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User: jvschwarz

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  1. Just the basics... on Ask Slashdot: What's On Your Keychain? · · Score: 1

    I just carry the basics for everyday use, on my keychain: 3x house keys + 1 car key

    In my pockets whenever I leave the house: Wallet, smartphone, Leatherman Micra or Squirt, Fenix E01 1-AA LED flashlight, small Kershaw folding knife, Kleenex tissues.

    This has served me well for the last few years, flashlight is handy when walking the dog at night, knife for opening letters/packages, and Leatherman for misc tasks. Everything else is self-explanatory. I went with small versions of everything to keep the weight down. Oh, and I always keep a couple of Band-Aids in my wallet, you never know when you are going to need them.

  2. Launch is easy... recovery is the hard part on Send Your Own Radiosonde 90,000 Feet Into the Sky (Video) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Having been involved with two high-altitude (90,000 ft+) balloon launches, getting off the ground is the easy part. Getting the payload back is more difficult. One landed in Lake Michigan and was recovered, the other landed in a marsh and after 6 hours of searching, we still haven't recovered it. (Very difficult terrain to get through).

    Getting into near space can be done for less than $1,000 pretty easily. It's a great educational experience, and loads of fun. Hopefully our next launch will land in a open grassy field.

  3. Finally has mounting holes on New Raspberry Pi Model B+ · · Score: 2

    Glad to see it finally has mounting holes! With a board mounted on top of the Pi, it was a pain to find an enclosure that would work for my projects.

  4. PT Crapper on Slashdot PT Cruiser Spotted In the Wild · · Score: 1

    Ended up renting the PT Cruiser a couple of times, while on work trips, and hated them... they really should be called the PT Crapper.

  5. Felt in Milwaukee, WI on 5.5 Earthquake Hits Canada; Felt in US Midwest, New England · · Score: 1

    A few of us on the 6th floor of our building felt a little sway. Didn't know what to make of it until I read about it a couple hours later...

  6. No beer? on Inside the Windows 7 Launch Party Pack · · Score: 1

    I mean really, what's a party without beer?

  7. Any other Cromemco Fans out there? on Old Operating Systems Never Die · · Score: 1

    Probably the most bulletproof (literally, they were built like tanks!) system out there, Cromemco had very good S-100/IEEE-696 systems, running Z-80s and M680x0 processors.

    For operating systems, they had CDOS (like CP/M only better) and Cromix, a UNIX-Like system. I have actually used one which also ran AT&T System V UNIX. Unfortunately, they were priced out of the range of most folks.

    I still have a ton of documentation and disks in my basement for these beasts!

  8. silicone chip? on Happy Birthday, Internet! · · Score: 1

    From the article: VOICEOVER (English) no name given: "In the 70s, the silicone chip became the basis of a new generation of computerized devices .
    Following the silicone chip, came games and e-mail, creating a social and industrial revolution.

    Wow, I want a computer with one of those silicone chips, mine only has a silicon chip.

  9. Re:WK2 at Oshkosh on White Knight Two Unveiled · · Score: 1

    There was a longer flyover Tuesday afternoon, I got about 50 photos. Quite impressive, and it's great to see a these planes up close. The other thing they announced was WK2 will not only be used for launching passengers, but will also be able to launch satellites.

    I didn't check, but there are probably some videos/photos up at the EAA Airventure websire, www.airventure.org

    Hopefully, this will usher in an era of affordable space access.

  10. Re:I want a USB Focus 2001! :-) on Old-School Keyboard Makes Comeback of Sorts · · Score: 1

    I really liked the Focus 2001, it's still on my parents computer thanks to a PS/2 -> AT keyboard adapter. On my computer now is a Dell branded Model M keyboard, it's at least 12 years old, and the only keyboard I like better than the Focus. Of course, in order to use the Model M, I need to use a PS/2 -> USB adapter.

  11. There is no excuse for this! on Why Mirroring Is Not a Backup Solution · · Score: 1

    This is just poor IT admins, or maybe none at all.

    And to those of you who want to blame the bean counters, there are cheap ways of making backups, even if it means manually doing a sqldump to some other server, disk or even a PC with a big hard drive laying around.

    There is absolutely no excuse for any server admin not to have tested backups.

    Since I'm currently unemployed, if any of you admins need help with setting up adequate backup for your servers, please feel free to hire me!

  12. Putting Corporate Interests ahead of the People on EU Will Not Divulge Microsoft Contracts · · Score: 2, Funny

    Did the Republicans move to Europe?

  13. "Tie" this to the election on Major Advances In Knot Theory · · Score: 1

    Obama - I see him as an overhand knot guy.

    McCain - a velcro guy for sure.

  14. Tough to identify the issue... on Best Terrestrial/OTA HDTV Setup For an Apartment? · · Score: 1

    "The results have been terrible..."

    This really doesn't tell us what the exact problem is. My guess is that it could be in a couple of areas:

    - Signal strength. You have a large directional antenna already, unless there is something obstructing the signal, you should be getting enough for the tuner card to decode. An amplifier may help, but if you aren't getting enough signal, it's never going to work. Other poster have identified workarounds for this.

    - Your hardware (CPU/GPU) is too slow to be able to decode the streams you are trying to play. This is OS agnostic, you provide no info on your HW configuration.

    For the record, I have a MythTV box which plays streams fine, while recording three OTA DTV streams at the same time. So I think this is more of a configuration issue than anything else. Need more info to help identify solutions.

  15. Re:What's up with all this social networking? on How Social Networks May Kill Search as We Know It · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up.

    I have no use for social networking searches, I only belong to one of the sites, and rarely ever visit that one. Probably should delete my account. Few of my friends, including the 30-something IT crowd use them either.

    My web searches rarely turn up any useful info from social networking sites. In the interest of new technologies, I think it's great that people explore new areas, but I doubt this will change the way we use search.

  16. Re:So what is liberal or conservative? on Ask Skewz.com Founder About Detecting Media Bias · · Score: 1

    As a regular reader of the BBC for news, I would agree the the BBC takes and outside view of America, but they do have their own agenda, and have admitted they are biased:

    http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23371706-details/Yes,%20we%20are%20biased%20on%20religion%20and%20politics,%20admit%20BBC%20executives/article.do

  17. Irony on What Happens To Bounced @Donotreply.com E-Mails · · Score: 1

    Perfect timing on this article.

    Earlier this week I was put on a project to provide an encrypted email solution between our company and one of the companies listed on the donotreply site. I haven't decided on how to use this information yet!

  18. Stop Calling Me! on Fighting Back Against Ghost Calls · · Score: 1

    Well, every couple of days I receive a call on my work cell from 847-557-1100, Arrow Financial. A quick Google search turns up how they are calling lots of other people too.

    So, I appreciate the work anyone does to help stop these folks!

  19. Line Rider Rocks! on What Are The Best Free Games Online? · · Score: 1

    Having spent entirely too much time with it, I had a lot of fun with Line Rider, and all the variations that came after the original.

    Unfortunately, none of the Flash games I have played has lasting value... once I have expended enough time on them, rarely do I go back and play them again.

  20. Re:I guess he's not used the new Yahoo Mail interf on High Performance Web Sites · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up! Each time I try the new Yahoo mail, it seems to get slower.

    When I switch back, I always make a comment about the performance, but haven't seen them do anything to fix it. The new version of My Yahoo! seems to have the same issues.

  21. No other choices on Hotmail Delivers Far Fewer Emails with Attachments · · Score: 1

    Since Hotmail is the only web based mail out there, it's not like you can switch to another vendor.

    Oh wait, I guess there are thousands of other vendors you could choose from.

    For the record, I had a Hotmail account for about a year until I switched to gMail. I don't plan on going back.

  22. Still find it interesting on Do You Still Find Amateur Radio Interesting? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    About four years ago I was getting bored with my computer hobby (and occupation), and I had been going to hamfests for years getting computer equipment. I decided to look into getting a ham license, and I am glad I did. I have always had an interest in electronics, and being able to experiment with a lot of bands and modes of communication has kept me in the hobby. There are lots of ham clubs across the country, and several good ones around my area (Milwaukee, WI, USA).

    There are lots of sub groups to the hobby, specializing in areas like contesting, VHF/UHF/SHF weak signal work, public service events like bike rides, walks, digital (computer) modes, software radios, and lots more.

    There will always be naysayers who say the hobby is dying, to me it just seems like it is evolving.

    If you are interested in it, go for it, if you don't like it, move on to something else!

  23. I miss the smell... on What Will It Take For eBook Adoption? · · Score: 1

    It's pretty simple why I don't like ebooks. If I pick a 100 year old book off the shelf, it has a great musty smell. If I ready that text in ebook format on my computer, you just don't get the same effect...

  24. Brave New World? on THX-1138: The (Digitally Enhanced) Director's Cut · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The story line seems like a ripoff from Aldous Huxley's book Brave New World. Which happens to be a great book if you've never read it.

  25. Bill Clinton on Whose Desktop Would You Most Like To See? · · Score: 1

    I just wonder if his desktop picture has a cigar on it...