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Comment Re:What's Unique To Goto? (Score 2) 677

Error handling with multiple instances of allocation.

Eg, something like:

char *buf1 = malloc(...);
if (!buf1) goto abort1;

char *buf2 = malloc(...);
if (!buf1) goto abort2;

char *buf3 = malloc(...);
if (!buf1) goto abort3;

return;

abort3:
free(buf2);
abort2:
free(buf1);
abort1:
return;

Also, bailing out of multiple nested loops.

Comment Re:Knowledge replaces fear (Score 1) 409

A dosimeter won't tell you you picked up a hot particle in your shoe that is killing your foot. Vising the area with proper tools to find and identify the hot particles is essential to working and living there.

I have visited the exclusion zone on a tour. To enter and to exit you have to pass through a full body scanner, with a sensor per body part. It will tell you if something on you is radioactive and what exactly. According to the guide one of the visitors had to leave her pants behind due to having sat in the wrong place (they warn you not to do that)

Comment Another Annoying Dependency? (Score 4, Insightful) 581

You're barking up the wrong tree. I don't think you remember how things were before PulseAudio.

You had /dev/dsp or later /dev/snd. Since the kernel doesn't do sound mixing, they were one user only, unless the soundcard provided mixing. Which a lot of them didn't. So esd, artsd and similar appeared. Running KDE and want sound in the one Gnome app you use? Have fun making esd run against artsd. Want to run an old game or app that only knows about /dev/dsp? Sorry, artsd has it busy. You make it auto-close the device when unused? Unreliable as hell. USB audio? what is that? Certainly no plugging and unplugging support there. For a while dmix was all the rage. Thing is, dmix is implemented in the ALSA libraries, which means it does nothing for you unless your app uses ALSA libraries, so it doesn't help your any with your /dev/dsp using app.

PA was created to solve all this mess. PA basically handles everything and provides interfaces for everything, so finally pretty much all apps can talk whatever protocol they like, and work. And audio can be reconfigured as you plug and unplug devices.

Was it unreliable for a while? Yes. But there is still nothing better. The kernel doesn't mix audio. You need a daemon by design, and you need something PA-like to provide a modern level of functionality. The only way to do without PA is have the kernel implement all that, and as far as I know, the kernel devs don't want it.

Comment Re:Automatic sliding doors (Score 1) 209

I used a rack and pinion driven by a motor with a gearbox, with the hardware installed in the window blinds box. Unlike the linear actuator, there's no position sensing, so it uses limit switches.

I also installed temperature sensors and a RTC chip for scheduling, plus a control box with buttons and a LCD. The brains is an Arduino.

My next step is figuring out the AC's IR protocol, and adding an IR led to make it control the AC. After that, maybe replace the window blinds with motorized ones, and add a light sensor to automatically close them when the sun is shining right into the window.

Comment Automatic sliding doors (Score 1) 209

I think that would be one of the most convenient improvements. If you're carrying something like a plate into another room, doors open in front of you. And automatically closing doors would improve climatization.

Also, automatic windows in hot countries. Where I live it's still hot at the time to go to sleep, but cool during the night. So I rigged my windows to automatically open when outside temperature falls enough. Integrating with the AC is my next project.

Comment Re:Not sure what the fuss is about. (Score 2) 76

The problems are:

1. He said it was 100% open source ("The anonabox is an open source embedded networking device designed specifically to run Tor. It's 100% Open Source." on the project's page), and that he was designing the hardware (see the generation 1, 2, etc pics), clearly implying he was developing the hardware.

He clearly lied about that. Is there a problem with a customized small Linux distro running on an existing chinese router? No, there isn't, if you don't lie about it.

2. A quick review proved the software to contain significant security flaws, which makes this guy unsuitable for developing something where security is critical.

I see no problem with buying an off the shelf router with custom firmware from somebody who isn't balantly lying about what I'm paying for, and who actually understands security. This guy isn't either of those things.

Comment Re:Can someone clarify the state of BitCoin? (Score 2) 134

It's risky of course, but it has its upsides. Eg, here's an ID:

1GFRGRC37baNYgL6JbwrbXft2XjDHskFwf

If you want to buy me a beer, it's easy. No need to exchange personal information, mess with bank transfers, or anything of the sort. I can accept payments without even making any preparation -- install the client, generate the ID, figure out how to get the money later. That's the sort of thing where I think it does great -- allowing the near equivalent of just buying somebody a beer in person, but through the internet.

For large amounts, yes, you better be careful, and be willing to take the risk.

Comment Re:Can someone clarify the state of BitCoin? (Score 2) 134

Yes, but:

You buy 0.1 BTC at $500/BTC. Later you buy 0.2 BTC at $550/BTC. Later you buy 0.2 BTC at $560/BTC. Your client will say you have 0.5 BTC, but internally there actually are 3 separate accounts that it'll handle transparently. If you pay 0.3 BTC to somebody, it'll have to issue payments from at least two of them.

So, you wait a month, now it's $570/BTC, and sell 0.05 BTC.

My understanding is that it's perfectly possible that your client will decide to source bitcoins from all 3 accounts in some random quantities that add to 0.05. So how much have you gained? Hard to tell, since the standard client won't directly tell you what accounts it used, and doesn't know how much you bought each part of your balance for, it doesn't do banking at all.

Comment Re:Can someone clarify the state of BitCoin? (Score 5, Informative) 134

I'm not exactly a guru of bitcoin, but I'll summarize as somebody who's tried it recently out of curiosity.

Getting into it is surprisingly difficult. Purchasing bitcoins right now (or before paypal maybe) is pretty hard. Near impossible to find a site that will let you buy with a credit card, because sellers get screwed over with chargebacks.

Mining bitcoin at this point isn't worth it. At all. A high end GPU working 24/7 would get you $10 per month while costing more in power. At this point mining is only profitable to people willing spend a lot of money on very specialized hardware.

Once you have some, it's easy enough to use. But it's an unregulated system, so there is some danger and no safety net. If you're ever going to put serious money into it, be very, very careful. Danger comes both from things like getting hacked, and from that the value fluctuates without any central control.

Tax-wise it seems tricky. It seems (you're nuts if you take advice from a random stranger on this) that it's considered an asset, and if bitcoin gains in value you have to pay tax on that. Up to you to figure out how to keep track of it and do it properly.

As far as working, it does. You can buy stuff with it fine, and the USD/BTC exchange rate is stable enough. If you have cash to spare it might be worth to get some, just in case it increases a lot in value (I doubt paypal would get into it without consulting a bunch of lawyers), but you'd be nuts to put your life savings into it.

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