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User: MichaelSmith

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Comments · 11,670

  1. Re:Hmmmm on Tridge wins 2005 Free Software Award · · Score: 1
    He deliberately forced the issue, effectively making the decision for everyone.

    Yes, leaders tend to do that.

  2. Re:Free Software on Tridge wins 2005 Free Software Award · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I don't see why software should be free any more than I see why cars or anything else should be free

    Cars are free in the sense that you can examine components and build your own extensions to them. You don't need permission from Ford to build and sell towbars for Ford cars.

    Binary interfaces make this next to impossible with software.

  3. Re:Hmmmm on Tridge wins 2005 Free Software Award · · Score: 1
    Of course, an alternate headline could have been 'Stallman Gives Torvalds The Finger.'

    Its a shame because Linus has actually made a tremendous contribution to free software. An award for him from the FSF might actually get the FSF into the popular media.

    And BitMover could have been the BitTorrent of the source control world, if they had opened their protocols. Instead we get this security by obsurity bullshit from them.

  4. Re:Hmmmm on Tridge wins 2005 Free Software Award · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Technically, by using BK Linus made a commitment on behalf of OSDL, and hence Tridgell.

    Does the commitment extend to me, a user of Linux?

    I doubt that OSDL or Tridgell knowingly agreed to any such commitment.

  5. Re:Hmmmm on Tridge wins 2005 Free Software Award · · Score: 1
    Tridge showed the world the dangers of relying on proprietary software, namely that you are at the whim of the licenser

    He also showed me how dangerious it is to deal with one particular licenser.

  6. Re:Strange Politics on Tridge wins 2005 Free Software Award · · Score: 1
    I truly do appreciate everything SAMBA has going for it and hell, hats off to Tridge, but is it kinda weird that FSF gives him this award after being almost blamed for the bitkeeper diplomatic breakdown? (especially with how vocal RMS was regarding bitkeeper's use in Linux development)

    Reading between the lines it seems to be a reward for inducing BitMover to drop their free service for Linux.

    Given subsequent events with mercurial I think this is probably a Good Thing (tm)

  7. Re:Uh... Xen's not an answer... on Red Hat, Linux and Intel iMacs · · Score: 1
    you can't get it to host on anything but Linux

    and NetBSD

  8. Re:Its a motorcycle on Rocket Science on Two Wheels · · Score: 1
    That's interesting because a good amateur cyclist can easily put out 200 watts for a sustained period of time. Does that mean they become a motorcycle when putting out >200 watts but can slack off and be a bicycle again?

    No, it specifically refers to the engine distinct from the rider. Otherwise a jogger putting out > 200W would have to be considered a motor vehicle and equipped with lights, rego plates, etc.

  9. Its a motorcycle on Rocket Science on Two Wheels · · Score: 1

    Here in Australia a vehicle with an engine of less than 200 watts is a bicycle. Above that value its a motorcycle. I assume that similar rules apply where ever this person operates.

    This is just a pretty inefficent rocket powered motorbike with crappy brakes.

  10. Re:Just what we need... on IBM Strives For 'Superhuman' Speech Tech · · Score: 1
    Did you mean to say "More opportunities for English speaking people to misinterpret Arabic media."?

    Yeah, that too.

  11. Just what we need... on IBM Strives For 'Superhuman' Speech Tech · · Score: 0
    One of the projects perpetually monitors Arabic television stations, dynamically transcribing and translating any words spoken into English subtitles.

    ...More opportunities for Arabic speaking people to misinterpret western media.

    Yes, I know that this is meant to be better speach recognition, but how about on the fly translation?

  12. Re:Since 3/4 of you aren't going to RTFA... on When Data Goes Missing Will You Even Know? · · Score: 1
    The article is not about people stealing sensitive data from their workplace using their USB drives. The article is about people losing data, because they've lost the USB drive they had it stored on.

    I don't think the author of the article understands the difference. In all the environments I have worked in people keep their data primarily on servers with regular backups.

    Is there another world where important data is kept only on individual USB drives? Maybe, but that's news to me.

  13. Re:This question was posed back in 1973... on Robot Pets Almost as Good as Real Ones? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    No way could futurama exist without sleeper.

  14. Think Big on Buzz Aldrin's Roadmap to Mars · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Without the ISS there would be no space tourism. You need to have a destination to sell before you get customers. A flight to Mars could be done with something like an extended apollo program, with similar non-reusable hardware, but you can't make money off that.

    If money is not being made the US taxpayers will have to pay for the whole thing and I really can't see that happening in this day and age.

    But wealthy people would pay for a cruise on the continous shuttle system Buzz is proposing. I think it is the right way to go.

    And good on him for punching Bart Sibrel

  15. Re:Convenience on Standby Electronics a Waste? · · Score: 1
    What needs to happen is someone needs to come up with a new power outlet standard that provides both A/C and a 6V DC signal.

    I agree. How about using USB connectors for the DC part?

    But I also wonder about the feasibility of building PSU's with two bands of efficency. One up above 100 watts for normal operation and the other right down at 10 mW. The low power component could be as simple as a series/parallel capacitor network.

  16. Run standby on batteries on Standby Electronics a Waste? · · Score: 1

    Most power loss in standby is in the power supply. So charge a battery pack during normal operation and use it to deliver standby power.

    If the battery drains over weeks of standby then you would just have to press a machanical switch to start the device.

  17. Re:forgetting the off button on Standby Electronics a Waste? · · Score: 4, Funny
    Noticed all those office buildings with all their lights blazing out?

    Conference rooms in my office building have PIR movement detectors to switch on lights. When we developed problems with our mains power supply (too many computers and aircon units in the building) I suggested we use them all over the place.

    One day I went past my managers office. He was sitting at his desk in the dark. If he stops moving for long enough the lights go off.

  18. Re:Convenience on Standby Electronics a Waste? · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Really, the only way you are going to stop this problem is by switching off everything at the wall

    A small device to listen for an ON signal from a remote control is only going to consume a milliwatt or so. The real problem is that a normal power supply will waste more than that milliwatt with no load.

    I have several devices in my home which run on plug packs at about the same voltage. I made a wiring harness to run them off the same supply. Doing it this way should waste less power.

  19. Re:the parallels are interesting on Disney Buys Pixar · · Score: 1
    The parallels here are almost amusingly similar to when Apple bought NeXT, ten years ago

    Yes, but ten years ago Apple was still a (relatively) innovative technology company. They could accept change.

    Disney is an entertainment company who traditionally employ people to hand draw cartoons. I don't think they can change in the way apple did.

  20. Re:Why not do something about it? on Election Officials And Crackers Challenge Diebold · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Steps to stopping the stupidity:
    1) Put down (favorite game) when you're off work.
    2) Write plan, put something together.
    3) Get in touch with someone with the power to make the (smart) decision.

    4) Go to jail because now they can prove you tried to find a way to subvert the system.

  21. Re:Some confusion? on China to Build World's First "Artificial Sun" · · Score: 1
    A tokamat is essentially a huge torus covered in magnets to squeeze a ring of plasma (read "gas minus the electrons") as close as possible. That is where your pressure and heat comes from. And no, you do not need radiation.

    My understanding of fusion in the sun is that it never takes place with the density we hope to achive inside a tokamak. In fact fusion events are relatively rare inside the sun, and the heat flow out of the surface is not that great given the volume within which fusion takes place.

    So artificial controlled fusion may actually be much harder than it would be to achive inside a star. Perhaps this artificial sun analogy has been making the idea look easier than it really is.

  22. Re:Could be great for textbooks on New Sony E-Book Device To Debut This Year · · Score: 1
    Last year I was taking two physics courses and calculus and my bag weighed about 40 lbs and that was on days I didn't need to bring my lappy.

    But I can do most of that with my palm pilot, which cost around 100USD. Why should an e-book be so expensive? The small screen on the palm works fine for me.

  23. Re:Could someone explain what the hell this is abo on Nemesis, the Sun's Binary Star Companion? · · Score: 1
    Is it a very dim star? I don't get it!

    The smallest visible stars are red dwarfs. There are also cooler brown dwarfs which are only visible in the IR band.

    Then you get into gas giant planets like Jupiter. There could be a small brown dwarf relatively close by, and it would only be visible in an IR telescope from outside the atmosphere.

  24. Re:Ice Samples? on NASA Overjoyed at Catch From Stardust · · Score: 3, Informative
    At the temperatures it exists at in deep space it has the hardness of granite

    I don't think it does, unless you go right down to less then 1K where pretty much everything is solid.

    Think about Europa, which is at about 100K, and the ice there is more than 10km thick. There is hardly any elevation on Europa. Certainly nothing like mountains made of rock.

    My expectation about the aerogel capture is that dusty material will be collected undamaged. The particles are expected to be a mixture of volatiles and rock anyway. The path in the aerogel should give investigators the total mass of the particle. Subtract the recovered mass and you have the mass of volatile material.

  25. Re:Ice Samples? on NASA Overjoyed at Catch From Stardust · · Score: 1
    I wonder why they wouldnt have had the sample canister land in the frozen desert of Antarctica or some other area where ice samples would remain solid

    Most of the heating would have happened when the ice particles hit the aerogel. The lander was pretty well protected after landing so I don't think the temperature at the landing site would have been a factor.