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Comment Muddy Line (Score 1) 926

by lavaforge (#33373762) Attached to: GPS Tracking Without a Warrant Declared Legal

If I'm reading this right, it would be a breach of your rights if your car was in an enclosed garage, or if you had a fence around your yard.

What about a carport?

What about a keep out sign?

Where do you draw the line on this one, if not using the traditionally assumed legal boundary of the property line?

Comment VtM:B (Score 5, Insightful) 397

by lavaforge (#30835258) Attached to: Failed Games That Damaged Or Killed Their Companies

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines was another game that killed the company. There's even an interview about it somewhere here on Slashdot.

Apparently it went way over budget, was laden with game breaking bugs, and had copy protection problems.

It's a shame, really, because the last 5 years of fan patching have made it kind of enjoyable.

Comment DNS Problems (Score 1) 1231

by lavaforge (#29972356) Attached to: Some Early Adopters Stung By Ubuntu's Karmic Koala

Coming in late to the conversation, but what the hey.

The biggest thing I've noticed so far is that DNS lookup in the default install is CRAZY slow for me. I've read some posts about blacklisting the ip6 module or changing the name resolving order, but I'd rather not use a temporary workaround that's incompatible with whatever fix they eventually choose to implement. The bug is here, by the way: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/417757

Other than that, I've noticed instability in Flash, some general UI unresponsiveness, and a (now fixed) bug in the update manager that would throw up a kernel oops message.

It sure is pretty, though.
Programming

Submission + - VHDL or Verilog? 3

Submitted by FlyByPC
FlyByPC writes: We're in the first stages of designing a course in programmable devices at the university where I work. The course will most likely be centered around various small projects implemented on an FPGA dev board, using a Xilinx Spartan3-series FPGA. I have a bit of experience working with technologies from 7400-series chips (designing using schematics) to 8-bit microcontrollers to C/C++. FPGAs, though, are new to me (although they look very interesting.)

My question is, if you were an undergraduate student studying programmable devices (specifically, FPGAs), would you prefer the course be centered on VHDL, Verilog, a little of both, or something else entirely? (...or is this an eternal, undecidable holy-war question along the lines of ATI/nVidia, AMD/Intel, Coke/Pepsi, etc...?)

At this point, I've only seen a little of both languages, so I have no real preference. Any input, especially if you're using one or both in the field, would be very helpful. Thanks, and may all of your K-maps be glitch-free.
Displays

Submission + - New HDMI 1.4 spec set to confuse

Submitted by
thefickler
thefickler writes: "HDMI Licensing LLC, the company that determines the specifications of the HDMI standard, is set to release the HDMI 1.4 spec on 30 June. Unfortunately it could very well be the most confusing thing to ever happen to setting up a home theater. When the new cables are released, you're going to need to read the packaging very carefully because effectively there are now going to be five different versions of HDMI to choose from — HDMI Ethernet Channel, Audio Return Channel, 3D Over HDMI, 4K x2K Resolution Support and a new Automotive HDMI. At least we can't complain about consumer choice."
Censorship

Names of Advisors Cleared To Access ACTA Documents 186

Posted by kdawson from the who-sees-what-you-can't dept.
1 a bee writes "With the White House claiming national security grounds for failing to release ACTA related information, including negotiating documents and even the list of participants, the spotlight is now on just who does have access. Turns out, according to James Love, hundreds of advisers, many of them corporate lobbyists, are considered 'cleared advisers.' The list looks a who's who of captains of industry."
Earth

Submission + - Dolpin Saves Beached Whales (nationalgeographic.com)

Submitted by conlaw
conlaw writes: We've all read or seen the stories involving whales who somehow become stranded near shore. Usually, despite heroic efforts by volunteers, the whales never make it back out to sea. This story, however, has a much happier ending. Volunteers had been trying to get two sperm whales away from the spot where they were stranded near Mahia Beach in New Zealand. Despite the volunteers' best efforts, the whales kept getting disoriented and ending up on the same sandbar. Then Moko, a bottlenose dolphin who frolics near the beach, arrived on the scene and guided the whales out of area and back to the open sea.

Comment Re:strange.... (Score 0, Flamebait) 815

by lavaforge (#13531012) Attached to: Windows Vista To Come In 7 Flavors

It's a bad idea to split your products in most cases. If you segment your product line artificially, the you will be competing against yourself as well as your competitors.

However, if you have a monopoly, you don't have any real competitors, so you don't have to worry about that.

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