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bmajik (96670)

bmajik
  matt@mattevans.org
http://www.mattevans.org/

I'll cut to the chase. I work for Microsoft. But it wasn't always that way. My first Linux distro was TAMU, and I first used kernel .98. My first unix experience was in middle school. I still have the sparcstation 10 i bought in highschool (Before I owned a Car, even). So, I may be a Microsoft sellout, but don't accuse me of making an uninformed decision :)
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 07, @01:03PM (#24509479)
Attached to: Apple Sued For Turning Workers Into Slaves
Why, my nigger enjoys being a slave! Go on boy, tell em how you like working for me, there's a good nigger.
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Posted by kdawson on Wednesday July 23, @08:06AM
from the put-down-that-pin dept.
David Barrett writes "If you sell three billion ads a month and can't break even, what do you do? Drop prices by 40% and switch business models, apparently. Is this an isolated incident, or does it contribute to the growing pile of evidence that ad inventory is overpriced industry-wide, with Google being the worst offender due to its policy of requiring minimum bids on keywords that would otherwise go for cheap? Check out this analysis on my blog and make up your own mind."
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 [+] story, news, money, google, blogpimping, internet, lookatme
Journal by bmajik on Monday July 07, @12:20PM

Growing up, I was a big fan of workstation class machines. This persisted all through highschool and college, and for a while, a bit afterwards.

For instance, I left highschool with a Sparc IPX and a Sparc 10, but no car. Goofy priorities, I guess. When I was in school I picked up an SGI I^2 High Impact. I outfitted my SS10 with dual SunVideo cards, a dual-proc upgrade, a couple different framebuffers (TGX, ZX, etc).

The Math Department of my school auctioned its entire remaining inventory of NeXT workstations -- which I bought in its entirety. In addition, I picked up a color Turbo, an NCD X-Terminal, a few VT100 clones, etc.

Now, I've moved a lot since then. I sold my SS IPX to get some other hardware. I gave my SGI machine to a friend that had never used SGIs or IRIX before. I sold my Color Turbo to a guy who might make better use of it. The X-term ended up with a friend I think.

I divested half of my NeXT lab -- including the monitors -- to people that wanted to play with them. I have 3 non-functioning 030 cubes left, and with a sheet of plain glass, they make up one of my coffee tables. I also have my SS10, which I cannot let myself get rid of because of all the money I dumped into it.

I've made my peace with using the remaining NeXT cubes as furnture. I'm not sure what to do with the SS10 - it uses a lot of power, it's very loud, and I can't think of much interesting to do with it. It's utterly worthless on ebay.

I think I still have my Apple ][+ somewhere. It's the machine I learned to program on.... :)

What do you do with old computers that are "special", but that you don't have a computing need for?

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by y86 on Thursday July 03, @06:03PM (#24049143)
Attached to: Freeze On US Solar Plant Applications Lifted

Because Big Oil doesn't like Big Sun.

Hippies with money don't care about the poor trying to get by with high heating oil/energy costs.

They only care about some rare breed of bird that's almost extinct since it likes to eat plastic bags.

I find the lack of humanity in PETA and other hippie groups appalling.

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  Microsoft's Interop Announcement 2008-02-21 12:38 bmajik

Submitted by bmajik on Thursday February 21 2008, @12:38PM
bmajik writes "Microsoft is making a big deal about its new interoperability initiative. The announcement of "principles" include data portability, increased support for standard data file formats, open protocols, open API access, and a list of which MS patents apply to which protocols, and the terms under which those patents may be licensed. Additionally, the announcement includes a covenenant not to sue creators and users of F/OSS software who make use of these open protocols. What do people make of this announcement? Does it change things?"
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 [+] submission, microsoft
Posted by Soulskill on Friday February 08 2008, @03:26AM
from the reinforced-bridges dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A recent ruling by the Court of Appeal of the State of California (PDF) in Krinsky v. Doe H030767 overturned a lower court ruling and decided that the First Amendment right to anonymous speech protects internet trolls, too. Specifically, the ruling said that 'this juvenile name-calling cannot reasonably be read as stating actual facts.' And, even though some of the statements were crudely sexual and accused Ms. Krinsky of being among 'boobs, liars and crooks,' the statements were held to 'fall into the category of crude, satirical hyperbole which, while reflecting the immaturity of the speaker, constitute protected opinion under the First Amendment.'"
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 [+] story, yro, court, gnaa, arslashdotica, boobs, freespeech
Posted by Soulskill on Thursday February 07 2008, @08:43PM
from the hey-guys-this-is-ok-right dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Wired is reporting that the FBI sought approval to use its custom spyware program, CIPAV, from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in terrorism or spying investigations. Affidavits prepared for the court are among 3,000 pages of documents gathered, but not yet released, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Wired. The FBI hasn't answered any questions about its use of the CIPAV since the program's existence became widely known in July. The FISC is generally regarded as a rubber stamp; it approved over 4,000 surveillance requests in 2005 and 2006[PDF], rejecting none."
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 [+] story, yro, privacy, internet, security, bigbrotherware, fascism
Bookmark by Zerolove on Wednesday February 07 2007, @01:46PM
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  A 'beauty function' for a better look 2007-02-07 13:34 Roland Piquepaille

Submitted by Roland Piquepaille on Wednesday February 07 2007, @01:34PM
Roland Piquepaille writes "Computer scientists have already tried to digitally enhance our images. Today, let's look at the 'Beauty Function' developed by researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) and who promise a more beautiful you. Their program was based on a survey of 300 men and women who were asked to rank pictures of peoples' faces with varying degrees of beauty. Not only it produces results in minutes, but it works. "Volunteers agreed that 79 percent of time, the effects of the Beauty Function — which can be applied to both men and women — made a face more attractive." This software could be first used by plastic surgeons. But this enhancement might soon also become available on your digital camera. Read more for additional details and pictures showing this digital face beautification process and its results."
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 [+] submission, software

  user-submitted guitar tabs == infringement? 2007-01-03 10:08 hudster

Submitted by hudster on Wednesday January 03 2007, @10:08AM
hudster writes "The site all-good-tabs.com has apparently been threatened by legal action due to allegations of copyright infringement. Currently, when attempting to view any of the guitar tabs on the site, the following message is displayed (see example here):

Dear All Good Tabs vistors, All Good Tabs has been threatened with legal action by the National Music Publishers Association and the Music Publishers Association of America. The basis of their position is that by publishing the tabs transcribed by you hard working musicians, we are constituting copyright infringement. We completely disagree with this and are currently investigating our legal options. Click here for an explanation of the publishing company's position, and contact details for you to express your opinions on this matter to them.
"
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 [+] submission, yro, music, mpaa, nmpa