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User: AlphaBrav

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Comments · 26

  1. Arcade Pac-Man on The Last Games You'd Play? · · Score: 1

    The best game where you never had to put your drink down! You could probably play this with your feet if you really had to. And even better - table-style Mrs Pac-Man!

  2. So if... on EU Proposing to Make P2P Piracy A Criminal Offense · · Score: 1

    ..I use Excel to track my money laundering activites, will MS be held liable?

    Uh... not that I launder money. Really. I don't. I do, however, launder clothes, which probably puts me in the minority on /.

  3. Fusion - the energy of the future. on France Will Be Home To Fusion Plant · · Score: 1

    Always has.

    Always will be.

  4. Octopuses on Wily Octopi Walk on Two Arms · · Score: 1

    Octopus is of Greek and not Latin origin. Therefore the (more) correct plural is Octopuses.

  5. Taggants Never Die on Smart Gun with Minicam and Biometric Access · · Score: 1

    Taggants are designed to be mixed into an explosive mixture and survive. Their strength and durability give them a very very long life time in the environmanet. Their small size makes them impossible to completely clean up in the area of use. Over time, they can accumulate, making recovery from a single event "tainted" by any past events in proximity to that area. Taggants are good in specialized uses, but use them everywhere and they become ineffective with time.

  6. Discrepant Event on Surprising Science Demonstrations? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What you are looking for is a discrepant event. There are plenty of archives of neat (and safe) discrepant events on the net, just hit a search engine.

  7. That's the problem... on First, Do No Harm - A Hippocratic Oath for Coders? · · Score: 1

    "Software Engineer" is a bad term. They are not engineeers. They do not offer engineering services as defined under the law. Every state has licensing for professional engineers, and define engineering services (not that you need a PE to practice these engineering services as an employee, but they are defined there). Now a given coder might be multi-talented and can also provide these services in another field, but that's beside the point - it's impossible to get a PE in "Software Engineering," it simply does not exist. "Software Engineers" should stop trying to put themselves with the likes of "Sanitation Engineers" and either get legislation passed to include them as official licensed engineers or stand on their own profession's two feet. BTW, there is a code of ethics for professional engineers - maybe you should look at that and use it as a basis for what you want.

  8. Re:Placebo? on Turnitin.com - Placebo for Plagiarism or Worse? · · Score: 1

    I'm a graduate student at the University of South Carolina, and I know that this university and many others stipulate that any work a student performs for a class becomes property of the university. Period. Check your school's policies - usually under the Provost's web page or similar. Enjoy.

  9. We need to stop spam ourselves. on Christmas Spam Level Skyrocketing · · Score: 1

    Or at least do what we can:

    By US Code Title 47, Sc. 227(a)(2)(B), a computer/modem/printer meets the definition of a telephone fax machine.
    By Sec. 227(b)(1)(C), it is unlawful to send any unsolicited advertisement to such equipment.
    By Sec. 227(b)(3)(C), a violation of the aforementioned Section is punishable by action to recover actual monetary loss, or $500.00, whichever is greater, for each violation.

    At $500 a pop (usually can tack on court costs as well), you'd think people would be more willing to file suits in small claims court.

  10. Re:Any astronomers want to clarify... on Alien Atmosphere Hubbled · · Score: 1

    You guys are thinking of emission spectroscopy. That would be the case if we were to be looking at the atmosphere from say a 90 degree angle to the sun-planet line. Since we are looking at it colinearly, it's absorption. You don't see emission bands of radiation at the spectral lines, you see absorption bands. Scattering wavelengths would only make those bands darker, not lighter. Let's see if my ASCII art can still work:

    ARRGGGHHH! Stupid Slashdot and the "lameness filter!" MORONS! ASCII ART IS L33T!

    Anyway, in the current setup, the atmosphere blocks wavelengths. The atmosphere scatters the waves that would go to the Hubble in all directions, making them appear much much weaker to the Hubble's sensors in comparison to the non-scattered wavelengths. Anything that blocks or scatters these wavelengths will make the lines appear darker, and therefore, make the atmosphere seem to have a higher concentration of the elements with those absorption bands.

  11. Any astronomers want to clarify... on Alien Atmosphere Hubbled · · Score: 3, Informative
    this?
    They saw sodium in the atmosphere, but actually a bit less than expected for a Jupiter-class planet, which might indicate high-altitude clouds above the alien planet that could have blocked some of the light.

    OK, if they are viewing the star's light through the atmosphere, and using the differrence to detect the composition of the atmosphere, then it's absorption. And anything that would "block" wavelengths, means the absorption would increase, and provide a reading showing that it would have more sodium, not less. Am I wrong? Maybe I am wrong, but the more I think about it, the more I feel the statement above just doesn't add up. Seems this reporter may be the typical reporter reporting on a subject she may not actually comprehend - and she's the one that's supposed to be informing us!
  12. Australia doesn't have the US's freedom of speech on Australian Censorship Legislation · · Score: 2, Insightful

    However, they have signed on board the
    International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that everyone has the right of freedom of expression (artile 19). The proposed law seems to seriously hinder that right as a non-unanimous decision of a bunch of minority-view cencors can deem you guilty and slap a nice $5,500 fine on you.

    Again, I wonder the relavance to the location of the server. This is not clear under the proposed law. Could anyone be guilty anywere? Will I receive a $5,500 "bill" from the NSW government concerning my website? Or will I just be arrested whenever I visit Australia?

  13. They should just pull the plug on the net instead. on Australian Censorship Legislation · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is seriously whacked:

    ..."adult themes" include: "verbal references to and depictions associated with issues such as suicide, crime, corruption, marital problems, emotional trauma, drug and alcohol dependency, death and serious illness, racism, religious issues"

    So someone could be gien troubole for making Dr King's speeches availible online? Medical sites? Support group sites/discussion boards? News sites? Slashdot troll posts?! What's left to put online?!

    I hope they can't use extradition, or have laws like America is passing - set foot on our soil for violaiting our laws and you're under arrest! Oh, and you're not a citizen, so you have no rights! Eek! There go any travel plans I had to go see the Great Barrier Reef.

  14. Double charging socialists! on Would You Pay A Penny Per Page? · · Score: 1

    "The fact that they don't pay for Web content is a historic anomaly."

    Too bad people don't really see it this way. When the phone bill or cable bill comes in, people see that ISP charge as a charge to use the web. And you're asking them to _pay again_?! What is this, the IRS?

    And the poor academic institutions. I can see "technology fees" going up an order of magnitude for something like this.

    Is this a socialist web idea? Isn't capitalism supposed to drive people to make new, inventive ideas that will entice people to part with their hard-earned money? Seems this idea is saying "Don't worry - you don't have to impove the web, just throw some meager content up there and we'll make sure you get some money."

    ---
    The faster you go, the shorter you are. --Einstein

  15. Did you read the article? on Linux Office Suites · · Score: 1

    "The new version will also begin a switch to new, nonproprietary XML-based file formats that anyone can emulate."

    3rd paragraph from the bottom in the ZDNet article.

  16. Amusing Titles on Computer Science vs. Computer Engineering? · · Score: 1

    Well, what buzz word do you preffer? Science or Engineering? I find both the titles amusing in the context of computers:

    One is called Engineering, although you can not become a Professional Engineer in "Computer Engineering" AFAIK

    The other is called Science, although I've never seen the scientific method outlined in any computer book.

    I hope you get my point. Not like anything can be changed now.

    I wish they would be called more appropriate names. I am not trying to knock them in any way - the education received is challenging and I respect anyone with such a degree. But it seems the fields are trying to get garnish some reputation by "piggy-backing" on established fields of education. Try Computer Programming or Computer Design. Those fit better to me :)

  17. Lack of Women in Engineering Graduate Degrees on Statistics On The Degrees People Earn · · Score: 1

    Wow, only 12% women in graduate engineering. Not surpriseing, I imagine. I believe we can thank affirmative action for this.

    It's your senior year, you are taking almost all upper-level engineering courses with labs, projects, and getting majorly stressed. You were thinking about getting a grad degree, maybe become a professor, but 4 more years of this?! Ouch. Why not go to a few interviews, just to see what's out there? At the least, you will get experience for later...

    Then you find you have multiple job offers from companies offing several thousand a year more than many of your classmates. Of course you are smart and capable, but filling that minority slot is icing on the cake. Who wants 3-4 more years of "hell" when you have a wonderful, great paying job sitting right in front of you?

    I'm not saying that's objectively accurate, but that can go through alot of undergraduate's heads, and I have seen it happen a number of times. It seems affirmative action may actually be making it harder to get minorities into grad degrees, IMHO. After the forigen nationals leave to back home... well, is it any suprise most faculty are non-minority?

    Just a thought.

  18. So what about Slashdot's Apple logo icon? on Apple Forces Aqua Themes Off themes.org · · Score: 2

    If it is simply a matter of trademark protection, when will /. get a C&D of it's own for using the Apple logo to indicate news relating to Apple (like the one used on this article)? ^_^ Or are there different legal issues for a news site to use trademarked images than other sites/themes/etc?

  19. Marketing on 1100 MHz 'Athlon Killer' Due From Intel in December · · Score: 1

    That seems to be what this may amount to. AMD has released a superrior chip, so Intel doesn't want people to buy that - average-Joe might realize Intel does not make the almighty best chip for your PC. It could be the old angle of "Don't by that Athlon! It'll just be obsolete when our new monster chip comes out. And it will come out real soon. Really." I can see some marketing team corner the engineering team... "What the absolute theoretical maximum MHz we can get..." "What's the absolute earliest we can get these chips out." "Give us new cool buzz words..."

  20. Are you sure about that? on AMD Releases Mobile CPUs · · Score: 1

    The K7 marks a big breakaway from the past architecture for AMDs. As far as FP calcs go, AMD's Raw FPU has always been faster then Intel (compare 2 cycles to 3-5 for Intel). In the past, Intel has outperformed AMD bacuase they have pipelined their FPU. So, although AMD's FPU is more efficient on a per-instruction basis, overall for alot of calculations it is slower.

    However, enter the K7. It has a pipelined FPU! (with three units) So, unless Intel's new chips crank up the heat on FPU latency, I believe AMD's new chips will be around (or above) Intel's level.

    Review Zone has a fairly well flused out discission of the K7's features. Enjoy :)

  21. This May Be a Smart Move on COREL's Part on Corel Sticking to Closed Source Beta Test? · · Score: 1

    Imagine that a beta tester for COREL Linux desides to go ahead and make it publically availible. People see the distro and can go "COREL Linux is stupid/idiotic/insecure/etc system becasue of specific case XXX." Not like any Slashdotters would overreact to something like a bad distro and chew on it like a pit bull on a side of raw beef, but others might.

    Now COREL gets a nice big black eye from the numerous specific tangible complaints about their system. It's beta, it's bound to have some pretty bad screwups in it. Unfortunately, human nature places alot on first impressions, and can remember these for quite a while. You can see where this is going, right? I would keep it "in house" myself, if I had any say in the matter.

    And anyway, why would they have some kind of registration or selection criteria to allow beta testers if it was GPL? You should have seen this coming when they first put out the notice for it.

  22. IPv6 Myth Debunking on CNN On IPv6 · · Score: 3

    Here is a good document that cleared up a number of false things I was told about IPv6. I don't kno how these spread, but I know I was wrongly told many of them to be true.

    The best new thing I am waiting for IPv6 to to do is force everyone to upgrade their routers to include multicasting. The large address spaces of IPv6 multicasting should have some extrememly interesting effects on internet broadcasting. I can't wait :)

  23. Re:Humm on CNN On IPv6 · · Score: 2

    Try http://www.ipv6.org/

    It's really neat, there are a few networks that support it (vBNS has some limited support right now). Think ip addys with hex numbers instead of deciaml and you're halfway there :)

    vBNS link at http://www.vbns.net/IPv6/index.html for those interested.

  24. This does seem old hat... on Ultraviolet Digital Cameras · · Score: 1

    As far as my experience goes, photodiodes and photodiode arrays have been used extensively for spectroscopic applicaitions such as UV absorption, fluorescence, etc., for quite some time. If you have around $20k, you can call HP and get a nice UV-VIS adsorption spectormeter with photodiode array detector for your very own :)

    There may indeed be a breakthrough in design which may reduce costs, increase efficiency, wavelength rage, etc., or possibly a novel use for UV detection/sensing. But this article does not point anything like that out. This defiantely does not seem like a fundamental scientific breakthrough.

  25. Corel Corporation Ceo Interview on RWS Intnt Broad on Corel Linux Beta License Violates GPL · · Score: 1

    Corel Corporation Ceo to Interview On Radio WallStreet Internet Broadcast

    Announcement at Yahoo Finance -
    http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/990920/pa_investo_6.html


    Get your questions in while you can. I know I did ^_^