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User: X.mpls

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  1. How many of you participate? on SOPA Hearings Stacked In Favor of Pro-SOPA Lobby · · Score: 1

    Just because you voted does not mean you're active in your democracy. So many people take the cop out stance that big business buys politicians. First of all, prove that. Second, how many of you regularly contact your Congressmen? As a Hill employee, I can tell you that your elected officials (1 Representative and both Senators) have systems that log comments given by constituents. You can keep bemoaning the system and claim your voice isn't heard. And your voice alone isn't, but don't fall for that self-fulfilling prophecy. If everyone held their tongue regarding an issue close to their heart, they'd never know who agreed with them and nobody in a position of power could ever act on their behalf. Most Congressmen will tell you that their tenure is a contract, and every two years all of us have the ability to vote them out of office if we don't agree with their choices. Stop complaining and get out and engage in your democracy.

  2. And... on 34% of iPhone Owners Think the 4 Is 4G · · Score: 1

    And 99% of Verizon's "4G" customers actually think that's 4G. Another reader made a nice observation above: consumers are idiots. That is true, and telecoms are their tonic.

  3. So much time... on Nexus S Beats iPhone 4 In 'Real World' Web Browsing Tests · · Score: 1

    In the time it took for me to write this comment I could have loaded 5 extra webpages. Who cares about a 1 second difference? (That qualifies as a spanking?)

  4. Writing Quality on 8-Year-Olds Publish Scientific Bee Study · · Score: 1

    This is how all scientific and academic literature should be composed.

  5. The Middle Ground on Is Going To an Elite College Worth the Cost? · · Score: 1

    I hail from Minneapolis. When I applied to schools, I didn't look at anything inside of Minnesota. I liked the UC system because they recognize the International Baccalaureate program (similar to AP) and the cost, even as an out of state student, was significantly lower than a private school -- GWU was an alternative and about double the cost of the degree which I just achieved from UC Santa Barbara. I sincerely believe we have the best of both worlds here. Most of my professors achieved their doctorates at notable universities such as Berkeley, Princeton, Harvard, etc., which is to be expected for a graduate degree but also take pride in conveying their knowledge to us weak-minded students. Major and prestigious universities, the professors priorities are usually donated to the advancement of their careers and their respective fields. Small colleges can cater to the opposite extreme and, while creating great rapport with the students, they fall short of technical expertise. I believe a middle ground exists at many universities. What I found at UCSB wasn't always the best teaching or cutting edge research in every field, but a healthy taste of both. When I finished up my degree a few weeks ago, I felt very happy with the bond I had created with my school. I paid about $32,000 a year to go here and I believe it was worth every dime, but some might not agree with me. After all, what makes for a good fit is subjective to the student and their needs, but that's another story. The bottom line is that a connection cannot be drawn between prestige, cost, and the perceived quality of a degree.

  6. Re:Only for specific Xbox360 mod on Halo Reach Leaked To Filesharing Sites · · Score: 1

    I'm not entirely sure Jtag-modders won't play on Xbox Live is true. I have seen Jtag modders on COD:MW2. Their JTAG mods allowed them to do all sort of crazy stuff. They altered some kind of file that communicated to the game server kills and deaths. That is why you see some people with a 4000 kill to death ratio in-game and in the stats listings, unlimited care packages or some other ridiculously obvious cheat. Maybe those people did only enjoy a few moments of splendor before Microsoft dropped the hammer on them -- I hope they did. I pre-ordered this game and don't care if it was leaked 2.5 weeks early. I waited years for this game to be developed so I can wait a few more weeks. Plenty of other people will do the same and both Microsoft and Bungie will make fistfuls of money regardless of how many people download this leaked version.

  7. Better Settings for Higher PQ on H.264 and VP8 Compared · · Score: 1

    I think it's pretty conclusive that medium or high profile settings with h264 are definitely going to be superior and therefore preferred by encoders wishing to retain detail and PQ over quick encoding speeds. And to be honest, if you have a decent processor, h264 is not all that slow considering the quality it can achieve.

  8. I hope they don't consider this a big deal. on CoD: Black Ops To Get Dedicated Game Servers · · Score: 1

    If they are making a big deal about this, I can only imagine what the overall quality of the game will be.

  9. Loss of Wisdom on 3rd-Grader Busted For Jolly Rancher Possession · · Score: 1

    There seems to be a default response to tough decisions: let's just follow protocol. These protocols are the results of our unwillingness to think deeply about problems individually. Instead, we just create more and more rules and laws that govern our social behavior and decision making. In this case, the girl snuck a piece of candy into her lunch was reprimanded and the officials who could not see the absurdity in handing her detention. And they backed it by following the "rules." Why were these rules created and for what purpose? It's a sign of mental laziness that is plaguing our country when it comes to making rational decisions. Of course protocol has its place in societies, and it should definitely be there, but we cannot stop checking the consistency and rationale of these protocols and rules. So when a girl is given detention for a few grams of candy, we shouldn't be asking why do these rules exist, but why are these rules enforced so sternly for such a minor infraction?

  10. Re:It's kind of sad... on Senators Tell Facebook To Quit Sharing Users' Info · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure about intelligent. Sure he went to Harvard, but the man made his money and reputation of cynicism and rude sarcasm. He's a political hack on the same level as Jon Stewart. And if this is the most he's doing while in congress, that makes it even worse that we Minnesotans preferred him over an actual politician.

  11. Get them out of the classroom. on Professors Banning Laptops In the Lecture Hall · · Score: 1

    90% of the people I see with laptops aren't using them in any academic capacity. Some people get caught in this mentality that they're somehow learning even though they're on Facebook or slashdot while in lecture -- I do laugh when I see people googling or "wikipedia-ing" an event or concept that has been referenced by the professor. However, these people are distracting to other people (in what clearly is already an unexciting class) by bright flashes and the incessant pitter-patter of acrylic. The response, "it's nobody's choice but the students" is problematic because they are frequently disturbing other people. If it weren't for rules about using cell phones in libraries, I wouldn't be able to study in the quiet anywhere. The line has to be drawn once people push a privilege too far. Students have gone too far. I used to bring my laptop to class freshmen year until I caught myself frequenting websites instead of paying attention. I am not opposed to disabled students using laptops. I am opposed to the masses who use their laptops to occupy themselves while they trick themselves into thinking they're upholding their duty as students.

  12. Re:Told you so! on Israeli ISPs Caught Interfering With P2P Traffic · · Score: 1

    I have also lived in Israel for the last 4.5 months and have subscribed to the DSL service provided by Bezeq. They only offer DSL in this part of Jerusalem, it's beyond me why they do not allow us cable connections despite having cable outlets in every single room of the apartments (there are hundreds where I live). BitTorrent is actually relatively stable. I regularly max out my connection which is a measly 2.5mbit/.3mbit with bit torrent. Whereas with SFTP and FTP/S/ES, I regularly get speeds fractions of what I should be getting. Skype has been decent to me as well, but making calls to my family 4000 miles away has brought video lag and sometimes low-quality audio. I cannot diagnose if this is the ISPs fault or bandwidth shortage in conjunction with the extreme distance the data must travel (my latency/ping is about ~230ms [http://www.pingtest.net/result/5689614.png]). Israel is a bit lacking when it comes to internet service. My university here is also locked down even though they offer about a 70.5mbit/20.5mbit connection they have managed to restrict just about every port so AIM is out of the question in addition to FTP, FTP/S/ES. SFTP still works. I'm not sure what the security concern is. And I'm definitely not sure why the Israeli ISPs overtly care to p2p traffic. The Israeli government does not care about anything except its military.

  13. Backdoor on Canon Files For DSLR Iris Registration Patent · · Score: 1

    How secure is this? This seems to be more of a matter of privacy and security than anything. I'm all for copyright infringement, but I really don't want to see the government be able to pick up a photo and be able to trace it back to me. Not only the government, but anyone with the know-how of reading/manipulating the meta-data code.

  14. Re:Goldfinger meets Pogo on Fifth Cable Cut To Middle East · · Score: 1

    Are you kidding me? It's obviously the Jews and Israel trying to take out the Islamic terrorist online network. In other news, UN condemns Israel for the severing of the 5 undersea internet lines.

  15. Wow on RIAA Wants Songwriter Royalty Lowered · · Score: 1

    How can the RIAA truly say they're protecting the interests of the musicians when they actually want to lower their profits without even raising the price of the music. If anything they should be raising the royalty so that people truly thought their artists were getting the money and not these grimy money grubbing corporations. I guess that's part of the "packaged deal" you get when these artists sell themselves to these corporations who hook them up with a big contract.

  16. Re:"behavior-detection officers" on Airport Profilers Learn to Read Facial Expressions · · Score: 1

    Care to explain? Apparently some people must agree with you here, but I don't.

  17. Re:No legitimate way to watch NBCs content? on TV Torrents — When Piracy Is Easier Than Purchase · · Score: 1

    Oops I might be wrong.

  18. Re:No legitimate way to watch NBCs content? on TV Torrents — When Piracy Is Easier Than Purchase · · Score: 1

    Yeah that and Miro has an embedded trojan/rootkit.

  19. Re:So..? on Eavesdropping Helpful Against Terrorist Plot [UPDATED] · · Score: 1

    And did Benjamin Franklin live in a time where the enemy was so devoted to killing us? I'm far from a proponent of this surveillance stuff, but if it does work internationally I'm not sure I care. After all very few conversations are actually overheard by living people. It's computers scanning through sound files for key words. Apply that algorithm to my friend Mac whose parents live in Iran and you have a computer listening to a conversation about his daily activities and what's new in Iran. The only downside I see to this is there's no judicial or congressional oversight. That provides headway for the program to be used on us domestically, which I think is a big no-no. And quit saying the terrorists have already won. They wouldn't keep trying to attack us if they'd already won. They're screwed in so many different places it's the people who fear them who are truly the ones allowing them to win.

  20. Re:ok on Justice Department Opposes Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    Lobbyists throwing money around.

  21. Re:Undeserved Respect For Religion on Facebook Exposes Advertisers To Hate Speech · · Score: 1

    Facebook doesn't have the time to moderate every single group created. And as this fellow just said, any one thing can anger another person. Perhaps they should have made it a little more subtle than "F**K Islam."

  22. Re:Will it be fully functional? on Anonymous Programmers Reveal iPhone Unlocking Software · · Score: 1

    I'm sure the programmers have given that some thought if they want to sell the product. Once you unlock a phone it's permanent. I suppose if Apple wanted to update the firmware that could cause some problems, but it's futile because hackers will keep breaking it. Of course it's just a vicious cycle in which nobody really makes a profit. I guess Apple and AT&T are just going to have to accept the fact that the iPhone won't be limited to just 1 carrier.

  23. Re:What does cable and a pigeon have in common? on The US Rural Broadband Crisis · · Score: 1

    But yet the question remains: what separates this from DSL if cable subscribers in rural areas get considerably worse quality of service compared to those in larger population centers?

  24. Re: proprietary parts on iPhone Battery Replacement An Unwelcome Surprise · · Score: 1

    Not everyone can live without a cellphone for 24-48 hours. I can think of a few reasons. One of which, people now use their cellphones as replacements for landlines. Parents whose children are in daycare, school, etc. need to be contacted if their child gets hurt. A businessmen using the iPhone wouldn't be too happy to miss out on a couple big deals he might absolutely need made throughout that service period. The bottom line for me is, I can live without a phone for 24-48 hours, but some can't. The iPhone appealed to a lot of different people. Some need a phone on more than others.

  25. Re:Why is this "greed"? on Halliburton Moving HQ To Dubai · · Score: 1

    Halliburton doesn't do anything wrong, illegal, unethical. The fact is that they are the only company in the world that can do what they do on such a large scale. I'm sick of people complaining how Halliburton has the Bush presidency in their pocket because of ties with VP Dick Cheney. That's a load of garbage. There's no company in the world that can undertake such projects other than Halliburton.