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Comments · 34,276

  1. Re:Cardholder services on Dish Network Violated Do-Not-Call 57 Million Times · · Score: 2

    My new favorite is "The Attorney General's office" notifying me I am going to be sued for writing a bad check in New York. Naturally, I can make it all go away if I send a payment now.

  2. Re:No way! on Senator Who Calls STEM Shortage a Hoax Appointed To Head Immigration · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let's be honest, companies go with SAP and their expensive consultants because the upper management falls for the sales pitch. They would still fall for the sales pitch if programmers cost $2 an hour. SAP rarely costs less (once once installation and customization is included) than a custom solution created by a good team of programmers.

    They don't skimp on automation because of the cost of programmers. They skimp because that cost (however small) is up front and visible while the higher cost of not automating is hidden away and takes a million nearly invisible bites at the budget.

  3. Re:No way! on Senator Who Calls STEM Shortage a Hoax Appointed To Head Immigration · · Score: 2

    In the neonatal ward, but I don't recommend electing them just yet.

  4. Re:No way! on Senator Who Calls STEM Shortage a Hoax Appointed To Head Immigration · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One criterion for a shortage would be the point where actual technical progress is impeded. We are nowhere near that.

    Another would be the point where reasonably structured companies start to drop out. We're nowhere near that either.

    Without the H1-Bs, profits might be squeezed a bit, but in one of the most profitable industries we have, that's just a correction.

  5. Re:Time to abandon normal phones? on FCC May Permit Robocalls To Cell Phones -- If They Are Calling a Wrong Number · · Score: 1

    Yes, they give me the name of the distributor with no assets. That's when the detective work starts.

    Sure, it will work at first, but the more it works, the harder it will get to make it work.

  6. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... on Fake Engine Noise Is the Auto Industry's Dirty Little Secret · · Score: 1

    Generally, people who are both blind and deaf already have limited autonomy out in the world and need extra assistance.

    Of course, you conveniently ignored the part about it adding safety for people who see and hear just fine.

  7. Re:I don't get it on Fake Engine Noise Is the Auto Industry's Dirty Little Secret · · Score: 1

    And if you do even a bit of googling, you will find that many people in those latitudes have sleep and affective disorders that are treated with a combination of sunglasses and bright lights.

    Have a look at the NASA research. Blue light promotes wakefulness. So, it is desirable during the day. But when you're trying to get ready for bed, wakefulness is not a good thing, so remove the excess blue.

    Likewise, in the morning, a gradual wakup tends to be nicer than being suddenly blasted out of bed, so I would like the blue slowly introduced.

    Note that the pattern I described is very much like the pattern of sunlight before we had indoor lighting other than a fire.

  8. Re:Steve Scalise did NOT speak to KKK group on Blogger Who Revealed GOP Leader's KKK Ties Had Home Internet Lines Cut · · Score: 1

    Scalise copped to it and said it was a mistake. Why should I believe you over him?

  9. Re:What a cheap fucker on User Plea Means EISA Support Not Removed From Linux · · Score: 1

    Probably not much time at all, if any.

    It's just along for the ride now. Total economics fail would be spending time ripping it out.

    Note that the '386 code was demanding actual effort to maintain so it's gone.

  10. Re:Crusty Hardware on User Plea Means EISA Support Not Removed From Linux · · Score: 1

    The real frustration of setting jumpers was that too many cards and drivers only had a couple options. You knew very well they could support any arbitrary IRQ but simply didn't do it.

    Plug'N'Pray was obnoxious since it rarely worked right (or at all) and often offered no manual fallback.

  11. Re:Crusty Hardware on User Plea Means EISA Support Not Removed From Linux · · Score: 1

    MS set up the deal between themselves and the hardware vendors. Clearly long term support wasn't a priority.

    Linux has a different arrangement and makes it work.

  12. Re:Internet cables? on Blogger Who Revealed GOP Leader's KKK Ties Had Home Internet Lines Cut · · Score: 1

    I was only commenting on the silliness of complaining about 'internet cable' given that it is a cable that carries the internet connection.

    Note, they didn't say that the cable required a power tool to cut it, just that it looks like that is what was used. Perhaps the ID10T that cut it just thought that a chainsaw makes a bigger statement than a pair of dikes. We'll probably never know.

  13. Re:I don't get it on Fake Engine Noise Is the Auto Industry's Dirty Little Secret · · Score: 1

    But since the lights are most important in the evening and cool white in the evening can disrupt sleep later, warm makes the most sense. Ideally, the bulbs would start warm first thing in the morning, switch to cool gradually over the next half hour and then transition back to warm in the evening.

  14. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... on Fake Engine Noise Is the Auto Industry's Dirty Little Secret · · Score: 2

    The auditory feedback is useful since it's what alerts you to look at the car that is unexpectedly moving. It also helps blind people who might need to cross the street.

  15. Re:Steve Scalise did NOT speak to KKK group on Blogger Who Revealed GOP Leader's KKK Ties Had Home Internet Lines Cut · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nonsense.. Even Scalise doesn't believe that.

  16. Re:Internet cables? on Blogger Who Revealed GOP Leader's KKK Ties Had Home Internet Lines Cut · · Score: 1

    So what do you prefer to call the coax cable that carries the internet connection? "The network frobnication string"?

  17. Re:It all comes down to payroll on The Tech Industry's Legacy: Creating Disposable Employees · · Score: 1

    When the banks crashed the economy, their executives received their bonuses right on time, courtesy of the bailout.

  18. Re:Since when did unknown == paradox?? on The Paradoxes That Threaten To Tear Modern Cosmology Apart · · Score: 1

    True, but paradox is a rather strong word to use in this case. Usually a paradox involves a careful chain of logic that inexorably leads to an absurd conclusion. Particularly when the flaw of reasoning eludes careful examination.

  19. Re:Since when did unknown == paradox?? on The Paradoxes That Threaten To Tear Modern Cosmology Apart · · Score: 1

    It just means there's something we don't know. The energy comes from something, much like potential energy can become kinetic energy.

  20. The law passed did not grant schools any new powers at all and nothing in it would constructively require them to assume that power.

    It's just a privacy grab by the school systems and this was a convenient but lame excuse.

  21. It looks more like a power grab. The law grants them no new powers (certainly not the power to demand user and pass for a non-school system from a student). They can already investigate by having the target show them the offending messages (also without turning over user/pass). If the posts are ppublic, they don't even need to be shown, they can go look for themselves.

    The posts either exist or not and they are either bullying or not. Passwords have nothing to do with it.

  22. Re:Commission on Google Thinks the Insurance Industry May Be Ripe For Disruption · · Score: 1

    That only goes so far though since insurance is about spreading risk. If they get TOO good at it, they start costing you more than you will eventually (inevitably) be liable for.

  23. Re:If you want personal patent... on Japanese Nobel Laureate Blasts His Country's Treatment of Inventors · · Score: 1

    Except patents aren't supposed to be about property rights at all, they're supposed to be about encouraging advances in the useful arts and sciences. Offering the actual inventors some percentage is a good way to do that.

  24. Re:CIA says half of UFO sightings were them on Local Hackerspace Loses Solar Balloon, Creating Another UFO In New Mexico · · Score: 1

    Very funny! :-)

  25. Re:Attitudes on The Current State of Linux Video Editing · · Score: 1

    For simple editing like that, I use avidemux.