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Comment Re:Im all for human rights... (Score 1) 1482

well your free to do as you please but for mint 16 and probably ubuntu users this snippet may be of interest

You can use this PPA: https://launchpad.net/~dirk-co... ... 2-backport. Just open Software Sources from your menu, go to PPA, click Add, and enter this: ppa:dirk-computer42/c42-backport

It gives you iceweasel at version 24 (you can also keep firefox v28 but not run both at the same time).
Personally I think its a reasonable compromise.

Comment Re:Automobile tires? (Score 1) 400

A lot has changed in 30 years :) though steel is still crystalline:) There has been some increase in knowledge since my day (we used electron microscopes and we liked it) cold drawing of steel takes some force hard to imagine it being done on less than an industrial scale. anyway agreed we're in violent agreement :)

I guess it might be possible to make composite materials by 3d printing in quite complicated forms but generally the strength is never going to match our metals and alloys.
 

Comment Re:It is the single most reliable piece of tech (Score 1) 449

Trouble is your broadband typically relies on pots to work, cable tv providers don't reach everybody even in cabled area's.

I live in an area where there is never going to be cable tv its uneconomic for them to lay cable this far out. DSL via the phone line is also not possible due to distance from the exchange and 3g barely works.
Cell service is adequate for text messaging but making voice calls is tricky you have to be in precisely the right place for you and the person you are talking too to hear each other.

when it rains the 3g service becomes intermittent. Even the satellite tv broadcaster needs a pots connection to use their broadband option.

Comment Re:Automobile tires? (Score 1) 400

You cannot 3D print out high tensile strength steel wire, because that strength comes from the orientation of the atom and molecules. That orientation is achieved by drawing it through a die.

no it isn't Steel is an alloy of primarily iron crystals with interstitial carbon atoms which lock the slip plains of the iron crystals. There is a lot more to it than that but making a high tensile steel wire is not like making a rope although it is drawn done through dies. But you are right you will not be 3d printing a high tensile steel wire but not for the reasons you have stated.

Comment Re:use a user-friendly operating system (Score 1) 266

Yesterday I was involved in an issue installing reason5 on a mac running maverick
it doesn't work using normal instalation methods.

Later versions version 6 and version 7 do but require more resources and a new licence. There is more than one program on OSX which doesn't work with Maverick.

I did get it working by installing the (3.9GB) demo version of reason 7 it patched the system and while having that open and running I was able to install reason 5 (it overwrote the reason 7 files) a couple of files also had to be copied into the reason folder from the reason5 install disc. However once i'd done this Reason version 5 was installed and running correctly.

So from my experience with OSX I'd have to conclude that it is user friendly except for the times when it isn't.
Much like other operating systems really.

I do wish developers would try to be helpful when their programs crash or fail. Or failing that a program like snoopdos from the Amiga would be wonderful. This program would monitor a program and tell you where it succeeded or failed. The Amiga used shared library files much like .dll files on windows Snoopdos would tell you the version number it was looking for and if it failed it might be something like arp.lib version 1.4 and version 1.3 was installed so it would normally be a matter of finding version 1.4 or later putting that in the libs folder and then the call would succeed. The nice thing about libs was that later versions extended functionality but never removed existing functions. Other calls might be for a particular font to be loaded and you would know that was needed to get the program to work. I know Amiga os is a dinosaur in todays world but they got a few things spot on.

 

Comment Re:What the hell is wrong with some people? (Score 1) 266

Most posts on Slashdot are unhelpful drivel, although some are golden.
How do comments made on slashdot relate to Linux?

Did he mention the system used to work as expected, and now is broken?

I read your comment why wouldn't I have read the summary? but yes it is at the top of the page if you use your page up button you can check for yourself. do you have a UI that allows you to do that? You might consider my reply insulting but look at what you wrote.

If I was a Linux advocate, I'd be ashamed of the community over stupid crap like this situation.

which community? which situation? That a Slashdot story has a lot of crappy comments? That you post flamebait and it gets modded insightful? As a member of the same species as yourself its a sad situation to see posts like yours and the story was overstated. A feature of sticky keys was broken.

from latter posts it appears there is a patch for it, but it appears that it has to be approved and tested by one guy who is overworked, thats not a good situation but perhaps someone who has the knowledge and ability to work on X might step up to help out.

   

Comment its not the grade that matters particularly (Score 1) 278

I guess it depends on the parent but homework seems to something that involves parents with their kids lives you know where they talk to them.

I think that beats sitting in front of the TV and just providing meals and a change of clothes. It also involves the parents with the kids progression through school. Teachers don't really have enough time in a lesson to make sure the kids are actually learning what they are supposed to be learning.

It seems to get worse as the kids get older, teachers tend to become baby sitters rather than educators. Its great when you find a teacher who manages to raise an interest in their subject for a kid but we all pretty much know which teachers educated us and which were in the same room for a year or two.

I really don't get on with these studies that try to say homework is worthless it isn't and just gives parents an excuse not to spend time with their kids.

Comment Re:The Internet Changes Everything (Score 1) 260

I think you forgot about the 1% or so of useful information from our friends and family, that is the reason for having a facebook account, but the internet is not facebook, most people I know don't use slashdot for example but slashdot does cater to some of my interests. Soylentnews is now overlapping quite nicely with slashdot similar subjects but a lot less spammy trolls. It's probably not going to stay that way.

There are quite a few other sites I use as well such as photography sites , gardening sites and others ebay is useful to me for buying relatively obscure items that are not available locally. there are local market place sites to use as well for example donedeal.ie is good for finding cars in ireland adverts.ie can be a handy place to find items locally.

So honestly facebook is just a feed to me of things i might actually care about and a lot i don't. I don't think i am unusual in using it that way. The instant messaging side of facebook is also handy when there is something i want to talk about with a particular person.

I honestly don't believe facebook has what it thinks it has, because most of the stuff that matters to people is not done on facebook and g+ is a complete failure because it doesn't provide anything that is of any use. one feed of mostly useless crap is enough.

Comment Re:I hope they get things sorted out before July (Score 1) 149

That might be the case, I've seen conditions that say something like by entering the event you are concenting to be filmed ect. This was for a rock concert in the uk at sheffield arena. This was posted at every entrance into the place. I would imagine it would be part of the terms and conditions of tickets for the Hungarian GP.

Incidentally a lot of places require you to have public liability cover of several million as a photographer or you will not get access. which kind of makes sense even if most of the time its never needed. (was a case of a photographer stepping back knocked into an old lady who went over and cracked her skull freak accident but it was worth his premium) Track side photography has even higher insurance requirements.

This new law in Hungary is ripe for abuse, never again can compromising pictures of politicians and celebrities be taken.

On the otherhand you could argue that there are some times it would be better for people involved if there was no picture. On thursday i was on my way home and came upon a car on its roof that had just crashed, I stopped and helped unfortunately one lad died later at the scene. There are photo's of the car on several news websites and it feels quite raw seeing it there just for me and it must be worse for the families of the kids that were in that crash. Feels a lot different when you crawled in through the window and found it impossible to do anything to help the kid trapped inside. does there need to be a picture?

Comment Re:In their defence. (Score 2) 417

It is a boarding school, maybe 35 hours might be spent in a classroom, just a small fraction of the 168 hours they are at the school for during term time. Some might not even go home during the shorter breaks like a weeks half term.

The school has the responsibility for those kids 24/7 most of the year. It may seem a little harsh but these kids are not destined to work in factories or Mcdonalds. Their parents are paying a lot of money to have them study there.

It is a difficult role the school has to take on the role of parent or guardian which does mean filtering the content the kids are exposed to. If a parent wants to provide an unfiltered connection they probably could afford to do so but would be discouraged from doing so. It's a guilded cage for the kids but when they are adults and have their own kids they will probably make the same choice.

Comment Re:Of course it's "lawful" (Score 3, Insightful) 169

It's not so daft allowing some prisoners to vote in elections. Think about why you are locking them away and why you are releasing them.

People go to prison for breaking our societies rules, it's pretty pointless releasing them if they have no way to re engage with society in a lawful way. It's better for society for prisoners to be released and get jobs and become a productive part of society again. If these prisoners can't be integrated with society then its likely they will prey on the community instead. Then we end up paying to keep them locked up instead this time for longer and even less chance of being able to reintegrate.

If your saying to people you have no part in our society then what reason do they have to have any regard you your family your property ever.

Comment Re:Works for Slashdot as well... (Score 1) 367

some of us haven't bothered using our mod points one way or the other. Think of it as a taster of what beta is going to do to this site. The boycott starts tomorrow. For a week.

Hopefully Dice will get the message, without the many people who contribute to slashdot the site is worthless.
How do you think slashdot is going to be without its core contributors? I think you're starting to see it already.
next week will be worse much worse.

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