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User: evilad

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  1. It's clickbait headlines like this one that drive me to Reddit. Every substantive clause in the headline is contradicted by the article.

    It wasn't a glitch, it was a design decision. The farm wasn't random, it was a specific one that happened to include a set of coordinates. And the farm may have been hell, but it wasn't a digital one -- it was hell because of people in meatspace misbehaving on the basis of some information that happened to have been transported in digital form.

    I check back in from time to time, but things here seem to be getting worse, not better.

  2. Nope. They're hard enough to crimp while drunk. on Ask Slashdot: Is It Time To Shrink the Ethernet Connector? · · Score: 2

    From the question's comparison to a bunch of cables that you can't (easily) terminate yourself, I'm going to assume you buy all your ethernet cables. That's great except when you want to fish cable through walls, and use punchdown jacks in patch panels. Or make one that's a custom length. Or repair a 30m cable with a broken wire 5mm from one end.

    The only thing wrong with RJ45 is the fragility of the locking tab, and plastic overshields do a pretty good job of protecting that.

  3. Re:Aren't we labeling sponsored content? on 2016 Is the Year of Buying CNC Tools Instead of Building Them (hackaday.com) · · Score: 1

    They aren't razor sharp.

    Source: Have owned a Taig mill for years, have not cut myself, am not particularly careful.

  4. Still overkill on Google Glass For Work Is Sleeker, Tougher and Foldable (engadget.com) · · Score: 1

    Dammit, why is this v2? All I wanted was the cheapest possible ultralight head-mounted HUD. Basically, a Glass with no processor and no fancy gadgets. I already have a wireless mobile computing device.

  5. Re:End of life? on Replacement For Mozilla Thunderbird? · · Score: 1

    There are plenty of development problems remaining. The email ecosystem has evolved out from under Thunderbird.
        * No synchronization with online addressbooks without flaky, unsupported plugins.
        * Poor treatment of Gmail tags
        * It *still* can't figure out an http IMG in an html sig, link is broken after the first response.

    Also, there's lots of stupid feature issues (which might be because I'm on Linux). My main annoyances are:
        * Can't drag attachments out of thunderbird
        * Can't copy text out of address book without opening contact into edit mode.
        * Address book can't default into a view which excludes auto-collected contacts
        * Can't disable sig append after first response in a thread.

  6. Re:You are asking the wrong queston... on Ask Slashdot: Version Control For Non-Developers? · · Score: 1

    I work in a consulting environment where multiple people MUST collaborate on the same report technical input, technical overview, analysis, technical review, business english review are all often done by separate people) often from remote locations, and often on tight timelines.

    So I question your assertion that this is a process "problem". In some cases at least, it is a process, and one which is only problematic from a technical perspective.

  7. I have done this with Tortoise and SVN on Ask Slashdot: Version Control For Non-Developers? · · Score: 1

    I helped grow an engineering company from 3 people to 25 with a mandate to provide for satellite offices and remote non-technical workers. SVN/Tortoise was the hammer I chose, because it was the only hammer I knew at the time that was even vaguely like a Document Management System.

    It solved many of the basic problems, but it has not been without pain. Try explaining to a receptionist how to mitigate a tree-conflict error that she didn't cause. Worse, explaining to the satellite offices that video files require an entirely different sharing mechanism simply because they're big. To the president that his edits don't get priority over the guy who committed first.

    If I had it to do over again with a shoestring budget, I'd probably do the same thing. But I'm here in this thread because I'm hoping there are better answers for people on the Linux server - windows client model, who have grown to the size where they have an IT budget, and place a high value on uninterrupted productivity.

    So seriously, are there anecdotes from mid-size companies trying to solve the document management problem?

  8. Re:Certification? on OpenMotics Offers Open Source (and Open Hardware) Home Automation · · Score: 1

    It is not difficult, but it is very expensive to get a consumer device CSA or UL approved. You must re-certify for any tiny change in design, or in some cases, for changes in manufacturing process. As I understand it, the certification applies only to the certificate holder, not to anyone else who happens to choose to manufacture from a design that someone else has successfully certified.

    So my question is about how you would safely and legally use the homebuilt result of an open hardware design, where the entire point is that it's easy for John Q Public to change the design.

  9. Re:Certification? on OpenMotics Offers Open Source (and Open Hardware) Home Automation · · Score: 1

    It seems like the safety bar is much lower for low-voltage battery powered devices. So your system is probably OK using non-certified components as long as they only collect and provide information, and are never hardwired into the mains, and don't exist inside a junction box.

    Would it work to have a small collection of certified relays, dimmers, motor controllers, etc, all of which can accept input from uncertified devices?

  10. Certification? on OpenMotics Offers Open Source (and Open Hardware) Home Automation · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How do you get past the certification problem in an open hardware design? I don't know about the rest of the world, but in Canada, you're on very shaky legal ground if you go plugging in equipment that isn't CSA certified.

    Source: am building automation engineer.

  11. Re:what's the point? on A Smart Electric Bike: Taking the Copenhagen Wheel Out For a Spin · · Score: 4, Informative

    A pedal-assist system (one that only helps, but will never do all the work), can be just the boost that some people need to start exercising.

    The gentleman that I bought my used electric-assist bike from was so weak that he was unable to cycle any reasonable distance without assistance. After using the assisted bike (with a custom rack for his oxygen tank!) for a year and a half, he decided to switch to a regular bicycle.

  12. Re:Buffalo on Ask Slashdot: Life Beyond the WRT54G Series? · · Score: 1

    I have Shibby builds on an E3000 and an RT-AC66U. Great performance on both, although the AC throughput is a little erratic.

  13. Re:I am fine with sharing as long as QoS and firew on EFF To Unveil Open Wireless Router For Open Wireless Movement · · Score: 2

    Yup. If tomato or dd-wrt had this as a simple on/off feature, I would happily share 1/4 of my bandwidth.

  14. I want a REAL kindle killer on I Want a Kindle Killer · · Score: 1

    I've owned several e-readers, and I love them for what they are -- a book replacement. For me it's all about having a high contrast, readable screen with excellent battery life, and e-ink instead of any kind of light-emitting display. I've used one each of a Sony, Kindle, and Kobo.

    In every case, I've loved the hardware, but the software drives me insane.

    Mostly I want all my reader software to talk to Calibre (or some other central database) to sync the last page read, keep notes on which books I've read and when, and to record my star ratings. But it would be nice if the reader's "library" screen made good use of the screen to allow me to navigate through my books.

  15. Re:What about aircraft? on Will Cameras Replace Sideview Mirrors On Cars In 2018? · · Score: 1

    By the time you certified your system of a $5 CCD and a $30 LCD for aviation use, you'd have to sell it for $15,000 to make a profit. You can't install ANY equipment on a certificated aircraft that isn't certified.

  16. Re:Start button? on Microsoft Confirms Windows 8.1 Spring Update, To Focus On Non-touch Devices · · Score: 2

    The worst thing about the hiDPI support is that they clearly *thought* about multi-monitor mixed-DPI support, and then utterly failed in execution. The "let me choose different DPIs for different screens" is so horribly broken that I can't even tell how it's supposed to work.

  17. Paging an editor on Ask Slashdot: Cloud Service On a Budget? · · Score: 0, Troll

    Editor to the submission. Any available editor with a decent grasp of English vocabulary and grammar, please respond immediately.

  18. Re:Oh Canada... on Canadian Official Escorted From House For Others' Facebook Comments · · Score: 1

    Did you mean "exorbitant"?

  19. Re:*sigh* on Cisco Exits the Consumer Market, Sells Linksys To Belkin · · Score: 2

    That's the problem: they just bought most of the most popular platforms for those firmwares.

  20. Re:Router and HDD on Ask Slashdot: Easiest Way To Consolidate Household Media? · · Score: 1

    Do you have model numbers? I've never seen one.

  21. Re:Supports four monitors on Linux Mint 14 Is Out · · Score: 1

    I've had good success with 3 dissimilar monitors (small-wide-small) on Ubuntu 12.04 / fglrx. The irritations are pretty minor, and mostly involve the occasional dropdown dialog or maximize operation not going to the expected screen.

  22. Re:You are the reason things are expensive on Budget 27" IPS Displays From Korea Are For Real · · Score: 1

    You neglect the fact that the manual was probably never rewritten in English. A machine-translation isn't necessarily comprehensible by even a technically literate English-speaker. EG, the installer's guide for my heat pump, which ambiguously instructs one to connect the 220V power lines to the 5VDC control input.

  23. CFIT vs loss of control on The Engineer Who Stopped Airplanes From Flying Into Mountains · · Score: 1, Redundant

    CFIT is nowhere near the leading cause of fatal accidents in general aviation.
    http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=13103&omniRss=fact_sheetsAoc&cid=103_F_S

    It's pretty hard to find statistics for combined civil aviation, please post a link if you can find one.

  24. Peeve on Thunderbird Unseats Evolution In Ubuntu 11.10 · · Score: 1

    I'll consider it fit as soon as I an drag an attachment to the desktop. It's been a bug for four years and counting now.

  25. Re:linux photogrammetry? on 3D Aerial Photos For the Common Man · · Score: 1

    Oops. Meant to post under my userid:

    Anyone here with recent experience trying to run "stereo" or other stereogrammetry software on linux? My last attempt petered out when I couldn't get a compile, but I'm still curious, in a casual sort of way.