Domain: amazon.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to amazon.com.
Comments · 40,271
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Re:Not enough
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Re:Its them or US
That is the ultimate goal of US-democracy and capitalism. It's Darwinian natural selection, the strongest will survive at the expense of the weak. It just so happens that the limiting factor of natural selection is that living things eventually grow old, weaken, and die whereas corporations live on forever as long as they don't run out of cash and even then they can be resurrected with massive cash infusions from the government or private sector stock purchases.
Capitalism originated in a time when a business's lifetime was approximated to be equivalent to a common man's life time. Applying that to immortal corporations yields an obvious problem, corporations that make massive amounts of money will never die and will always hold market dominance over everyone else. This point was made in an exceptionally well way in Justin Timberlake's 2011 film In Time.
There is no "kind" of democracy and capitalism. Democracy is democracy and capitalism is capitalism. Perhaps your democratic system is not yet to the point where greed and corruption have enabled a ruling class of career politicians to sit in power for decades, but given a long enough time scale all democracies become plutocracies. Even if everyone gets a vote on every issue, the wealthy will still influence the vote with propaganda and promises of job creation. The same is true of capitalism. Unless a ruling class corporation makes profound blunder after blunder (vista, 8) the there is little to no chance of ever unseating them and their bought and paid for democratic representatives from their respective thrones. Capitalism and democracy are just tools of the rich to keep the proletariat satisfied just enough to not revolt. Yes, they are largely considered as improvements over monarchy, oligarchy, fascism, and communism, however they are still first and fore most systems of government and business designed by and for the wealthy.
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Re:We are living in interesting times
I rather agree with Hayek's views on central planning. But central planning is not the only road to servitude and even the path of classical liberalism can lead to such an end, as Hilaire Belloc warns in The Servile State (it may be found here free, here in paper, and here for free on audio). I sometimes find it interesting, in spite of my libertarian leanings, to consider third ways, apart from the old collectivist/individualist dichotomy.
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Re:We are living in interesting times
I rather agree with Hayek's views on central planning. But central planning is not the only road to servitude and even the path of classical liberalism can lead to such an end, as Hilaire Belloc warns in The Servile State (it may be found here free, here in paper, and here for free on audio). I sometimes find it interesting, in spite of my libertarian leanings, to consider third ways, apart from the old collectivist/individualist dichotomy.
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Re:We are living in interesting times
Speaking of the Soviets, I happen to be reading Hayek's, The Road to Serfdom at the moment. The conflict between Freedom and Security is covered in some detail. I highly recommend slashdotters read it too.
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slightly off topic
Murdoch's Pirates. It is useful to keep in mind News Corps' very sleazy business culture.
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Re:No Comparison
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Re:Foolish
Amazon sells so much that they can't be bothered to sort or categorize it themselves.
That sounds very 2005. Try searching for 'Xeon CPU' in Computers...
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Axelrod
Didn't Axelrod work this out several decades ago?
http://www.amazon.com/The-Evolution-Cooperation-Revised-Edition/dp/0465005640
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Prior Art . . .
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Re:..Can you do the same thing with the TV remote?
Ummm....
http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Remote-Control-finder-Glasses/sim/B002II81N0/2
5 seconds of google. YW. Still doesn't fix the root cause of why you can't find your remote in the first place though!
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Re:The Onion said it best
Apparently we're up to six blades now; http://www.amazon.com/Dorco-Plus-Blade-System-Trimmer/dp/B008O82O7C
Hmm, I count twenty.
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Re:The Onion said it best
Apparently we're up to six blades now; http://www.amazon.com/Dorco-Plus-Blade-System-Trimmer/dp/B008O82O7C
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Re:Why can't Iphone / ipad have usb port for charg
Video over USB:
http://www.everythingusb.com/targus-usb-3.0-dual-video-adapter-21477.htmlAudio over USB:
http://hifimediy.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=107Controls over USB:
http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Technology-NA16029-Multimedia-Controller/dp/B003VWU2WA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375463450&sr=8-1&keywords=usb+volume+control -
If only someone made an iPhone keyboard case
Oh wait, they do.
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"8 miles high about to fall..." Luke 10:18
"... And no one there to CATCH YOU..." - Black Sabbath Sign of the Southern Cross -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVNx4syIpVQ
("There's a rainbow" (a true PRISM's output) "that will shimmer when the summer falls" (it's that time of year))
Aramaic - the oldest form of Hebrew:
Luke Chapter 10: Verse 18-20 = Jesus said "I beheld SATAN falling as Lightning (Aramaic = Baraq) from (O/U) the Heavens (Aramaic = Baw-Ma)"
(Food 4 Thought, regarding the masons & their "Nuclear World Order" (order-out-of-chaos http://www.amazon.com/Order-out-Chaos-Sponsored-Terrorism/dp/0974338109 ))
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Re:Well if you've nothing to hide...
Heh. You're right. When you put it that way it is a wonder. I live near some military bases and occasionally the Blackhawks are literally flying over my house, so it wouldn't be a big detour for them. Good thing I've got the muzzle-loader and tin-foil body armor to defend myself.
In all seriousness though, I buy items like gun powder with cash rather than online to avoid ending up with a profile somewhere. Doubtless I still have one, but there's no reason to offer the hangman access to your collection of handmade cordage. Of course, I say hangman even though I've done and will do nothing with such purchases. I just figure using cash to buy things like gun powder or basic chemicals which can be turned into many other things like sodium hydroxide is sort of like not talking to the police--it's to defend innocent activity that can be falsely construed, not for hiding criminal activity. Still, sometimes I feel like everything I want to do is illegal.
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Protecting us from the terrorists?
If the cost of protecting us from the terrorists is to live in a police state, then I would prefer to take my chances with the terrorists. The odds of me being a target are minimal while the risks of a corrupt government using this total awareness system to oppress my freedom are that much greater. Fact is, you are more in danger from your own state security apparatus that any foreign terrorist. Iraq never attacked the US. Saddam Hussein was a puppet president installed by the CIA and an ally of the US, at least until he invaded Kuwait and threatened to stop trading his Oil in petrodollars. Al-Qaeda was formed from the remnants of a guerilla army armed and financed by the CIA to oppose the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As such, US state security would have been aware of their capability, ideology and intentions. As such the state security apparatus didn't need the NSA to know this as they - state security - helped create it. What this lawful intercept program is really about is silencing political dissent, such as the Occupy Wall St movement.
27:25 "We comply with the court orders and do this exactly right", Gen. Keith Alexander
There are NO court orders !
NSA Director General Keith Alexander at Blackhat 2013 -
Tegra 4 requires active cooling
It's quite interesting that the Shield requires active cooling. Seems like the Tegra 4 Soc runs extreemly hot. There are customer complaints of over heating for the Toshiba Excite:
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Excite-AT15LE-A32-PDA0EU-00101Y-10-1-Inch/product-reviews/B00D78Q2NQ/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending&tag=at055-20
Also, there are rumours that smartphone OEMs avoided Tegra 4 because of heat and battery consumption issues. -
Cheap over touchscreen
The Samsung ARM Chromebook is still the best selling laptop on Amazon. The second best seller is the cheapest Windows (not RT) laptop from Dell. Windows RT devices do not appear on the list at all. It appears the market really doesn't care about touchscreens, but does care about price and battery life.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories-Laptop/zgbs/pc/565108
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Re:Two-cylinder
And if you're really worried, you can double it's capacity with one of these.
That's another 200 miles of range!
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Let's sue amazon.
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Re:Too little too late
By the end of 2015 USB sticks will probably be twice that capacity and 4 times faster without needing a special drive to write/read them.
And if those USB sticks are $140 while the optical discs are $10, then there will be a market for the optical discs. Not all use cases are the same.
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The Cuckoo's Egg
http://www.amazon.com/The-Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Espionage/dp/1416507787
Historical and a fun read. Also teaches you what a PhD. in Astrophysics got you
;-)"On the Edge; The Rise and Fall of Commodore Computers" is another good read, albeit business centric.
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Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
I haven't seen anyone as good as Clay Shirky in studying and predicting the effects of the internet on society.
http://www.amazon.com/Here-Comes-Everybody-Organizing-Organizations/dp/1594201536 -
Re:Not to quibble, but...
I own many of Clarke's books, including 2001. I'm sorry to say, but I think you should check your sources on that one. See here. Further, I checked the essay source and found 26 instances of the name "Clarke" and no misspellings of "Clark". Can you quote a portion of text where you found the error? If so, I'll fix it. -M
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Any comment on this review of your book?
Any comment on this review of your book?
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Re:good
David Ropeik was on that communist tree hugging NPR a few weeks ago discussing why people are terrible at calculating risks.*
My memory of it was that people weigh two things. One, how likely it is. Two, how scary it is. The result is an internal risk evaluation which has largely nothing to do with statistics.
A terrorist attack is very scary because it is, to the victims, random and completely unpredictable. It could happen to you, unlike the homicides that happen in your town because they almost always happen for a reason. I am not likely to be killed by gangs, nor hunting accidents. But I am just as likely as anyone else to be in a terrorist attack.
That's not exactly true, but it *feels* true because we are weighing non-data evidence (emotion). Shark attack. School shootings. These are all less dangerous than traffic or cancer, but they are feared far more.
And the sad thing is, more money will be spent on preventing unpreventable things, and less on preventable things, because of this faulty risk calculation.
Now, you can continue your argument that statistics should drive public policy. But you will hopefully understand why you are not getting your point across to the average person.
--
* (Pretty sure it was him - I would like to find his bit again because he spoke clearly and concisely about some fairly complicated stuff - mainly irrationality of the average person) -
Re:Eyefinity
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any nvidia MDT device
http://www.amazon.com/computers-accessories/dp/B0089WM7XE
with the nvidia drivers version 304 or newer.
Have 2 machines each with one of these cards. drives 3 monitors one of which is even in portrait mode. -
AWS GovCloud
This is exactly what the system is designed for: https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/
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Re:What's the big deal?
The general problem that Android players have is that they tend to be under-powered, particularly compared to top-end phones and tablets.
for $50, you can buy a quad-core android stick that will play anything you throw at it,
http://www.amazon.com/MK808-Android-Rockchip-RK3066-Cortex-A9/dp/B009OX22B4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374885694&sr=8-1&keywords=mk808and you can install any of the multitude of players and network file access solutions. it's not perfect since the interface is not optimized for a TV, but it works pretty well and is capable of doing many other things that a dedicated streaming player like roku cannot.
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Re:What's the big deal?
Well, to be honest, you don't. You could just buy one of the many models available at retail. And then your Chromecast could stream your home movies directly from your local media library in FullHD, you could watch all your media on any device that supports the codec even if it can't browse the network and local files, like an iThing. But if you don't have one of those NASflingers, any PC (or any number of PCs of any capacity) can be set up to do the same thing at no additional cost to you.
And then this thing would have the feature you seem to desire - with no additional outlay of cash. Considering the net benefit that is quite remarkable.
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Blade Runner is non-free
do you dream of Electric Sheep?
No, but Pokemon trainers dream of electric mice.
If you're not cop, you're little people!
And even if you are a cop, you can still be little people.
If seeing the non-free film Blade Runner is a requirement of keeping a geek card valid, what method do you recommend to see this film without breaking the law, both inside and outside the United States? Redbox carries only new releases.
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Re:What to do? Give a good advice, please.
The US wouldn't sanction Russia. Russia owns Europe via energy: oil and natural gas. Keep in mind that Russia is the #1 oil producer in the world (#2 is Saudi Arabia, #3 is the US, and #4 is China, FYI).
Sanctioning Russia would equal sanctions against Europe because Russia would respond in kind against our allies. Russia doesn't sell its energy on the open market, they "negotiate" prices.
Shoot, there's even a book about this very topic:
http://www.amazon.com/Well-Oiled-Diplomacy-Manipulation-Statecraft-ebook/dp/B007RUMCCKI think this action means that Russia is the most probable place he will land permanently. And since he's already there transit isn't an issue. I believe the entire charade is designed to force Russia to take him in.
My only hope is that 0 of these 30 legislators gets reelected. Shame on them, they are incompetent due to their complete failure to understand the Oath of Office they took.
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Re: With the right training, huh?
Nonetheless, empathy training does work.
When one of my children got caught bullying -- and that is one psychopathic behavior that MANY practice -- I searched for the right response, and came up with a book called "Small criminals among us: how to recognize and change children's antisocial behavior, before they explode."
The methods -- and there are multiple -- are all about empathy training.
My experience? Between that, and allowing a heavy use of the (Catholic) confessional, and a focus on the Christian aspects, that child is much improved. The book was very helpful.
That is a problematic approach. You cannot diagnose a psychopath until adulthood because below that age they almost all show psychopathic traits. There is a question of how much is natural (genetics) and how much is environment (apparently you can make psychopaths).
The problem with the term psychopath is it describes a scale not a state. Everyone is on the scale and there are violent people throughout, for varying reasons. Psychopaths are useful people who can do good or bad as much as the next person. They just suffer less conflict in their decisions.
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Re:It's the cloud man.
iPad can do HDMI as well, it just requires a ridiculously priced adapter.
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Re:Smart move
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Re:High risk
OBDII is wireless because you can plug a wireless adapter into it? O . . . . K. . . .
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Re:This is why my car is airgapped
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It's a Losing Battle
Now that I'm semi-solo, I have a Git repository for all my client files. I wrote a bunch of LaTeX class and style files to make beautiful patents, pleadings, and contracts. I write patents in vi (well, Vim) when I can get away with it. But when I was at a big firm, I spent fruitless years trying to convince lawyers that there is a better way than using kludged, recycled Word files, or at least trying to convince them to use Word's style functionality instead of manually reformatting the same flipping document EVERY SINGLE TIME. All in vain. Heck, I'd be happy if I could finally convince other lawyers that underlining is not a legitimate typesetting operation and is an embarrassing holdover from the days of typewriters (along with two spaces after a period).
One thing I've learned about lawyers it that most old lawyers learned how to do something back in 1978 or so, and believe it is the One Right Way. Those lawyers learned the One Right Way from other lawyers who learned it in the 30s. If I were king of the world, I would force every lawyer in America to get a copy of Butterick's book Typography for Lawyers and Garner's Dictionary of Legal Usage, read them cover to cover, and treat them as though they were the inviolable word of God, handed down in stone from the peak of Mt. Carmel. I am so sick of looking at ugly legal documents.
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Re:High risk
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Re:This is why my car is airgapped
OF COURSE if you give real-time access to the OBD-II port, you can have all kinds of shenanigans. So don't do that!
How many people would notice an ODB-II Bluetooth adapter plugged into the port? http://www.amazon.com/Soliport-Bluetooth-OBDII-Diagnostic-Scanner/dp/B004KL0I9I
That depends on where the port is located and if the attacker is using an extension cable or some other way of stowing the adapter.
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Re:This is why my car is airgapped
OF COURSE if you give real-time access to the OBD-II port, you can have all kinds of shenanigans. So don't do that!
How many people would notice an ODB-II Bluetooth adapter plugged into the port? http://www.amazon.com/Soliport-Bluetooth-OBDII-Diagnostic-Scanner/dp/B004KL0I9I
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Re: With the right training, huh?
Nonetheless, empathy training does work.
When one of my children got caught bullying -- and that is one psychopathic behavior that MANY practice -- I searched for the right response, and came up with a book called "Small criminals among us: how to recognize and change children's antisocial behavior, before they explode."
The methods -- and there are multiple -- are all about empathy training.
My experience? Between that, and allowing a heavy use of the (Catholic) confessional, and a focus on the Christian aspects, that child is much improved. The book was very helpful.
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Re:Smart move
It's the "big lie". What is the charger for an Android phone? Oh right, a standard USB cable. What is the charger for an Apple product?
The Apple charger has a standard USB power port. Just like all Android chargers that plug into a power outlet.
Here is Apple's standard USB charger. Note that it has a USB port.
Here is a Galaxy S4 USB charger. Not that is has a USB port.
Either charger can be used interchangeably to charge either phone.
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Re:That reminds me of
Military killing depends a lot on dehumanizing foes. Battlefield terminology for foes almost always takes the form of a very non-human noun, whether it's "targets", "hostiles", or "alpha", the words that are used are never words that inherently imply personhood. There's a well-researched book about how this corresponds to good people being capable of terrible things.
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Re:WTF?
So the Xperia Z is not high end for you but the iPhone 5 is?. Pathetic. Perhaps you are waiting for a fancy new smartwatch from Apple? Yeah they are really innovative.
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Re:I would, but...
Those who study human nature have fretted about this for a long, long time.
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Re:I would, but...