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User: istartedi

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  1. OK, I was like, "meh", then... on UrtheCast Releases Its First Commercial Videos of Earth · · Score: 1

    OK, I was like, "meh". Traffic in Boston. Whatever. Then I noticed the hi-rises on the right... slowly moving (yes, I know the station is actually moving; but everything is relative).

  2. Re:Don't worry, they'll try again on After Uproar, Disney Cancels Tech Worker Layoffs · · Score: 2

    Like trees. Smokey the HR bear. "Only you can prevent fire fires".

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

    Uhhh... it was never cool. We're nerds. NERDS!!!

  4. Re:Mostly because our food is shit. on CDC: Americans Getting Heavier, Average Woman Weighs As Much As 1960s Man · · Score: 1

    Stop eating anything that comes in a box or Bag.

    Very well then. I'll just grab a few of these loose potatoes here... that 24 oz. steak wrapped in paper looks good, and uh... let's wash it down with a couple of those 40s over there.

  5. Old saying on Cuba's Answer To the Internet Fits In Your Pocket and Moves By Bus · · Score: 2

    "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a truck load of CD-ROMs". That's what it was when I heard it. It goes back further

  6. Re:Great on US Teen Pleads Guilty To Teaching ISIS About Bitcoin Via Twitter · · Score: 1

    I had the same knee-jerk reaction too. I blame sensationalist journalism. He isn't being thrown in prison for teaching about Bitcoin. I could publish the same thing and not go to prison. The difference? I wouldn't be doing it as part of my tech-support functions for ISIS. He's not going to prison for teaching. He's going to prison for providing support to ISIS. The teaching is just part of that.

  7. Re:1.5 Mil aint squat on Dark Net's Top Selling Drug Dealer Is Making $1.5 Million This Year · · Score: 1

    You don't even have to be all hush-hush about it. Stuff is all over the news. They busted one lousy warehouse in the Bay Area a few days ago. Estimated value: $15 million. Even if that figure is inflated, it's one grow-op in a warehouse that got careless and/or greedy and didn't hide the smell properly, and didn't have a plausible explanation for their electrical usage. There have to be a bazillion that don't get caught.

  8. Re:Commodore Amiga or Commodore PC? on Commodore PC Still Controls Heat and A/C At 19 Michigan Public Schools · · Score: 1

    PC may or may not be the PC term for this PC and its PC boards.

  9. Re:Routing around it. on Reddit Removes Communities To Address Harassment, Users Respond · · Score: 1

    OK, after sleeping on this one and reading some of the comments below I think I have a bit more sympathy for the Reddit admins... although I'm not 100% with them. First, it's their site. They can ban anybody they want for any reason. OTOH, it seems like they're being selective in their bans based on political criteria. So what this boils down to is, hold onto your hats (m'lady) here... we have the "millenials" of Reddit upset because they are... wait for it... CONSERVATIVES and Reddit is being run by what in the US we call "liberals" of the "PC speech" type.

    In other words, it's just the same old politics.

  10. Routing around it. on Reddit Removes Communities To Address Harassment, Users Respond · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Who said, "The Internet sees censorship as damage and routes around it"? Yes. It's old. You've probably heard it a million times; but it's so apropos.

  11. There are 10 kinds of pre-schoolers on San Francisco Public Schools To Require Computer Science For Preschoolers · · Score: 1

    There are 10 kinds of pre-schoolers. Those who've had enough nap time, and those who haven't.

  12. Re:AdKeeper on You'll Totally Believe Why These Startups Failed · · Score: 1

    After I posted that, I found this story about what really happened. It's an interesting read, but the tl;dr is that they did in fact totally revamp the business model and fire a whole bunch of people. They're bumping along as a smaller company with a less crazy model.

    That may not meet the criterion for these fail lists; but it certainly sounds like a failure for some VCs. The company as originally conceived certainly no longer exists; but it sounds like the corporate framework is still there. It might still have a good outcome for people that survived the layoffs, founders, and some patient investors.

  13. AdKeeper on You'll Totally Believe Why These Startups Failed · · Score: 2

    My first thought was that AdKeeper should be on the list, but apparently that turkey is still flying, albeit with what looks like a different business model.

  14. Re:I don't get the point of this thing... on Watch the US Navy Test Its Electromagnetic Jet Fighter Catapult · · Score: 1

    The carriers already use electric motors. They are however supplied with power from nuclear reactors and those reactors produce power with STEAM.

    This is true, but if you're going to transmit that power to other parts of the ship, I'm guessing that the Navy has concluded that electricity is better. A pipe that can carry enough steam to power the catapult must be pretty beefy. If a pipe fitting gets beat up when they're under attack, you have to depressurize the pipe so guys can fix it. With electricity, you can shut off with a switch, and it's cold right away. Bolt and/or solder the connection back together and turn the stuff back on. Also, I'm guessing that the wires are lighter which increases the overall performance of the ship.

  15. Re:Huh? on Why Apple and Google Made Their Own Programming Languages · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But they don't have a shortage of applicants. They actually want to narrow the field. If that were not the case, Google wouldn't have had (perhaps they still do) such a notoriously difficult interview process.

    Economies of scale are critical here. Only a handful of companies are that big, and that desirable as places to work. So for these behemoths the usual logic is inverted. For them, narrowing the field really does "help recruitment"--the semantics of that phrase are inverted when dealing with relativistic money.

  16. Re:Huh? on Why Apple and Google Made Their Own Programming Languages · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It weeds out the people who aren't fan-boy enough to become proficient in your proprietary language before you even interview them. TFA cites a lot of other reasons they wrote these languages. This one got crab-apple picked for some reason.

  17. Re:Can they compile from source? on Microsoft Lets EU Governments Inspect Source Code For Security Issues · · Score: 1

    Forgot to mention--no discussion of this is complete without bringing up Ken Thompson

  18. Re:Can they compile from source? on Microsoft Lets EU Governments Inspect Source Code For Security Issues · · Score: 1

    Came here for this. Just one thing to add. Back-doors can come from places other than the source. You need to be able to inspect the compiler too, and build it from source. You need to be able to audit MS's complete build system as well. The code has to be in the millions of lines. Even if MS gives them everything they need, I doubt these governments have the time, money, and expertise to pull off such an audit.

    Oh, and the day a patch goes out, all bets are off again.

  19. Re:I like Yahoo! for a couple of things on Yahoo Killing Maps, Pipes & More · · Score: 2

    I also enjoy tracking stocks on Yahoo portfolios. It was just a slight nick in my chest (as opposed to a stab in the heart) when they replaced the old Gnuplots with the new charts, which have less data. Maybe they were getting screwed by the data provider, and if that's the reason then I can understand that. Anyway, their portfolios and charts remain useful, and I still use them too. It's nice to be able to check stocks you own without logging into a broker, and check stuff you don't own but are thinking about--all in one glance. Unfortunately, there are sometimes errors in things such as dividend yield. You have to take anything beyond the chart and price with a grain of salt.

    The problem with Yahoo neglecting and/or killing off all these services is that while one in particular may not be the killer app that makes us stay, collectively there is something for everybody. It could be death by 1000 cuts. Really though, it seems like they're flailing around in the advertising sand-pit just like a lot of other people in the biz. You know, when you flail in a sand-pit it just gets deeper. Yahoo looks worse than others because they've been doing it longer.

  20. Re:1.5V alkaline vs 1.2v NiMH on Company Extends Alkaline Battery Life With Voltage Booster · · Score: 1

    You can go back even further than that with the PowerShot line. I have one from 2007 that works fine with NiMH.

  21. Re:who googles google? on Egyptian Repairman Outranks Google · · Score: 1

    That was always my assumption. Any software project past a certain size ends up with stuff you need but don't have time to properly classify. The "general stuff" file is always there.

  22. Re:who googles google? on Egyptian Repairman Outranks Google · · Score: 1

    Stranger still, they define all those English words in the dictionary with... English words. One of the odd things about the dictionary (at least old printed ones) is that the shorter words tend to have longer definitions. Go ahead. Look up "and", "a", "the", etc. For that matter, look up "etc." but it's probably got a much shorter definition that doesn't involve arcane linguistic terminology.

    Also, programming languages are written in themselves... but there are readily apparent underlying axioms so it seems less strange.

  23. Explaining API copyright to lawyers/judges on US Justice Department Urges Supreme Court Not To Take Up Google v. Oracle · · Score: 1

    You're honor, you probably don't want to read the case. "Why not. It's a matter of public record". Yes, but the index is copyrighted. It's $5000/copy. Good luck finding the case without the index. "$5000 per copy? That's preposterous. Indexing is trivial compared to the arguments in the case". Why yes, yes it is...

  24. Just then... on Why PowerPoint Should Be Banned · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just then there was a concussive shock. Momentarily the Post's reporter was transported into a netherworld of pounding, blinding light as his office exploded in a cloud of acrid smoke and swirling documents. He lost consciousness momentarily. When he awoke, there were several men standing over him with solemn, angry looks on their faces. Their black paramilitary uniforms were outlined in stark contrast against the white-boards and family photographs. "Who... who are you" he struggled to speak.

    "We're the Power Point Rangers".

  25. Here's a better link for an image on Galapagos Island Volcano Erupts After 33 Years, Threatening Fragile Ecosystem · · Score: 1