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User: BlackSabbath

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Comments · 425

  1. Re: Dun dun dun on Twitter Says It's Cracking Down on Hate Speech (usatoday.com) · · Score: 1

    What leftist policy is exploiting your position to engage in unwanted pussy-grabbing a reaction to?
    What policy is directly inciting his supporters to physical violence against protesters a part of?
    Are all Mexicans rapists?

    Have large swathes of American citizens been disenfranchised by the political and corporate classes? Yes.
    Is Hillary (and in fact almost every Republicrat/Demoblican) a fork-tongued, self-aggrandising sellout to corporate interests? Yes.
    Is Donald Trump still a cunt? Yes.
    These are not mutually exclusive.

    And in case it's not already obvious, the president-elect will undoubtedly prove to be as much of a liar as any of his illustrious predecessors.

    There have been recent precedents of iconoclastic demagogues that won power on a wave of popular discontent, that then proved to be as beholden to their true masters as those they deposed. Alexis Tsipras, Greek PM comes to mind.

  2. Re: The value of consensuality on Elon Musk Predicts Automation Will Lead To A Universal Basic Income (mashable.com) · · Score: 2

    Um, no. An unconscious, drunk, drugged or otherwise incapacitated person cannot give consent. The manner in which they became incapacitated is not relevant.
    Here's a simple tip. If someone is unconscious, drunk, drugged or incapacitated - don't have sex with them. Simple. And sex with someone who's conscious and willing is more fun. Trust me on this.

    If someone runs onto the highway, high as a kite, most drivers would make the effort to try and avoid hitting that person, they wouldn't line them up in the crosshairs and hit the gas. Yes, getting high as a kite and running onto the road is stupid and highly likely to result in death. But deliberately lining someone up in order to run them down is still murder (or possibly manslaughter).

  3. Re: Wake up call - Jobs is dead on Design For the Present (marco.org) · · Score: 1

    > the legacy is not being carried on well

    Au contraire. The focus on mobile and cloud at the expense of the Mac line is exactly where the Steve wanted to head.
    http://qz.com/196005/the-steve...

  4. Re: Apple is primarily a jewlery company on Design For the Present (marco.org) · · Score: 1

    > Apple has ceased to operate for profit

    http://www.investors.com/news/...

  5. Re: POWAR TO THE PEOPLE! on UK's Brexit Cannot Pass Without Parliament Approval (aljazeera.com) · · Score: 1

    Except that one of the key arguments of the Brexiteers was that the EU has usurped the authority of the British parliament.
    The High Court has rightly concluded that the Parliament, being the instrument specifically vested with power on behalf of the electorate (and presumably acting on their behalf) are the correct branch of government to act in this matter. Any other conclusion would allow the executive to trump the will of parliament at any time.
    The vote was clearly for Brexit, and Brexit the government will. However there were no consistent positions for the terms of a Brexit that were put to the people. Unless you believe that PM May has the ability to divine those terms on her own.

    And if Nigel Farage or Boris Johnson don't like it they they should've fucking stood for the leadership instead of running from what they wrought only to snipe from the sidelines yet again while others clean up after them.

  6. This. My kingdom for mod points.

  7. Re: What a brave new world on Yahoo Wants To Know If FBI Ordered Yahoo To Scan Emails (onthewire.io) · · Score: 1

    Which one is that again?

  8. Re: Anyone who voted Obama did just that on Ecuador Acknowledges Limiting Julian Assange's Web Access (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    Whoosh!

  9. Re: Anyone who voted Obama did just that on Ecuador Acknowledges Limiting Julian Assange's Web Access (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    And don't think for one minute that you can escape your fate by "voting for the other guy". That particular scam is our greatest achievement- the illusion of choice. Whoever you vote for, you will never be rid of us for we are the unelected. Whether you vote for the general, the crook, the farmer, the actor, the oil man, the lawyer, the black man, the orange man or the woman - we decide your fate.

    Everything that has transpired has done so according to our design. It is unavoidable. It is your destiny. Young fool! Only now, at the end, do you understand.

  10. Re: After ripping BSD they deserve it on 'Cultlike' Devotion: Apple Once Refused To Join Open Compute Project, So Their Entire Networking Team Quit (businessinsider.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > After ripping BSD

    *facepalm*

  11. Re: I hope Apple Pay will die on Apple is 'Intransigent, Closed and Controlling' Say Banks (afr.com) · · Score: 2

    It's 100% the other way around. Google store your full card details and full transaction details on their servers. All of it. All the time.
    It's why they're happy to take a hit. The ongoing value of that data FAR exceeds any per-transaction fee.

  12. Re: I hope Apple Pay will die on Apple is 'Intransigent, Closed and Controlling' Say Banks (afr.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's ironic that you're calling Apple a middle-man when it's actually Google who are inserting themselves as a financial intermediary (were you aware that Google have issued you a virtual credit card?) and knowing every single transaction detail, which of course suits their panopticon business model. There's a reason they're not charging you for that privilege.

    Apple are acting as a payment communication medium, keeping no details of your transaction and yes, charging for the privilege. Whether it's worth it is in the eye of the beholder.

    This might help explain the differences between the two systems:
    http://www.investopedia.com/ar...

  13. Re: I hope Apple Pay will die on Apple is 'Intransigent, Closed and Controlling' Say Banks (afr.com) · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm sorry but that's just not true.
    The two systems are vastly different in implementation. Google are acting as a financial intermediary for every transaction through use of a "virtual credit card" which is what is on your phone and what the vendors see (they never see your actual cards as they are only on Google'a servers). As a result, Google have access and knowledge of every detail of every transaction you make using their system. This aligns with their panopticon business model. By effectively acting as a middleman financial institution they don't need any agreement with banks etc. Every transaction you make actually becomes two 1. Google pays vendor, 2. Google charges your bank.

    Apple are not doing this at all, instead they are securely storing your card details on the phone and communicating payment details to and from the vendor and your financial institution. Their system is designed so they don't store your card details nor know about your transactions. However this requires agreement with the financial institutions on the other end.
    http://www.investopedia.com/ar...

  14. Look, over there! on UK Is Banning Apple Watch From Cabinet Meetings Over Russian Hacking Fears (techweekeurope.co.uk) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I suspect, given PM May's well-documented willingness to trample on the privacy rights of her citizens, that the ban has more to do with prevention of any leaks a la Snowden. What is said in cabinet, stays in cabinet.

    I'm reminded of that famous quote by Otto von Bismarck, "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." We don't want the proles learning what we really think of them.

  15. > This approach to propaganda was spelled out explicitly by Adolf Hitler in his book "Mein Kampf."

    Who went on to use it with great success in his wildly popular Third Reich, convincing an entire nation of otherwise well-meaning Germans to take part in, or look away from, the extermination of an entire race.

  16. True.
    I'm currently working at a big bank that has poured hundreds of millions into Oracle for a flagship project that has way under delivered and is a couple of years overdue. The vast majority of their techs couldn't program their way out of a wet paper bag. I thank my lucky stars I'm not involved in that clusterfuck.
    While I'm sure there's culpability in the Oregonian government for this, to hold Oracle blameless would be wrong.
    There was once a time when Oracle was the right answer to the question "which database". Now, I'm pretty sure they're not the answer for anything.

  17. Re: Former Microsoft Fanboy here on Microsoft To Kill The Lumia Brand In Favor of a New Surface Phone, Says Report (thenextweb.com) · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't mind you redundant, just one dimensional.
    MIcrosoft, like many large companies, gets some things right and others wrong. Part of the art to being that kind of company is (a) understanding who exactly you're appealing to (could be more that one group), and (b) ensuring the products targeting (a) are self consistent and sensible.
    Personally, I'm appreciating their Office for Mac suite and the recent tilt towards OSS. However I've been Windows free (at home) since before XP.

  18. The real reasons on Apple Cites 'Courage' As Reason To Remove 3.5mm Headphone Jack (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 2
  19. Re: Oh yeah this'll be good. on Apple To Unveil 'AirPods' That Use Custom Bluetooth Chip (macrumors.com) · · Score: 1

    You must have missed the bit where I said I checked it myself. I shone a light down the socket but for the life of me couldn't see anything untowards. Even if I had, I doubt I have anything narrow enough to get down there and grab it.
    I'm a bit nonplussed by some of the vehement reactions here though. If you don't see any value in the ecosystem (and that _is_ what you're buying with Apple), then just don't buy it. Personally I kind of like that there's a vendor that is happy to break with the past and champion design decisions they believe are for the best. May not always work out (though they've had some success with various interfaces) but at least they're happy to strike off in a new direction. I recently bought an iPhone SE and it will do me for another couple of years at least. As will the Jabra Revo phones I'm waiting for (yes, BT audio sucks but tbh on public transport I can't tell the difference, and now there'll be no more snagging of cables - yay).

  20. Re: Oh yeah this'll be good. on Apple To Unveil 'AirPods' That Use Custom Bluetooth Chip (macrumors.com) · · Score: 2

    I'll take a slight exception to the "really solid" descriptor of the headphone jack. I recently had an experience where my earbuds plug wasn't "locking in" properly, resulting in occasional channel loss and/or mic loss. I thought I had damaged it when the wire had recently got caught and the resulting tension caused a slight bend - or Si I thought. After doing my own checking, I gave up and went to the Apple Store. They found a tiny piece of fluff jammed right in to the back of the phone socket. The tech said he had a hard time removing it as the battery lies just beyond that and he didn't want to pierce it with the tool he used. Fluff removed, plug locks in, earbuds working fine.

    None of which is to say that the lightning adapter is robust, it isn't. But it's smaller opening makes it less likely that shit will get jammed in it, that's for sure.

  21. Re: Announced 2 weeks ago?? on New Cloud Attack Takes Full Control of Virtual Machines With Little Effort (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 2

    He's pointing out by example that the whole purpose of a public key is to be distributed to other parties, and that doing so is safe due to the inability* to infer the private key through factorisation. Bit flipping a properly formed key Kpub is highly likely to result in an easily factored "key" K'pub for which the private key K'priv can be trivially derived.

  22. Re: Speed Improvements on Slashdot Asks: What Are Your Favorite Java 8 Features? (infoworld.com) · · Score: 2

    Haven't had mod points for years (no idea why) but if I did, you'd get them all. Thanks for making me truly laugh out loud.

  23. Re: Java? on Slashdot Asks: What Are Your Favorite Java 8 Features? (infoworld.com) · · Score: 0

    For a great many years, anything that involved Windows.