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User: Cid+Highwind

Cid+Highwind's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 1,642

  1. Re:This shouldn't matter to anyone who isn't a pir on Oscar Screener Ban to be Revoked for Academy Members · · Score: 1

    I disagree. It's entertaining to watch the MPAA thrash around and damage itself trying to cope with changing technology. Even if you don't pirate movies, you can still appreciate the humor in seeing the MPAA come up with a new "strategy" every few days, each one more harmful to the studios than the last. If they tried to about-face any faster, Jack Valenti would get whiplash.

  2. Re:Real-world Price Comparison on SCSI vs. IDE In The Real World · · Score: 1

    SCSI SYSTEM
    1 x Adaptec 29320 U320 SCSI adapter (64-bit PCI card): $179.
    1 x 73GB U320 10,000RPM drive by Maxtor: $296.
    1 x Motherboard with a PCI-64 slot: Priceless!

    Seriously, who has a machine that can use a 64-bit card to it's potential? Maybe the three of you with Mac G5s can, but in the AMD/Intel world, 64-bit PCI, like 64-bit processing, Duke Nukem Forever and Enlightenment 17, still seems like vaporware.

  3. Re:Not Just Edison, Not Just Copyright on RIAA Sequentially Repeating Edison's Mistakes? · · Score: 1

    The grandparent poster is right. Google for "George Selden" or "patent 549,160" and you'll find numerous references.

  4. Re:For a corpse, it smells surprisingly good on Is Bluetooth Dead? · · Score: 1

    In TheRestOfTheWorld is a Bluetooth-enabled device 50%-150% more expensive than an equivalent wired or non-bluetooth wireless device? If so, you're all silly for buying into Bluetooth. If not, we Americans are getting screwed!

  5. Re:Uptime? on Ten Years Of The Linux Counter · · Score: 1

    0.99.something, probably. 1.0 was released in March of 1994.

    http://edge-op.org/files/kernel-timeline

  6. Re:A quick hollywood primer on 142 Directors Appeal MPAA to Repeal Screener Ban · · Score: 1

    My mistake, I thought the DGA was a subset of the MPAA.

  7. requirements, reason, and missing the point on MiniGui, GPL'ed Qt/Embedded Alternative · · Score: 1

    Wait a minute... You want open-source developers to sit though months of requirements and design meetings that go nowhere before writing any code, work on projects they don't like, which are led by people they don't like, for a platform they don't care about, all while neglecting their pet projects they think would be more fun? I hope they're getting paid for this, because it sounds a lot like work! Open-source isn't about making software that's useful for other people, that's just a side benefit. It's about doing something interesting. If you want people to work on projects that bore and frustrate them, you should be willing to pay for it.

  8. Re:Why don't they jump ship? on 142 Directors Appeal MPAA to Repeal Screener Ban · · Score: 1

    The question is whether these directors would be willing to take that chance

    They should. George Lucas quit the MPAA after they tried to fine him for not putting opening credits in Star Wars. It didn't seem to hurt his career!

  9. Re:Can we remove Jackson from the 20? on Bureau of Engraving and Printing Issues New US$20 · · Score: 1

    Putting his face on the $20 is revenge! In addition to mistreating the Indians at every turn, Jackson was a vicious opponent of the federal reserve bank. Putting his face on government-issued money is the financial equivalent of dancing on his grave.

  10. Re:What SCO Really Wants on SGI Code Changes Not Enough, Says SCO · · Score: 1

    AHA! That's it, the smoking gun!

    Until now nobody has provided a clear reason for all of SCO's frothing and ranting about how the GPL is unenforcable and invalid (not to mention communist, anti-business, and just plain evil). If the GPL stands, it will prevent them from extorting their $600 per license. Maybe they think that if the GPL is overturned the Linux code (except for the SCO-claimed portions, of course) will be released as public domain, allowing Linux to be turned into a SCO product. *shudder*

  11. Re:Populism is bliss on Oops, Dave Barry Does It Again · · Score: 1

    just tell them "put me on your do not call list" before they have a chance to bother you

    You mean the "confirmed live numbers to sell/trade to other telemarketers list"? No thanks. Those in-house do-not-call lists seem to do about as much good as clicking the "unsubscribe" links in spam mail. Also, if I've stopped working or eating dinner, or whatever I was doing to answer the phone, it's too late, I'm alreay bothered.

    anyway, I hate people that are angry about telemarketers...

    Why not post your home phone number then? I'm sure there are more than a few slashdotters willing to call and explain just what they find objectionable about telemarketing.

  12. What? No gratuitous damage shots?!? on Build Your Own Mortar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Am I the only one disappointed that the reporter didn't go downrange and photograph the craters those bowling balls made on impact? I bet it would be a lot more impressive than the divots the cannon dug in the firing line...

  13. Re:DRM will be optional. on Microsoft Taking Over the BIOS · · Score: 1

    Given the way they're delaying Longhorn, it could take decades! *rimshot*

  14. Re:Token Based Trusted Computing on EFF Position on Trusted Computing · · Score: 1

    I still think the WIBU key looks a lot like a satellite TV smartcard. The reciever doesn't just check that the card it there, the card has to decrypt a symmetric program key with a secret key stored on the card, then pass the decrypted program key back to the reciever.

    Besides taking a logic analyzer to the token (which some bored EE will do eventually), the obvious way to attack this system would be a series of RAM dumps, as ymgve said. If the decrypted code is ever on the user's PC, it can be captured.

  15. Re:Token Based Trusted Computing on EFF Position on Trusted Computing · · Score: 1

    This token-that-decrypts-a-key idea sounds a lot like the directv/dish network smartcard systems. Those have been cracked repeatedly (usually within hours of an update). You can't give bits to the users and expect them to remain secret.

  16. DUH! on Replacing the Aging Init Procedure on Linux · · Score: 1

    Don't like it? Then don't use it! That seems simple enough to me.

    It's not like init is just going to disappear as soon as something newer comes out.

  17. Re:This is really simple. on Replacing the Aging Init Procedure on Linux · · Score: 2, Informative

    Calling those from a faster interpreter, doesn't make them load or run any faster. It never will

    No, but a slightly smarter init can start them in parallel, so you can be waiting on dhcp, hotplugd, and kudzu all at the same time. That would make things fater.

    If you think runlevels aren't important... Try patching a running system sometime.

    Why bother? Time spent in runlevel 1 is downtime to your clients anyway; from a normal user's perspective, a system in single-user mode might as well be powered off.

  18. Re:How I lust for a new Newton on New Palm Lineup Reviewed: Tungsten T3 & E, Zire 21 · · Score: 1

    Bigger is better
    For screen area, yes. Unfortunately, heavier is *not* better, and the Newt is a hefty device, more so once you add a case, flash and ethernet cards, keyboard, etc.

    It's too bad Apple is so vehemently opposed to getting back into the PDA market. Modern Apple hardware + reworked NewtonOS + Newton handwriting input would make a damn cool PDA. Give it a PPC G3 CPU, 128MB internal RAM, slots for airport and SD/CF cards, bluetooth, and maybe a USB port. Make the display (at least 800x600x16bit color) take up the whole top of the device, give it a titanium flip-open cover (like an MP2100 crossed with a Ti-book) and make the whole thing about the length and width of an MP2100, and thin as possible. *drool*

  19. Re:Home Brewed Radar? on Weather Radar Goes Miniature · · Score: 1

    Next week on slashdot: Homemade doppler radar using only an old microwave, an 802.11 WiFi card, a pringles can, a DirecTV dish, and a Linux box (and you will be able to download the GNU/radar source code). Now *that* would be "News for Nerds"!

  20. Re:I predict something else... on Diamandis Predicts X-Prize Winner Within One Year · · Score: 5, Insightful

    we have forgotten that there are things more important than human life -- that there are risks worth taking.

    Thank Jeebus someone else still feels that way.

    I have a simple answer for the "space travel is too dangerous" crowd: Don't do it. If you think flying into space is too much risk for the reward then you are welcome to stay on earth for the rest of your (hopefully long) life. However, please don't assume that everyone feels the same way you do, and when other people want to take extraordinary risks for what they think are extraordinary rewards, keep out of the way and let them do it!

  21. Re:War is the answer! on Computers, Unemployment and Wealth Creation · · Score: 1

    Are you in America? This place is way more well off than 20 years ago.

    20 years ago we were barely staying in a recession (as opposed to a depression), American manufacturing was in a death spiral, blue-collar jobs were fleeing the country faster than you could say "globalization", and we lived under the threat of instant thermonuclear annihalation. Yes, we are better off now than 20 years ago. 5 years ago, the Dow was over 11,000, anyone who could spell "computer" was employed and making $50,000/year, everyone with a hot idea could become a gazillionaire with a few years hard work and a little luck, the Internet was poised to transform commerce, and there was real hope for peace in the middle east. We are *definitely not* better off now than 5 years ago. While we're on this tangent, we're better off now than we were in the middle ages, too. That still doesn't help me find a better job.

    India has 1 Billion people. Avg. salary is $450/year. Socialism is great!
    Way to pick your examples to prove a point. The problem is Japan, South Korea, and most of Europe are leftist/socialist economies too, and they're producing more wealth per unit of resources (i.e. more efficient economies) than we are.

  22. Re:Do you really want them to stop? on Linksys Still In Violation of the GPL? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Isn't it enough of a victory for the profession that they have used an academically based operating system rather than a commercial one?

    It may be nice to see a major player using Linux, but if nobody makes noise about them violating the GPL, it could have bad repercussions down the road. Not enforcing (or at least trying to enforce) the GPL now gives ammunition to anyone litigating against it in the future. Someone like SCO could argue that not going after Linksys means that the FSF know the GPL is unenforcable, and therefore invalid. Or thgey could argue that not enforcing license terms on the kernel means that the kernel copyright has no value and can therefor be violated without consequences. It's better to send nastygrams now and risk alienating Linksys than not to send them, and risk seeing SCO or MS own Linux.

    They could conceivably switch to Windows

    Good! Linksys DSL/cable modem routers are pretty insecure by default. Let them generate bad PR for Windows insteads of Linux.

  23. Warning: Language trolling ahead! on Y: A Successor to the X Window System · · Score: 1

    Something with a string datatype, automatic bounds-checking for arrays and strings, and better memory managment than malloc()/free() for starters. Doing away with direct pointer manipulation would be nice too. Worrying about where an object is in memory and how much space it uses should be a job for the OS kernel, not for an applications programmer. Personally, I would like to see something like Python, except that it could be compiled to native machine code instead of running in an interpreter.

  24. You knew it was coming! on Sobig Worm Attacking RBL Lists? · · Score: 1

    Thus, the US would feel free to invade Spamodia to free the oppressed Spamodians from the evil Spammer overlords

    I, for one, welcome our new Spammer overlords...

  25. Re:uh, just use jabber on Yahoo Messenger Blocks Outside IM Clients · · Score: 1

    But jabber only has 12 users, and they're all too busy posting to /. about how great jabber is to chat with anyone!