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User: bluGill

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  1. Re:Effect on topo maps on North Pole is Leaving Canada · · Score: 2

    If I drop my compass down a rocky slope, I can recover the neddle and hang in from a string (I can make some soft of string).

    If I drop my compass into a lake I need only retrive it (easier said then done, but often possibal), and it will work. A GPS can short out and not work again, or at least not work until it dries, while a compass works underwater.

  2. Re:some humor..... on Knuth: All Questions Answered · · Score: 2

    Once again you state a lot of facts that are true, but not relavent to the point.

    Muslims recignise their God is the same God that the Jews have, only they have prophecies that the Jews don't have. That their form of worship is completely different. I agree that Mohomad just took existing Gods, and then changed all the prophices related to that God. however the point is they all start with the same base, and then declair how the worship should be done.

  3. Everyone should observe court at least once. on Alleged eBay Hacker Goofs up and Goes to Jail · · Score: 2

    Court rooms, by law (fair and speedy public trial, so really constitution) are open the the public except in extreem cases. It is the responsibility of every american to attend court once in a while to see how the judges are doing, and how court works.

    I took a Canadian to a court one time to watch. (we had spend all morning walking, and the nearby court was a good place to sit down, not to mention educational). I recall some interesting lessions.

    One guy was sentenced to 7 days in jail for some offense. His lawyer spoke up and said "He now has a job, and so we would prefer his sentence be on weekends or overnight so he can work. The judge then arranged for the guy to report to jail at 6:00 friday night, and leave monday morning at 6:00. This counts as 4 days. As the judge was considering how to deal with the next 3 days, the lawyer said He was arrested at night, but couldn't make bail until morning. The judge looked that up, and said there is no point in one day in jail, I'll suspend one day for a year, if you have no further trouble that will go off your record. As they were leaving the judge turned to that guy and said something I'll remember for a long time

    Now you see why you have a lawyer
    .
  4. Re:some humor..... on Knuth: All Questions Answered · · Score: 2

    The facts you site (which are correct) have nothing to do with the point.

    The Jews trace their beliefs back to Abraham (and before), and how God created the world. Their God sent many profits over time. Some of them told that in the future there would be a "messiah". (no idea how to spell that)

    the Christians say that Jesus (Chris, who we know lived) was the messiah and he changed the proper way to worship the Jewish God, by taking our sins uon himself. Therefore there is no need for the old sacrafices.

    The Musliams consider Jesus a prophet, but not the Messiah. Mohomad was anouther prophet, who taught many great things. Jesus was great, but his folowers mis-quoated him for their own reasons.

    Same God. Different worship. Many major disaggrements on who the God is, and how to worship him. However it is the same God, even if fundamentially their beliefs conflit.

    As a christian I do not recognise the Muslims or the Jews as having the correct worship, but I recignise that they are worshipping my God. They would say the same thing about me.

  5. Watch for static! on Making Computer Cases out of Plexiglass? · · Score: 2

    Static electrisity is a big killer of comptuers. Plastic is good at making static electrisity.

    I'm not saying you can't do this. I'm not saying it won't be cool. But there is a good chance you will ruin your comptuer sometime when you are trying to modify it. Keep this in mind, and make sure it doesn't happen.

  6. Re:Attitude problems on Updated FreeBSD Release Schedule · · Score: 2

    FreeBSD 3.3 up to FreeBSD 4.0

    FreeBSD 3.x was always lacking in the stability department. On hindsite it should have stayed in -current for anouther year, but unfortunatly 2.2.7 (2.2.8 came out not long after) was getting dated and would not run on some hardware without new features that were dangerious to back-port. 4.0 was a .0 release, but in general was better than anything in the 3.0 series, but not up to the 2.2.8 release. About 4.2 the 4.0 series came clos to the 2.2 series, and support for old releases was droped. Official support, I understand every once in a while someone will commit something to the 2.1 series, and I'm sure that someone making changes to 2.2 once in a while.

    If your last expirence with freeBSD was 3.x or 4.0, then try it again! It has really matured a lot. I have high hopes for the 5.0 series as well, but unless you can stand stability problems I would wait for 5.1. That advice applies to software in general.

  7. one paragraph on Senate Soliciting Comments on SSSCA · · Score: 2

    This isn't what I want, but if we have to have DRM, perhaps someone will at least put the folowing in:

    Another issue that must not be ignored is media life. I personally make a copy of all CDs that I own, and then use the copy, storing the original in a safe place. This is legal under fair use, but digital rights management would prevent me from making these copies. I started this practice because I scratch one of my favorite CDs enough that it was no longer useable. When I went to look for another one I discovered it was out of print and I could not get another copy. If I cannot make a copy to protect myself from my mistakes, than the law must protect me. That is anyone who produces a protected work must, for the duration of the copyright provide, for the cost of only the media and postage only, a replacement copy of any work that is damaged. I have already paid the artist, the mixing fees, and other overhead, so they must not charge full price for replacement copies. While I recognise that this is new requirement that previously has not existed, it is only fair that if I lose my right to copies that I not lose one major reason for copies.

  8. Many phone lines! on Planning a Small Server Room · · Score: 2

    There is a lot of equipment that you can buy with a "call-home" feature. Most just calls the manufacture (You pay service for them to answer), but some will page you.

    Even if you don't want to pay for this feature now, you will in the future (odds are you will eventially have at least one critical machine to keep up)

  9. Hurts paypal on Feds Rule PayPal Is Not A Bank · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think this hurts paypal. the Feds basicly said "Paypal is not a bank, because they do not have a bank charter." States can now say to paypal "You are not a bank, quit acting like a bank."

    In other words, they are either a bank or not. If they are a bank, then they can handle money for other people. If they are not a bank, then they cannot.

    Now bank regulations vary from state to state. There are banks in the US that I cannot legally get a loan with, because they are not licensed in my state. (It gets complex in ways I don't know when I want a loan from something that isn't in my state)

  10. Re:Not that impressive on Mapping The CIA Nonclassified Network · · Score: 2

    If the CIA had the good sense to hire street cops, semi-experienced newspaper reporters, multilingual cabdrivers, and a very few really good clinical psychologists...

    They do. There are problems with this. I'll talk to my local cop, but most of the cops I know will NOT talk to the KGB, MI6 (or is it MI5?), or any other overseas spi agency knowingly. some will, but most will not. I have relatives in the military who tell me sensitive (unclassified) information that foreign goverments would like to know. I don't go repeating that information to just anyone.

    Accually reporters are the easiest target, just buy a subscription to the local newpaper and read it.

    The other problem is money. Getting the information is easy. However sortting out "John and Mary smith are proud to anouce their son's engagement..." from interesting stories takes trained men. (and that is before we get into stenography where the announcement is a coded message that looks legitmate) Sortting though all of it takes money. The computers the CIA plays with are expensive, (and congress loves it because it brings jobs to some community that builds the stuff), but once technology is bought you can use it for years at the cost of only electrisity. Compare that to the cost of paying someone every year to read newspapers, and spy reports, and it doesn't take long for a computer to pay for itself in the volumn of data it can process compared to what the person can. Of course a person sorting through the paper is probably better than a computer, but there are many newspapers, and most of the time none of the have anything of interest.

  11. Re:It can work, but.... on Cure For Bad Software? Legal Liability · · Score: 2

    Heck, buy a car, change the suspension parts yourself to NON factory parts. Flip over due to your front wheel falling off - good luck suing the car mfg, you'll have to prove it was not YOUR changes

    Sure, now buy a new car. Modify the alternator to serve as a welder (this is doable). Now have a rollover. You will have no problems convincing the courts that your midification didn't cause the problem.

    When your example is modify the suspention parts, and then roll over, of course you have problems. Changing any suspention part changes the way the vechical acts. If there is any suspention modification I would expect the vechical to behave different (sometime better!) when driven to the edge of rollover. Of course if your change is shocks to a homemade shock it is impossibal to prove they are liable for the problems. If your new shocks are just an aftermarket brand, the manufacture will stand beside you to prove it isn't their problem. (or alternatively if it is their problem you are suing the wrong guy. Or are you arguing that if I install an aftermark brand of shock (assume a quality shock) but screw up the instation that the car maker should be liable for my goof? I won't agree to that.

  12. Re:Predictions on Next Windows to Have New Filesystem · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, NTFS was not a rip-off of OS/2's HPFS. It was an update. Microsoft wrote HPFS (and did a good job), and updated it to NTFS. IIRC most of the updates just made it incompatable with HPFS, but there were probably one or two things done better in their defense.

  13. Re:New phones predominantly work in Europe/Asia on New Nokia Phones - with Java · · Score: 2

    800mhz is the old analog cell band in the US. I used to have a digital phone that worked on that band in the US, the provder had equipment that could sense I was on a digital phone, and send digital data to me, while someone else could use a analog phone with the same equipment on their end.

    AFAIK no 800 mhz provider uses GSM for their digital system, but there is no technical reason they cannot. I'm not sure that the equipment to do it has ever been made though.

    GSM isn't common in the US, but I've never been in a major US city where I couldn't use my GSM phone. I have been in parts of the country where there was NO phone service. (no physical wires, and no cell towers in any format) Keep that in mind when comparing coverage, there is a lot of area in the US where there is no phone service, so picking on the lack of GSM there disorts the picture.

  14. Re:Not what he's asking.... on Computer Security Criteria · · Score: 2

    Accually it is common practice when approaching a port to have someone who knows that port come out to your ship and bring you in. So you have the ship crew that knows general ocean navigation well, and can probably get port to port without maps (assuming they don't hit an island or iceburg, not a big danger if you keep watch); and you have the port pilot who doesn't know all that, but knows the location of all the hazzards in port. Sandbars move just a little bit with each wave, the local has expirence with how and therefore how close he can cut it.

  15. Re:What kind of crack are they on on Hong Kong Gets Smart ID Cards · · Score: 2

    I agree only an idiot would roll it out without verification. However finger prints are already stored on the card, so if you can figgure out how to read the card you can get the scan of their fingerprint.

    Some old ATM cards held the pin number (unencrypted appearently) and there were folks who managed to figgure out how to change them. Not sure if it still works that way.

    Of course not knowing how the fingerprint is implimented I really can't say if this is a problem or not - the card could use the stored fingerprint as verification, that is if you don't present a matching print it would let you at the data. Or other ways to secure this.

    I don't like it though.

  16. Careful on requirements on Computer Security Criteria · · Score: 2

    Yes, [everyone knows] UNIX is safer that Windows. BUT, that is in general, not specific.

    I can write my own Unix, make it fully posix, even pay for legal use of the unix name. (I don't have the money, but I could in theory) I'm a fairly good programers, and I've done some OS level work. However I know next to nothing about writting a secure system, and apart from the backdoors that I intentionally put in my code, there will be many accidental security holes. However it would still meet the standards to be called unix by all measures.

    The point is your standards need to mandate a solution that works. Require code audits by qualified external parties if it is net connected. Make sure your external parties are well chosen (example Bruce S. or applied cryptology fame, or his company), but make sure you have several different experts represented. Make sure the requiremetns are reviewed. Accually, you probably have processes for reviewing the machanical areas of the ship, extend those processes to the software. Remember, anything you can do in software I can do with gears (though in some cases I don't know if there is enough metal on earth to accually make all those gears, not to mention the relability) so your mechanical review process should extend to software.

    Do you let your suppliers buy an engine (eg from Cummins) off the shelf and put it in, or do you require that your mechanicial engineers examine the engine design first. If they can buy any engine, then they can put in any software. If you need to see all the engine design, then you need all the software design.

  17. Re:In case you don't know what they're talking abo on C · · Score: 2

    Yeah, but we hadn't updated the vax in years. It was only used for testing in a lab, as a network traffic generator. Not internet connected so security wasn't an issue. Never saw a real load, so there was no point in upgrading to something more modern. We have plenty of more modern equipment to play with, so nobody wanted to upgrade the vax, though when you need a few more traffic generators they were there.

  18. Re:Use tattoos instead on The Timex Speedpass Watch · · Score: 2

    Of course everyone knows that to indicate which code is in use, they will all start with 6 hundred 3 score and 6.

    for those who don't get it, in Christianity 666 is the number of the beast, a throughly evil creature who forced everyone to get his tatoo at one time. (accually this is some time in the future, not past)

  19. Re:Simple math says no on LED Lights: Friend or Foe? · · Score: 3, Informative

    When I first started in networking I was assigned to test some FDDI gear, which used in 1995 LEDs to send data down a fiber at 100 mbs. Now there is a limit to how fast a LED can blink, but we know how to design them for 100Mbs. I don't think we can do 1Gb/s with an led though, at least all the gigabit stuff I work with today is lazers. (much of it was back then too, but an LED is much cheaper than a laser so for short distances we used the leds.

    If we could make LEDs work then, I'm sure today we can too, though having all the light guided to the destination by a fiber makes it much easier than reading the difuse light from a modem led which might or might not acually flash to indicate data. I know know of some routers that appeared to have tied the ethernet activity light to the datastream, and others where it was just on. Some hubs seem to do this too.

  20. Re:In case you don't know what they're talking abo on C · · Score: 2

    Are you kidding, you want a copy of BOTH edditions. I still go back to my first edition K&R book when I need to know.

    Maybe you don't have to make your code run on an old VAX as well as a system with a ANSI-C compiler, but I do from time to time. Even when I don't have to, I like to know my programs will work. (of course there are a lot of ansi-C tricks that I have to not use to make it work, and then put back in for modern systems, but I can deal with that)

  21. Re:Rule of Thumb on C · · Score: 2

    I would personally treat it as a fatal error and just exit the program

    True, but you missed an important step: write (attempt) all the users data to disk so once he solves the memory problem he can finish his work.

  22. Re:If this had been done right... on The Customer is Always Wrong · · Score: 2

    considering the entire production costs on a CD are about $.50, and the last CD I bought was $16.95, had 18 songs on it, (and room for more, like most CDs today), $14.97 is a good deal, though of course mp3 isn't a great format.

  23. Re:will voyager 10 still be usefull on Slashback: 640K, Pioneer, Payback · · Score: 2

    We need more than that. We need a stable non-orbit that we can place a satalite in. Once a year we send a rocket to that satalite to re-fuel it. The only other thing that satalite has is big dishes pointed at all the remote satalites. (one per satalite)

    this would save fuel on our remote explorers. It might cost more for the local base, but we can reach that every few years.

  24. Re:One cannot help but wonder... on More Mayhem From MSFT's Mundie · · Score: 2

    Fear? Not really. There were communists in the US who intended to stage a revolution in the 50s. The movement died as the followers realised that they leaders were afraid to do it, and they were themselves to do anything. (Revolutions that don't work tend to get you kill, while planning a revolution is on the edge, but legal) In the '70s my grandpa was shown the dynamite that one person has stored, and his plan to blow up a local bridge. That person still belived in the cause, but admited there was no longer any chance of making it work. (and he was mad that the leaders in the '50s didn't have the guts to strike when they had the chance)

    Yes there was fear, and some of it was overdone (McCarthy). However there was a real threat behind it.

  25. Re:Complain to your state PUC on Telecommuters and Downtime? · · Score: 2

    I was confused about that VA/midwest too, until I read it a second time. The /. guy who posted the story is in VA, and the guy who submited the story in the midwest (Minnesota if I read the comments right). The clue is where the underlining stops (lynx, probably italics or bold in other browsers) is where the submitters comments stop and ./ comments start.