Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Weâ(TM)re trained from birth for words (Score 1) 145

Itâ(TM)s no surprise that we have our attention drawn out of us against our will to speech, since we are trained our entire lives to listen to speech. Guess what - music with words forces us to listen, where as music without words not so much. Big surprise that intellectuals once listened to classical music, it turns out that they were just not listening to words.

Comment Re:Anything is possible. Practical though? (Score 1) 418

Who are you, and you speak like I think. I'm not sure if I speak like you think, but I seriously wish there were another me. Not an exact me, as the copy would find similar results that I would. I need a different , like the same genetic traits that blueprints the type of person I am, but maybe from a different gene pool, with a different upbringing. Like if I were to have several illegitimate children with different women, and then pawned them off for adoption before settling down with Miss Right, and then have more children with her. Those children would have the "thing" that makes me the way I am, and THAT is the person I believe you to be in relation to me. Not necessarily in the manner I described, but as you continue to read this I'm sure you're becoming more curious. I even spent 15 minutes reviewing other posts that you've made here on Slashdot, and I'm quite impressed with the quality of your posts. But now thats enough ego stroking and I'm sure i've officially creeped you out. Thats okay though, I'm pretty sure you'll get over it. I also have a daughter, five kids total actually. Life is good, they are awesome, but at 37 I'm afraid my potential is not fully realized. But, perhaps through correspondence with you -LostMyBeaver- I might find a way to achieve something that I cannot do alone. So shoot my nickname an email at hotmail when you get a chance, as I want to build an accord with you, and have a few ideas to discuss. (psst - its definitely not a Sloot like video encoding system) You may get bored, you may be suspicious, but trust your gut this once and reply. To me it feels like a huge effort to reach out to a complete stranger like this, so don't prove me wrong. Send me that email, I only want to give back that irreplaceable commodity which once spent is never reclaimed. Have yourself a good evening, and know that not replying to me will result in restless sleep or perhaps a migraine. The clock is ticking - tick - tock - tick

Comment OSX has a great track record (Score 1) 665

Never in the history of OSX did the operating system break compatibility with all of its existing software intentionally. In fact, when Apple shifted to a different x86 cpu, they provided tools which let someone run software from A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ARCHITECTURE TO MAINTAIN COMPATIBILITY. Last time I checked, Microsoft has never done anything like this, as their business model has been "Buy all new stuff so we can fuck you out of it in two to three years"

Comment Re: Dictionary? (Score 1) 157

Not so random. Found a FreePbX phone system that requires ssh for phone traffic to pass to the VoIP provider. VoIP provider calls once a month saying a quarter of their total bandwidth comes from one number on the clients phone system and changes the private key used to authenticate. VoIP doesn't require ssh, so after figuring out all calls are being routed to a man in the middle, ssh gets disabled and phone quality improves, VoIP provider is happy. If the hackers only knew how to maintain good call quality, they would have never been discovered.

Comment Re:Source is HVAC Contractors (Score 1) 303

Water is a liquid as well, yet I'm breathing it as humidity every day

"Prior to the Montreal Protocol, large quantities of carbon tetrachloride were used to produce the chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants R-11 (trichlorofluoromethane) and R-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane). However, these refrigerants play a role in ozone depletion and have been phased out." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

Comment Source is HVAC Contractors (Score 5, Interesting) 303

I know because it's happening all over the Coachella Valley. I have seen cut rate guys NOT reclaiming or pumping down coils - jettisoning 10+ pounds each time. This occurs at least 50 times a day here in the desert that I know of. Even top paid contractors like callthegeneral.com just don't care because their commission is based on number of visits per day, and it takes an extra 15-25 minutes to pump a system down before removal. The wholesale houses even pay a couple $$$ per pound of the reclaimed stuff, but commission rates ensure blowing off straight to atmosphere every time.

Comment Re:Duh (Score 1) 92

You are correct. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but for automated systems there seems to be a need for constant babysitting for HP equipment. Seems like HP support is always showing up to do SOMETHING to a server related to drive firmware or cooling fans, while the Dell equipment just keeps running ad infinitum. HP support has only cost $300K this quarter for the aforementioned issues, and caused downsizing in a department that could use a few more bright staff members. Cooling fans and drive firmware - is this for real?

Comment Re:Duh (Score 1) 92

The key is to know what the hell you're doing, and let the spectators watch the show. New or used, buy for what your customer needs - NOT for the free tickets Vendor X gives you as an incentive to buy their gear. Being a professional in this field, here are some pointers.
- Contact your power company for virtualization incentives to upgrade all that old hardware.
- Use free software that is commercially supported, like XenServer, QuantaStor, and Zimbra.
- Stick with a vendor that produces quality gear like Dell (Sorry HP, but you know why)
- Buy from wholesale vendors like Stallard, or from established eBay vendors.

Comment Forget Moore - what about Wirth's law? (Score 2, Informative) 460

"Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster." -Wirth

Lets see - I'm building a UAV using RS-422 for fly-by-wire operation using a RTOS and embedded hardware. Do I want TCP/IP or USB buffers involved on servos that control its ability to stay in the air? I can only imagine getting a lecture from an engineer at Raytheon about keeping things simple.

I wonder if someone will make a joke about selling Toyota Motor Corp a USB accelerator control...

Slashdot Top Deals

"Well, social relevance is a schtick, like mysteries, social relevance, science fiction..." -- Art Spiegelman

Working...