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User: Charliemopps

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  1. Re:Fascinating as always on KOI-314c: Weird Small "Puffed-Up" Exoplanet Discovered · · Score: 1

    Maybe we have found aliens several times over, only we can't currently comprehend that we have.

    I've always assumed that was a given.

  2. Re:WTF on Is Earth Weighed Down By Dark Matter? · · Score: 1

    If you can accept that there may be more physical dimensions than our standard 3 + Time and that there could be a 4th physical dimension then it most certainly could be perpendicular to the orbit of the satellite.

    https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rfrankel/fourd/FourDArt.html

  3. Re:Technically correct on Counterpoint: Why Edward Snowden May Not Deserve Clemency · · Score: 2

    and more to the point, they ARE breaking the law. They are clearly and without question breaking the law, and violating the constitution. All this talk of how it's actually just breaking the "spirit" of the law is just propaganda. I think the real scary part is that they could be using their information to blackmail out leaders and we'd have no idea.

  4. I predict the future on Isaac Asimov's 50-Year-Old Prediction For 2014 Is Viral and Wrong · · Score: 1

    In the future we will have more of the things we want, and less of the annoyances we don't want... due to technology. I'm a visionary! Oh wait, that's common sense.

  5. Re:Good luck with that on Facebook Being Sued Over Mining of Private Messages · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have a house, my house rules, nobody made you come over and I didn't charge you to get in... yet, when I punch you in the face, I still go to jail.

  6. Re:Read it for yourself on Facebook Being Sued Over Mining of Private Messages · · Score: 1

    If I were to start up a car company and put a sticker in the truck that read:
    "We feel that the safest way for our customers to be in an accident is to not be in the car at all when it happens. Therefore we've replaced all of our airbags with ejection seats which will remove you from the immediate vicinity of the accident upon collision. It is the responsibility of the customer to land safely there-after"

    do you think that would absolve them from lawsuit?

    Simply informing customers that you are going to treat them badly or ignore government regulations does not in anyway absolve you from responsibility when your policies cause harm or break the law.

  7. Re:This is why I like being old on The UK's Internet Porn Filter and Fighting Censorship Creep · · Score: 1

    Yup. Do it to it Linda. I survived the internet for 20 years before your filter showed up, I think I can manage.

  8. Re:Colour me confused on Congressman Accepts BitCoin For His US Senate Run · · Score: 1

    Exactly. A Fiat currency is a currency that has no intrinsic value itself. Bitcoin has no other use than as currency, so it's just about as "FIAT" as you can get. At least with US dollars, if they become worthless you can still burn them for heat. Granted, Bitcoin does solve a lot of the problems people who dislike fiat currencies are concerned about. Namely government manipulation, inflation, the wholesale printing of money, etc... So perhaps Bitcoin is a type of Fiat currency that avoids many but not all the problems Fiat currencies have. The primary failing it has that it still relies on human faith in its value which could literally collapse in hours given the right conditions.

  9. Re:Staged hunt? on Illinois Law Grounds PETA Drones Meant To Harass Hunters · · Score: 1

    It's a huge thing. Here: http://www.ultimatepheasanthunting.com/USA/
    Just pick your state and you'll see all the places that do it.

    Was Cheney doing it? I don't know, and don't care. I think it likely though. This is the way most Rich guys with not a lot of time hunt.

  10. LOL on Helicopter Rescue For All Passengers Aboard Antarctic Research Ship · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So I was watching this whole thing on the news and they never mentioned once that this expedition was meant to show the melting ice and such in hopes of showing the effects of global warming on the icepack. Now, I do believe Global warming is a thing... and we need to deal with it. But the clear bias by the media outlets isn't doing anyone any favors.

  11. Re:Good! on Illinois Law Grounds PETA Drones Meant To Harass Hunters · · Score: 1

    Yea, but they're still right in this case. Peta sucks. Just meat with a couple of them sometime to hear their "Real" views and it'll become clear pretty quick.

  12. Re:Staged hunt? on Illinois Law Grounds PETA Drones Meant To Harass Hunters · · Score: 3

    Actually, the way it works is lame. I'm a hunter... There are places you can go where they raise the birds, clip their wings and fence them in. The wings are clipped in such a way that they can fly a "bit" but can really fly off. So they'll still get up when your dog gets on them, but they cant get far. They raise so many that walking through their land pretty much assures you will get some.

    Most of the other hunters I know consider this "cheating" because you're basically just shooting Livestock. There are even worse places where they keep the birds caged and just have guys release them to fly so you can pick them out of the sky. Again, totally lame. I'd agree that, if that were the kind of hunt her were on, he wasn't doing much more than using the birds as targets.

  13. Actually yes it can. The DHS suspends the constitution within 100 miles of the border. They can search anything they want in the name on national security.

  14. Re:Time for another letter on US Federal Judge Rules Suspicionless Border Searches of Laptops Constitutional · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And here-in is the problem. The NSA has assuredly more blackmail material on every politician in this country than could ever be had by any investigative journalist or PI. When it comes to shutting down the entire NSA do you think they'd use that? Or just roll over?

  15. Basically, if you're targeted they have you. If you're not targeted you have a chance to cause their automated collection algorithms to have to work extra hard to collect your data, but they still have you. So Truecrypt wont help you much.

  16. Re:Slashdot linking to Slashdot on No Question: Snowden Was 2013's Most Influential Tech Figure · · Score: 2

    When your house is burning down around you, the topic may come up a bit more frequently than you'd like. But some situations are so dire, so tragic, that when they occur they eclipse all that surround them.

  17. Re:Obligatory on The Biggest Tech Mishap of 2013? · · Score: 1

    They wont.

  18. Re:Snowden on The Biggest Tech Mishap of 2013? · · Score: 2

    Or, more importantly, giving your Sharepoint admin who has a copy of the constitution sitting next to his keyboard, wears an EFF hoodie that mocks the NSA to work every day, and has turned down promotions due to moral objections to the agencies activities full admin access to everything you have.

  19. Re:I think we all know what happens next. on Safeway Suspends Worker For Sci-Fi Parody of His Firing · · Score: 1

    Well, I'll never shop there again so... yes.

  20. Re:Remote BIOS flash? on The Startling Array of Hacking Tools In NSA's Armory · · Score: 1

    Likely they either:
    Paid the company that designed it
    Bribed someone working for that company
    Simply got their own NSA agents hired at the company with the sole purpose of having them write exploits into the code (most likely)

  21. Re:at the risk of sounding paranoid on The Startling Array of Hacking Tools In NSA's Armory · · Score: 1

    It's irrelevant if others are doing it. We have proof the NSA is doing it. They need to stop. We can worry about everyone else after we get our federal government to obey the law.

  22. Re:This is not what should outrage us on The Startling Array of Hacking Tools In NSA's Armory · · Score: 1

    No, the NSA needs to be dismantled and a new constitutional amendment explicitly outlawing this sort of wiretapping on anyone, us citizen or not unless they have a REAL warrant from a REAL judge. Like the man said, They've even compromised Solaris. Which group of Terrorists is using Solaris? This has nothing to do with protecting us, and everything to do with controlling us.

  23. Re:Spy tools on The Startling Array of Hacking Tools In NSA's Armory · · Score: 1

    Exactly, the NSA has more power than any branch of government ever had. Any Judge or political official that opposes them will be blackmailed into submission immediately.

  24. Re:42.8GB ZIP on Archive.org Hosts Massive Collection of MAME ROMs · · Score: 2

    Uh, not open source, requires windows and only works with Internet explorer? No thanks.

  25. Re:Driveline on Ford Rolls the Dice With Breakthrough F-150 Aluminum Pickup Truck · · Score: 1

    It's not just that. The axle and pumpkin are the fulcrum between the truck and the rotation of the tires. Think of a funny car dragster as it takes off, the front end comes up because the pinion is climbing the ring gear in the rear axle. In a sports car, when you floor it, the tires can break lose. A loaded down truck however has a LOT of traction, as well as a limited slip differential. So when you gun it, the front heavy pickup is not coming off the ground... both rear tires are locked by the diff so they both have to break traction if it's going to peal, and the load on the axle is such that the tires have far far more grip than otherwise would. So now the truck can go, the axle shaft could break OR the axle tube could spin or shear from the pumpkin. I've actually seen this happen and the shaft and wheel can slide right out of the tube and go rolling away on their own.

    Aluminum can structurally take weight over spans just fine, just look at aircraft wings. What it's not good at is torsion or twisting that a heavy axle housing would see. This is why a lot of heavy duty pumpkins are cast iron rather than steel. They are brittle, but they most definitely would never twist or warp.