Forgot your password?

typodupeerror

Comment: Re:NVIDIA borken again... (Score 1) 74

by smoothnorman (#43713453) Attached to: Linux 3.10 Merge Windows Closes
yep/me-too/%#$!! the best annoying dumb trick comes via dkms (Dynamic Kernel Module Support). so there's was a working graphics module (for nvidia blob 304.88) then unlucky fool (which would be me) does an update/dist-upgrade, and so dkms uninstalls the working module, attempts to install a new module, which fails to compile ("nv-i2c.c function ‘nv_i2c_del_adapter’ : error: void value not ignored as it ought to be") and now we're left with a box which will have no graphics upon reboot.

next-up: any kernel >= 3.10.0-rc1 (yes yes... that's "-rc" so technically: no whining!) effects the transition of create_proc_entry() to proc_create() which no nvidia blob nor source seems remotely ready for.

Comment: whaat? no comment on brutal finger theft?? (Score 1) 632

by smoothnorman (#43582761) Attached to: New Smart Gun Company Hopes To Begin Production This Summer
i'm shocked (shocked!) that there's no long thread about how this technology will promote fingers being hacked off (and worn around the neck along with several others necklace style) by eeevil folk. for instance, here's your precedent: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4396831.stm now... let's get on with our panicking about this aspect, shall we?

Comment: so old it must be replaced... (Score 5, Funny) 300

by smoothnorman (#43384819) Attached to: Extended TeX: Past, Present, and Future
nothing that old can possibly be relevant anymore (cf "trust no one over 30"). it should be replaced with something more responsive to a one-hand touch interface abbrev friendly imho. math, a central theme in TeX, no longer has any relevance to the modern world (just ask any millionaire agile scrum extreme php programmer). any remaining bits of math are done entirely by app; the vestigial remnants of the usefulness of "math" can only be found in the interjections of animated characters. only a tiny ancient dying breed of tenured academics (and i suspect *europeans*) would ever seek typography beyond the standards of MSWord. page layout was forever perfected by expensive per seat layout software around 1996 and requires no more changes. markup languages are <b>too</b> hard to learn. anything that requires a compiling phase has gone the way of C++. the world is better now as everything old and outmoded quickly recedes. sine-die.

Comment: don't count yer fibers just yet (Score 2) 108

by smoothnorman (#42284325) Attached to: Seattle To Get Gigabit Fiber To the Home and Business
i've been sitting in seattle, well, since forever... and this is at least the third try at this. comcast the evil monopoly that holds seattle in its death-grip will try everything that was successful at shutting this down and then-some before letting this through. they will start with "incentives" (building computer labs in the schools for example), then move to bribes (there's a hot mayor race coming up. watch if one candidate suddenly gets a zillion in outside funding. "but that's illegal!!" yeah... right), then legal threats like suing for restraint of trade (which have turned the trick before). they may also get federal, using a bribed federal regulatory agency to shut down the endeavor. so as much as i'd love to see this, and might even directly benefit, this ain't going to go down smoothly. this is a fairly fidgety "David" against an massively monetized Goliath.

Comment: The sad view from the R&D desk... (Score 1) 761

...of 25 some years, i've thought long and hard about this. A tech workers union could well be a positive thing in the lives of folks who get laid-off the second that some CEO decides to off-shore, or, (and this always struck me as the saddest short-sighted of all), fire folks because the discovery they labored for has been made. (actual overheard paraphrasing by a CFO: "who needs an R&D department after the discovery is done and patented? they're just a waste of wages at that point")

yet here's my sad overly generalized conclusion: Those with an Engineering degree tend to be too conservative and have swallowed a bunch of malarkey about unions being Communist (see comments on this very page); whereas those with a PhD are somehow too elitist to think they need this sort of low-prole protection. I hope i'm wrong, and it'll just take a new generation to see the long-range benefits of getting organized, but i certainly have my doubts.

Comment: Some indications that it's not "Fully Free" ...yet (Score 4, Informative) 327

by smoothnorman (#41306937) Attached to: Opus &mdash; the Codec To End All Codecs
none other than Bruce Perens (Open Source champion) points us to these: https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/1520/ https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/1741/ wherein we learn that Opus is "possible royalty/fee". this is not consistent with "Fully Free" to any patent troll waiting for broad adoption before jumping.
ISS

Space Fish: ISS Aquatic Habitat Delivered By HTV-3 68

Posted by Soulskill
from the and-what's-this-fish-doing-in-my-ear dept.
astroengine writes "Yes, it's the moment we've all (secretly) been waiting for: Fish In Space! But before you go getting too excited and start asking the big questions — like: if there's a bubble in a microgravity aquarium, what happens if the fish falls into it? Let's ponder that for a minute... — it's worth pointing out that the fish aren't actually in space right now (their habitat has just been delivered to the space station by the unmanned Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle 'Kounotori 3') and this fishy experiment isn't just to see how fish enjoy swimming upside down, there's some serious science behind it."

Comment: it's no longer an public agency (Score 5, Insightful) 95

by smoothnorman (#40653825) Attached to: The FDA Spied On Its Own Scientists
the slippery slope of having big-pharma pay for the FDA's testing (as a "cost cutting" maneuver), which then became having the industry itself doing the testing of its own trial products, and by now the FDA is a watch-dog for the industries secrets and guarding their IP, the FDA has become essentially just contract research for the private sector. add that there are good indicators that big-pharma is behind pulling in "campaign contributions" to continue the war on drugs (there's proprietary money in xanax there's none in marijuana) and it's time to just tear down the remains and start a new agency. ...has that ever occurred? i don't think so.

System going down at 5 this afternoon to install scheduler bug.

Working...