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User: Drakonik

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Comments · 116

  1. Re:Two words on Bacteria Make Major Evolutionary Shift In the Lab · · Score: 1

    How did hominides leave 3.7 million year old footprints? The answer to that would be "God put them there to test our faith."

    Don't bother trying to use logic and facts in a theology debate. Your opponent can just brush away any facts or data you have with "$Deity did it."
  2. Re:Two words on Bacteria Make Major Evolutionary Shift In the Lab · · Score: 1

    I would mod you up if I had any points left. This is one of the most insightful comments I've read on /. ever.

  3. Re:Two words on Bacteria Make Major Evolutionary Shift In the Lab · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But the quoted text assumes that ALL life MUST be carbon-based with four base DNA proteins that process oxygen and so on.

    The problem with the "Everything is so perfect for life that a supreme being did it on purpose" argument is that it makes the assumption that life cannot exist in any form but ours.

  4. Re:Why does it matter? on Graphics Advances Make Identifying Real Images Difficult · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I would mod you up with all the points I had, if I hadn't already spent mine.

    Pedophiles are everywhere. Your best friend might be one. Your boss might be one. Your MOTHER might be one. They're not all psychopaths on a child-murdering rampage.

    Saying that any kind of porn encourages acting out the content of said porn is like saying that playing a violent video encourages you to go out and kill people.

    If someone is interested in having sex with children, then they've already made up their minds whether it's worth the risk or not, and locking away child porn isn't gonna remove material for their fantasies. Have you SEEN some of the clothes and swim-suits children wear these days?

  5. Re:Rails. . . In the Browser? I'm confused. . . on Microsoft Linking Silverlight, Ruby on Rails · · Score: 1

    I agree with both the security risk assessment and the comment on web-based technologies.

    Don't get me wrong, it's nice to be able to access my GMail from anywhere via the web interface, but I primarily use Thunderbird and IMAP to handle email. Maybe I'm a minority, but I have very very shifty internet access. either my ISP or my router/modem are faulty, but either way, I'm lucky to stay connected for five minutes. What web services always assume that the users will have constant connectivity.

    The desktop is a good platform. Sure, throw in the ability to sync to a webserver, but putting a full-featured document editor into a browser into a possibly bloated OS is just too much overhead.

  6. Re:I, Robot story on Scientists Build Mind-Reading Computer · · Score: 1

    That was my favorite story, actually. It showcased what an utter bitch Susan Calvin could be, and also how utterly brilliant she is. Woman of my dreams.

  7. Re:As dangerous as it is useful on Scientists Build Mind-Reading Computer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, but I dunno how easy it would be to use social engineering to convince people to sit underneath an FMRI so you could scan their brain while they type in their bank's PIN number.

  8. Re:When will we retailate? As soon as... on China's Cyber-Militia · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ding ding ding. We have a winner.

    The concept of M.A.D. is what is keep the world in one piece, and not a giant puddle of radioactive sludge. Thanks to modern intelligence tech, all countries capable of launching ICBMs are also capable of knowing when OTHER ICBMs are launched, within minutes. If one gets launch, then other countries will launch retaliatory strikes, and eventually, EVERYONE will launch their weapons, hoping to at least destroy the enemy before they are destroyed themselves.

    China is a threat to us. They have enough nuclear warheads to pepper every population center with deliciously lethal Uranium goodness, and they can launch theirs five to ten minutes after we launch ours. Considering that an ICBM would take twenty to forty five minutes to travel to its intended target, that's more than enough reaction time. That's why we buy their cheap shit, take their insults and attacks, and let the Communist thing slide.

  9. Re:hydrophobic liquids on MIT Develops "Paper Towel" For Oil Spills · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Don't they boil crude oil to separate gasoline from diesel from plastic-grade crude, and so on? I think (assuming that the material is heat-resistant enough) we could just throw a big pile of it into the separator tanks and boil it out.

    It's possible that I misunderstand the process, of course. Is it just not that simple?

  10. Re:hydrophobic liquids on MIT Develops "Paper Towel" For Oil Spills · · Score: 2, Interesting

    True, but is that really such a bad thing? Ethanol, compared to gasoline, is harmless. I'm pretty stoked that we'll be able to just lay down a big mat of this material down on top of oil spills in the ocean, and underneath our cars in garages, or maybe even just wrap it around the oil reservoir to create a double-hull of sorts.

    Honestly, this would be revolutionary if it could pick up half its weight in oil. The stuff is RECLAIMABLE for chrissake. I can't really say continued use of oil is going to do the world a lot of good, but this goes a long way to preventing waste and helping prolong our limited supplies.

  11. Re:seems a bit silly on gNewSense Distro Frees Ubuntu · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Thank you. I agree whole-heartedly.

    I am 100% in favor of free software. I don't want to be a victim of DRM or vendor-lock-in more than the next guy, but this is the reason nobody can take Linux seriously.

    Ever seen the Pokemon nerds have an argument with the Yu-gi-oh nerds at school or in your local geek shop? That's what we look like to people who don't understand the difference between proprietary and free software.

  12. Re:Stallmanites strike again on gNewSense Distro Frees Ubuntu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously. The first time I was told about The GIMP, I asked my friend to provide me a link to the actual site. I was too scared to do a search for "GIMP".

  13. Re:in related news on Teen Discovers Plastic-Decomposing Bacteria · · Score: 1

    Seriously, language nazis, can you GET OVER THIS? Yes, the technical definition is 'to destroy 1/10th', but that's an archaic definition now. Decimate now means to destroy in vast quantities.

  14. Re:iIt has done so already. on The Changing Face of World of Warcraft · · Score: 1

    Yes, but how many members have been in for eight straight years? I imagine that a fair number, if not most, are fresher.

  15. Re:Looks like they've made some improvements. on Blender 2.46 Released · · Score: 1

    I would mod you up as much as humanly possibly, if I could. Half the people complaining about Blender's interface are people coming from other 3D modeling apps where the interface is one way, the other half are people who don't have Clippy waiting to tell them how to do every single thing they want. I had the same problem starting with GIMP, originally. There were buttons in places I didn't expect and options I didn't recognize. I read tutorials, I read the docs, I played around with it. Now I can use it just as well as anyone. Read the documentation before you use anything. It will save your ass many-a-time.

  16. Re:Sounds like on AOL Opens Up the AIM Instant Messaging Network · · Score: 1

    Errr....it will be good because compatibility will be almost perfect. As things are, Pidgin JUST added support for offline messaging, something the official AIM client has had for ages and ages. With the whole system being opened up, Pidgin developers will waste less time trying to reverse-engineer the AIM protocol, and spend more time fixing Pidgin's bugs (or reverse-engineering protocols that we all know will NEVER open up. I'm looking at you, MSN.)