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User: Omicron

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Comments · 152

  1. A dowel? on Storage System for Thousands of CDs and DVDs? · · Score: 1

    A wooden dowel. Drill holes in the wall. Insert dowel. Slide CD's onto said dowel. :)

  2. Re:Pretty scary. on Social Engineering Using USB Drives · · Score: 1

    You've never worked IT for a bank, have you? :)

    We have the same audits, several times a year. You wouldn't BELIEVE some of the things that pop up. It makes me want to go bury my money in a jar in my backyard. Trusting the protection of my money to the average bank employee is just an absolutely frightening idea to me now.

  3. HORRIBLE Quiz on Most Web Users Unable to Spot Spyware · · Score: 1

    I took the quiz - it's a terrible format. It shows you a SCREENSHOT of two different sites (say two free screensavers sites...) and asks you "what one do you think is bad". How lame is that? There is no way you can judge if a site has spyware just by looking at it. One of questions even said "wrong - this site delivers it's games via an active x control that contains spyware". Well how the heck are you supposed to know that from a screenshot? I'm sorry, but that is a very, very flawed quiz. I'm apparently a high risk user even though I haven't had one case of spyware on any machines in over two years.

    A better quiz would be to pop up both sites, let you investigate a little - of course, I could have done that as part of the quiz, but I didn't feel like working at it that much tonight :)

    It's kind of like the AIDS awareness posters they used to have up at campus - you can't tell just by looking at someone! True in this case as well.

  4. Alright! on Google Music Store Inches Closer? · · Score: 1

    Crappy fidelity audio files with a poorly organized search interface. And the general internet public can upload any homemade crap they feel like it. I can't wait!!

  5. Re:"The most interesting new product"? on Apple Announces Wonderful Toys · · Score: 1

    I agree. A leather case and a dockable boombox for $349 != Wonderful Toys. Whoopty.

  6. I'd love to see more on Independents Push For Second Firefly Season · · Score: 1

    This series is what got my fiance hooked on sci-fi. Now she's watched all the star wars films, and wants to read/watch more sci-fi stuff. I'd love to see more Firefly.

  7. Re:I didn't see a supplier list anywhere? on Atari 800 XE Laptop · · Score: 1

    Kinda what I was thinking - can't seem to recall the last time I sawed a chunk off a PCB just because I didn't like how it looked.

    Okay, maybe I can remember when I did it last...but I certainly don't remember when I did it and it ever worked again :)

  8. Re:I didn't see a supplier list anywhere? on Atari 800 XE Laptop · · Score: 3, Informative

    The LCD assembly he scavenged from a small LCD purchased at Radio Shack. This guy goes WAY above and beyond the average tinkerer - he's made several portable NES, SNES, Playstation and Genesis systems that he built from the original systems. He has access to CNC machines and built the lapto case himself, as well as wiring up each individual key on the keyboard. I caught the story yesterday before it was on Slashdot, and got to read the whole thing. Very interesting.

  9. It Is Neat... on A Guided Tour of the Microsoft Command Shell · · Score: 1

    Being that the place I work for is an all MS shop, I am looking forward to this new shell. We do our work via cmdline...most of us learned our first computers using cmdlines, and we stick to them today - it's quicker and easier than using a GUI. The way that MS integrated this new command line into every facet of the OS is very interesting and very, very powerful. It will definitely open up a lot of interesting possibilities.

  10. Re:Jansport on Recommend a Tech Toys Bag? · · Score: 1

    I forgot to mention that I only uses this bag when I walk to/from work. Most of the time when I leave my house I've got the following:

    Wallet
    Keys
    Sunglasses (on my head).
    Phone (maybe).

    I only carry my "pile" of stuff to work and back as I always use the stuff throughout the day.

  11. Jansport on Recommend a Tech Toys Bag? · · Score: 1

    http://www.jansport.com/js_product_detail.php?cid= 10&pid=TM76

    I have a bag similar to this - it's several years old so they don't make the one I have. It's got a laptop compartment, with a nice padded bottom and fiberglass insert that acts as a shock absorber for a laptop when I carry one. It's got two cell phone pockets on each side (one for personal, one for work).

    The inside is nice - place for a pen/pencil (I like nice writing utensils so I carry my own...). Another nice pocket in front of the laptop compartment for files. And a bunch of nice pockets on the inside for miscellaneous stuff.

    The top flap is cool as well - it zips open to a cd-player/mp3 player compartment, and has a small slit in the cover for headphones to run through. I love it.

    I could reduce what I carry, but don't want to.

    I have the essentials:

    Wallet
    Keys
    Sunglasses w/ case
    Work Phone

    Then, the extras
    PDA w/ AvantGo/Games for boring moments during the day
    MP3 player for walk to work.
    Personal cell phone (it's my only phone...no landline)

    I have a man-purse..I admit it.

  12. Re:You build it, one is born every minute to buy i on New 1 Kilowatt PSU - Too Much Power? · · Score: 1

    Haha...how true :) I've got an Enermax WhisperQuiet, 450 watts...that thing is a brick. Then again, it's been running almost continuously for something like 5 years now. It's only been shut off for the times I've moved, and the times I've torn out the old computer and built the new one. The thing is a beast...and it just...won't...stop.

    It cost a lot when I bought it, but it is ohhhh so worth it.

  13. Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along. on A Podcast from Network Administrators · · Score: 1

    I agree. I threw a few of the ep's on my MP3 player for my walk to work.....I tried listening to a whole thing, but had to shut it off after 15 minutes. It was bad.....some guy belching into the mic, mostly unfunny comments...

    I was hoping for something similar to DHBiT...but this wasn't even close.

  14. Re:Not SCUBA on Breathe Under Water Without Oxygen Tanks · · Score: 1

    Feel free to complain about me being US Centric.

    I was.

  15. Re:Not SCUBA on Breathe Under Water Without Oxygen Tanks · · Score: 1

    Actually, it doesn't eliminate the bends. You can never be sure of the bends. You can attempt to minimize your exposure to decompression illness by either conductiong no-decompression dives or by getting training and doing deco. The tables/programs we use to do our deco our based on mathematical models and are really never 100% accurate. The recreational tables have a LOT of padding built into them, but custom cut deco tables not as much (unless you intentionally insert it).

  16. Re:Not SCUBA on Breathe Under Water Without Oxygen Tanks · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We (divers) do not breathe pure O2 for the working portions of our dives. We do use it during the decompression portion of our dives. Keep in mind though that recreational divers DO NOT ever use pure O2 for any part of their dive. You can get trained as a rec diver to use 40% 02 MAX, and definitely not for doing deco.

    Oxygen becomes potentially toxic when the partial pressures is beyond 1.6ATA. For 100% O2, the depth limit is 20 feet. For 50%, it's 70 feet. At 32 feet on O2, you are getting very close to needing your partner pull you up and hold your regulator in your mouth until the seizures stop and you come to.

    The Navy, as well as many civilians (and my friends...) have what you referred to as "low depth breathing rigs". The pure O2 ones went out of favor a LONG time ago...they were most famously used in the human-torpedoes during WWII I believe...the biggest problem with them is that as the soldiers were piloting the torpedo, they would go to deep, pass out and never return.

    Today, rebreathers are used. There are both closed circuit or semi-closed circuit. They ARE NOT using pure O2. Depending on which rebreather you have, a variety of gas can be used in the breathing loop - air, nitrox or trimix. What the rebreather does is keep your breathing gas at a constant partial pressure of 1.4, thus minimizing as much as possible your inert gas loading to reduce your decompression obligation. Essentially, as you go deeper, the gas you are breathing contains less oxygen.

  17. Re:Is this really that hard? on Handling Viruses in an Uncontrolled Network? · · Score: 1

    This is what we did when we ran the student network at the university. We gave 'em an automated install of AV and a few other things. The install had some scripts that talked back to a database. When they signed the contract, it said they had to run the install within a week. If they didn't do it, we automatically shut their port off based on the databse contents.

  18. Don't Install It...Or Modify The Original Install on Adobe Acrobat Toolbar Worse than Malware? · · Score: 1

    If you don't want it, don't install the things. It's not that hard of a choice. And it's an MSI based install so you can easily jump in and remove the features you don't want.

    I'm working on getting v7 ready for deployment in my company so I'm looking into it right now, but honestly...it's not that hard of a thing to do!

  19. Re:The cheapest solution... on Always-On Internet For Cheapskates? · · Score: 1

    I currently have runs of CAT5 @ 100 and CAT5e @ 1GB...

  20. It's Cool, But dang... on Eisenstadt's Analysis Of 8 Years' Worth Of Email · · Score: 1

    I hate saving email. I consider most email to be like a telephone conversation. You get the info you need and then once it's over you don't sit and save the conversation. I don't want to re-read a conversation from 4 years ago about my friends and I planning a dive trip.

    If my Inbox gets 50 messages in it, it's time to clean it. I archive some message - mainly stuff I've sent to myself that has tech tips/tricks in it, or info on how to do something that I don't do that often.

    I used to save everything - but then I realized that I never go and re-read it...I started being a delete nazi.

  21. It is weird... on Same Part, Same Supplier, Different Prices · · Score: 1

    The company I'm at spends a LOT of money on Dell. Servers (~700), workstation (~7500) and printers (a lot...). We are able to use the employee purchase option to buy computers for personal use discounted through Dell. I don't personally do it (I like to build mine...) but for family members I recommend Dell as I refuse to build computers for family (I hate turning into a tech support operator...).

    Anyway, the last three computers I've bought for people (2 pc's, 1 laptop) have been cheaper to buy as a consumer than they have been as an "employee". It's kind of aggravating to be honest - here, our company spends millions a year on Dell equipment, and we can't get stuff as cheap as Joe Schmoe that buys 1 pc every 4 years. It was the same thing w/ a couple of Axim's w/ all the bells and whistles we bought not too long ago.

  22. What a cool story on Skunkworks At Apple -- The Graphing Calculator Story · · Score: 1

    Every once in awhile you find some really cool nugget on the web. This is one of those really good ones - what a cool story.

  23. Already Happening... on TV Over Phone Lines To Arrive In 2005 · · Score: 1

    A small ISP/Telco in my old hometown does this already - provides phone/tv/broadband/dialup/etc all in one package. It's pretty cool - when your phone rings, caller-id pops up on your TV.

    http://www.wctc.net is the company - I don't know for sure that they are truly providing the television signla over their own phone lines, but I think they are.

  24. Wow... on Laptops May Be Hazardous to Your Fertility · · Score: 1

    The fact that they measured both right and left scrotal temps...HAHAHAHA! This article has got me cracking up :)

  25. I Occasionally Like The One-Man Vendor on Is The Lone Coder Dead? · · Score: 1

    At my company, we use pdfFactory. Written/sold/supported/advertised by a wopping two guys. We love pdfFactory.

    Ultra-Edit. One guy. The greatest text editor on earth.