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User: geoffrobinson

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Comments · 1,637

  1. Evil Has a Birthday on Internet Explorer Turns 15 · · Score: 1

    August 16, 1990

  2. SciDB, Open Source DB for Science on How Do You Organize Your Experimental Data? · · Score: 2, Interesting
  3. Re:Real Summary on The Case Against Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    Not if something changes. For instance, increase reliance on data for voice and people are too busy downloading bootlegged movies for you to call 911.

  4. Real Summary on The Case Against Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    Be careful what you wish for. There are unintended consequences you don't anticipate.

  5. What Happened to "Short-term Cooling" Articles? on Global Warming 'Undeniable,' Report Says · · Score: 1

    Just 6 months ago or so, there was a bunch of "we're in a short-term cooling trend which will last about 10-15 years."

    Fine, put me in the Denier camp. This sounds an awful lot like doubling-down on scariness when the climate scientists have almost lost public opinion.

  6. Cell Towers in SF on Survey Says Most iPhone Users Love AT&T · · Score: 1

    I recently read that it takes about 3 years due to the approval process to get a cell tower built in San Fran. That may have something to do with it.

  7. Re:Great Outcome Ridiculous Reasons on Industrial Marijuana Farming Approved In Oakland · · Score: 1

    I would think rounding up all the drug dealers and taking all their money would raise the most money.

  8. Re:How long will that last? on Industrial Marijuana Farming Approved In Oakland · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, if we actually had a legitimate understanding of the Commerce Clause, that wouldn't happen. But that would also necessitate that a lot of government regulations would go away.

  9. Supply & Demand on Pay-Per-View Journalism Is Burning Out Reporters Young · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Absolutely. The amount of reporters the average user needs relative to the amount of news they desire to consume is completely out of balance.

  10. Re:Ouch on Droid X Self-Destructs If You Try To Mod · · Score: 1

    In reality, the main appeal of Android operating systems is that they give phone manufacturers a serious competitor to Apple and they don't have to pay Microsoft. Not to mention, they probably don't care for Windows Mobile.

  11. Finally... on Nerds Still More Likely To Get Bullied · · Score: 1

    This is truly "news for nerds."

  12. Power to Tax is Power to Destroy on Internet Sales Tax Gets a New Champion · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Only problem with this is that the power to tax is the power to destroy.

    That wall of separation? It needs to go both ways.

  13. Re:Slashdot Users == Assholes on Apple To Issue a 'Fix' For iPhone 4 Reception Perception · · Score: 1

    Please don't go to Digg. It makes SlashDot look like Plato's Academy.

  14. The Downsides on Zoho Don't Need No Stinking Ph.D. Programmers · · Score: 1

    People who don't want to go to college pay for you to go. Plus, you aren't spending your own money, so you don't have incentive to control costs.

  15. Shareholder Value on Microsoft Kills the Kin · · Score: 1

    If I were a shareholder, I would be raising hell about all the money they've been wasting trying to get into anything and everything. They have wasted so much money. Money that would be put to better use if they gave it away as a dividend.

  16. Textual Variants? on Science Historian Deciphers Plato's Code · · Score: 1

    All ancient texts have variants because they were hand-copied. Heck, all documents up until very recently have variants.

    Now, that is not the same as saying "we have no idea what Plato said." We do. But if you are going to extract a code, you better have a standard text. If you are pulling out letters at some equal distance (or something along those lines), you won't be able to get a consistent message with textual variants.

    I'm not a classical Greek person, but I would assume there are some words that could be spelled in different ways and appear that way in the text. There may even be changes in word order that doesn't change the overall meaning of straightforward meaning but would change this.

    Anyway, I'm really skeptical about this. Furthermore, it's been a while since I took my Ancient Greek Philosophy class in college, but I seem to remember that there were the equivalent of materialists in Ancient Greek philosophy. As the Bible says, there is nothing new under the Sun. I'm not so sure that Plato would feel the need to hide this view from public knowledge.

    What is more interesting is that Plato extols man-young boy love relationships. Once Plato got popular within the Catholic Church, people began to ask "hey what's going on here?" "That doesn't mean what you think it means." Hence, the term "platonic relationship."

  17. Re:Children? on Women Dropping Out of IT · · Score: 1

    I have 3 children 2 & a half and younger (yay twins!). I understand not getting a promotion because of my situation. That's just life and you make your choices.

    I'll save Social Security and leave it with that.

  18. I'm not sure if men should take it on Women Dropping Out of IT · · Score: 1

    I had a buddy take unpaid leave after the birth of his daughter. He ran into trouble with our managers soon after. From the outside of the situation looking in, it sure looked like they had it out for him as soon as he took family leave.

    He left the company while the getting was still good.

  19. Re:Related Tangent on What Is New In PostgreSQL 9.0 · · Score: 1

    He's behind Vertica as well, which is growing fast. Very good columnar database, optimized for data warehousing.

  20. Re:Related Tangent on What Is New In PostgreSQL 9.0 · · Score: 1

    I forgot the word "on."

  21. Re:Related Tangent on What Is New In PostgreSQL 9.0 · · Score: 1

    Well, yes, different use cases. But that's the one thing I've been noticing about Michael Stonebreaker. He seems to have different project for different needs.

  22. Related Tangent on What Is New In PostgreSQL 9.0 · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's a new open-source database from one of the founders of PostgreSQL (Michael Stonebreaker): http://www.voltdb.com/

    I believe it is based on the H-Store project from MIT, and if it is anything like Stonebreaker's Vertica, should be similar in language and syntax to PostgreSQL.

    VoltDB should be for high-demand OLTP. It keeps everything in memory and is MPP (not to mention full-ACID compliance). It runs POSIX compliant unixes, even Mac OS 10.5 and later, Linux, etc. They only support CentOS (which is RHEL if memory serves).

    Anyway, if anyone is interested in PostgreSQL, I would take a look at this.

  23. Not bait & switch, but... on Man Emails AT&T's CEO, Gets Threatened With C&D Order · · Score: 1

    I used to work for Kabletown with a K, not as an installer but in a group that helped plan for future capacity needs. Nothing was explicitly said, but we were all of the belief that no higher up would care if our highest users left for a competitor. Those small percentage of people were responsible for a large amount of costs.

    I'm pretty sure that's all AT&T have in mind. And in actuality, the changes aren't going to affect many. And for those it does affect, they don't care.

  24. Design Theories on Australian Schools To Teach Intelligent Design · · Score: 1, Troll

    Design theories go all the way back to ancient Greece. There is plenty to teach about.

    Darwin's argument is many ways theological/philosophical and is trying to falsify design theories. So I guess if design arguments of any type isn't worth teaching and isn't science, Darwin shouldn't be taught either. How can a negative answer to design be considered science but a positive answer (even if you think it is false) is science? It just doesn't work unless you simply want to say any argument we find wrong or fault "isn't science", which opens its own can of worms.

  25. Little of 1 & 2 on Why Apple Is So Sticky · · Score: 1

    I got sick of Windows (prior to 7) and wanted to be on an Unix platform I didn't have to muck with.