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User: acidreverb

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Comments · 21

  1. Re:Complaints on eBay Bans the Sale of Spells and Magic Items · · Score: 1

    I think what the GP is saying is, how would you ever prove it?

  2. Re:Not surprising on Facebook Shares Retreat Below IPO Price · · Score: 1

    I was thinking more along the lines that the pre-nup will include the IPO money. If he made that after marriage it would be halvesies...

  3. Re:Swords on Jedi Master's Hand-Made Lightsaber Stolen · · Score: 1

    So I don't think that this guy is some deluded sap who thinks that lightsaber fighting is a real skill or anything.

    I'm not so sure. He does admit it's stage fighting. However, he refers to himself as a "Grand Master" (of fake sword fighting...) and is quoted in the article as stating “We’re teaching people how to be heroes, and I need it back.” Seems pretty deluded to me...

  4. Re:so on Gut Bacteria Can Control Diabetes · · Score: 2

    Aortectomy! STAT!

  5. Re:Dunning-Kruger effect on Why the NTSB Is Wrong About Cellphones · · Score: 1

    ...Wow... No.

    Your perception of your performance while impaired, and the reality of it, are two different things. Driving tests are not really hard, so being able to pass one in an inebriated state does not mean anything at all. That's like saying if you get home once, drunk off your ass, it's OK to do it again; clearly you have the skills right?

    If you drive impaired, eventually you will kill someone. It probably wont be yourself though, it will be the sober guy in the other lane. Sure, people get away with it, sometimes for years; that doesn't make them safe to do so, just lucky.

    Join a rescue squad, or fire dept. Run some calls. Learn a few things first hand.

  6. Re:Somebody tell the schools on One Third of UK Kids Under 10 Own a Mobile Phone · · Score: 2

    Even my schools back in the 60s and 70s had landlines that could be used by the students. My daughter's schools (she graduated just a couple yrs ago), had phones in the office that could be used.

    In the 90's, at my high-school, the office was closed after school hours. If one didn't have money for a payphone, there were no phones a student could use. My only option, on more than one occasion, was to call collect. With payphones quickly disappearing, I'm not even sure if that's an option anymore.

    I appreciate you're pragmatism. But your personal situation is not universal.

  7. Re:Great on NASA Sends Lego Figures to Jupiter · · Score: 2

    Lego paid for it, sooo.....

  8. Re:Bush led in pre-election polls in Ohio on Court Filing On How 2004 Ohio Election Hacked · · Score: 1

    You can't know. You can't Recount. You don't know the source. YOU CAN NOT [VERIFY].

    You can recount paper all you want. But if the paper has been manipulated you're not really verifying anything at all.

    E-voting has been implemented all-wrong. I'm not going to argue that. But if is was done correctly, with audits of the system and audits of the tallies, it would be every bit as, if not more secure than, paper.

  9. Re:Bush led in pre-election polls in Ohio on Court Filing On How 2004 Ohio Election Hacked · · Score: 1

    It's simply not as easy to fudge physical ballots as [electronic] ones.

    Why's that?

    We trust people not to replace a truckload of votes before they get to the tallying location. But that doesn't mean they couldn't do it. Or, more nefariously, one could manipulate the tally by legislating which votes are acceptable. Consider the hanging chads fiasco; or, changing the rules of when absentee votes are, and are not, acceptable.

    A paper ballot can not be traced back to you as a person. So how is it more secure? What's to stop counterfeit ballots?

  10. Too simple on The Uncanny Valley Explained · · Score: 1

    You're comparing apples to oranges.

    Desk lamps are not trying to be human, even though Pixar has a way of personifying animals and normally inanimate things. People already have a natural inclination to attribute human emotions and qualities to non-human things and animals. We get attached to objects and we believe that our pet fish have personalities, a complete fantasy. However, that has nothing to do with the uncanny valley phenomenon. Your counterpoint, Final Fantasy, worked very hard to give very human qualities to very human looking CGI. The effect was not complete and many people were turned off by it. That is the uncanny valley.

    Makeup and bras alter a persons appearance in a manner that is pleasing; most of the time. Makeup can enhance one's color to be warmer, or create a more even skin tone. However, the wrong makeup, too much makeup, improperly applied makeup, can trigger repulsion. Many people find clowns frightening or repulsive. Also, to your point, mimes make some people uneasy. People differ wildly on how much makeup is attractive. A bra can enhance one's shape. The wrong bra, not so much.

    I think the bottom line is our brains don't like to be tricked unless we see it coming; and, like almost any human attribute, some people are more sensitive than others. Most people can accept an animation that has human traits but doesn't look all that human (Simpsons, Flintstones, etc.). They are so far from looking human that it doesn't trigger our alarms. Most people can accept a human that acts like a robot, or even a zombie. We see these things for what they are. Humans with decoration, not things trying to look like humans. Most people can not accept something that looks and acts a lot like a human, but not quite. It gets past some of our filters, but sets off alarms in others. We get conflicted subconsciously. We don't like it...

  11. Engine failure on No Samples On Japan's Hayabusa Asteroid Probe · · Score: 0, Troll

    NEC Ion Engines: FAIL
    Mitsubishi Rocket Engines: FAIL
    So the engine control unit must have been Toyota, yes?

  12. Re:More like a flaw in statistics on Flaw In Emergency Response System May Have Killed Hundreds · · Score: 1

    The category provided by the dispatch system determines a target response time. The call taker puts pertinent information into the computer aided dispatch (CAD) system. The CAD will determine priority level, and recommended units. At that point the call is dispatched to the appropriate response crews. An intelligent dispatcher, with the authority to do so, could take a CAD recommendation and alter it before dispatching. For instance, in the situation from the article, the dispatcher would know that a patient who was unconscious with abnormal breathing after a fall is clearly a top priority patient. They would relay that to the responding unit with a high run priority. The ambulance would then run lights and sirens to the scene instead of taking their time as they would for a twisted ankle.

  13. Re:Money Money Money on 2010 — the Year AACS and HDMI Kill Off HD Component Video · · Score: 1

    Sold.

  14. Re:World improves on UK's FSA Finds No Health Benefits To Organic Food · · Score: 1

    I hate to break it to you, but for the last 3 or so months that you were in the womb, you were floating in your own excrement.

    You do not float around in your own excrement for 3 months.

    Your first deuce comes after birth in most cases. It's called meconium.

    If meconium is excreted in utero it can be dangerous as the baby may aspirate the meconium which can lead to serious complications. This is a big reason we suction the airways of babies immediately, before their first breath.

  15. Re:Smelloscope on The Taste Of Space · · Score: 1

    Farnsworth:"...and therefore, by the process of elimination the electron must taste like Grape-ade"

  16. Re:You are wrong on Obama Sides With Bush In Spy Case · · Score: 1

    Mediocre minds think alike. Great minds are unique.

  17. Incongruities on Boat Moves Without an Engine Or Sails · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Did anyone else find the copper sheet at the bottom of the water odd? Is that necessary to the device's operation? Would you always have to have a static component for something like this to work?

    Also, the "boat" didn't seem to have a power source, the electrodes appeared to be attached only to each other.

    The article seems rather bereft of information other than comparing the electrodes to a beetle larva. Does anyone understand how this device works? Outside of vague notions of something to do with surface tension that is.

  18. Re:Sure, 17 year-olds believe this because of a ga on Halo 3 Criticized In Murder Conviction · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From this article:
    "According to prosectors, Petric, 16 at the time of the shooting, was forbidden to buy Halo 3 by his parents, Mark and Susan Petric. The teen snuck out to purchase the game anyway, and was caught by his parents upon his return. The game was locked up in Mark's lockbox, along with a 9mm handgun."

    So no, a history of violence wasn't mentioned in the articles I have seen so far. However, it also says he didn't have a copy of the game.

    From the same article:
    "Lawyers for the accused delivered a brief statement at the opening of the trial, explaining that their client had be under a large amount of stress after being homebound for a year due to a snowboarding accident with nothing to do but watch television and play video games."

    So, presumably he hadn't been playing the game elsewhere.

    But don't worry...
    "Dad, I'm so sorry for what I did to Mom, to you and to the family," Daniel Petric said, according to his father. "I'm so glad you are alive."
    "You're my son," Mark Petric responded. "You're my boy."
    Dad forgives him...

  19. Re:In reality, people move things on Microsoft Knew About Xbox 360 Damaging Discs · · Score: 1

    A _BIG_ one...

  20. Re:In reality, people move things on Microsoft Knew About Xbox 360 Damaging Discs · · Score: 5, Funny

    A new Xbox 360 built by Microsoft loads Gears of War at 1500rpm. The console locks up. The drive crashes and burns with with the disk trapped inside. Now, should they initiate a recall? Take the number of consoles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, they don't do one.

  21. Re:rm -rf / on (Useful) Stupid Unix Tricks? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Mediocre minds think alike. Great minds are unique.