million accounts.

  12. Re:DADT and wikileaks on Senate Repeals 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' · · Score: 1

    ...and this has *nothing* to do with 1/20th of the military keeping secrets for their own livelihoods from their superiors for 20 years. As long as the Joint Chiefs go along with it, and make openly serving legal, (you know following that whole 14th ammendment thing) Now the only "squirly" people who are "evasive" will be suspected leakers. Bradley Manning, your service to the military was your swan song. Your service to your nation... well that's still up for debate.

    Brings to mind this admittedly speculative article.

    Also this article in the telegraph.

  13. Re:Obama achieved something on Senate Repeals 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Given the scale of the US political system I am amazed anything gets done at all. I am coming to the view that we would be better off globally with smaller countries and more power given to local authorities. It is possible that population growth has turned formerly manageable nations into unmanageable ones.

  14. Re:So, is our goose cooked? on First Measurement of Magnetic Field In Earth's Core · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In a thousand years or so, fossil fuels will be gone. In a hundred thousand years the biosphere will be totally run down by human exploitation, unless we manage it end to end as a farm. In a billion years (or so) the suns output will have changed to move the habitable zone away from the Earth. In five billion years the sun will become a red giant and we will all be toast.

    I don't know when we will lose the magnetic field but if it happens anywhere after a thousand years from now we should be able to build our own. If we can't then we are not much of an intelligent species and we will be heading for extinction anyway.

  15. Re:Just more extreme on Thief Posts His Photo To Facebook Victim's Account · · Score: 1

    I think /s/ is the Anonymous-Signal. Just start a MILF thread and see what happens.

  16. Re:Not Trolling? on Openwall Linux 3.0 — No SUIDs, Anti-Log-Spoofing · · Score: 2

    The typical definition of "security through obscurity" refers to hiding bugs and vulnerabilities by keeping the design and implementation secret via closed source.

    No it means placing a reliance on something which is hard to find. If I hide my house key under a pot plant in my front yard I am relying on the obscure location of the key. The garden is open source. Anybody can search it.

  17. Re:Not Trolling? on Openwall Linux 3.0 — No SUIDs, Anti-Log-Spoofing · · Score: 3, Informative

    By definition, it's impossible for open source software to practice security through obscurity.

    When you have mass quantities of obscure code it is certainly possible to do that for a while.

  18. Re:Future on The Year In Robot News · · Score: 1

    I will have to have a read but at first look it may not cope with situations where individuals will massively over consume because they can. Say you have a culture of alcoholics with free alcohol everywhere. How do you stop them drinking themselves to death?

  19. Re:Reading level is useless on 'Reading Level' Filter Added To Google Search · · Score: 2

    Yeah my son is eight years old and reading long novels now, but when he was at pre-school age he would take DVDs he liked (say Ben-10) and type the titles one letter at a time into google to get the youtube related videos list. Then he would be set for hours. Most of it was above his reading level but all he needed to kow was that B on the title matches B on the keyboard.

    And once they get the hang of reading they fly past the "levels".

  20. Re:Doors on Calculator Networking With CALCnet and Doors CS · · Score: 1

    Actually I was having the horrors about DOORS running on some poor calc.

  21. Re:Future on The Year In Robot News · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With the advent of robots in factories why is it that we as humans have to work at all

    Mostly because we don't have a better way to distribute wealth. For an example of what happens when you put a whole culture on welfare see the Australian Aborigines.

  22. Re:Complete solution in five words on Aussie Spies Spooked By Cyberwar · · Score: 1

    I imagine the fact that he is a felon in Australia with a history of mental breakdowns would top the list.

    Hasn't always been the case. The fact is that the brightest people don't go to places like the DSD.

  23. Re:Complete solution in five words on Aussie Spies Spooked By Cyberwar · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ask yourself: why didn't they hire Julian Assange? I am sure the cultural reasons will fill several pages for a start.

    Wait... Julian Assange has actual skills?!

    Yes [1] [2]

  24. Re:Wikileaks releases stuff about Australia on Aussie Spies Spooked By Cyberwar · · Score: 1

    I don't follow you.

  25. Re:Complete solution in five words on Aussie Spies Spooked By Cyberwar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think the root cause with the DSD is that they don't pay very well. I looked at it as a grad and it wasn't too bad. These days grads are probably pretty good in the crypto department but I doubt they get listened too inside the first twenty years. By that time the good ones have left.

    Ask yourself: why didn't they hire Julian Assange? I am sure the cultural reasons will fill several pages for a start.