Slashdot Mirror


User: istartedi

istartedi's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
5,916
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 5,916

  1. Any precedent? on China's Island Factory · · Score: 1

    Is there any precedent for a country to create new land like this, and claim territory around it? If international law is good for anything, it seems like this would be a good time to cite it.

  2. Re:Before and After on Apple Announces Smartwatch, Bigger iPhones, Mobile Payments · · Score: 2

    Wow. I was rather embarrassed over not having read TFA and everybody pointing out the finger-print thing. After reading your post I think I'm standing up pretty good by comparison.

  3. Before and After on Apple Announces Smartwatch, Bigger iPhones, Mobile Payments · · Score: -1, Troll

    Before: That guy has an iPhone that I can fence for $100, and maybe he has about $100 in cash.

    After: That guy has an iPhone with a credit limit in that's probably in the $1000s, and I can buy stuff with that until he wakes up in a ditch.

  4. Drake's equation for getting the job? on Unpopular Programming Languages That Are Still Lucrative · · Score: 1

    E*D*M*T*P*J*

    Where E=documented experience, D=degree or other credential, M=motivation, T=talent, P=practice, and J= the number of jobs available.

    If you have a really high E for COBOL, maybe it will overcome the low J. Same deal with a lot of these other unpopular languages. That's not to say "life" won't develop on some unlikely "planet", but it's not the best place to look.

    Standard disclaimer: I'm leaving out some factors, and any ridiculous inference you've just made is not what I meant to imply.

  5. Oh, correction. on AT&T Says 10Mbps Is Too Fast For "Broadband," 4Mbps Is Enough · · Score: 0

    Just for the heck of it, I tried speed test to see what I was actually getting. It was 5.8mbps down/1.24mbps up. Now that I come to think of it, even though my plan was purchased at 3mpbs, they doubled everybody for free recently.

    So. Not really upset by my bandwidth and rate caps--they are easy to track and I'm generally 10-15% usage at the end of the month. I'm more upset by them modifying content (e.g., redirecting dns to their search and blocking some sites without saying why). I'm also just a bit annoyed by them not sending a bill; but I discovered that when my service was cut off all I had to do is call them. They used caller ID to pull up the account, asked me to key in a verification, and then took my payment without me having to talk to a human being. The Internet was back on as soon as I got off the phone. It was stupid and smart at the same time--they should have sent me a billing reminder, but they recovered in a very astute way. This reminds me, I should probably call them and check my account st... NO CARRIER.

  6. Re:Sorry guys, but you are full of shit on AT&T Says 10Mbps Is Too Fast For "Broadband," 4Mbps Is Enough · · Score: 2

    I'm on 3mbps and unless I'm really pushing the quality of the video I find that the network isn't what's slowing me down. It's the software. Lately for some strange reason I've noticed that YouTube works better with Firefox than it does on Chrome. Some Chrome update in the past few weeks must have left in debug code or something. It chokes every 5 seconds, just freezes and becomes unresponsive. Firefox plays the video just fine. Once again though, I'm not pushing the quality. I guess if I were trying to push 1080p through this thing I'd care; but I don't.

  7. Hmmm... tough call on Microsoft Takes Down Slideshow-Building Tool After Getty Images Lawsuit · · Score: 4, Funny

    On the one hand, it's Getty images. On the other, they're reducing the number of slide shows. Sorry. I have to side with Getty on this one. Anything that reduces the number of slideshows in the 'net is good.

  8. Re:It's not just a fish cannon. on Restoring Salmon To Their Original Habitat -- With a Cannon · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's an eagle entertainment device.

    This bears watching to see what happens.

  9. Re:dafuq are pecions? on FAA Scans the Internet For Drone Users; Sends Cease and Desist Letters · · Score: 2

    I don't know, but I hope we don't have to send troops back to Dafuq.

  10. Re:Civet Poop on Scientists Sequence Coffee Genome, Ponder Genetic Modification · · Score: 1

    If you're going to go that far, just put coffee bean genes in the civet so that the actual poop can be used to make a tasty brew. For that matter, why bother with a civet? Do that to dogs. No more trouble getting people to bag their dog crap.

  11. That's funny on UCLA, CIsco & More Launch Consortium To Replace TCP/IP · · Score: 1

    A bunch of broke folks saddled with student loans are looking to replace UCLA and Cisco; but they didn't bother to announce it.

  12. Enemy's dream on Could Tech Have Stopped ISIS From Using Our Own Heavy Weapons Against Us? · · Score: 1

    That's the enemy's dream--sit somewhere at a keyboard, type in a few codes obtained by a mole. Right when a decisive battle is about to begin, transmit code. All our stuff stops working, they pulverize us.

    You can't prevent that, no matter how hard you try. You think Home Depot wanted their customers hacked? Of course not. If simply not wanting your system to be hacked was all it took, security would be easy. .

  13. Does it eliminate 5-more? on Google Serves Old Search Page To Old Browsers · · Score: 1

    I might actually take some effort to spoof my user-agent if it eliminates 5-more. You know, because "modern" Google assumes that my 1680-pixel wide display can't show me all the top-level options. So it makes up for that by showing the 5 most recently used options, and then "more". Where the fuck did Maps go? Oh. It's under "more" now because I haven't used maps for a while. But at least I can pretend to be on a phone even though I've got 1680 horizontal pixels. I always wanted the imaginary creatures in my living room to think that I was on a cool new tiny phone with a tiny little screen, instead of a boring old laptop driving an external display.

  14. Teacher Tenure on In Maryland, a Soviet-Style Punishment For a Novelist · · Score: 1

    Isn't this the kind of thing that teacher tenure is supposed to prevent? Maybe he didn't have it yet. Note, I'm generally opposed to tenure. This sort of bolsters my opposing view. If tenure doesn't prevent this kind of thing, what good is it?

  15. Re:Science is a religion, so this makes no sense on Canada Tops List of Most Science-Literate Countries · · Score: 1

    Overrated is not Disagree. Read the FAQ

    Concentrate more on promoting than on demoting. Try to be impartial about this; simply disagreeing with a comment is not a valid reason to mark it down. The goal here is to share ideas, to sift through the haystack and find needles, and to keep spammers and griefers in check.

    Sometimes comments are disproportionately up-moderatedâ"this probably means several moderators saw it at nearly the same time, and their cumulative scores exaggerated its merit. (Example: A knock-knock joke at +5, Funny.) Such a comment is Overrated.

  16. Re:Science is a religion, so this makes no sense on Canada Tops List of Most Science-Literate Countries · · Score: 1

    The one reply to this so far is nothing more than an expression of disgust; but that's better than modding down. Remember, dear moderators, there is no -1 Disagree mod. The other negative mods are not there as substitutes. It was left out on purpose. If you want to refute the parent, put forth an argument.

  17. That might actually be useful if 1. The person being searched believes it works. 2. The person doing the searching knows how to read the expressions and gestures of the person being searched.

    I'm given to understand that the highly effective Israeli airport security uses that kind of technique, although AFAIK props aren't involved. They ask you a question and it's not so much the answer they're looking for as it is the way you answer.

  18. Idea for a political cartoon on Russian Military Forces Have Now Invaded Ukraine · · Score: 1

    Fomer Soviet states and some European countries in a bag. Each one looks like a potato chip. Putin has Ukraine half way in his mouth. Caption. "I'm only going to eat one".

  19. Yep, sure is on Climate Damage 'Irreversible' According Leaked Climate Report · · Score: 0

    The San Francisco valley is now a bay. The great barrier kangaroo hunting grounds have been flooded. The Siberian land bridge has been submerged. Irreversible, horrible, and irreparably damaged. Damaged I say! Worse yet, there will be no Frost Faire on the Thames this year.

  20. Re:frist psot on Comcast Tells Government That Its Data Caps Aren't Actually "Data Caps" · · Score: 1

    You mean, first post courtesy of my unlimited comc

  21. Re:Evolution... on The Evolution of Diet · · Score: 1

    They say that beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.

    They say that if you drop enough acid you see eyes in your beerholder.

  22. Re:Transcript... on The Grumpy Programmer has Advice for Young Computer Workers (Video) · · Score: 2

    Help me understand what I missed

    The fact that they actually gave us a transcript instead of trying to make us watch two videos. I skimmed it in a couple minutes and reached the same conclusion. It's just a lot of dime-a-dozen cliches; but I didn't waste too much time finding that out. Thanks. Now make it a rule that you can't do video stories without a transcript, unless it's something where a transcript doesn't make sense such as a rocket launch, electronic music, or a badass sharkbot shooting lasers.

  23. Re:Flight controls instead? on California DMV Told Google Cars Still Need Steering Wheels · · Score: 2

    Ejection seat, LOL.

  24. Guess what I brought back from Vegas? on California Passes Law Mandating Smartphone Kill Switch · · Score: 1

    Guess what I brought back from Vegas? My next phone.

  25. Re:Evolution... on The Evolution of Diet · · Score: 1

    The trouble with this is that after fatty food their attractiveness as mates declines. That's where beer comes in. Don't forget the beer.