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Comment Re:so, the key to amnesty... (Score 1) 322

I run XP Pro in a Xen DomU, which I can access over RDP using a VPN or a SSH tunnel. It is, by far, the most stable XP installation I ever had and I only use it when necessary. Test a website for work from XP? No problem! The oddball software I can't get for Linux? Same thing.

The best part: It is "Gold" as in , I have a perfect installation. Something goes wrong, and I got back to the LVM snapshot where it was pristine. This never happened, but sometimes, instead of uninstalling stuff I need to test, I just rollback any way. It runs wonderfully on one E3-1260L core and 512MB RAM.

This is exactly how Windows XP should be used these days, and it works perfectly fine. XP for Win32 functionality, the rest on Linux.

Comment Re:projecting UV images from below liquid resin? (Score 1) 95

Thank you. I just couldn't understand it; although clearly the clues were there and you interpreted them correctly.

So the UV light goes through the bottom window, through the oxygen-rich zone that will not polymerize. When the light gets through that zone, it polymerizes the resin. The polymerized resin must block the light from going deeper into the liquid resin.

If you have a thick part, though, I wonder if this could work? New unpolymerized resin would have to flow into the gap between the hardened part and the window, and this 'dead zone' is only microns thick. Now, I do believe that most 3D printed parts aren't solid blocks; but this could be a limitation.

Still, looks quite cool. I am sure that I'm not alone wanting to build stuff with it!

Comment Why does a drive commit suicide when writes fail? (Score 5, Insightful) 204

The drive's media wear indicator ran out shortly after 700TB, signaling that the NAND's write tolerance had been exceeded. Intel doesn't have confidence in the drive at that point, so the 335 Series is designed to shift into read-only mode and then to brick itself when the power is cycled. Despite suffering just one reallocated sector, our sample dutifully followed the script. Data was accessible until a reboot prompted the drive to swallow its virtual cyanide pill.

Who thought this was a good idea? If the drive thinks future writes are unstable, good for it to go into read only mode. But to then commit suicide on the next reboot? What if I want to take one final backup, and I lose power?

Comment Re:That's Easy, Jomo! (Score 2, Insightful) 255

I can't say I'm happy about what's happened to Debian. Having Ubuntu as a commercial derivative really has been the kiss of death for it, not that there were not other problems. It strikes me that the kernel team has done better for its lack of a constitution and elections, and Linus' ability to tell someone to screw off. I even got to tell him to screw off when he was dumping on 'Tridge over Bitkeeper. Somehow, that stuff works.

IMO, don't create a happy inclusive project team full of respect for each other. Hand-pick the geniuses and let them fight. You get better code in the end.

This actually has something to do with why so many people hate Systemd. It turns out that Systemd is professional-quality work done by competent salaried engineers. Our problem with it is that we're used to beautiful code made by geniuses. Going all of the way back to DMR.

Comment Re:That's Easy, Jomo! (Score 1) 255

It really does look like Jomo did post this article, and it refers to another article of his.

What isn't to like about Ubuntu is that it's a commercial project with a significant unpaid staff. Once in a while I make a point of telling the unpaid staff that there really are better ways that they could be helping Free Software.

Comment Re:That's Easy, Jomo! (Score 4, Interesting) 255

It's just that I object folks who would be good community contributors being lured into being unpaid employees instead.

Say how do feel about idiots working for corporations contractually enmeshed with the US military-industrial-surveillance complex. Why no spittle-laced hate for them?

The GNU Radio project was funded in part by a United States intelligence agency. They paid good money and the result is under GPL. What's not to like?

Comment How can this work? Even with 4000 satellites? (Score 2) 115

The area of the earth is 4,000^2xpi square miles, so even with 4,000 satellites there is one for every 12,000 square miles. OK, perhaps the very high latitudes don't need to be covered, and you can get that down to 10,000 square miles. For the United States, the average population density means that on average, you'd have 500,000 people covered by one satellite. Europe, Japan, China, Indonesia, and many other countries or regions have significantly higher population density. For cities, this is just a non-starter.

Now, Musk is not a stupid guy, but I just can't see how this works.

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