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Comments · 34,276

  1. Re:Solved on Can Consumers Fight Package Thieves With Technology? (geekwire.com) · · Score: 1

    Go with concentrated skunk spray.

  2. Meth head infestation on Ask Slashdot: How Should I Furnish (And Secure) My Work-From-Home Office? · · Score: 1

    If you have a meth head problem, put the HVAC's outdoor unity on the roof. Otherwise a meth head with a hacksaw will gladly do $5000 in damage to get $50 worth of copper.

  3. Re:I'd settle for taking away the concussion grena on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 1

    It is, however, a signed statement from medical personnel who actually witnessed the dangerous mis-use of grenades and treated her on-scene (you did look at the signatures, didn't you)? As for 2, look at all of the pictures and then consider what a device like the one pictured might do if it burst while in contact with your arm.

  4. Re:I'd settle for taking away the concussion grena on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 1

    OK

  5. Re:I'd settle for taking away the concussion grena on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 2

    OK. Here's a few.

    On the other side, we have some pictures of clearly in-tact disposable propane bottles and nothing that could even potentially explode one. It's actually pretty hard to make such a container burst and without a strong oxidizer, good luck getting the gas to actually burn.

  6. Re:Or people are just under/wrongly medicated. on Are Psychiatric Medications Hurting More Patients Than They Help? (scientificamerican.com) · · Score: 1

    The chemical imbalance is the best theory given the data available

    Actually, neurogenesis looks like a better fit.

    Plenty of people get depressed without external reasons.

    It can happen without apparent external reasons, but it could also be something you overlook or wouldn't know about.

    For example, I have a tendency to get depressed during the shorter days near the solstice unless I make sure to get out in the sun when possible AND make sure I get plenty of sleep (including an afternoon nap most days). As long as I do those things along with my usual meditations, I'm OK.

    Of course, not everyone has the sort of job where they can just take a nap in the afternoon and getting enough sleep can be a challenge for many.

    Naturally, everyone is a bit different, but everyone has stressors that can start a downward spiral (some more easily than others). Our society and culture today offer a lot less time and a lot less slack to decompress than in the past. That means more people off balance with no chance to recover. Beyond that, people aren't taught the importance of decompressing properly.

  7. Re:I'd settle for taking away the concussion grena on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 1

    Would it really be that hard to ask politely? I guess it might make your liver claw it's way out through your belly button or something.

    <PLONK>

  8. Re:I'd settle for taking away the concussion grena on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 1

    Still waiting for a polite request.

  9. Re:I'd settle for taking away the concussion grena on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 1

    Had you politely asked, I might have bothered. Since you decided to lead by calling me a liar, FOAD.

    Let Google be your guide.

  10. Re:Or people are just under/wrongly medicated. on Are Psychiatric Medications Hurting More Patients Than They Help? (scientificamerican.com) · · Score: 1

    Actually, the chemical imbalance theory is on shaky ground at best. It's convenient for marketing antidepressants to be taken for life, but that's about all it has going for it. Otherwise, why would side effects hit as soon as you start taking the drug, but the benefits lag by about 6 weeks?

    I'm not saying there are no benefits, just that correcting a simple chemical imbalance doesn't seem likely to be the mechanism.

    As for fixing what is making people unhappy, just because a pill can correct it doesn't mean the origin of the problem is internal. Consider, an NSAID can help with the pain and swelling of a strained back. Does that mean the problem is an inherited imbalance in my back rather than my mistaken belief that I can move that fallen tree by myself?

    Schizophrenia shows all signs of being controlled by genetics though there is some evidence that external conditions can hasten or delay onset. Susceptibility to depression may also be genetic, but there is significant evidence that it can be brought on or sent into remission through external influences only. For example, seasonal affective disorder.

    I wouldn't be at all surprised if the problem is some combination of being always on, multitasking, poor sleep hygiene, and poor financial security. The constant IV drip of fear from the media and our "fearless" leaders isn't helpful either.

  11. Re:I'd settle for taking away the concussion grena on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 1

    Perhaps you should read up on the story a bit.

  12. Re:I'd settle for taking away the concussion grena on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 2

    If the surgeon served during wartime, he might need to know enough to deal with unexploded ordinance. However, more likely the surgeon just kept the fragments so they could be examined by an expert.

  13. Re:I'd settle for taking away the concussion grena on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 0

    And yet, all of the pictures show in-tact but charred disposable cylinders.That includes the one claimed to have bits of human flesh on it. If that is indeed human flesh, it seems far more likely that it happened right after someone said "Hey, you shouldn't throw empty tanks in a fire!". Weed or alcohol may have been involved.

  14. Re:I'd settle for taking away the concussion grena on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 2

    The police claimed it was a propane tank based IED, but the fragments the surgeon preserved from her arm were from a concussion grenade.

    Funny thing about the pictures of disposable bottles in your second link, they're not in fragments. Some appear to have been tossed in a campfire.

  15. Re: Call them protesters on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 1

    And they like totally forgot they were hangin' with their buds at North Dakota's Information & Technology Department when they borrowed a browser and forgot their Google password...

  16. Re: Call them protesters on EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And cold weather is notorious for trying to log in to your Google accounts and deleting uploads to Fcebook..

  17. Re:Lawyers routinely fuck their clients... on Rogue Lawyers Made $6 Million Shaking Down Porn Pirates, Feds Say (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    Start here

    Then read this. Pay particular attention to the 3rd paragraph under the implied license section.

  18. Actually, posting the material up to a file for sharing implicitly indicates that you are granting permission for it to be shared AND that you are claiming that it is within your legal power to do so.

  19. Re:Lawyers routinely fuck their clients... on Rogue Lawyers Made $6 Million Shaking Down Porn Pirates, Feds Say (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    Not if they upload it through the torrent protocol. Torrents are by design mass distribution mechanisms. By posting as a torrent, they are authorizing mass distribution.

  20. Re:bittorrent design flaw allowed legal liability on Rogue Lawyers Made $6 Million Shaking Down Porn Pirates, Feds Say (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    Nobody's disputing that a copyright infringement takes place, it's a question of magnitude.

    Since most people leave the default ratio of 2.0 in place, they should surely not be liable for more than double the cost of the item at retail unless evidence exists that they set the ratio higher. Even going with the common practice of tripling that as a punitive damage, that's going to be under $500 (a lot less if it's made it's way to the bargain bin) for a movie and under ten bucks for a song.

    Note that that's being generous. It assumes that both downloaders would have actually bought a copy otherwise and a 0 overhead for the sales that would have theoretically happened.

  21. Re: Play Audio on Linux? on Zero-Days Hitting Fedora and Ubuntu Open Desktops To a World of Hurt (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 2

    A big reason for that is that most distros are designed around a minimalist base install. Anything beyond that is pulled in through comprehensive dependencies in packages. Sometimes packages do list dependencies that aren't actually necessary on the principle that an unnecessary dependency results in a working system but a missing one leaves things broken. You'll see that most frequently in GUI/desktop oriented packages.

    It's a harder problem still if the software dynamically loads libraries as needed. Strictly speaking, it doesn't absolutely depend on libfoo to run and do some useful things, so you could argue that it's not a dependency, but then the user may want to do foo and get surprised that it fails with a missing library message.

  22. Re:64% blame Bush on Donald Trump To Tech Leaders: 'No Formal Chain Of Command' Here (cnbc.com) · · Score: 1

    Affordable housing loans weren't the problem. Lenders shamelessly talking borrowers into unsustainable large loans on McMansions with built in time bombs and then quickly selling them off like the hot potatoes they were had a lot more to do with it. Outright fraud involving the ratings was a big contributor as well. That and the bankers, unlike everyone else when they were four years old, never learned that no matter how many times you split that pile of canned spinach up, swirl it around the plate, and pile it all up again, it doesn't just go away.

    When that epic flock of chickens came home to roost, the economy laid an egg.

  23. Re: 64% blame Bush on Donald Trump To Tech Leaders: 'No Formal Chain Of Command' Here (cnbc.com) · · Score: 1

    It didn't help that the courts went all weak in the knees when the banks showed up and failed to DEMAND proof of title before allowing foreclosure and then further didn't insist on prosecuting for fraud when it was found they didn't have title.

  24. Re:60 hours a week? on Black Friday Protest Sites Included An Amazon Warehouse (thecourier.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    Ahh, the tame words of the slave. Grow a spine and demand your right to a life.

  25. Re:Haha oh man the excuses on 5-Year-Old Critical Linux Vulnerability Patched (threatpost.com) · · Score: 1

    Part of the issue for this particular bug is that few really looked at it for a simple reason: You have to have CAP_RAW_PACKET in order to exploit it, and to get that you had to be root (until recently).