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User: mhotchin

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Comments · 271

  1. Re:Descendent distributions != Importance on Debian Is the Most Important Linux · · Score: 2

    But 'easy to measure' is not the same as 'useful to measure'. We could measure the size of each distribution, but it doesn't really tell us anything.

    I threw in 'installed base' just because it was the first thing that came to mind - my real point is that descendent distributions just doesn't imply much, no matter how easy it is to determine.

  2. Descendent distributions != Importance on Debian Is the Most Important Linux · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Isn't 'Number of descendent distributions' a crappy metric for 'Importance'? Wouldn't something like 'Installed base' be humongously better?

  3. Re:WBC are *very* professional trolls on Anonymous Denies Targeting Westboro Baptist Church · · Score: 1

    The 'Fighting Words' doctrine has been almost entirely repudiated by the Supreme court. For-real-and-for-true, Google 'motherfucker trilogy'. Seriously.

    <a href="http://www.langston.com/Fun_People/1999/1999ATX.html">More Info here.</a>

  4. Re:simply disgusting. on Employer Demands Facebook Login From Job Applicants · · Score: 1

    Great! It worked!

  5. Re:End mill on Insider-Trading Suspects Smash Hard Drive Evidence · · Score: 1

    If your HD has substituted bad sectors, they will be left with whatever was on them when they 'failed'. It's entirely possible this info is perfectly legible.

  6. Re:Thank goodness for Canada on Leaked Cables Reveal US Thinks Saudi Oil Reserves May Be Overstated · · Score: 1

    Umm, thanks, but no thanks. The social priorities in Canada are sufficiently different that the propect of being a US state is at best disquieting.

    Gay marriage, health care, attitudes towards guns,.... I can't even imagine how such things could be 'harmonized' without just whacking what we Canadians already take for granted.

  7. Re:Nerd Vs Geek on Geek Culture Will Never Die...or Be Popular · · Score: 1

    I thought it had to do with self-awareness.

    A geek doesn't particularly *care* what people think of him/her.

    A nerd is *unaware* of what people think of him/her.

    Discuss!

  8. Re:Function re-ordering inside the image? wow on Embedded Linux 1-Second Cold Boot To QT · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Um. This capability has been around since FOREVER. I worked at MS 'beside' the group that created exactly such a tool, called BBT. This was ~2000.

    It was the most used, but not the only result of a tool suite called Vulcan. This would allow you to pull apart and re-assemble a binary, either for re-ordering (optimization) or to add instrumentation for other optimization projects (like the one I worked on).

  9. Re:Wouldn't the surface have to be 3D? on Fermilab To Test Holographic Universe Theory · · Score: 1

    The dimension of a thing refers to what you would see if you were 'trapped' in the thing. For example, the surface of the earth is *two* dimensional - every point on it is fully specified using lat. and lon. Think 'Flatland', except that instead of an infinite plane, it 'wraps around'.

    Now, that two dimension thing may be 'embedded' in (or on) a higher dimension object (again, like the surface of the earth), but that doesn't change how the thing looks like if you are trapped in it.

  10. Re:I'm shocked. on Oracle Asks OpenOffice Community Members To Leave · · Score: 1

    Does anyone else remember when 'gay' meant 'happy' or 'silly'?

    It's entirely possible that some modern usages of 'gay' harken back to now uncommon usages.

  11. Re:um on Canadian Spammer Fined Over $1 Billion · · Score: 1

    "Supreme Court Reporter of the United States".

  12. Re:I can do everything else online. on DC Suspends Tests of Online Voting System · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because these other endevours do not require anonymity.

    Voter coersion is a real problem.

  13. Re:Welcome to real life on Portal On the Booklist At Wabash College · · Score: 1

    So, you go to a vocational college rather than a university?

    If your university is focused to teaching tool use for future jobs, then they're doing it wrong.

  14. Re:Good and bad times to argue on Writer Peter Watts Sentenced; No Jail Time · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I didn't say 'grovel'. I said 'take it up with higher authorities'.

    Part of freedom is not just knowing the good fight, but knowing who to fight it with.

    The douchebag with the gun is the *immediate* problem. The authority that gave the douchebag a gun is the *real* problem.

  15. Good and bad times to argue on Writer Peter Watts Sentenced; No Jail Time · · Score: 1

    Handy rule - don't argue with the man who has a gun.

    It doesn't even matter *why* he has a gun - officer or lunatic, he has a gun.

    For lunatics, contact the police. For police, there are ways to express your concerns, up to and including lawsuits.

    I know people will say that civilian complaints against the police are ignored, but that beats the hell out of what happened to this guy.

  16. Re:It's kind of funny... on Artwork Re-Sells Itself Weekly On eBay · · Score: 1

    Happens all the time in real estate. Home Owner's Association.

    Each seller is obligated to include in the sale contract that the buyer must include in their (future) sale contract etc etc etc.

  17. Re:Can someone explain this to me? on Factorization of a 768-Bit RSA Modulus · · Score: 2, Informative

    At university, we used to call them 'industrial grade primes'.

    No real point to this post, just a memory from 1987.

  18. Re:This begs the question on PageRank Algorithm Applied To the Food Web · · Score: 1

    "Raises", damn-it, "This RAISES the question".

    "Begging the question" is more like circular reasoning - you assume that which you are trying to demonstrate.

  19. Re:Now that you've got your patent in the US, Amaz on Amazon Wins First Kindle Patent; Bigger Screen Expected Soon · · Score: 1

    Get in line, queue forms on the left.

    Can't even get it in Canada.

  20. The Politician's Fallacy on US House Limits Constituent Emails · · Score: 1

    One popularization of this was from the British series "Yes Minister". Also related - the Politician's Apology. http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2007/02/26/1763692.aspx

  21. Re:Beware the mall too. on "Mobile Plate Hunter" Cameras Raise Questions · · Score: 1

    Looking for people using the parking lot as a park-and-ride?

  22. "Enormous Niche" ?? on Age of Conan's "Kinda" Launch and Massive Pre-Orders · · Score: 1

    I do not think that word means what you think it means.

  23. Re:Spring equinox on Calculating the Date of Easter · · Score: 1

    I'll see your 'Spring', and raise you a 'Vernal'!

  24. Re:That happened to me.... on Surgeon General Describes Censorship From Bush Administration · · Score: 1

    Ford: It's rather unpleasantly like being drunk.

    Arthur: What's wrong with that?

    Ford: Ask a glass of water.

  25. Re:Copy and Paste on Windows PowerShell in Action · · Score: 1

    This is a problem with the *console window*, not with the program running inside it. If you run 'Bash' in a console window, same problem!

    It's not a good reason to not use PowerShell. Look for 'clip.exe', it provide a simple mechanism for moving text to/from the clipboard from the command line.