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User: Fast+Thick+Pants

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  1. Re:Since when is JavaScript an unorthodox choice? on Khan Academy Chooses JavaScript As Intro Language · · Score: 2

    GTK in PHP is very brave, but in my experience PHP makes a very capable local scripting language. Free, open source, cross-platform, debuggable, good database support... I end up using it often, and if it weren't for perl and python I'd probably use it a lot more.

  2. Re:Our whole calendar is messed up. on The Math of Leap Days · · Score: 1

    Not in my new scheme; the short month would be down to 13, or 14 on leap years. I don't want February to be short though -- it's been short long enough. Calculations would be a lot simpler all around if the *last* month were the short one.

    That's right -- a war on Chistmas!

  3. Re:Our whole calendar is messed up. on The Math of Leap Days · · Score: 1

    Great, for the 6% of months that are 28 days. Otherwise, not so much.

    Actually I'm pretty fond of the 7-day week, but maybe months should be a nice round number of days, like 32. Then we'd get an extra day of weekend.

  4. Re:As usual on State Legislatures Attempt To Limit TSA Searches · · Score: 1

    An Alaska state representative isn't exactly royalty. Which is good. If government was all Kennedys, Bushes, and Romneys, they'd just use their private jets.

  5. Re:Youtube video. on Hunters Shoot Down Drone of Animal Rights Group · · Score: 1

    But... but... Polish sausage! I don't get it, but it sounds like you're saying: If you hunted & killed it yourself even though you could have just bought food instead, then fuck you, but it's fine to eat what someone else killed -- crossing your fingers and hoping the unknown killer took no pleasure in it?

  6. Re:docx support? on LibreOffice 3.5 Released · · Score: 1

    If you haven't yet, try Novell's build of LibreOffice along with the "OpenOffice.OpenXML Translator 4.0" plugin for import/export of .docx etc. I've found it somewhat satisfactory. Caveats: Windows only, still on version 3.4, registration required for download.

    (Not saying this is better than vanilla LO 3.5's .docx support, which I haven't tried yet.)

  7. Re:Hmmm on Amateur UAV Pilot Exposes Texas River of Blood · · Score: 1

    What's with the faux google maps link?

    Yeah, maps.google.com.my? What the hell's that? Is com.my some sort of nasty Malaysian phishing farm pretending to be a messed-up semi-TLD like co.uk? Or did Google buy Malaysia?

  8. Fissible? on Pirate Bay To Offer Physical Item Downloads · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wanna download an A-bomb!

  9. Re:Not all religions are bad on Christopher Hitchens Dies At 62 · · Score: 1

    Shall we burn Penn and Teller at the stake?

    Yeah, I think Yahweh would be okay with that. I bet he's big fan of Mythbusters and Amazing Randi though.

  10. Re:Not all religions are bad on Christopher Hitchens Dies At 62 · · Score: 1

    Well I'm sure *something* happened, but yeah, it was probably written down years later, and obviously with plenty of mistakes, omissions and embellishments. This is pretty typical of war stories to this day.

  11. Re:Not all religions are bad on Christopher Hitchens Dies At 62 · · Score: 1

    I'd prefer to manually select from various available repositories. And if nobody's offering a version I'm happy with, I'm willing to roll my own.

  12. Re:Not all religions are bad on Christopher Hitchens Dies At 62 · · Score: 1

    There are more people that self identify as 'native Americans' now then in 1492.

    Non sequitur, Horn Wumpus.

  13. Re:Not all religions are bad on Christopher Hitchens Dies At 62 · · Score: 1

    Charlatans? Although Exodus 7 has stories of the Pharaoh's court wizards reassuring him by re-implementing some of Yahweh's plagues with their own magic arts... Sticks into snakes? Rivers of blood? We can do that! Hey. if it's something a court wizard can do, then it's not really "god" material, nothing to see here, no need to free those slaves. (Although they were not able to reproduce the plague of gnats, which must have been a little disconcerting.)

  14. Audience found their voices!!?! Shut up! on The Kindle Skews Amazon's 2011 Best-Seller List · · Score: 1

    Personally I find it much nicer when people in the audience keep their damned mouths shut..

  15. Re:It's a trap: Next step: Proprietary battery on Bluetooth Keyboards With a 10-Year Charge Promised · · Score: 2

    I'm in this very situation with my Logitech Dinovo Edge bluetooth keyboard for mac, which I like pretty darn well. After two years, the battery charge only lasts a couple hours. The battery is proprietary and sealed deep inside under layers of plastic and adhesive. The keyboard is still under warranty, but they refuse to service it. I can mail it back for a full refund, and they admitted to me that they will just trash it when it arrives, because they stopped making the mac edition. Even though the windows version uses the same battery of course. Ridiculous.

    And despite it all I really would buy a new one if I could, because there's no decent substitute. Hell, I really wish they'd make a mac version of the K400, which has a less idiotic trackpad. I'd jump to buy that, and I haven't bought anything but food and booze for months.

  16. Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms on Mario's Raccoon Suit Enrages PETA · · Score: 1

    Or that I should pull out turnips from the ground and throw them at people.

    This one actually works just fine in real life.

  17. Re:You know I hear that a lot. on NYPD Dismantling Occupy Wall Street Encampment · · Score: 1

    Ban private gun ownership is particularly absurd.

    "You know what's keepin' the little guy down? Those pesky private citizens and their right to own guns, that's what!"

    But bless whatever fool posted that list, there are a couple decent ideas in there... (Note that it's just a post a post on their forum, just like a /. post, and not an official list of demands.)

  18. Re:You're funny on NYPD Dismantling Occupy Wall Street Encampment · · Score: 1

    Don't know where you live now, but if tax rates are that high I hope they include good healthcare coverage. We Americans have to hoard our wealth as a hedge against medical bankruptcy.

    But honestly, when all's said and done, between federal, state, local, income, real estate, sales etc, the taxes here are pretty significant. We do get something for our money though -- most notably, an expensive military, arguably the best. There's a certain thrill to knowing that nobody's gonna parachute troops in to shoot me and take all my stuff. That would suck, no doubt. But I'm still pretty vulnerable to many other threats to my wellbeing that are best addressed by medical care. I'd be a little more delighted with paying taxes if those more realistic threats were also being addressed.

    I think I have a solution -- the national health service should be a uniformed branch of the military! M.A.S.H. for the entire county! Peacetime? Bah, we have a war on terror, and we've all been deputized! Red blooded Americans will salivate at the prospect of a bigger military budget! Otherwise-listless teenagers will be drafted to care for the elderly! Doctors will get swank uniforms and medals! Everybody wins! Who's with me?

  19. Re:Something not quite right on NYPD Dismantling Occupy Wall Street Encampment · · Score: 1

    How is this a Troll? It's exactly right.

    False dichotomy, my cowardly friend. "Troll" does not mean "I think you're wrong". "Troll" means "I don't think you even believe the shit you just posted. Who could? You're just hoping to fool the naive & sincere into taking you seriously and stressing out their precious phalanges trying to refute you or win your nonexistent heart to their point of view. I consider this an abuse of our ingenious internet protocols and precious bandwidth, a perversion of communication. Begone!"

    (Of course moderators have been known to conflate those two interpretations every now and again.)

    For my part, I don't believe Lumpy was trolling. I doubt, though, that firearms would have protected the OWS encampment. As soon as they flash their pieces, they're no longer obnoxious hippies, they're anarchist terrorists... which means they kiss their rights goodbye.

  20. Re:Something not quite right on NYPD Dismantling Occupy Wall Street Encampment · · Score: 1

    Personally I enjoyed Zucotti much more in OWS mode than in pre-OWS mode. In fact, if numbers were doable, I would expect that the average joy-per-NY-taxpayer return on Zucotti is higher due to OWS.

  21. Re:They should hire a social media consultant with on Mexican Cartel Beheads Another Blogger · · Score: 1

    I would... I mean, this friend of mine would be fine with spending a little more to get the legal product for the same reason he prefers to buy his meat at the butcher rather than out the back of a truck.

  22. Re:on copyright? on They Might Be Giants Answers Your Questions · · Score: 1

    For the purpose you describe -- casually browsing through a lot of versions of a song -- Youtube works pretty well. (They've gone back and forth over the years as far as hyper-vigiliance against possible copyright violations, and at the moment Google's pretty much looking the other way, but that could change.) But if it's truly public domain, you should be able use it however you want -- including performing it in public, sharing it, hosting it yourself -- without fear of legal reprisal. Availability on Youtube is a sorry substitute. It should be here.

    And as far as the National Park analogy goes, visiting places like Yellowstone and Crater Lake is a lot less pleasant since Xanterra took over all the lodging and concessions, filling them with low-quality food and miserable, underpaid workers.

  23. Re:Thanks on John McCarthy, Discoverer of Lisp, Has Passed Away · · Score: 2

    Weep, and the world halfheartedly laughs at you. Laugh, and the world doesn't really give a damn. Either way, the world is mainly concerned with extracting your labor and capital.

  24. Re:Which side were the Greens on? on Canadian Supreme Court Rules Linking Is Not Defamation · · Score: 1

    Less law = less paper?

  25. Re:Sod super heroes on Real Life Super Hero Arrested · · Score: 1

    Unless you want to count Murdoch, I think Richard Branson's our best bet. After somebody runs over his cat or something.