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User: pitterpatter

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  1. Re:Haha "This could have serious consequences" wow on Sea Water Could Cause Uranium Pollution From Nuclear Fuel Rods · · Score: 2

    It's gradually diluting itself to harmless concentrations as it spreads over the rest of the world.

    No, it's becoming more and more potentized as a homeopathic remedy.

  2. Re:I like the approach on Belarus Bans Use of Foreign Websites · · Score: 1

    Being intentionally obtuse while making no arguments won't win you any supporters.

    What?! Have you never listened to talk radio? Or politicians?

  3. Re:It's called "Insurance" on Ask Slashdot: Inexpensive Anti-Theft Vehicle Tracking System? · · Score: 1

    It's like putting up a stop sign and expecting dogs to pay attention to it.

    More like putting up a "deer crossing" sign where you want the deer to cross.

  4. Re:No surprises here on EFF Stops Accepting Bitcoin, Regifts All Donations · · Score: 1

    The news here is that they were foolish enough to accept them in the first place. I had no idea that their judgment was that bad.

    Care to expand that? It isn't intuitively obvious to me why accepting a no-strings gift would automatically be foolish. No, I don't accept "free" offers from spammers or telemarketers, but that's because of the strings, not necessarily the nature of the gift.

    Sure, the gift might be worthless, but I wouldn't think it would be likely to have a large negative value.

  5. Re:Really? on US Nuclear Power Enters the Digital Age · · Score: 1

    Oconee was the first of three nuclear stations built by Duke Energy. According to Duke Energy's web site, the station has generated more than 500 million megawatt-hours of electricity, and is "the first nuclear station in the United States to achieve this milestone."[2]

    (Wikipedia)

    First unit came online in 1973, so they probably started building in 1968, using plans that were finalized by very conservative senior engineers in 1963 at the latest. These guys at this time would have regarded PLC's as bleeding edge experimental crap that only a fool would use in a large industrial setting.

  6. Re:Kewl... Oh, wait on MasterCard Transactions To Be Mined For CO2 Data · · Score: 1

    As I'm sure you noticed from R'ingTFA

    +1 Funny

  7. Re:Cut off comment lines?? on MasterCard Transactions To Be Mined For CO2 Data · · Score: 1

    Looks fine to me. Firefox 4.0.1 under Natty Narwhal.

  8. Kewl... Oh, wait on MasterCard Transactions To Be Mined For CO2 Data · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While I would dearly love to have Al Gore's data from this enterprise, I'm not so sanguine about him having mine.

  9. Re:Really? on US-CERT Warns of Serious Hole In ActiveX Control From Iconics · · Score: 1

    Are you telling me that while I, as a production employee, am, oh, I don't know, changing cutting heads on my milling machine or maybe unjamming a conveyor belt, some idiot of a manager can see a red icon on his desktop display, decide he needs to turn that machine back to green, and succeed? Without even coming out on the floor where I can throw a wrench at him? That's a serious flaw.

  10. Re:Rocket or missile ? on Rocket Blasts Off With Missile-Warning Satellite · · Score: 1

    1. An object intended to be launched into the air at a target.
    2. (military) A self-propelled projectile whose trajectory can be adjusted after having been launched.

    Is how Wiktionary defines "missile," while a "rocket" is

    1. A rocket engine.
    2. (military) A non-guided missile propelled by a rocket engine.
    3. A vehicle propelled by a rocket engine.
    4. A rocket propelled firework, a skyrocket

    Evidently the authors of definitions #2 don't quite agree, but I think you can still see the difference.

    So what's a rocket engine?

    A reaction engine that obtains thrust by jet propulsion which forms its jet exclusively from propellant.

    I would have provided links, but, umm...

  11. Re:1.3 Billion?... on Rocket Blasts Off With Missile-Warning Satellite · · Score: 1

    You might need a whole tinfoil house.

  12. Re:As much as I hate... on Comcast Hounded By Collections Agency · · Score: 1

    Without collections agencies the only reason that anybody would ever pay their bills would be because it was the ethical thing to do. Consequently the cost of just about anything would likely sky rocket.

    No, without enforced collections, you'd have to pay for everything before you received it. Consequently the cost of many things would plummet, some of them dramatically. And that's before counting the effects of the resulting global depression.

  13. Re:Well you know what, motor control tards? on Free Software Helps Disabled Use Mouse · · Score: 1

    xvkbd version 2.1 and later support word completion, which may make it easier to enter long words with xvkbd.

    Thanks for pointing me to it.

  14. Re:I don't know what to think on ALS Sufferer Used Legs To Contribute Last Patch · · Score: 1

    You might be amazed at how being paralyzed takes the fun out of fucking. When you're really "fighting for air," when she tells you to come you're not already there (sorry, Brian) And a lot of the allure of smoking and snorting has to do with chemical interference with motor control. Guess what?

  15. Re:Well you know what, motor control tards? on Free Software Helps Disabled Use Mouse · · Score: 2

    Onboard for a keyboard. Dasher to write this.

  16. Re:Well you know what, motor control tards? on Free Software Helps Disabled Use Mouse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some of us with motor control problems can no longer use a keyboard. My fingers won't lift and separate enough to hit individual keys any more. I can still use a terminal, but it has to be in a GUI interface so I can use an on-screen keyboard.

  17. Re:He hasn't actually built one on Former Truck Driver Reconstructs A-bomb · · Score: 1

    "Funny" might not get you karma, but I wish I had mod points.

  18. Re:So instead of an invasion ... on UN Backs Action Against Colonel Gaddafi · · Score: 2

    we'll just bomb 'em into the stone age.

    Then they'll really be screwed. Do you know how hard it is to make stone tools when all you've got is sand?

  19. Re:Let me ask a "stupid" question on No P = NP Proof After All · · Score: 1

    And even if he doesn't do online banking, I'd be willing to bet his bank trades his money with other banks using encrypted electronic transfers.

    My grampa keeps his money under his mattress, you insensitive clod!

  20. Re:If a comet this sized collided with earth.. on NASA's Stunning Close-Up Photos of Comet Hartley 2 · · Score: 1

    what would happen? I read on wikipedia it is a mile in diameter roughly.

    You can see what some people think here: http://www.purdue.edu/impactearth.

  21. Re:No we don't. on Is Google Polluting the Internet? · · Score: 2, Funny

    Most of us don't have to simplify the world to two choices, to live in it.

    You're on /. "0", "1". It's what we do.

  22. Yes on Free E-Books, With a Catch — Advertising · · Score: 1

    Ads would stop me from acquiring materials from that source.

  23. Re:Cue the crying on ATMs That Dispense Gold Bars Coming To America · · Score: 1

    OK, made me look.

    I was puzzling over Thalium when I saw I'd miscounted by starting at 1, not 0. :D

  24. Re:Transparent on Airbus Planning Transparent Planes · · Score: 1

    Clearly.

  25. Re:Transparent on Airbus Planning Transparent Planes · · Score: 1

    I know. Closest I could come to transparent wiring.