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User: Smack

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Comments · 372

  1. But theft does not imply permanent loss on 2600 publishes FBI's inflated Mitnick money figures · · Score: 1

    If someone steals your car today, you have a loss of the value of the car. If the police catch the guy the next week, and you get your car back, you now have a gain of the value of the car, and your actual damages should just be the costs of the inconvenience. Your bottom-line doesn't involve the value of the car at all. But the thief should be charged depending on the actual value of the car.

    In the case of the companies, their bottom line may not have been affected much, but Mitnick still stole objects valued at many millions of dollars. He should not be liable for the value -- he should be liable for the loss.

  2. You're being disingeneous on 2600 publishes FBI's inflated Mitnick money figures · · Score: 2

    The slashdot description wasn't written by anyone at slashdot. Notice the quotes; they are just repeating the story that someone has sent in. Don't blame slashdot for spin they haven't even created.

  3. Re:Private screenings? on Taking May 19 Off? · · Score: 1

    Officially, there's no private screenings. But if Oracle sends 10 of their interns down to wait in line at the box office hours before they start selling tickets, and each one buys the maximum 12, well that's a private screening. Of course, they could also just throw money at the exhibitor -- they don't care where they get the money as long as Lucas doesn't find out.

  4. Watch out for the spoilers in the tracks names! on Phantom Menace Soundtrack - First MP3 Single -Pulled · · Score: 3

    The page with the mp3 has the whole list -- just don't scroll down.

  5. But how do you save it to disk? on Higher Res Prequel Trailer (and Quicktime 4) · · Score: 1

    Here's the link.

    Just right click on the above, and save as...

  6. VW has the info on their web page. on Resource for Identifying Catchy Commercial Tunes · · Score: 1

    Check it out: http://www3.vw.com/vwworld/music.htm

    FYI: the commercial with everything in time to the music uses "Jung at Heart" by Master Cylinder.

  7. Summary - false reasoning on Cringley predicts Microsoft Audio will triumph · · Score: 1

    Egad -- this is very misleading! 128 kbps is a data rate. For a given length song, the size of the resulting file is a constant, plus/minus overhead. For your sample 7 minute 27 second song, 128 kbps encoding gives a resultant file size of 7152 Kbytes, which is basically the result you got.

    Your fallacy is in concluding that two algorithms using the same bitrate sound the same. You can record a plain wav file at 128 kbps. It'll just be mono 8-bit, 16 Hz, and will sound crummy. You just can't use numbers to compare audio quality at the same bitrate. You have to do double-blind testing.

    There is a possibility that the MS 128 kbps codec sounds better than MP3. Than it is a better algorithm. I agree that the "half-size" claim is almost surely false, but that does not mean that they don't have a better scheme.

  8. One thing is missing.... on Jargon File v4.1.0 · · Score: 1

    Here's a pretty good description: http://ddi.digital.net/~gandalf/meow.txt

  9. Just the changelog... on Jargon File v4.1.0 · · Score: 3

    If you've read this before, you might want to just look at the Changelog. It has the full text of the new items. Keep up the good work, esr!

  10. Due process on Kevin Mitnick Speaks · · Score: 1

    From the story linked to in the "Kevin Mitnick to plead guilty" story that was on Slashdot a while ago:

    "In April 1996, he pleaded guilty to possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices (cloned cellular telephone numbers), and for violating supervised release, and was sentenced to 22-months in federal prison."

  11. Why not just set up an NNTP server? on Slashdot Moderation Phase 1.1 · · Score: 1

    First obvious point: There are no ad banners on NNTP, so how would Rob pay for the hardware? (And his food?) Also, switching to NNTP would kill the popularity of the site -- most internet users nowadays never deal with netnews. I know I rarely swim in those waters.

  12. Which 5 other cities? on Star Wars Early for the Rich · · Score: 1

    How about Chicago? Need to have something in the midwest. Also probably some southern city -- Atlanta or Orlando maybe. And how about Boston instead of DC -- nothing ever happens in DC!

  13. Four years in prison waiting for trial???? on Mitnick to Plead Guilty · · Score: 1

    What about this quote:

    "In April 1996, he pleaded guilty to possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices (cloned cellular telephone numbers), and for violating supervised release, and was sentenced to 22-months in federal prison. "

    So while he *was* awaiting trial in prison, he would have been there anyway because of his own guilty admission. Dumbass.

  14. Because identifier starts with 'b' on Todays Slashdot Updates · · Score: 1

    While it does seem nuts, for some reason the keyword for that box is "brunching". So it's pretty clear that the boxes are sorted in keyword order, not label order. Weird tho.

  15. There is one now... on Todays Slashdot Updates · · Score: 1

    There is a box for metacrawler now. Check it out.

  16. Isn't SUSE the bloated distro? on Feature:Free Linux · · Score: 1

    According to the review from ArsTechnica:

    "The retail version of SuSE 6.0 comes with enough software on the included five-CD set that even those of you with cable modems will feel lucky."

    Since the kernel and GNU utilities are the same size no matter how much extra crap is thrown in, won't their percentage go down as bloat goes up? 300 Meg is ~9% of five CD's, while 45% of one CD (like Redhat). And I'm sure a lot of that "uncredited author" code that's #1 is the crap that SUSE throws in on the 4th or 5th CD's.

    While I agree that GNU/Linux is a crappy name, I have real problems with this methodology of proving it.

  17. Some people aren't bright enough on Heapin' Helpin' Of Slashdot Notes · · Score: 1

    You don't see a need and I don't see a need, but all those people who flame the posts that they are clearly not interested in (Katz comes to mind) have a need. At least I feel they have a need.

  18. IBM WAS on IBM Demos Cray-Matching Linux Cluster · · Score: 1

    IBM has been around long enough that I think they've run out of acronyms! For example, WAS already stands for "warehouse administration system" and "work activity system". And that means it's one of the least used set of initials out there!

  19. Not even a link to slashdot. on Redhat's New Web Site · · Score: 1

    Rob has to be involved. They don't even have LINK to slashdot!!! All the links that look like they should be external just point to the redhat site. What a travesty.

  20. Not too impressive on Redhat's New Web Site · · Score: 1

    Don't you think that redhat.com should show you the redhat news first? If I want news from slashdot, I'll go to slashdot. If I want to find out something about Red Hat, I don't want to wade through other site's news to find it.

    Also, what's the deal with the slashdot links? Are they trying to insulate people from the "evil" comments threads? The page you get taken to when you click on a slashdot headline is like a neutered version of our beloved page. There is no way to get from the redhat page to the original story.

    Rob, I hope you got some money out of this deal, because you've really sold your soul.

  21. Here are the slides: on Keynotes on Real Audio · · Score: 1
  22. The world is a strange place... on IBM Announces Linux Support · · Score: 1

    Hey, they let me run OS/2! Win95 was not required. Besides how can you run Linux when it is standard at the company to keep Notes open all the time?

  23. Another pronunciation: .shtml on Full Quickie Assault · · Score: 1

    I actually had a boss once who raised concerns over this .shtml stuff on our web pages. She demanded to know why I couldn't change it to something with less chance to offend. This was at a large university where this kind of thing was not at all unusual. The end result was that we ALWAYS spelled out the acronym.

  24. Which movie to see... on Movie Review:Office Space · · Score: 1

    If you're a programmer for a large faceless corporation, see Office Space. It's so true that I laughed my ass off. Rushmore has it's moments, but it's not as much of a true comedy. Of course it's also going to be gone from the theaters in a week or two, so you might want to see it while you can.

  25. Jargon file tells all on What is the Origin of 'Foo' · · Score: 1

    This link has more information than you would ever want to know.