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User: thedonger

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  1. Re:It really doesn't matter on Political Polls Become Less Reliable As We Head Into 2016 Presidential Election · · Score: 1

    So, you're saying the media backed Bush both times? That's so weird, I'd heard rumors they had a liberal bias.

    Gore and Kerry were not compelling candidates. Gore at least had some coattails to ride on.

  2. Re:It really doesn't matter on Political Polls Become Less Reliable As We Head Into 2016 Presidential Election · · Score: 1

    >Obama: 874.6 million >Romney: 844.6 million

    You must be a libertarian if you think $30 million is a lot of money. Reps and Dems write checks for $30 billion without blinking.

  3. Re:Rule #1 on Ask Slashdot: How Effective Is Your ISP's Spam Filter? · · Score: 1

    Rule #2: ?

    Rule #3: Profit.

  4. Re:Say Good By to the Rainforests .... on FDA Bans Trans Fat · · Score: 1

    What are you going to do about the the people who can't afford your expensive, low yielding sustainable foods?

    You aren't going deep enough. The food system is a symptom of a much larger issue. If we continue to organize ourselves into individual units rather than functional communities, then $0.99/lb chicken thighs will become nutritious paste supplied by the government, deepening the schism between the Haves and Have Nots, ultimately leading to totalitarian government mandating everyone eats only nutritious paste, or revolution/civil war.

    "Sustainable" food is expensive. In part because factory farms are unrealistically cheap; but, also because the market will bear those prices. If we truly were organized as small communities (like communes but with showering and no drum circles) then I think people with money would find voluntary and sensible means to redistribute their (relative) wealth. Unfortunately, we seem to be moving toward stacking ourselves in high rises (again, one day when it is deemed unfair that I can afford a house and someone else can't, we'll all be forced to live in gov't approved high rises), all the while becoming more isolated.

  5. Re:Smart Sports on Baseball Team Hacks Another Team's Networks, FBI Investigates · · Score: 1

    I actually find baseball fascinating, and I like most sports as I play several at least well enough to not look like a complete buffoon. Baseball on television can be really boring, but playing it is great. I find it unique in that even though it is a team sport, much of the action is strictly individual. And like you point out, it isn't just throw ball/hit ball/catch ball; a lot goes into just knowing when to swing, seeing as the ball is coming at you so fast that you have to decide moments after release.

    And the application of metrics is interesting, although at some point - if not already - I'm sure there will be a science of counter-metrics.

  6. Re:Say Good By to the Rainforests .... on FDA Bans Trans Fat · · Score: 1

    I'm sure someone will weigh in, pointing out that shareholder value demands frosting in a can, at the expense of our global carbon sink. Please. Go ahead and make that point.

    I'm not going to make that point. What I will say is this: As a regulation it becomes yet another thing we blindly follow.

    People need to learn how and why to make good choices. For many of the same reasons $0.99 per pound chicken thighs should also be made illegal. It represents an unreasonable price, and to reach that price many bad practices are in play for the environment, the chickens, and often the workers.

    We act like we are going to destroy the planet. We're not. We're going to destroy ourselves, and the planet will live on. Even if we kill off what we perceive as "most life on the planet," it will no doubt be a fraction of actual life, and the planet will be better off for it. We're a blip on the radar; if we can't as a civilization learn to eat, maybe it's time we faded out.

  7. Re:Say Good By to the Rainforests .... on FDA Bans Trans Fat · · Score: 1

    you spoke of regulation as a good thing, therefore you got modded to 0 by some of our resident slashbertarians. if I had the points I would mod you up and cancel it out.

    Unless the topic is Uber, in which case pro-regulation posts get modded up.

  8. Interesting on Baseball Team Hacks Another Team's Networks, FBI Investigates · · Score: 3, Funny

    Right up until the point you said "baseball." In the title.

  9. Re:Diminishing Returns on The Words That Indicate Malicious Domain URLs · · Score: 1

    This kind of research is almost self-defeating.

    I feel the same way about stock market prediction.

  10. Re:Neat, but... on Monitoring Brain Activity With Mesh Electronics · · Score: 1

    ... ideally what we really need to get to eventually is the point where we can read all neurons at the same time. Injectable meshes aren't going to cut it for that.

    Already been done: https://youtu.be/Skxhii6VFdo

  11. Re:run this one by me again? on Uber's Rise In China May Be Counterfeit · · Score: 2

    so the purveyors of unlicensed, unregulated public transportation services by potentially non directly employed third party contractors not required to submit to drug or background checks is complaining their service, which has been banned in spain, thailand, india and briefly germany, is being bilked for incentive payments in a country with markets for such exotiques as recycled cooking oil rendered from waste food. I guess the best solution could be to stop running an unregulated, unlicensed transit network thats been charged of raping and assaulting passengers in the past...or i guess just try another country and see if the idea of ayn rand on wheels works any better.

    Regardless of your obvious bias against Uber, if said non directly employed third parties and/or passengers enter into agreements (e.g., TOS, etc.) and then purposefully violate said agreements, Uber is justified in trying to combat said violations.

  12. "From Microsoft Researchers" on Microsoft Research Paper Considers Serving Web-ads From Localhost · · Score: 2, Insightful

    More like, "From the Microsoft Marketing Department." Unless I'm missing something, this is just bundling "safe" adware as part of Windows. Hmm, maybe Ubuntu will have new life breathed into it.

  13. Re:One word summary. on Writer: "Why I Defaulted On My Student Loans" · · Score: 1

    As myself and others have stated, the problem isn't that, for example, a Master of Philosophy degree is only for the wealthy. The problem is that the willingness and ability to get massive student loans allows schools to charge exorbitant fees.

    I'm on the fence as to whether or not the US government should subsidize some or all undergraduate education. My feeling is that our federal spending is so outrageously out of hand these days that first we need to get our fiscal house in order. I might be inclined to agree now to free associates degrees for all so that people can get a head start on college without having to also work full time.

  14. Re:Social mobility was killed, but not this way on Writer: "Why I Defaulted On My Student Loans" · · Score: 4, Insightful

    However, given that university education costs have risen more rapidly in recent years than anything else in our economic oeuvre, including healthcare, shows that something is really wrong with the system, and some serious checks and balances are needed, specifically in terms of real competition.

    The price of a college education -- let's just say 4-year bachelor's degree -- isn't the problem. Rather, it is a symptom of both the ability to get a large student loan, and desire for a traditional, 4-year degree.

    As an analog, consider the housing market: The value of a house is what someone is willing to pay for it, and what someone is willing to pay for it is a factor of their assumption about its future value and their ability to fund the purchase with money they don't already have.

    I graduated college with no student loan debt; however, I sure would like forgiveness on my house that is worth 10% less than I paid for it. Do I deserve it? No. I chose to put on the rose colored, things will always be worth more in the future glasses.

  15. Re:Security theatre. on US Airport Screeners Missed 95% of Weapons, Explosives In Undercover Tests · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... breaks the banking system.

    That's adorable. Banks don't break; they just pat themselves on the back with another bonus pass the failures along to us common folk.

    If the government would just let them fail they might stop getting bonuses.

    As for passing the failure along to "us common folk," that is, for the most part, our own doing because we have bought into the system. To be fair, it was an easy system to buy into, and it was supposedly safe under government scrutiny. Ultimately, we bought the lie; question is, how do we avoid buying into a new one?

  16. Re:Security theatre. on US Airport Screeners Missed 95% of Weapons, Explosives In Undercover Tests · · Score: 2

    In Boston, the MBTA have a theater troupe which setups up at one station each day and insists on swabbing bags for explosives, but of course, if you don't want to be swabbed, you can just walk out and walk the 15 minutes (if that) to the next station.

    I ain't lettin' no goddamned mime swab my bag!

  17. Typo? on Blackberry Defeats Typo In Court, Typo To Discontinue Sales of Keyboard · · Score: 3, Funny

    I really wanted the article title to read "Blackberry Defeats Typo In Court, Typo To Discontinue Sales of Keeboard"

  18. ...or one who is constantly checking Twitter and Facebook on their phone.

    "...lol i luv catz 2 oops patient bled out fml"

  19. Re: Uber should start using on Uber Revises Privacy Policy, Wants More Data From Users · · Score: 1

    Or I was joking.

  20. Re:Spikes on Florida Hospital Shows Normal Internet Lag Time Won't Affect Remote Robotic Surgeries · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sounds good until you hit a latency spike. I'd hate to be getting sutured up and see the ping times climb to 2000 ms.

    Maybe they should queue up sets of movements that are dependent. It would also suck if the internet connection dropped right after a cut but before the bleeding could be stopped. Although I'm sure they have physical staff present in case of emergency.

  21. Re:WTF? on Uber Revises Privacy Policy, Wants More Data From Users · · Score: 1

    Sounds like in addition to being just a dispatcher for illegal cabs, Uber is also a bunch of self entitled assholes who want to spam your friends.

    No, it's basically a bunch of Wall Street weenies riding the overinflated 'valuation' bubble.

    Maybe they have had so much exposure based on bad publicity that they decided to make it standard operating procedure? They don't need to spam your friends because the internet is spamming the internet with talk of Uber.

  22. Re:WTF? on Uber Revises Privacy Policy, Wants More Data From Users · · Score: 1

    No, they should start spamming the *friends and family* of the owners of Uber with eggs.

    Is that spam and eggs; spam, spam, spam and eggs; or, spam, spam, spam, spam, eggs, and spam?

  23. Re: Uber should start using on Uber Revises Privacy Policy, Wants More Data From Users · · Score: 2

    Does this also include the uber app that at&t pushed onto my phone as a non removable system app? There are NO UBER DRIVERS in upstate, backwoods New York

    I smell opportunity!

  24. Re:some pundits on MIT Trains Robots To Jump · · Score: 1

    Poacher Virus, anyone?

  25. Re:Time for a change? on Elon Musk Establishes a Grade School · · Score: 1

    Perhaps, but leaving them together doesn't teach that lesson. Instead, it teaches that being smart is good way to get a beating and that the authorities aren't there to help you.

    Again, that is how it happens within the current system. We all played nice together until some of us became the smart kids, and then suddenly we were different because we were treated differently, and because not being one of the smart kids became a stigma. We're not going to hash out the solution in the comments section on Slashdot; but, please open your mind to the possibility that another way exists.