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User: bruce_the_loon

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  1. Re:top of the line? on Microsoft Bribing Bloggers With Laptops · · Score: 1

    http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/ca talog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id =12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category -id=19C791A03AF24034A0011B825513BCED

    Yep, still for sale.

  2. 3 MIRV warheads floating down the Potomac on Worst Security Clean-Up You've Performed? · · Score: 1

    Trailer came loose and fell in the river. Didn't hear about it? Good.

  3. Re:I've switched back to 1.5.0.7 on Nine Reasons To Skip Firefox 2.0 · · Score: 1

    On 1.5, the network settings button was on the front page of the options sections and I did find the new location quite easily. The problem is trying to figure out what version of the browser the user has to guide them to those settings. If you place something in one place, damn well leave it there.

  4. In all honesty on Nine Reasons To Skip Firefox 2.0 · · Score: 1

    that was a tertiary concern, the tabs and my other plug-ins were the major reason for switching back. If they had worked, I would have stayed with 2.0 and hunted deeper to get rid of a small annoyance.

    BTW, according to the Find Updates button, the six plugins I run that are incompatible with 2.0 still have no updates for them.

  5. I've switched back to 1.5.0.7 on Nine Reasons To Skip Firefox 2.0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I didn't switch because of security problems, but because of the attempts to foist session management onto all of us and because the Tab Killer plugin which I use to eradicate all record of tabs from Firefox doesn't work in 2.0 yet.

    Why can't the Moz developers make a simple Tabs On/Off switch in the Options Panel, and the same for session management. I do not want my browser to remember that I had ten pages open and then reopen them when it starts. I'd be running Opera if I wanted that.

    One final rant, why did they move the proxy settings panel from the front of Options to somewhere buried again. Not that IE is a great browser, but they don't jumble the preferences UI around every release. For an IT department that supports over 20000 users on a university network, trying to figure out which version of a browser they're running just to find their proxy settings is painful.

  6. Come to South Africa on Bush Signs Bill Enabling Martial Law · · Score: 1

    You might get hijacked, robbed blind, raped, pillaged, mutilated and poor, but dang, the government won't bother you, surveil you or even care that you exist as long as you pay your taxes.

    Or even if you don't pay your taxes, they won't give a sh*t. Even the cops don't know where you live.

    Much better country than any of the Western Alliance lands.

  7. Re:QUICK! LETS IMITATE IT!! on What's Different About Vista's GUI? · · Score: 1

    I also never run virtual desktops. Tried it years ago and left it alone. Maybe it's because I work with only the two or three apps that I'm actually busy with at the time, not leaving every application open at all times. Same reason I don't bother with tabs or sessions in my web browsers (IE7 tabs sucks, but at least you can switch them off on the first settings screen. Why should I have to download an extension to disable tabs in Firefox?)

    As far as grouping applications, I let the taskbar group them for me. Works well enough and at least I can't kill every open web page I've got with a click and a "Yes, oh.... I meant no" response.

  8. Because contacts wear on HP's Memory Spot Chip · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A wireless device like this can provide a more reliable mechanism than something with a contact. Contacts wear out over time, and even if the time period is short enough to make wear irrelevant, static buildup or incorrect voltages on the reader device could blow the device when you make contact with it.

    And finally, unless you're extending an antenna via the contact, you will need more than one contact to make a usable circuit with the reader. On something as small as a Memory Dot, that could be nigh on impossible to achieve with any regularity. Stores hate it when UPC barcodes don't scan first time. Imagine how annoyed they'd be if they have to try three or four times to contact the memory dot.

  9. Re:Past Tense & Specificity on When a Tech 'Breakthrough' Isn't Really · · Score: 1

    One more point: You don't think Zsa Zsa Gabor is a star? Go stick your head in a toilet.

    Is she a giant sphere of gas creating vast amounts of electromagnetic radiation via gravity-induced nuclear fusion following the Main Sequence?

    If not, then she is NOT A STAR.

  10. Re:You are out of luck on Cheap Bulk Eraser for Hard Disks? · · Score: 1

    However getting a hospital to let you stick several hard drives into their MRI and then take it offline for the eight or more hours needed to let the magnetic fields fade away so you can pull your hard drives out of the MRI could be tricky. And there's always the chance that the MRI will pull the screws out of their threads and damage the drive beyond warranty expectations as well.

  11. Re:Wow... on Man Gets 6 Years for Software Piracy · · Score: 1

    Looked his website up on the wayback machine. Last pricing was around 15% of true retail pricing.

    http://web.archive.org/web/20050401093808/http://w ww.buysusa.com/

    He might only have 4.1 million left.

  12. Re:Any information on charges? on Feds Arrest Private Eye at HOPE · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wonder if the person using the volunteer's Social Security number since 1983 is the guy in the witness protection program?

    Wouldn't put it past the feds to use a SSN whose original owner is still alive.

    So, what big federal cases went down in 1983? Mafia maybe?

  13. Re:Reason? on Feds Arrest Private Eye at HOPE · · Score: 1

    Google

  14. 64 bit Windows Servers. Hah. on OSS Web Stacks Outperformed by .Net? · · Score: 1

    While Windows 2003 64bit exists and runs well on the hardware, there is nothing worth running on it except maybe SQL Server 2000/2005 64 bit.

    This is from personal experience in the last month with a round of server replacements.

    Exchange does not run on 64 bit Windows 2003.

    Exchange does not like to talk to a 64 bit Windows 2003 AD and global catalog. It ignored it and moaned constantly.

    MS ISA 2004 and 2006 (yes the brand new version) does not run on 64 bit Windows. Says so in the installer and the documents on the ISA sub-site.

    32 bit AD servers are iffy about talking to 64 bit AD servers. Although Enterprise 2003 AD servers are iffy about Standard 2003 AD servers, so that could just be versioning issues.

    So in spite of the huge amount of push MS has given 64 bit, it isn't possible to run an AD-based network with ISA and Exchange on it.

  15. Actually the company is Avrora Media on Deleted Screenplay Fails To Make Money · · Score: 2, Informative

    The writer of the article buggered up.

    According to IMDB, An American Werewolf in Paris had Avrora Media involved, not Aurora Media.

    www.avroramedia.com

  16. Re:Too many jokes.. on Microsoft to Supply Electronics to Formula 1 · · Score: 1

    Oh bugger, where is -1 Lame,Lame,Lame when you want it.

  17. Re:When is it my turn? on Shuttle Launch Success · · Score: 4, Informative

    Burt Rutan makes the observation that when he saw the Redstone rocket at the national air museum he wondered, "why don't we fly this anymore?".

    Indeed why! It's cheap, it's simple - simpler can and often does mean safer. The Redstone can get a person or two into orbit. And why not launch a couple a week? Burt Rutan goes on to point out that after each new space vehicle is created the old designs are never used again.

    Rutan does have a point, but the Redstone isn't a good example. It never took a man into full orbit, only the sub-orbital run and it was bettered by the Atlas which got Glenn into orbit. It was never powerful enough for orbital launch.

    If anything he should be talking about Atlas and Titan. Which have evolved into the new EELV systems that the military are using. So the designs and evolutions are still there.

    The Saturn 5 was a massive beast of a launcher, but they canned it after Apollo. With a heavy lifter like that, NASA could have launched the space station in half the time and much safer. And now they are redesigning the whole heavy-lift launch vehicle for the Moon project.

  18. Re:It's not as bad as Dilbert. on The Living Dilbert? · · Score: 1

    The only targets for etherkillers aren't the network switches, but the desktop machines of the utter morons who drove you to dig out the etherkiller in the first place. You don't want to damage your own infrastructure. Unless you are a user who wants to hurt the IT department. Death awaits all who lean that way.
    And in the current days of on-motherboard network cards, there's a decent chance you'll nuke his entire machine, not just the card which can be replaced quickly.
    Not that I've ever done this, nope. Not me. Never. Well, maybe.... :)

  19. the GPL of Course on Ideal EULA for Custom Software? · · Score: 1

    What else would you expect Slashdot to recommend?

  20. Re:Dumb Cop Fodder on Australians to Get Compulsory Photo ID Smartcard · · Score: 1

    Have read the wiki and the bill segments pertaining to the driver's license standards.

    I stick by my original comments and add one further. The poor kid from Hawaii that was held for 8 hours would have been let go on the spot with the linked databases.

    Paranoids.....sheeesh.

  21. Dumb Cop Fodder on Australians to Get Compulsory Photo ID Smartcard · · Score: 1

    So instead of a unified format for drivers licenses, you'd rather have a dumb state trooper a week outta the academy try to figure out if your out-of-state license is legal or something you printed on your photo printer and laminated in your bedroom.

    I haven't looked at the new legislation, but I would hazard a guess that it mandates certain protections such as multiple holographic layers, 3D barcodes and so forth to reduce the number of hard-to-detect forgeries because Iowa issuea a license written in pencil on the back of a business card. So what if the card specs have been unified. At least your licenses/ID documents don't come back with some other person's photo, difference ethnic group/sex etc like South Africa does.

  22. Re:Almost waterproof? on 'Leak-Proof' Anti-Spam Solution? · · Score: 1

    There ain't no such thing as a waterproof boat. That's what bilge pumps are there for. Check out how many ships are continously pumping water out.

    Oh, that's right. American's aren't allowed to look at their ships anymore, in case they're planning a bombing mission.

  23. One word - yum on Initial Reactions to Fedora Core 5 · · Score: 1

    Successfully upgraded from FC3 to FC4 online, one reload of the server to get the new kernel running. Should be the same with FC5 when I decide to take it live.

  24. Re:Licenses on UK Government Confiscates Firefox CDs · · Score: 1

    Your suggested name is a little more specific and may be targetted by the law, but as it isn't a product in the realm of the trademarked item (operating systems, computer programs)

    But it would accomplish much of the same tasks as the Windows OS would for most people. Surely a breach of trademark would be considered for this.

  25. Re:What a huge amount of BS on Diebold's Election Data Off-limits · · Score: 1

    South Africa had this in the elder days. We called it detention without trial and was used in pretty much the same way as the US uses 'illegal combatant'