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Comment Re:SQL (Score 1) 167

yay, my bad. I always forget this is a site where the men are still men and anything that doesn't involve writing an obscure script only known by its creator is forbidden (and a browser to share? Jesus!)

Anyway, if are there any other pussies like, me there are tons of ways and utilities to convert mbox to maildir, and then it's easy to parse them to an DB (i'd recommend sqlite, it still is a simple file(s) in a directory, and the overhead would be minimal)

Comment SQL (Score 0) 167

yes, I know it isn't what you asked, but if you know a little of SQL you can create a simple database with a few tables: mails ordered by date, relations between them based in the header (to follow up responses) and various types of attachments.

Accessing to it with sql its not more complicated than with fetchmail (unless your fetchmail isn't the same fetchmail I remember ;) and as extra you can create a simple web page with search options, and point relatives to it when they ask you for that photo of the dog they sent you five years ago.

Comment the one in a million problem (Score 1) 505

As i was told in mid 90 by my electromagnetism teacher, the problem is not the miriad of (then) walkmans and cd player used in the plane. Those are more or less certified for electromagnetic compatibility. The problem are the crappy chinese electronics that don't pass any test and the one in a million "certified" hardware that is faulty. So, do you prefer listen your music and risk your life in an emergency situation or forbid them all just in case?

And speaking of statistics, in this case "anecdotal evidence" can cause the death of 200+ people...

Comment Fair enough (Score 1) 395

Every "great" nation has to have its own enemy. For years in USA had the URSS (and viceversa), then URSS dissapeared and three years later it was Irak, then dissapeared. Later was taliban, Irak again, and the difuse Al-Qaeda. Just like every fascist against every comunist. It's a must to prevent people to think too much in what the goberment is doing.

Comment mmmh, interesting... (Score 1) 255

Publishers of fake content include antipiracy groups

So, if someboy sues those publishers then they have to show to the judge that they have "written permission to distribute, post, or copy" every and each of the files they're using to polute the sharing ecosystem? Because gay porn companies can get millions for inapropiate use of their films ;)

Comment Re:Wait...what? (Score 3, Interesting) 177

Are they pissed about the possibility of the stream ending up online?

Yes. This is basically the thing. But its better to have somewhat more context: we are talking about a country with amazingly fast internet connection. Neigbourghoods are in esence connected with what we call "ethernet speed" so it's not uninimaginable that some guy buys such device and feeds his pay-per-view stream to his building's router, effectively allowing all their neigbourghs to view tv for free (or just imagine a college building the day of superbowl or victoria's secret show...).

Comment then? (Score 1) 240

Supose I create a wiki entry with info about an old and obscure game from the 80s. As Wikipedia is not primary source I add references from an obscure forum. Let say 5 years from now the forum is dead and no other info can be found. What you would do with my entry? would you preserve it because is actual info (althought unconfirmable)? would you delete it?

Comment Re:Liability? (Score 1) 317

Liability (in it's legal form) isn't a main concern in Europe since we don't have the "tradition" of suing everything and everyone. If something causes an accident (be it a smart car that crashes or a Tv that explodes and causes a fire in my living room) and you are not responsible (you are not screwing with the smart car safety systems and you are not droping some water in the Tv), then the responsible is the producer. But it doesn't matters at all, with insurances we protect the effects of an accident and no the causes (that is work of the insurance company if the want the producer to pay the costs, sorry). And no, here insurance is not assigned to persons, is assigned to activity, as a whole concept. If I buy a car I will have a certain insurance rate based on my past records, but if I buy another car (heck, even if I buy the same car in different color) my rate will change although I am the same person and my past records hasn't changed.

Comment Re:programming is a craft (Score 1) 602

Wow, simply... wow. No doubt there is always someone blaming IT for just everything (and sometimes that "someone" are ourselves) and mentalities like yours is the problem. Artists? Are you serious? For me it's time to abandon the "craftmanship" and start to behave like the engineers out there. Do you think an architec is an artist? and a bridge designer? Well, they aren't, and I know because I have to work with them. They have an objective, they have some restriction and they know how to go from A to B. And are paid to mix this up in well stablished ways. Forget the outside of the buildings and bridges, these archs, these beatiful windows... Those are placed there just to distract you. Every building is made from four or five different "basic recipes": you know, there is a weight that should be supported and a weight that should be balanced, and there are no many ways to do it. Sure you can change the ugly concrete for stilished steel twisted in artistic ways, but in the end they always connect with the rest of elements in the exact same point.

(i know, I've should use car analogy instead of building analogy. I'm heading to re-education chamber right now ;)

Comment This, sunspots and climate change (Score 0) 408

I wonder if this discovery can affect the climate change research. I mean, some paleo-climate stuff used in scientific papers use the amount and decay of certain isotopes to extrapolate the temperatures thousands years ago. We have just learnt that sunspot may be highly related with Earth climate (if in the next ten years the sun go nuts and start to show sunspot like a dalmatian and we saw the temperatures dropping, it could be the nail in the coffing of man-made global warming) and now an inpredictable solar flare can alter these measurements and provide us with false data.

Any expert around here that knows if this discovery can be "corrected" without a time machine?

Comment missing something? (Score 3, Insightful) 142

Reading TFA (I know, I know...) I'm not sure if it's a design contest to _actually_ build the thing or simply to draw something nice to sell to a news agency and fill empty time in tv shows.

BTW, looking at the photos my first thought was "traditional pylons doesn't need chains to maintain verticallity"

Comment there is a problem (Score 5, Insightful) 261

there is a small problem with the current aproach: until "every" car gets the system installed, it's nearly useless. The protocol need to "know" that every other vehicle is going to act accordingly its specification. The false sense of security these devices can provide is very dangerous in case a car break the rules (not only by malice, just think in a malfuction like the infamous toyota) because the react time will be reduced ("The car from the back is too near, lets send a message to brake", "Ups, no response, maybe an interference, lets try again", "wow, its must be broken, lets speed up, i'll send a message to the front car to speed too", "Ups, no r...CARRIER LOST"),

Comment Dystopia (Score 1) 296

A script for a sci-fi novel: after years of self-reclusion, the much hated North Korean country have developed two things, the most powerful army in Earth and a drink that can maintain their people forever young. Scared with the potential implications in economy and society, the "western" countries try to invade the korean territories but are repelled by the self-healing soldiers of the enemy...

(the rest is left to the imagination of the reader...)

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