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User: geezer+nerd

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Comments · 299

  1. Re:Absurd assertion, you've never lived with humid on Figuring Out Where To Live Using Math · · Score: 0

    Not really worth the energy to reply.

  2. Re:Absurd assertion, you've never lived with humid on Figuring Out Where To Live Using Math · · Score: 2

    The comment that started this chain did not mention humidity, so that is where the opprobrium should lie. Those of us who are aware that Atlanta has very high humidity understand that is the real issue.

  3. What idiot? on Idiot Leaves Driver's Seat In Self-Driving Infiniti, On the Highway · · Score: 1

    I have not seen anyone yet comment on the obvious point that the video is a scripted advertisement for the Q50. I think the person leaving the driver's seat is not really deserving of the idiot or moron epithet. He is following the script.

    Where is the outrage directed at Infiniti?

  4. Re:No deadman switch? on Idiot Leaves Driver's Seat In Self-Driving Infiniti, On the Highway · · Score: 1

    And what is the car supposed to do when it detects there is no one there while it is driving down the road? Especially one of the not-quite-self-driving vehicles shown in this video?

  5. I just looked at the TFA. When I made my earlier comment, I did not realize the Ranger supercomputer was from University of Texas at Austin. UT Austin is, of course, where I spent my happy hours using 6600 serial 13, which was installed early on in my graduate school career. It was the main computer on campus during my stint as Asst. Prof. of CS, too.

  6. Where would you put it? It needs better environment than the typical garage. Plus, it is HUGE! Especially if you have the appropriate vintage peripheral equipment with it. And your power bill! Oh, the humanity.

    I remember my many happy hours spent using 6600 serial 13. Especially because they were much fewer hours than I would have spent doing the same work on the CDC 1604 it replaced.

  7. Re:"Tastes about average for West Texas" on Texas Town Turns To Treated Sewage For Drinking Water · · Score: 1

    I am just trying to figure out how Wichita Falls got to West Texas. I don't think any real Texan would use that label for Wichita Falls. It's North Central.

  8. Re:Not a dime from me on Lessig's Mayday PAC Scrambling To Cross Crowd Funding Finish Line · · Score: 1

    Where in this is someone oppressing anyone else? I don't see it.

  9. Re:Embrace the irony? on Lessig's Mayday PAC Scrambling To Cross Crowd Funding Finish Line · · Score: 2

    If you are going to get this into name-calling and shouting of drivel, at least come out from behind the AC mask. The only folks I can see that are preaching oppression of others are the TeaPubs. Please, save me from them.

  10. Re:Good! on 2 US Senators Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase · · Score: 1

    Other countries also have much better public transportation. Which the US lacks unless you're in a major city.

    NZ does NOT have better public transportation than the US, sad to say.

  11. Re:What The?!? on US Agency Aims To Regulate Map Aids In Vehicles · · Score: 1

    I have seen this happen before. Such a misuse is jarring, particularly if done by someone you think should know better. But, in the end, for that person it was phonetic.

  12. Re:Units! on Samsung Debuts Thin Galaxy Tab S With Super AMOLED 2560X1600 Display · · Score: 1

    Screen sizes are given in inches in New Zealand, though the country is metric for everything else. I don't know for sure, but my guess is that would be the same in Australia. When I was there, I did not go shopping for a screen.

    New Zealand converted to metric in 1969. Many people still alive remember the Imperial units used before then (and there are lots of UK immigrants and lots of UK and US television and movies), so references to older units are still understood by most people in everyday conversation. For instance, fuel efficiency in automobiles is still referred to commonly as "mileage".

  13. Re:I kinda see both sides. on German Court Rules That You Can't Keep Compromising Photos After a Break-Up · · Score: 1

    Who is saying NO to the digitalization of the photo?

    If you are a Slashdotter, then I imagine you have a scanner somewhere in your equipment repertoire. Just scan the photo yourself. Problem solved.

  14. Re:Silly Peasants on Water Cannons Used Against Peaceful Anti-TTIP Protestors: the Next ACTA Revolt? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The same kind of process is currently on-going with respect to the TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement). Negotiations have been going on behind closed doors for years. Only a few leaks give a hint as to what is coming.

    So far, the leaks indicate that the US has let loose the corporate dogs, particularly in big Pharma and Agriculture, to snarl and threaten the peaceful existence of the smaller countries involved.

  15. Re:Short Sighted on Programmers: It's OK To Grow Up · · Score: 2

    Yup. In 1999 I was almost 57 and got laid off. One company I sent my resume to completely refused to talk to me because my resume showed no Visual Basic experience. The fact they told me so was phenomenally unusual.

    Then a former boss snapped me up at his new company when he heard I was available. The first day on the job, I was helping a young developer write some test code in Visual Basic. While I had never tried to use Visual Basic before, the issues being dealt with were matters of logic and algorithm, not syntax.

    After that for my own work, I worked with Java, Javascript, CSS, HTML, Perl, VXML, XSLT, and a host of other technologies that were more recently on the scene. I retired at 63, still going strong.

  16. Re:...news for nerds.. on In a Hole, Golf Courses Experiment With 15-inch Holes · · Score: 1

    Golf meets these requirements handily. I try to play and run up against these pesky requirements all the time!

    Golf *is* different from other sports like long-distance running, etc. And golf is being included in the next Olympics. I would say it compares with biathlon in the Winter Olympics.

  17. Re:Over 18 on IRS Can Now Seize Your Tax Refund To Pay a Relative's Debt · · Score: 1

    The US sets the rules under which a citizen can renounce citizenship. Those rules include an "exit tax" and continuing tax liability on earnings made on assets which remain in the US.

    The exit tax seems to consist of "marking to market" all of the renouncer's assets in the US and taxing the resulting amount including "deemed" gains as of the date of renunciation. For folks sitting on long-term IRAs and 401Ks, this "exit tax" would be brutal.

    A quick Google search led me to this source of information: http://m.klgates.com/files/Pub...

  18. Re:Over 18 on IRS Can Now Seize Your Tax Refund To Pay a Relative's Debt · · Score: 1

    I can't imagine why it would make a difference whether one is overseas or not. The efile process is overseen by Intuit in all cases when you use TurboTax.

  19. Re:Over 18 on IRS Can Now Seize Your Tax Refund To Pay a Relative's Debt · · Score: 1

    In my 8 years of filing US returns from overseas, I have not found it particularly difficult. I use TurboTax. Starting with the 2012 tax year, they started allowing e-File even if your address is outside the US.

    You do have to be a bit careful about deductions, as donations to foreign charities are not deductible to the same rules as for US charities, and you have to be clear about taxes you paid in your country of residence. Some may not be deductible.

  20. Re:Over 18 on IRS Can Now Seize Your Tax Refund To Pay a Relative's Debt · · Score: 2

    Nothing you say says that Mr Saverin has gotten away from his US tax liability. Only by renouncing citizenship can one end the tax liability, and even that continues for some years (10 I think) after the renouncement.

    I am a US citizen living in a foreign country, and I do indeed file two tax returns every year. I have no intent ever to renounce US citizenship. Even with all its bumps and warts, US citizenship is still my birthright, and something I cherish.

    The US tax rules allow for lots of deductions, exemptions, credits, etc - so sometimes my tax bill is zero. My country of residence taxes pretty much anything it can see. What I especially don't like is that it taxes the UNREALIZED gain on my US retirement funds each year. It does not tax US Social Security retirement benefits, however.

  21. Re:infects 50 million, eh? on The Amoeba That Eats Human Intestines, Cell By Cell · · Score: 1

    My grandfather had amoebic dysentery for years. It left him a debilitated husk when he died in 1956.

    Apparently he acquired the infection when drinking stream water while hunting for food for his family sometime during the 1920s. There was no effective treatment back then, so he just suffered.

    Not particularly something to have fun with.

  22. Happy to be retired ... on You're Only As Hirable As Your Google+ Circles · · Score: 2

    ... and not to have to be concerned with any of this. Was always a struggle during the time, but now I can do what I want when I want, and that is lovely. Off on a 2-month holiday next week. Yay!

  23. Au, NZ, US on Ask Slashdot: Package Redirection Service For Shipping to Australia? · · Score: 2

    I moved from the US to NZ 7 years ago, and also had the need for a mail forwarder. I chose an outfit named "USA2ME", and that worked out pretty well. They charged a monthly fee and forwarded all kinds of mail, envelopes and packages. When the volume of mail dropped to only about 1 envelope a month, I dropped the service as not economical. Now I use my step-daughter's address and she sends things on to me by regular post.

    I also use the NZPost's YouShop service when doing online retail shopping in the US. Most places will not ship internationally, you know. YouShop provides a shipping address in Oregon from which they onship to NZ -- for a price.

    After moving to NZ, I found the retail scene to be lacking in choice. Eventually, I got over it.

  24. Re:welcome to the socialist wonderland on Ask Slashdot: Package Redirection Service For Shipping to Australia? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually, the typical American does NOT know what "socialism" is -- only that it something bad, to be feared

  25. Re:45 years ago... on 5-Year Mission Continues After 45-Year Hiatus · · Score: 1

    I know this was a fan effort, and I enjoyed the whole episode. The feel of TOS was really there for me. But, let's face it, the actors (fans) were a bit beyond the expected age demographic one would expect in a spaceship crew. Too many were a bit old to be serving in quasi-military roles. The guy playing Bones was particularly off-putting. But the youngish lady doctor certainly lit up the screen.