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Re:Please grow some gray matter by Todd+Knarr · 2012-12-31 23:03 · Score: 1, Informative · on The U.S. Careens Over the Fiscal Cliff, Reaching Only Half of a Deal

That's an odd position to take given the actual budget numbers. I collected some of them here. What's odd is that every Republican President since 1976 has presided over a larger year-to-year increase in both the debt and the deficit than the worst Democratic President (Carter). And you can't blame it on a Democratic Congress: the majority of of Clinton's term saw a Republican Congress, as did the majority of Bush Jr.'s terms, yet Clinton's terms saw net reductions in the deficit and rate of growth of the debt while Bush Jr. oversaw net increases in both. And Obama has had a Democratic Senate since he was elected and a Democrat-controlled House for half his term, yet again net reductions in the deficit and rate of growth of the debt. The numbers... appear to add up to exactly the opposite of your position.

Re:Fiscal cliff by quantaman · 2012-12-31 18:33 · Score: 4, Insightful · on The U.S. Careens Over the Fiscal Cliff, Reaching Only Half of a Deal

But this? Yes, the Tea Party said enough is enough and put their foot down saying "If you are not going to be serious grownups and live within your means with no plans to pay it back, then I wont sign the check". That is what the debt ceiling is.

Except the middle of an economic crisis is a really bad time to suddenly get concerned about the dept (why weren't they around in the Bush years?), particularly if your attempt at austerity causes the economy to go into recession, the tax receipts to plummet, and the social safety net to balloon.

It is not a new budget. It is to pay your existing bill. Every American owes $150,000 each and by not going off the fiscal cliff you are telling your creditors that you wont pay them back! In essence raising the debt ceiling is simply paying your credit card bill by charging to the same company over and over again.

...

Any bond investor would be nuts to invest in the dollar right now.

Apparently the market disagrees with your assessment since treasury bonds are at record lows. All those people are apparently convinced they're going to get paid back, as someone with faith in the market I tend to take their word over yours.

Republicans are trying to do the right thing and that is do what they were hired for. To put in an ultra conservative mandate in 2010 to stop government and bailouts. Not everyone agrees with this, but I happen to feel Obama is not being serious enough with cuts and republicans know how to talk to the talk but refuse to raise taxes.

We need 5 fiscal cliffs in a row for the next 20 years to dig out of this hole. Seriously, Americans are clueless and watch what will happen next?

The Tea Party had a bit of a mandate in 2010, but now they've definitely lost it. And it's quite doable to start paying off the dept without a cliff, simply wait for the economy to get going again, then raise taxes, slash military spending, slash healthcare spending, maybe a few other bits, then soon you'll be in the black and paying off the dept.

Re:peaceful protesters? by sageres · 2012-12-31 10:50 · Score: 1 · on New Documents Detail FBI, Bank Crack Down On Occupy Wall Street

Peaceful? Peaceful my ass!
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2011/11/occupy-wall-street-document-record-of.html

Re:So by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-31 05:59 · Score: 0 · on Link Between Marijuana and Psychosis Goes Both Ways

Funny, I knew a guy who would lapse into a multi-day bi-polar episode if he didn't smoke pot, several in fact. I have known more than handful of people who treated bi-polar disorder with cake as well. On the mushroom issue, hallucinogens are a very powerful tool for treating mental disorders and general identity issues in the care of an experienced "practitioner." When disturbed people use them as recreation things usually get worse, although some (very few) get lucky, have an epiphany, and never touch it again because they no longer need it. Numerous qualified researchers have studied various aspects of hallucinogens and have published their findings. I find it VERY disturbing that hallucinogens are outright and unconditionally banned and labelled as poison in our society when they have played a pivotal role in our development and culture for thousands of years. Fucking Santa Clause is a representation of a Nordic shaman who collects mushrooms and reindeer piss for Pete's sake--and people wonder why conspiracy theories about Jesus heading a mushroom cult bubble up. The Pope dresses like a fucking amanita for Christ's sake (pardon the pun). But, whatever. What can you do, ho hum, la-dee-da.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lIFNmxZDY0w/Sl_45jELcrI/AAAAAAAAAsU/7oTs10_Ym0k/s320/pope%2Bobamas

Re:What problem does it solve? by Tough+Love · 2012-12-30 14:13 · Score: 1 · on FSF Does Want Secure Boot; They Just Want It Under User Control

I don't know whether Microsoft realises it but we'll all look back on this as the beginning of the end for them.

It's the continuation of the end. The beginning of the end was when Minimsft was captured and lobotomized.

Re:Not satellite access required. by ibennetch · 2012-12-29 12:07 · Score: 1 · on FCC Smooths the Path For Airlines' In-Flight Internet

And by the way - GSM goes easily to 35k feet (11km) - if there are no obstrucions - you know - like in the AIR. We use a ferry to travel from Tallinn (Estonia) to Helsinki (Finland) and only right in the middle of this ~80 KM journey is there no cell reception from either shore. I would extrapolate that at least 30 km (3 times the height of commercial air traffic) is easily doable.
Cell phone reception only sucks if you have buildings or plants in the way. Or a mountain.

Just because you have good reception straight out from the tower at 30km doesn't mean you'll have good service 11km in the air. The cell phone towers are tuned to have good horizontal coverage, not vertically. It's not a perfect sphere of coverage; these are directional arrays that are designed to provide coverage where most of their customers are...on the ground. The first link that came up in my Google search seems to have some more information about coverage patterns.

Re:Here's some ideas by jedidiah · 2012-12-29 09:27 · Score: 4, Interesting · on Going Off the Fiscal Cliff Could Mean Missing the Next Hurricane Sandy

I like carriers as much as the next guy (or 5 of the next guys). However, you've got to put things into perspective and know when enough is enough. We have entire classes of ships that are too small for us to consider carriers but would be considered so by any other Navy on the planet.

This article has a nice picture that puts things in perspective.

http://hgworld.blogspot.com/2011/08/voices-on-grand-strategy-or-lack-there.html

Perhaps we can do a swap with England.

Europe has our back by ral · 2012-12-29 06:55 · Score: 4, Interesting · on Going Off the Fiscal Cliff Could Mean Missing the Next Hurricane Sandy

Cliff Mass, a University of Washington professor of meteorology, talks about the predictions around hurricane Sandy. He said:

... the best forecasting system for predicting Sandy was not American, rather it was the model of the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) in Reading, England.

It's Just Keeps Getting Better And Better by dma_packet · 2012-12-29 06:54 · Score: 0 · on In Japan, PlayStation 2 Ends a 12-Year Run

You actually just posted a link to a fucking Xbox 360 game that was ported to PS3 as some sort of 'proof' that the 360 is able to put out PS3 level graphics?

Really???

I think I am finally seeing the sad and pathetic logic that allows people like you to lie to themselves in order to not have to face a reality they desperately don't want to deal with. In this case that the PS3, no surprise, destroyed the Xbox 360 in graphics this gen - just like every console engineer knew it would six years ago.

Ya don't get to pick and choose which game's graphics demonstrate the relative strength of two consoles. It is hilarious that you actually tried to do so.

The PS3 has Uncharted 1/2/3 - What does the Xbox 360 have of the same level?

NOTHING

No fucking surprise since the 360 is gimped by the smaller than last gen disc format that can't hold the 24 or more gigs of data for materials and geometry in the Uncharted games. Nor does the 360 have the same insane parallel floating point power in the PS3's Cell chip to run Uncharted's animations.

Instead the best the 360 can do is the 'amazing' Gears of War games that look like this:

http://kineticninja.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

Laughably primitive lighting, jerky primitive animations, materials that look straight out of the PS2/Xbox era.

The PS3 has Killzone 2/3 - What does the 360 have that can compete?

NOTHING

Once again the massive data of materials and geometry can't fit even on 3 of the 360's gimped less than DVD sized discs. And the 360's gimped 10 megs of EDRAM can't fit the massive render buffers that advanced deffered shading engines like Killzone 2/3 run on the PS3. And this is why all the Xbox fanboys screamed that Sony was lying about Killzone 2's graphics before Sony shut them the fuck up at E3 with graphics that matched the 'impossible CGI level' graphics:

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/3238/killzone2comparw1.jpg

Either you post these mystery 360 games that magically make the wimpy Xbox hardware do what not a single Xbox developer has been able to for the past seven years.

Until you can do that, sit down and shut the fuck up. Your crappy little underpowered 360 got the shit kicked out of it graphically this gen. No other console has been so humiliated that it has not a single exclusive title that can be held up that is of the same level as the exclusives on its competing console.

Re:Take The Fanboy Goggle Off by dma_packet · 2012-12-29 02:12 · Score: 1, Informative · on In Japan, PlayStation 2 Ends a 12-Year Run

We're not having a debate. There is six years of real world graphics engines running on fixed hardware. The fact that whatever brain damage you have that makes you so vehemently deny what is something that isn't just easily seem with people's own eyes but with the actual resolution, poly counts, lighting models, etc on the PS3 and the significantly weaker Xbox 360.

There are usually two groups of people who still cling to the delusion that the Xbox 360 graphics hardware is in the same league as the PS3:

1. Outright hardcore Xbox fanboys. The guys who post that 'teh Xbox version looks better' without even wasting time to look at comparison screen shots or video. Take PS3 and 360 footage/screenshots and reverse the labels and these sad fucks will proclaim the 360(actually PS3) version looks best!

2. People dumb enough to fill their head with the techno babble garbage from sites like beyond3d.com. These people spent the first couple of years before and during the start of the PS3's life listening to the PC fanboys run their mouths off with inane crap and simply refuse to let go are admit that all that garbage they filled their heads with is diametrically opposed to the reality of what their eyes are seeing.

I remember one of these sad fucks posting two screenshots from PS3 and 360 version of a game. The 360 version was full of jaggies. Yet this dunce had filled his head with so much garbage from the dumb PC 'graphics experts' that he actually was asking why the PS3 version didn't have as good anti-aliasing as the 360.

Console graphics isn't the special olympics like you apparently want it to be where 'everyone is a winner'. You design your console's graphics system and you ship it. The actual graphics engines speak for themselves.

Microsoft has had seven years to come up with a single game that can compete with a single PS3 exclusive. They failed. The Xbox 360's single claim to graphical fame were hilariously fake 5000x5000 16xAA Unreal Engine bullshots running with massively detailed models and materials running on a high end Epic developer PC that they tried to pass off as 'in game' or 'in engine':

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080404131361/egamia/images/e/e7/Gears_of_war.jpg

When in reality this is what the actual direct feed Xbox 360 graphics look like:

http://kineticninja.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

PS3 exclusives like Uncharted make the Xbox 360's 'graphical showpiece' look like a PS2/Xbox era title.

Knock yourself out. Keep trying to convince the world the Xbox 360 was in the league as the PS3. Post some comparison shots of My Pretty Pony and how 'close the PS3 and 360' graphics look.

After all, there are still sad and pathetic Dreamcast fanboys haunting console forums still trying to convince the world the Dreamcast was just as powerful as the PS2.

Take The Fanboy Goggle Off by dma_packet · 2012-12-29 00:43 · Score: -1, Troll · on In Japan, PlayStation 2 Ends a 12-Year Run

"In a technical sense, if a game can run on the 360, it can be made to run on the PS3 and vice-versa."

It is funny on a site that claims to be a hangout for people with at least a minimum of technical knowledge. Or at least working visual systems...

There never has been another console that has so absolutely crushed its competition like the PS3 has done with the Xbox 360 this gen.

In the past there were either consoles that were too far apart in time for them to be considered technical competitors or consoles that were strong in some graphical areas but were beat in others like the Genesis/SNES days.

The PS3 is the first console ever to have such a graphical dominance over its competition that there isn't a single are the PS3 doesn't crush the Xbox 360 in:

* Resolution
* Poly counts
* Lighting
* Materials
* Animation
* Physics
* Particle/Effects

There isn't a single graphical area where the Xbox 360 has been able to put out games that match the PS3 in even a single graphical area this gen. And Microsoft has had six years and an virtually unlimited budget to do so.

Games like GT5 are running at 50 percent more resolution than the 360's Forza while pushing a huge amount more polys per frame and running a lighting model far beyond.

Games like Killzone 2 are running engines that aren't even possible to run on the 360 due to the gimped 10 megs EDRAM the 360 is saddled with.

Or games like Metal Gear Solid 4 that are so large they could never ever run on the 360's smaller than last gen 6.7gig DVD format.

Or games like Uncharted that have materials that make the 360's 'graphical showcase' Gears of War look like a PS2/Xbox era title:

http://kineticninja.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

The Xbox 360 has been so badly beaten in graphics this gen that it is the only console in history to have to resort to trying to brag about minuscule differences in crappy mulitplatform titles because its own first party exclusives are so graphically unimpressive.

So, yeah, I'm sure shitty little Call of Doody looks slightly better on your 480i TV on your 360 than on your PS3.

But outside of delusional fanboy lalaland Microsoft has had 6 years to come up with a single game that could match Sony's PS3 exclusives this gen and failed to do so.

Re:Arsehole by Doctor_Jest · 2012-12-28 21:17 · Score: 2 · on Linus Chews Up Kernel Maintainer For Introducing Userspace Bug

Some people simply work best when cornered. Perhaps the fellow Linus was ripping into needed that as motivation to shape up. It's the mark of a good manager (so few exist these days) who knows which people to prod, and which people not to micromanage. Funny thing is, just lime most suits in the world, every programmer is interchangeable, therefore they all respond to the drum beat and the whip.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qMABJs3fRaQ/R0BNQnDXuVI/AAAAAAAAAeI/h9GXPMQJuZk/s320/Rowing+in+Circle001.jpg

What works for Hackintosh... by thanosv · 2012-12-28 06:47 · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: Linux-Friendly Motherboard Manufacturers?

What works for a Hackintosh will usually work well for Linux. Check http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/search/label/CustoMac. These builds have been well tested and I've used them for Ubuntu successfully.

Re:The Curse of the Network Effect Goes Times Squa by samkass · 2012-12-27 13:57 · Score: 3, Insightful · on Empty Times Square Building Generates $23 Million a Year From Digital Ads

The Curse of the Network Effect is obvious enough in real estate that there is an entire school of political economy geared toward a single tax on land value -- a school most identified with the 19th century political economics author, Henry George.

Again, the real solution is to stop taxing economic activity (capital gains, income, sales, value added, etc) and instead tax market-assessed liquid value of assets.

And, again, of course, not many people are going to really understand this idea so it must be demonstrated by those who do get it.

That's why we need Sortocracy.

The proposal you link to essentially removes all control anyone has over their own property. Everyone is, in effect, required to sell any property at any time to the highest bidder. That may be economically efficient, but it sucks on a day-to-day basis for real people. It's the "infinite frictionless plane" type of economist thought problem, not an actual solution to anything. The law would last about as long as it would take for grandma to be kicked out of her house.

The Curse of the Network Effect Goes Times Squared by Baldrson · 2012-12-27 13:36 · Score: -1, Offtopic · on Empty Times Square Building Generates $23 Million a Year From Digital Ads

The Curse of the Network Effect is obvious enough in real estate that there is an entire school of political economy geared toward a single tax on land value -- a school most identified with the 19th century political economics author, Henry George.

Again, the real solution is to stop taxing economic activity (capital gains, income, sales, value added, etc) and instead tax market-assessed liquid value of assets.

And, again, of course, not many people are going to really understand this idea so it must be demonstrated by those who do get it.

That's why we need Sortocracy.

Can't choose just one... by Briareos · 2012-12-26 21:57 · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: What Was Your Favorite Web Comic of 2012?

I can't decide on a single best webcomic, so that would be either Subnormality, Wapsi Square or Sequential Art.

Funniest would be either Girls With Slingshots, Two Guys and Guy or Shit Happens! (yeah, sorry - it's in German only).

Best art is again either Subnormality, Zebra Girl or Power Nap.

And the most relevant comic to me in 2012 definitely was Wapsi Square, the first thing I check in the morning after getting up (also going by the amount of prints I bought)...

Honorable mentions: Hobotopia, Bear Nuts, Modest Medusa, Flaky Pastry and Hate Farm.

np: Louie Austen - Never & Ever (What A Comeback!)