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User: MichaelSmith

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Comments · 11,670

  1. Re:Great on Criminals Hide Payment-Card Skimmers In Gas Pumps · · Score: 1

    Don't use the reader on the pump. If it's a prepay pump, inform the attendant (they won't care) and then corporate.

    IIRC a scammer replaced the reader on a supermarket checkout at one point and skimmed a lot of cards.

  2. Re:Camera question on Federal Judge Orders Schools To Stop Laptop Spying · · Score: 1

    Two questions:

    1. Why didn't these people see the green light next to the camera?
    2. Why didn't they cover the camera with a little electrical tape?

    Reportedly the green light would flicker so briefly it could have been mistaken for part of a startup polling process.

    Why would a thief let the original software boot at all? How could anti-theft software integrated with the OS ever work?

    Because people are stupid, obviously.

  3. Re:Deja vu again once more on Newspaper "Hacks Into" Aussie Gov't Website By Guessing URL · · Score: 1

    The classic was a few years ago when the Victorian state government sent out their budget in a word document with all their revisions left in.

  4. Re:Haw on NGO Networks In Haiti Cause Problems For ISPs · · Score: 1

    And stop killing our ham radio operators, you goddamn savages.

    One of the articles found by google said it was Dominican people who were attacked. Are you Dominican? Maybe US ham radio operators should try installing repeaters in Pakistan, Afganistan, Iraq and Iran and see how they get on.

    And while I am at it, do we really need earth based repeaters in this day and age? Aren't there enough birds in the sky, especially over the Americas?

  5. Re:Flawed system. on NGO Networks In Haiti Cause Problems For ISPs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's some fundamental flaw in the system if giving people free stuff is bad for them...

    It creates dependency. My wife hand feeds our seven year old son. Now when he wants something done he goes to her and takes up her time. Additionally he doesn't learn how to do things himself.

  6. Re:Nothing new on IOC Orders Blogger To Take Down Video · · Score: 2, Informative

    Its only top posting if you turn off the threaded view.

  7. Re:Nothing new on IOC Orders Blogger To Take Down Video · · Score: 1

    I cycle a LOT during the summer, and I hate to think what would happen if my front tire were to fail while going down a hill at 35 MPH, for example

    Yeah though the difference between luge and bike riding is that luge riders don't really do a lot of it, which may be the problem. My guess is they would clock up an hour in total of time on the sled in a season. I cycled for an hour a day when I was commuting, and that was just routine. The injury rate among people who only cycle an hour a year is probably quite high, from heart attacks alone.

    I stopped commuting in July last year when I broke my right arm in a crash. Then I got back on the bike for two weeks and had an epileptic seizure (my first in 25 years) and thats really scary because it could happen at any time. Don't worry about tires or brake cables going. What if your brain stops working? Anyway, gotta get back on the bike...

  8. Re:Nothing new on IOC Orders Blogger To Take Down Video · · Score: 1

    Yeah but at my local water slide you can't come off in that way because its a long pipe. People go in one and and hopefully come out the other end but you can't sell TV coverage of that. Maybe they should experiment with cameras inside a tube or channel.

  9. Re:Nothing new on IOC Orders Blogger To Take Down Video · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Content from the events cost $$$ so the TV networks pad the coverage out with cheap human interest crap and trolling. Its been this way for decades. We all hate it and it not getting any better.

  10. Re:Arabroulette? on New English/Arabic Translation Site Hopes To Promote Citizen Diplomacy · · Score: 1

    I can't wait to try out ArabRoulette and see what I get!

    I am more interested in what happens if the Arabs find chatroulette.

  11. Re:Ugh. on School Spying Scandal Gets Even More Bizarre · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hi Bhima. I recall my younger brother (this was 35 years ago or so) smoking grass from the back yard and agreeing with his friend about how high they were getting.

    I don't think kids today are any more retarded...

  12. Re:Not so far from Greece on Stone Tools Found On Crete Push Back Humans' Maritime History · · Score: 1

    Yeah but as I pointed out. Sailing rafts could have been built. The technology is pretty simple.

  13. Re:In-home Reprimand on PA School Defends Web-Cam Spying As Security Measure, Denies Misuse · · Score: 1

    the student involved was eating candy that they mistook for drugs. I can't remember the name of the candy, but it looked close enough to capsule or caplet form that the school people just assumed (intentional use of that word) that it was illegal drugs.

    Even stranger that the teachers didn't assume they were legal drugs. I take Tegretol like candy.

  14. Re:In-home Reprimand on PA School Defends Web-Cam Spying As Security Measure, Denies Misuse · · Score: 1

    The kid wasn't choking kojak - he was eating candy.

    Ahh, so that's what they call it these days...

    Back in my parents day it was "Turning Japanese". My cousin used to drive his dad up the wall playing that song.

  15. Re:Eh wouldn't surprise me... on Windows 7 Memory Usage Critic Outed As Fraud · · Score: 1

    So its more like setpriv in VMS. From memory:
    set proc/priv=all
    ...does the trick.

  16. Re:Only 994 commits in 2 years by 14 people? on After 2 Years of Development, LTSP 5.2 Is Out · · Score: 2, Insightful

    After almost two years or work and 994 commits later made by only 14 contributors, the LTSP team is proud to announce that the Linux Terminal Server Project project released LTSP 5.2 on Wednesday the 17th of February.

    That's about one commit per 10 days per person. Is this sort of number normal in the open source scene? It seems very low to me.

    They are probably using something old fashioned like CVS where all commits are globally visible and nobody can commit anything which might possibly break a branch. In mercurial I tend to commit every time I make a change and then collapse commits into logical patches before I push upstream.

  17. Re:Lucky miss on Atlas V's Sonic Boom Made Visible By Sundog · · Score: 1

    Don't be silly. The bird might have been a roc!

    Clearly it wanted the launcher for its own purposes.

  18. Lucky miss on Atlas V's Sonic Boom Made Visible By Sundog · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought that bird was going to get skewered a few seconds into the launch...

  19. Re:Maybe they walked to Crete on Stone Tools Found On Crete Push Back Humans' Maritime History · · Score: 2, Interesting

    and if the surface was frozen in the winter, then there is your problem solved without any seafaring technology.

    Even during an ice age I doubt the Mediterranean ever came anywhere near freezing. But I agree with your other points.

  20. Re:it's my beach party on Stone Tools Found On Crete Push Back Humans' Maritime History · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Nobody is suggesting they deliberately navigated to Crete

    Maybe not but islands make their presence known by affecting the atmosphere (clouds form above them) and by providing a home to sea birds (where did that bird come from? There must be land that way). Also Crete has tall mountains (about 2100 metres high) so it could be seen from fifty kilometres away or so, assuming good atmospheric conditions.

    Another thing is that while we don't know what species left these tools, there were many modern humans around. These people were as smart as us and may have known a lot more about the world than we give them credit for.

  21. Not so far from Greece on Stone Tools Found On Crete Push Back Humans' Maritime History · · Score: 3, Informative

    Its pretty easy to island hop from mainland Greece to Crete. You would be looking at 20km at a stretch. Thats very easy in a modern sea kayak. Even if proper hulls were beyond them they could build a sailing raft. There was more wood around in those days.

  22. Re:I find KDE less frustrating than Gnome on Which Linux For Non-Techie Windows Users? · · Score: 1

    * It is more like windows XP like than Gnome.

    Personally I dislike it for the same reason.

  23. Re:Linus on Which Linux For Non-Techie Windows Users? · · Score: 1

    Linux Torvalds

    No its his kid who is named Linux.

  24. Re:Ubuntu on Which Linux For Non-Techie Windows Users? · · Score: 3, Funny

    Did you go out and find that same hill to photograph?

  25. Re:Prepare for all on Which Linux For Non-Techie Windows Users? · · Score: 1

    I think there is an "OS switching" valley. High skilled people will solve their own problems. Low skilled people will need to be shown how to do everything and won't notice the difference. In the middle there are people who can cope as long as not too many things change, and these people won't want to switch.