Comment: Re:hmmmmm (Score 1) 118
Bitcoin software is very unfriendly. The concept is alright, but the tools need more development.
Comment: Re:Without power? (Score 1) 813
It wouldn't help you. Windmills still have to be maintained. And, you still need reserve power when the wind dies down. If the reserve comes from batteries, the batteries will need periodic replacement, which is expensive. And if the reserve comes from offsite -- forget about the windmill and just bury your power lines.
Comment: Re:Another lousy company (Score 1) 307
Chrome has always auto-updated without my permission. Imagine my surprise when I see 50% CPU utilization, and I see a Setup.exe running, but I'm not installing anything that I'm aware of.
Comment: Re:How is this an issue? (Score 1) 284
POSIX.1 defines seconds since the Epoch as a value to be interpreted as the number of seconds between a specified time and the Epoch, according to a formula for conversion from UTC equivalent to conversion on the naive basis that leap seconds are ignored and all years divisible by 4 are leap years.
I think that's the only way to do it. You need some formula to convert between epoch time and component time, and a static formula can't account for arbitrary leap seconds. For computing purposes, instead of thinking of a leap second as making the day one second longer, think of it as a one-time adjustment to your clock.
Comment: Re:How is this an issue? (Score 1) 284
Yeah, I understand that the :60 exists in the real world. But from a computing standpoint, a small approximation seems to make things much easier.
Comment: Re:How is this an issue? (Score 1) 284
Thanks - the kernel log on one of my machines seems to indicate that the :59 was repeated. That's what I would hope for the sake of software compatibility.
Comment: Re:That's what they want (Score 1) 298
All these anti-piracy efforts are predicated on the notion that piracy is bad, and that copyright is the only way or the only fair way artists can make a living.
If there are other ways for artists to make a decent living in a world where everything is copied freely, then you're completely right.
Comment: Re:That's what they want (Score 1) 298
The thing you have the remember about the internet is that it is a country. It should have it's own governing body and rules
I would go for that, and I love the idea. The governments just don't agree.
Comment: Re:That's what they want (Score 1) 298
Yes, you can write all the books you want, you just can't actually sell drugs or kill people. That's the difference between censorship and law enforcement.
Comment: Re:That's what they want (Score 1) 298
There's no entitlement to expect people to pay for your work rather than stealing it?
Comment: Re:How is this an issue? (Score 3, Insightful) 284
Why would a Unix application ever see the :60? Any time someone checks the clock, the time should be derived from Unix time (seconds since the epoch) which doesn't account for leap seconds. So to an application it should appear as a duplicate :00 or :59.
Comment: Re:That's what they want (Score 1) 298
In the sense that the American government is run by Americans, sure. But the definition of government is that some people are in power and some aren't.
Comment: Re:That's what they want (Score 1) 298
I'm saying it's okay for them to enforce laws. In this case, they're not doing anything to the Internet. They're making it easier for copyright holders to serve complaints. And by serving the complaint to your ISP instead of suing you, they're saving you money and court time.
Comment: Re:That's what they want (Score 1) 298
It's a trade-off. People want to copy music, so it's a way for the artists to be compensated too. Yes, some people don't get any benefit for the tax, but nor do I get the benefit of every tax dollar that's spent here in the US.
Comment: Re:That's what they want (Score 1) 298
Yeah, they could figure something out about the hard drive space. Just put a tiny tax on all drives if you want to, otherwise enforcement is a problem. But the real problem is copying. As I recall, the deal is that you can make a copy of something for your own use, but you can't distribute copies. In my opinion, P2P should count as distributing copies, because the effect is the same. But yes, I know there's a counter-argument.