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User: Runaway1956

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  1. Re:Sigh... on Invasion of Ukraine Continues As Russia Begins Nuclear Weapons Sabre Rattling · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No, Putin isn't ruler of the Ukraine, any more than the US President is the ruler of Iraq, or Lebanon, or Israel, or Afghanistan. Yet, when "US interests" are threatened anywhere in the world, our troops are ready to go. Note that it doesn't require that any US troops or citizens be threatened, merely "US interests".

    Should Russia be any less timid in world affairs, than the US is? Russia had a sort of "agreement" regarding the naval bases in Crimea. Not so different from our own "agreement" regarding a certain naval base in Guantanamo. If a palace coup threatened our possession of Gitmo - what would be our reaction, do you think? Would it have been any different than Moscow's reaction to the threat of the loss of Crimea?

    Russia had MORE justification in Crimea than we would have in Gitmo, because the population of the surrounding area is more than half ethnic Russian. In Gitmo, all of the population is ethnic Cuban - few if any of whom are US citizens or former citizens.

    The issues in Donetsk and Luhansk are a bit more complicated than they were in Crimea. The population is less ethnic Russian than it is in Crimea. But, still - there IS an ethnic population - one which Porko-chenko is prepared to run roughshod over. We put a puppet in charge of Kiev, and he is behaving badly. Porko, the misbehaving puppet, sparked this revolution, after all. You can expect that sort of thing when you stage a coup. There are a lot of divided loyalties in the Ukraine, after all. Stage a coup, install a neo-fascist as your puppet, and some of those loyalties to Mother Russia are going to be reawakened.

    You're right, Putin isn't the ruler of Ukraine. But, Putin does have obligations that our own government is pretending not to understand. Our government has simply dismissed any Russian claims, and Russian loyalties of the people. In our pursuit of "US interests" we act as if nothing else matters.

    I am embarrassed at the arrogant, pompous jackasses running our government, here in the US.

    Yes, of course we have backed Putin into a corner, in more ways than one. And, personally, it would please me if Soros and the Koch brothers were to lose their entire fortunes in their little adventurism scheme. All of Wall Street should take a hit on this one.

    How are those petty little sanctions working, anyway? Has Wall Street come to understand yet, that Russia can and will feed her people, despite our impotent leadership's saber rattling?

  2. Man made global warming on Saturn's F Ring Is Now Three Times As Wide As During the Voyager Flybys · · Score: 4, Funny

    This increase in the size of the F ring is almost certainly caused by man made global warming. If we don't stop doing everything that we do, the whole solar system is likely to come tumbling down on our heads!

  3. Bad news is good news! on News Corp Australia Doesn't Want You To Look Closely At Their Financials · · Score: 2

    Any news that is bad for Rupert Murdoch is good news for the world.

  4. Re:Never mind the quantity, feel the quality on Ask Slashdot: How Dead Is Antivirus, Exactly? · · Score: 2

    Well, I'll complain that heuristics just don't seem to work. Or, at the least, I've not been exposed to a heuristics program that really works.

    The rest of your post makes sense to me. Most AV's do indeed hog resources, sometimes to the point that a rational person wonders why he even bothers.

    Common sense protections such as you mention are the first line of defense. The wife has gone back to Windows 7, after several years of Linux. She recently complained of some stupid thing or another, and during our conversation, I asked where she downloaded her software from. She DID NOT go to the developer's site to download directly in several instances. She mentioned CNET among other download sources. Geez, Louise! Where else did you download from? "I can't remember, I just did a Google search and downloaded stuff!"

    I'm still on Linux. I almost never install anything that doesn't come directly from a Debian or a Sabayon repository. Can't trust anyone these days! Best practices are well worth observing - even though I'm the only user on this machine, I haven't given myself any administrative rights. When I want to do anything, I have to sudo the privileges - then I revoke those privileges immediately after I finish.

    Compare that to Windows users who log on as "Owner" or "Administrator" routinely, LMAO. They are just begging to be owned!

  5. Re:Never mind the quantity, feel the quality on Ask Slashdot: How Dead Is Antivirus, Exactly? · · Score: 2

    GP's question is a good analogy. Police can only solve crimes that have been committed. Antivirus only fixes problems that have already been identified.

  6. Re:What is this be 'magic shop'? on Fugitive Child Sex Abuser Caught By Face-Recognition Technology · · Score: 2

    No spells, I don't think. What we refer to as "magic" here in the US is simply sleight-of-hand. I've never visited a "magic shop", but I would expect to find top hats with secret compartments, costumes, literal smoke and mirrors, special decks of cards, loaded dice, the boxes and saws used to "saw people in half". There would probably be books detailing how to make these tricks work. Such books would emphasize the importance of distracting the audience' attention away from the trickery, toward something else, such as a beautiful, scantily clad young lady.

    For spells, you would probably visit a book shop that specializes in occult writings.

  7. Re:Where? on Fugitive Child Sex Abuser Caught By Face-Recognition Technology · · Score: 2

    Apparently, you don't understand the term "political asylum".

  8. Re:The DHS Is On The Case on Lionsgate Sues Limetorrents, Played.to, and Others Over Expendables 3 Leak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, the question is still, "WTF is a civil suit being investigated and prosecuted by the FEDERAL FUCKING GOVERNMENT!?!?!"

  9. Re:Time Shifting? on Ford, GM Sued Over Vehicles' Ability To Rip CD Music To Hard Drive · · Score: 1

    Major company? If you say so.

    Meanwhile, visit their site and let them know what you think about them.

    I told them they are a bunch of goober smooching douches, and left the link to this discussion.

  10. Re:Great... on Satellite Images Show Russians Shelling Ukraine · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You are correct, that the evidence is rather flimsy. Hence, my decision that we need conclusive evidence. All we have is an accumulation of circumstantial evidence so far, and that provided by "our side" is no better than that provided by "their side".

    But, in all of this, I keep coming back to the fact that a president was deposed, and another president installed - that president largely relying on some "irregular" forces who keep order in the realm. And, everywhere you look, are western investors who have financial interest in the region.

    I remain quite suspicious of Kiev - although I'm not yet willing to state anything like "Kiev did it in an attempt to gain world support for a genocidal campaign in the east of the country." Not willing to commit myself to such a statement yet, but I'm leaning that way.

  11. Re:Great... on Satellite Images Show Russians Shelling Ukraine · · Score: -1, Troll

    I'll match American propaganda with some Russian propaganda. Please, actually READ IT? Huh? Willya please?

    http://21stcenturywire.com/201...

    I can't say WHO shot that airliner out of the sky, because there is no CONCLUSIVE evidence yet. But, there's a helluva lot of circumstantial evidence that points at Kiev.

    Do you have any idea why Kiev had fighter jets shadowing that airliner? Neither do I, but that's a question that needs to be answered. And, why did Kiev order the airliner to alter it's filed flight plan, flying a couple hundred miles north of the normal flight path?

    There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, and I'm pretty sure that some of those answers will be "Well, we've invested so much money into the Ukraine, we can't abandon the plan!"

  12. Unfortunately not. What is going to happen is, a bunch of marketing clowns are going to latch onto that term, and publicize it far and wide before the year is out.

  13. Re:Youtube Comments on Pseudonyms Now Allowed On Google+ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    On this subject, you and I are in complete agreement. If I want an "experience", I'll put some music on, or a video, or a game. Almost nothing else on my computer should be an "experience" at all. Just serve up the information, and let me get to it, thank you very much. Didn't the world almost unanimously reject Clippy? Someone should have learned from Microsoft's mistake.

  14. Re:Youtube Comments on Pseudonyms Now Allowed On Google+ · · Score: 1

    In fact, all of my posts that I have ever made on any Google service has been pseudonymous. I had an exchange of messages with Google over my names. They really, really, REALLY wanted to know my real name, and for me to use it on Google. I hemmed, and hawed, made some excuses, told a couple lies, and they weren't buying. My final message on the subject flat out stated that I've lived a long life, and in that time, I have made a lot of friends, and some enemies. Stated that I had NO INTENTION of putting my real identity online for those enemies to find. SOME OF THEM might just show up at my door, loaded for bear.

    They stopped bothering me, and they never deleted my account - so, I guess that one or more decision makers decided I had given a pretty good excuse.

    Never mind that the excuse is 80% or more bullshit. Of course I've made some enemies. But I don't really think that any of them would come shoot me. Or - - - - would they?

  15. Re:Slow news day? on Walter Munk's Astonishing Wave-Tracking Experiment · · Score: 2

    http://www.surfline.com/surf-s...

    Two somewhat informative videos here - it's the best I got in a quick google.

  16. Re:So DON'T GIVE CHASE on Police Recording Confirms NYPD Flew At a Drone and Never Feared Crashing · · Score: 2

    The US was beginning to move in that direction several years back. My memory is a bit foggy - it seems like California was leading the way, and maybe a couple of New England states. Time frame would have been the latter half of the '90's. Then, 9/11/01 happened, and cops were given carte blanche. At some point, fleeing and evading the police was made a felony, so that a cop could just shoot to kill anyone who attempted to flee.

    IMHO, giving chase is often justified - but no one can justify chasing a bad guy into and through a school zone, or a hospital zone at insane speeds.

  17. The cop decided to take the risk of exceeding any given speed, not you. YOU are only guilty of the speed at which you were driving. The cop is entirely responsible for his own actions.

    Question - have you never witnessed police speeding for mundane reasons? No siren, no lights flashing, they're just driving along. I've seen them fly through villages with speed limits of 35, doing double the speed limit.

    Cops routinely break the law in most of the US, all on their own initiative.

  18. You ain't very bright. I stated that they gave chase, not that you were running. I used 80 or 90 mph as an example, precisely because those speeds are only a little bit over the legal speed limits in many places. So, you meet a cop on the interstate, doing around 80 - in many places that is just ten mile over the speed limit. The cop drives across the median, does his U-turn, and gives chase. HE EXCEEDS 100 MPH, so he tells the judge that the "chase" exceeded 100 mph, in an effort to make the arrest sound much more serious than a similar arrest in a 35 mph zone.

    As for "running away from the cops" - well, maybe I have done that. You don't do it in the family car though. And, "speeds over 100 mph" are meaningless terms on/in any vehicle capable of outrunning a police car. The term "speeds in excess of 175" might make sense then, except very, very, VERY few police cars are capable of that.

    Youtube has a number of videos attributed to "Ghost Rider". You might find them interesting. Note that not all of those videos are of the "real" Ghost Rider, but some of the false attributions are as good as the real ones.

  19. Re:So on Police Recording Confirms NYPD Flew At a Drone and Never Feared Crashing · · Score: 5, Interesting

    *sigh* I just wasted moderator points - just posting to negate the effects . . . .

    Since I'm here, I'll point out that cops do the same thing on the ground. They chase you, maybe you're doing 80 or 90, but the cop exceeds 100 mph catching up to you. The police report states that the chase exceeded 100 mph, and the judge looks at that, and throws several books at you.

    It would be great if cops were trustworthy.

  20. Re:it depends on what "skilled worker" means. on No Shortage In Tech Workers, Advocacy Groups Say · · Score: 1

    "Did you consider the possibility that there really is something wrong with the part? Not everything is a false positive."

    "So what? It isn't hard nor a skilled task. Train people to do it."

    Well, DUHHHH! Maintenance and tooling has so many manhours available each week. They have so much work to do that they never catch up. You are suggesting that they have the added responsibility of TRAINING some clown off of the street how to do a moderately complex job? What world do you live in? It is the job of MANAGEMENT to hire and/or to train QUALIFIED PERSONNEL to perform QC tasks.

    It is never the responsibility of tooling to fix the fool who cannot read a caliper - that is the job of either HR or the clowns in charge of QC.

  21. Re:it depends on what "skilled worker" means. on No Shortage In Tech Workers, Advocacy Groups Say · · Score: 2

    No, none were making parts for us. The plant in Mississippi was kind of a sister plant to us - they made similar products, many of them going to the same customers. When that plant finally closed, their tools and equipment came to us, and we took over their production, in addition to our own. The products made on those machines weren't especially profitable, but we made some profit on them, whereas the management in Miss. consistently lost money on the same tools.

    The plant in St. Louis was intended to feed us metal parts, but it never did. Damned near half of everything they sent us was out of spec, we rejected the stuff, and bought from another supplier instead. That plant was a money hemorrhage. The other plants were totally unrelated to our production, and I can't really say what they did, how, or why - all I know is that every time anyone mentioned money, or raises, we got speeches about all the plants always losing money, blah blah blah.

  22. Re:Context ffs on The View From Inside A Fireworks Show · · Score: 1

    The discussion seemed to me to involve the concept of destroying an aircraft with a quadracopter. The idea was pooh-poohed because jets have multiple engines. I proved that not all jets have multiple engines.

    If someone were intent on destroying an aircraft, why would he necessarily restrict himself to large commercial aircraft? I could easily set up a command post near an airport, put my copter in the air, and wait for a single engine craft to make a flyby, or try to land. If I'm really good, and really lucky, I crash the small jet, and it goes into another, larger jet, or into a fuel depot, or even into the boarding lobbies.

    OR, I can hover around, waiting for an aircraft to take off, and nail it when it is pointed in the direction of a downtown area. Even a small jet can cause considerable damage if it crashes into a high rise office building.

    OR, I can hang around a military base, and crash a jet taking off, bringing it down in rush hour traffic, similar to what happened outside Oceania Airbase in Virginia several years ago.

    In the hands of an imaginative terrorist who thinks outside the box, this could be a very useful tool.

  23. Re:it depends on what "skilled worker" means. on No Shortage In Tech Workers, Advocacy Groups Say · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That is a common problem, nationwide today. When companies go bankrupt, it seldom has anything to do with the employees. That is especially true when there is no union to protect incompetent or lazy employees. Companies tank every day it seems - and management always cites problems caused by employees. That is true in high tech, low tech, and everything in between.

    We just experienced a takeover. Call it hostile, or not - fact is, management ran the company into the ground in a number of ways. A decade of neglect in maintenance resulted in a number of machines that require overhauls costing nearly half of their new purchase price. The new owners certainly don't WANT to spend that money, but they are spending.

    Quality control? The company's weakest point - we simply don't have people qualified to read micrometers or calipers. They find parts that don't guage, and immediately QC calls on maintenance and tooling to "fix it". Well - fuck me running - I can't fix an incompetent fool who can't read a precision measuring instrument! But, the new owners are almost as bad as the old - they won't HIRE qualified personnel to read those instruments! They seem to believe that a ten dollar employee off of the street can do the job of a thirty or fifty dollar trained and experienced person! The QC people aren't even the best of the people available - the jobs are put up for bid, and the people with the flappiest gums get the job. Bidding? Might as well just admit that nepotism rules, and not bother with the bidding process.

    To put things in perspective - the old owners had plants in 5 different states. Each of the other plants consistently lost money. Our plant consistently MADE MONEY, despite mismanagement. Quarter after quarter, the accountants posted profits from our plant. In effect, we carried four other money losing plants for years. The owners could never bring themselves to unload the money losers, instead taking the profits we earned to shore up the other plants. They followed that policy until bankruptcy put them out of the game completely.

    How much more incompetent can any group of managers be?

  24. Re:Two sides to every issue on No Shortage In Tech Workers, Advocacy Groups Say · · Score: 1

    Keep
    It
    Simple
    Stupid

    It works.

  25. Re:Illegal and Dangerous? on The View From Inside A Fireworks Show · · Score: 1

    http://planes.findthebest.com/...

    http://planes.findthebest.com/...

    If you prefer a commercial or private jet example, this should work.

    http://planes.findthebest.com/...

    I think that twin engine jets are most common, there are triple engine jets out there, and quads aplenty in the larger craft. But, yes, there are single jet engine aircraft.