Posts by Steve Knox

Re: "copying a 50GB folder of small files"

Another very important factor is the method of copying. If you're using Windows Explorer, it doesn't matter how fast the drive is -- there's a lot of per-file overhead in the OS.

Re: hmm

Huh?

You want Broadcom to fix another manufacturer's video drivers?

Or are you saying you want the open source community to ignore Broadcom's drivers until they've fixed this issue you're seeing with a specific configuration?

Well, either way, here's what's going to happen. Each member of the open source community is going to work on whichever project rewards them best. Whether that's financial remuneration, resolving an issue they themselves experience regularly, respect from the community, their own self-actualization, or some other reward depends on what they want.

You can give some of them an incentive to work on the issue you're seeing (one of the simplest incentives is plain detailed information on the issue itself), or, (this is the beauty of open source) you can even work on fixing it yourself.

You can get involved, or you can continue bitching. Your choice.

Re: Not sure where you work...

The other issue, is when it's custom made, if the guy that wrote it buggers off, and there is little or know documentation, it leaves a whole load of shit behind....just look at the banks for a classic example of this.

That's why you beat them about the head with the Big Book of SSADM before letting 'em near a compiler.

That's why they start taking months instead of days to deliver anything, and the CIO starts looking favorably at off-the-shelf again.

Re: Now if they can get ports the other way

You misread that graphic. That's from Android to Nokiadroid, not from WinPho to Android.

8 hours to port your app from a giant marketshare to 0 marketshare. Brilliant!

Re: 850 MB download to patch a lousy SSL bug?

There is. Download the update on the device rather than via iTunes. The update itself is only 13.6MB.

Of course, that may be a bad idea in this case, if the update process uses iOS SSL connection security to verify that it's downloading from a trusted source...

Re: They have a point...

The problem isn't that they think that Mars One is a bad idea; the problem is the method of conveying that information: a fatwah is more of an order than advice -- it's like the edict of a pope or the "political opinion" of some US "ministers".

It illustrates a key problem of organized religion -- the tendency of those in the organization to shift from advising to demagoguery, and for the scope of their advice to creep beyond managing your spiritual affairs to managing your physical* affairs.

* or [extra]marital, even...

Re: Leave it out

Technically, that would be avoision.

Re: If you don't like a topic or activity, then don't go to that site.

1. Stop arguing with yourself.

2. There are numerous ways to avoid seeing online ads, not the least of which is not visiting sites which use them.

Re: It's so easy

It is easy to be blasé when it's not your confidential info being handed out without your permission.

But is that the case? How many Apple employees use Apple's services? The odds are just as high* that a random Apple employee using an Apple service has been the target of one of these orders as a random non-employee who uses Apple services.

* Absent further demographic information anyway. Apple's hiring requirements, for example, may have some effect on the odds, but when the odds are already on the order of one in a million, I bet it's not significant.

Re: Same here...

"but the os is of no practical use."

No. The only practical use of an OS is that it provides users with a way to take advantage of the hardware they purchased to a degree and in a way that they feel happy with their purchase.

Your use of the subjective "better" underscores this point. You feel it is better than iOS and Android for the use cases you have experienced or researched.

But each user's definition of happy is different, requiring flexibility in the system. Smartphones get this flexibility from their app ecosystems. Microsoft's app ecosystem is the smallest. Ergo, it is less flexible, and of less practical value to the varied users out there.

Re: Time to shine :)

On the face of it, laser printers are a terrible technology - dangerous toner dust, delicate moving parts and expensive consumables, with high power consumption - while inkjets should offer complete safety, cheap consumables and low power.

Last time I had an inkjet, I was replacing each cartridge annually, at a total cost of $120 per year (black and 3 colors). Then in 2006 I bought a laser printer and just replaced the black toner in December 2013. I also bought the color toner, as it's about to run out. Total cost: ~$400 for 7 years, or ~$57 per year.

15 years ago, I had to review Material Safety Data Sheets for the toner and ink for a college which had both inkjets and laser printers. Suffice to say the ink was no less dangerous than the toner, just dangerous in different ways. At that time I also reviewed consumables costs, and the difference over the lifetime of the machines was negligible.

Aside from HP's 1100 series (a truly horrible range of equipment) I have yet to see a laser printer die in less than five years. I've seen way too many inkjets break within a year because of cheap components.

Inkjets do use less power, but the manufacturers' strategy of subsidizing the purchase price with expensive inks has led to cheap quality and high consumables cost, making them no more cost-effective than laser printers, except possibly in situations where electricity is quite expensive.

Re: Doesn't it depend what you mean *by* "net neutrality" ?

But that introduces a slippery slope.

Which is a logical fallacy. Normally that would end the argument. But your next question is just interesting enough to merit continued discussion.

If you prioritize ANY type of packet (a VoIP packet, like you say), what's to stop de-prioritizing a different type of packet (like a BitTorrent packet)? Furthermore, what if the ISP faces an encrypted or otherwise-obfuscated stream where identifying the purpose is difficult?

The answer is you don't prioritize ANY type of packet. You prioritize identified packets based on how latency-sensitive their payload is. That's good traffic management in a nutshell.

Those packets which are obfuscated (encrypted streams generally aren't encrypted at the transport layer, which means they still include readable metadata indicating their purpose -- c.f. PRISM) are by definition not identifiable, so they needn't be prioritized.

The problem comes when ISPs try to assign priority based not on packet type but on source and/or destination. That's not only not neutral, it's bad traffic management.

Re: This is

But what if 1 state has no desire to win, it does'nt care about losing, heck 90% of its population could be vapourised in retaliation , but it does'nt care about it, because the leaders are right and have the blessings of their religion behind them, after all if they did'nt have the blessings then their god would'nt let them be in charge.

Have you been re-reading the news regarding the US government shutdown again?