dhanson865 - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Legacy be damned. (Score 2, Insightful) 467

by dhanson865 on Monday May 17, 2010 @06:45PM (#32246056) Attached to: Seagate Confirms 3TB Hard Drive

To any average user the GB on the box is one thing and the GB Windows shows is another. They look at it just like they do CRT diagonal size of advertised vs visible.

Yes both measurements of the CRT are just measurements. One matters to the manufacturer one matters to the consumer.

Take the WD6400AAKS
BOX Windows
640GB = 596.13GB*

Yes 1000/1024 conversion takes me from 640GB advertised to 596GB usable. In your case you mentioned 3TB on the box is about 2,794GB in Windows.

I know this is /. and MacOS/Ubuntu are changing to Base10 file size nomenclature but Windows is still 80+% of the market and 90+% of the installed OSes including older versions of linux/MacOS will still report file sizes in base2.

Until the advertised disk capacity is in the same format as the OS reports for the majority of users I think it's fair to say that the average user considers this misleading.

Call it crap if you want but I didn't create the divide I'm just straddling it.

Comment Re:Legacy be damned. (Score 1) 467

by dhanson865 on Monday May 17, 2010 @01:27PM (#32240220) Attached to: Seagate Confirms 3TB Hard Drive

Sorry VLM you seem to be confused. In no way will 750GB x 4 ever end up being 6TB. That would be a 3TB drive in marketing speak and 2.x TB in usable capacity. The industry terminology calls it a 750GB platter if there is 375GB per side. Very few people care how many sides a platter has or how many heads/actuator arms are involved in making a 3TB drive.

When krnpimpsta correctly said the common platter sizes are 500GB, 375GB, 333G, 250GB and the common consumer hard drives have 1 to 4 platters there is no need to dissect that further. Just multiply 500GB x 4 platters to get 2TB drives.

Microsoft Kills Support For XP SP2 315

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 13, 2010 @02:41PM from the too-soon? dept.

Trailrunner7 writes "Microsoft's announcement this week that it is preparing to end support for machines running Windows XP SP2 not only represents a challenge for the thousands of businesses still running SP2, but also is the end of an era for both Microsoft and its customers. It wasn't until 2004 that the final release of XP SP2 hit the streets, but when it did, it represented a huge step forward in security for Windows users. It wasn't necessarily the feature set that mattered as much as the fact that the protections were enabled by default and taken out of the users' hands."

US Air Force To Suffer From PS3 Update 349

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday May 13, 2010 @06:45AM from the sounds-like-an-act-of-terrorism-to-me dept.

tlhIngan writes "The US Air Force, having purchased PS3s for supercomputing research, is now the latest victim of Sony's removal of the Install Other OS feature. It turns out that while their PS3s don't need the firmware update, it will be impossible to replace PS3s that fail. PS3s with the Other OS feature are no longer produced since the Slim was introduced, so replacements will have to come from the existing stock of used PS3s. However, as most gamers have probably updated their PS3s, that used stock is no longer suitable for the USAF's research. In addition, smaller educational clusters using PS3s will share the same fate — unable to replace machines that die in their clusters." In related news, Sony has been hit with two more lawsuits over this issue.

Should the Gov't Pay For Injured Man's Wii? 222

Posted by kdawson on Monday May 03, 2010 @06:38AM from the if-the-wii-fits dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Politicians in the Australian state of Victoria are currently locked in a debate about whether an injured man should be able to claim the cost of a Nintendo Wii for rehabilitation purposes under worker's compensation. The man's doctor apparently recommended he use the Wii Fit exercise device, but both insurance companies and the government itself have blocked the payment and have now ridiculed the idea as paying for video games. But with the Wii Fit increasingly being used for rehabilitation purposes internationally, does the man have a fair case?"

OLED Film Could Provide Cheap Night Vision For Cars 120

Posted by timothy on Thursday April 29, 2010 @02:13PM from the want-sunglasses-like-this dept.

thecarchik writes "Night vision systems are already available in the higher-end luxury sedans from companies like Toyota, Volvo, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. It's expensive technology that few drivers can afford, and at $4,000 for the system without a display, it's a pricey upgrade. That may all change soon, as DARPA-funded scientists have developed a cheap way to turn any infrared light into visible light with a thin film."

Activision Hit With $500m Suit From Modern Warfare 2 Devs 77

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday April 28, 2010 @01:31AM from the pow-right-in-the-kisser dept.

Dragoniz3r writes "Activision has been served a lawsuit from 38 plaintiffs, including present and former Infinity Ward employees, demanding up to half a billion dollars. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for 'unpaid bonuses, royalties, profit-sharing, and future profits from games such as Modern Warfare 3, and punitive damages.'"

Comcast Awarded the Golden Poo Award 286

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday April 27, 2010 @12:25PM from the you-will-receive-your-award-between-8-and-12 dept.

ISoldat53 writes "The Consumerist has awarded Comcast the Golden Poo award for the worst company in America. From the article: 'After four rounds of bloody battle against some of the most publicly reviled businesses in America, Comcast can now run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and hold its hands high in victory — it has bested everyone else to earn the title of Worst Company In America for 2010.'"

Ubuntu Will Switch To Base-10 File Size Units In Future Release 984

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday March 27, 2010 @11:55AM from the stay-above-the-belt dept.

CyberDragon777 writes "Ubuntu's future 10.10 operating system is going to make a small, but contentious change to how file sizes are represented. Like most other operating systems using binary prefixes, Ubuntu currently represents 1 kB (kilobyte) as 1024 bytes (base-2). But starting with 10.10, a switch to SI prefixes (base-10) will denote 1 kB as 1000 bytes, 1 MB as 1000 kB, 1 GB as 1000 MB, and so on."

Mozilla Plans Fix For Critical Firefox Vulnerability In Next Release 140

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday March 20, 2010 @12:05PM from the sooner-than-later dept.

Trailrunner7 writes "A month after an advisory was published detailing a new vulnerability in Firefox, Mozilla said it has received exploit code for the flaw and is planning to patch the weakness on March 30 in the next release of Firefox. Mozilla officials said Thursday that the vulnerability, which was disclosed February 18 by Secunia, is a critical flaw that could result in remote code execution on a vulnerable machine. The vulnerability is in version 3.6 of Firefox."

Comment Honeypot? (Score 4, Insightful) 105

by dhanson865 on Monday March 15, 2010 @02:27PM (#31485142) Attached to: The Coming Botnet Stock Exchange

Yeah, interesting concept but the fear would be that the botnet owner would respond by saying knock, knock, the FBI is here (substitute the agency you think applies if the FBI isn't your cup of tea).

If you do something yourself you know all the players. If you pay someone to do it you don't know if you are walking into a trap.

disclaimer: I'm not too worried about this as I don't plan on taking either route.

Why Are Digital Hearing Aids So Expensive? 727

Posted by timothy on Saturday March 13, 2010 @03:30PM from the what-the-market-will-hear dept.

sglines writes "Over the last couple of years I've been slowly getting deaf. Too much loud rock and roll I suppose. After flubbing a couple of job interviews because I couldn't understand my inquisitors, I had a hearing test which confirmed what I already knew: I'm deaf. So I tried on a set of behind-the-ear hearing aids. Wow, my keyboard makes clacks as I type and my wife doesn't mumble to herself. Then I asked how much: $3,700 for the pair. Hey, I'm unemployed. The cheapest digital hearing aids they had were $1,200 each. If you look at the specs they are not very impressive. A digital hearing aid has a low-power A-to-D converter. Output consists of D-to-A conversion with volume passing through an equalizer that inversely matches your hearing loss. Most hearing loss, mine included, is frequency dependent, so an equalizer does wonders. The 'cheap' hearing aids had only four channels while the high-end one had twelve. My 1970 amplifier had more than that. I suppose they have some kind of noise reduction circuitry, too, but that's pretty much it. So my question is this: when I can get a very good netbook computer for under $400 why do I need to pay $1,200 per ear for a hearing aid? Alternatives would be welcome."

Tower Switch-Off Embarrasses Electrosensitives 292

Posted by samzenpus on Friday January 15, 2010 @03:03PM from the radiation-placebo dept.

Sockatume writes "Residents in Craigavon, South Africa complained of '[h]eadaches, nausea, tinnitus, dry burning itchy skins, gastric imbalances and totally disrupted sleep patterns' after an iBurst communications tower was put up in a local park. Symptoms subsided when the residents left the area, often to stay with family and thus evade their suffering. At a public meeting with the afflicted locals, the tower's owners pledged to switch off the mast immediately to assess whether it was responsible for their ailments. One problem: the mast had already been switched off for six weeks. Lawyers representing the locals say their case against iBurst will continue on other grounds."

Former Exec Says Electronic Arts "Is In the Wrong Business" 180

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 15, 2010 @07:18AM from the inspiring-internet-outrage-is-a-bad-business-model dept.

Mitch Lasky was the executive vice president of Mobile and Online at Electronic Arts until leaving the publisher to work at an investment firm. He now has some harsh things to say about how EA has been run over the past several years, in particular criticizing the decisions of CEO John Riccitiello. Quoting: "EA is in the wrong business, with the wrong cost structure and the wrong team, but somehow they seem to think that it is going to be a smooth, two-year transition from packaged goods to digital. Think again. ... by far the greatest failure of Riccitiello's strategy has been the EA Games division. JR bet his tenure on EA's ability to 'grow their way through the transition' to digital/online with hit packaged goods titles. They honestly believed that they had a decade to make this transition (I think it's more like 2-3 years). Since the recurring-revenue sports titles were already 'booked' (i.e., fully accounted for in the Wall Street estimates) it fell to EA Games to make hits that could move the needle. It's been a very ugly scene, indeed. From Spore, to Dead Space, to Mirror's Edge, to Need for Speed: Undercover, it's been one expensive commercial disappointment for EA Games after another. Not to mention the shut-down of Pandemic, half of the justification for EA's $850MM acquisition of Bioware-Pandemic. And don't think that Dante's Inferno, or Knights of the Old Republic, is going to make it all better. It's a bankrupt strategy."

The Best Robots of 2009 51

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 23, 2009 @09:59PM from the best-of-show dept.

kkleiner writes "Singularity Hub has just unveiled its second annual roundup of the best robots of the year. In 2009 robots continued their advance towards world domination with several impressive breakouts in areas such as walking, automation, and agility, while still lacking in adaptability and reasoning ability. It will be several years until robots can gain the artificial intelligence that will truly make them remarkable, but in the meantime they are still pretty awesome."

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