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User: hat_eater

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Comments · 39

  1. Re:To elaborate on the summary... on Protect IP Act May Be Amended · · Score: 2

    Quote from the Leahy press release: "As I prepare a managersâ(TM) amendment to be considered during the floor debate, I will therefore propose that the positive and negative effects of this provision be studied before implemented, so that we can focus on the other important provisions in this bill, which are essential to protecting American intellectual property online, and the American jobs that are tied to intellectual property. I regret that law enforcement will not have this remedy available to it when websites operating overseas are stealing American property" Does anyone have any doubts which way will they decide? This is nothing more than a diversionary maneuver.

  2. Re:Thank goodness on Vaccine Developed Against Ebola · · Score: 4, Funny

    Science moves forward by heaps and mounds!

  3. Liquid batteries on The Quest For an EV Fast-Charge Standard · · Score: 2

    Anyone remembers the Cambridge Crude? I wonder if they'll have a working solution (heh) in 2013.

  4. Re:Junk science as usual on Reason Seen More As a Weapon Than a Path To Truth · · Score: 1

    Argh. ...But this doesn't preclude using them for that.
    That's more like what I wanted to say.

  5. Junk science as usual on Reason Seen More As a Weapon Than a Path To Truth · · Score: 1

    Neither reason nor the brain evolved "to let people reach beyond mere perception and reflex in the search for truth" quoting TFA.

  6. A definite maybe on Bubble Bursting On the MMO Market? · · Score: 5, Informative

    What a disappointment. It's little more than a fluff piece promoting Rift.

  7. Re:Sometimes not at all. on Fetus Don't Fail Me Now: How Scientists Raise Children · · Score: 1

    Getting bogged down by the needs of children is easy. Nearly inevitable. Getting the benefits of having kids... far less so. That might go a long way towards explaining the results.
    Remember that this is the average - there are people who are happier since they spawned offspring (me). And yet I don't know if it would show in the questionnaire. Many aspects of our life suffered because we don't have the time and/or energy to pursue a lot of things that used to give us joy. To the extent we were accustomed to at least. OTOH, there are moments when I very intensely feel that it is well worth it. Does a drawing of a big red heart that hangs on the fridge increase my marital satisfaction? My financial status? My mental well-being?
    I don't think one can rate happiness using a questionnaire. Not if the subjects consistently tell you that you got something wrong.
    Or perhaps one can, for a certain definition of happiness.

  8. Re:Let Them Go. Just... Let Them Go... on In Censorship Move, Iran Plans Its Own Internet · · Score: 1

    How about: work to bring about a change?
    On a sunny Sunday in the 1980s I was sitting on a park bench pretending to read a sf novel. Actually I was counting people coming into the election office. After an hour I went home and I assume someone else took over. I called a friend and mentioned a number in the conversation. The data was relayed further, and together with other bits of information collected from other inconspicuous looking young people it gave the underground opposition proof it needed to verify that the turnout was way lower than the government claimed. And to spread the word around the country and the world.
    I was just a little pebble in the way of an avalanche. I didn't overthrow the regime.
    But together, we did.
    We wouldn't have had a chance to do it had we left the country, although many of those who emigrated contributed to the work in other ways.

  9. Re:Let Them Go. Just... Let Them Go... on In Censorship Move, Iran Plans Its Own Internet · · Score: 1

    Are you seriously suggesting that everyone who doesn't like the way his country is ran should just leave?
    Just sever the ties that link them to the homeland - to the relatives, the job, the environment they grew up in - the culture, language, the graves of ancestors - leave behind the old friends and old enemies, take their family and memories and become... who?
    A fugitive? Unwelcome guest? Jobless, homeless, at the mercy of international organizations, with unclear prospects and still a family to care for.
    Of course there are those who managed to build a new life after leaving their country. After a time, most emigrees adapt. But at what cost? How many nights sleepless from worry, how many insults thrown at them and their children, how many degrading job interviews where your exotic medical diploma is worth less than a local plumber's certificate?
    And that's after one manages to flee the country, not a simple task in itself.
    You have no idea what you are talking about.

  10. Re:Rather obvious? on Human Brain Places Limit On Twitter Friends · · Score: 1

    I live in one of the EU countries. I'm 41 and I owned 7 cars. I drive since legal age, although initially not out of any real necessity, just because I could and I love to drive. Two of my cars were brand new when I purchased them. One was a mistake.
    I'm curious about the methodology of the study that gave rise to this factoid. If there was any.

  11. Re:I'm just joking... on Poland's Prime Minister Goes For Open Government · · Score: 1

    Homophobic much? Yeah, I'm joking too.

  12. Re:Bullshit on Poland's Prime Minister Goes For Open Government · · Score: 1

    Could you provide examples? I'm not saying it's impossible to enact a law that's unconstitutional - if the parlamentary majority and the president are for it, the Constitutional Tribunal will have to overthrow it and it can take time - but you make it sound like it was the norm, not an exception. While 214 cases in 25 years may seem like a lot, bear in mind that most of them concerns rather mundane subjects.

  13. Re:Bullshit on Poland's Prime Minister Goes For Open Government · · Score: 1

    Color me interested. Where in our constitution do I find the tools to amend it as I please?
    Granted, there is a number of anachronisms from the bad old times that restrict free speech for no good reason (and I believe the American constitution has it right when it comes to good reasons to restrict the free speech), but any changes to the constitution require quite a wide consensus behind them.
    The open government legislation is of course a step in a right direction as it establishes an important general principle and a legal base to build on, but concerning its particulars, I'd rather wait and see than to pass judgment one way or the other before anything has been written into law.

  14. Re:37,000 feet deep? on Richard Branson Announces Virgin Oceanic Submarine · · Score: 3, Funny

    OMFG someone has been plunging my house into the abyss while I slept! Every night through my ENTIRE LIFE!!1!

  15. Childish overreaction AND an injustice on Gamer Banned From Dragon Age II Over Forum Post · · Score: 1

    I work for a games magazine that also happens to have a website and a forum on it. People (our readers, mostly) post nasty comments there all the time. Would it be OK for us to delay or suspend the subscription of our magazine to folks who are a bit too rude towards us in the forums?
    By the standards some of the commenters here seem to espouse, it would.

  16. You forgot Poland! on 13 Countries On US "Priority Watch List" For Copyright Piracy · · Score: 1

    This list unfairly tarnishes Poland's reputation - by omission. Seriously, folks in my office are current with all the series from US cable tv's. We demand recognition!

  17. Defrosted on PayPal Freezes Support Account For Bradley Manning · · Score: 1

    It seems that "in a wake of protest"PayPal has unfrozen the Courage to Resist account.

  18. Re:I think the point is... on How Gaming Can Save the World · · Score: 1

    Here's an excerpt from McGonigall's book that covers exactly how games are like hard work that we love.

  19. Re:One more - No more mutually assured destruction on Does the Moon Have Military Value? · · Score: 1

    Burrowing the base 100 feet under the surface should protect it from the meteor strikes. Burrowing it 1000 feet under the surface isn't much more difficult.

  20. Re:Horrible. on Slashdot Launches Re-Design · · Score: 1

    Low-contrast text??? Where? I can't see any! :)

  21. Re:Decisions in games on Balancing Choice With Irreversible Consequences In Games · · Score: 1

    Exactly this quest made me quit snooping the quest outcomes on the net.

  22. Re:Secrecy is necessary for Diplomacy on Why WikiLeaks Is Unlike the Pentagon Papers · · Score: 1

    Total transparency is neither practical nor desirable. There are things that every government needs to keep under wraps, at least for some time. But the current level of secrecy is both impossible to maintain and absolutely unnecessary. "I should suppose that moral, political, and practical considerations would dictate that a very first principle of that wisdom would be an insistence upon avoiding secrecy for its own sake. For when everything is classified, then nothing is classified, and the system becomes one to be disregarded by the cynical or the careless, and to be manipulated by those intent on self-protection or self-promotion. I should suppose, in short, that the hallmark of a truly effective internal security system would be the maximum possible disclosure, recognizing that secrecy can best be preserved only when credibility is truly maintained." From Justice Steward concurring opinion in the case of New York Times Co. vs United States. Thanks to this brilliant blogger for bringing this up. Go read the whole post, it's worth it.

  23. Re:Is it really so outrageous? on Obama FCC Caves On Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    What is a corporation BUT a group of people working cooperatively and corporately towards a common goal?

    A corporation consists of people in the same sense a car consists of parts. Every single one can be replaced at any moment. And the whole doesn't exist to cater to its parts. You described a cooperative.

  24. Re:Yawn on WikiLeaks Continues To Fund Itself Via Flattr · · Score: 1

    Oh really? tl;dr: What we learned from Wikileaks, besides the extent to which the US military is ready to sacrifice civilian population to hit probable targets, is the total darkness in which the US administration helds its constituents and the bipartisan support this mode of operation enjoys. It's one thing to suspect something, another to have the evidence written black on white.

  25. This site links to wikileaks.info on WikiLeaks Continues To Fund Itself Via Flattr · · Score: 1

    Wikileaks user profile contains news tidbits that link to wikileaks.org and are redirected to wikileaks.info, a site Spamhaus recently wrote about. I'll wait and see until I have some evidence that the money sent throught this account does really reach Wikileaks and not some clever Russian.