Recent Comments

Re: Oblig. (Score: 4, Informative)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org in Heartbleed OpenSSL Vulnerability on 2014-04-09 13:58 (#114)

Here's a link to Bruce Schneier's article , too. He calls the bug 'catastrophic.' Bold words from a guy who knows security and has the respect of security professionals.

Re: There exist some very negative reviews (Score: 2, Interesting)

by vanderhoth@pipedot.org in Science Toys For Girls on 2014-04-09 11:35 (#113)

You can't trust reviews. In this age too many companies hire PR firms to go around either spamming the competition or to write ridiculous, "Toy was awesome, flew my son to Mars where he got his electrical engineering degree at the age of 4 and came back to cure cancer!!!"

Unfortunately the only way to go about it is to buy it and find out for yourself or talk to someone you personally know who has it.

Oblig. (Score: 4, Informative)

by carguy@pipedot.org in Heartbleed OpenSSL Vulnerability on 2014-04-09 10:43 (#112)

Let me be the first to say that XKCD also covers this topic today, http://xkcd.com/1353/

Re: LEGO Blocks (Score: 2, Insightful)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org in Science Toys For Girls on 2014-04-09 09:54 (#111)

I don't think it has anything to do with views on abortion. I think Mormon families just traditionally prefer and appreciate large families. I have several Mormon friends and they all hope to have 4-6 children because they enjoy family life. That's too many kids for my taste, but I can certainly appreciate where they're coming from.

Re: LEGO Blocks (Score: 1)

by guises@pipedot.org in Science Toys For Girls on 2014-04-09 08:54 (#110)

My friends kids, 4 girls, 3 boys (what can I say, it's Utah)

If you don't mind me going a little off topic: this is a stereotype that I'm not familiar with. I think there's a Mormon prohibition on abortion, but none on other forms of birth control, right? So why the many children?

There exist some very negative reviews (Score: 2, Interesting)

by perfectnumbers@pipedot.org in Science Toys For Girls on 2014-04-09 03:54 (#10Z)

As soon as I saw this story, I was excited, thinking that this was a great concept. After reviewing the Goldiebox web site, I wanted to order some of the products for my daughter.

However, before ordering, I looked around for some more information. I found that on Amazon, there are some very negative reviews. The negative reviews would have you believe that the toys have serious short-comings in the execution of the great concept. For example there were repeated complaints about the toys being frustrating.

There were also a lot of positive reviews, but the negative reviews might keep me from ordering. I do like the concept though.

I'd have made the "p" and the "d" vertical... (Score: 1)

by unitron@pipedot.org in Pipedot Logo on 2014-04-09 02:12 (#10Y)

...but otherwise it's quite good.

Inspiration (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward in Pipedot Logo on 2014-04-08 23:34 (#10X)

Looks a bit like the Chromium logo. Possibly a bit like the Beats Audio logo.

American phenomenon? (Score: 4, Interesting)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org in Science Toys For Girls on 2014-04-08 23:19 (#10W)

Something makes me think this is a bigger problem in the USA than elsewhere. I know the last time I was in a Walmart looking for a fun toy for my daughter I was appalled by how little there was that wasn't pink/fluffy, involved Barbie or equivalent, or some stupid princess.

I will check this company out - I agree we are partly to blame for preferring toys of one type, but holy crap, the manufacturers aren't making it easy on us, at least, not the major stores and distributors.

Re: They should worry (Score: 1)

by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org in ORACLE: New Roadmap for SPARC and Solaris on 2014-04-08 22:57 (#10V)

Yeah, I just don't know if there is enough revenue in being Oracle's preferred hardware choice to keep sparc a float.

At the end of the day the old formula must still hold: profitMargins x numberOfSales >= costOfSupportingDevelopingSparc.

Meccano (Score: 2, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward in Science Toys For Girls on 2014-04-08 22:55 (#10T)

I miss meccano. Metal parts. Plates. Screws. Wheels. Lots of fun

Office (Score: 1)

by egcagrac0@pipedot.org in When I want to print something, I... on 2014-04-08 18:17 (#10S)

The office has a variety of large format printers. I don't keep 30" roll paper at the house, and I don't care to maintain an 11x17" duplex color printer.

If I wanted 8.5x11", I probably want to bind it (coil or binder) - there is a coil binder and usually 3-ring binders available for reuse at the office, too.

Given that I know the printing costs, I feel about as bad about this as I would for taking a couple of plastic ball-point pens home. It's a similar monetary value.

Re: LEGO Blocks (Score: 5, Insightful)

by songofthepogo@pipedot.org in Science Toys For Girls on 2014-04-08 17:35 (#10R)

The only thing that makes LEGO a boy toy instead of a girl toy is because we tell ourselves it is because it isn't Barbie. While LEGO specifically has a series of sets directly targeting girls [...] Why define strict gender roles at home when they're going to be bombarded by it for the rest of their lives?


This. I recall my bafflement when LEGO first announced their "for girls" sets (minifigs with bumps and curves!). To quote one astute father's comment on the subject: "They already have LEGO for girls. They're called LEGO." They had science toys for girls way back when I was a girl and they were called science toys. I had a chemistry set, erector set, real (not toy) microscope, LEGO. There's nothing (or there should be nothing) gendered about these things.

That said, I laud the efforts of any company that attempts to counteract the "girls don't do x" and "boys don't do y" stereotyping that appears to be so overly prevalent in the children's toy industry. While for the moment, at least, it looks like those efforts may need to involve targeting toys in a different-from-the-usual way to shift the status quo, I welcome an end to gender-targeted toys and look forward to a time when children and adults can simply find their own personhood, whatever that might be, and not feel compelled to fit a particular socially-defined role.

Re: They should worry (Score: 2, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward in ORACLE: New Roadmap for SPARC and Solaris on 2014-04-08 17:09 (#10Q)

Oracle customers are not startups, not by a long shot. While I agree with you that Power is the new Itanic and basically dead (several indications; no roadmap, latest chips were late, they created something called 'openpower', ...), for Sparc it might not be true. Fujitsu is also investing and Japans supercomputers use those Sparcs and they probably want to export these as well. Oracle has a huge customer base and as soon as their database will run much faster on the Sparc gear, those customers won't care what ISA they're running anymore.

LEGO Blocks (Score: 5, Insightful)

by fishybell@pipedot.org in Science Toys For Girls on 2014-04-08 17:05 (#10P)

The only thing that makes LEGO a boy toy instead of a girl toy is because we tell ourselves it is because it isn't Barbie. While LEGO specifically has a series of sets directly targeting girls (bigger minifigs, various shades of pink blocks) there are no sets targeting boys. They have a mostly boy base because there aren't that many good toys for boys either, especially that make them think. My friends kids, 4 girls, 3 boys (what can I say, it's Utah), all enjoy playing with LEGO blocks together. The younger ones also enjoy Mr./Mrs. Potato Head and dress up, both of which also foster creativity and imaginative thought for boys and girls alike. Having so many kids they need have toys and games that all can enjoy: it saves space and money. Why define strict gender roles at home when they're going to be bombarded by it for the rest of their lives?

Re: They should worry (Score: 2, Interesting)

by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org in ORACLE: New Roadmap for SPARC and Solaris on 2014-04-08 16:50 (#10N)

Back in the first internet bubble, Sun gear was mandatory for every startup. Then startups migrated to x86 for the next wave, and now they're almost all on AWS. With Sun/sparc not being purchased in such quantity anymore, they are ever more reliant on existing companies replacing older systems and.or adding capacity. I'd love to see Sparc and Power survive and thrive, but it doesn't look likely.

Re: Can't print at home (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org in When I want to print something, I... on 2014-04-08 16:06 (#10M)

I'd love to see one of those famous paperless offices. While I am able to go weeks without needing to print much of anything, I work with a bunch of clowns that regularly print out 20 pages sets of papers for everyone at a meeting, which no one actually reads or needs to read. What a waste! I've also got people printing out their email on a color printer, so all the hyperlinks print in blue, if there are any. Seriously, if these people had to buy their own toner cartridges you'd see a change in attitude, I think. Such a huge waste. Then I can only assume they print the email, read it, and then throw it in the trash.

But there are tons of people in modern offices who loathe empty space. They like to clutter the whole place up with papers, books, manuals, junk - not because they need any of it but because it makes them look busy and/or indispensable. It's hard to look busy when your desk is spotless and all your docs are carefully arranged digitally.

Can't print at home (Score: 1)

by tempest@pipedot.org in When I want to print something, I... on 2014-04-08 15:10 (#10K)

I've used PCs since the late 90s and I've never owned a printer. Over the course of a year I print about 30 pages for my own use, mainly tax forms and flight information. I save my home stuff as PDF on the rare occasion I need records, but I've noticed I print very little at the office either. Usually I print to PDF if I need to send a document... then they print it. Yay for the paperless office.

Re: They should worry (Score: 1)

by dnied@pipedot.org in ORACLE: New Roadmap for SPARC and Solaris on 2014-04-08 07:08 (#10J)

I hope you're right, in the interest of platform diversity.

Re: A litle confused about the info here (Score: 1)

by gumpish@pipedot.org in Kerbal Space Program on 2014-04-07 22:47 (#10H)

I've put in around 100 hours over the course of the past few months...

Though I didn't REALLY get into it until career mode appeared and I had to try to accomplish goals with a restricted set of parts.

I maxed out the science tree and just this week finally got around to landing a Kerbal on Eeloo and getting them back home.

The challenges still remaining for me are landing and returning from every possible celestial body (such as Lathe and Eve), but assuming I'm able to complete them I don't see how I could put 800 hours in...

Maybe if there was some reason to construct space stations or surface bases... (or obviously interstellar travel)

How have you managed to put that much time in on the game? (Uh.. hope you get notified about this reply...)

Re: rss? (Score: 1)

by bryan@pipedot.org in RSS Feed on 2014-04-07 21:41 (#10G)

Maybe use the bright orange feed icon to make it stand out more?

Re: They should worry (Score: 2, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward in ORACLE: New Roadmap for SPARC and Solaris on 2014-04-07 18:15 (#10F)

SPARC and their entire stack from ILOM to Solaris is orders of magnitude more robust than anything else out there. They also proved that they can deliver reliably in contrast to IBM where any Power7+ and Power8 are all delayed lately. I think we can expect stories again from people migrating /to/ the Oracle platform in the very near future.

They should worry (Score: 2, Interesting)

by fishybell@pipedot.org in ORACLE: New Roadmap for SPARC and Solaris on 2014-04-07 17:49 (#10E)

If you're truly invested in SPARC, and you haven't already considered jumping ship to x86, I'd recommend reconsidering. Yes, it will continue to bump along, but since Oracle's main focus is their database, which runs fine on x86/Linux, that is where the future is for them. I am not aware of anyone using Solaris for anything other than Oracle and SPARC for anything other than Solaris.

Purdy! (Score: 1)

by kerrany@pipedot.org in Pipedot Logo on 2014-04-07 15:22 (#10D)

I like it too. Looks very professional.

No, no, no (Score: 1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward in APT Version 1.0 Released on 2014-04-07 11:53 (#10C)

If it was conceived on April 1st, they should be celebrating it's 16th birthday Jan 1st this coming year. Everyone knows the normal gestation period of an app is 9 months!

Re: Why abandon the pipe-dot concept? (Score: 2, Insightful)

by nightsky30@pipedot.org in Pipedot Logo on 2014-04-07 11:48 (#10B)

Agreed. I think it does lose touch with the slogan a bit, but I do like the new logo.

Re: the new logo is awesome (Score: 1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward in Pipedot Logo on 2014-04-07 11:46 (#10A)

In college we had either MTV or an MTV-like channel that played in the cafeteria. It would occasionally show PEE BREAK in giant flashing letters in between songs. We could implement that as well for our pipedot reading, game playing, basement dwelling, denizens. :D

Re: security through obscurity (Score: 3, Insightful)

by nightsky30@pipedot.org in Xbox password flaw exposed by five year old boy on 2014-04-07 11:37 (#109)

Did anyone get reprimanded for this? They should have.

Why abandon the pipe-dot concept? (Score: 5, Insightful)

by dnied@pipedot.org in Pipedot Logo on 2014-04-07 10:34 (#108)

I really liked the wordplay about the pipe being "without the slant" (as opposed to a slash). That element gets lost in the new logo.

Nice! (Score: 1)

by vanderhoth@pipedot.org in Pipedot Logo on 2014-04-07 10:33 (#107)

I like it. Very clean looking, I think it also gives this site an identity of it's own.

Thanks (Score: 4, Informative)

by beldin@pipedot.org in Where to find credible, interesting science and tech stories to submit? on 2014-04-07 09:50 (#106)

First of all: thanks for the sentiment! I appreciate it :)

My approach: if I come across a story that I want to submit, I would spend a few minutes following sources and Googling it to find an English site that carries an interesting (i.e. more than headline+1 paragraph), non-hyperbole version of the story.

And, finally: for me, you don't need to try and adjust to the group. Submit the things you come across that you would like to see here. The rest here will probably like them too - after all, shared interests got us here in the first place.

Library? (Score: 2, Informative)

by lhsi@pipedot.org in When I want to print something, I... on 2014-04-07 09:31 (#105)

My library does printing; the last thing I printed was there.

When I was at Uni I did most of my printing at the Library there too until I got my own printer.

Not sure if it's funny (Score: 2, Interesting)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org in APT Version 1.0 Released on 2014-04-07 09:08 (#104)

Vogt's blog was pretty straight-forward and understandable. The way they release notes were written though I'm not sure how much of it was intended to be a joke. What's up with all that java stuff? Surely that was for humor? Or am I just coffee deprived?

Re: rss? (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org in RSS Feed on 2014-04-07 09:02 (#103)

There IS an RSS feed, and this isn't the first time someone has complained it's hard to find. Look for the word Feed at the bottom of the page, or click here: http://pipedot.org/atom But maybe it's time to use a header so the magic orange icon shows up in the URL bar.

Re: the new logo is awesome (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org in Pipedot Logo on 2014-04-07 09:01 (#102)

Looks nice! I agree with the suggestion to darken up the reply button, but overall the site is clean and fresh - nice work. Hey, maybe we can keep everybody happy by doing an MTV and having hundred of logos, that change every time the page refreshes ... ideally they would each be animated GIFs :)

rss? (Score: 1)

by crutchy@pipedot.org in RSS Feed on 2014-04-07 08:14 (#101)

who gives a shit about rss. this site is an excellent example of what one motivated individual can achieve in a limited time.
i hopped onto the soylent bandwagon before i discovered pipedot, but slash is shit. i seriously think slash will eventually sink the soylent boat if it isn't reworked/shitcanned soon enough.
pipedot might be a slow starter, but it looks better and may prove to be more maintainable than the slashbomination.

the new logo is awesome (Score: 2, Insightful)

by crutchy@pipedot.org in Pipedot Logo on 2014-04-07 08:05 (#100)

maybe darken the reply button text a bit... kinda blends into the bar. took me a while to find it :-P

Ergonomic (Score: 2)

by phaedrus@pipedot.org in Pipedot Logo on 2014-04-07 07:34 (#ZZ)

It looks good and it says what it's about, a good integration in my view.

Original was more pleasing (Score: 3, Insightful)

by fnj@pipedot.org in Pipedot Logo on 2014-04-07 07:23 (#ZY)

Not violently opposed to the new, but would have been better not to change it.

Somewhat offtopic (Score: 2, Interesting)

by marqueeblink@pipedot.org in Where to find credible, interesting science and tech stories to submit? on 2014-04-07 01:58 (#ZX)

Back when I used to submit articles to the green site, I noticed that my highest acceptance rate came from non-IT science stories from places like phys.org. I think anyone who camped out on phys.org and submitted anything that sounded remotely interesting to nonspecialists, would probably get a ton of bylines there, especially if they posted it using the primary publication URLs instead of phys.org.

Of course, the editors there love stories about copyright/fair use, patent, and surveillance/privacy lawsuits and faceoffs (particularly having to do with the NSA and Snowden), which are very dependable in generating lots of comments - even though it seems to be mostly the same set of comments repeated every time - and modded up or down on cue. That's one of the thing that eventually turned me off about Slashdot, much more than the beta stuff. There was a herd mentality that was reflected in the moderation, big time.

security through obscurity (Score: 3, Insightful)

by rocks@pipedot.org in Xbox password flaw exposed by five year old boy on 2014-04-06 23:47 (#ZW)

Should possibly try and be a little more obscure

Speedy progress! (Score: 2, Interesting)

by useless@pipedot.org in APT Version 1.0 Released on 2014-04-06 22:03 (#ZV)

It only took them 16 years to figure out how to alphabetize search results!
But seriously, the new additions sound good, and it hasn't fallen the usual "I'm bored, let's totally change everything around again for no reason" syndrome that infects most OSS projects.

newsgroups (Score: 3, Informative)

by tdk@pipedot.org in Where to find credible, interesting science and tech stories to submit? on 2014-04-06 15:47 (#ZT)

The Usenet newsgroup comp.misc has lots of good articles.

Stand Back, I'm Going to Try ... (Score: 2)

by dotdotdot@pipedot.org in Where to find credible, interesting science and tech stories to submit? on 2014-04-05 20:36 (#ZS)

The New Reddit Journal of Science

Impending disaster (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward in Accenture wins $102M contract to implement Australian Child Support system in SAP on 2014-04-05 02:55 (#ZR)

I predict that in the 4th year Accenture will declare that the project is 'too large' with 'great problems' that the 'scope was not well defined' with an outcome in the 5th year of a system being delivered that is worse than the old system that does not implement everything the old system had runs at a greater cost and required Accenture to stick around for two decades fixing and maintaining it. Did we learn nothing from the Medicare BI project where Accenture did not deliver? Did we learn nothing from the tax office where Accenture is in permanent residence?

History will repeat itself. From the linked article, here is what happened last time Accenture engaged in a project to moved a COBOL system to SAP...


The California State Controller's Office (SCO) is currently running on an old COBOL-based payroll system that dates back to the 1970s. The SCO began an initiative in 2006 to update this system, with initial estimates targeting full implementation by 2009. State Controller John Chiang said that the systems needed to carry out Schwarzenegger's minimum wage plan would not be available for six months. That was last summer.

Just this January, the SCO announced that it was cancelling its contract with the consulting company in charge of the project and had not estimated when it would hire another firm to carry on. That was $25 million into an estimated $69 million project.

Earlier this month, SAP co-CEO Leo Apotheker angrily denied there were problems with SAP's software, and blamed consulting firms like IBM (IBM) and Accenture (ACN) for sending people who knew nothing about the software to clients as experts on SAP. Leo also has said SAP's new cloud-like package, SAP Business Suite 7, should be easier to implement.

Plenty of blame to go around, we think. At least in the California bomb, the consulting firm involved was BearingPoint, which yesterday filed for bankruptcy. Accenture has already moved to acquire part of BearingPoint's operations.


The question here is: If the Australian government is in such dire straits that it can not afford a pay rise for its public servants then why is it risking $100m with a company well known for failing this type of project?

COBOL and DB2 (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward in Accenture wins $102M contract to implement Australian Child Support system in SAP on 2014-04-05 02:08 (#ZQ)

List all solutions that can handle that handle millions of transactions per year.
Definitely not java tech. Billions of transactions per year. Definitely not java.
Not Microsoft SQLServer with .net. Compared to DB2 it is not even in the running.
Cobol could have died by now but no new batch processing technology has come out.
The SAP programming language devised in the 70s is similar to COBOL functionally.
Perhaps they are thinking that SAP can be the new COBOL for the next few decades.

RSS and Atom feeds (Score: 3, Insightful)

by bryan@pipedot.org in Where to find credible, interesting science and tech stories to submit? on 2014-04-04 23:52 (#ZP)

Most news sites have a RSS or Atom feed. Subscribe to them with your favorite feed reader, or even a feed page, like the one offered here, so that you can get an overview of many different sites all at once. If you see something interesting, submit it; even if it's just a link. There is a voting mechanism in the pipe to help filter out the bland stuff and promote the good stuff.

Re: Class action screwiness (Score: 2, Funny)

by useless@pipedot.org in DRAM Manufacturers Settle in Price Fixing Class Action Suit on 2014-04-04 23:36 (#ZN)

Heh, missed that part. Can you picture the CEOs of all the companies in a Business Ethics 101 class? And didn't their "cooperation" get them in this mess in the first place?

child prodigy! (Score: 1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward in Xbox password flaw exposed by five year old boy on 2014-04-04 20:08 (#ZM)

Put the kid in line for the next Dali Lama.

JIRA (Score: 1)

by fishybell@pipedot.org in Accenture wins $102M contract to implement Australian Child Support system in SAP on 2014-04-04 19:03 (#ZK)

I'd keep it in-house, as in, in Australia. While JIRA itself is not necessarily built for this type of task, it's extremely flexible and Atlassian could, for a cool $102 million, definitely expand it or customize it to meet the expectations of the customers. Having the technology local would probably also reduce the costs of support later.
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