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User: walshy007

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  1. Re:Dear FSF on iPad Is a "Huge Step Backward" · · Score: 1

    "Year of the Linux Desktop" will happen when Grandma can get a computer that 'just works'.

    then last year was the 'year of the linux desktop' for me. of course, everything was completely setup by me beforehand for my grandmother, but that's what you get with windows/mac os x machines also when installed by oem.

    Hell I can't even stand the amount of configuration options in the X window managers. Do I want this font or this font, this size or that. O, I can drag the 'start' menu over here, or over there. I'll spend 5 days figuring it out and never be convinced that it's "right".

    What's stopping you from using the defaults for everything?

  2. Re:Microprocessor? on Electromagnetic Pulse Gun To Help In Police Chases · · Score: 1

    the VTR 250 (still being made) only uses a single chip for ignition timing, replace that with an old school timing belt and the entire vehicle is mechanical.

    I for one am prepared for when the robot overlords rise with their EMP guns :)

  3. Re:Too many changes anyway. on Kernel Contributor Corbet Says Linux Community Is 'Intimidating' · · Score: 1

    "The fundamental result of access space separation is that you can't share data structures. That means that you can't share locking, it means that you must copy any shared data, and that in turn means that you have a much harder time handling coherency. All your algorithms basically end up being distributed algorithms. And anybody who tells you that distributed algorithms are "simpler" is just so full of sh*t that it's not even funny. Microkernels are much harder to write and maintain exactly because of this issue. You can do simple things easily - and in particular, you can do things where the information only passes in one direction quite easily, but anythign else is much much harder, because there is no "shared state" (by design). And in the absense of shared state, you have a hell of a lot of problems trying to make any decision that spans more than one entity in the system. And I'm not just saying that. This is a fact. It's a fact that has been shown in practice over and over again, not just in kernels. But it's been shown in operating systems too - and not just once. The whole "microkernels are simpler" argument is just bull, and it is clearly shown to be bull by the fact that whenever you compare the speed of development of a microkernel and a traditional kernel, the traditional kernel wins. By a huge amount, too. The whole argument that microkernels are somehow "more secure" or "more stable" is also total crap. The fact that each individual piece is simple and secure does not make the aggregate either simple or secure."

    If this were practical or secure, it would have been done already. "let's have a dumb kernel that does it all in userspace" has it's own set of larger problems.

  4. Re:Not sure what the big deal is ... on US Blocking Costa Rican Sugar Trade To Force IP Laws · · Score: 1

    You'd better be talking US cents per kilo, otherwise you truly are getting ripped, AU price of sugar just went from 18 to 30 cents a kilo to 20 to 40, which in USD terms is a jump from US 16 to 27 cents/kilo to 18-37 US cents/kilo.

    when even now you're lucky can manage to get sugar for 20 cents/kilo, 75 is just ludicrous.

  5. Re:This makes perfect sense on Google Phone Could Drive Apple Into Allegiance With Microsoft · · Score: 1

    You would be in the severe minority of os x users then, I know quite a few that when i pull up a terminal window they are like 'YOU PUT DOS IN MY MACHINE! GET RID OF IT!'

    I'd dare say that the majority of os x users are graphic artists/audio people and the like still, coders and those who love the shell seem to gravitate to linux more frequently.

  6. Re:This makes perfect sense on Google Phone Could Drive Apple Into Allegiance With Microsoft · · Score: 1

    So you're saying that it's better to be able to have a single program take down the whole system?

    Stability had nothing to do with why macs were used for audio and graphic design, historically macs were way more capable than pc's hardware wise in regards to them.. doesn't mean they were stable. Especially compared to memory protected computers.

  7. Re:...except for the uControllers I use. on Cliff Click's Crash Course In Modern Hardware · · Score: 1

    and funnily enough most of the cost of that would be the packaging, i'm a big fan of DIP chips because they are so easy to solder etc, yet they cost almost double what surface mount chips do, *sigh*

  8. Re:Hm. It sure wouldn't hurt to update it a little on Wii Hardware Upgrade Won't Happen Soon · · Score: 1

    sd consoles always look like shit on HDTV's unless you either have a really good upscaler or you have an analog HDTV (huzzah for analog rear projection)

  9. Re:Code in ASM is FUN on Cliff Click's Crash Course In Modern Hardware · · Score: 1

    what's wrong with GNU AS?

  10. Re:Toughts About Direction on Mozilla To Ditch Firefox Extensions? · · Score: 1

    and really think they've made some questionable decisions (such as force-feeding the terrible Awesomebar)

    Ironically, you would be the first person I've ever heard complain about the awesome bar, everyone I know seems to think it's very handy.

  11. Re:Jesse Ventura on The FBI Wants To Know About Your IT Skills · · Score: 1

    did it ever occur to you why the world trade center was such a target? trade sanctions perhaps, people felt like they were being wronged. Enough to sacrifice their own lives, religion was just how to rally the troops.

  12. Re:The diodes can stay, but the processor's gotta on Blu-ray Capacity Increase Via Firmware · · Score: 1

    actually it was mplayer, only ever used vlc on windows which I haven't touched in over a decade now. All I will say is the 3.2ghz p4 (with hyperthreading) I have sitting in the corner disagrees with you. Used Xine also but similar effect.

  13. Re:The diodes can stay, but the processor's gotta on Blu-ray Capacity Increase Via Firmware · · Score: 1

    the video card would be accelerating it, I know for fact 1080p will play about 1fps on a p4 3.2ghz without acceleration. add in a recent video card with video decoding acceleration and it's smooth as though.

  14. Re:It's An Employer's Market on IT Workers To Get Fewer Perks, No Free Coffee · · Score: 1

    They don't even teach how things really work any more in universities, there are no longer any assembly classes or the like and the lowest level you get is .net

    I say this as a twenty something who has went out of his way to learn things to the lowest detail before he got there, and is sorely disappointed at some of the content, the tutors apparently think I should be in engineering, not IT.

  15. Re:No worries about the coffee: on IT Workers To Get Fewer Perks, No Free Coffee · · Score: 1

    I have a mostly full 42u rack (sun enterprise 5500) which took the spot of where my bar fridge used to be (got a broken seal so it went in the garage for a bit) seal just got fixed on the fridge

    Thanks to you I just measured the width of the fridge, a few mm under 19 inches, It is now going in my rack

  16. Re:Ubuntu One Killer App on Google Open Sources Etherpad, Piratepad Launches · · Score: 1

    Ubuntu only really has two things going for it that separate it from other distros, marketing and willingness to give proprietary drivers/codecs out of the box

  17. Re:Strange question on BBC's Plan To Kick Open Source Out of UK TV · · Score: 1

    Which also means that if I prefer LCDs, I can match you by just using two of them :P

    Which is fine if you don't mind having that area between the two screens with the black casing of the screen stuck in the way, you might not mind it but I do.

    Ah, cool. But this basically only applies to projectors, right?

    that and rear projection sets, which work like a projector just using a mirror etc, they look like a normal tv set though just with a flat screen, a lot larger etc. In fact I managed to get one for free just because the former owner upgraded to an lcd because of the bulk/weight of rear projection sets.

    Define "high-end".

    for a mere signal converter, anything above a small embedded box would be high end, in another area, for example routers, a five year old machine could kick your average home router's ass when it comes to heaps of connections etc, doesn't mean that everyone wants to have dedicated machines for it. Same with my tv.

    Digital does not always equate to better, catch is quality analog typically costs you more, and that digital because of miniaturization is usually smaller thus more convenient.

    For fixed location devices, I have no issue with it being slightly bigger. So the benefits of lcds don't outweigh the negatives.

  18. Re:Strange question on BBC's Plan To Kick Open Source Out of UK TV · · Score: 1

    It's more than the highest-resolution LCD that I found on Newegg -- 2560x1600 -- but not by that much.

    actual resolution is 3200x2560 now that I look at it, that's about 8.2 million pixels, 2560 x1600 is about 4.1million pixels, so you're only effectively doubling the amount of dots on the screen compared to highest end lcd that could be found. Still I agree it's a bit overkill :)

    Go read about how a CRT works [wikipedia.org] -- unless I'm missing something, CRTs absolutely do have a native resolution.

    You are missing something, I quite agree the listed crts on wiki would suck, because they are using a single tube for it all. analog projectors use three tubes, red green and blue to project, as do rear projection tv's, they do not suffer the problems that trying to use one tube for three colours does. (but you have to get the alignment right and reconfigure it every time you move the thing in the case of projectors).

    Each tube just has it's colour phosphor on the end of it, no grid or anything like that like with typical tv's.

    This is the link you were likely looking for. Unfortunately it doesn't go into much depth on it besides the multiple tubes.

    Test it out with a 640x480 image. You're going to have either pixellation or blurriness.

    I've done better, most snes games I play are only 224x256, looks crystal clear, also hooked up amiga gear and ps1 arcade boards, looks fine and dandy.

    Same gear hooked up directly to digital equipment looks shite. You're right that it's probably just the tv's crappy scaling, but with analog I don't seem to have to worry about having a dedicated high-end machine just to do scaling.

  19. Re:As a child of the 80s... on A Brief History of Modems · · Score: 1

    Serial port modems are still available around the place, and I would highly recommend picking one up if for nothing else than to have a reliable backup method of internet. Getting it to work with linux is easy also.

  20. Re:Strange question on BBC's Plan To Kick Open Source Out of UK TV · · Score: 1

    The only real reason not to use HDMI for a new system is if you're using analog for some perverse reason

    It should be noted, that some high-end analog crt projectors are capable of resolutions up to 3500x2000, combine that with the fact that they will display any resolution without the need for scaling or making the image blurry... and analog wins.

    Only in the high end of course and said projectors can typically make an image larger than your average room wall. But you will always have a crystal clear image unlike digital which scales very poorly when certain non-native resolutions are used.

    I can plug in old arcade boards RGB signal directly into most analog projectors just fine, doing so with digital ones tends to be not possible unless it both has an analog vga input and you use a scan doubler to change the frequency of the signal. And even then it looks like crap because of the scaling

  21. Re:Wow. on Nvidia Waiting In the Wings In FTC-Intel Dispute · · Score: 1

    Give me a Pentium 3, 512MB of PC3200, a decent GPU, and some people that know how to write tight optimized assembly code, and I'd laugh at anything anybody puts out today.

    as much of a fan of assembly code as i am (and I really am) if you think writing everything in assembly on a modern computer to do typical modern computer things is feasible, you're kidding yourself

    Also, if you know assembly, and know enough about compilers etc, you can use this knowledge to write C code that when compiled translates to the assembly you would have written anyway. (possible exception being using vector units for highly specialised applications)

    When you know how it works, the c language is little more than portable assembly

  22. Re:Ubuntu One Killer App on Google Open Sources Etherpad, Piratepad Launches · · Score: 1

    Oh I know they do write new code as well, all I was saying is that compared to red hat and the like, their contribution is just a drop in the bucket. (I'd consider 100X the the number of patches a significant difference)

    So if google wanted to hire coders from another company, canonical would be an almost silly choice.

  23. Re:Ubuntu One Killer App on Google Open Sources Etherpad, Piratepad Launches · · Score: 1

    All canonical typically do is repackage debian with newer packages... redhat and sun etc do all the heavy lifting with linux.

    While free people to package stuff is useful, I somehow think google would be able to do that themselves if need be.

  24. Re:What the hell happened down under? on Aussie Gov't To Introduce Bill That Would Require ISP-Level Censorship · · Score: 1

    Yep, it was a really great move which has saved many lives.

    The only statistic that changed when the laws were introduced, were gun related suicides, however other forms of suicide increased to make up for the difference, so that is moot.

    Shooting is as much a "sport" as chess and cards are-not at all.

    The olympic committee would disagree with you in regards to both chess and shooting, as do I, but I'm sure this would not change your opinion.

    I would like to see ALL guns banned from society with a mandatory 10 year sentance for possesion of them. Life for second offence.

    Because that has been so effective in the UK at reducing violence. I fail to understand why people blame the tools instead of the person. Remove legal firearms and knife violence goes up (also firearm violence too funnily enough).

    So what do they do, up the penalties for having a knife with you anywhere to four years jail. So they try to remove the knives (nearly impossible task) what next? Cricket bats? the ultimate bludgeoning weapon.

    I am reminded of one of my favourite quotes

    "The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." - H L Mencken

    It is thoughts like yours sir, that are the problem with society, to you it's never the persons own responsibility, but that of the government to protect people from themselves. I sincerely disagree.

  25. Re:Of course... on Aussie Gov't To Introduce Bill That Would Require ISP-Level Censorship · · Score: 1

    I should have been more specific, they want to ban target shooting as well as hunting. It is hard to argue target shooting on a range effects them at all.

    Point still stands why try to ban fishing when by people going fishing MORE fish are produced through the cost of permits to go do it?

    It's all the little things combined, that at least to me make it seem that they are two faced in regards to freedoms.