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Comment: Nothing new. (Score 3, Interesting) 228

by RoFLKOPTr (#38277816) Attached to: Download.com Bundling Adware With Free Software


Comment: Re:And still... (Score 1) 511

by RoFLKOPTr (#38261032) Attached to: Chrome Becoming World's Second Most Popular Web Browser

When comparing ten tabs the article states. "The big surprise here is Opera's and Chrome's poor showing in the multi-tab tests. Overall, Firefox delivers the best memory usage results. It comes in first place for the five- and ten-tab usage tests, but fourth in the single-tab metric."

Probably due to Chrome's multi-process architecture. Each tab runs in a completely separate process, and other applets (Flash, Java, etc) are segregated into their own individual processes as well, and they're all controlled by one master process that doesn't actually handle any of the rendering. Overall, it creates a faster and significantly more stable operating environment, because one individual process can't bog down (or completely crash) the entire program. Because of this system, each tab requires its own memory space as well as a lot of redundant code running in every process. Firefox has more bloat in the main process, but doesn't need redundancies when running multiple tabs. Therefore, Firefox uses less memory with a high number of tabs and Chrome uses less with a low number. Mozilla has been trudging along towards bringing multi-process architecture to Firefox as well, though, so that "advantage" (in quotes because memory usage isn't all that important as unused RAM is wasted RAM) may "soon" (in quotes because they've been talking about this for years and I have yet to hear about a whole lot of progress) go away.

Comment: Re:Here We Go.... (Score 1) 330

by RoFLKOPTr (#38189170) Attached to: Next Apple iPhone To Have a 4 Inch Display?

Apple has perhaps the greatest marketing department that has ever existed. They know how to make people want to buy their shit. They know what kinds of information to stifle and how to allow buzz-generating rumors to get around. I halfway suspect it's Apple themselves that generate many of these rumors, but I think they just know how to make sure those things get around. There's a reason new iPhones are usually released around June/July rather than Novemberholidayshoppingtime like most electronics: Apple knows that early adopters will buy the product immediately, and Apple knows that those who have to wait for Christmas presents will not want to wait the extra 8 months to get the next new one regardless of what awesome rumors may or may not be spreading around. To a company like Apple, these sorts of rumors -- true or not -- can only serve to be a positive factor upon their bottom line.

Comment: Re:Not so smart (Score 1) 375

by RoFLKOPTr (#38175944) Attached to: Smart Meters Wreaking Havoc With Home Electronics

Catch fire? How? Catching fire requires some kind of power source, and I thought these meters usually only had regular alkaline AA batteries or the like, not the lithium batteries that are known to catch fire when defective. I just looked at the cheap "Aidetek" meter I bought and it uses two AAA alkalines; I don't think you can get that kind of battery to catch fire even by shorting it out.

You know how sometimes when you use a multimeter, you stick a couple leads into a power source of (usually) up to 600V? That's the time things can catch fire. It's happened to me twice using cheap multimeters. Now I stick with Fluke. Milwaukee's supposed to have pretty good ones too, and for a little less money than Fluke.

Comment: Re:Not so smart (Score 1) 375

by RoFLKOPTr (#38175500) Attached to: Smart Meters Wreaking Havoc With Home Electronics

What's bad is the Flukes are horrendously expensive multimeters. I was looking at buying one recently, but just couldn't stomach paying $4-500 for a damn multimeter (I really wanted one with temperate and capacitance measurement, besides the basics). I ended up buying a cheap Chinese-made one for $30. It might not be quite as accurate, but after Danaher took over Fluke, I don't think I can really count on their quality to be all the great any more anyway, certainly not enough to justify the cost.

Does anyone else make any really good multimeters these days? Or have all the T&M makers been bought up by Danaher, leaving two choices: 1) massively overpriced, low-quality shit, and 2) Chinese-made low-quality shit that doesn't cost much?

Be careful with the cheap Chinese multimeters... they're known to catch fire and whatnot. Probably not as big a deal as the mechanical Wiggys literally exploding in your hand, but still bad.

Comment: Re:mahna-mahna (Score 1) 392

by RoFLKOPTr (#38118116) Attached to: Hybrids Safer In Crashes &mdash; Except For Pedestrians

Unless you're blind...

In which case that's the risk you take if you plan on crossing the street at a location without traffic control. I don't need the ADA or other bullshit rules to tell me that I should stop to let a blind person cross the street, even in the event that I would have the right of way. And I don't need regulations that eliminate personal human compassion and replace it with annoying sounds so a blind person can hear me speeding by.

Comment: Re:This annoys the hell out of me ... (Score 1) 392

by RoFLKOPTr (#38118040) Attached to: Hybrids Safer In Crashes &mdash; Except For Pedestrians

suggests that you actually want to punish pedestrian errors.

Absolutely not. There needs to be a balance between safety and regulation. The fact of the matter is that a pedestrian has absolutely no business being in the street unless he is crossing at a crosswalk, or entering his parked vehicle on the street side. There are laws exactly to that effect. Most people are taught since they are two years old to look both ways before crossing the street and to never cross the street anywhere but a crosswalk. There's a reason for that. Most vehicle/pedestrian injuries are the result of a pedestrian being somewhere he is not supposed to, an inattentive driver striking a pedestrian who was already crossing, and/or a pedestrian entering a crosswalk assuming the driver sees them. The last two situations will not be solved by louder vehicles, and the first one might be reduced by louder vehicles but you have to ask whether the extra regulation is worth it.

Comment: Re:This annoys the hell out of me ... (Score 2) 392

by RoFLKOPTr (#38117984) Attached to: Hybrids Safer In Crashes &mdash; Except For Pedestrians

> smug hybrid drivers

Congratulations. You watched that South Park episode that mentioned hybrids and San Francisco.

Now, if you actually *LIVED* here, blah blah assumptions.

I DO live here. Well, I live in Santa Rosa (I used to live in Marin), and I worked in San Francisco until a couple months ago. And to add yet another twist to this riveting story, I drive a Camry Hybrid... except I only bought it because I wrecked my F-150 and needed a more economical vehicle than another truck... and I got a great deal on it. I absolutely agree that cyclists are the fucking worst. I've intentionally avoided downtown SF during critical mass because I don't WANT to learn what it's like to deal with that bullshit. Luckily, my drive took me straight up Park Presidio and 19th and I never encountered cyclists on those dreaded days... traffic was a little worse though.

All that being said, hybrid drivers are still pretty high on the holier-than-thou scale. I find that they tend to be more oblivious and stuck in their own happy little world than intentionally screwing with you like the cyclists.


by RoFLKOPTr (#38117012) Attached to: Hybrids Safer In Crashes &mdash; Except For Pedestrians

You are making the assumption that pedestrian collisions are caused by the inattention of pedestrians. Assholes in hybrids will continue to roll through right-turns-on-red, ignore (or race) pedestrians already crossing, dart around between lanes for a single-car "advantage", zip through small neighborhood streets at 50mph, etc. In all of those situations, there is a defensive advantage because of sound. If that advantage goes away, the assholes just get more dangerous.

I think there are way too many smug hybrid drivers with their heads up their asses thinking they're better than you because they're "saving the planet"... but to say that they break more rules than anybody else is unfair because everybody breaks all those rules frequently. The fact of the matter is that if you're looking where the fuck you're going and you check the street before you walk into it, it won't matter if a vehicle is making any sound. If they're around a blind corner and going fast enough that they will not be able to stop before hitting you, a hybrid will be making plenty of noise (mainly from tires rolling on pavement, but you can also hear the engine and electric whirr) for you to hear.

Comment: Re:I have my disk (at least partially) encrypted (Score 2) 575

by RoFLKOPTr (#38110520) Attached to: Full Disk Encryption Hard For Law Enforcement To Crack

I forgot where, but I had heard DDR3 RAM will last over an hour and still retain 99% of its data (although it'll be completely inverted after a certain time). I suspected something similar for DDR2 (which I have).

Whoever told you that was completely incorrect. DRAM capacitors discharge fully within one second of power loss.

Comment: Re:Doesn't Matter (Score 1) 447

by RoFLKOPTr (#38084438) Attached to: CarrierIQ: Most Phones Ship With "Rootkit"

Most people don't forgive other companies (Apple, Microsoft, etc) for grievances done over a decade ago, and yet Google gets a free pass after a week?

That's a problem with the stubborn fucks who refuse to let anything go... not a problem with the people who are too forgiving. I love open source software, but this zealotry that you're expressing is a little overkill.
