Comment Re: Redundant keys (Score 2) 665
They could have stayed with the rolling stones - "Can't get no satisfaction", "As tears go by", "All over now", "19th Nervous Breakdown". Or if they wanted to be ahead of the times - "Get off my cloud"
Comment Re: How does... (Score 1) 186
10 mins? Really. The last disk I decommissioned took 24 hours to shred (4 passes, the longest time being for the 2 random writes). OK that was a failing Seagate 2TiB drive but for sensitive data, more passes is standard.
Comment Re:Copper? (Score 2) 347
Verizon seem to have a different idea as to the cheapest and fastest way to replace their damaged copper lines and poles - go wireless:
see (for example) http://www.app.com/article/20130503/NJBIZ/305020135/Verizon-Wireless-Mantoloking and http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-Tells-More-Sandy-Victims-Theyll-Never-See-DSL-Repaired-124166
Comment 8 GB of flash in the disk vs 8GB of RAM on board? (Score 5, Interesting) 141
For a mere 8GB acting as cache in the drive, I'd rather spend $30 on RAM and let the OS use it for buffering/caching data (which Linux at least will do pretty intelligently for me even without changing
I love my SSD but that's way more than 8GB. As an extra bonus, the RAM can be allocated as necessary, is faster, and there are no write/erase issues with it.
Now, come up with say 2TB on platters and 128GB flash and we're talking a different proposition.
8GB might be sufficient for those who care about how quickly they boot up (assuming the bulk of the kernel etc ends up in the flash cache and stays there until shutdown) but I only reboot about once a month at most.
Comment Re:x86 (Score 1) 258
Oops. Replying to undo accidental down mod
Comment Re:That's a an interesting point (Score 1) 330
I wonder if you also have to pay tax on Prime? It's main function is to cover shipping & handling for all orders, I cannot see why it would not count. But since it's not part of any one order, perhaps it does not..
Yes, you pay sales tax on Prime subscription (I subscribed just after my state's "agreement" with Amazon kicked in and was charged). It is an order in itself.
Comment Re:Buy Amazon Prime. (Score 1) 330
Problem solved.
Except you end up paying sales tax on the prime subscription. OTOH you probably would be expected to pay 'use tax' if sales tax isn't charged so the only difference (assuming your tax return is a true statement) is whether you pay when you order or pay in April.
Either way, the state gets its cut.
Comment Re:really? (Score 1) 67
Replying to undo accidental moderation (sticky trackpad)
Sadly I see way too many corporate 'documents' that subscribe to the putative logic 'if it has numbers, it must be a spreadsheet; if it has pictures, it goes into powerpoint'. Where's the 'Ironic' moderation option
Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Protein ... and Now Fat
210
ral writes "The human tongue can taste more than sweet, sour, salty, bitter and protein. Researchers have added fat to that list. Dr. Russell Keast, an exercise and nutrition sciences professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, told Slashfood, 'This makes logical sense. We have sweet to identify carbohydrate/sugars, and umami to identify protein/amino acids, so we could expect a taste to identify the other macronutrient: fat.' In the Deakin study, which appears in the latest issue of the British Journal of Nutrition, Dr. Keast and his team gave a group of 33 people fatty acids found in common foods, mixed in with nonfat milk to disguise the telltale fat texture. All 33 could detect the fatty acids to at least a small degree."
Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project 687
garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"
The Myths of Security 216
brothke writes "The Myths of Security: What the Computer Security Industry Doesn't Want You to Know is an interesting and thought-provoking book. Ultimately, the state of information security can be summed up in the book's final three sentences, in which John Viega writes that 'real, timely improvement is possible, but it requires people to care a lot more [about security] than they do. I'm not sure that's going to happen anytime soon. But I hope it does.'" Read on for the rest of Ben's review.
London Stock Exchange To Abandon Windows 438
BBCWatcher writes "Computerworld's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports that the London Stock Exchange is abandoning its Microsoft Windows-based trading platform: 'Anyone who was ever fool enough to believe that Microsoft software was good enough to be used for a mission-critical operation had their face slapped this September when the LSE's Windows-based TradElect system brought the market to a standstill for almost an entire day .... Sources at the LSE tell me to this day that the problem was with TradElect ...'"
Artist Wins £20,000 Grant To Study Women's Butts 202
Sue Williams has been awarded a £20,000 grant by the Arts Council of Wales, to "explore cultural attitudes towards female buttocks." Sue plans to examine racial attitudes towards bottoms in Europe and Africa and create plaster casts of women's behinds to try to understand their place in contemporary culture. And here I've been studying the issue all these years for free like a sucker!
Spirit Stuck In Soft Soil On Mars 160
cheros writes "NASA reports that the Spirit Mars lander is presently stuck in soft soil. The lander's wheels are halfway sunk into the soil and they are planning simulation tests to see if they can get it out again. I hope they can get it out of there because it's picking up enough new energy to operate; however, it only has 5 wheels left to get around on — one of the wheels hasn't been working for years. Fingers crossed."
Churches Use Twitter To Reach a Wider Audience 169
In an attempt to reverse declining attendance figures, many American churches are starting to ask WWJD in 140 or fewer characters. Pastors at Westwinds Community Church in Michigan spent two weeks teaching their 900-member congregation how to use Twitter. 150 of them are now tweeting. Seattle's Mars Hill Church encourages its members to Twitter messages during services. The tweets appear on the church's official Twitter page. Kyle Firstenberg, the church's administrator, said,"It's a good way for them to tell their friends what church is about without their friends even coming in the building."
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