Slashdot Mirror


User: sjames

sjames's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
34,276
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 34,276

  1. Re:It's a sad world... on Comcast Failed To Install Internet, Then Demanded $60,000 In Fees (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 2

    As long as they accept that my offer to pay for the service may not be accurate.

  2. I think minimum wage is mostly promoted because it is easier to slip past the taxation is theft crowd than the basic income. Welfare is very grudgingly accepted but only if it is made as demeaning and difficult as possible to actually get.

  3. Re:Total BS on Apple Employees, If Ordered To Unlock iPhone, Might Quit (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    They needn't lose a significant portion of their employees, just a significant portion of that very small workgroup that knows anything about that bit of code.

  4. Re:Total BS on Apple Employees, If Ordered To Unlock iPhone, Might Quit (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    I suppose it makes sense given that Obama favors backdoors.

  5. Re:Total BS on Apple Employees, If Ordered To Unlock iPhone, Might Quit (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    People have gone to Gitmo for oops and it wasn't even their oops. That's how things work when you don't get a speedy public trial by a jury of your peers.

  6. Re:Don't let.. on AT&T, Comcast Kill Local Gigabit Expansion Plans In Tennessee · · Score: 1

    Then explain the existence of cable systems in so many places where there is no exclusive franchise.

    Done, they had one at the time. I refer you to Congress, the FCC, and everyone who has written on the topic as references. If that's not enough, I refer you to the archives at your local government (no links available).

    Remain ignorant or don't, your choice.

    The government gigabit systems are meant to create competition where there is none now. A worthwhile and legitimate goal in any event. It takes a lot more than two sellers to constitute a healthy market.

  7. Re:The real problem on Some Root For a Tech Comeuppance In San Francisco · · Score: 1

    When the bulk of residents work in SV, I don't see much hope for a volunteer fire department in a place stupid enough to not pay police, fire, and other key support people enough that they can afford to live there. I can just see the volunteers stuck in 2 hours traffic heading to the fire.

    If they remove the housing laws, SF loses the tourist trade entirely. People can see a soulless yuppie village anywhere. If they index their minimum wage to the median income, pay support workers adequately, and pay for it with a progressive tax, they'll solve the problem without killing the city.

  8. Re:This is big-league ball, kid. on Microsoft Tries Hard To Play Nice With Open Source, But There's an Elephant In the Room · · Score: 1

    It is the responsibility of corporate officers to make sure the corporation is in the public interest. That is rarely enforced but it is part of the bargain.

  9. Re:This is big-league ball, kid. on Microsoft Tries Hard To Play Nice With Open Source, But There's an Elephant In the Room · · Score: 1

    Robbing the liquor store happens all the time too. That doesn't make it OK.

  10. Re:Lol, this site is so 1998 angery on Microsoft Tries Hard To Play Nice With Open Source, But There's an Elephant In the Room · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Al Capone gave the occasional lolipop to a child in his career. Does that let him off the hook for the rest?

    Let's face it, MS is a three time loser (that is, a recidivist jailbird). It is only rational to be a bit suspicious if they suddenly want to roll a gift into the city.

  11. Unless you can apply to a vendor of your choice, it is a monopoly. In fact, you can only apply to one entity.

  12. Even worse, although mostly forgotten, the linux filesystem UMSDOS implemented long filenames and more. That eviscerates the claim that long filenames were in any way non-obvious.

  13. Because if they'll demand money for obvious solutions implemented in Android, they'll demand it for obvious solutions to problems you devise as well. They have effectively made Android less free. If you modify Android and put it out there, MS lawyers will sooner or later darken your doorstep.

  14. Re:What a bunch of freeloaders... on Microsoft Tries Hard To Play Nice With Open Source, But There's an Elephant In the Room · · Score: 1

    Yes, those childish people at MS who think obvious solutions to a problem are somehow worthy of being awarded a 20 year monopoly really do need to grow up and learn that it's not that special, everybody poops.

  15. Re:Economic illiteracy by the parent. on Fast-Food CEO Invests In Machines Because Regulation Makes Them Cheaper Than Employees (yahoo.com) · · Score: 1

    Not only that, but because he is unwilling to pay enough to live up to minimum standards, his employees will be dirty and diseased. That will be a REAL draw for customers, I'm sure! I mean, surely nobody will mind having their food served by people with open sores who smell like a dumpster. And no way actual hunger in his employees will lead to inventory shrinkage.

  16. Re:You keep saying that word... on Fast-Food CEO Invests In Machines Because Regulation Makes Them Cheaper Than Employees (yahoo.com) · · Score: 1

    Working hard?

    The only people working hard in this scenario are the minimum wage employees.

  17. It will be replaced by either the basic income, revolution or Armageddon.

  18. Re:Yes, yes, give it a year or two... on Fast-Food CEO Invests In Machines Because Regulation Makes Them Cheaper Than Employees (yahoo.com) · · Score: 1

    Don't forget the new teen sport, free food from RoboCarlz.

  19. Re:Suzie can vote. Suzie can get a pitchfork. on Fast-Food CEO Invests In Machines Because Regulation Makes Them Cheaper Than Employees (yahoo.com) · · Score: 1

    If those killbots are made by Microsoft, there's an excellent chance they'll get re-targeted.

    In the likely scenario where the wealthy are technologically incompetent and pay others (poorly as usual) to take care of the killbots for them, there is also a very high probability that the killbots get re-targeted. Then the rest of the robots get busy providing for the masses.

  20. Re:That's called Detroit, offshoring, capital flig on Fast-Food CEO Invests In Machines Because Regulation Makes Them Cheaper Than Employees (yahoo.com) · · Score: 1

    Silly business people think that people with no money for food will somehow buy their products or that other businesses with no customers will buy their products. Silly rich people think they can live in luxury while most of the population starve and they somehow won't lose their heads this time.

    Keep in mind, if you can replace all your employees with machines, that means the "unwashed masses" can replace your whole corporation with machines. You can only hide out in your panic room for so long before you get dragged out in your boxers like Saddam.

    It can go easy or hard and bloody, but one way or another the masses will not just obediently curl up and die for the benefit of the few. Ignore that at your peril.

  21. Re:Eels on a train on What's Frying the Electrical Systems On BART Trains? (ieee.org) · · Score: 1

    Not sure, but it seems to be more expensive at any rate.

  22. Eels on a train on What's Frying the Electrical Systems On BART Trains? (ieee.org) · · Score: 5, Funny

    It all started 2 years ago when a student majoring in EE took an exotic canoe trip on the Amazon. One day the canoe capsized while he was studying and his book sank to the bottom. Thee eels read voraciously and learned about series parallel wiring of batteries. An idea was born.

    And so now we have Electric Eels on a Train!

  23. Re:Slipery slope on Study Finds 3 Laws Could Reduce Firearm Deaths By 90% (meta.com) · · Score: 1

    The first clause of the 2nd clearly did give a rationale, but the second grants the right to all. Though that is sufficient, the equal protection clause of the 14th should be interpreted as requiring women the same gun ownership rights as men.

    It is notable that in the Revolutionary War, it was uncommon but not unknown for women to take up arms in an emergency. So it could be argued that even then women acted as a sort of militia in reserve.

  24. Yet, somehow you can get in a lot of trouble if you send money to jihadists. It must be somehow different from speech.

  25. Yes, but anyone who objects to the current surveillance is a terrorist and so, by definition, cannot be insightful or capable of good thought...