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User: Macgruder

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  1. Kodi Rebrands Itself on April Fool's Day Roundup · · Score: 3

    https://kodi.tv/article/kodi-n...

    "As such, starting today, we are officially changing our name back to XBMC.

    But we're not stopping there. We've had a good long run being a multi-platform system, but at the end of the day covering six or more platforms has become far too much of a stress. Android support alone taxes our resources in a way no volunteer development team can ever reasonably be expected to handle. And all the other platforms just makes this worse. So, in an executive decision that we believe the entire community will support, we at Team XBMC have decided to fully embrace our roots.

    Starting today, we would like to announce that we are exclusively supporting only the Xbox One"

  2. Re:Commodore Vic 20 on Ask Slashdot: What Was Your First Home Computer? · · Score: 1

    Hey, i resemble that statement.

  3. VIC-20 on Ask Slashdot: What Was Your First Home Computer? · · Score: 1

    My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20, as a 13th b-day gift. With a tape drive. And 2.5 Kb RAM. I learned a lot about computers and programming in general from that.

    A year later I worked all summer and bought my own C-64. 4 years later I had an Amiga 1000.

  4. When and Why... on Jet Strikes Drone Near Heathrow Airport (marketwatch.com) · · Score: 1

    Did radio control airplanes suddenly be renamed 'Drones' ?

    To me, a drone indicates some kind of AI or autopilot capability. Is that no longer an accurate definition ?

  5. Umm.. Cars? on The Most Disruptive Technology of the Last 100 Years Isn't What You Think · · Score: 1

    Nothing has altered the framework of the US like the automobile. Manufacturing, finance, marketing, engineering, regulations, architecture, social mating..... All of them have undergone revolutionary transformations in the post WWII years. Only the existence of the internet has come close (and may someday surpass) to being as disruptive.

  6. Re: Whats wrong with US society on Privately Owned Armored Trucks Raise Eyebrows After Dallas Attack · · Score: 1

    Americans need to accept that some people just shouldn't have access to such deadly weapons. The constitution even says so - you can bare arms as part of a well organized militia

    People need to accept that that's not what the Constitution means or how it's been interpreted by SCOTUS.

    "A well regulated Library, being necessary to the education of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Book, shall not be infringed.", can in no way be parsed to prohibit the possession of books.

  7. Re: Oh, Okay on Hugo Awards Turn (Even More) Political · · Score: 1

    My understanding it was the slate last year that started the ball rolling with 'Advocate for an Agenda' and this years Sad Puppies group was a backlash against perceived vote-rigging.

  8. Re:Nuclear Attack on Will Submarines Soon Become As Obsolete As the Battleship? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That is the primary mission of the Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine ("Boomers"), but there are the guided missile and the attack submarines in the US fleet as well. Their primary purpose is to deny a potential adversary the use of their seapower. Some commentator once said "A submarine can't perform every naval mission, but it can prevent the enemy from performing ANY naval mission".

  9. Re:MAD on Will Submarines Soon Become As Obsolete As the Battleship? · · Score: 2

    I'll just point out the Tomahawk submarine launched missiles do have a tactical nuclear package option.

    I can neither confirm nor deny whether any of those packages have ever been deployed.

  10. Re:A felon with misdemeanor convictions on Ask Slashdot: Can a Felon Work In IT? · · Score: 1

    Most states return the right to vote upon completion of the sentence, parole, or probation. A couple states never remove the rights. Then there a few that require a petition from the felon to consider restoring some rights. Some serious crimes, like murder, rape, etc... bar you for life from voting.

  11. Re:Actually the correct fix is far fewer words on Retired SCOTUS Justice Wants To 'Fix' the Second Amendment · · Score: 1

    'A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.'

    I changed two words, which have no affect the grammar of the structure at all.

    "A well regulated Library, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Books shall not be infringed."

    There is no way you can parse that statement to enforce the idea that ONLY a Library can have books.

    So why do people insist on twisting the original wording so it somehow restricts arms to a milita?

  12. Trial, Then Commuted Sentence on Ask Slashdot: What Does Edward Snowden Deserve? · · Score: 1

    There's a strong case that he broke the law and committed treason.

    Charge him, try him.

    Then, if he's found guilty, commute his sentence to whatever time was served during the trial. No pardon. He's still a felon. The give him a beer and throw him a party.

    Maybe some administration in the future can pardon him, when he's on death's door.

    Face it. He did some wrong For the right reasons, perhaps, but he still did something wrong. That should not affect the guilt or innocence finding, but rather the severity of the sentence.

  13. Re:XBMC ftw on Ask Slashdot: Suggestions For a Simple Media Server? · · Score: 2

    I have an Acer 3-core low profile PC w/ Win 7 that runs XBMC 12. The same app is on both of my tablets (Nexus 10). The media is stored on D-Link NAS drives and is accessible across the network from anywhere in my home. Works awesome. Setup was as simple as specifying the SMB path to the NAS, and letting XBMC run it's media scraper to collect all the file names. I have a large collection of digitized anime, and XBMC handles handles MKV files with subtitles and dual audio as well.

    With the full range of plugins that can be added to XBMC, I use to to play my Hulu+ and Amazon Prime. I've seen plugins for the BBC iPlayer, but as I'm not in the UK I can't access it.

    XBMC rocks.

  14. Re:It's about time! on Man Shot To Death For Texting During Movie · · Score: 1

    I'm not trying to spin anything. If anything I'm trying to unspin things by pointing out we don't have all all the information yet.

  15. Re:It's about time! on Man Shot To Death For Texting During Movie · · Score: 1

    Thank you for your kind wishes and I in turn wish for you to have joy and happiness in the days to come

  16. Re:It's about time! on Man Shot To Death For Texting During Movie · · Score: 2

    And if that's the extent of it, I agree. I believe that the use of potentially deadly force is only justified when that same force is first used against you, or you're in immediate and imminent danger of having it being used against you.

    So far, nothing in this story leads me to believe that was the case. But we'll see what, if any, new information comes out.

  17. Re:It's about time! on Man Shot To Death For Texting During Movie · · Score: 4, Informative

    2 things - 1) It was reported that the texting itself occured during the preview trailers, not the movie itself. I've often done that myself, check e-mail and and such during previews, share the information, coordinate schedule with other people who may be attending the movie with us as well. I do agree that once the movie starts, then the phone needs to be put away and put on silent.

    2) Other outlets are now reporting that the argument was escalated by the shooting victim, with him yelling at the shooter for 'telling on him', then escalated it further into the physical realm. I suppose at that point I can see how the older man (71) was feeling physically threatened by the younger (43) and felt he had to take immediate action to protect himself.

    I'm not saying that's exactly what happened here. I am pointing out that information is still being developed and details are still coming out. It's forlorn hope I admit, but I'd like to think that we could all dial down the outrage until all the facts are learned, then castigate the guilty party(ies) and not just vent uncontrollably based on our own immediate perceptions.

  18. Re:"News for nerds??" on Federal Judge Rules Chicago's Ban On Licensed Gun Dealers Unconstitutional · · Score: 0

    we need to stop...all of us...everyone is in favor of some kind of 'gun control'...as in no one believes, rationally, that Americans should be allowed to own/operate any kind of weaponry without limit

    Stealing form MZW:

    "The Constitution has a section about "letters of marque and reprisal." This means it was understood and accepted that people owned private warships WITH CANNON as a common event, and that Congress should have the power to offer them pay as mercenarieswhen needed."

    So yes. Any weapon that government obtains and employs for it's military or police force, it should moral and legal for me to maintain in my own right.

    In a system of government "of the people, by the people, for the people", there is nothing the government can do which should not be legal to do myself.

  19. Re:Took them long enough... on Federal Judge Rules Chicago's Ban On Licensed Gun Dealers Unconstitutional · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://images.sodahead.com/polls/003486041/3232273818_16617_10151205510904296_1916430268_n_answer_2_xlarge.jpeg

    Nuff said...

    Funny picture. But wrong.

    "10 U.S. Code 311 - Militia: composition and classes
        (a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
    (b) The classes of the militia are—
    (1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
    (2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.

  20. Re:Futility of certain laws on Sen. Chuck Schumer Seeks To Extend Ban On 'Undetectable' 3D-Printed Guns · · Score: 1

    Your scenario falls apart at one key point.

    It's perfectly legal to make a firearm without serial numbers, no matter the materials used. It's illegal to sell or otherwise transfer possession of said firearm without those serial numbers.

  21. Re:Winter Storm Atlas on A Year After Sandy, Do You Approach Disaster Differently? · · Score: 1

    In theory, that's exactly what should happen. In practice, it's a little more problematic as the servers are doing various things and we need to ensure that those processes exit gracefully before the server closes down.

  22. Re:Winter Storm Atlas on A Year After Sandy, Do You Approach Disaster Differently? · · Score: 1

    It wasn't an issue of fuel. We don't have a generator, just a large bank of batteries.

  23. Winter Storm Atlas on A Year After Sandy, Do You Approach Disaster Differently? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Earlier this month Atlas struck the Black Hills of South Dakota. 4-8 inches of snow were forecast for the higher elevations (5000+ feet), but here on the foot hills at 3500', we got 31" of snow. It was a wet, heavy snow that snapped power lines and tree limbs. 60+ mph winds made for zero visability and took out a large number of power poles.

    Our little datacenter lost utility power Friday evening, and promptly switched to UPS, which had a lifespan of about 2 hours. Power was restored after 85 minutes, but the decision was made to power off all the servers in case we lost power again, with an eye towards starting recovery procedures in a day or two. The data center was restored to full functionality by Sunday noon, even though the businesses didn't re-open until Monday noon.

    We have a complete DR plan, so if the outage persisted for another day, we could have resumed operations at a sister site. The key takeaways here were backup validation for off-site replication, lines of communication between Operations and the affected managers, and validated, sequenced shut-down and power-on check-list. I was able to get on-site through the storm thanks to my big 4x4 and coordinate the shutdown and power-on processes. Without being onsite, we would have had some more challenges due to area wide loss of network connectivity.

  24. So? on Orson Scott Card Pleads 'Tolerance' For Ender's Game Movie · · Score: 1

    I've stopped giving a rat's ass about the opinions of someone just because they happen to be an athletic / film / writer / etc persona. Unless in the very rare case they're actually talking about their chosen profession.

  25. Re:Well thats a first on Tour of the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab · · Score: 1

    Gives me hope that something worthwhile can finally come from that side of the state.

    Ouch. Admittedly, Rapid City is not a technological Mecca.

    But I've worked and lived in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Pittsbugh, PA, before moving to Rapid City. And the only thing I miss is Ikea.