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User: jedidiah

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  1. Re:Or maybe you're not so good at math on In France, Most Comments on Gaza Conflict Yanked From Mainstream News Sites · · Score: 2

    Ireland didn't do anything remotely like what Hamas is doing to Israel. If it did, you would have seen the relevant bits of Ireland flattened like what England helped do to Nazi Germany.

  2. Re: Like China och USSR on In France, Most Comments on Gaza Conflict Yanked From Mainstream News Sites · · Score: 2

    We have ISIS running amok engaging in mass murder, mass mutiliations, and the destruction of religious sites. The problems in the middle east have sqaut to do with oil. This kind of ethnic strife would be going on regardless.

    It's like the Balkans or any other place on the planet where people can't get along with each other to the point of engaging in genuine ethnic cleansing.

  3. Re:Hipsterism at its finest (worst?) on Greenpeace: Amazon Fire Burns More Coal and Gas Than It Should · · Score: 1

    > And I have ones that have failed.

    My last Archos 5 with spinny rust inside of it refuses to die. It's fortunate too since no other device I've seen can match it for local storage and disconnected (from the cloud) operation.

    I've yet to have an SD card fail. If anything they will become obsoletely-tiny before actually breaking.

    It's funny that someone thinks that multiple redundant server farms and the entire network infastructure of the internet and all the phone providers is less of a resource hog than a few tiny bits of electronics.

  4. Re:Alternative explanation on Enraged Verizon FiOS Customer Seemingly Demonstrates Netflix Throttling · · Score: 2

    That is true perhaps.

    However, this is all entirely Verizon's fault. They are the entity in this arrangement that has actively encouraged assymetric use of the net by offering assymeteric service. It's really rich to see ISPs complain that they are getting too much traffic all in one direction then that's how they f*cking design their service.

    Verizon is selling massive downloads. So is every other consumer ISP.

  5. Re:But what IS the point they're making? on Earth In the Midst of Sixth Mass Extinction: the 'Anthropocene Defaunation' · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'm not convinced people in mud huts were numerous enough or destructive enough to manage the megafauna extinctions. A lot of this hysterical screaming about how we're destroying the planet seems a lot like hubris.

    On certain level, the idea that we have that much power pleases the egos of some people.

  6. Re:Keyboards on Chromebooks Are Outselling iPads In Schools · · Score: 1

    ...except consumer tablets aren't proper digitizers. This is especially true for platforms where a stylus is a banned option because it doesn't seem fashionable enough.

    Proper tablet inputs typically are PC peripherals, not the limited functionality that comes with consumer tablets.

    Even a mundane mouse is better at the "direct manipulation" stuff than what's provided on your average consumer tablet. The "direct manipulation" on a consumer tablet is crude and clumsy.

  7. Re:Keyboards on Chromebooks Are Outselling iPads In Schools · · Score: 1

    > No porn and no torrenting, and no hacker tools are not a disadvantage for schools use.

    Lack of "hacker" tools is a disadvantage for any educational environment. Students might actually be expected to create something rather than just being mindless consumers.

    There have already been educational programs mired by patent attacks that have been pre-emptively banned from the iPad. The corporate IT mentality filters out more than just "the bad stuff".

    This much should be obvious to ANYONE that has had to deal with the corporate IT mentality.

    With Apple, you get an extra layer of that for free. Your own internal IT busybodies don't even get their chance to kick you in the balls. Apple beats them to it.

  8. Re:Good on Chromebooks Are Outselling iPads In Schools · · Score: 2

    > If only tablets had on-screen keyboards or supported Bluetooth keyboards or keyboard docks!

    In other words, spend extra money to turn your tablet into some kind of laptop wannabe. You're trying to make the tablet something it's not in order to make up for it's inherent flaws when the simple and obvious thing is to buy the thing that already meets your requirements.

  9. Re: Papers on Chromebooks Are Outselling iPads In Schools · · Score: 2

    > There's a reason GDocs is free...

    Yes there is. It's a solved problem. It was a solved problem 20 years ago. It's simply not a task that anyone should be paying money for anymore.

  10. Re: Who cares? on Chromebooks Are Outselling iPads In Schools · · Score: 1

    > everyone having their own PC turned into an admin nightmare.

    This is entirely the fault of Microsoft. Apple itself used to even acknowledge this fact before it gave up on being a computer company. Remember those old commercials you never see anymore.

    This was never a "PC problem". It was always a Microsoft problem. They poisoned the well.

    A Chromebook is little more than a very locked down PC running Unix. Even an iPad is ultimately the same thing.

  11. Re:Games with known linux ports? on GOG.com Announces Linux Support · · Score: 1

    One of the things about Civ V that quickly stuck me was how much less crash prone the Linux version is when compared to the Windows version. I had co-op players constantly going offline because their version was crashing all the time.

  12. Re:STEM is the new liberal arts degree on For Half, Degrees In Computing, Math, Or Stats Lead To Other Jobs · · Score: 1

    > What's wrong with that? It's one of the cores of the only fair type of government we've found so far that works, communism.

    Yes. It worked out so well that corruption caused it to implode in a most spectacular manner. Just ask anyone from the former Soviet block how much communism "works".

    You're a silver spoon member of the 1% by comparison.

    It takes more than wishful thinking and a single political party with no check on it's power to run a country effectively.

  13. Re:Incomplete data on For Half, Degrees In Computing, Math, Or Stats Lead To Other Jobs · · Score: 3, Informative

    > First, why analyze the percentage of computer and math degree holders who hold an IT job? Why is a mathematics degree automatically equivalent to a CS degree?

    Computer Science is ultimately a branch of mathematics. That much should be obvious to anyone that's been through a decent University program.

  14. Re:Open Up Borders to Everyone! :-) on VP Biden Briefs US Governors On H-1B Visas, IT, and Coding · · Score: 1

    > If we're going to open up our southern border...

    The problem with H1-Bs is not that they "feruhners". The problem with H1-Bs is that they are an underclass that's at the mercy of the company that imported them. They are even lower on the totem pole than underpaid undocumented Mexicans.

    If you are an H1-B, ICE knows exactly where to find you if you get too "uppity".

  15. Re:And BD-Java is good how exactly? on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 1

    > But then I have to do that for every single disc. And I value my time.

    What time? You stick the disk in and type run.

    There is no "time" involved. The computer does all of the work. It chugs along quietly while you go do something else.

    The part of the process that requires my direct interaction with the computer actually takes LESS time than futzing with a console player would.

    There's no need to "pretend' that disk menus are useless. They serve no real purpose for 99.9% of users. If anything, they are a bother.

  16. Re:And BD-Java is good how exactly? on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 1

    > Yes, you can muddle through all the playlists by hand and extract everything you want, but sometimes you just want a family member to be able to play the damn thing.

    Actually, if you want to play the "joe average" card here it makes much more sense to rip the media and present a simple menu option so that "a family member is able to play the damn thing".

    The whole Tivo/iTunes/XBMC interface is MUCH simpler for rube relatives than anything that a DVD or BluRay will present to you. It's f*cking ironic that people will defend this sh*t. Each disk is it's own personal precious little snowflake with it's own interface and quirks.

    It's the exact opposite of what all of the HID groupies say you should be doing with user interfaces.

    If you want to "just play the movie", the interface that something like XBMC gives you is FAR superior to the usual consumer option.

  17. Re:this is great news! on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 1

    > Sadly, the Raspberry Pi lacks SATA, which is what the unit uses to connect to the optical drive.

    There's no good reason you couldn't use a USB device which would be the usual approach for plugging an optical drive into a small low profile machine such as the PI.

  18. Re:this is great news! on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 1

    > Why use a regular player? Because it "just works".

    Kind of sort of after a fashion with lost of nonsense and bother.

    I ditched my last console DVD player because "just works" doesn't really work.

    > The experience is overall smoother.

    No it isn't. A PC provides a much better playback experience. It's simpler, more direct, and completely under your control. You can enforce a single standard UI across multiple playback devices.

    Ripping a BD can be a pain but it's usually worth the effort even for a rental.

  19. Re:this is great news! on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 1

    > Yes... because there is no way the compression schemes of ripped files can improve over time.

    Except we aren't talking about "ripped files", we're talking about STREAMING. What you can achieve with genuine ripped files will actually make the streaming services all look hopelessly pathetic.

    Streaming services suffer from the same problem as cable providers. They are corporations that want to cut corners and they know that the average American will eat dirt.

    The entire "download-as-you-go" concept is fatally flawed.

    Bandwidth caps aren't even the biggest problem here despite being the likely show stopper.

  20. Re:How do you on The Daily Harassment of Women In the Game Industry · · Score: -1, Troll

    > "A man threatened to rape my mouth with a shit-covered horse-cock this afternoon."

    Oh really? I don't see any bruises on your hands from where you beat the crap out of him.

    I'm really surprised that more women don't use the social norms and double standards to their advantage and take the opportunity to lash out. They might find that they even get some assistance with the beat down.

  21. Re:Movies still unreleased on DVD on Netflix Reduces Physical-Disc Processing, Keeps Prices the Same · · Score: 1

    > What do you do if the movie you want to watch hasn't been released on DVD either?

    A much much MUCH smaller problem.

    Your own remarkably obscure examples demonstrate this.

    Streaming requires permission from the relevant publisher THIS SECOND. That permission can be REVOKED an hour from now.

    On the other hand, what's available on physical media represents everything that was consented to EVER. That consent can NEVER be revoked. We can trade old copies of that media until the publishers get blue in the face.

    "It was never published on DVD" is a much smaller problem than "it is not currently available for streaming".

  22. Re: Here we go... on MIT's Ted Postol Presents More Evidence On Iron Dome Failures · · Score: 1

    Even Egypt doesn't want to deal with these people. That's why the Egyptian side of the Gaza strip is also closed.

    From their point of view, Gaza is full of the same kind of nutbags that they just got done deposing.

    Jordan and Egypt both could probably end this mess tomorrow by claiming the respective territories bordering their countries. They don't want the Palestinians anymore than anyone else does.

  23. Re:Because... on Netflix Reduces Physical-Disc Processing, Keeps Prices the Same · · Score: 1

    Two words: New Releases

    Netflix streaming is effectively a replacement for all of those channels on cable that are dominated by reruns and old movies. Netflix streaming is great for that kind of stuff. For anything else, it's pants.

    For new releases, you will simply have to go someplace else.

  24. Re:Here we go... on MIT's Ted Postol Presents More Evidence On Iron Dome Failures · · Score: 1

    > Israel's ethnic cleansing is absolutely a genocide.

    There is no such thing.

    Otherwise, there simply would not be any Palestinians left by now. The problem would have been sorted out by simply having exterminated everyone from the occupied territories.

    THAT is what genocide is.

    Don't use terms you clearly don't understand.

  25. Re:Here we go... on MIT's Ted Postol Presents More Evidence On Iron Dome Failures · · Score: 1

    Really? You're going to try and pull that stunt? This territory was a well settled part of several empires starting with Rome. The idea that the people that happened to reside there in 1940 had "American Indian" notions of land ownership is absurd and assinine.

    These people were former subjects of the Ottoman Empire.