Comment Reverse Engineering (Score 1) 158

by Ignis Flatus on Friday February 27, 2009 @07:29AM (#27010087) Attached to: Doctorow Suggests Simple EULA Solution

Isn't Reverse Engineering the real thing that EULAs don't protect against? In any case, people really do buy software outright, and the fact that we have EULAs is a pretty good indication that without the agreement, outright purchase is implied. So if you leave out the EULA, maybe you are implicitly giving permission to copy.

Comment Re:Actually its a normal occurence (Score 1) 474

by Ignis Flatus on Tuesday December 02, 2008 @07:06AM (#25957531) Attached to: Acorns Disappear Across the Country

I'm thinking the theory in the link is right. Our pecan trees had a bumper crop last year. And, perhaps not coincidentally, we also had a drought. This year, the drought is over, but the trees didn't make many nuts. I assume that at least part of this is because the trees expended quite a bit of energy and nutrients the prior year, and so are not able to produce well this year. Also, pecans are a type of hickory, another nut mentioned in the article.

So... what was the acorn crop like last year? Was it huge? It would be interesting to see if the acorn pattern is following drought patterns. Not all areas suffered the same. I seriously doubt the trees have evolved some sort of rodenticide programming. There are plenty of other factors governing squirrel populations, such as predation.

Comment what i don't get is... (Score 3, Interesting) 106

by Ignis Flatus on Friday November 28, 2008 @07:06AM (#25914857) Attached to: NASA and DoE Team On Dark Energy Research

if there's so much dark energy in the universe, then why don't we have any local in our own little solar system or planet? how come dark energy only makes the science of things far away off-kilter, yet all our science locally we can measure to 9 or more decimal places? seems like an awfully big fudge factor, if you ask me.

Submission + - Dark Energy not necessary after all? (abc.net.au) 1

Submitted by ttnuagmada on Friday December 28, 2007 @11:33PM

ttnuagmada writes: 'Dark energy', which researchers have spent years trying to fathom, isn't necessary to explain our universe after all, according to a new solution to Einstein's theory of general relativity. This challenges the notion that dark energy makes up 76% of our universe, as many cosmologists believe.

Feed Schneier: PGP and the 5th Amendment (schneier.com)

From feed by bsfeed on Monday December 24, 2007 @09:12AM

A Vermont federal judge has ruled that a person cannot be compelled by police to divulge his PGP key. This is by no means the end of the legal debate (Orin Kerr comments), but it's certainly good news....

Comment Risk appetite (Score 5, Informative) 72

by leeum on Monday February 26, 2007 @11:15PM (#18162640) Attached to: Adventuresome or "Hands On" Careers in Tech?

From the article:

Paying relatively well would be a major plus as would something that provides a solid career (20+ years of work).

Given the sentence from the article, the submitter may not have the risk appetite for what you're suggesting.

While I agree that starting your own business does provide the sort of flexibility and widening of job scope that the submitter wants, the solid career and the good pay are not guaranteed. I've read statistics (no sources spring to mind, sorry) that only about 10 - 30% of startups survive past the first three years. And these are the years where you're likely to be getting the least amount of pay out of the business as you'll be wanting to reinvest everything into the business to give it the best possible chance of succeeding in the long run.

That being said, starting (or trying to start) a business can be the most rewarding thing around. I've tried it several times and failed for various reasons, but I would do it all over again if I spotted a reasonably good opportunity because it gives you the chance (in fact, it's practically a requirement) to move around a good deal and fill in gaps in your knowledge you probably never knew you had.

Ask yourself the following questions if this is a route you're considering:

1. Are you prepared to take on a substantial amount of risk when you're starting out? Remember that you will not have much in terms of financial leverage and brand name, and there will be unscrupulous customers who will try to delay payment as much as possible just because they know they have a reasonable chance of getting away with it.

2. Can you ensure that you will have a good work-life balance when you're doing this? A lot of people I know who have started businesses of their own have started with a home office to save on costs, but having a family as well means that you will probably find it hard to differentiate between "work time" and "family time".

Journal Journal: Is Google Falsely Flagging Harmless Sites?

Journal by dare567k on Thursday January 11, 2007 @05:54PM

Some Web site operators are complaining that Google is flagging their sites as containing malicious software when they believe their sites are harmless. At issue is an interstitial page that Google presents when a user clicks on a search result link to a site that Google believes contains malware. The page cautions users with the words "Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!" Google does not block access to the site, but a user must manually type in the Web site address to con

Journal Journal: You have been... Goatsed?

Journal by Noryungi on Thursday January 11, 2007 @09:07AM

About 2,500 people have had a (very) nasty surprise recently when they looked at their MySpace page. Let's just say a small image was replaced by... another small image. Only, the second one was from the infamous "Goatse.cx" (You remember THAT one, don't you?). But what exactly happened? Jason Scott, the owner of textfiles.com explains all -- or is it confesses all?. The email received are hilarious. Well worth a read and a chuckle

Journal Journal: Happy Christmas Eve to all

Journal by leeum on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @11:09PM

Don't know if anyone ever reads this journal or not (judging from how few comments I receive, I suspect none ever do), but my best wishes go out to all who celebrate Christmas either in a big way, or are simply relishing the opportunity to have a day (or more) off from work.

I generally like to take some time out at the end of the year to think about where my life has gone in the past year - how it has changed and how the coming year looks like it's going to shape up.

Journal Journal: Little piece of wisdom

Journal by leeum on Saturday July 19, 2003 @07:52PM

Read this from someone's blog entry, and thought it was rather insightful:

Journal Journal: Idea for a short story 1

Journal by leeum on Wednesday May 14, 2003 @04:14PM

Some days ago, I was aroused prematurely from my sleep by a phone call. After scrabbling around for the phone and trying to sound coherent talking to the other person on the other end of the line, I got a flash of inspiration for a short story and wrote a page or so. It's an idea that I need to work on but, until I find the same type of inspiration once again, I don't think I'll flesh it out yet. Might as well put it down anyway and see if anyone could throw me a spare meme or two to get the

Journal Journal: Ramblings of a senile man? 1

Journal by leeum on Wednesday May 14, 2003 @06:59AM

Politicians are known to sometimes come up with the most asinine statements. This is one of those classic moments.

Journal Journal: Cheap vodka 1

Journal by leeum on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @07:21PM

After being gently chided by a friend for being a bit of a lurker, and having one too many shots of cheap vodka obtained at a duty-free shop in some random international airport in the Far East, I decided to take a stab at writing a (mediocre, admittedly) journal entry.

So here it is.

I think there is meant to be a point to writing an entry, but it eludes me. Sleep beckons.