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User: Roached

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Comments · 32

  1. Reserve price on Online Shoppers Naive About Online Prices · · Score: 2, Informative

    In economic terms, this is called the reserve price, or the price someone is not willing to exceed in order to purchase something. In a perfect economy everyone has their own unique reserve price that they feel is fair for what they are buying. It's been accepted in the airline industry for years, but I guess when it's applied to other items people feel like they were ripped off if they find that they could have gotten it cheaper.

  2. Earned the right... on George Lucas Struggles to Reinvent Himself · · Score: 1

    Quote from the article:

    "I've earned the right to fail, which means making what I think are really great movies that no one wants to see."

    He actually decided to start doing this a few years ago...

  3. Re:Question on Ameritrade Customer Data Lost · · Score: 1

    Apparently it was compressed an encrypted which is partly why they feel the data would be difficult to use.

  4. Re:Interesting on Hardware MPEG2 TV Tuners Compared · · Score: 3, Informative

    almost all of the successful TV Cards use the same Brooktree (now Conexant) chipset. This has meant that the quality of the card drivers has been something of deciding factor, which Hauppauge always seemed to do a better job of until recently.

    According to Hauppauge engineers, the reason they don't release an open source linux driver is precisely for this reason. They feel that their edge over competitors is in the tuning of their driver. Even so, by sniffing the I2C bus on these cards you can pretty much figure out what their driver is doing, which makes this moot (The PVR-150 IVTV driver is rapidly being developed now and is quite usable under MythTV).

  5. A very minor issue... on Mars Rovers Have Incorrect Instruments Installed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It annoys me that so much is made of this problem. This in no way compares to the lost spacecraft error, it's simply a calibration adjustment to a sensor. I think the fact that they have two rovers that have performed extremely well under harsh conditions 4x over their rated life is an incredible accomplishment. This just sounds like someone looking for sensationalism in a non-issue.

  6. Re:I think "admits" is probably the wrong word. on North Korea Admits to Having Nuclear Weapons · · Score: 1

    Actually, the US has suspected North Korea had at least a few nuclear weapons for quite awhile (unofficially, kind of like Israel), so I would just interpret this as an official confirmation.

  7. Re:Difference on Cellphone Drivers Drive Like Drunks · · Score: 1

    I had actualy heard an explaination about this difference. For the driver, the experience is basically the same. But, a person who rides in a car with you is also aware of your current driving situation, and so they can either halt the conversation or yell "Look Out!" like my wife always does.

  8. There never was any expectation of privacy... on Wiretapping the Web Easier Than Ever · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Even 10 years ago, there never was an expectation of privacy on the internet (which is why SSL was developed for secure web transactions). Maybe they're making it a little more plug and play than it used to be, but sniffing a network for plaintext passwords and messages has always been relatively easy.

    This is really just another kick in the butt for us all to be using various forms of strong encryption (SSH, PGP, etc) as a regular part of our daily communications.

  9. Graduate programs unaffected on Fewer Computer Science Majors · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Graduate programs haven't seen the same decline yet."

    When I got my masters degree in CS 4 years ago, it seemed that about 45% of the grad students were from China, 45% were from India, and the rest of the 10% of us were US citizens. Since the graduate community in this country is already overwhelmingly foreign, that might explain why these numbers have remained stable.

  10. Redirecting web domains on Microsoft and Lindows Settle Trademark Case · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It seems that redirecting web domain will cause consumer confusion. Joe consumer who doesn't know any better will go to the Lindows site only to find Microsoft and then assume they are the same thing.

  11. Re:No, you need experience. on Sun Microsystems, a CEO's Last Stand? · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm a software engineer who recieved my Masters in CS and am about to complete an MBA as well, so I've got some perspective from both sides.

    Basically, you're right in that management views you as a resource that is somewhat replaceable. To expand on this though, you're not as easily replaceable as the fry cook at McDonalds so a little more strategy is involved. In order to accomodate for this, the MBA program teaches classes in "Leadership" and "Organizational Behavior". These classes veil themsleves as "making the employees happy an productive" but the reality is that they are courses in how to manipulate people into doing what you want, possibly to their detriment, while still thinking things are great.

    Someone skilled in these management tools can keep you thinking you're work environment is awesome right up till you get your pink slip.

    Bottom line: always look out for yourself and never trust the management

  12. Re:I can't sympathize on Bobby Fischer Found · · Score: 2

    At this point in the world's history, I cannot sympathize with anyone attempting to use false ID to travel.

    He apparently thought his passport was valid but it was suddenly revoked which is why he was caught.

    If it's true that his views are against the people of Jewish faith and that he applauds the horror of 9-11, then the court of public opinion will rule against him if it hasn't already.

    Of course Isreal has not been doing too good in the court of public opinion recently (New Zealand being the latest example). Neither have we since 9-11 has been used as an excuse to further US interests across the world.

    I think we conveniently use someone when it suits us (cold war chess hero, make the USSR look bad) and then throw them away when this usefulness is over.

    At least I hope this allows Bobby to officially confront the charge and clear himself.

  13. The virus/spam connection on Anti-Spammers Infiltrate Private Online Spam Clubs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "People selling these fresh proxies are either the virus writers themselves or someone very close to them. I don't know how ties between spammers and virus writers was first forged but there is clearly a strong link there"

    ...and maybe this is the bit of information that will encourage aggressive prosecution of these spammers.

  14. In keeping form... on Kodak vs. Sun Java Trial Date Set · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...with the finest traditions of companies going down the toilet, Kodak has resorted to the "litigate to make a final buck" tactic.

  15. This could be an efficient solution... on 'They Can Sue, But They Can't Hide' · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...to rising health care costs, which result from the overabundance of law suits. Only the seriously injured people sue. I can certainly feel for the legitimately injured being put on this list, but if their case had merit, it shouldn't make good doctors afraid to deal with them.

  16. They WERE the first... on SCO Identifies EV1Servers as Linux Licensee · · Score: 5, Funny

    Warning: mysql_connect(): Too many connections in /var/www/html/admin/db_mysql.php on line 40

    It appears they are no longer a dedicated hosting company...

  17. Venture capital running dry? on Infinium Labs Threatens Gaming News Site · · Score: 1

    I assume this guy doesn't keep up with the relevant news on sites like HardOCP which is probably why he didn't read the article until recently. Probably he was trying to get a new influx of venture capital and the investers told him what they read on the review sites and to go fly a kite. That might be what set this off.

  18. Hey Microsoft are you listening? on Intuit Apologizes to Turbo Tax Customers · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh... I didn't think so.

  19. This can be hacked and is irrelevant on Phoenix Bios to Incorporate DRM · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It it routine for various motherboards to have hacked BIOS developed for them (usually to turn on hidden features). This won't be any different, within a few weeks of a motherboard's release there will be versions of the bios released that will disable the DRM, exactly like how DVD drives have region free firmware released (I usually flash my drive before first use). So the only people this will be relevant to are those who are uneasy flashing their bios.

  20. Replace divx with ffdshow on Divx Now Adware Supported Only · · Score: 1

    I use ffdshow to view all my divx/xvid movies (under windows). It's free (no strings), faster, and supports multiple codecs. Of course for Linux, mplayer is the obvious solution.

  21. So what if I comprimised the site... on FSF FTP Site Cracked, Looking for MD5 Sums · · Score: 1

    ...and sent my MD5 sum?

  22. Par for the Course on Microsoft Caste System · · Score: 1

    This article doesn't sound any different than the way the company I work for has handled contractors for years. The exception being that they use bright yellow as opposed to orange on the badges. The whole idea of a contractor is to provide a service to you for a fee. It just so happens that these contractors need to work onsite in order to deliver your product. I agree that it is wrong to simply use contractors in a cheap full-time employee capacity but differentiating them from full-time employees is not discriminating against them. Look at it this way, if I hire some contrators to build an addition on my house and I work with them to get the job done faster and cheaper, I'm not inviting the crew to hop in the pool with me afterward or take a shower in my house even though we were working on the same project together.

  23. The original release was slower on Is Mac OS X Slow? · · Score: 1, Redundant

    The original release of OS X was slower, the newest version is noticably faster.

  24. Can't this be turned off? on Intel to Build DRM into Next-Generation CPUs · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I had thought that this "feature" was able to be disabled in the BIOS. If that were the case, the rest of this problem is a software crack and then DRM isn't an issue. Am I wrong about the simplicity of this?

  25. Mysterious behavior on E-voting Trials and Tribulations · · Score: 1

    In Fulton, poll workers also reported the machines mysteriously voted for Bill Gates as congressman of Georgia.