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User: dfsmith

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Comments · 363

  1. Wing Commander: Privateer on Notch Wants To Make a Firefly-Inspired Sandbox Space Game · · Score: 1

    The description reminds me of Wing Commander: Privateer. It had an enjoyable story-centric sequel along similar lines.

  2. Re:Not this again... on Why Was Hypercard Killed? · · Score: 1

    But when the code comprises mostly DATA 69,25,... statements that get POKEd in to memory, running early is very dangerous....

  3. Re:Drill Press on Ask Slashdot: Best Way To Destroy Hard Drives? · · Score: 2

    They definitely wouldn't be able to get the data back if you'd formatted them with 2's and 3's.

  4. Not a very big API on The Google+ API Is Released · · Score: 1

    It only has "get" person, "list" activities and "get" activity. You can't post or do anything interesting with it yet. Hopefully they'll open it up more soon.

  5. Re:Validation? on Skein Hash... In Bash · · Score: 1

    Well, given the hex<—>string routines should probably be printf '%02x' instead of '%x', I'd give it a slim chance of validating.

  6. Re:GNU to the rescue on Download.com Now Wraps Downloads In Bloatware · · Score: 1

    GNU GPLv2:

    3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

    a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

    ...

    Seems pretty clear to me that, yes, you do. Is the wrapper executable? Is it based on a GNU GPL'd source? You'd have a hard time arguing that section 3 doesn't apply.

  7. GNU to the rescue on Download.com Now Wraps Downloads In Bloatware · · Score: 1

    But if you're publishing GNU'd software through them, you could demand they publish the source to the wrapper.

  8. Re:unaccounted-for variables on 13-Year-Old Uses Fibonacci Sequence For Solar Power Breakthrough · · Score: 1

    At last, someone mentioned the open circuit voltage!

    For typical PV cells, open circuit voltage is proportional to the log of incident intensity, but short circuit current is linearly proportional. That's why most PV inverters have a dynamic impedance, to maximize power generation over the range of sunlight during the day.

    What a tree-design has going for it is more end-of-day available energy (if you don't have an energy store). It also has cooling benefits (which can easily cost 10-20% in efficiency).

    (And if you want to see what the sunlight in San Jose, CA was doing several years ago, check out my PV energy captures.)

  9. Re:Math errors claims call that suggestion into qu on United States Loses S&P AAA Credit Rating · · Score: 1

    Yes, but $2T which way?

  10. Re:Give them access to a VM on Ask Slashdot: Do I Give IT a Login On Our Dept. Server? · · Score: 1

    I have a Davical installation for my family calendar. The software would probably fall under HIPPA if you put something on it like "Thursday: see patient "Crudely_Indecent" (slashdot #739699) regarding his (or her) embarrassing lump in his [anatomical area]." If something like that gets Googlable or is picked up by a non-benevolent employer, it would be an issue.

  11. Re:Can this be real? on Man Pays $200,000 To Save Fake Online Girlfriend · · Score: 1

    You're assuming that there is somewhere in CA not prone to mudslides (the state is made of mud—it's the "Golden" State), earthquakes, wildfires, floods and drought. We don't get hurricanes and only a small tornado or two though.

    Do bad drivers count as a natural disaster?

  12. It would certainly solve nearly all air transport passenger problems; given that the beam vaporizes its sample.

  13. Try this: on Debian 6.0 To Feature a Completely Free Kernel · · Score: 2

    sudo apt-get install ubuntu
    should fix any problems.

    It's getting harder to run Debian, which is a shame. I am slowly but steadily converting my machines to Ubuntu just because I don't have time to mess about with drivers any more. (Typically 1 machine a year; when I need an app that won't run under 'stable' without munching in a half-GB of 'testing' libraries.

  14. Re:A little problem... on Chrome OS Doesn't Trust Apps Or Users · · Score: 1

    But if that trust is broken, who could you recover more compensation from?

  15. Re:Good Riddance on Google Wants To Take Away Your Capslock Key · · Score: 1

    People didn't care when Apple removed the PageUp/PageDown from the MacBook. (Of course, they lost at least one potential customer that way.)

  16. Re:Any user-defined throttles? on Verizon LTE Can Use the Monthly Data Allotment In 32 Minutes · · Score: 1

    $10/gigabyte

    That's way better than switching to text messaging at $0.40 per 160 bytes*. ($2.5M/GB)

    * That's the AT&T metered rate for when I send a maximum capacity text message to my wife.

  17. Re:Arguably? on Security Strategy: From Requirements To Reality · · Score: 1

    The dictionaries (Webster's, American Heritage, don't have my OED handy) disagree. Therefore I concede your point is arguable. B-)

    (However, you did make the assumption that I am not an expert in the subject.)

    My point is that the word adds nothing, and its only effect is to make me sigh because when I see it, I know that the reviewer out of his/her depth. Is it the best security book ever, or is it not? I want answers, dammit!

  18. Arguably? on Security Strategy: From Requirements To Reality · · Score: 1

    My napkin doodle of a one-legged pirate going `Arrrr!' is arguably the best security book ever. What does that expression mean, in reality?

  19. Re:Interesting concept on Map Based Passwords · · Score: 1

    You just did for free what Google needed a whole "Street View" fleet of trucks to do....

  20. Re:How to get out of work on a progeamming team on Sentence Spacing — 1 Space or 2? · · Score: 1

    My keyboard doesn't have a return key. It has two marked "enter" keys though (one of which has an additional newline symbol, one doesn't).

    It's interesting to reminisce that "return" is short for the unwieldy lever labeled "carriage return"; which would make your desk shudder. In the intermediate years the "send" key was very different from the "newline" key (remember 3270?).

    Erm, did I just prove your point?

  21. Re:Both hands?? on Death Grip Tested On iPhone Competitors · · Score: 1

    Yeah, cause covering the entire phone with two hands is a perfectly normal way that people would ever use the phone.

    I normally cover up my phone with one hand + one head; given that my head has much more biomass than my remaining hand, I think this test is actually generous.

  22. It's a conspiracy... on 4 Cores? 6 Cores? Do You Care? · · Score: 1

    ... by the ad-sponsored review magazines; not Intel.

  23. Re:It's about being truthful on Windows vs. Ubuntu — Dell's Verdict · · Score: 1

    Hmm. Not that I want to get too involved in reading MS licenses, but...

    • The first link is to Visual Studio 2010 licensing: VS2010 is not an OS.
    • The second link says that licenses are granted to a user, for perpetuity. So no problem there.

    And if the GP is developing games (or email) then the license hasn't been broken. Now volume licensing is a completely different kettle of fish, and depends on what your employer has negotiated....

    But before we delve too closely into the second link, we can read the actual agreement here.

    Some notes:

    • Section 1.b confirms the "per user basis".
    • Section 2.b.i says that you inherit the original licenses that comes with the software, unless mentioned elsewhere in section 2. Windows 7 is mentioned, but only in the context of other license agreements in relation to media gizmos.
    • Section 2.g.ii says you can use production desktop software with MSDN if you buy it.
    • Section 9 on activation is interesting. We do a lot of hardware work with MSDN, so when we called for support about the hassle of having to reactivate 20 times a day, the recommendation was to not activate.
    • Section 16 is hilarious. You may not "work around any technical limitations in the software". Umm... isn't that the definition of software development?
    • Section 22 says you may transfer the license.

    What did I miss?

  24. Re:I wonder... on Apple To Issue a 'Fix' For iPhone 4 Reception Perception · · Score: 1

    The hookers are to distract management when they ask for a status update.

  25. Re:Really? on NASA Finds Cause of Voyager 2 Glitch · · Score: 1

    Voyager uses 4K of 18-bit words which is 4096*18/8=9216 "bytes". Hence it would be ~466033.8 times easier that 4GiB.