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  1. Re:Nice, BUT on Miro 2.0 Launches Today · · Score: 1

    Miro seems to be basically a RSS-client+Torrent Client+Broswer and a rudimentary player bundled into one. But wait, I use Google Reader, my browser plays videos, can download. I need a separate torrent client for non-video/music files anyway. And Video Search ? Google started searching video a long time ago. So why should Miro be an extra app running and not just a website that publishes video?

    First, I don't want to download everything I see. And that which I want , can be done with an easy Download link.

    I can see why an iTunes for Music is useful, but an iTunes for Video is just untenable with the sizes of video files (for download and storage).

    As I have felt before about version 1.0 , Miro 2.0 seems entirely pointless: Nothing new - what you've been doing all along anyway, just in a new interface with more RAM sacrificed.

    Maybe I am just not their target audience.

  2. Re:FOSS Humiliated By HP on HP Releases New Netbook GUI For Ubuntu · · Score: 1

    PAY ATTENTION.
    Er, I was referring to the other similar sounding word which has racist connotations? Which is also what the post I replied to was referring to, not the word 'niggardly'.

    Of course, I will refrain from insulting your ability to read between the lines, unlike you when ending your reply.

  3. Re:FOSS Humiliated By HP on HP Releases New Netbook GUI For Ubuntu · · Score: 1

    The root of that word(I dont think I have to type it) means ignorant person, it did not develop into a racist or derogatory term until sometime betwwen the civil war and now.

    The root of that word is not ignorant person but "Negro", referring to the race of people with Black Ancestry. Negro itself comes from the Latin word 'niger' - which means 'black'. The usage of the word to mean ignorant person is but the start of the racist connotations it has acquired in the US.

  4. Re:Rocket scientists on Iran Has Put a Satellite Into Orbit · · Score: 1

    Riiiight... That's why the term "rocket scientist" is used as a synonym for intelligence

    Only in the US though...

    The total number of engineers graduating in India and China exceed the total number of engineers working in the US. Given the knowledge that is available, it is not so much of an engineering problem but more of an economic and "do we have the motive" problem.

  5. Re:Respect on Iran Has Put a Satellite Into Orbit · · Score: 1

    If you want to retard your countries growth striving to become a nuclear power is a good way to do it.

    Doesn't seem to be going that way for India and China, even in the 80s and 90

  6. Eh...what? on Mozilla Donates $100K To the Ogg Project · · Score: 1

    So far in the commenting, I've seen all kinds of contradicting opinions.

    1. OGG sounds better than MP3 or it does not.
    2. OGG uses more processor cycle and kills battery life, OGG makes no difference in comparison to MP3
    3. OGG sounds better, MP3 sounds better in most listening tests, MP2 is even better, MP4 is equal to OGG and better than MP3
    4. OGG needs to be as succesful as PNG and PNG is just one in a crowd.

    Gosh...there is a lot of FUD going around here about something. Could someone in the know please set the record straight ?

  7. Re:last post. on End of the Road For AMD's Geode Chip · · Score: 3, Informative

    Proocessor->silicon->sand->minerals->rock-> Geode...get it ?

  8. Re:"Good" Music is subjective on Bill Gates' Plan To Destroy Music, Note By Note · · Score: 1

    most English speakers will be more familiar in this context.

    Most English speakers in the US , perhaps. In other parts of the world that are English speaking such as UK and India "Goodness" is a common word. Phrases such as "A jam filled with divine goodness" or "Goodness Gracious me" are common utterances.

    And at some point, most people on /. must have tested the "Goodness of Fit" using a Chi-square test.

  9. Re:IE not supported... on SUSE Studio — Linux Customization For the Masses · · Score: 1

    Interestingly, the screencast seems to be made on Windows , with Camtasia as the capture software and Linux running under a VMWare virtual machine.

  10. Re:"Good" Music is subjective on Bill Gates' Plan To Destroy Music, Note By Note · · Score: 1

    I see your point. Though, finally one might say if one blurts out a tune and there are people who like it, they wouldn't care if it came out of a composer, symphony and band or a tiny program on the creator's laptop.

    The right result in this case presumably being "music that sells".

  11. Re:"Good" Music is subjective on Bill Gates' Plan To Destroy Music, Note By Note · · Score: 1

    As a far as cops go, that wasn't good policing.

    The Internet , or more precisely , bandwidth is a consumable product. As much as music is : the difference is that one is consumed because it is a tool (although in many ways it could be argued that it is also entertainment), and the other is consumed for pleasure (although it can be argued it is also a tool ref. Guantanamo Bay Music torture).

    You are mixing up the economic category of something with its intended use. These days iPods and Coca-cola are both classified as FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) ...I am sure you'll agree their intended use is very different.

    The relationship of a "tool", goods and services depends strongly on perspective because a "tool" is not an economic category. I will exemplify with an extension of my analogy with your logic. If you are an ISP, the Internet is the consumable, while the cables and servers that host it are the "tools". If you are a server manufacturer, the servers are the consumable, while the things that let you make a server such as air-conditioning for your design plant, the electricity that runs through is the "tool". If you are the power company,....well you get the picture.

  12. Re:"Good" Music is subjective on Bill Gates' Plan To Destroy Music, Note By Note · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In the same way that DHCP/Plug-n-Play/etc. lets people with no technical acumen get onto the Internet? Its basically "You plug the wires/flip the switch we'll do EVERYTHING ELSE FOR YOU!"

  13. Re:That laptop in the infomercial... on Bill Gates' Plan To Destroy Music, Note By Note · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Its running Vista under Bootcamp.

    Just saying...

    Techncially, Microsoft is not in the hardware business for laptops so its not such a big faux pas and might even be their silly attempt to play nice with Apple, or to show that they aren't threatened by it.

  14. "Good" Music is subjective on Bill Gates' Plan To Destroy Music, Note By Note · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There seems to be a lot of flaming here for how the songs sucked etc. , but...

    1. Goodness of music is a subjective issue. There may be people who actually like the sound, or the ease of karaoke-ing through it. Kids, perhaps who can be thrilled at the substantial quality of their renditions.

    2. I suspect a lot of people are complaining about the examples there because they are comparing it to the originals. Think about how new songs or tunes can be arranged by budding composers using this. Songsmith might offer a lot more customisability making it an important tool.

    We should try to look at the bright side once in a while.

  15. Re:OpenXML Plug-In Exists for Novell's OO.o on Can a Small Business Migrate Smoothly To OpenOffice.org v3? · · Score: 1

    Not really the Developer's fault for providing the option. Very often, features are there because some percentage of the userbase is using them. Better that it is there, and used wisely, then it not being there are all.

  16. Re:Product dumping on How Microsoft Beats GNU/Linux In Schools · · Score: 1

    Actually, at the publicly funded scientific research institute I work in, in Dortmund, my entire department has iMacs and Macbook Pros - totally about 50 in all.

    I of course prefer Bootcamp-XP , but that is not to say there aren't any Macs in thse places. Most times it just happens, that Macs are not enough value for money in an environment where people either prefer Windows for compatibility reasons and can run Linux for everything else anyway. Silver shiny jewels of a thing are not exactly a priority for a publicly funded institution, nor should they be.

  17. Re:this sounds like user error to me on Apple OS X 10.5.6 Update Breaks Some MacBook Pros · · Score: 1

    Hey, they're Mac users, and they don't need to know about this computery stuff.

    The update didn't come in brushed-sliver aluminium, so why would they bother about it at all.

  18. Re:Best of intentions on BitTorrent Calls UDP Report "Utter Nonsense" · · Score: 1

    Oh, not to mention that the invention of the WWW was a bad example - in 1989, Tim Burners Lee was at CERN as an engineer (CERN is a research institution without a University, so no undergrads there), and as he is now a Full Professor, has a Ph.D.
    http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/

  19. Re:Best of intentions on BitTorrent Calls UDP Report "Utter Nonsense" · · Score: 1

    Having a Ph.D though, is formal recognition that you were willing to take a few years off your life to commit to thinking about a particular problem. That does count for some credibility.

  20. Re:Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre of Thiruvananthapu on India's Chandrayaan Lands Impact Probe On the Moon · · Score: 1

    Its not really that hard - it's pronounced

    Tee-Ru-Va-Nun-Ta-Poo-Rum (the T's are soft, just like the Spanish T)

  21. But Gmail can consolidate... on Email-only Providers? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Eh ? Just use Gmail to consolidate your accounts using IMAP/POP using the Mail Fetcher or via forwarding on your own work account. Add your work email address/any other email addresses to Gmails list so you can use it to send email from this address. You can also use the labels to differentiate accounts.

    And that should be it. Gmails interface and benefits for all your accounts at once, and only one account to check.

    I do this with my work address : which offers IMAP and forwarding, and my University address which offers only POP and it works like a charm.

  22. Re:Title on Research Finds Carbon Dating Flawed · · Score: 1

    I second you man. And what's with the "flawed" thing. Moronic reporters attack again. It isn't flawed - it works as it should. Just that the confidence limits for the method have been determined more accurately now.

  23. Re:Evolutionary Biology Predicted Junk DNA on Opposable Thumbs and Upright Walking Caused By "Junk DNA" · · Score: 1

    er, unfortunately you don't understand evolution.
    Junk DNA is so called because WE cannot assign any function to it yet. That doesn't mean it doesn't have a function - biologists are well aware of that. At most, finding a trait regulated by the "junk DNA" automatically elevates that part of the genome to a non-junk status. That is the point. In fact, this is what is done regularly as the functions of various regions of DNA are identified. Evolution, by the way makes no prediction for the presence or absence of "useless" DNA. On one hand, the useless DNA may serve as a mutational playground, while putting up an energy cost for maintaining such a playground. As will all cases in evolution, there is an optimization problem for a cell to between mutational flexibility and natural selection for energy efficiency. Clearly then ,the optimum is heavily cell-type and environment dependent.

  24. Advanced Call Center on Using My PC For Plain Old Telephone Service? · · Score: 1
  25. Re:Bike to work on How Do Geeks Exercise? · · Score: 1

    If you have more muscle mass, you have more cells. More cells burn more calories.

    I am not claiming that this extra calorie burning is significant enough to cause weight loss. But certainly a 150kg goliath sitting on the couch burns more calories than a 50 kg anorexic. Its the same reason why elephants need to eat more than say...cows even if they mostly stand around all day (barring any more complicated arguments of digestive efficiency etc.)