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User: stonefoz

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  1. Re:Jailbroken Steam Link? on Ask Slashdot: What's the Best Media Streaming Device? · · Score: 1

    For 5$ it is a neat toy. Realistically it's designed from the ground-up to have a much more powerful desktop doing any real computing. Hence, the "link" part. Anyway, it's underpowered, single core, 1ghz arm, 512M of memory. For the regular price of $50 there are better options, but at just $5, it's interesting.

  2. Re:Here's what I did on Ask Slashdot: Surge Protection For International Travel? · · Score: 1

    Arcing is just about impossible. However the fuse and/or circuit breaker is most likely rated for less than 200 volts. Under rated circuit breakers and fuses may not disconnect higher voltages than their rating. OP will likely have no issues until an over current happens. The it will be a gamble of it may safe-fully disconnect or may catch fire. Voltage and Amp ratings are for both normal situations and what happens when things go bad. It may go very bad with wrong ratings.

  3. Re:Or... just hear me out here... on Kentucky Man Arrested After Shooting Down Drone · · Score: 1

    I am fine with the given risk. Many places it's permited to play baseball. There is a risk of damaging windows, property and inflicting injury on anyone withing several hundred feet. The risk is low, and damnages are expected to be paid for anyone outside of the event. It's still allowed, not because it's safe, because the risk damange is low.

  4. Re:Physical keys. on Smartphone-Enabled Replicators Are 3-5 Years Away, Caltech Professor Says · · Score: 1

    Silly putty and a Dremel of course requires at least some amount of practice and skill. At some point 3d printing will just require a criminal, stealing a 3d printer...

  5. Re:Physical keys. on Smartphone-Enabled Replicators Are 3-5 Years Away, Caltech Professor Says · · Score: 2

    There are better arguments against fingerprint locks. They can't be changed even when they need to be. If more than one place is using a fingerprint, they have all the keys.

  6. Physical keys. on Smartphone-Enabled Replicators Are 3-5 Years Away, Caltech Professor Says · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Today, anyone with some determination and a few photographs can replicate keys. How soon will it be till the average criminal has access to an instant key duplicator? A high quality scanner could mark the end of even the top rated physical keys.

  7. Re:But is it "free software"? on Unreal Engine 4 Is Now Free · · Score: 1

    How many people are still looking for the jet-pack on GTA5?

  8. Re:But is it "free software"? on Unreal Engine 4 Is Now Free · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Of all the things that benefit from being free software, games aren't entirely gaining. A game with source code include all the "spoilers". Part of the magic of a new game is exploring, not drudging though code (an entirely different game). If there is anything given less criticism, let it be games. Sometime it's entertaining to be surprised. That is a games intended purpose, to entertain.

  9. Re:Actually, ADM Rogers doesn't "want" that at all on NSA Director Wants Legal Right To Snoop On Encrypted Data · · Score: 1

    History lessons don't count today.
    Today, or any time after about 1991, general encryption available to the public became unbreakable (PGP). Breaking older code happened because they where breakable. Today, this is not the case. To actually break todays code, no one can. They break the systems they run on. For anyone to continue as it was before is not to ask if one can break codes, it's to ask to break everyone's system. Intentionally crippling security is less security than is already available. Unfortunately our "enemies" can just not use our systems and we are to be left with crippled implementations. It is a disadvantage that doesn't support the goals stated.

  10. Please shame whomever it is on Ask Slashdot: Dealing With Companies With Poor SSL Practices? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Please don't hide whom it is that I might accidentally do business with. Nothing is going to change just sending them an email, they may even go after you for doing so. However you may stop others from being suckered when their poor security becomes everyone else's problem. It's not their problem, it's going to be everyone else's.

    First assumption is that there isn't somewhere that'll get broken. Everywhere probably will get successfully attacked at some point. Use a password manager. At least this way, when somewhere is broken, I'm sure that it's the only place where that password is used.

  11. Re:Digital imitaing analog != Analog on Liking Analog Meters Doesn't Make You a Luddite (Video) · · Score: 0

    That's not analog strictly speaking. That is a digital device imitating an analog display. Nothing wrong with that but it isn't the same thing. To be an analog device it has to operate on analog (continuous) signals. Digital devices by definition cannot do more than an approximation of a continuous signal. Possibly a very good approximation but an approximation nonetheless.

    Everything is an approximation. Any real signal of any type will contain noise. Analog has a signal/noise ratio for a given design, while digital has the same. Changing a signal into ones and zeros does add noise, however so does everything else.

  12. Re:Some are also destroyed/lost on Vast Bulk of BitCoins Are Hoarded, Not Used · · Score: 1

    Flash chips do not normally contain JTAG. The WRT54G and phones using ARM have TJAG in the processor. It's for recovery and debugging, allowing the processor to be stopped and manipulated from a computer. If the processor works, TJTAG and USB could be an option.

    I would have to recommend against using JTAG. The cheap adapters cost something which is more than free included USB. It is also dog slow. My much older phone would take over 30hours to copy across JTAG with a speed of 256KBs. USB running at full speed still takes around 10min. Newer phones ship with Gigabytes worth of flash, making JTAG alone unreasonable.

  13. Re:Some are also destroyed/lost on Vast Bulk of BitCoins Are Hoarded, Not Used · · Score: 2

    As for your phone. If any part of the proccessor/usb still works you can copy out the flash. It works well for software bricks and could help if at least some of the hardware still works.
    If you have to recover the flash by its self, jigs to do so are costly.
    http://www.glassechidna.com.au/products/heimdall/

  14. How big is small office? on Ask Slashdot: Open Communications Set-Up For Small Office? · · Score: 1

    How many handsets and how far away to you make calls. For less than 5 handsets or mostly local calls, a simple, simple hardware pbx is still king. It's just not worth the trouble of setting up several thousand dollars worth of gear just to have options you're probably not going to use. Samsung and Tadaran make simple boxes that don't randomly crash or require hours and hours of setup and maintenance.
    Voip starts to make sense when you need to have access to phones outside of the office. Asterisk does a good job of patching into any other PBX as a voicemail service and routing calls in/out to voip. Normal calls don't get dropped and VOIP is still a less reliable but still functioning option.
    Voip only makes sense when there are many phone in many places with many changes. It's a up front cost of testing all network gear for working QOS. Routers, switches and you're ISP has to have working QOS. When you need everything to talk with everything else, there when you have many many handsets in many places, then worry about having open communications.
    For small business though, simple hardware pbx with a few extra ports give options to open it up later.

  15. Re:Ubuntu doesn't run on pre-USB boot systems anyw on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Won't Fit On a CD · · Score: 1

    Nope, Ubuntu is targeted heavily at desktop use, as such you're using the wrong time-frame.

    Desktops don't do things by hours, they, and even the very very old ones work at times that are much faster than you. A desktop system works at 1/60 of a second. I push a button, I click a mouse, I wave at a camera. All of those things happen and then 1/60 of a second later the display get updated. Most of the time a desktop is usually doing nothing, nothing and nothing a 1/60 at a time. It takes much less shiny shit to fill a 1/60 than you think

  16. Do you actually need a universal programer? on Ask Slashdot: Best EEPROM Programmer For a Hobbyists? · · Score: 1

    They are not cheap and whomever you buy it from will burn you on the software next year. If you only have a handful of chips, most newish thing are serial and have a cheap programmer consisting of a micro and usb converter. SPI, I2C would be best done with a cheap newish design. As for the multi-pin package programmers, it's going to cost, if you value you're sanity at all. I've owned the Willem set and now a Wellon and can't go without having the chip test feature. Willem programmers are simply flaky as they don't do any test until after programing the entire chip.

    Can't stress this enough, find a programmer that does test the chip on insertion.

  17. Imitation Watches at Replica Watches on The State of Hacked Accounts · · Score: 2, Funny

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  18. What question works? on Nigerian Email Scam Victim Sues Bank, Loses Appeal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Asking the bank if the check cleared yields an answer which doesn't mean shit. If none of that means anything, what question must one ask the bank to require them to not reverse the answer? Is there a point where they can't do what ever the fuck they want to do?

  19. Re:Whats the diff? on Virtual Currency Becomes Real In South Korea · · Score: 2, Funny

    Don't worry, it's still funny here in the US, just for all the wrong reasons. We have "Virtually" the best health care system available, at least that's what they tell me on the TV. Wouldn't want some pinko-commie to actually implement a real health care system. You're right, I shouldn't laugh, someone might charge me for that, it's the best medicine after all?

  20. Re:De-peer and 419 disappears on Scambaiting Gets Comical; Internet Scammers All Dressed Up · · Score: 1

    Since when has life been fair? The people are always collectively punished for every stupid decision their government does. I'd have no problem disconnecting a country that can't police it's network. What other options have they given the rest of the world?

  21. Re:c++ is 'write-only' code on The Environmental Impact of PHP Compared To C++ On Facebook · · Score: 1
    C++ is stuck with C strings, it's wrote into the language.

    char *bad = "this is bad\0 ha ha";
    sizeof (bad); /* returns size of pointer */
    length (bad); /* returns wrong size */

    It shouldn't be a happen unless you don't know where the strings originated, but I don't know of a good way to process that. Meanwhile, for web pages, code generators make code from code from code from code, etc. and inline and cache it all. It just doesn't easily work in C++. I could write a template engine, but it'd just end up as "#include " following by why even bother.

  22. Re:i was called to jury duty once on ID Thief Tries To Get Witnesses Whacked · · Score: 1

    Where do you get "dodged" from? Sounds like he did what was asked of him. He showed up and answered honestly, I've served three times, and some of the crap people try will amaze you. Seen one guy try and get excused because he had a "drinking problem" and said he gets off work at 5 in the mourning by 9am he'd be much to drunk for court. The funny thing was the judge look at him and said "The days you are a juror you can't be punished for missing work so you can drink then." But I was excuse because the defendant went to the same high school as me 15 years ago. If that makes any sense at all

  23. Re:360 on Microsoft Disconnects Modded Xbox Users · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's all about money. As long at the games are paid for and the console it's self is legit, MS doesn't care. I can grossly cheat on any game currently. The most sever punishment for cheating I've yet to have received was being booted from a game, only to return to the main screen.
    http://hicklabs.com/
    I've built my own chip and turned it up to grossly exaggerated rates without any real penalties.

  24. Re:Curse of binary floating point on Why Computers Suck At Math · · Score: 1

    So clocks only move at .1 intervals and I never have to use division? What wonderful world to you live in? I expressed it exactly for fix, it's a speed hack that still caries all the problems of float. Not if there is something to be measured that does in fact only happens in quantified increments, then yes, count on those. Time is not one of those things.
    So you are quite wrong about fixed point not rounding. 10/3 is always going to be estimated without storing it in a large-number, fractional representation. The last number is always a guess, else it isn't a measurement. Measurements are always estimated, and counts can be held in exact amounts in binary. Time is not a count however, as time does not only change at specified increments.

  25. Re:Curse of binary floating point on Why Computers Suck At Math · · Score: 0, Troll

    Fixed point? What would that accomplish? Rounding creep happens, irregardless of data type, every time it rounds the last digit, fixed or float.
    Fixed point is never a good idea, bad idea or not, it does speed up things on limited hardware. A missile isn't "budget" though.
    Yes floats are difficult, every operation moves it farther from original guess, it's just guessing the last digit. Only solutions are to not do fractional math at all, or to reload and adjust values periodically. Time keeping however is a subject that been already well researched. Any embedded platform I've seen has at least a dozen app-notes and a dozen different ways to keep accurate time.