Missing choice (Score: 1)
by fnj@pipedot.org in Monday poll: first computer system you used on 2014-09-22 23:56 (#2SSS)
So in this poll, it's like the MITS Altair 8800 never happened in 1975? And none of the 8080/Z-80 CP/M systems mattered?
Recent Comments
How much water / house? (Score: 1)
by Anonymous Coward in Largest Desalination Plant in the Hemisphere to Supply 7% of San Diego's Water on 2014-09-22 23:54 (#2SSR)
... An acre-foot is enough to supply two homes for a year.Half an acre-foot is 162,926 gallons (per a couple of different online conversion programs). I'm in the Great Lakes area where we don't pay much for water and our house (two people) uses about 30,000 gallons/year. Even when we were watering a few new trees we only got to 40,000 gallons/year. We don't do anything special to conserve except the toilets are the low flush type and faucets/sinks have typical 2 gallons/minute aerators (flow restrictors).
What are they doing in San Diego to use 5x the water we use here?
Nice! (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in TV antennas - OTA HDTV reception on 2014-09-22 22:57 (#2SSQ)
Damn I'm glad I was bored and scrolled down to the blog section. :-)
Couple of questions...
Why no mention of other tuner options? Last time I looked the only reasonable choice were the HDHomeRuns, and they were pretty expensive for handling only two tuners. They pretty much had a monopoly on network attached tuners, and all the PCI cards were iffy. Then of course you get into MythTV v. XBMC v. WMCE v. MediaPortal, so I guess I see why you stuck to antennas.
Second, regarding mounting forces, my house's original antenna was on a vent pipe and caused leaks when it ripped off in a storm. Do I screw into my poor old roof to mount a base/mast, or hope my old metal faux chimney can take the stress?
Couple of questions...
Why no mention of other tuner options? Last time I looked the only reasonable choice were the HDHomeRuns, and they were pretty expensive for handling only two tuners. They pretty much had a monopoly on network attached tuners, and all the PCI cards were iffy. Then of course you get into MythTV v. XBMC v. WMCE v. MediaPortal, so I guess I see why you stuck to antennas.
Second, regarding mounting forces, my house's original antenna was on a vent pipe and caused leaks when it ripped off in a storm. Do I screw into my poor old roof to mount a base/mast, or hope my old metal faux chimney can take the stress?
Re: Mainframe came last (Score: 1)
by rockdoctor@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 22:51 (#2SSP)
More info, and link to paper: (Score: 1)
by hartree@pipedot.org in Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer aboard ISS reveals tantalizing hints of dark matter on 2014-09-22 22:44 (#2SSN)
This not only discusses it, but has a link to the actual Phys Rev Letters paper. Jester (the blogger) thinks it may be a more mundane explanation than dark matter, but still an interesting one.
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2014/09/dark-matter-or-pulsars-ams-hints-its.html
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2014/09/dark-matter-or-pulsars-ams-hints-its.html
Stillsuits (Score: 1, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward in Largest Desalination Plant in the Hemisphere to Supply 7% of San Diego's Water on 2014-09-22 21:45 (#2SSM)
Let's just skip to the end-game why don't we.
Re: Atari? (Score: 1)
by harmless@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 21:37 (#2SSK)
I thought they were games consoles. 2600?Yes, the 2600 was a game console. They also built arcade game machines.
Though what I'm talking about here is the Atari ST line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST
Re: It's time for Perl 7! (Score: 1)
by zafiro17@pipedot.org in PHP6 abandoned, going straight to PHP7 on 2014-09-22 21:03 (#2SSH)
Ha ha! Hadn't even thought of that, but you're absolutely right. But more personally, I've had a hell of a time with some scripts just because of UTF8 issues. Annoying.
Re: It's time for Perl 7! (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in PHP6 abandoned, going straight to PHP7 on 2014-09-22 19:46 (#2SSG)
That's a not-so-subtle Slashcode dig, isn't it. :)
Re: Possible sources (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in Mysterious Mars Methane: Curiosity Sees No Sign on 2014-09-22 19:44 (#2SSF)
...or, you know, we could stop raising and eating quite so many of them. That could work too.
Just saying. (It's pretty accepted that the environmental damage from meat production is enormous compared to other protein sources.)
Just saying. (It's pretty accepted that the environmental damage from meat production is enormous compared to other protein sources.)
VHF Lo (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in TV antennas - OTA HDTV reception on 2014-09-22 19:40 (#2SSE)
Last I checked Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh all had digital channels on VHF-low. So the best advice is to check your area to see if you need VHF-low, not "unless you are in Alaska".
Re: Process of elimination (Score: 3, Funny)
by evilviper@pipedot.org in Mysterious Mars Methane: Curiosity Sees No Sign on 2014-09-22 18:06 (#2SSC)
Methane detected from afar.Not the best Haiku I've ever read, but highly on-topic, so there's that. Well-done.
Methane not detected on ground.
Methane produced some distance above ground?
Re: Possible sources (Score: 1)
by evilviper@pipedot.org in Mysterious Mars Methane: Curiosity Sees No Sign on 2014-09-22 17:47 (#2SSB)
It's quite possible to harvest all the excrement, put it into enclosed tanks, and use the methane to power generators and the like rather than just allowing it to escape into the atmosphere. Such projects seem to be more common with pigs than cows, probably because the former is so toxic and unpleasant to neighbors as well.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090610-pigs-video-ap.html
My question with cows is: What percentage of their methane emissions comes from decomposition of the solid waste? If significant portions of it is directly belched or farted into the air, it's going to be quite impractical to capture. Methane is lighter than air, so completely enclosing them inside a very tight-envelope building would work, but it would be extremely expensive to do.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090610-pigs-video-ap.html
My question with cows is: What percentage of their methane emissions comes from decomposition of the solid waste? If significant portions of it is directly belched or farted into the air, it's going to be quite impractical to capture. Methane is lighter than air, so completely enclosing them inside a very tight-envelope building would work, but it would be extremely expensive to do.
Re: Slashdot Beta (Score: 2, Informative)
by evilviper@pipedot.org in Mysterious Mars Methane: Curiosity Sees No Sign on 2014-09-22 17:40 (#2SSA)
Nope, still seeing the older site whether logged-in or anonymous. Could have been site problems.
Process of elimination (Score: 2, Interesting)
by ploling@pipedot.org in Mysterious Mars Methane: Curiosity Sees No Sign on 2014-09-22 17:34 (#2SS9)
Methane detected from afar.
Methane not detected on ground.
Methane produced some distance above ground?
Maybe a tiny lightweight probe that launches a balloon (or lightweight plane) is in order. It doesn't ever have to land (although couldn't the backside of those heatshields easily be made into some nice big antenna dishes?), it could be launched while the heatshield etc. continues its fall. They already have concepts and some work done on both. Suggested names: Cowboy 1, 2, ..., n, better than Fart Fairies (although I would not object to that so now I'm undecided) :D
Methane not detected on ground.
Methane produced some distance above ground?
Maybe a tiny lightweight probe that launches a balloon (or lightweight plane) is in order. It doesn't ever have to land (although couldn't the backside of those heatshields easily be made into some nice big antenna dishes?), it could be launched while the heatshield etc. continues its fall. They already have concepts and some work done on both. Suggested names: Cowboy 1, 2, ..., n, better than Fart Fairies (although I would not object to that so now I'm undecided) :D
Slashdot Beta (Score: -1, Offtopic)
by Anonymous Coward in Mysterious Mars Methane: Curiosity Sees No Sign on 2014-09-22 16:57 (#2SS8)
I got hit with it today. Did they finally pull the switch?
The link they provide at top to return to Classic does NOTHING for me on IE 8. I have to copy/paste the URL to get to the classic interface.
Sorry for derail but it's not submission worthy or anything...
The link they provide at top to return to Classic does NOTHING for me on IE 8. I have to copy/paste the URL to get to the classic interface.
Sorry for derail but it's not submission worthy or anything...
Re: Agreed (Score: 2, Interesting)
by Anonymous Coward in KDE rumored to be focusing now on simplicity on 2014-09-22 16:50 (#2SS7)
Yeah, I had second thoughts about my KDE fandom when I realized one of the main devs was behind OwnCloud (which I gave a fair shake and was wildly disappointed in).
Interesting about the GNOME story; I had actually been thinking of the bared down to the bone new interfaces of Microsoft and Google and Apple, where it doesn't look as if you can do a damn thing until you manage to stumble/click over the right mystery pixels. All the acreage of 1080 and higher resolutions (RETINA RETINA RETINA RETINA) and they can't spare a few millimeters for a god damn menu any more. GMail and Hotmail/whateveritscallednow are the worst, next to maybe "Metro".
Same reason I still love LibreOffice until they get around to sticking us in the back and aping the still-useless freaking ribbon interface, which I continue to work around on a daily basis.
Interesting about the GNOME story; I had actually been thinking of the bared down to the bone new interfaces of Microsoft and Google and Apple, where it doesn't look as if you can do a damn thing until you manage to stumble/click over the right mystery pixels. All the acreage of 1080 and higher resolutions (RETINA RETINA RETINA RETINA) and they can't spare a few millimeters for a god damn menu any more. GMail and Hotmail/whateveritscallednow are the worst, next to maybe "Metro".
Same reason I still love LibreOffice until they get around to sticking us in the back and aping the still-useless freaking ribbon interface, which I continue to work around on a daily basis.
Other micro (Score: 1)
by genx@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 16:17 (#2SS6)
The first computer I ever used was a Thomson TO7: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=11. Not as bad as people may tell. Good light pen. Keyboard could be painful for the finger tips if you typed a lot.
Then we also had one Exelvision. Could be this EXL 100: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=123. I remember the terrible infrared connection of the keyboard. I did not like it.
Then we also had one Exelvision. Could be this EXL 100: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=123. I remember the terrible infrared connection of the keyboard. I did not like it.
Re: Nvidia & Nouveau (Score: 1)
by seriously@pipedot.org in Friday Distro: Trisquel GNU/Linux on 2014-09-22 15:52 (#2SS5)
Thanks for the input.
Intel GPU is smooth sailing all the way because they have free stack.I've been sticking to Intel for that very reason and I can confirm.
Re: Agreed (Score: 1)
by zafiro17@pipedot.org in KDE rumored to be focusing now on simplicity on 2014-09-22 15:25 (#2SS4)
Interesting - I hadn't realized who was behind Owncloud. That makes me look at it a bit more circumspect, though. Isn't the joke that the Gnome team is trying to reduce the entire interface down to one single button, and then disactivating the button by default because it confuses the users?
This is just a blog post, OK, but here's my warning to the devs at KDE: I use KDE because I like configurability and tweakability, and I'm more than intelligent enough to handle the system's supposed "complexity" all by myself. I'm a grown-up, in fact. Take away the tweakability and I stop using KDE, as simple as that. Concentrate your effort on promoting and creating better quality apps instead, and fix bugs, and reduce the resource requirements by making the code more efficient. Those are big challenges, obviously - not nearly as fun as pissing around with some widgets and color schemes in this endless masturbation cycle called UI development.
This is just a blog post, OK, but here's my warning to the devs at KDE: I use KDE because I like configurability and tweakability, and I'm more than intelligent enough to handle the system's supposed "complexity" all by myself. I'm a grown-up, in fact. Take away the tweakability and I stop using KDE, as simple as that. Concentrate your effort on promoting and creating better quality apps instead, and fix bugs, and reduce the resource requirements by making the code more efficient. Those are big challenges, obviously - not nearly as fun as pissing around with some widgets and color schemes in this endless masturbation cycle called UI development.
Oops. Should been trash-80? (Score: 1)
by kwerle@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 15:24 (#2SS3)
I guess the very first was the Radio Shack TRS-80 - but that was just 2-3 visits. The first system I spent any real time with was the Apple II's in the school lab. Certainly that's where I did my first coding...
Re: My Favourite Star (Score: 2, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 14:59 (#2SS2)
Sol.
My Favourite Star (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 14:54 (#2SS1)
Let's all vote for Sirius, ok?
First Science Fiction or Fantasy Author which drew me into the genre (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 14:53 (#2SS0)
- Weis and Hickman
Dragonlance, Death Gate Cycle, etc - Anne McCaffrey
Pern, Ships series, Crystal series - Robert Asprin
Myth series, Phule's Company series, - and so many more..
Re: Atari? (Score: 1)
by tierack@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 14:45 (#2SRZ)
My first computing memories are typing programs into an Atari 800.
Best Science Fiction Writer (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 14:44 (#2SRY)
Choose 1.
- Heinlein
Favorite Cory Doctorow Book (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 14:42 (#2SRX)
- Little Brother
- Homeland
- Makers
- Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
- For The Win
- Eastern Standard Tribe
- Rapture of the Nerds
- Pirate Cinema
- Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
- The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away
Re: Methology I use (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 14:37 (#2SRW)
LMFTFY
Tick all which apply:
Tick all which apply:
- Waterfall
- JAD
- RAD
- Agile
- Scrum
- Cowboy
- Feature driven development
- Design for test
- Spiral
- Wheel and spoke
- RUP
- XP
- Bugger off I code alone
Re: Fav geek out coding food. (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 14:27 (#2SRV)
Jolt!
Wow. I actually miss Jolt now. I could not have survived uni without it.
Wow. I actually miss Jolt now. I could not have survived uni without it.
Re: Atari? (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 14:24 (#2SRT)
Nothing actually.. I thought they were games consoles. 2600?
Highest level of technical knowhow and wizardry (Score: 2, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 14:16 (#2SRS)
I can turn on a computer
I am on the Windows 8 dev team
I have created web pages
I can develop software
I can assemble a PC
I can dual boot install linux or BSD
I can design and build circuits
I have a STEM degree
I have a STEM double degree
I contribute to the Linux Kernel
In order from lowest to highest they are ranked. Choose one.
I am on the Windows 8 dev team
I have created web pages
I can develop software
I can assemble a PC
I can dual boot install linux or BSD
I can design and build circuits
I have a STEM degree
I have a STEM double degree
I contribute to the Linux Kernel
In order from lowest to highest they are ranked. Choose one.
The Plato System: (Score: 1)
by hartree@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 14:09 (#2SRR)
My first was the Plato instructional system running on a CDC Cyber mainframe.
My Video Game Hero is (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 14:01 (#2SRQ)
TIDUS! CLOUD! Ok. We can all see where this is going so I will stop now
Best Sci Fi Series (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 13:27 (#2SRP)
Meh.Why bother. Firefly came and knocked Farscape off the podium. Oh well. Next idea!
Brian (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 13:26 (#2SRN)
Rocks
Rules
is a legend
is awesome!
Marry me!
Is mine!!!! (Only 1 vote allowed)
... is your father. Noooi²ooooo!!
is the only one
is my hero
Rules
is a legend
is awesome!
Marry me!
Is mine!!!! (Only 1 vote allowed)
... is your father. Noooi²ooooo!!
is the only one
is my hero
What language will be used for webdev in 10 years (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in Your poll ideas! Please pipe up. on 2014-09-22 13:15 (#2SRM)
1 Java is king and will not be dethroned
2. Anything but Java, thanks Oracle
3. PHP because they will get it right one day
4. Perl as the only sane survivor
5. C# because ah ha ah ha ahhh I just needed a good laugh
6. Assembler because by then we will all be coding gods
7. Brian's code-by-number
2. Anything but Java, thanks Oracle
3. PHP because they will get it right one day
4. Perl as the only sane survivor
5. C# because ah ha ah ha ahhh I just needed a good laugh
6. Assembler because by then we will all be coding gods
7. Brian's code-by-number
Re: Atari? (Score: 2, Insightful)
by harmless@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 13:04 (#2SRK)
What's your problem with Atari computers? I started out with a C64 (actually used a CBM before, but that wasn't mine) and then went to own several Atari ST machines. I used those until Atari went out of business.
(Yes, they went out of business. The Atari that exists today has noting in common with the Atari back then, except for the name.)
(Yes, they went out of business. The Atari that exists today has noting in common with the Atari back then, except for the name.)
Mainframe came last (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 12:59 (#2SRJ)
Nice to see a vote for the big iron. For me mainframe came last. Last of all of the machines listed that I have used.
Acorns (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 12:57 (#2SRH)
Wow. Blast from the past. These machines were excellent. Very sad that they didn't survive.
Atari? (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 12:52 (#2SRG)
Seriously?
Multics (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 12:33 (#2SRF)
Amazing experience! Learned so much, prepared me for a long career.
Commodore (Score: 2, Interesting)
by matrixcubed@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 12:31 (#2SRE)
I remember my dad bringing home a VIC-20 when I was quite small (4ish?) -- we eventually "upgraded" to the Commodore 64, and I'd say it shaped, early on, what would become my perception of certain truths about technology (namely, that I would ever be enslaved to the entertainment value they possess).
Room full of Apple IIe (Score: 1)
by hyper@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 12:25 (#2SRD)
My teacher was the 'computer guy', although I didn't know it at the time. We started by practicing typing on printed out keyboards. Hours spent playing a river survival game taught me most computer basics. This gave me incentive to learn more about computers which eventually led to a life using them.
Thank you Mr Harris.
Thank you Mr Harris.
Started on Trash-80 but just barely (Score: 1)
by hapnstance@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 12:17 (#2SRC)
Our school had a single TRS-80 for AP students to use so I started there but got a C-64 for Christmas that year. So really I did all my early learning on Commodore equipment (eventually I ended up with an Amiga-2000 as well).
Possible sources (Score: 1)
by nightsky30@pipedot.org in Mysterious Mars Methane: Curiosity Sees No Sign on 2014-09-22 11:36 (#2SRB)
It would be really exciting to find some form of life there, but maybe they just aren't in the right spot.
As far as harvesting methane...We currently keep much livestock, and I hear rant about how cows are killing the ozone. Can't we collect that bovine flatulence somehow? It might be easier and less expensive than getting it from a neighboring planet, and it doesn't seem like most in our society will be excluding beef from our diet anytime soon. Why not get the most out of the cows as possible? I guess PETA would would be like, "THAT'S THEIR GAS, YOU GIVE IT BACK TO THE COWS!!!"
As far as harvesting methane...We currently keep much livestock, and I hear rant about how cows are killing the ozone. Can't we collect that bovine flatulence somehow? It might be easier and less expensive than getting it from a neighboring planet, and it doesn't seem like most in our society will be excluding beef from our diet anytime soon. Why not get the most out of the cows as possible? I guess PETA would would be like, "THAT'S THEIR GAS, YOU GIVE IT BACK TO THE COWS!!!"
Apple (Score: 1)
by nightsky30@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 11:28 (#2SRA)
In elementary school we went down to the computer lab once a week for educational games on an Apple IIe, or at least some Apple variant. It was like 2nd or 3rd grade. We learned how to handle and load the games off the 5 1/4 inch disks. Lots of fun :) I can't believe they trusted us with that back then. I bet it was expensive stuff for kids to break.
Fading memories (Score: 1)
by seriously@pipedot.org in First computer system I used on 2014-09-22 11:28 (#2SR9)
It's so far away in childhood that I can't possibly remember whether the first was commodore 64 or Atari. I just remember I played with both and voted C64. Only later came DOS, with logo, dBase 3, prince of persia and the park command.
Pretty amazing stuff (Score: 1)
by zafiro17@pipedot.org in Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer aboard ISS reveals tantalizing hints of dark matter on 2014-09-22 11:14 (#2SR7)
Two good quotes from the article:
Interesting times - if "genius" politicians see fit to continue funding science of this sort. It has no immediate economic, military, or commercial effect, which means it scientists must constantly struggle to defend continued research in these fields.
Because it detects particles as opposed to light, the way a telescope would, AMS may also be able to see other cosmic phenomena a telescope cannot.and
The data released this week need more study, but at first glance, CERN says, what they have seen so far looks "tantalizingly consistent with dark matter particles."
If that's the case, the AMS may have begun to remove humanity's greatest blindfold.
Physicists believe that mental exercise in blindness reflects the reality of our universe, only about 4% of which manifests as the kind of matter and energy we can perceive.I don't follow this field closely, but understand the whole dark matter conjecture remains subject to intense speculation, and though the idea of dark matter helps explain some otherwise confusing phenomena, it's not impossible that research of this type will debunk the hypothesis and a new theory will take form.
More than 70% consists of so-called dark energy, physicists say, and more than 20% is dark matter, neither of which humans can directly detect so far.
But scientists feel certain it must exist, partly because of the gravity it exerts on the visible universe.
This week, CERN scientists published an analysis of data from the AMS, which detects subatomic particles constantly bombarding Earth. They include exceedingly rare antimatter particles that can result from the breakdown of dark matter.
Interesting times - if "genius" politicians see fit to continue funding science of this sort. It has no immediate economic, military, or commercial effect, which means it scientists must constantly struggle to defend continued research in these fields.
Good riddance (Score: 0)
by Anonymous Coward in KDE rumored to be focusing now on simplicity on 2014-09-22 11:13 (#2SR6)
It was way past time for that bloated slow POS (software) went to the GNOME graveyard. Goodbye KDE, we won't miss you.
I'm guessing that XFCE will be the next one to implode. Anyone care to bet?
I'm guessing that XFCE will be the next one to implode. Anyone care to bet?
Re: It's time for Perl 7! (Score: 2, Interesting)
by zafiro17@pipedot.org in PHP6 abandoned, going straight to PHP7 on 2014-09-22 11:02 (#2SR3)
If Perl 7 did nothing other than deal easily with UTF-8 characters, that would be good enough and well-worth it. Non unicode support is becoming a deathknell for a lot of applications, and perl should be smart enough to deal with things like this by now. I also wouldn't shed a tear if they decided to give up on some of the retrofit OO stuff they've added on - not sure it was ever a good fit or worth it, and if you want object oriented you can always use python instead.