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User: Rockoon

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Comments · 8,765

  1. Re:What are you typing on? on Some Apple iMacs "Assembled In America" · · Score: 2, Funny

    If you cared about both things then you had better not be typing on a computer less than twenty years old.

    Gee, I don't know.. every computer I have owned for my entire adult life has been assembled in America, with American labor, and extremely reasonable work hours...

    ....on my kitchen table.

    I *still* don't give a fuck where your computer was assembled.

  2. Re:Cheap on Researchers Create New Cheap, Shatterproof, Plastic Light Bulbs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Heck we have a lot of things that would be excessively expensive back in the day.

    A simple everyday example is food.

    Most food has been reduced to near the cost of the transportation necessary to deliver it to your area. Evidence for this is the large fluctuations in food prices in lock step with fuel price fluctuations. Further evidence of this is that all food conglomerates are now also shipping conglomerates, and this is so because thats where the value creation actually happens with regards to food. The food is worth very little where it is grown and where it is processed because of the extreme efficiencies that we have achieved. It only attains value through shipping. Shipping is where the value creation happens with regards to most foods.

    Yes there are "brand names" that carry a premium, but much like Apple they are essentially niche irrelevant.

    More on topic, this is the historic price of light in terms of median US labor:

    year - hours of work needed to purchase 1000 lumen hours of light
    1800 - 5.387
    1850 - 2.998
    1900 - 0.2204
    1950 - 0.00188
    1992 - 0.00012

    here is the citation for those numbers

  3. Re:School::politics on Khan Academy: the Future of Taxpayer Reeducation? · · Score: 1

    Now you're talking about fair... I get it, I really do. However, the mess we're in on every front was 100 years in coming

    So tell me why my generation has to be the one to make all the sacrifices? We have the opportunity to get the previous generation to make a sacrifice simply by not honoring unfunded promises that they made to themselves on our behalf.

    Is it because that too is not fair? Really?

  4. Re:School::politics on Khan Academy: the Future of Taxpayer Reeducation? · · Score: 1

    Because that boomer is you mother. If you can't raise your parents right, don't rely on me to bail you out. Even if you weren't born yet, they were your elected representative. That your mother cold-heartedly screwed you over doesn't mean I have to drop everything to come help you.

    Are you really claiming that everyone now has to drop everything to help irresponsible people such as the boomers, but that nobody should have to lift a finger to help me?

    Seriously?

  5. Re:School::politics on Khan Academy: the Future of Taxpayer Reeducation? · · Score: 2

    It was the voters and politicians at the time that are responsible.

    You did in fact say "Then they should have voted for politicians better at negotiating contracts, and got what they deserved. The taxpayers are only paying for what was promised by their elected representatives."

    I guess what you meant to say was "The taxpayers are only paying for what was promised by someone elses elected representatives."

    The fact is that this years representatives represent those eligible to vote this year. They should not be considered to represent a child born 2 years from now, a child yet to be conceived, born of people that may not even have met yet.

    If breaking the pension promise is immoral, and passing it on to the generation after mine is immoral, and getting it passed on to my generation is immoral... then either I am immoral simply because of the choices of a generations previous to mine, or the people of a generation that didnt fund its promises are immoral.

    Clearly you agree that I cannot be immoral through no fault of my own, so in fact the baby boomers are the immoral ones. Now explain to me why they should benefit from their selfish and immoral policies that gave them lower taxes all this time while simultaneously putting my generation completely on the hook for their retirement?

    George Carlin had it right, who said that we should "kill all the baby boomers and loot their pensions and estates."

    At the very least we should turn our backs on them by not honoring their unfunded public pension liabilities. I'm not saying that we should take what they funded from them. We should give them exactly what they funded, and not a penny more, at least not under the guise of "keeping the promise." If old people end up on the streets then we can look at solving that problem in a way that doesnt reinforce empty promises. Erect cheap shelters for them, give them food stamps, and so on. They will not get the luxury of freely deciding how to spend the additional burden of the tax payers.

  6. Re:School::politics on Khan Academy: the Future of Taxpayer Reeducation? · · Score: 1

    They self-funded their retirement in the same way as someone who pays $10,000 into SS taxes while working then collects $13,600 over the rest of their lifetime.

    OK smart guy, then why are the unfunded pension liabilities so enormous?

    The fact is that government actuarial standards are different than private sector actuarial standards. What the government calls "fully funded" would be illegal in the private sector. When the government says "fully funded" they mean "future taxes."

  7. Re:School::politics on Khan Academy: the Future of Taxpayer Reeducation? · · Score: 1

    Then they should have voted for politicians better at negotiating contracts, and got what they deserved.

    You seem to miss the obvious. The pensions being paid out right now today were negotiated 40 years ago, several decades prior to the birth of some of the people now paying for them.

    This is why the pensions are out of control. Its really easy for the government to kick the can down the road and make promises for unborn people.

    If your pension was not funded all these years, then you are responsible. You had the chance to vote to make sure that it was funded. You had the chance to influence your union to make funding it a priority in the contract. You did neither, and now are trying to claim that people that werent even born yet should have voted for better politicians, but since the unborn people didnt then they are on the hook for your pension?

    You should not have the right to make promises for people that arent born yet. The fact that you did it anyways make you the shameless guilty party.

  8. Re:It's very possible on Steve Jobs Was Wrong About Touchscreen Laptops · · Score: 1

    It's not because people haven't tried.

    It was because they cost a lot more.

  9. Re:It's very possible on Steve Jobs Was Wrong About Touchscreen Laptops · · Score: 1

    I don't know what kind of a laptop do you have in mind, but on what I consider a laptop a touchscreen would be an ergonomic nightmare.

    I don't know how you use a touch-enabled laptop, but it also has a keyboard and mouse/trackpad.

    You people seem to want to believe that its a tablet with a physical keyboard, rather than a laptop with a touch screen.

    If you want a tablet, buy a tablet. If you want a laptop, why not get one with a touch screen?

    "No, I dont want a microphone on my laptop.. voice recognition sucks.. absolutely cannot have a microphone on my laptop.. its a nightmare I tell you!"

  10. Re:Jury wasn't the problem on Apple Claims Ignorance of Jury Foreman's Previous Tangle With Samsung · · Score: 2

    If there was sufficient evidence presented to them, yes, they could have found the patent invalid.

    Sufficient prior art evidence was presented to them. The foreman in question convinced the rest of the people, acting as an "expert", that prior art did not invalidate patents. Jury members other than this foreman have stated that this is exactly what happened.

  11. Re:1993? Seagate? Samsung? Srsly? on Apple Claims Ignorance of Jury Foreman's Previous Tangle With Samsung · · Score: 2

    and the odds of them swaying an entire jury are quite low if the facts presenting are overwhelming.

    You missed the opposite side of the coin. Those same individuals are also unlikely to be swayed even by overwhelming facts.

  12. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... on New Humble Bundle Is Windows Only, DRM Games · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Protesting a charity project douche no matter how well you try to color within the lines with that shit about 'indie' and 'drm.'

    Its for fucking charity, douche bag.

  13. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... on New Humble Bundle Is Windows Only, DRM Games · · Score: 1, Insightful

    What you are telling us is that you are going to vocally denounce a charity project?

    You thought the Humble Bundles were about free software, chief? They are about giving to fucking charity, you ignorant myopic twat.

  14. Re:This is a good thing on Windows Blue: Microsoft's Plan To Release a New Version of Windows Every Year · · Score: 1

    but I daresay the enterprise and OEMs (who have to support said enterprises) will scream bloody murder at being pushed in that direction...

    What are they going to do about it?

    Some of you people dont seem to understand the situation the OEMs are in. What are they going to do, start selling Linux desktops? They tried that already... maybe if the crapware they bundle had Linux versions then they wouldnt have to charge more for the box with the free OS ......

  15. Re:IPv6 was no big deal on IPv6 Deployment Picking Up Speed · · Score: 1

    only thing I had to do was check the 'enable IPv6' option in my modem/router and everything 'just worked'.

    I would have enabled it long ago 'cept my router doesnt support it, not does it support any of the alternative (open) firmwares available.. this in spite of both previous and later models of this same line of routers being supported by those alternative firmwares.

    I would buy a new router, 'cept this one works and has a decent enough range/power/sensitivity that the bedroom machine on the other side of the wet-wall and about 40 feet away doesnt have issues. It needs a reboot every month or so due to some resource leak, but thats not a good enough reason to risk playing whack-a-mole with a new router that may not work as well.

  16. Re:Will it work with glasses? on Kickstarted Oculus Rift VR Headset Shipping In March/April · · Score: 0

    How hard would it be for them to add a little program where you tell it your prescription and it fixes the video feed for you?

    Impossibly hard.

  17. Re:$1900? on Windows 8 PCs Still Throttled By Crapware · · Score: 1

    Will it have a 27" touch screen?

  18. Re:Even if this was true... on Is Intel Planning To Kill Enthusiast PCs? · · Score: 1

    Most "enthusiasts" want the latest shinies: latest USB, lasest SATA

    Thats why enthusiasts get machines with slots.

  19. Re:Even if this was true... on Is Intel Planning To Kill Enthusiast PCs? · · Score: 1

    I meant 90% of computer uses.

    So nobody can do 10% of the stuff that they used to do?

    Sure, most people don't run photoshop, and most people don't encode videos, and most people don't play video games, and most people don't ....

    The problem is that its not the same people in each group. Most people do at least one of the things that most people dont do, and you just decided that it didnt matter that most people wont be able to do their "rare thing" on ARM.

    There is a reason that most people dont buy $25 CPU's (for instance) and its not because they like wasting money. Its because that $25 CPU only does 90% of the things they need it for.. not 100%

  20. Re:America's hand is being forced... on US Scientific R&D Could Face Fiscal Cliff Doom · · Score: 1

    When the good times hit again, you start paying back

    When has that ever happened?

  21. Re:America's hand is being forced... on US Scientific R&D Could Face Fiscal Cliff Doom · · Score: 1

    The numbers are not impossible

    The numbers grow larger than the GDP.

    Also known as impossible...

  22. Re:Actually, he doesn't need the power on US Scientific R&D Could Face Fiscal Cliff Doom · · Score: 1

    The only thing that isn't straightforward is the Republican Party's rearguard action to maintain a link between tax cuts for the 2% to cuts for the 98%.

    Are you suggesting that the 28% tax bracket wasnt lowered to 25%? or the 31% bracket lowered to 28%? or ....

    ..are you also suggesting that the Alternative Minimum Tax exemption wasn't increased?

    Just to be clear, are you suggesting that I do not pay less in taxes on my median income now because of the Bush tax cuts? Are you willing to pay the difference when the tax cuts go into sunset, because clearly you insist that there isnt a difference?

  23. Re:Actually, he doesn't need the power on US Scientific R&D Could Face Fiscal Cliff Doom · · Score: 1

    To quote the NY Times, "Robert Greenstein, executive director of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities..."
    To quote Time Magizine, "As the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities put it, if Ryan's budget were enacted, ..."

    Neither of these news articles is favorable to Republicans, but both are claiming that the organization that you just cited is biased towards the left.

  24. Re:America's hand is being forced... on US Scientific R&D Could Face Fiscal Cliff Doom · · Score: 1

    And yet, each and everyone of us will be one of those "old people" looking for some security as we age.

    So go right back to appealing to emotion when the numbers make it impossible to accomplish the thing you are appealing to?

    Yes.. great logic...

  25. Re:America's hand is being forced... on US Scientific R&D Could Face Fiscal Cliff Doom · · Score: 1

    What you dont understand is that the people calling for reform here are synonymous with the people that ALREADY REFORMED YOUR SYSTEM.

    But we have these partisan pricks that argue against any reform and use a stereotypical progressive con-job to convince liberal people (note that progressive is not synonymous with liberal) that those that propose reform are just trying to kill old people, deprive people of medical treatment, and so on. There are also progressive con-jobs that convince conservative people of bad policy too (security theater, and so forth), but thats a subject for another day.

    The key evil is the idea that more spending is always better than any alternative no matter what, so here we are with $120 trillion dollars in unfunded liability tied directly to our safety net, and as you so astutely point out.. Canada has a comparable, arguably better, safety net without the looming problem.. one of the few countries that can say it. You should be cheering for the reform of our various systems.