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User: sjames

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Comments · 34,276

  1. Re:Violating contracts is a dangerous idea on Maryland Legislator Wants To Keep State University Patents Away From Trolls (eff.org) · · Score: 1

    The problem is that the trolls don't tell you they're trolls when they buy the patent. They're good at hiding that until the deed is done. Being able to nullify after the fact is just compensating for the deceptive practice.

  2. Re:Columbia needs auditing on Company's Former IT Admin Accused of Accessing Backdoor Account 700+ Times (bleepingcomputer.com) · · Score: 4, Informative

    Another popular trick is to give one of those service accounts a shell and password so they can double as logon accounts.

  3. Re:Stick to the important stuff on US Lawmakers Propose Minimum Seat Sizes For Airlines (consumerist.com) · · Score: 1

    Ideally, yes, the FAA would call bullshit on a seat shrink until proper evacuation studies are completed. They would also be looking in to the DVT issue as a potential flight safety issue. Since they haven't done those things, it's time for that balance of power thing to step in and direct them to do their job.

  4. Re:Stick to the important stuff on US Lawmakers Propose Minimum Seat Sizes For Airlines (consumerist.com) · · Score: 1

    Since cramped seating is known to increase the chances of a DVT, and WILL slow people evacuating the plane, health and safety are involved.

  5. Re:Not the first instance on A US Ally Shot Down a $200 Drone With a $3 Million Patriot Missile (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    But we're talking about tents and adobe. In many cases the buildings are only a year or two from falling down on their own. Unlike bridges, they tend to absorb the full blast.

  6. Re:Value of the open source ecosystem and communit on Linux Foundation Chief: Businesses 'Will Fail' If They Don't Use Open Source Code (techrepublic.com) · · Score: 1

    You missed it! I could use the very code that systemd uses only isolated as a small restarter utility and get the same results with far less disruption to the system as a whole. It's what they should have done in the first place. The only reason systemd is better at restarting than the old restarters is that it can rely on cgroups to do the heavy lifting and that didn't exist years ago.

    It's the same reason systemd hasn't tried to consume *BSD or Mac.

  7. Re:Not the first instance on A US Ally Shot Down a $200 Drone With a $3 Million Patriot Missile (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    I remember the quote, but I remember it being a rallying call to wart rather than a summary of the social contract. Of course, part of the general welfare problem we seem to have is that when unemployed people ask what they can do for their country, the answer is "nothing".

  8. Re:Not the first instance on A US Ally Shot Down a $200 Drone With a $3 Million Patriot Missile (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    The feds are handing the responsibility back but keeping the money.

    Keeping us free from invasion falls under "provide for the common defense". "promote the general welfare" actually does include a population that has what it needs to live.

  9. Re:Not the first instance on A US Ally Shot Down a $200 Drone With a $3 Million Patriot Missile (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    A good strafing with a 20mm cannon will do the job for a lot less money. Or you can drop 5 dumb bombs for half the cost of one smart bonb. Surely with modern bomb sights we can get the target within the blast zone more than 20% of the time.

  10. Re:This is silly on Firefox Goes PulseAudio Only, Leaves ALSA Users With No Sound (omgubuntu.co.uk) · · Score: 4, Informative

    ALSA works great. PulseAudio uses it for actual output. Most apps that output sound will use ALSO if PulseAudio isn't available. So the quickest way to fix most Linux audio problems is to uninstall PulseAudio.

  11. Re:All vaccinated on Australia To Ban Unvaccinated Children From Preschool (newscientist.com) · · Score: 1

    I believe you mis-read that. What it actually says is that vaccinated children may on occasion pick up a wild strain of the disease and become an asymptomatic carrier for a brief time. It does not say anything about a vaccinated child passing on the vaccine strain of the disease.

    The old polio virus did carry some small risk of contagion, but we don't use that one now.

  12. Re:Not the first instance on A US Ally Shot Down a $200 Drone With a $3 Million Patriot Missile (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    The feds took the responsibility on, so it is now theirs. Call it part of promoting the general welfare. Otherwise, arrange an orderly transition to the states and cut federal taxes so the states can increase theirs enough to actually do the job. One way or another, we're spending a million bucks to obliterate a tent in the desert when a thousand bucks could do the job just fine.

  13. Re:Too smart for his own good on Ask Slashdot: What Is Your Horrible IT Boss Story? · · Score: 1

    I didn't say it's honest.

  14. Re:Too smart for his own good on Ask Slashdot: What Is Your Horrible IT Boss Story? · · Score: 1

    Or he's one of those managers who handwaves parts away when doing estimates, for example by seeing that there is already code that does a similar thing and automatically assumes adapting it for the current task will take 5 minutes. Then it turns out it's not so similar and it takes weeks to cram a square peg into a round hole.

  15. Re:Not the first instance on A US Ally Shot Down a $200 Drone With a $3 Million Patriot Missile (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    To a limited and decreasing degree.

  16. Re:It's not ambiguous at all on Lack of Oxford Comma Could Cost Maine Company Millions in Overtime Dispute (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    So then why didn't it read "... ,packing, shipping or distribution" assuming they didn't use the Oxford comma?

    Of course, the Judge didn't need to prove a particular version of the law in this case, he only needed to rule that there is an ambiguity of some kind. Based on the comments here, I'd say there is.

    The legislature could have removed that ambiguity either through an Oxford comma or by rephrasing the whole thing.

  17. Re:It is a useful comma and should be retained on Lack of Oxford Comma Could Cost Maine Company Millions in Overtime Dispute (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    I was taught to use the Oxford comma in high school in the American southeast. Apparently, there is disagreement even within the U.S.

  18. Re:It's not ambiguous at all on Lack of Oxford Comma Could Cost Maine Company Millions in Overtime Dispute (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    So if shipping is part of distribution (we'll call them collectively shipubution for clarity), what would packing for shipubution be? That's correct, a specific step that is not being included in shipubution. So the packing is exempt, the shipubution is not.

  19. Re:Why the heck do all those blue collar jobs on Lack of Oxford Comma Could Cost Maine Company Millions in Overtime Dispute (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    Though I doubt there are truck drivers that only carry fish. That's not a seasonal job even though it probably has various peaks and valleys through the year.

  20. Not the first instance on A US Ally Shot Down a $200 Drone With a $3 Million Patriot Missile (theverge.com) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We routinely drop million dollar smart bombs on mud huts and tents in the middle of nowhere. I'm not sure our military even has cheap "dumb bombs" anymore. We fly multi-million dollar high tech aircraft over areas where the enemy barely has the ability to shoot down an old Cessna.

    It's no wonder we can't afford to provide food, clothing, shelter, and basic healthcare here in the homeland.

  21. Follow your nose!"

  22. And had the people who sued been students at Berkely, that's probably what would have happened. But they were just two people out there watching youtube.

  23. Re:All vaccinated on Australia To Ban Unvaccinated Children From Preschool (newscientist.com) · · Score: 1

    Because the vaccine is a few thousand times less likely to cause death or permanent disability.

    Also, unlike contracting the disease, getting the vaccine doesn't risk giving it to several others before you (or they) even know you have it.

  24. Re:All vaccinated on Australia To Ban Unvaccinated Children From Preschool (newscientist.com) · · Score: 1

    It is possible a kid might come down with one of the diseases they are vaccinated for, but it will not spread very far or very fast. There will be many fewer total infections from the outbreak.

    It's the difference between one or two kids get the disease and parents are reminded to keep their kid home if he gets a fever vs. close the school and half the kids get sick anyway.

  25. Re:Mercury free on Australia To Ban Unvaccinated Children From Preschool (newscientist.com) · · Score: 1

    PArt of the problem seems to be that there are more and more vaccines for less and less serious illnesses but they're all going direct to the mandatory list. It would be more reasonable to have a core of well tested and understood vaccines that are required and then others that are suggested until they are better understood.

    A good bright line test will be if it is in the core it shall be made available for free at the school given by a nurse on parental request. If it's not important enough to be made available on those terms, it's not important enough to keep the kid out of school.