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User: Ngarrang

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  1. Shock and Surprise on Europe's Galileo Program In Serious Trouble · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So, a project designed by a committee with no real purpose other than to say "this is my toy" failed. I am completely shocked and surprised.

    *rolling of eyes*

    GPS is a privilege, not a right. The US Government was kind enough to say, "okay, citizens, you can use it, too, but with a tad less accuracy." Well, a few years later, it seems some people get a stick up their butt and suddenly think that GPS is their God-given right. Well, like the internet, it isn't. And just like the internet, just because the rest of the world found a use for it and came to depend on it, doesn't justify complaints of US control.

  2. Re:math is hard on Student, Denied Degree For MySpace Photo, Sues · · Score: 1

    Little Johnny could come across his teacher's MySpace page and come to the conclusion that drinking is perfectly acceptable. Although kids usually learn that from their parents first. Amen to that. Or, the parents let the TV teach their kids that is okay to drink. Considering how dangerous MySpace can be to kids (with the predators), are parents still letting their kids use MySpace to even find this teacher's pic?
  3. Re:exactly on Congress Asks Universities To Curb Piracy · · Score: 1

    "sonny bono and his ilk will fatten and fatten the cow of intellectual property. meanwhile, the internet is only getting more upiquitous, faster, and technological means of file sharing only getting more anonymous and easier to use"

    So, over 9 years after his death, Sonny Bono is still screwing over the constituents? That evil bastard! The power of the US Congress has over-ridden death, apparently.

  4. Re:Not expected? on Cooler Silicon Lasers Via Energy Harvesting · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "It's a very clever approach," says Philippe Fauchet, an applied physicist at the University of Rochester in New York State. "I did not expect it at all, which is always a nice surprise."

    An applied physicist "didn't expect" that an electric field would move the free electrons out of the way?

    Even the best and brightest can sometimes forget the little things. You can get so focused on another aspect.
  5. Re:Good for him on Obama Requests Creative Commons for Presidential Debates · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems like an empty gesture to me. Do the politicians actually answer any questions these days? The last few debates I have watched, the answers were to poorly constructed, or circular, or not an answer at all, as to make the point of debates in this modern day needless.

    Ask them a simple question, and get a complex non-answer.

    So, props to Obama for trying to look like a progressive to those who cannot see through such ploys for voter support.

  6. Re:I must be living in a story book.. on India Hopes to Make $10 Laptops a Reality · · Score: 2, Funny

    Combine a small chalk board with an abacus and voila! A $10 "computer". It has an intuitive "chalk" interface.

    Hmm, wait, didn't put Google put out a patent for human-assisted functional computing? Never mind, this new computer will never work.

  7. People are the problem, not technology on Can Technology Fix the Health Care System? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I worked in a hospital for 9 years in the IT department. Trust me when I say that technology was NOT the impediment, but nurses and doctors who refused to use the technology. Instead of thinking about the positive uses (checking drug interactions, streamlining data collection, improved imaging times), the mere idea of "technology" was shunned by these supposedly-educated professionals.

    I will never work in a hospital ever again. It was too painful the first time around. I understand that not all users are going to be computer proficient, but to have a user BRAG how little they know about computers, and they will be retiring in a few years, so they will just drag their heals...

    Guh!

    If ever there was a time to justify beating something with an ethernet patch cord, that was the time.

    Fix the people and you fix the single largest impediment in any system.

  8. Re:Environmental reasons why this is stupid. on A New Wireless Power Transmission Sheet · · Score: 1

    Yes, though what is the wasted watts for 100 million chargers not charging anything (but plugged in anyway)? Modern chargers use almost no power if they aren't charging something. They have a detector to know if something is plugged in or not.
  9. Re:Environmental reasons why this is stupid. on A New Wireless Power Transmission Sheet · · Score: 1

    20% of your power.. for LOW POWER DEVICES.

    They're not talking about running a refrigerator for these things, they're talking about reducing wall-wart clutter to one wire and one pad. In addition to less clutter, that means that lazy people will leave fewer transformers plugged in without powering anything. Keep in mind, what if this device becomes wildly successful? What is the wasted watts for 100 million things being charged with this device? It adds up.
  10. Re:Next step on Supreme Court Weakens Patents · · Score: 1

    So really, the problem is not necessarily software patents, but the fact that there doesn't seem to be an effective standard for obviousness for software patents. Which I guess is what the Supreme Court hopes to rectify? In my view, yes. If you have created a piece of software that does something completely new and novel, then maybe. But, without a legal definition of "obvious", we will continue to have people abuse the system instead of working within the spirit of the law. But, even here, it has been argued that maybe Copyright law is more appropriate than patent law.
  11. Re:Next step on Supreme Court Weakens Patents · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I still don't understand what makes algorithms and software OBVIOUSLY not patentable. Also, stop misusing the word "mathematical". I am not a proponent of software patents; I just don't see what makes software patents so different from other patents, and I haven't seen a single logical argument against software patents that doesn't involve circular reasoning.

    If you give 100 programmers the same task, two of them are bound to create similar or The SAME algorithm to solve the problem. This is what makes software patents so strange. It would be like someone getting a patent on the doubly-linked list. Adding that second link is an obvious extension of a single-linked list.

    And, there are only so many ways to do something correctly. The One-Click ordering sequence is a natural progression from the shopping cart metaphor. "Why make someone follow ALL of the prompts when we can shorten the time with a one-click button?" The average 5-year old is smart enough to figure this out.

  12. Re:Useless on Home Secretary Requests Fingerprint-Activated iPods · · Score: 1

    One-Time Passwords are the answer to this problem. It would mean the thief would have to steel your OTP card, as well.

    But, as has been pointed out, no device is truly secure, especially with a thief who really wants your data.

  13. Re:How long before Debian ARM is ported? on DARPA's Artificial Arm Comes With VR Training · · Score: 1

    Probably will happen at the same time creates ARM-BSD.

    So, which current OS would YOU prefer your artificial body to run?

  14. Re:WTF WTF? on Keeping Google's In-house Database Ticking · · Score: 1

    Slow news day? This does not bode well for the rest of the day.

  15. Every MS OS Is Still Being Used on MS Offers Vista Upgrade Pricing To All · · Score: 1

    I would be far more interested in seeing a survey from every business sector of what old OSes are still in active use. I refuse to believe that my company is the odd duck with our DOS, Win95, and Win98 installs still running multi-million dollar machines. And the consumer PCs are probably just as fragmented with older OSes.

  16. Re:interesting timing for an IPO on MySQL Hits $50 Million Revenue, Plans IPO · · Score: 1

    Risk of "pump and dump" investors driving MySQL strategy in the wrong direction. - Naturally a company will have to follow the instructions from its shareholders, but we believe that we have and will have strong and long-term investors who understand the value of strategic resilience. These investors will encourage us to invest in what gives the best value over time.

    Shareholders not employed the company rarely have anything but dollar signs in their eyes and only care about their own short-term gains. I have watched a lot of tech companies go public since 1990 and many of them are gone now. Bought out, sold out, sued out of business, or mis-managed by chief's who's only concern is their own wallets. And when that happened each time, only the chief's escaped with any money, leaving the employees with nothing but a resume entry.

    Without using management-speak, please explain to me how MySQL hopes to escape my sense of stock market nihilism? When the stock holders began to demand short-term gain that will strangle long-term development, what will be ther answer?

    For the record, I see the stock market as an evil place, that has destroyed far more companies and lives than it has helped. I have seen little evidence in the last 16 years to dissuade me from this view.

  17. Re:Moore's Observation on Does Moore's Law Help or Hinder the PC Industry? · · Score: 1

    Well written, JHFry. Yes, my initial reply was a bit simplistic. The consumers ultimately dictate the increases we have seen.

    In light of this, is the media guilty of over-hyping the concept? In other words, would we even be beating this subject into the ground if it were not for reporters heralding the "defeat of Moore's Law for 10 more years!" or some other similar headline?

  18. Re:Good! on Vonage Wins Permanent Stay in Verizon Case · · Score: 1

    "The government has no right and would set a far worse precedent enforing licensing by a court determined cost."

    And, yet, the most recent Telecommunications Act did just such a thing. It forced providers to open their networks, set standard pricing for the use of those networks and created competition where none was existing.

    I believe numerous lawsuits and new court rulings have castrated it, though, into something so impotent, that Viagra wouldn't help.

  19. Re:Spinal Tap on Spinal Tap to Reunite for Live Earth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Always been confused over this. Is Spinal Tap a real band, or just a movie made band that parodies the rock industry. Thought it was the latter, but people talk about it so passionately as if it was a real band. As real as The Monkeys, The Spice Girls, every boy band since 1990 and Vanilla Ice.
  20. Re:Moore's Observation on Does Moore's Law Help or Hinder the PC Industry? · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Agreed. Why the industry chooses to measure itself against what some may consider just an anecdotal observation I will never understand.

    I suppose the laymen need something like to rally around, though.

    Sure, double the number of transistors! But, did that do anything useful? Did you gain enough performance to offset the complexity you just created? In the drive to "keep up with Moore's Law", are we better off? Are the processors now "better", or simply faster to make up for how fat they have become?

  21. Re:That will teach all of you! on RIAA Wants Student Deposed On School Day · · Score: 1

    *shaking of head*

    Humor is lost on the insipid.

  22. That will teach all of you! on RIAA Wants Student Deposed On School Day · · Score: 1

    Good morning, class. Today, we will be deposing little Johnny here because he broke the law and got caught. Now, Johnny, are you ready to be questioned by the mean old lawyer from the MAF...er, RIAA?

  23. But the PC still cost money on Microsoft Takes On the OLPC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Okay, OS+Software for $3. But the school has to provide free PCs to the schools using the deal. Sooooo...where does the PC come from? Or am I not supposed to not ask that question and just blindly applaud Micro$oft for their generous offer?

    Any old $200 to $300 PC will work, right? Oh, wait, the OLPC is currently $150, or something like that.

    Eh.

  24. Safer than shipping on The World's Longest Tunnel · · Score: 1

    Oil and Natural Gas can more safely be transported via pipeline, so this should prove a boon to environmental safety in the Strait.

    Beyond that, the concept of this tunnel appeals to the mad scientist in me.

  25. Re:Good for them, but... on Mozilla Releases Thunderbird 2.0.0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There is still a place for a mail client like Thunderbird, even if you use Gmail. What if you want to reference an e-mail message, but gmail is having problems at that time...and it is critical that you find it NOW? Also, having a client like Thunderbird allows you to only have to use your internet connection intermittently, like for folks still stuck with dial-up.

    Thunderbird also offers more filtering options than the web providers, for those who depend on filtering to keep their inbox sane.

    My wife uses Thunderbird at home. It has been sufficient for her up to now, so I see no reason to force her to use gmail's web site.