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User: sporkme

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Comments · 284

  1. Re:Too darn hot on The Mystery of Saturn's Atmosphere · · Score: 5, Informative

    --Wait. Hotter than the surface but not hotter than the core. The corona is one to three million degrees kelvin, the surface is around 5800 degrees, and the core is around 13 million degrees.

  2. Too darn hot on The Mystery of Saturn's Atmosphere · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Easy. It must be all the SUV's.

    The corona of the sun is hotter than the surface or the core. Maybe they can examine the energies at work in the stellar phenomenon, as the gas giants are often referred to as "failed stars."

  3. Re:Request on 25 Percent of All Computers in a Botnet? · · Score: 4, Informative

    Does anyone know a utility/website for detecting and cleaning bots?
    I use a can of airduster, a cotton swab and an alochol solution to clean my bots.

    There are a bunch of port scanner sites out there that can check the integrity of your firewall. DSL Reports has a decent one if memory serves. Use Spybot Search & Destroy, LavaSoft AdAware and a good antivirus like AVG or Avast. If you suspect that there is unwanted network traffic to and from your system, use Ethereal to see where it is going to and coming from. If you suspect an exploit of Internet Explorer, HijackThis can shed some light on it. Check the task manager process tab for suspicious looking entries and Google them. Lay off the pr0n! and v1agr@ emails.

    By far the most powerful and versatile utility is The Geek Down The Street (TM), possibly surpassed by Your Local Computer Repair Shop (TM). Ultimately, there is no replacememnt for smart practices and secure software. Use an alternative browser like Firefox or Opera, or better yet pop on over to http://www.linux.org/dist/ and take your pick.
  4. Re:Domains on The Death of Domain Parking? · · Score: 1

    or expertsexchange. All the all important hyphen.

  5. Re:What a load of BS on One In Five Windows Installs Is Non-Genuine · · Score: 1

    My friend feels left out. I think he is going to tpcry.

  6. Quantam bleep on The Birth of Quantum Biology · · Score: 1

    Sense of Smell Tied To Quantum Physics?

    Animal, vegetable, mineral -- we are all made of matter.

  7. Re:Unwise to use them for confidential data on Investigating Online Office Suites · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Google: Confidential "not for public release" - optionally add filetype:pdf, doc, etc.

    I completely agree with your statement. Swapping convenience for security is the name of the game. I used Writely.com before it became Google D&S. I found it mainly useful to leave lasting notes-to-self from work, and when I needed to whip up something with a little more shine than wordpad. For anything professional, OOO + [distribution system of choice] is the way to go.

  8. Re:Secrecy and Integrity on Deathblow To a Voting Machine · · Score: 1
    If someone can tell who you voted for, your vote is completely worthless and should not be counted at all.
    I should have said:
    If an interested party can tell who some or all people voted for, those votes are completely worthless and should not be counted at all. If a candidate, organization, or even union can strong-arm you into voting one way or another and then verify that vote through means either subversive or legitimate, the election is a farce. We all roll our eyes when a brutal dictator "wins the election" with 99% of the vote, and this is what is at work in those cases.
  9. Secrecy and Integrity on Deathblow To a Voting Machine · · Score: 1

    If someone can tell who you voted for, your vote is completely worthless and should not be counted at all.

    A union leader or employer could demand that you vote for a certain candidate and verify that you obeyed. Someone could offer you money to vote one way or another, paying up after the vote has been verified--and people complain about votes being "bought and sold" now. A person may indicate one way on an open petition to avoid being ostracized, but can vote his true feelings on a secret ballot. This is a cornerstone of free society.

  10. What's that sound? on MySpace to Offer Spyware for Parents · · Score: 5, Funny
    NFTFA:
    An source which requested to remain anonymous stated that the new feature was to be entitled Myspace DeathKnell and stated that the board of directors was optimistic about the future of the social networking giant. "The future is bright. Much like the Titanic, this ship is unsinkable. The difference is that there is not a single iceberg in sight," stated another unnamed source.

    With any luck, this will be the third-to-last /. article about MySpace.
  11. Concensus on The Return of the Fairness Doctrine? · · Score: 1

    I have read every post. Nearly everyone seems to feel that Fairness Doctrine is not a good idea. Most of the arguments are about which set of politics certain institutions espouse, with the bulk of the remainder focusing on Rush Limbaugh specifically or nitpicking catalysts for change in power in the last election.

    I guess geeks know censorship when they see it. "Fairness..." a turd by any other name...

  12. Re:I do a wee bit better than that. on Bilingualism Delays Onset of Dementia · · Score: 1

    What about Japanese people that speak English?

  13. Re:isn't it the other way around? on Lessig On Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    OT: The USPS is the only government mandated agency that is self-sustaining

    Special budget appropriations are made to cover the cost mail for certain groups. The first Bush administration and Congress eliminated over 90% of these appropriations in the early 90's and individual rates were increased to compensate.

    NASA would have been a better example. Burt Rutan could say a thing or two about competition with a government.

  14. Re:vengeance versus justice on Fighting Porn Vs. Ruining Innocent Lives · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is not isolated to porn (duh). When a prosecutor has it out for you, there isn't much that can be done. Often there is a willingness to make an example for others, or to appear tough on a specific kind of crime for political benefit.

    Chris Soghoian knows what I mean. It has nothing to do with evidence - all that matters is the nature of the charges. The Duke lacrosse team knows too.

  15. Re:Uhhh Hello Earth to Detroit on Ford Airstream Electric Concept Car · · Score: 1

    Leading importer, exporter, and consumer! Let them eat bullshit.

  16. *hmm* on Ball Lightning Created In the Lab · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Goodness, Gracious! neat

  17. Re:Yes, but... on Paypal Won't Release Funds To Slain Soldier's Family · · Score: 1
  18. Re: Yea, Paypal Sucks...and that's on a good day on Paypal Won't Release Funds To Slain Soldier's Family · · Score: 0

    Hey man, you sound like you could really help me out. Do me a favor and fly into Indy and help me work on my old Ford truck. The mechanic is too expensive, even though he loves to work on these things -- especially the '79's. Man! You would think he would just do it for free!

  19. Re:No Roo bars? on Solar Powered Car Attempts to Break Record · · Score: 1

    The Australian outback is inhabited by many a strange and fascinating creature. That brings us to the leaping slug. It can leap nearly half a mile into the air [green slug leaps], but despite thousands of years of evolution, it has never mastered the art of landing. It has no natural predators. It is just... stupid. [splat]

    Then we come to the crabbit [pink rabbit with crab claws snags a slug]. it can leap and land, but it has a predator... the iz.

    The iz [chomps a crabbit] can leap and land *and* it has no natural predators... unless, that is, you count ME! [splats an iz]

    That's about the shape of it from memory.

  20. Re:No Roo bars? on Solar Powered Car Attempts to Break Record · · Score: 1

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maxx --- The Maxx is the allusion. It is a very good cartoon featured on MTV Oddities in the nineties, before it changed to strictly pop culture.

  21. I instantly thought of this prior Ask article on What Does Your Dead Man's Switch Do? · · Score: 1
    I instantly thought of this prior Ask discussion
    "I'm a widower caring for my very disabled child. I have family who check in on me often, but not reliably, and not every day. How can I rig up a 'dead-man's switch' that will alert family or emergency services should something happen to me, so that my child can be cared for? Her medical needs are significant enough that being alone for even an hour could be fatal for her. We do occasionally get out of the house, so a GPS type cellphone and a heart-rate monitor watch would seem to be the ticket, but how to link the two and get the desired dialing behaviour?"
  22. Re:FUD on Solid Capacitor Motherboards Introduced · · Score: 1

    HA! Thanks for that. Maybe this is one of the "sucker born every minute" deals and maybe not, but there has not exactly been a demand.

  23. Average on Solid Capacitor Motherboards Introduced · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Solid capacitors also last longer with an average lifetime of 23 years compared to only three for electrolytic capacitors, according to Gigabyte.
    I have seen popped caps on motherboards, but 3 years seems a little short as an "average."
    Additionally, solid capacitors have a higher tolerance for higher temperatures and they also perform better with higher frequencies and higher current than electrolytic capacitors.
    Yay for overclockers and NASA.
  24. Cellular Phones on Been Robbed Recently? Check Ebay · · Score: 1

    Cellular phones that are reported stolen are blocked by the provider from activation except by the original owner, or after clearance by the retailer to whom they were originally shipped. Always get the 11-digit electronic serial number (decimal) of a phone before buying it, and call the provider to verify that it is not stolen.

    When phones were stolen from my former employer, they had a value of zero after we called to submit the list of ESN's that the thief got.

  25. Michio Kaku on Choose the New PBS Science Show · · Score: 1

    Michio Kaku should have his own show on PBS.