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User: MichaelSmith

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Comments · 11,670

  1. Re:! networked, ! server on The Clueless Newbie Rides Again · · Score: 1

    there was also no concept of a "server" machine at the time - there were no clients for them to serve, just terminals

    For a long time, there was dialup. And worms did spread that way.

  2. Re:Uh oh on The Shape of the Future · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Google searech

    Better look out. Your typing is pretty bad as well.

  3. Re:Unthinking obedience to the technical gizmo on Blame Your Mistakes on Technology · · Score: 1

    she should be banned from driving for some time, slapped with a large fine, and given a brutal dressing down by a judge.

    Here in Victoria the police won't attend to scene of a crash unless there have been injuries. You can get fined by a speed camera for driving 3% over the speed limit but avoid a penalty if you just do a lot of damage.

    Clearly people who cause crashes should be charged for breaking road rules, but that requires the police to do more work.

  4. Re:Unthinking obedience to the technical gizmo on Blame Your Mistakes on Technology · · Score: 1

    A good friend of mine lost his beautiful 19-year-old daughter recently when a woman driving an SUV was told "turn left here" by her onboard navigation system - so she snapped the wheel to the left, into the girl's driver door, killing her.

    I am very sorry to hear that. I ride a bike to and from work and the most dangerours drivers I have seen are people who call up a friend, usually the person they are meeting, to help navigate.

    Pilots have had to deal with technology for much longer than drivers. They are taught to fly first, navigate second and communicate third. I think this should now be extended to car drivers.

  5. Re:Obligatory on Blame Your Mistakes on Technology · · Score: 1

    Some people would do that

  6. Re:Heavy elements? on Ancient Star Found, Estimated at 13.2 Billion Years Old · · Score: 1

    I thought early stars had very few heavy elements because there had yet to be multiple generations of stars to produce such. Thus, where did the heavy elements come from?

    The Big Bang?

  7. Distributed SCM on Version Control for Important System Files? · · Score: 2, Informative

    I keep my config files in a directory structure in my home directory on my laptop which mirrors the structure of the systems I maintain. I use the mercurial DSCM for version control and push revisions to a user account on each server. From there I run a script as root which recursively copies the files into the target directory tree.

  8. But on Cambridge's Streetlamp-Powered Wireless Network · · Score: 4, Funny

    The extra power from sunlight which you have ignored will feed back through the system and accelerate out of control. Every street light will become a white hot whirlpool of circulating energy until the city of Cambridge is burnt to a crisp.

  9. Re:Who gives a $%##? on IPv6 Flaw Could Greatly Amplify DDoS Attacks · · Score: 1

    Because too many people are happy with the current IPv4 + NAT insanity that is in place now

    NAT is great for real world politics. I have some small networks which need to be set up in a certain way, and connected to the company LAN for the time being. But I don't want to have to redesign them to suit the current fashion in office networks so I just say to the network nazis that this network is really one box and you don't have to know what is behind the box. Its easier that way, believe me.

    Same with my home system. My cable provider sees a box running netbsd current, nothing else.

  10. Re:The IETF screwed the pooch on this one on IPv6 Flaw Could Greatly Amplify DDoS Attacks · · Score: 1

    As I understand it, it is not sufficient to simply ignoring the rthdr0 headers. To protect the infrastructure, the safest thing is for all implementations to immediately DROP any packets containing these headers to keep them from propagating further.

    Well OK, but if you are on a closed network you might want to have this kind of control over routing. It should be supported, even if it is disabled on public networks.

  11. Re:Please, think about... on No Wine for Dell Ubuntu Users, Says Shuttleworth · · Score: 1

    ...what Mark Shuttleworth is going through right now -- there's no telling the veiled threats that are starting to come in from Microsoft

    This is a guy who flew the right hand seat in a Soyuz TM. A rewarding experience I am sure, but still fucking scary.

  12. Re:And one of those is on No Wine for Dell Ubuntu Users, Says Shuttleworth · · Score: 1

    Someone leaned on Dell about Wine

    So Microsoft are actually worried about Wine? Thats one thing I didn't know before today.

  13. Re:Anyone notice a change in Jobs? on Answers From Steve Jobs at Apple's Shareholder Meeting · · Score: 1

    started playing with the switches on one of the front panels of "Junior", the 11/70 we used for development.

    Thats why you turn the key to lock, take it out and stick it in a vent slot for safe keeping.

  14. Re:Old news on Surprise Arrest For Online Scientology Critic · · Score: 1

    I heard that it was a bet (with Frank Herbert, IIRC)

    I think that was a bet with Robert Heinlein. And his response was Stranger in a Strange Land.

    Interesting that in his later book Friday Heinlein defended the Scientologists, but then, in Stranger he expressed the view that if the suckers want to give their money away then that is their problem.

    Sometimes I wonder about whether Heinlein and Hubbard were different people.

  15. Re:Groundbreaking or not... on The Future of Wireless Broadband? · · Score: 1

    I still believe I fare better odds placing my data on hard wires, where individuals would have to be specifically targetting it, rather than letting it flow free and open into the air for all to capture

    If I wanted a 100 port router for a wired network I would buy cisco routers or some such and have relatively little control over what passes through them. For my wireless lan I built a router using NetBSD and it gives me 100% control over everything it routes.

    So for me the wireless lan is more secure. I don't encrypt it at all but anything important goes through ssh or https.

  16. Re:Suspicious Cloud on Spy Chief Hints At Limits On Satellite Photos · · Score: 1

    Isn't that why NZ is called the land of the long white cloud?

  17. Re:Frame rate perception on Vista vs. XP Game Stability and Performance · · Score: 1

    The human eye is an analogue device, and does not see in frames.

    Now that we have done away with CRTs in both the camera and monitor, do we need to have frames at all? For video we should be able to transmit pixel changes directly from camera to monitor. For games, update the monitor whenever you like.

  18. Re:It's the cup on Student, Denied Degree For MySpace Photo, Sues · · Score: 4, Funny

    Isn't it obvious? People who are underage may only drink from clear, plastic bottles! By using a cup, she was promoting drinking from opaque liquid carrying devices.

    And by being a mother of two she is promoting under age sex as well.

  19. Re:Other similar crimes on Australian Extradited For Breaking US Law At Home · · Score: 1

    Is there a precedent for this under other crimes committed from one country to another?

    No but this case might be somewhat relevant.

  20. Counter example on Australian Extradited For Breaking US Law At Home · · Score: 1

    I send a stack of ripped pixar moves to your gmail account. That account is normally served somewhere like India but a server failure causes it to be hosted for a while in the USA. By managing your email you are now helping to admin a server in the states. Should you be extradited to the USA?

  21. Re:Why is this news? on Australian Extradited For Breaking US Law At Home · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And assuming you're American, would you want someone to be able to blatantly flaunt our laws and cause harm to Americans and American interests simply because they aren't on our soil? Extradition treaties exist for this very purpose.

    If an American currently in Australia is mugged then that crime is comitted in Australia. The fact that American interests (people) were affected does not mean that the offence was comitted in the USA.

    The global nature of the Internet does make the location of some crimes ambiguous but that doesn't make it right to just go ahead and pick a jurisdiction.

  22. Re:Glad to be German on Australian Extradited For Breaking US Law At Home · · Score: 1

    Yet again a post comparing copyright infringement to pedophilia or murder

    But the post I replied to was about Extradition, not any specific offence.

  23. Re:Glad to be German on Australian Extradited For Breaking US Law At Home · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    I'm a bit stunned that Australian law obviously allows extraditing their citizens to other countries. Here in Germany such action is _strictly_ prohibited by the German Constitution.

    So what do you do with a German pedophile who has sex with children in (say) Vietnam and returns home before the police catch him? Tell him not to go to Vietnam again?

    Extradition makes sense for a lot of crimes, some of them rampant in the third world.

  24. Re:Reasonable doubt on Reiser Murder Case Gets Stranger · · Score: 1

    I also don't believe that Hans had the time or the skills necessary to effectively hide Nina's body without some substantial evidence trail also being found.

    If she was killed then it is strange that the body was efficently disposed of, but that the car was left to be found by the police.

  25. Re:I gotta call this guy on Winner of NASA Glove Contest Named · · Score: 1

    ever since I won that old space suit writing soap slogans, I have had a tough time getting it back into good shape. i bet he could give me some good pointers.

    Keep listening on that two way radio. Interesting that Heinleins personal life suppport system was almost exactly the same as the backup system on the Apollo suit. At one point the protagonist dismisses the idea of suits with the ability to absorb CO2 as being too advanced, but that is what actually flew, and the apollo suits had almost twice the time spent in vacuum as Clifford Russell's suit.