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User: jedidiah

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  1. Re:Oblig XKCD on Linux Needs Resource Management For Complex Workloads · · Score: 1

    > That's so painfully true because Linux still has choppy playback of Flash/HTML5 video on low-performance hardware. It still is mostly a server OS (a very good one though).

    It's bullshit because EVERY platform has choppy playback of Flash video on low-performance hardware. It's a feature of how lame Flash is. It has nothing to do with Linux.

    Low performance hardware will happily decode much more interesting video so long as the coders in question have bothered to hook into relevant "shortcuts".

    Adobe can't be trusted to do that (on any platform).

    Adobe likes making excuses, instead just taking care of business like all the "hobbyists" have done.

  2. Re:"here on the Android side" on MicroxWin Creates Linux Distribution That Runs Debian/Ubuntu & Android Apps · · Score: 1

    In other words: "because Microsoft can't do then no one can".

    The entire history of computing pretty much points out how wrong that proposition is. It's more like "If Micrososft can't do it then EVERYONE ELSE can, will, and have done it for 10 years prior".

    Just use a little intelligence or barring that, allow the end user to decide which mode to operate. Also don't GUT one of the modes in question while you're at it.

  3. Re:68k was a neglected platform on Nearly 25 Years Ago, IBM Helped Save Macintosh · · Score: 1

    The problem with this fixation on "performance" is that it was all effectively sabotaged by the bloat of operating systems at that time. The resources required weren't keeping pace with the cost of hardware. It became infeasible for most normal consumers to keep up with what things like OS/2 and Windows were demanding.

    It doesn't matter how spiffy your 486 is if it is spending all of it's time swapping.

    My own 486 had extremely dissappointing performance when compared to a even mere 68000 until RAM prices became low enough to adequately equip a PC.

  4. Re:PPC macs were awful on Nearly 25 Years Ago, IBM Helped Save Macintosh · · Score: 0

    Macs didn't "make USB", they forced it on their users while giving a big "fuck you" to all of their old customers running anything else. It's not like the old stuff was horrible either (ADB, SCSI).

    In the meantime, USB was everywhere on PCs. It just wasn't forced down everyone's throats. Even recent systems with USB3 quietly included will still include interfaces from the :"dark ages".

    It doesn't harm anything to have them there and is very handy should you actually want or need one of them.

    The main problem with USB adoption was OS support from Microsoft. They dragged their feet as usual. Also, the market for USB peripherals really didn't get interesting until Microsoft's sandbagging stopped. The fact that Apple was abusing all of it's users didn't change the landscape all that much.

  5. Re:Such harassment on Sexual Harassment Is Common In Scientific Fieldwork · · Score: 0

    He dismissed the comment because that was very much justified. You are a misguided moron that thinks crying wolf will do anything but cause people to ignore your crusade. Characterizing trifling slights will impress no one except your own cabal and only marginalize the entire issue.

    It will be seen as the domain of completely irrational KOOKS such as yourself.

  6. Re: Sexual Harassment Is Common In ... Everything on Sexual Harassment Is Common In Scientific Fieldwork · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not a troll. It's just a fact of life. Men are expected to be sexual predators and mating and courtship has to happen some time. If the girl doesn't like the guy, it will be characterized as "harassment" possibly as "assault".

    Serious offenses and abuses of power should be focused on and eliminated. The "innapropriate comments" stuff needs to not contaminate the real issue.

    Sexual harrassment started out as being defined as a genuine abuse of authority and has quickly mutated into "anything I don't personally like".

  7. Re:Some people are jerks on Sexual Harassment Is Common In Scientific Fieldwork · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not all "sexual harassment" is even sexual harassment. The original article referenced several "statistics" where several things were lumped together and they weren't really comparable at all. It was a clear attempt to create bogus inflated numbers.

    The entire effort seemed like mindless yellow journalism intended to generate hysteria.

    So I am inclined to think the article and the study is bullshit and weak ass science that should embarass any scientist.

  8. Re:ESPN on Comcast Customer Service Rep Just Won't Take No For an Answer · · Score: 1

    Cable services re-compress signals in order to cram more channels into whatever transmission capacity they have. Sometimes they even monkey around with the size of the frame. This is all to save space/bandwidth.

    What you get off of an antenna is the pristine version of whatever that broadcaster sent out.

  9. Re:Can't use duck test and rational argument on Court Rejects Fox's Attempt to Use Aereo Ruling Against Dish's Hopper · · Score: 1

    They were full of shit and they knew it.

  10. Re:Why? on Three-Year Deal Nets Hulu Exclusive Rights To South Park · · Score: 2

    ...too late. I already avoid Hulu because commercials are something that belong back in the 50s with embedded sponsor testimonials.

    Tivo liberated me from commercials in the 90s.

    Not going back.

  11. Re:Same old song and dance .... on Economist: File Sharing's Impact On Movies Is Modest At Most · · Score: 1

    > Even in the era of home theaters, how many of us really have such a setup at home where we'd be proud to show downloaded movies to our friends

    I do.

    It's part of the reason that I've pretty much given up on conventional movie theaters entirely. Beyond the new annoyances that have manifested in the last 20 years, the experience at a "real theater" just isn't sufficiently better to justify the bother.

    Even if your local theater isn't crap, what your watching may not even be playing on any of their good screens.

    It really doesn't take much. Pretty much anyone in suburbia has the resources to pull this off. Cinemas are doing remarkably well considering.

  12. Re:I'm not an anti sharing nazi... on Economist: File Sharing's Impact On Movies Is Modest At Most · · Score: 1

    ...except everyone understands that a "high fashion counterfeit" is usually of inferior quality to the original. This is one key area where "intellectual property" differs from manufacturing.

  13. Re:Simplified summary on Aereo Embraces Ruling, Tries To Re-Classify Itself As Cable Company · · Score: 1

    I wasn't aware that there were "special kinds" of cable companies. This seems like a crass attempt to move the goalposts. Someone is trying to change the rules in their favor and it's not the disruptive upstart.

    "Rule of Law", perhaps you've heard of it.

  14. Re:Consipricy nuts, go! on Maldives Denies Russian Claims That Secret Service Kidnapped a Politician's Son · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Objection: relevance.

    These other things are not the topic of discussion. They are just red herrings to distract from the fact that the US appears to have acted in a civilized manner this time.

    Civilized behavior should not be swept under the rug because you have a hate-on for some particular country. Your nonsense undermines the positive reinforcement that encourages good behavior and discourages bad behavior.

    Doesn't matter if it's the US or Hezbollah.

  15. Re:Aaaaahahaha ... gotta love it: on Prof. Andy Tanenbaum Retires From Vrije University · · Score: 2

    No. It was not a "sensible" comment for the time. Anyone with a lick of sense could see where the tech was going and could easily realize that you had to plan for the future.

    PCs of the time were stuck in the kind of situation that Tannenbaum described not because of any inherent technical limitation but because Microsoft was a lame monopolistic sandbagger holding back the entire industry.

    Even in 1992 there wasn't that much of a gap between the capabilities of proprietary Unix hardware and PCs. Some Unix machines even ran on microprocessors used by competing home computers.

    That's why Linus created his own kernel to begin with.

  16. Re:Not about jealousy, but ... on Dubai's Climate-Controlled Dome City Is a Dystopia Waiting To Happen · · Score: 1

    ...except this is cleaning water. It doesn't necessarily have to be fit for human consumption. It just has to be suitable for cleaning.

    Dubai has access to plenty of water.

  17. Re:Buy the book BANNED by Costco! on Alcatel-Lucent's XG-FAST Pushes 10,000Mbps Over Copper Phone Lines · · Score: 0

    If it weren't for all of this fake controversy and bogus righteous indignation, I would have no idea what this book is. Perhaps it just didn't sell well at Costco. It's a warehouse store you know. You can't depend on an item being there the next time you visit even if it was there the last time.

    These Tea Baggers seem to be missing the whole "Warehouse Club" concept here.

  18. Re:Cry Me A River on Normal Humans Effectively Excluded From Developing Software · · Score: 1

    I might not be able to build a skyscraper but I can nail some boards together, plunge a toilet, wire a room, or lay some tile.

    Basic home maintenance is something that everyone needs to understand regardless of whether they own their place or not. People need to know enough to be able to delegate to experts and not get robbed in the process. People need to understand what they are buying.

    People need to be able to fend for themselves on a very basic level.

    This American love of stupidity only serves to make for easier victims.

  19. Re:Cry Me A River on Normal Humans Effectively Excluded From Developing Software · · Score: 2

    "Complex" is not for laymen. There is only so much that you can do with any "appliance". Beyond that, you actually have to know what you are doing. This "problem" has nothing to do with programming.

    Once you get into "complex", you really do want something along the lines of a profession were people have to be licensed and they can be held accountable for their failures. For the "complex" stuff, we should be striving MORE for something comparable to real engineering or medicine rather than pushing for trained monkeys and amateurs.

    Right tool for the job and all that...

  20. Re:Kind of like supermarket loyalty schemes on Here Comes the Panopticon: Insurance Companies · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's the perfect libertarian excuse for corporate abuse. You don't have to go along with the abuse. You can just live like an Amish person and avoid the abuse if you really want to. It's all your "choice".

  21. Re:First world problems on Bug In Fire TV Screensaver Tears Through 250 GB Data Cap · · Score: 1

    ...although a screensaver can be a really simple thing. It doesn't need to be some power hungry monster that eats your entire download cap. This is simply the common developer problem of not being able to relate to the end user. They are used to having unlimited resources and code accordingly.

          More experienced vendors in the same space don't take such a boneheaded and obviously wrongful approach.

  22. Re:It's 2014 on Bug In Fire TV Screensaver Tears Through 250 GB Data Cap · · Score: 1

    35G BluRay streams are not uncommon. Most of mine are over 30G.

  23. Re:or don't trust the Internet on 30% of Americans Aren't Ready For the Next Generation of Technology · · Score: 1

    The local hospital? Are you kidding? Do you know what kind of nasty stuff you can pick up at the hospital? Some of it is even anti-biotic resistant.

    You don't want to be hanging out at the hospital any more than you absolutely have to. It's much like the Internet in this regard.

  24. Re:Funny on 30% of Americans Aren't Ready For the Next Generation of Technology · · Score: 2

    > My kids' school, they ban using Wiki for research.

    So? In my day, dead tree encyclopedias were banned for research.

    All you have there is an old rule from the dead tree era applied directly to it's online counterpart.

  25. Re:Similar bug in iOS on Bug In Fire TV Screensaver Tears Through 250 GB Data Cap · · Score: 0

    Yes. That is just such an appropriate thing to suggest to an Apple user.

    "You know that company you use because you are a n00b or just lazy? You now need to become a network admin to deal with the stupid stuff they do."