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User: sandytaru

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Comments · 1,676

  1. Re:Do you really want to trust a government with on IRS Recycled Lerner Hard Drive · · Score: 1

    Unless you work for the Army, the government doesn't store your health records. Your doctor's office does.

    My father worked in an Army hospital's records department for twelve years before electronic medical records became a thing. Holy moly, some veterans files were about two inches thick.

  2. Re:Anti-tax, not conservative, groups on IRS Recycled Lerner Hard Drive · · Score: 1

    From what I understand, they went after them for not filling out their forms with all the required information.

  3. Re:Recycled Hard Drive?! on IRS Recycled Lerner Hard Drive · · Score: 1

    Depends on how outlook was configured. Ideally the backups of the PST file should be stored on the user's share via Documents, but if the shared drive was getting too bloated with fat PST files because of retention policies (yup) I would not be surprised at all if the PST file was re-configured to be stored in the local drive instead.

  4. Re:Fox News? on IRS Recycled Lerner Hard Drive · · Score: 1

    Naw. The GOP might be hyperventilating over the IRS doing their job of making sure that tax exempt organizations are, you know, not actually political organizations in disguise, but in the end all the right-wing organizations that got extra scrutiny ultimately passed and got their tax exempt status. Meanwhile, a few left-leaning organizations were denied tax exempt status after the same extra scrutiny.

    This is like howling about the extra biopsy your doctor ordered to make sure that lump wasn't cancer.

  5. Re:Fox News? on IRS Recycled Lerner Hard Drive · · Score: 1

    This isn't even incompetent government, this is just standard IT processes not being applicable to government processes, and no one questioning it. Data retention rules exist not just to save critical emails, but because Outlook servers get clogged as hell with utterly useless junk without them. Most backup processes aren't concerned with archives of things as they were three years ago, because it's far more important to have a backup available of things as they were yesterday. Even at the hospital I worked IT for, we deliberately drive nails through and smashed up dead hard drives because HIPPA rules required that we do that!

  6. Re:Republican party fissure on FWD.us: GOP Voters To Be Targeted By Data Scientists · · Score: 1

    They are also lied to, or at least whipped into a state of FUD, on a daily basis by their own primary news sources and their so-called representatives. My in-laws are proud Tea Party members (and a prime example of the GOP's base - Protestant, white, and elderly) and 90% of their conversation is whining about how the country is going to hell in a hand basket thanks to Obama. He's a convenient scapegoat for having been lied to by their own party, as you've pointed out.

  7. Re:Double-standard and misunderstanding of politic on FWD.us: GOP Voters To Be Targeted By Data Scientists · · Score: 1

    Naw, a reduction in your potential consumer base is never a good thing, unless you run a mortuary or make coffins for a living. Also, fear of death erodes consumer confidence.

  8. Re:Double-standard and misunderstanding of politic on FWD.us: GOP Voters To Be Targeted By Data Scientists · · Score: 1

    What issues are we demanding to get "our way" on that the right has offered to compromise on? Please enumerate.

  9. Re:Double-standard and misunderstanding of politic on FWD.us: GOP Voters To Be Targeted By Data Scientists · · Score: 4, Interesting

    True fiscal conservatism is often at odds with social conservatism. True fiscal conservatism isn't a bad thing - I think many Dems would actually lean more toward a purely fiscally based Republican party, but the social issues keep everyone split into their respective camps despite the similarities in fiscal policy. For example, a true free market conservative has no problem with abortion clinics. They provide a service for which there is a demand. No federal dollars are permitted to go to abortion services, although the clinics also provide everything from well baby services to OB/GYN services in rural areas that require some community funding to fully support (since it's not profitable to operate a small clinic in the middle of nowhere that only half the population + children will use.) Still, it makes monetary sense to fund those clinics at nominal levels rather than have pregnant women dying because they were unaware of ectopic pregnancies, so again, it's government money well spent. A social conservative looks at the clinic though and sees a horrible infestation of sin upon the world and has the urge to bomb it.

    Another example would be the mandatory drug testing put in place in Florida for food stamp benefits. After the pilot program in which less than 2% of those tested failed the drug test and were denied benefits, it became clear that the state was losing money and the program should have been halted. (I believe it cost them $100,000 more than they saved to test everyone, even charging some people a fee for the test.) A business minded fiscal conservative would have killed the program because it cost more than it saved. A social conservative would freak out because The Undeserving could get free food if the program was cancelled.

    It's this divide in thought between the two wings of the party that drives the fiscally conservative Democrats crazy. They might be willing to compromise with the Republican fiscal wing on some things, but the social wings of either party cannot compromise because they each think the other is Satan.

  10. Re:Rsults are results that are already published! on FWD.us: GOP Voters To Be Targeted By Data Scientists · · Score: 1

    This is what I've heard as well. 30% approval rating throughout the district. He failed to keep up his end of the bargain as a Representative, which is to, you know, actually represent the interests and needs of the district. When two thirds of your constituents hate your guts, it's hard to win any kind of election. You can do it with one third hating your guts, one third liking you even just slightly, and the remaining folks barely knowing your name. But when an overwhelming majority of voters absolutely despise you and go to specifically vote against you (and the ones that like you assume you will win anyway so fail to turn out) it's a nice recipe for a humiliating loss.

  11. Re:That's just a bad idea... on FWD.us: GOP Voters To Be Targeted By Data Scientists · · Score: 1

    You mean you're NOT already targeted? I get about fifty emails every day along the lines of OMG HELP US WITH THIS ISSUE. I'm too lazy to block them.

  12. Re:He picked the wrong moment to support amnesty on House Majority Leader Defeated In Primary · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Whatever happened to "Give me your tired, your poor, your labored masses yearning to be free?" Heard a story about the approximately 40,000 children who came to the US without their parents who are current being held in custody because we have little legal framework for dealing with cross border teenaged runaways. Deport them? They're minors, and some of them are claiming outright refugee status because they feared for their lives at home due to gang violence. Send them to orphanages? They have none of the paperwork for that. It's a total clusterfuck right now. We can either pretend these kids are here to steal our freedoms, or or we can tackle the reality we're given and stay true to the promise of America.

    My ancestors came over to the US as 16 and 19-year-old brothers with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a wish to own their own farm. A century later and we're a family of doctors, lawyers, educators, and software developers. They spoke no English - now I speak no Russian or German. They formed their own ethnic enclave with others like them out in the midwest, but my generation has become mobile and we've fully scattered and integrated across the country. Why did my teenage ancestors deserve that chance, but these kids don't?

  13. Re:Monthly quota? on Comcast Converting 50,000 Houston Home Routers Into Public WiFi Hotspots · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I'm thinking if they start using the equipment they charged you for already, and the service they charged you for already, to provide public wifi for people who are not you, they should refund you the equipment cost and completely lift your monthly cap. Otherwise, If they require your username and password to access the network, then ding the person who is utilizing the network for the data, not the person whose network just got hijacked.

  14. Re:Other uses. on Moon Swirls May Inspire Revolution In the Science of Deflector Shields · · Score: 1

    Yeah my first question was whether or not it would be strong enough to repel the Romulan's attacks.

  15. Re:Cultural issues on Fixing the Humanities Ph.D. · · Score: 1

    I do! I just recognize that what I'm reading doesn't have to have any deeper meaning to be enjoyable. I don't have to ponder the symbolism of red glass dishes or Doric columns in front of someone's house. I can simply enjoy the play of language for its own sake,

  16. Re:Why go for tenure? on Fixing the Humanities Ph.D. · · Score: 1

    The argument for tenure is that a professor needs insulation from the politics that inevitably comes about when they touch on prickly subjects. It's even more of a problem these days when you have helicopter parents harassing professors who gave their 19-year-olds a C and the 19-year-olds complained that the teacher was pro-union or talked about evolution, which went against their personal beliefs.

    All tenure means if that some student or parent makes a complaint like that, the professor gets a hearing before being fired. Even tenured professors can get fired for serious infractions, like sexually harassing a student or committing a crime.

  17. Re:Perhaps some consideration of the employment... on Fixing the Humanities Ph.D. · · Score: 1

    That happens at Research I institutes, to some extent. Many of the university faculty members at the big schools only teach occasionally. The rest of the time they are doing experimental work.

  18. Re:Cultural issues on Fixing the Humanities Ph.D. · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I majored in English for my undergrad. I quickly found that all literature was carefully supported BS, all my lit classes were teaching me was how to produce more carefully supported BS, and while I was good at the BS production I despised it and myself for doing it. I couldn't stomach it. It's a hot mess of group think.

    So I focused on technical writing instead, which was a good decision. There are not a lot of ways to BS in a software manual, nor do you really need to.

  19. Re:Entering students too young on Fixing the Humanities Ph.D. · · Score: 2

    That was the case for my husband, although he got his PhD in education and not humanities. But he basically wanted to be a professional student. Lucky for him he DID become the outlier and was awarded tenure at his job this year, which he likens to smoking a pack a day and living to be 100.

  20. Good on Free Wi-Fi Coming To Atlanta's Airport · · Score: 1

    They did have a free page or two and access to news and weather, but the greater Internet was blocked off. I've spent many hours in that airport over the years and will probably spend many many more. The money I save on this can go for being crazy and paying for on-plane Wifi instead.

  21. Re:"Rigorous" peer-review ahahahahahaha on Key Researcher Agrees To Retract Disputed Stem Cell Papers · · Score: 5, Informative

    If the methodology looked good and the data looked reasonable, it'd pass the initial round of peer review. They don't recreate the experiment as part of the editorial peer review, they just look for things that were overlooked or that don't make sense. It's up to other labs to reproduce the results and subsequently publish their own papers.

  22. Re:What the f*$# is wrong with us? on Misogyny, Entitlement, and Nerds · · Score: 1

    Calling someone out as an AC doesn't count. Asshole.

  23. Re:What the f*$# is wrong with us? on Misogyny, Entitlement, and Nerds · · Score: 1

    I included both genders for that very reason. We don't have a man problem, or a woman problem. We have an asshole problem.

  24. Re:Rinse Lather Repeat. on Misogyny, Entitlement, and Nerds · · Score: 1

    It's called being a decent human being, and if you're not doing it, then you are no longer "innocent" or the proverbial "nice guy" either. No, you're not responsible for every single interaction around you. Yes, you are responsible for keeping your friends in line when they're doing something stupid or wrong. (That's what friends are for, as the song goes.)

    I have dropped friends who were total asshats and refused to listen to my advice on how to stop being total asshats. I can only hope that if enough of their remaining friends drop them for being asshats, they eventually get a clue and stop it.

  25. Re:It's not about being a on Misogyny, Entitlement, and Nerds · · Score: 1

    This whole fiasco has made me realize it's not a man problem, it's an asshole problem. We need to stop enabling assholes of BOTH genders.