Oddthinking

338 reputation

111

bio	website	somethinkodd.com/oddthinking
	location	Sydney, Australia
	age
visits	member for	3 years, 9 months
	seen	Apr 24 at 1:17
stats	profile views	20

I'm a software developer (currently focused on Python), living in Australia (currently focused on Sydney).

I am an on-again/off-again moderator of Skeptics.SE. (I was Pro Tem Moderator, I handed in my diamond when the first elections were held, and then ran in the second elections about a year later.)

	338 reputation	bio	website	somethinkodd.com/oddthinking	visits	member for	3 years, 9 months
111 badges		location	Sydney, Australia		seen	Apr 24 at 1:17

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May 14	answered	Can zipping a file break it?
May 4	suggested	suggested edit on Is NTFS really secure?
Feb 16	comment	Can you disable the Ctrl-S (XOFF) keystroke in Putty? That should be `stty -ixon`.
Aug 27	comment	How can I explain why DRM cannot work? Ha! So the analogy here is between someone who wouldn't mind seeing a movie without paying and someone who is starving? My god, the MPAA have a moral obligation to ensure EVERYONE sees EVERY MOVIE! Why must so many people in need suffer this way?
Aug 27	comment	How can I explain why DRM cannot work? First part is a strong point. The second part doesn't address the issue of whether DRM is viable. It also doesn't address the way the market works. For 10 cents, I would happily buy a book I could only read 3 times, or on Tuesdays only. Heck, I often pay for a newspaper with more words than a book that I only partly read and then throw away.
Aug 27	comment	How can I explain why DRM cannot work? I think the second point is quite key. However, many of the answers here ignore the non-intuitive practicalities of reverse-engineering a code from a chip.
Aug 27	comment	How can I explain why DRM cannot work? Your second argument is empty rhetoric arguing against the concepts of copyright in general, not against DRM. Intellectual Property does not work the same as normal property. The closest analogy, from the perspective of the copyright owner, is someone who steals apples, not someone who shares them.
Aug 27	comment	How can I explain why DRM cannot work? The first argument has just converted the question from "Does the perfect DRM exist?" to "Does the perfect lock exists?" I am not sure that is any more easy for a typical person to understand. For most people, locks are perceived as something that DOES work.
Aug 27	comment	How can I explain why DRM cannot work? ... and that is why heavier-than-air machines will never fly. (It isn't a particularly strong argument that DRM is impossible. It is a strong argument that DRM is very hard.)
Aug 27	comment	How can I explain why DRM cannot work? This argument isn't very convincing. It contains an "appeal to authority" (I don't cares what some guy called Gabe thinks, I care why he thinks it.) It also begs the question by commenting on "When software is cracked..." but that doesn't address the question of whether it is possible to make crack-proof DRM.
Jun 25	revised	SSH client and Command Prompt replacements Windows look-and-feel added 274 characters in body
Jun 25	comment	SSH client and Command Prompt replacements Windows look-and-feel Thanks, ak2. These examples are all about trying to make the shell itself act like Windows, which I regard pretty much as a lost cause. You have described a number of hurdles to jump over that I hadn't even considered, but it just goes to reinforce my view that this is the wrong way to achieve consistency. Instead, I am looking for a Windows application that allows editing of a Windows-like text-box, and then sends the result through to the terminal.
Jun 11	comment	SSH client and Command Prompt replacements Windows look-and-feel Still solving the wrong problem I am afraid. I transfer the files through Mercurial over SSH. I could equally use one of the above suggestions. Either way, once the files are transferred, (a) I want to run them, and (b) I want to cut-and-paste snippets of the output. That's when the problems start - I need a command-line terminal window. And I would like one that supports Windows L&F.
Jun 11	awarded	Commentator
Jun 11	comment	SSH client and Command Prompt replacements Windows look-and-feel Oh, I see what you are proposing. I am developing the code locally, where the code (and, more importantly, the editor) runs much faster, deploying (via a config management system) to a server on the other side of the world (lag!) for staging and production. So I need a remote command line, not a remote editor.
Jun 11	comment	Make windows vista file explorer act normally Note sure why the override doesn't work. I've added another step to the answer - see if that works. Note sure which of the (large number of) menu bar, title bar, preview pane, navigation pane, details pane or other guff you are referring to by "favourites links". I don't seem to see "favourites" on my machine, so there is hope!
Jun 11	revised	Make windows vista file explorer act normally added 199 characters in body
Jun 10	comment	SSH client and Command Prompt replacements Windows look-and-feel @akira, the difference between (terminal-based emacs) look-and-feel and the Windows look-and-feel is more than a few key-bindings. They have fundamental differences in the way they treat buffers and text. In any case, the command-line is my concern (unless you are suggesting running the command line through emacs?) Maybe I should be writing my own solution. It doesn't sound too hard. (Famous last words!)
Jun 9	awarded	Editor
Jun 9	revised	Make windows vista file explorer act normally added 402 characters in body; deleted 2 characters in body