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Comment Re:Solaris not well supported by OSS toolchain (Score 1) 183

So either he has VERY special unique requirements that he hasn't clearly communicated,

Why is low power consumption a special, unique requirement? All of my computer equipment was chosen and/or assembled with low consumption in mind. My Desktop's TDP is under 350W and I can play games at 1920x1200, albeit not with everything turned on any more. I have a small fleet of netbooks for performing long-running tasks or for traveling, I sold an HP EliteBook and bought three of them. I even took an EEE 701 4GB running Jolicloud on a six-week vacation to Panama. My most power-hungry portable has two cores and the CPU has a TDP of 13W, and I'm undervolting.

Much of the goal was to be able to run on solar for long periods, which I do occasionally. Not so much lately, unfortunately, but I've mostly rebuilt my mobile solar rig. That reminds me, I should order some aluminum piano hinge.

Comment Re:Red notice (Score 4, Informative) 100

They're not always effective; governments seem to be free to ignore these things if it appears to be politically motivated.

INTERPOL itself has no teeth. It's left to the nations themselves to decide if they care what it has to say on a case-by-case basis. It permits information sharing (etc) but does not require it. Their goal is "To ensure and promote the widest possible mutual assistance between all criminal police authorities within the limits of the laws existing in the different countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" and not to enforce laws themselves.

Comment Re:Buy a netbook (Score 1) 183

Nope, but a chromebook gives 2GB of ram.

Yes, and so do many netbooks. My Acer Aspire One D250 only came with 1GB, as did my EEE 701, but those are old. My LT31 came with 2GB. I upgraded the dimm to get lower-latency memory, mostly to speed up the integrated graphics. Most of the machines that will support 1GB will support 2GB and some of them will even take a 4GB SODIMM, but don't count on it.

Comment Re:As plain as the googgles on your face (Score 1) 56

The difference is that we know what a store security camera is going to do with the recording: record over it in XY days.
We don't know what [random glasshole] is going to do with the recording they make of us.
So it really doesn't matter what the recorder's unspoken intent is, what causes discomfort is the recordee's uncertainty.

Except the idea that Glass is constantly recording is unsubstantiated hysteria and has no basis in reality.

Straw man. As any idiot can clearly see, that point was not even raised. The point is that Glass is always pointed at something interesting, and you don't know when it's recording. You don't know if it's been altered so that the LED doesn't activate. If you have a valid argument to make, then make it. But we know you don't. That's because anonymous cowards are less capable than any idiot.

Comment Re:Brasil futbol is national disgrace. (Score 1, Insightful) 144

Besides, the "play", such as it is, in American "football" stops every 5 seconds, I doubt your 300 pound piece of spray cheese can run much longer than that.

Even though they never actually run for very long on the field, they still have to be able to pass a fairly strict standard in training. They want guys that they don't have to worry about, because what they're doing is strenuous and dangerous, and they will still have to worry about them — if only as assets. If you put futbol players in a handegg game they would be fucking evaporated. If you put handegg players in a futbol game most of them would be fairly cumbersome, but any "accidental" contact would still be likely to result in a futbol player injury.

Don't get it twisted, handegg players are amazing athletes, even the ones shaped like a brick.

Comment Re:Buy a netbook (Score 1) 183

It seemed to me like netbooks stagnated pretty badly...

So what? A dual-core atom is actually pretty snappy. I personally have a crufty single-core atom, that is quite pathetic and I wouldn't suggest it to anyone. What I actually use for a 'netbook' is a Gateway LT3103u with the L110 chucked for an L310. Since Gateway finally released windows 7 x64 drivers and a BIOS with AMD-V it blew the hacks wide open. I haven't done a custom DSDT yet (though I should) but I do have SATA running in AHCI mode, necessary for automatic TRIM support. That took a hacked BIOS, but they're not too hard to find any more.

I wouldn't actually suggest anyone buy one of these and mod it because the X1250/X1270 graphics are woeful, but if you have one lying around the upgrade is actually pretty easy. A dual Athlon 64 at 1.2 GHz is not too shabby, and you can get the CPU for ten bucks.

Comment Buy a netbook (Score 3, Informative) 183

You can get a netbook that will draw around 5-10W. If you get one with intel cpu and chipset you will have the advantage of massive compatibility, especially if you skip the original Atom chip. Once the dual cores came out it was pretty well abandoned by everyone.

That, or get one of these ~$100 android units which also runs Debian. But I don't really recommend that. The only one which seems very performant and yet inexpensive is the mk908 which is a bit of a turd reliability-wise and which doesn't yet have complete hardware support, e.g. http://www.cnx-software.com/20...

I stand by the netbook

Comment Not just download (Score 1) 86

But free-to-p[l]ay gaming is also becoming a serious contender. It solves the problem of gamers who won't buy a game without a demo, it solves the problem of having an adequate online player base, and it solves the problem of gamers who simply won't buy games but who might buy the occasional piece of DLC.

The truth is that Gamestop guaranteed their eventual nonexistence when they dropped games for old consoles. I get that they can't stock everything, but it eliminated my reasons to go in there. I can get all the same stuff cheaper somewhere else, and I can get a lot of stuff that they can't (or won't) get. Since I don't really need a $200+ headset, I'm not sure what I'd go in there for anyway.+

Comment Re:1. Area too large; 2. Expires in 30 days (Score 1) 174

You might consider giving Garmin some money, then. They have a product with offline maps which apparently lets you buy map data and indeed basic functionality piecemeal. It's a dollar right now, but it's supposed to remain cheap. I guess they are or were also offering deals on content. Linked article complains about spending a hundred bucks, but if that were lifetime that would be well worth it. The big problem with buying a Garmin GPS is that the hardware pretty well sucks unless you spend a lot, and your updates are tied to the device so you could get into a situation where you're motivated to give them money to repair a device that was kind of lame (hardware-wise) when you bought it. But if I can take their app to a new phone when I upgrade, then I can let that unit go to a friend and just use my phone, which has a much nicer screen overall. In particular, text input on my Garmin is horrible. I forget what model it is ATM or I'd include that info. Suffice to say it was a cheap refurb.

Comment Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings (Score 1) 174

Guess that's why they killed it - people remember it, but didn't realize it was still around - you certainly don't see it advertised anywhere.

Well, there were really two reasons why it died. First, it required a windows machine to run, and until recently none of them have really been that nice to use in the car. You need a combination of battery life (in case you forget the charger, you won't be able to get another cheaply and you're depending on this thing, remember?) and form factor that just wasn't there. Second, even when it was brand new it was out of date, so why buy it new? If you bought one a year old you could get it for $20 with the GPS dongle. If they had actually put in the effort necessary to keep it up-to-date, then I'd have paid for it when it came out, rather than when it got old. I've bought it twice now, a couple years old both times. It would fall on its ass anywhere around new construction, but it was pretty sweet for route planning and it was a cheap way to get an adequate GPS dongle.

I also bought Delorme's software a couple years aged on the same basis. It was better at turn-by-turn but the interface was atrocious and that made it worse at everything else. The GPS dongle is bright yellow, so I suggest the Microsoft package instead. Either one is adequate as a time source :)

Comment Re:I Use Streets and Trips on RV Trips (Score 1) 174

I think the problem is that they can't compete with the dedicated units. Garmins and Tomtoms are fairly cheap and fit nicely on the dashboard, and even they're losing market share (or redirecting their business) to built-in systems.

Too bad Microsoft didn't have any synchronization between their automotive platform and streets and trips. If you could plot a route on your PC and then load it into your car (why isn't the key also a USB key?) then both Microsoft automotive bullshit and S&T might have received a boost.

Comment Re:Kind of like supermarket loyalty schemes (Score 1) 353

It's the perfect libertarian excuse for corporate abuse. You don't have to go along with the abuse. You can just live like an Amish person and avoid the abuse if you really want to. It's all your "choice".

Well, to be fair, Libertarians also often suggest the dissolution of borders. Everything which was not necessary for the function of the minimally-sized government would be private property, and you could sell it to anyone you liked. But they'd be motivated not to move to certain places because they'd be exposed to prejudice; under such a system, you cannot be forced to trade with someone. It's a sort of choose-your-own-feudalism-adventure.

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