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User: Galvatron

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Comments · 1,927

  1. Re:Knives are not a problem on USB Swiss Army Knife · · Score: 1

    It's also easier to make being black a crime, but that doesn't make it right. The way you tell a knife carrying criminal from a knife carrying law abiding citizen is that the criminal COMMITS CRIMES!

  2. Re:Not so smart (Snug/Joiner) on Tracking Social Networking In Shakespeare Plays · · Score: 1

    Not only that, but many of the characters are connected to Theseus over the other players, which seems like an error as well. Understandable, but it does show that relationships in Shakespeare are sometimes a bit too subtle to analyze by computer.

  3. Re:Commercials on TV Losing to Video Games · · Score: 1
    children get murdered every day, why did that case make it?

    You know, people don't get killed as often as you think. I'm from San Francisco, and for the last few years Oakland, the homicide rate has skyrocketed. But in actual reality, only about 100 murders per year have been committed, fewer than two per week. Of those, most have been adults.

    A quick google search indicates that fewer than 50 people per day are murdered in the US. Most victims and perpetrators are white males 18-24. So yeah, a guy who knifes another guy in a barfight isn't going to be reported on. A man who kills his wife for suspected infidelity isn't going to be reported on. How many cases are there of children being abducted and killed by strangers? Not very many.

    That's not to say that there's not some degree of racism, sexism, or whatever in the reporting. But as the person you replied to pointed out, sometimes it's due more to the shock of the community than to anything specific about the victim.

  4. Re:Alzheimer's disease on Coffee is a "Health Drink" · · Score: 1

    I can't help but wonder if there could be a sample bias. Perhaps suceptibility to lung, mouth, or throat cancers are linked to suceptibility to Alzheimer's, and so by virtue of the fact that those people have already been killed off, the smoking group could have a lower incidence of Alzheimer's.

  5. Re:As a techie who doesn't drink it... on Coffee is a "Health Drink" · · Score: 1

    Black, red, and green teas (green teas especially) have antioxidants, and also help prevent prostate cancer. You're welcome :)

  6. Re:Cause of high insurance rates on 'They Can Sue, But They Can't Hide' · · Score: 1

    I don't see that anywhere in the OP's comment. He says he knows doctors, and that their insurance rates (presumably meaning their malpractice insurance rates) are outrageous.

  7. Re:How do you "accidently" buy RealOne? on Real's Reality · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think the idea is they knew they were buying the premium version, but they didn't realize they were getting extra addons (for extra cost).

  8. Re:Cause of high insurance rates on 'They Can Sue, But They Can't Hide' · · Score: 1

    They are talking about malpractice insurance rates. This is insurance that your doctor pays for to keep from paying for lawsuits out of pocket. You are talking about medical insurance rates, which are a different thing.

  9. Re:Hrmm on Microdrive Technology Rebounds Thanks to iPod Mini · · Score: 1

    Probably not, the HDs in the iPod Mini have extremely bizarre partitioning schemes as I understand it, and it would be very difficult to replicate. The device might refuse to work at all if the size of the drive is wrong.

  10. Re:As a Former Funcoland Manager on EB Demands Payment From Victim of Theft · · Score: 1

    As has already been mentioned in other comments, Babbages and Funcoland are now Gamestop. EB Games was formerly Electronics Boutique, and is a seperate, publicly traded company.

  11. Re:A country without children on Robotic Bubble Baths for Japan's Elderly · · Score: 1

    Actually, you're both right. Japan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world (they were, I believe, the very first country to fall below the replacement rate of 2.2 children/woman, and are now somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 children/woman). Moreover, they do discourage immigration, so they don't have that propping up population growth as in Europe or America. They also have an aging baby boomer population.

  12. Re:If only he could get some of his stories right. on A History of Apple's Operating Systems · · Score: 2, Informative

    Where do you see "beta" in the article? As far as I can see, the only Copland releases he mentioned were "Driver Development Kits," which are described as being essentially prototypes, which does not in my mind imply "beta," or even "alpha."

  13. Re:Mechwarrior on Powered Exoskeleton Legs · · Score: 1
    The facts that it took this long to produce a working prototype proves that it's a very tricky thing to do. In comparisin, wheeled vehicles are much easier to design and produce.

    Hmm, couldn't someone 100 years ago have said the same thing about airplanes? The fact that something takes more advanced technology to initially prototype has nothing to do with how useful it will turn out to be.

  14. Which human? on Powered Exoskeleton Legs · · Score: 1

    Some people can do the splits, or put their feet behind their heads. Are we going to mimic those people, or unflexible schmucks like me who, on a good day, can just barely touch our toes? I suppose you could calibrate it to each person's range of motion, but even then, there's a pretty big difference between slowly easing into a stretch and being suddenly pulled into one. The latter can cause serious damage.

  15. Re:WTmuthaF? on Powered Exoskeleton Legs · · Score: 1

    I freely admit that this is pure hearsay, but someone once told me that Winston, being the "cool black guy," had all the good lines in the original script. Then, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis said "wait a minute, why not give ourselves (and our buddy Bill) the good lines?" and so Winston was pared down to the minor supporting role he ended up with.

  16. Re: A real geek on Your Future Car's Hood Will Be Welded Shut · · Score: 1
    I HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO

    Like posting on slashdot? Yes, yes I see...

  17. Re:It's a car for the clueless on Your Future Car's Hood Will Be Welded Shut · · Score: 1

    You know what I found kind of weird? I had a '95 Corolla in high school, and it had the same headlight deal (not the door locks though, which was unfortunate, I locked myself out 2 or 3 times). Anyway, I totalled the car about a year after graduation, and just recently my parents bought my youngest brother a 2000 Corolla S model. Unlike the model I had, the S model has power windows, a cd player, and a much nicer interior. But it doesn't have the headlight feature! What happened? Did Toyota decide it was a bad idea? Anyway, I thought that was very unfortunate.

  18. Re:Why should it be a joke? on Acer Plans A 16 lb. Notebook · · Score: 1
    when a vendor makes a notebook without a battery.

    Why would anyone do this? Part of the convenience of the portable form factor is the battery. You can fold it up, carry it to another room, and plug it back in without requiring a lengthy shutdown/bootup (or less lengthy but still annoying hibernate/wake up) process. It doesn't have to be a powerful battery, and NiCd batteries are so cheap these days that why wouldn't you throw one in?

    Apparently the battery on this computer is advertised as lasting 1 hour. That sounds about right. Sure, you could use an even smaller, cheaper battery, but if we're not worried about weight, that seems about right to me.

  19. Re:Top 10 Star Wars DVD covers on Star Wars DVD Cover Art Leaked · · Score: 1

    And the fifth one, that just had a name instead of a Roman numeral. Redemtion? Reckoning? Something like that. Anyway, the point is, he was in all of the ones that had human actors, though he was not the hero in the fifth one, he was just a rarely seen commander (though he had a goatee, which was highly amusing)

  20. Re:Geek movies rule the universe! on Lord Of The Rings - Oscars, We Loves Them · · Score: 1

    Didn't Forrest Gump win the best special effects oscar that year? Yes, I believe it did. The best special effects are them most subtle (and you also forgot the bluescreen pants).

  21. Re:10-8 hours of charge? on Build Your Own iPod Battery · · Score: 1

    I get something like 6 hours on a single AAA with my Rio Sport mp3 player, and I believe that's typical for most flash-based players. So with two AAA batteries I get the same amout of battery life as your cd player gets with two AA batteries. Play time is longer, though of course it's harder to switch media (I've got 256 megs installed, so with 128 bitrate, that's some 4 hours). Switching flash cards is possible, though buying extra cards around is expensive.

  22. Re:He's not in jail for showing children porn on Jail Time for Misleading Domain Names · · Score: 1

    What, the mob? No, I don't think the mob runs internet porn sites.

  23. Re:Most Dangerous Intersections on NYC Crosswalk Buttons are Inoperative · · Score: 1

    How do they compute this? If it's based on insurance claims, then that's even more of a reason why NYC doesn't rate. Presumably the cab company covers costs of accidents and what not, so they don't have commercial insurance.

  24. Re:He's not in jail for showing children porn on Jail Time for Misleading Domain Names · · Score: 1

    I think the idea is that the porn sites pay him for the referrals. He found out that children are most likely to mistype domains, and so are easy to trick into visiting porn sites. The porn operators don't want the children visiting, but they don't know that's what they're getting, so the guy gets his money anyway.

  25. RTFA on Skywalker Ranch Wines · · Score: 1

    Yes, in fact, the wine is being released by Coppola. Moreover, Coppola has been making wines with Lucas's grapes (for private consumption and gifts) for a number of years.