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User: warren.oates

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  1. Learning to code on Slashdot Asks: How Did You Learn How To Code? · · Score: 1

    I bought a Sinclair ZX81 in 1981, and taught myself BASIC. I went on to Z80 machine language; an 8- bit word is easy to deal with; it made more sense than BASIC anyway. Then I went on to the scripting languages; along the way got some Java. Now I create silly apps in Lua (using Corona) that people actually download.

  2. It's broken. on BitHammer, the BitTorrent Banhammer · · Score: 2
    [~/src/bithammer-master]% ./bithammer
    File "./bithammer", line 57
    print "Finding network gateway ..."

    SyntaxError: Missing parentheses in call to 'print'

    So it won't work anyway.

  3. The Library Still Has Books on Ask Slashdot: What Good Print Media Is Left? · · Score: 2

    I still take home books from our local small-town library (it's an original Carnegie Library) and read them in the bathtub and on the toilet and in bed and with The Simpsons on mute in our living room.

  4. Hitching a Ride on New Service Lets You Hitch a Ride With Private Planes For Cost of Tank of Gas · · Score: 1

    I had a friend, years and years ago, would go out to an airfield and "hitch a ride" on a private 'plane going to either somewhere he wanted to go, or (sometimes) to just anywhere the pilot was going that sounded interesting. He would have been about 19 years old then, like me. I was too nervous to try it on my own, and it wasn't the sort of thing that two guys could do in a small 'plane, so I never did it.

  5. Phrog Nonsense on Quebec Language Police Target Store Owner's Facebook Page · · Score: 1

    We run a B&B in Ontario; we speak pretty good Frog, and we have a web-page in Phrog for the Phrog tourists. So I'm gonna take it down (the Phrog version) and return some error code to the bastards. 406 (not acceptable) is a good one, but also 402 (payment required) might come in handy.

  6. XBMC is your only man ... on Ask Slashdot: Suggestions For a Simple Media Server? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As far as i'm concerned, XBMC is pretty much the only way to go here. I keep my media files (Movies, TV, Music) on a terabyte drive in my first generation Mac Pro and samba share them gigabit to a Zotac id41 running Openelec. Openelec is an appliance-like Linux distribution that installs quickly and does nothing other than run XBMC (there's no "desktop" except XBMC; you can control it via ssh). I tried Serviio, and a couple of streaming servers, but they don't always understand what a file is supposed to do and choke on it. Samba just shares files and lets the remote machine figure them out. XBMC figures everything out that I've sent it so far; it has a host of plug-ins (what they call "add ons") including one for the BBC iPlayer, and for the ITV player, and for Hulu and you can even control rtorrent from one of them. For the Beeb and ITV I use Witopia's VPN service which can be invoked from Openelec's command line if you know what you're about. Plays 1080p nicely on my 50", all sorts of 5.1 audio goes through a semi-decent Pioneer amp. Openelec is not for dedicated Linux tinkerers. I set the Zotac up originally with Arch Linux because, you know, "I'm a geek, uh huh, uh huh" and it was a huge mistake because I was updating the damned thing every 20 minutes the way Arch people do, and I put a desktop on it and installed browsers and so forth thinking that I'd have a neat fully blown computer there in my living room and I could surf and check my email -- fahgeddaboudit! It's an HTPC only these days, plays music and video. Those Zotacs are powerful little machines though. I have a friend in town does the same thing with a Pi.

  7. What the Law Says on Canada Prepares For Crackdown On BitTorrent Movie Pirates · · Score: 1

    I think that all y'all should read through the actual copyright law, or at least, check out Michael Geist's blog .

    The max fine is 5000 canukshekels for all infringements prior to the lawsuit, but the minimum fine is $100, and the law contains language advising the courts to consider stuff like the impact of the fine on the defendant, and so on. Mr. Geist suggests that it might not be worthwhile for the MAFIAA and so forth to go to court only to be awarded $100 in damages.

    As well, the rulings of that Federal Court in Montreal ordering the ISPs to hand over the names of subscribers (there was another case about 18 months ago in the same court, I believe) have never been appealed; eventually, that will wind up in the Supreme Court.

  8. Re:Dancing? on Canadian Copyright Board To Charge For Music At Weddings, Parades · · Score: 2

    Reminds me of the old joke: Why don't Canadians fuck standing up? Because god might think they're dancing.

  9. TANSTAAFL on Open-Source Mini Sub Can Be Made On the Cheap · · Score: 1

    Oh, it's a boat. I thought it was about a cheap sandwich.

  10. And they wonder why there's so much piracy ... on Adobe Introduces the Paid Security Fix · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seriously. This is why people download pirated versions. Even if you have a paid version of something, the damned thing "phones home" every time you launch it, the bozos are so paranoid. You can disable this in /etc/hosts, but it's still indicative of greedy grubbing stupidity. If they charged a third of the price, they'd sell 3 times more copies. Look what Apple did with FCP -- they made it affordable (yes, I've read the complaints, but it works fine).

  11. They're from Quebec on New Frog Species Found In NYC · · Score: 1

    They must have moved down to NYC from Montreal.

  12. Which "America" are you talking about? on Selling Used MP3s Found Legal In America · · Score: 0

    "Legal in America" Right. "America" extends from Quttinirpaaq (let's say) to Cabo de Hornos (let's say). Which bit of this "America" is affected by this ruling? Fucken Yanks.

  13. Re:Wow, does that PR stunt even work anymore? on WikiLeaks To Ship Servers To Micronation of Sealand? · · Score: 1

    To see how "independent" Sealand really is, look up the history of British pirate radio stations. Essentially, HMG made it illegal to trade with them in any way (no food, no water, no booze, no hookers and so on) and that was the end of that.

  14. Re:Salute to Harper !!!! on Usage Based Billing In Canada To Be Rescinded · · Score: 1
    "He's not the commander-in-chief."

    No he's bloody-well not! Our government isn't set up that way. Harper's probably the worst PM ever.

    The CRTC has to be seen to be an independent body, at least until they've made a ruling. Of course Harper will overturn this one -- there's an election coming up and the middle classes are the ones who vote and have the Internet connections and pay the most taxes and want their streaming video without a "surtax" from Bell Canada (which is run by French Canadians, as it happens).

  15. Re:Why would you _not_ recycle as much as possible on Smart Trash Carts Tell If You Haven't Been Recycling · · Score: 1

    Are you referring to Listowel? and how all businesses have to lock their dumpsters now. and the people that use orange stickers to fake the tags. not to mention the illegal dumping.

    No, not Listowell, but all smaller communities have the same problems. Restaurants etc. lock their dumpsters here. People don't want to pay dump fees, so they go out to Nowhere Lane and drop stuff off. Or they keep it in a corner of their back yards until the neighbors complain.

    I haven't heard of a problem with fake bag tags here, yet, although The Idea has occurred to me: how hard could it be to have several thousand printed up in Montreal when I'm there?. The WM guys check the tags a bit -- you wouldn't get away with any old blue sticker.

  16. Re:Why would you _not_ recycle as much as possible on Smart Trash Carts Tell If You Haven't Been Recycling · · Score: 1

    You live in a country that actually values its citizens. Here in the US, you better have a health insurance card in your wallet, or the paramedics will just mark your ass as "coded" as opposed to bother to try to resuscitate you should something happen. You live in the safest, richest, most peaceful nation on earth, and are bitching about how home hillbillies get paid? You don't know how lucky you have it where you are not having to deal everyday with someone coming into a cafe, pulling out two high capacity pistols and mowing down everybody in the restaurant on a daily basis. Or find that a discarded joint got stuck to your tire of your car, and are now facing a life prison sentence for that.

    Well, that's all true, but comparisons are meaningless, really; I only visit the US for the lobster in Maine, and I buy travel health insurance before I leave.

    I also don't live in Saudi Arabia where they'd cut off my hand and stone my ol' lady if I put the glass where the plastic should go. Or Somalia, where they'll kill you for supporting a soccer team. Hmm. Now that I think about it ...

  17. Why would you _not_ recycle as much as possible? on Smart Trash Carts Tell If You Haven't Been Recycling · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In the little town where I live, we pay $2 per bag of garbage picked up at the curb (kerb). Recycle is collected free. The more aggressively I recycle, the less I pay in "bag tags" to the slimy city council, who spend it on new pickup trucks for their greasy-haired hillbilly workers to drive around in all day just doing nothing at all ... oh, was I going on a bit? Anyway, we compost for the same reason -- it costs us less in garbage fees and also garners some nice greenie points and a pat on the back. Beer, liquor and wine containers all have refundable deposits where I live, so they don't go into the recycle anyway. If we could reduce the amount of bloody tim-horton cups littering the streets of Ontario, it would be a better place to live.

  18. What if ET isn't a nice guy? on If ET Calls, Who Speaks For Humanity? · · Score: 1

    I mean, everyone thinks that ET will be some kind of Yang science-fiction saviour, (s)he'll cure cancer and possess a quantum computer to deal with them prime numbers very quickly and then there'll be No More War and then the future will shine with a glowing white light halleluhahaha ...

    But what if ET shows up and it's just a gang of uneducated thugish assholes who've stolen a spaceship that they only barely know how to operate and they've crashed it here and then the Tough family welcome them into their homes and right away call the president or the US of A?

    Doesn't anyone read Flannery O'Connor anymore? Or Stephen King, for that matter.

  19. Re:You got the cause and effect reversed on US Gov't. Ending Its Hands-Off-the-Internet Stance · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I didnt't vote in your elections either, not being a yank, should I refrain from posting too?

  20. Just like the old boss ... on US Gov't. Ending Its Hands-Off-the-Internet Stance · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The working class can kiss my ass; I've got the foreman's job at last. -- Ballacks O'Bama.

  21. Avatar on Augmented Reality and Privacy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I haven't used my real name anywhere on the Internet in about ten years.

  22. Pardon em all and let gawd sort em out ... on Alan Turing Apology Campaign Grows · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What about Oscar Wilde, then?

  23. Who runs the asylum? on Wikipedia Threatens Artists For Fair Use · · Score: 1

    Let me get this straight: Wikipedia is run by 18-year-old Australians? who talk in gobbledegook?

  24. Re:ha ha ha on Work Progresses On 10,000 Year Clock · · Score: 1

    Nah, when the Taliban take over they'll be offended and blow the thing up.

  25. Re:Bloody hell! on Is Alcohol Killing Our Planet? · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is just another "agenda" article. Fella's discovered AA, so everyone should. Fuck 'im. Are meat eaters destroying the planet? Oh my gawd yes.