Millenium bug, how I have missed thee
on
SpamAssassin 2010 Bug
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· Score: 1, Insightful
Instead of having one millenium bug, letting it do it's thing and get it over with we get similar bugs every year. The 2007 zune issue, the impending 2038 issue and this. Of course many more similar bugs that don't deserve their own slashdot article. If they had decided to start using 64-bit time on the 1st of January, 1970 none of these problems would have happened
Since everything is so readily available now through torrents I can't really say there is anything that I can't get my hands on now that I would be able to get my hands on if they were made public domain. Unless of course you start including classified government documents and the like, or very obscure gems that for some reason never made it into widespread circulation
You can still buy good quality stuff, but most people would rather spend the money on a crappy product and a slightly improved crappy product in a few months time.
People tend to go for the latest gimmick - you could buy a ruggedised phone for about $400 or a ruggedised "smartphone" for a few $100 more and it will work out cheaper as long as you're not too pushed about having the latest version. Not everyone is, and not everyone needs to be.
The next gen version is not necessarily better in any way - it wasn't that uncommon over the past few years that 'next gen' versions of mp3 players and the like had dropped removable storage and batteries in favour of having everything permanently built in and non-replaceable.
You could also buy a $170 ultracapacitor flashlight that is designed to last 100 years but most people would compare it against a cheaper, lower quality and slightly brighter light that runs on a proprietary lithium ion battery and chuck it out when the battery goes bad.
3G (UMTS) turned out to be a bit of a disappointment with the required cell density there are only a few 3G-only networks in densely populated places like South Korea, 2G GSM is likely to stay around well into the LTE era.
Satellite phone networks have also come a long way since the initial bankruptcies and unreliable services. There are now at least 4 Geosynchronous orbit satellite phone networks with handheld phones and the two LEO networks that went bankrupt both recovered and are planning to launch new satellites. The phones themselves also not half the size they used to be.
that is only for storage - the 'cloud' wants to also process your data. The only appropriate use seems to be when there is no consequence to the data being lost (i.e as part of multiple backups). Even with encryption an algorithm could be compromised tomorrow, by which time it will be too late to prevent your data from being decrypted by disgruntled employees / cloud storage providers.
When all your data is hosted and processed in 'the cloud' (just offsite, on someone else's machine basically) no amount of encryption is going to save your ass.
Expect the Authorities to milk this event for what it's worth when it comes to justifying mandatory pre-flight anal probing sessions, more mass surveillance and the outlawing of encryption they're not sure how to crack.
good idea but unfortunately the 'unwashed masses' only support HTTP, and if the unwashed masses don't have any access to this information then it loses credibility and becomes more of a geek conspiracy theory group. As we all know its very hard to get something done if the unwashed masses don't realise the problem and are therefore unwilling to support you.
You know, the people who think that the only way to get an iPhone is to buy it locked (if they even understand the concept of a SIM-lock) and on a long contract with a huge telco.
I'll host one image for them, no larger than 128x128px off my own web server on a DSL line. I know it's not much but it's all I can offer in today's recessionary times
High quality? forget Apple. When was the last time Apple released a ruggedised device? That is just not the business they are in. They produce expensive, fashionable electronics that go out of fashion after a year or two.
Well actually there is. When you look at the picture it looks awfully similar to a whole bunch of 18650's shoved into a box.
and besides. Lithium ion sucks, anyone who has owned an iPhone/iPod for more than a year will know this. -20% a year at room temperature, 500 cycle life.
The only way this would be a viable way to power a house is if you took an absolute crapload of 'spent' li-ion batteries from consumer electronics for free and assembled the pack yourself then put it in the shed to extend it's short lifetime. I'd say your average spent li-ion will have a better energy density than a brand new lead-acid battery
Re:5 Megapixel camera?!? Why this thing again?
on
iPhone 4 Rumors Rumble
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· Score: 5, Informative
MP counts say nothing. I have used a 1.3MP digital camera from the early 00's that takes better pictures than every camera phone I ever used. Unless you get a phone with optical zoom you can almost be guaranteed the quality will be crap.
Over the past 5-10 years so many new efficient solar panels have been designed but you can't buy any of them.
The best solar panel I can reasonably get my hands on is a a 15% efficient overpriced 100W monocrystalline panel off ebay for about $300 so it will take about 10 years even in Florida to break even.
The strange thing is I distinctly remember reading a magazine article that mentioned the breakthrough that got solar panels from 10% efficiency to 15% and that was in 1999. So that means we should have the ones mentioned in this article by about 2017 if we are lucky. By that time of course we will be reading about 125% efficient solar panels that not only convert 100% of the energy from the sun but also suck up a substantial amount of ambient heat and convert that to electricity as well
If any manufacturer made a stereo like this, they'd force you to use their Windows-only bloatware. and ironically the stereo itself will run embedded linux, possibly even with scp installed but not usable
for those situations wouldn't a portable device with similar wifi/3G functionality be more useful than something that is for some reason permanently attached to a car?
Seriously, what good is this to anyone? if you're in the car you would just use your SIM-locked USB modem that you pay 59.99 a month for and if you are outside the car then you would hardly stay connected long enough to send an email before the car you are stealing bandwidth from goes out of range.
I never quite understood this idea behind putting the latest technological gimmick into a car. 802.11g will be obsolete in a few years, 802.11n soon after. The car should last 20 years so that means half way through its expected service life the wifi, the USB connection and the built-in GPS will be almost completely worthless.
If i want my car to have a Wifi AP I will throw my own wifi equipment in the back. same with phones, GPS, all that stuff. Give me a bare minimum car such as the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrightspeed_X1Wrightspeed X1 but with the most efficient power system, the best batteries available and the highest quality components that won't break. Not putting worthless consumer electronic gimmicks onto a chassis that is supposed to last 20 years.
because obviously since they are "Netbooks" all they are good for is running (as in accessing) remotely run applications through some stupid Web 2.0 interface filled with needless graphics and effects. ohh shiny!
Strange. on Linux it opens up a new instance every time. Of course the correct behaviour would be just to have an 'enqueue' option in the context menu for that file which you can then set as the default option if you desire
Slashdot Mirror
Instead of having one millenium bug, letting it do it's thing and get it over with we get similar bugs every year. The 2007 zune issue, the impending 2038 issue and this. Of course many more similar bugs that don't deserve their own slashdot article. If they had decided to start using 64-bit time on the 1st of January, 1970 none of these problems would have happened
Since everything is so readily available now through torrents I can't really say there is anything that I can't get my hands on now that I would be able to get my hands on if they were made public domain. Unless of course you start including classified government documents and the like, or very obscure gems that for some reason never made it into widespread circulation
You can still buy good quality stuff, but most people would rather spend the money on a crappy product and a slightly improved crappy product in a few months time.
People tend to go for the latest gimmick - you could buy a ruggedised phone for about $400 or a ruggedised "smartphone" for a few $100 more and it will work out cheaper as long as you're not too pushed about having the latest version. Not everyone is, and not everyone needs to be.
The next gen version is not necessarily better in any way - it wasn't that uncommon over the past few years that 'next gen' versions of mp3 players and the like had dropped removable storage and batteries in favour of having everything permanently built in and non-replaceable. You could also buy a $170 ultracapacitor flashlight that is designed to last 100 years but most people would compare it against a cheaper, lower quality and slightly brighter light that runs on a proprietary lithium ion battery and chuck it out when the battery goes bad.
This deserves a mention, the legendary Nokia 6310i still has a thriving refurb market to this day. That thing is probably the highest quality mainstream phone ever made. http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/20/nokia_breakthrough_phone/
3G (UMTS) turned out to be a bit of a disappointment with the required cell density there are only a few 3G-only networks in densely populated places like South Korea, 2G GSM is likely to stay around well into the LTE era.
Satellite phone networks have also come a long way since the initial bankruptcies and unreliable services. There are now at least 4 Geosynchronous orbit satellite phone networks with handheld phones and the two LEO networks that went bankrupt both recovered and are planning to launch new satellites. The phones themselves also not half the size they used to be.
that is only for storage - the 'cloud' wants to also process your data. The only appropriate use seems to be when there is no consequence to the data being lost (i.e as part of multiple backups). Even with encryption an algorithm could be compromised tomorrow, by which time it will be too late to prevent your data from being decrypted by disgruntled employees / cloud storage providers.
When all your data is hosted and processed in 'the cloud' (just offsite, on someone else's machine basically) no amount of encryption is going to save your ass.
Expect the Authorities to milk this event for what it's worth when it comes to justifying mandatory pre-flight anal probing sessions, more mass surveillance and the outlawing of encryption they're not sure how to crack.
good idea but unfortunately the 'unwashed masses' only support HTTP, and if the unwashed masses don't have any access to this information then it loses credibility and becomes more of a geek conspiracy theory group. As we all know its very hard to get something done if the unwashed masses don't realise the problem and are therefore unwilling to support you.
You know, the people who think that the only way to get an iPhone is to buy it locked (if they even understand the concept of a SIM-lock) and on a long contract with a huge telco.
I'll host one image for them, no larger than 128x128px off my own web server on a DSL line. I know it's not much but it's all I can offer in today's recessionary times
No, we're PHPs and the rest are Pythons
High quality? forget Apple. When was the last time Apple released a ruggedised device? That is just not the business they are in. They produce expensive, fashionable electronics that go out of fashion after a year or two.
It won't actually have a touch screen, control will be via buttons and a trackball. So unlike Apple, hence the surprise
why couldn't he just use some UDP based server thing rather than this stupid HTTP-based commercial service that nobody wants to invest in?
Well actually there is. When you look at the picture it looks awfully similar to a whole bunch of 18650's shoved into a box.
and besides. Lithium ion sucks, anyone who has owned an iPhone/iPod for more than a year will know this. -20% a year at room temperature, 500 cycle life.
The only way this would be a viable way to power a house is if you took an absolute crapload of 'spent' li-ion batteries from consumer electronics for free and assembled the pack yourself then put it in the shed to extend it's short lifetime. I'd say your average spent li-ion will have a better energy density than a brand new lead-acid battery
MP counts say nothing. I have used a 1.3MP digital camera from the early 00's that takes better pictures than every camera phone I ever used. Unless you get a phone with optical zoom you can almost be guaranteed the quality will be crap.
1 good megapixel is better than 8 crap ones
Over the past 5-10 years so many new efficient solar panels have been designed but you can't buy any of them.
The best solar panel I can reasonably get my hands on is a a 15% efficient overpriced 100W monocrystalline panel off ebay for about $300 so it will take about 10 years even in Florida to break even.
The strange thing is I distinctly remember reading a magazine article that mentioned the breakthrough that got solar panels from 10% efficiency to 15% and that was in 1999. So that means we should have the ones mentioned in this article by about 2017 if we are lucky. By that time of course we will be reading about 125% efficient solar panels that not only convert 100% of the energy from the sun but also suck up a substantial amount of ambient heat and convert that to electricity as well
Since his name is "Schmidt" I'm assuming he knows all about The Google
If any manufacturer made a stereo like this, they'd force you to use their Windows-only bloatware. and ironically the stereo itself will run embedded linux, possibly even with scp installed but not usable
for those situations wouldn't a portable device with similar wifi/3G functionality be more useful than something that is for some reason permanently attached to a car?
Seriously, what good is this to anyone? if you're in the car you would just use your SIM-locked USB modem that you pay 59.99 a month for and if you are outside the car then you would hardly stay connected long enough to send an email before the car you are stealing bandwidth from goes out of range.
I never quite understood this idea behind putting the latest technological gimmick into a car. 802.11g will be obsolete in a few years, 802.11n soon after. The car should last 20 years so that means half way through its expected service life the wifi, the USB connection and the built-in GPS will be almost completely worthless.
If i want my car to have a Wifi AP I will throw my own wifi equipment in the back. same with phones, GPS, all that stuff. Give me a bare minimum car such as the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrightspeed_X1Wrightspeed X1 but with the most efficient power system, the best batteries available and the highest quality components that won't break. Not putting worthless consumer electronic gimmicks onto a chassis that is supposed to last 20 years.
Well there is nothing preventing you from making a final state machine and releasing it's code under the GPL
but if you're lucky you might get a tan
Other manufacturers should indeed use it, because when Apple do it is usually in the form of a non-removable battery cover
It's called "aluminium" btw
at lightning speed!
because obviously since they are "Netbooks" all they are good for is running (as in accessing) remotely run applications through some stupid Web 2.0 interface filled with needless graphics and effects. ohh shiny!
Strange. on Linux it opens up a new instance every time. Of course the correct behaviour would be just to have an 'enqueue' option in the context menu for that file which you can then set as the default option if you desire
Do they have sex offender shuffles in South Dakota? I'd like to see him in version 2.0