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Comment Execute, not send (Score 5, Insightful) 141

'merely by sending it the byte sequence "F0 0F C7 C8".' Ã am pretty sure that it wasn't enough to "send" the byte sequence. That assumes that you could trigger the bug remotely. Instead you would need to execute that code sequence, so you need permissions to install software. Still bad, but not a huge deal 20 years ago, when computers with Intel CPUs were almost always single-user machines.

Comment Re: Yes, but that's not the issue. (Score 1) 410

Yes, Christmas is definitely still something you can celebrate when you don't believe in Christ. I celebrate Christmas without being religious at all, and I come from a family of at least three generations of atheists. Christmas trees, Santa Claus, family gatherings and gift giving don't require any religious beliefs.

Comment Re:Cost is not the issue (Score 1) 654

Having the truck paid off is not really an argument - if you sold your truck you could probably fund bus tickets for the rest of your life. Also, what about insurance? I'd guess that's in the same order of magnitude as the bus fare. I can fully understand not wanting to take the bus, and in your case it doesn't really sound feasible. I am driving a car to work every day even though it only saves me only about 20min - simply because public transport stresses me out while driving a car is relaxing for me. But money is usually not a good argument for doing that, at least for people living in urban areas with good public transport.

Comment DE = Browser Border (Score 1) 818

Should I really care which system is drawing the borders around my Firefox or Chrome windows? Only when I need special software, like Photoshop or Gimp or a Java IDE or a game, the OS or desktop environment still matters. Unfortunately KDE apps are not in most people's 'special software' lists.
Space

Submission + - Most Ancient, 'Impossible' Alien Worlds Discovered (discovery.com) 1

astroengine writes: "Two exoplanets have been discovered by scientists at the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy orbiting the star HIP 11952. But according to conventional thinking, these worlds shouldn't exist. You see, HIP 11952 is a "metal-poor" star and planetary formation is hindered around stars with low metallicity. This isn't the only thing; as metal-poor stars were the first stars to form when the Universe was very young, these two worlds also formed around the same time. They are therefore the most ancient exoplanets discovered to date having lived through 13 billion years of cosmic evolution."

Comment Re:Domination (Score 3, Informative) 198

The Japanese elite *may* have outlived the European/American elite but I'm gonna [citation needed] you on that one... The Japanese common man, however, certainly did NOT live longer or better than his Western counterpart.

I refer you to "Standard of Living in Japan Before Industrialization: From what Level did Japan Begin? A Comment" by Yasukichi Yasuba in The Journal of Economic History Vol. 46, No. 1 (Mar., 1986), pp. 217-224.

Yasuba takes to task the notion that life for the commoner in Japan was better than that in the West. While economic development HAD been ongoing throughout the Tokugawa shogunate, and circumstances had improved for the Japanese laborer, the reality of the situation is that farmers here and farmers there both were treated very poorly. He also points out, specifically, the flaw in Hanley's research (which estimated life expectancy to be around 40 years in Japan) specifically used a source which excluded year 0 deaths, and then substituted Western infant mortality rates in its place. At the time, Japan would be much closer to India than the West. By using data which matches temple records more closely, Yasuba suggests that the actual life expectancy of the time was around 35, which (again) puts it below the West.

Comment Re:Ban drive thru restaurants while you're at it (Score 1) 509

Actually many newer european cars have a start-stop-automatic (as soon as your car stops, the engine turns off; if you press the gas-pedal it turns on automatically), so there does not have to be any idling. IIRC this is not popular in the US because its savings would not be included in the official MPG ratings, but some manufacturer (can't remember which) is going to introduce it in the US soon.

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