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User: Drathos

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  1. Re:Don't get me wrong... on Do Not Call Registry Gets Glowing Reviews · · Score: 1

    My stance on religious and political speech is "Believe what you want, but don't you dare try to force it on me."

    That being said, the local bible thumpers knock on my door every couple of weeks, mail me hand written letters, and call my phone. For all they know, I could be an avid churchgoer, but they don't check. They are basically carpet bombing the area.

    Add to that all the political calls I get. 4 in 90 minutes from the "Democratic party" last week, all with the exact same script. My answering machine overloaded with pre-recorded smear campaign messages during the last election. When I don't answer the political calls, a lot leave a message on my answering machine saying "This was a political survey call. We'll call back." NO! I didn't answer because I don't want to take your fucking call!

    There is no balance here. Freedom of speech is not freedom of harassment.

  2. Re:Two problems still on Do Not Call Registry Gets Glowing Reviews · · Score: 1

    Here is the contact info. I have used both the online form and the phone number.

  3. Re:Just a 70% approval rating? on Do Not Call Registry Gets Glowing Reviews · · Score: 1

    I disapprove because, for me, it's been a failure. My call volume *increased* after signing up on the DNC. The groups who fit in the loopholes almost never called before I signed up, now they call at least once day. Overall, I'd say my call volume has increased ten-fold since I signed up, most of which has been dead silence on the other end of the line. The DNC complaint form doesn't work if you don't know who it was that called you. Block or forge Caller ID, then refuse to identify yourself and you have immunity from DNC complaints.

  4. Re:Check up on your state laws on Do Not Call Registry Gets Glowing Reviews · · Score: 1

    When the FTC started their DNC, a lot of states got rid of their own lists and pointed people to the FTC list.

  5. Re:Two problems still on Do Not Call Registry Gets Glowing Reviews · · Score: 1

    I'll add another to that:

    3) Still ineffective against scammers who don't care about the DNC list.

    I get pre-recorded messages from autodialers with forged Caller ID trying to get personal information under the premise of a credit card debt reduction service (which they never name) on both my land line and my cell phone (where any form of telemarketing - including the loopholes of the DNC - is forbidden by the FCC). Despite numerous complaints to the DNC site, the FCC (for cell phone telemarketing) and the service providers, I still get at least one of these calls every day. The only feedback I get from any of my complaints is the FCC mailing me a copy of my complaint.

    Then there's all the times the phone rings with a blocked Caller ID and nothing on the other end of the line. I get 6 or 7 of those a day on my land line and I have to answer it because some of the people I work with have Caller ID blocked by their place of work (mostly government agencies).

  6. Re:and US car companies ? on Mercedes To Phase Out Gasoline By 2015 · · Score: 1

    MB only puts that engine in some of their AMG models. I wouldn't call that "many of their cars." A MB AMG is just like a BMW M or Audi S. It's normal car with a bigger engine and a more sport oriented suspension.

    Even their SLR McLaren supercar doesn't use it. It's got a 5.4L V8.

  7. Re:Personally I want... on What Do You Want On Future Browsers? · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Even better: Have the frickin' ninjas with frickin laser beams on their heads riding on PINK PONIES!! OMG!!

  8. Re:Dell... on Apple Laptop Upgrades Costing 200% More Than Dells · · Score: 1

    As I said, I don't know what Macs are like because I have not used them. But I am not exaggerating about the issues we had with Dells in that office. I know people who have nothing but love for Dells and haven't had any problems, but my experience with them was completely different. I couldn't tell you who manufactured the parts because Dell relabeled all of them as "Dell" parts. I guarantee you, however, that they came from the cheapest provider Dell could find.

    We also had a pair of Stratus servers that had an abnormally large number of failures. We thought that those were due to inadequate cooling in the room they were in, but we could not get the building owner to make changes to the duct work to get more cooling in there. Also, our Stratus rep kept saying that the room was fine, but every 2 or 3 months, we were replacing a suitcase on at least one of the servers. The Stratus servers maintained in our client's server room (with proper cooling) had 2 failures for 3 boxes in the span of 2.5 years that I worked there.

  9. Re:You know who I feel sorry for? on North Pole Ice On Track To Melt By September? · · Score: 1

    Don't forget the 'dillos..

    Sure, they may not be able to live through everything (anything?), but they are more common than the gators. Even in prime swamp like Wakulla County. Especially on the side of the road..

  10. Dell... on Apple Laptop Upgrades Costing 200% More Than Dells · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure how things are with Apple aside from the price as I haven't used a Mac.

    On the other hand, my experiences with Dell have been enough to drive me away from that brand.

    A company I worked for had a bunch of Dell desktops and laptops. When we went to upgrade the memory in a bunch of our desktops (3 different model numbers, but all with identical specs), our office manager only mentioned the model she had on our desk when she ordered it from Dell (some policy somewhere prevented us from just getting RAM from wherever we wanted). Turns out that despite all requiring identical spec RAM, Dell crippled it so that the RAM only worked in the specific model. The CD burners they had in them were also crap. Despite being rated at 32x read speeds, half of them couldn't even read at 1x speed.

    Then there was the laptops..

    We had 8 Dell laptops in an office of 12 people. Only 2 of them didn't require service. 3 of them each had the motherboard, CPU and RAM replaced at least 4 times in the span of 6 months. Failed hard drives, batteries, and displays were also common. One of them completely died because the internal power circuitry fried itself so it would never power up. Despite multiple board replacements, it stayed dead and the Dell service guy (who we eventually cleared a cubicle for because he was there so much) gave up on it.

    So sure, you may pay less for the Dell parts, but, in my experience, you don't even get your money's worth.

  11. Re:Why not use... on Casting Doubt On the Hawkeye Ball-Calling System · · Score: 1

    They were playing with it some on the NBC broadcasts during the finals. It actually looked worse than the glow puck. As I understand it, it's a purely external system, unlike what Fox used before.

  12. Re:Call the ball Maverick on Casting Doubt On the Hawkeye Ball-Calling System · · Score: 2, Funny

    Army brat, myself, but my first thought on reading the headline was along similar lines.

    I couldn't for the life of me think of a reason why a Hawkeye would need a system to call the ball when every other pilot in the Navy has to do it with the ol' Mk. 1 Eyeball.

  13. Re:Why not use... on Casting Doubt On the Hawkeye Ball-Calling System · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Fox tried to do that with hockey back in the 90s in order to make the puck easier to see on TV (personally, I've never had a problem seeing the puck). The Glow Puck was horrible. When there was a jam up in the corner, it would literally be bouncing all over the screen. It also changed the way the puck performed on the ice. Because of the electronics and battery inside, they couldn't freeze the puck like they normally do, causing it to bounce a lot more and not slide on the ice as easily.

    In a hollow sphere like a tennis ball, how would you keep the dynamics of the ball the same as they are when you add a transmitter to it? If you adhere it to the side, the ball will be off balance. If you create some internal structure/support to keep it centered, you change the deformation during a bounce/hit.

  14. Re:2.5G on Openmoko's Open Source Phone Goes Mass-Market · · Score: 1

    AGPS is not "simulated" GPS. It's "Assisted GPS," meaning that in addition to a GPS signal, it can use triangulation of towers and APs. This makes it more robust than regular GPS.

    The Neo FreeRunner and 3G iPhone both have AGPS.

  15. Re:The explanation is obvious on Terminal Chaos · · Score: 1

    And you are really showing the worst case scenario. Even at major airports you can easily arrive less than an hour prior to your flight and do a kiosk check-in within five minutes. Security varies (it's worse in the UK) but modern airports combine security with boarding which again takes twenty minutes maximum if you choose not to arrive at the gate an hour in advance.

    So what you're saying is that there's no modern airports in the US? No airport in the US combines security and boarding (aside from requiring a boarding pass to go through security).

    And your timing would (almost) never work in the US, either. I either use online check-in and curb-side baggage check or use one of the kiosks and drop my bag at the drop off point. Either of which normally takes approx. 5 mins. But sometimes neither of those options works and you're forced to stand in an hour+ long line waiting for the single person working the counter.

    Then you go to the security checkpoint which can take between 5 min and 2 hours. In general, wait time there changes depending on what time you're traveling, but not always. I've been on a series of business trips that all left from the same airport at the same time on the same day (4 trips in the span of 5 weeks) and the checkpoint time took between 15 minutes and almost 2 hours. Admittedly, half of the delay at the security checkpoint seems to be from infrequent fliers who don't know how best to prepare for going through security. There's also a logjam of people just after security who are trying to put their shoes back on.

    Then you get to your gate. Nowadays, a single gate often has 2 or 3 flights worth of people crammed around it for morning or evening flights and it's not uncommon for your gate assignment to change due to overcrowding or flight delays. After boarding is first announced, it will usually take you 15-30 minutes to get on the plane unless you are flying first class.

    Unfortunately, for a lot of travelers (business travelers especially), air is the only real option. Train takes forever for long trips and, unless you're using a 'commuter' line that runs a lot of trains at a regular schedule (like the DC NYC Metroliner and Acela Express), quite unreliable for scheduling. Buses are pretty much useless for anything except local public transit. It's faster and often more comfortable to drive yourself.

  16. Soo.... on Real Snail Mail · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can lost packets be partially attributed to interference from RFC 1149?

  17. Re:Yup. on DOJ To Oversee Windows 7 Development · · Score: 1

    I don't know about that specific pairing, but I know that in some parts of northern Virginia, Cox is available as an alternative to Comcast. I'm not sure if both are available or if it's just one or the other since I don't live in one of those areas, but I know that Cox is available in select parts of Fairfax County even though Comcast covers most of area.

  18. Re:Which telecoms on FISA Bill Vote Today, With Telco Immunity · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Cancel their service and go where?

    To make matters worse, you don't even have to have that company as your provider. Odds are that when you make a call to someone, your call is still going through one of the companies that complied with Dubya.

  19. Re:17th started at GMT on Firefox Download Day To Start At 1 p.m. EST · · Score: 1

    The 17th started at 1200 GMT on the 16th. The International Date Line is 12 hours ahead of GMT, not at GMT.

    No matter what time on the 17th they picked, somewhere it wouldn't be the 17th when they launched. Start at the IDL and it'd be the 16th for most of the world. Starting as it is now, it's the 18th in places like Australia, Japan, and Korea.

  20. Re:What you do is... on How To Teach a Healthy Dose of Skepticism? · · Score: 1

    Unless your 'pupil' is a bald kid with the initials C. B.

  21. Re:Bald face liars. on China Says It Lacks Skills To Hack US Systems · · Score: 2, Funny

    It was WOPR, then McKittrick said to "beef up" the security and it became The Whopper®. He's just at some mid-point.

  22. Re:And this is one of the reasons why... on Full Body Scanners Installed In 10 US Airports · · Score: 1

    Unless you are sticking to a major 'commuter' corridor (like DC NYC), Amtrak is remarkably horrid. DC to NYC and back have been ok, generally keeping on schedule, but get outside that and it's pathetic. I've only had one of a half dozen trains outside that come anywhere close to on schedule. Most have been 4 or more hours delayed. One from Albany to NYC was 13 hours late arriving in Albany (think it originated in Buffalo or Rochester) and took almost 3 hours to get under way to NYC.

    And that food you mentioned? It's only there if you get a dining car, which is just long distance trains, and you have to pay through the nose for it ($8 for a burger, $5 for a salad, etc).

  23. Re:they stole it from blade runner and csi on Microsoft Demos "Deep Zoom" Technology · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm far more interested in the tech that allowed them to change the camera angle of the photographs in Bladerunner. When's that coming?

  24. Re:Is that legal? on Covert BT Phorm Trial Report Leaked · · Score: 1

    Every cable provider I've ever had (Comcast, Adelphia, Time Warner, AT&T, and, back in the day, Montgomery Cable) has placed local/self commercials over existing commercials in the feed. I know that most feeds have planned spots for the operator to place their own ads, but I've seen plenty of cases where a commercial will interrupt another or will end and you can catch the tail end of another commercial that was preempted. Whether these were your 'cannot be replaced' ads or not, I don't know, but this is a long standing behavior that's not limitted to a single cable operator.

  25. Re:Is that legal? on Covert BT Phorm Trial Report Leaked · · Score: 1

    All cable companies do that. Usually, there's provisions in their contract with the content providers for them to inject a certain amount of local advertising into the feed.