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User: Fred_A

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Comments · 4,326

  1. Re:Rumors that humans are being replaced are false on Amazon Is Hiring Fewer Workers This Holiday Season, a Sign That Robots Are Replacing Them (qz.com) · · Score: 1

    They're certainly working on the sorting, packing and shipping parts. Even organising robotic contests.

    But they aren't there yet.

  2. Re:What are "secret cookies"? on How a Lone Grad Student Scooped the FTC On Privacy Issue · · Score: 1

    >(you can safely assume it will be maximised since nowadays almost no website works if it isn't, sadly).

    What kind of strange sites do you browse ? I haven't maximised my browser ever since I upgraded my 800×600 screen. And that was quite some time ago.

  3. At least they've got lots of them on The "King of All Computer Mice" Finally Ships · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Store page says :

    1e+09 Units in Stock

  4. Re:Trackball on The "King of All Computer Mice" Finally Ships · · Score: 1

    I might get this mouse, if it's big enough to fit comfortably in my shovel-like hands.

    Same problem here. How I'd wish to get a double size mouse. Or at least double width.

    It's not a problem for regular desktop use. But for gaming, my major problem is my pinky dragging on the mouse mat. Apparently all the people designing mice are eight year old asian girls.

  5. Re:A doctor... on The "King of All Computer Mice" Finally Ships · · Score: 1

    Why are we still using a ball or laser on a cable to point on a screen where we want to do stuff?

    Because poking at the screen only works for 10 minutes at a time and trackpads are much less precise ?

  6. Re:Mod parent up on The "King of All Computer Mice" Finally Ships · · Score: 1

    My Razer Mamba would beg to differ. Although you can *also* plug it in and use it on a wire if you like (which is some pretty good design IMO).

  7. Re:Need for more varied beta testers on Mozilla Updates Firefox To Appease FarmVille Users · · Score: 1

    Did you check to see if al0ha hadn't turned off the internet ?

  8. Re:Everything Old is New again on Khan Academy Delivers 100,000 Lectures Daily · · Score: 1

    10 weeks to learn how to install Windows Vista and set up printers and file sharing.

    *Weeks* ?

    I've never installed Vista, much less set up printers and file sharing, having never used Windows as a server (more of a Unix guy) but I'm fairly sure it wouldn't take me 10 weeks.

    I'm pretty confident most casual users could do it in a couple hours by poking around a bit.

  9. Re:Wrong dictionary. on FBI Failed To Break Encryption of Hard Drives · · Score: 1

    Well, even a Portuguese dictionary would not have helped. You don't find "1234" in a dictionary.

    Is there a dictionary for luggage combinations ?

  10. Re:Wrong dictionary. on FBI Failed To Break Encryption of Hard Drives · · Score: 1

    Fifty bucks says the password is GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

    It was probably salted with vuvuzelas though.

  11. Re:Brainless on USPTO Grants Bezos Patent On '60s-Era Chargebacks · · Score: 1

    This belongs in a fucking contract, not a goddamn patent.

    I thought Bezos has already patented contracts. Obviously he had to find something different.

  12. Re:What is the point? on ICANN Approves .xxx Suffix For Porn Websites · · Score: 1

    All this will do is rake in registration $$$

    That's the point. You nailed it in one.

  13. Re:Less deceptive now on Facebook's "Evil Interfaces" · · Score: 1

    Anyone have any solutions to suggest to Facebook?

    To go f* themselves ?

  14. Re:Toyota on OLED Film Could Provide Cheap Night Vision For Cars · · Score: 1

    But even if it's safer, I'd love to see someone try to explain it to a LEO why they were driving at night with the headlights off...

    But they can't see you from Low Earth Orbit if your headlights are off !

  15. Re:Why use an unknown AV program? on Fake Antivirus Peddlers Outpacing Real AV Firms · · Score: 1

    If someone showed up at your house and told you that your water could kill because of some microbe you have never heard of that they claim is getting into your pipes and the only way to make yourself safe is to install this helpful filter that they are selling would you believe them?

    A /. reader probably not, but the general public ?

    If there was any profit in it, you could easily create a scare campaign about DHMO which could turn very messy. People can be insanely gullible when you present things the right way.

  16. Re:From what I've heard, it really is that bad... on Was Flight Ban Over Ash an Overreaction? · · Score: 1

    Did Airbus and Boeing say what levels of ash were OK?

    If they don't say it's OK, you can't fly their planes through ash unless there's practically no ash.

    AFAIK the regulators did their jobs properly.

    The pilots and airplane engineers were singing a very different tune from the bosses of the airlines.

    Here in France where the ban lasted quite some time (and the airlines were fairly vocal as well), the air force was supposedly conducting test flights using alpha jets which would then be examined by the maintenance crew.

  17. Re:From what I've heard, it really is that bad... on Was Flight Ban Over Ash an Overreaction? · · Score: 1

    What's not fine is that airlines would rather have people dying than lost revenue.

    Of course if you put it like that...
    But from their point of view it makes perfect sense... There will always be more people but lost revenue is lost. All businesses have always held this kind of reasoning. That's why everybody loves them so and gives them their money whenever they're in trouble.

  18. Re:If not us, who? on Aral Sea May Recover; Dead Sea Needs a Lifeline · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm fairly sure there is no life in the Dead Sea outside of small amounts of bacteria. That's why it's called the Dead Sea. The salt content prevents life from living there.

    There's quite a bit of life in the form of a fair number of tourists which are quite important to the area (on both banks) which apart from that is quite a hellhole (an interesting one to visit though if you ever go in the area).

    The Dead sea is more than 400m below sea level and there are huge temperature extremes in the area which gets very little precipitations and has few springs. It's a great natural wonder and definitely worth a few days for it's ruins, it's fauna and the vista, but really not a great place to live.

  19. Re:So when does Canonical need to start making mon on Ubuntu Linux Claims 12,000 Cloud Deployments · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think any future changes in the companies are still going to reflect the culture of emphasizing a good, widely deployed Desktop Linux rather than necessarily turning a profit.

    There could also be the fact that in many people's (and PHB's) eyes, if you don't pay through the nose for it then it has to be crap.

    Hopefully a more commercial Ubuntu will help make it more visible in the corporate space as well as promote the integration of tools in that area (they're already there of course, you just have to add them yourself).

  20. Re:Nitpick... on More Evidence For Steam Games On Linux · · Score: 1

    You do know that Linux was born as a desktop OS, don't you? :)

    Not to mention that it has its roots in Unix, probably the first system designed specifically to play games (in this case Space Travel).

  21. Re:Ugh! on SEC Proposes Wall Street Transparency Via Python · · Score: 1

    Now, in addition to lawyers and accountants, you need computer programmers to invest. This smells like a racket. On the other hand, it can't get any worse than the legalese, and maybe that is the point.

    Depends, they could have specified it in Perl (or something really evil). Then legalese would look like Beginner's English in comparison.
    Of course I suppose that to most lawyers, any programming language will look like cuneiform anyway.

  22. Re:Good idea. on SEC Proposes Wall Street Transparency Via Python · · Score: 1

    The question is, what would happen if you tried to turn snake oil into biodiesel?

    I'm pretty sure it's been established already that most of biodiesel is snake oil. Made from rain forest snakes too.

  23. Re:Then on Roger Ebert On Why Video Games Can Never Be Art · · Score: 1

    and take gymnastics and diving and figure skating out of the olympics then?

    Dear sir,
    I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to join your lobbying group.
    Sincerely,

  24. Re:The only question that counts: on An Early Look At Next-Gen Shooter Bodycount · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Will this also be available on a system with an input controller suitable for shooters? Like, say, a mouse?

    I was somewhat baffled by the reference to "left triggers" and "left analogue stick" until it finally dawned on me that they were talking about some kind of console controller (since my monitor is larger than my TV, I never bothered with consoles).

    An FPS ported from a console likely will end up having some or all of approximate weapon aiming, textures designed for a ten year old PC, an awkward interface, poor networking support, etc.

    So maybe they came up with something somewhat clever but I'll still pass.

  25. Re:How long till the Tea partiers blame Obama? on Volcanic Ash Heading Towards North America · · Score: 1

    The airspace closings were entirely based on computer models, which according to every test flight taken by major air carriers in the past few days, has been proven to be completely wrong..

    Note that according to your link, the models aren't completely wrong, merely erring on the side of caution.
    Clouds of ash are hard to spot either on radar or on sat imagery.

    Granted it would probably been more scientific to close the airspace based on where the planes started to fall out of the sky but it would probably have pissed off the public even more.

    There just isn't any *right* answer to this kind of answer to this kind of russian roulette problem.