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User: MegaFur

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Comments · 734

  1. Never say "never" and other silly phrases on The Days of SysAdmin Numbered? · · Score: 1

    Exactly. Me, personally, I don't think that sysadmins will get eliminated, although it's likely that their jobs will get forever redefined as time goes on. Actually, this has already happened, more than once I think.

    I'm always wary of making statements like: "That will never change," or: "That will be the same indefinitely." Several years ago, I played Magic: the Gathering, back in 3rd edition. My friends and I always laughed at the suggestion that the dual land cards might get dropped from the print run in the next printing. Eventually, 4th edition came out and it had no dual land cards. Those things go for 10-20 bucks a pop now.

    Live and Learn.
    Nothing is permanent.
    All things change.
    Speaking in cliches (like I am) makes people think you're smart when you're (probably) not. ;-)

  2. Let us not forget spelling. on Theory-Affirming Evidence About the Universe · · Score: 1
    choice of words and grammer.

    Yeah, it's also good to pay attention to spelling. That last word is spelled `g-r-a-m-m-a-r'.

  3. Unix / VM... on Sites Rejecting Apache 2? · · Score: 1

    any Unix with virtual memory

    Okay, I'm not an `old timer' or anything, so I don't know too much. I gotta ask--is there such thing as a Unix that doesn't have virtual memeory!? I thought that, that was always a fundamental part of Unix design. Please help me out here, I'm very curious.

  4. Re:More info on another website... on Perpetual Motion Delorean? · · Score: 1

    According to a book I have entitled (please wait for the full title) "Did Adam and Eve Have Navels? Discourses on Reflexology, Numerology, Urine Therapy, and Other Dubious Subjects" by Martin Gardner, there is actually such a thing as Zero Point Energy. It's one of those new fangled quantum physics thingies.

    I don't want to go into the details because I'd probably mung it up and that wouldn't help anybody. However, the book does have this(p.66):

    In recent years a number of physicists have wondered if it is possible to somehow tap the ZPE of the fidgety vacuum. Most physicists consider this hopeless. ... Steven Weinberg, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist now at the University of Texas, in Austin, pointed out how weak this energy is. In the entire universe, he said, it is enourmous, but the total amount of ZPE available in a space the size of the earth is about the same as the energy obtainable from a gallon of gasoline. Trapping this energy of course means that a machine must be able to snatch energy from the virtual particles before they disappear. No one has any good idea of how this could be done, and even if it could be, the energy available would be insignificant.

    Of course, there are always those out there that don't believe what the regular physicists tell them and accuse them (the regular physicists) of either being corrupt or stupid or both. We all know the routine...
    init(std_conspiracy_theory);

    Oh, btw, in the same section, the book relates the Casmir effect to ZPE too(p.64): "In the famous Casimir effect, ZPE forces two perallel metal plates to move closer together."

  5. Re:Ah, hindsight! on Online Auctions Patented, eBay Sued · · Score: 1

    Seriously, why not actually attempt to *file* such a patent? You could use it to make an example of the patheticness of the current state of patents.

  6. Another thing that's like gambling... on Conspiracies And Probability · · Score: 1
    It's called intermittent (partial) reinforcement. It's the same reason many people are addicted to gambling.
    Surfing for porn on the Internet can work in the same way as a gambling addiction too. Trust me, I know.

  7. This /. article is AWESOME! on More Attacks on Linux than Windows · · Score: 1

    This /. article is AWESOME!

    Because they actually used the word "than" (in the title) rather than "then" when it was appropriate to do so.

    I think I could die happy now.

  8. Re:Linking Issues on NPR Reconsiders Linking Policy · · Score: 1

    TROLL, TROLL, TROLL, TROLL.

    C'mon. As a slashdotter, surely you're aware that it's possible for a site to *force* people to move through the splash page by, say it with me now, *techno-LOG-IC-AL means*, not by some stupid, nearly unenforcible "no deep linking" policy.

    Use some cookies. Go check out the setup of some random porn site if you don't know how to set it up. Many of them are rigged so that you have to click through all of the thumbnails to view the full size pictures (not that I'd no from personal experience or anything ;-) ).

  9. Oh, c'mon... on Walmart Ships PCs with Lindows OS · · Score: 1

    With all due respect, wtf are you talking about? Okay, I could see maybe, if a bunch of Lindows machines got compromised, M$ might try to run a (small) FUD campaign on it, but other than that...

    It's not like there's any way that these Lindows boxes could be any *less* secure than standard Windows, right? In addition, as long as the Lindows machines are significantly in the minority (and even if the program is highly successful, they will be in the minority for a long time), it will be easier for all the virii/worm writers to keep on targetting Windows like normal.

  10. Re:Yet another engine ruined by the GPL... on OGRE GPL'ed 3D Engine · · Score: 1

    Why are you so unhappy? If these people want to make a GPLed engine, I don't see how that affects you. YOu're wanting to have the option of charging money for something at a later date. There are non-GPL games programming kits out there that might serve this purpose well. (Of course most of those cost money.)

  11. biometrics aren't that great--especially on a card on National Biometric IDs · · Score: 1
    "What does the Slashdot community think about having your retinal pattern embedded on a smart card?"

    The same thing I thought last time, Pinky: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=29575&cid=3176 281.

  12. "Cyber Attack" and other lame-o phrases... on CIA Warns China Might Be Planning Cyber Attack · · Score: 1
    Geez. Don't any of you ever read Virus Myths?

    We give away (computer) viruses to China all the time:
    http://vmyths.com/rant.cfm?id=316&page=4
    http://vmyths.com/resource.cfm?id=49&page=1

    Maybe someone should tell the CIA?

  13. Re:Finally... on SedSokoban · · Score: 1

    It does work, btw--with Cygwin, I mean. I played through a couple of levels on it last nite. Only weird thing--some of the levels have *'s in them and it seems to make those levels less/un-playable.

  14. The REAL problem.... on SSSCA Introduced in Senate · · Score: 1
    In the former case, the federal government and the Federal Communications Commission took the lead. In the latter case, industry first agreed upon the "Macrovision" standard which Congress later codified by legislation. So, whether Congress or industry has led the way, the results have benefitted consumers and industry, by providing Americans with wider access to programming and content.
    --From the Statement by Senator Ernest F. Hollings
    (emphasis mine) Notice how he says Macrovision benifits consumers?
    My question: What about citizens? What about people? Don't they get a say anymore? Nevermind consumers.
    I know, I know... I should calm down, quit ranting, and just go write my representatives.

  15. wonderful /. on theKompany's Shawn Gordon On The GPL · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Gotta love that slashdot quality.

  16. Douglas Adams on Biometrics on Crappy Passwords Very Common · · Score: 1
    While I would like to believe that people will realize the inherent flaws with biometrics before it's too late, I doubt it. I think Douglas Adams has the correct prediction of how it will go:
    [Ford] couldn't believe what he'd just found.

    He slowly drew out from [Harl's] wallet a single and insanely exciting piece of plastic. . .

    It wasn't insanely exciting to look at. . . . It was smaller and a little thicker than a credit card and semitransparent. If you held it up to the light, you could see a lot of holographically encoded information and images buried pseudoinches deep beneath the surface.

    It was an Ident-I-Eeze, and was a very naughty and silly thing for Harl to have lying around in his wallet, though it was perfectly understandable. There were so many different way in which you were required to provide absolute proof of your identity these days that life could easily become extremely tiresome just from that factor alone . . . Just look at cash machines for instance. Queues of people standing around waiting to have their fingerprints read, their retinas scanned, bits of skin scraped from the nape of the neck and undergoing instant (or nearly instant -- a good six or seven seconds in tedious reality) genetic analysis, then having to answer trick questions about members of their family they didn't even remember they had and about their recorded preferences for tablecloth colors. And that was just to get a bit of cash for the weekend. If you were trying to raise a loan for a jetcar, sign a missle treaty, or pay an entire restaurant bill, things could get really trying.

    Hence the Ident-I-Eeze. This encoded every single piece of information about you, your body and your life into one all-purpose machine-readable card that you could then carry around in your wallet, and it therefore represented technology's greatest triumph to date over both itself and plain common sense.

    -- Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams, pp. 71, 72
  17. What in the world? on Why Batteries Haven't Kept Up · · Score: 1
    Ever wonder why we can cram ever more computer power into smaller and smaller devices, but we're still (mostly) slaves to the almighty AA?
    *squinting* What? Oh yeah! Ok. For a minute there, I was thinking, "What have laptops got to do with Alcoholics Anonymous?"

  18. congratulations on Kathleen Fent Read This Story · · Score: 1

    Congratulations. I wish you all the best.

  19. Why don't you ask an Elf? on Browsing Alone · · Score: 1

    The quote goes something like: Never ask the Elves for advice, for they will say both: No, and Yes.

    Isn't the existence of this website and all it's comments a counterexample to the claim that the Internet, etc. has disconnected us from one another?

    But then, on the other hand, there's Katz himself--who seems about as disconnected from reality as you can conceiveably be! Geez, I'm not even sure he's a real person. I think the slashdot editors just take turns on who'll play the King Troll, uh I mean Katz, for a given week. Or maybe it's a script that all the editors tinker on occasionally. Its--I mean his--essays certainly seem artificial enough to be computer output...

    But just in case he *is* a real person--and just in case he's reading this: Katz, I'm sorry to be dissin' on you like this--it's just so easy.

    IMO, it's easy because all your essays are so one dimensional. By contrast, you would probably say it's because this electronic interface makes us so disconnected from one another that it's easy for people to be rude to you. (And for people to not even think you're a person.) Who is right? Ask an Elf. Once upon a time, my email sig read:
    Remember, the _____ lies somewhere in be/truth/tween.

  20. the pot and the kettle on AOL Time Warner Files Anti-Trust Suit against MS · · Score: 1

    Man. Wow. Huh.

    I guess we really do "live in interesting times."

  21. OK. So.... on Improving Computer Form Factors? · · Score: 1
    I want both worlds: I want a small footprint; I want it in a premium system; I want it to have enough room for a pair of hard drives, a 5.25" external slot, and a 3.5" external slot; and I want it using largely off-the-shelf components,
    Then why don't you build your own case?

  22. Useful comment on Slashback: Bandwidth, Animation, Gruvin' · · Score: 1

    Your comment was informative (to me). Thank you.

  23. Re:DOS 7 virus alert! on Linux Virus Alert · · Score: 1

    If you want to be sure of wiping out drive C:, do
    deltree /y c:\
    And if you wanna be sure to kill their widoze dir, go with
    deltree /y %windir%
    not that I'd know from personal experience or anything. ;-)

  24. Really darn simple on DVD Drives Defeat Cactus Data Shield · · Score: 1
    Of course they can't play the first track, that's what contains the filesystem with the CDS player.
    Exactly. And if those bozos from screensavers could beat the, uh.. "protection", then that means that Joe Sixpack can too. And that means those Cactus guys are fairly dumb. Everyone knows that the, uh.. "protection" would never be perfect. Everyone knows someone will eventually find a way around whatever RIAA can dish out. But if it's as simple as putting the disk in a DVD drive, then RIAA will have to go back to the drawing board.

  25. Ask a silly question... on Win95 Lifecycle Draws to a Close · · Score: 1
    (I'm tired) Looking at the first question of the FAQ from the lifecycle page we find:
    Q Why is Microsoft providing customers and partners these Windows Desktop Product Lifecycle Guidelines?
    This seems like a no-brainer to me.. M$'s answer (in part):
    A Feedback from Microsoft's customers and partners indicated there was a need for Microsoft to articulate a planning ...
    blah blah blah... Reading this, I accidently chaneled the Evil Spirit of Micorsoft for a few minutes (eww). I shall now answer this question the way M$ would answer it, if they could:

    "For some reason (we don't understand it), users kept complaining about not knowing when we'd f*ck them over the rest of the way (they already bought our software) by not supporting them anymore. Naturally, we kept ignoring them, but eventually a small band of them threatened suit. We consulted our lawyers on the possibility of counter-suing the upity users, but our lawyers indicated that the most profitable course (in this case) would be to simply comply with the users' demand. Go figure."

    As I said, I'm tired. :-)