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User: gowen

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Comments · 3,427

  1. Re:awesome on Open Source In the National Interest · · Score: 1

    Well, if Dick Cheney can arm Saddam Hussein, I'm sure all Kim Jong Il needs to do is find the right price to turn the administrations heads. Governments that deficit spend to this extent can't afford to be too choosy.

  2. Intuited? on Van Gogh Painted Turbulence · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why would he have to intuit chaotic flow? Anyone who's seen smoke rise from a cigarette or viciously stirred an absinthe and water mix, has seen similarly chaotic swirls. I think its safe to say Vincent would have done both.

  3. Re:How Wikipedia Works on Interview Looks at How and Why Wikipedia Works · · Score: 1

    So learn how to say "No".

  4. Re:How about a "Reader Discretion Advised" warning on Futurama Star Billy West Answers Slashdot Questions · · Score: 2, Insightful
    what single word has caused more problems and brought more pain and misery to more people?
    Money.

    But it's close.
  5. Re:Obligatory Emo Phillips on Patient Revives After 19 Years By Rewiring Brain · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Not "used the thing", but "used to think".
    Notice how the sentence makes grammatical sense that way.

  6. Re:Boycott Google ;-) on Google Moves From Search To Inventor · · Score: 5, Informative

    You might wish to develop a sense of humour and/or the ability to detect satire. Of course, the fact that shelleytherepublican can be mistaken for a real conservative blogger does cast an rather sad reflection on the state of political discourse in America.

  7. Re:BBC says: Google to remain focused on search on Google Moves From Search To Inventor · · Score: 1

    But do bear in mind this site's slogan : "Slashdot -- unsourced speculation about Google, stuff that matters"

  8. Re:The usual response on Cell Users As Bad As Drunk Drivers · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hold the weight of the vehicle on the gears by slipping the clutch to the bite-point, then release the parking brake. No need to use the footbrake at all.
    People who learn to drive cars with manual gearboxes learn to do this by second nature.

  9. Re:Invalid patent; no defense on Red Hat Sued Over Hibernate ORM Patent Claim · · Score: 1

    No, thats called losing.
    Settling and losing are different things.

  10. Re:Invalid patent; no defense on Red Hat Sued Over Hibernate ORM Patent Claim · · Score: 1

    RIM chose to settle NTP v. RIM.

    They weren't forced to settle -- no one is ever forced to settle.
    You either choose to settle, or you wait for a verdict.

  11. Re:Duh on The People Behind DirectX 10 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, you see, thats the trouble with Windows.

    There's so many different distributions available that fragmentation between them is inevitable. ;)

  12. Re:Slashdot editors... on A Set of RFI Responses for Sherlock Holmes · · Score: 1

    Of course they are. But the emphasis is on notionally

  13. Re:Worse yet... on Australia's Technological World Cup Advantage · · Score: 1
    Warnie's gonna do you singlehanded
    We have a plan for that. Scatter cricket balls on the outfield during the Aussie warm-ups, and hope your best bowlers turn an ankle on them while playing rugby. Well, it worked last year.
  14. Re:Technology DID do it today... on Australia's Technological World Cup Advantage · · Score: 1

    Gee, I guess I must have imagined that 3-0 humping the USA took in their opening game. Does that count for nothing?

  15. Worse yet... on Australia's Technological World Cup Advantage · · Score: 5, Funny

    In time for next years Ashes, their cricket team is going to have a computer that advises their skipper not to take suicidal runs to substitute fielders.

  16. Re:Repetition on Viral Marketing to Become the Norm? · · Score: 1
    Congratulations for making one of the funniest men ever suddenly not. Takes talent, that.
    Hey, Denis Leary made a career out of it.
  17. Re:Oh, the irony! on A Look at the Editorial Changes on Wikipedia · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, but if they let anyone edit the NYT website, they could end up letting any old liar deseminate untrue information. Fortunately, my good friend Jayson Blair tells me that the NYT's internal checking mechanisms are so well done that there's simply no way anyone could just make a load of shit up and have it published in the Times.

  18. Re:Better Universities? on Why Startups Condense in America · · Score: 1

    Oh sure, the basic correlation holds. As I said, very few people are against the principles of a broadly free market for non-essential goods and services. Even the moderate left take that as an axiom these days. That's what Sweden has, and that's where the correlation comes from.

    The problem I have is the libertarian laissez-faire dogma that says "the free-est markets are always the best", and that free marketeering will solve every social problem. That's what the Swedes are a counter example to. Like most things, interventionism and government interference in the market are actually desirable in small enough doses. Call me a Keynesianist if you like, but even the US has anti-trust legislation to regulate the market.

    As the old joke goes: "How many libertarians does it take to stop a Panzer Division? None. Market forces will deal with them."

  19. Re:Hackers can't do it? on Microsoft Confirms Excel Zero-Day Attack · · Score: 5, Funny
    The idea that intellectuals can't be criminals is almost victorian

    Hey! I resent that!

    Love,
    Professor James Moriarty.
  20. Re:Identity "Theft"? on PayPal Security Flaw Allows Identity Theft · · Score: 1

    I don't define myself by the money I have in the bank, but my landlord certainly does. The categorical definitions he applies to me are "tenant" and "recently evicted former tenant". So lets not pretend that the after effects of fraud are purely cosmetic.

  21. Re:Better Universities? on Why Startups Condense in America · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't say they like them: you won't find the Heritage Foundation praising state owned industries (which Sweden has tons of), high taxation (Sweden, again) and widespread welfare provision (for example, Sweden). Indeed, most libertarian economic theorists would say that those things are antithetical to economic success.

    The Swedes prove that Governments can run competitive industries, and high taxation is not anathema to a culture of entrepreneurship. In short, Sweden proves libertarian theorists wrong. Almost no-one who believes in a welfare state on the Scandinavian model is secretly trying to institute totalitarian socialism, despite what right-wing US politicians tell you.

  22. Re:Google groups is the killer app for me. on The Un-Google - The Search Competition · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google Groups is great, and gives the lie to the idea that Usenet is dead.

    Having said that, dejanews had a much better interface. (Simple is good: you'd expect Google to know that).

  23. What? on Heat, Whine, and Now Yellow MacBooks · · Score: 5, Funny

    An Apple product whose novel, groovy and stylish exterior wasn't designed with longevity as a prerequisite?

    I'm shocked, shocked.

  24. Re:You're right—not much surprise on /. on Hifn Restricts Crypto Docs, OpenBSD Opens Fire · · Score: 1
    Putting aside how many questions there are (a minor point), having to answer any personal questions and trusting them with my personal data is not open access which is what was offered 8 years ago, as de Raadt claims:
    And with that polite answer, you've proved my point. There's no need for de Raadt to shout "Liar!". He could've just said "I don't consider that to be open access, and the people in this project will probably agree. So sadly, unless you can persuade management to open them further we won't be supporting your hardware."

    Instead, he screamed "Liar", shook his metaphorical fist, and threw all his toys out of the pram.

    I believe that one of the above responses might have been helpful in opening up the specs to another piece of hardware. Conversely, de Raadt's response probably left a previously sympathetic employee of that company feeling that it wasn't worth pushing his bosses any more, because the OpenBSD people are unprofessional, rude and intransigent.
  25. Re:You're right—not much surprise on /. on Hifn Restricts Crypto Docs, OpenBSD Opens Fire · · Score: 1
    "50 personal questions" is not open access. Please don't lie about it.
    Well, there aren't 50 questions, and de Raadt has immediately called the other guy a liar, based on differing interpretations of what "open access" means.

    Does that show a mature appreciation that not everyone defines concepts in the same way as de Raady? It does not. It shows that de Raadt would rather call a man a liar than debate the difference (the irony being, de Raadt's statement about there being 50 questions is itself a gross exaggeration.)