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User: dvoecks

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Comments · 48

  1. Re:Damn! on Blocking Gun Laws With Patents · · Score: 1

    You'd be better sprinkling that brass all over the crime scene than reloading it. The process of reloading would remove the police stamp, as the primer can only be used once. Removing it is one of the first things that you do, when you reload.

  2. Re:Bigger governmnet on Candidate Gingrich Pushes a Moon Base, Other Space Initiatives · · Score: 1

    "Overtake China"? When China has their current growth rate, and a per-capita GDP that isn't 1/6 of what it is in the US, and productivity numbers anywhere in the same ballpark, I'll let that slide. Until then, they're a poor country with some rich and middle-class people.

  3. Re:Will USA be as against it as it is Iran's? on Kenya Seeks Nuclear Power Infrastructure · · Score: 2

    It depends on if they settle on a technology that requires highly enriched uranium, and if they insist on processing their own. You can do nuclear power without either. Iran is insisting on enriching their own uranium, which is what the US objects to. If Kenya did the same, I would suspect that the US would have an issue with it.

  4. Re:This could go horribly wrong. on FCC OKs On-Body Medical Networks · · Score: 1

    It might just mean less practice required for a chorus-line or synchronized swim team! Any untalented hack with the right implant could walk in off the street and become one of the Rockettes!

  5. Re:ahh, different Baron-Cohen on When Geeks Meet, Are They More Likely To Have Autistic Kids? · · Score: 1

    I heard an interview on an NPR podcast where they mentioned it, too... not that some random guy on the internet is much better than Wikipedia.

  6. Does he even think this stuff through? on Ron Paul Wants To End the Federal Student Loan Program · · Score: 1

    I understand where he's coming from. It more than likely does contribute to higher demand for college educations, and thus higher prices. Cost reductions would come from lower demand... not exactly something we should be encouraging.

  7. Re:I don't think your hangup is loyalty... on Ask Slashdot: Does Being 'Loyal' Pay As a Developer? · · Score: 1

    Fair enough, but It's easier to judge stability from within.

  8. Re:I don't think your hangup is loyalty... on Ask Slashdot: Does Being 'Loyal' Pay As a Developer? · · Score: 1

    Then again, I've seen people jump to a "better" job, only to be laid off 6 months later. Knowing that you like your situation and that it's stable is worth something, too. I'd probably talk to my employers and be frank about the situation. If you really are that tight, they'll either match the offer or wish you luck! If they're dinks about it, then the choice is certainly obvious.

  9. IANAL, but... on Healthcare Law Appealed To Supreme Court · · Score: 1

    The net effect of a lack of a mandate is that we absolutely cannot eliminate preexisting conditions (something with near-universal support).

    Maybe a Constitutional lawyer will come along and straighten me out on this, but that seems to be a clear-cut instance of regulating interstate commerce.

  10. Re:Pacman Jones already knows how to make it rain. on Swiss Researchers Try to Make it Rain With Lasers · · Score: 1

    Just make sure you don't try to pick up the "precipitation" too soon, or you're going to get punched.

  11. Re:don't let your stuff be used for criminal stuff on The EFF Reflects On ICE Seizing a Tor Exit Node · · Score: 1

    Won't be the last time... If that's the case, I agree with you that they should be just as responsible as an individual customer. Having it both ways is bullshit!

  12. Re:don't let your stuff be used for criminal stuff on The EFF Reflects On ICE Seizing a Tor Exit Node · · Score: 1

    ISPs are a "common carrier". They're expected to be agnostic about the content going over their network (which is part of why filtering is so heinous. They're having their cake and eating it too, but that's another conversation). As a consumer, you're supposed to be in control of your traffic, and you don't have the same protections.

  13. Cellulosic on US Senate Votes For Repeal of Ethanol Subsidies · · Score: 1

    I've never been a fan of grain ethanol (except for the amount in beer), except that I've viewed it as a bridge to create a market for cellulosic ethanol. If we were driving around cars with high enough compression ratios, a lot of the efficiency shortcomings could be overcome. However, turning food into ethanol is not sustainable over the long term. I really would have hoped we'd be turning waste into ethanol by now. I'm not quite ready to give op on that, but it's time to go about it differently.

  14. Not a good idea on BitCoin, the Most Dangerous Project Ever? · · Score: 1

    While I don't believe BitCoin will ever be accepted widely enough to make this happen, there are dangers if it were universally accepted.

    I will admit that this is an oversimplification, but in an economic collapse, either the value of the currency falls or wages fall. Austrian school economists don't see a problem with that, but as anybody who's ever bought a more than one tank of gas in the US can attest to: prices are SLOW to respond to the reduction in the price of the inputs. Wages could fall much faster than the prices of things like food... Eventually, there will be surplus goods, causing prices to fall, but that's going to take a while. People need to eat more often than that. The logical response by producers would be to produce less, thereby employing fewer people, leading to further reduction in wages. Lather, rinse, repeat.

    On the other hand, if a government can devalue its currency in one fairly dramatic step, you create a situation where goods are temporarily cheap, causing people to consume more. Eventually, the prices of the inputs will go up, and the goods will become more scarce, but if you can borrow consumption from the future, you can head off the feedback loop. This has been used to good effect in the past.

    If everybody were paid in BitCoins, devaluing a national currency would be ineffective at heading off a recession, leaving few tools in the toolbox.

  15. Re:Too complex on US Navy Creates MMO To Fight Somali Pirates · · Score: 1

    That's no reason not to treat the "symptom", too. People respond to incentives. If you make the disincentive against piracy stronger, there will be a reduction in the number of pirates.

    The problem lies in what the remaining pirates do to make it worth their while. They could become more violent in response, because they need to extract more money to make the extra risks worth taking (which could be a reason not to treat the symptom). It's also possible that the whole endeavor becomes too risky to make it worth doing... There's really no way to tell in advance. My hope is that no matter what they do about piracy, that they are wary about unintended consequences.

  16. Voodoo on Facebook Kills Mark Zuckerberg Action Figure · · Score: 1

    Are they worried about how many people would be sticking pins in it?

  17. Ironically... on Did the Chinese Military Use Top Gun Footage? · · Score: 1

    The Navy only allowed them to fire on real missile during the making of "Top Gun", and the rest were done in miniature. So, the odds are pretty solid that the footage they posted was "fake" anyhow.

    Maybe the Chinese should work on their own special effects dept.

  18. Suddenly... on Google Censors "Piracy Terms" From Instant Search · · Score: 1

    Downloads of Avast! antivirus drop significantly...

  19. The problem for this woman... on Woman's Voice Restored After Larynx Transplant · · Score: 1

    was that the donor was Barry White.

  20. Re:M.A.D. on WikiLeaks Defenders Threaten Amazon · · Score: 1

    If you tick off enough people to where their retaliation is able to significantly impede your business, it seems to me that the grudge they're holding against you must have some merit. Unless it's one guy with a large botnet, can there really be that many "wackos"? It's kind of like the difference between a "cult" and a "religion". That said, DDoS attacks, are not the right way of going about this.

  21. Re:What the hell on FCC To Allow Texting To 911 · · Score: 1

    4. You're in an area with very poor signal

  22. Re:Not again... on China Now Halting Shipments of Rare Earth Minerals To US · · Score: 1

    Additionally, Paul Krugman won a Nobel Prize for the idea that being isolated from international competition, which can be the result for protectionism, can be a good thing for a growing economy.

  23. Hell... on Carnivorous Swamp Beast Discovered In Madagascar · · Score: 2, Funny

    Jimmy Carter was attacked by a scarier-looking swamp beast than that!

  24. correlationisnotcausation indeed... on iPad Is Destroying Netbook Sales · · Score: 1

    I'm wondering how many consumers are like me, in that I wanted a netbook a heck of a lot worse, before I got a really good smartphone. I may still buy a netbook down the road, but I feel a lot less of an urge now.

  25. Quick! on Mafia Boss Betrayed By Facebook · · Score: 1

    Somebody get Whitey Bulger a Twitter account!