adoll - Slashdot User

Journal: OpenSuSE 12.1 install - sound problem 0

Journal by adoll on Monday January 02, @07:43PM

I wiped my computer and installed OpenSuSE 12.1 from scratch, reformating the root directory (but not the home directory). Bad news - the sound didn't work.

Comment: Re:Ok, someone explain this to me. (Score 1) 182

by adoll on Friday September 23, @10:58PM (#37499356) Attached to: If it were mine to decide ...

2. "A pox on both their houses". What the hell? Which are the two houses you want to put a pox on? AT&T and T-Mo? AT&Tmo and the USG? AT&Tmo and Verizon/Sprint?

Yes.

Comment: Only root account works (Score 1) 1

by adoll on Friday February 18 2011, @12:37PM (#35245278) Attached to: Enabling rsync on Iomega StorCenter

Good news: rsync works as root.

Bad news: After numerous reboots and combinations of user passwords, I'm still only able to rsync using the root account. Next step will be to dig through the user permissions in the device (ssh as root and play with combinations of groups and maybe the settings for ssh in the /etc directory).

Journal: Enabling rsync on Iomega StorCenter 1

Journal by adoll on Thursday February 17 2011, @02:35PM

Recently bought an Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 for our small office. I've got three Linux machines that I want to synchronize to this device using rsync.

I set the machine up with security, passwords, and so on. Using the web control panel, enabled that "rsync" option (on "Settings|Network Services" page), but that actually didn't do anything -- I get the following:

Comment: Engineering programming - SQL and PHP (Score 1) 434

by adoll on Friday May 21 2010, @11:59PM (#32302710) Attached to: Most Useful OS For High-School Science Education?

I do process engineering calculations in some pretty big applications. Many of them are web-based since I'm too lazy to program user interfaces. Side bonus is two of us can work on the application at the same time if it is web-based.

The single most useful thing I can recommend for engineering & science students is SQL. I can't tell you how many people I've seen using spreadsheets for a completely inappropriate application because they don't know how a proper database works.

But SQL doesn't do much by itself - I use PHP to interface with it. PHP has its problems, but it is simple, forgiving, and widespread.

Comment: Re:I voted Climatology (Score 0, Flamebait) 515

by adoll on Sunday March 21 2010, @03:27PM (#31559810) Attached to: Of the options below, I'd most like to learn more ...

Both these articles are written by cheeleaders for the "stop everything and give me all your money, we've got a crisis" crowd. The validity of the top two charts on the Wikipedia site, for example, are being challenged by sceptics.

Here are a couple from the "No" crowd:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/012714.html

Comment: Re:Applied maths? (Score 1) 515

by adoll on Sunday March 21 2010, @02:42PM (#31559404) Attached to: Of the options below, I'd most like to learn more ...

Agree. I am an engineer and find myself frequently unable to solve a problem because my pure math skills are not up to the task.

The most useful one is statistics (ok, mathematics profs don't consider statistics a math, but meh). Next most useful is classical geometry (which they don't teach any more - been replaced by trigonometry). Most of the really advanced maths engineers get taught (differential equations, even most calculus) are not useful to most of the daily problems faced by engineers.

The best math course I ever took in first-year engineering was linear (matrix) algebra. Awesome branch of math and useful for computer programming as well (arrays).

Comment: Re:It's the freeloaders time (Score 1) 1051

by adoll on Sunday March 07 2010, @06:57PM (#31395198) Attached to: Ars Technica Inveighs Against Ad Blocking

I frequently click the ads of companies and organizations I disagree with (eg. PETA, soft) to bleed money from the advertiser to the website. Except I open the ad in a background tab on Firefox, then close the tab without viewing it.

This is the same thing as send back those pre-paid envelopes for 'business reply' to groups I dislike and leaving the envelope empty.

Long-Term Storage of Moderately Large Datasets? 411

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 03 2010, @05:18PM
from the rodents-of-medium-size dept.

hawkeyeMI writes "I have a small scientific services company, and we end up generating fairly large datasets (2-3 TB) for each customer. We don't have to ship all of that, but we do need to keep some compressed archives. The best I can come up with right now is to buy some large hard drives, use software RAID in linux to make a RAID5 set out of them, and store them in a safe deposit box. I feel like there must be a better way for a small business, but despite some research into Blu-ray, I've not been able to find a good, cost-effective alternative. A tape library would be impractical at the present time. What do you recommend?"

Space Photos Taken From Shed Stun Astronomers 149

Posted by timothy on Saturday January 23 2010, @03:03AM
from the love-the-gold-mylar dept.

krou writes "Amateur astronomer Peter Shah has stunned astronomers around the world with amazing photos of the universe taken from his garden shed. Shah spent £20,000 on the equipment, hooking up a telescope in his shed to his home computer, and the results are being compared to images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. 'Most men like to putter about in their garden shed,' said Shah, 'but mine is a bit more high tech than most. I have fitted it with a sliding roof so I can sit in comfort and look at the heavens. I have a very modest set up, but it just goes to show that a window to the universe is there for all of us – even with the smallest budgets. I had to be patient and take the images over a period of several months because the skies in Britain are often clouded over and you need clear conditions.' His images include the Monkey's head nebula, M33 Pinwheel Galaxy, Andromeda Galaxy and the Flaming Star Nebula, and are being put together for a book."