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User: wedg

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  1. I must've missed the memo... on Patriot Act Game Pokes Fun at Government · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When did Civil Rights become Civil Liberties?

    When they become Civil Priviledges, I'm running for the hills.

  2. Re:Here's the plan... on Vonage to Produce a WiFi Phone · · Score: 1

    This is bloody brilliant. So how do you go about sending a message that says, "Feel free to jump on my network," versus, "I'm lazy, and didn't secure my network?"

  3. Well, on IBM Grid Near 50,000 machines - Slashdot Users #13 · · Score: 1

    I just joined, and we're now #1 for members with 1,820. But somehow we slipped to #14 in cycles! Oh well. :)

  4. Woo! on Feds Convict Warez Dealer · · Score: 1

    Way to go Iowa City!

    (I'm going to the University of Iowa here.)

  5. Uhm... on Parrot 0.1.1 'Poicephalus' Released · · Score: 1

    I read the topic, and only thought to myself: What the hell is a Poice Phallus? Those perl developers sure are kinky!

  6. Re:People are not merely means on William Shatner to Star in New Reality TV Series · · Score: 1

    I'm sure someone in pre-Nazi Germany was saying "Let's just see how it plays out," too.

  7. Re:Hey, I SAW him in Iowa on William Shatner to Star in New Reality TV Series · · Score: 1

    Go Hawkeyes! (-- Fellow Uiowan.)

  8. Re:"Get Out and Vote!" = Dangerous on Did You VoteOrNot.org? · · Score: 1

    Well, in my opinion, you should be shot on sight. But, barring that, you need to be tossed the hell out of your ivory tower and spend some time in the real world.

    If you want to hear my opinion, it's that you're dumber than the people you claim are too dumb to vote, and hence, shouldn't be voting. But hey, that's just my opinion.

    As long as we are sitting in your tower for a second, I think that voting should be exclusively limited to white male landowners whose ancestory contains no more than 1/8th impure (non-white) blood, and have had at least one parent vote previously, and are non-naturalized citizens (i.e. they were born here) of at least 30 years of age, because everyone knows people in their 20s are idiots.

    And while we're at it, anyone who spells their name with a 'K' instead of a 'C' is banned from voting.

    Sound fair? I am *ignorant*. I am apathetic. I have no idea what my IQ is, but I watch T.V. and I drink beer until I can't remember why I'm holding a glass of beer anymore.

    But guess what? I'm going to vote. So screw you.

    P.S. Mod parent down Troll/Idiot.
    P.P.S. Don't mod this Troll Reply up.

  9. Re:U.S. becoming a totalitarian system. on Government Asks Court to Keep ID Arguments Secret · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The funny thing about glaciers is that they can sneak right up on you. One day it's off in the hills somewhere, and next thing you know, your grandkids are sledding down it in the back yard.

    The people making moves towards a fascist/nationalist/totalitarian government are not stupid. I doubt the 'people', meaning 50-90% of the population will never notice anything: Because there's nothing to notice. They constantly hear about small changes in new laws, procedures and whatnot, which are semi-regularly talked about, i.e. DMCA a few years ago, PATRIOT after that, PATRIOT II and INDUCE, one law at a time. And one law at a time, things will gradually change, until some old bastard like me is sitting around saying how, back in my day, we were free to walk down the street without fear - not fear of terrorists or anything else - but without fear of our own government. And they won't *remember* that a mere 10, 20, or 30 years ago, our country wasn't like this.

    And don't even get me started on the idea of the media's involvement in this. The fact that a handful of companies controls all the media's focus, which topics they choose, combined with the sensationalism, and lack of any attention to any one subject... Not only are we being told what's what, we're losing the attention span to remember what was.

    But yeah. There won't be a realization that things went bad. They've *been* bad. It's just a matter of time before they get *so* bad that there's violence involved.

  10. Mindball ... on Let the Mindgames Begin · · Score: 1

    ... the ultimate sport for martial artists and meditating monks. These guys dedicate their whole lives to staying relaxed, I wouldn't want to face one of them in mindball.

  11. Re:Overturn Betamax? on Sen. Hatch to Introduce Wide-ranging Copyright Bill · · Score: 1

    Or maybe that only the most hardcore criminals are the ones doing most of the killing. The point, which you seem to have missed, is that any amount of law making is not going to get rid of the problem. People will always be breaking the laws, and putting anyone in jail is not a solution. Some day, *you* may be a criminal. Be careful what laws you want to support, because they can just as easily be used against you. And for that matter, you wouldn't want to be put in jail for something you consider relatively benign, why would you want to do that same thing to someone else?

    Have you ever been to jail? I have. And I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. And along the same line, I hope my worst enemy wouldn't wish that upon me. In fact, I'd rather not have any enemies at all. But you have to ask yourself, if you were the other person (which, to everyone else in the world, you are), what would you rather have? More freedom, or more law?

  12. Re:Overturn Betamax? on Sen. Hatch to Introduce Wide-ranging Copyright Bill · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To stop gun crime, simply remove the reasons for gun crimes to happen. If everyone was reasonably well off, with a certain level of comfort, why would they shoot anyone?

    If you outlaw guns, it just means only the most hardcore criminals will have the guns. Outlaw digital copying, and only the most hardcore copiers will keep doing it.

    Even if it was $1 for a cd/dvd/whatever, someone somewhere would still be copying and stealing it. Even if it was *free*, someone would rather download it than run down to the store just to pick it up.

    My point being, that it is *impossible* to prevent theft unless you get everyone to agree not to steal. It's called the Social Contract. However, we are *never* given the choice to enter into that contract, we're *born* into it. Effectively slaves to laws we never agreed to in the first place.

    Some people reject this forced contract purely on that basis, even if they don't know it. The teenage stereotypical rebellion? The black market? I digress.

    You can make an infinite amount of laws, it will not change anything. You can imprison the *entire* population, and people will still pass around contraband. The only thief that won't steal is a dead thief, and dead thieves don't buy *anything*.

  13. Re:Not Math, Just Words on Metamath! The Quest for Omega · · Score: 1

    The real numbers are an uncountable set. Are you saying that it is just silly to believe that real numbers exist?

    Actually, that's laughable: YES! Only because the real numbers is an *idea*. It doesn't exist any more than the idea of a horse exists. And in fact, any number by itself does not exist: Only numerals do, and those are simultaneously finite and infinite. I.e., the numerals '1000' is part of a finite set, along with _every_other_written_number_. And as soon as I write '1001', that is added to that finite set. And in fact, each set of numerals that we call a number is unique, because this '1001' is not the same as the previous one.

    And you can take it even further, because 1001 is only a physical (or in this case, magnetic and light) representation of the idea of a number. Since numerals are symbols, any meaning can be assigned to them, e.g. 1001 in base 2 is not the same as 1001 in base 16. So the numeral exists without meaning, and the number exists without representation.

    It's only when you erringly pair the two that you can make the assumption that the real numbers exist.

    Sorry.

  14. Re:In response to the anticipated flood ... on Engineering An End to Aging · · Score: 1

    How about the bottom 75% of those physically unfit, Mr. I'm-So-Smart-And-Can't-Run-A-Block? Remember, some of the worst people that ever lived were also some of the brightest.

  15. Scardy Nerds... on Can Cell Phones Ignite Gasoline Vapors? · · Score: 1

    For all you pansies out there saying, "Don't do this, don't do that, you might blow yourself to bits,": I smoke while gassing up my car. If you don't like it, I'll be waiting for you in hell, nicely singed.

  16. Re:Is God a kludge too? on What If Dark Matter Really Doesn't Exist? · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    God's not a kludge, just different terminology. One as educated as yourself should be able to understand that if you did some research.

  17. From my perspective... on Genetically Modified Flower Detects Landmines · · Score: 1

    The genetically modified weed that has been coded to change color when its roots come in contact with nitrogen-dioxide... ...but does it get you high?

  18. Re:Proof! on Porn Rewards Users To Get Past Anti-Spam Captchas · · Score: 1

    Pocket fishing never made you go blind. It was having bad aim.

  19. Re:Computer Program on Porn Rewards Users To Get Past Anti-Spam Captchas · · Score: 4, Informative

    No. It's quite simple. You get the HTML (open a session), and instead of retrieving the image for the Captcha right away, you wait until someone's signing up for free porn (a few nanoseconds), then show *them* the inline image, which only needs to be loaded once in this case, they enter the code, which your script sends back as the form reply.

    I wish I'd thought of it first, I could've patented it. Or maybe someone should, so the spammers can't use it.

  20. Re:Court costs involved? on RIAA Files 532 Lawsuits · · Score: 1

    That's all pretty insightful, but what about the thought that hey, maybe *I'm* a John Doe and don't know it yet? Geez! I better delete all those files before I get dragged into court when they find out that 234.34.19.129 is me! (Or your respective IP).

    *shrug* Who knows what the effect will be?

  21. Re:Roblimo, Saudia Arabia, Open Source and Freedom on Are Geeks in Saudi Arabia Just Like Us? · · Score: 1

    I liked this comment for the most part. But there's one part that bothered me. If it is perverse for any oppressive government to use Free Software, how the hell is it Free? Freedom, with the capital Eff, is not subject to your or anyone else's beliefs. So if you really believe in Free Software, know now that the bad *always* comes with the good. And with any amount of freedom given, some will seek to use it to their own ends.

    And please, spellcheck.

  22. Here's my solution. on One-Way Ticket to Mars? · · Score: 1

    I think we can all agree that sending someone to Mars to die is more affordable and feasible than returning them back. And we can also all agree that our society would be pretty much horrified at the idea alone, much less color film of them being eaten alive by forty-two foot tall Martian monsters with six heads.

    So what do we do? Don't tell the public. Do it in secret, and as soon as you get them there alive, and relatively O.K., announce that [space agency] has developed a mission to Mars which is almost to the red planet. Or about to launch, or whatever.

    The point is, the people can't be outraged at what they don't know. And all those marooned astronauts on Mars certainly aren't telling anyone.

  23. Re:One-way missions will NEVER HAPPEN. Here's why: on One-Way Ticket to Mars? · · Score: 1

    Of course, the answer to that is simple, and one that 'secret agents' have used for years. Give them a cyanide pill. Tell them: You will *never* be on Earth again unless you build a goddamn rocket on Mars yourself. So either you go to Mars, become one of the greatest heroes ever, or crack and end your life.

    Either way, it'll probably be covered as Mtv's Real World: Mars.

  24. Those Crazy Japanese... on Japanese Firms Create Home (Appliance) Network · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Honey, the toaster's been hacked again." *sound of sirens in the background, getting louder* ... Can anyone else think of some appliances that could potentially be broken into and cause damage to someone's home? Hell, no system is perfectly secure. There's always a way in, and always someone willing to find it. So what if some happy-go-lucky hacker finds his way on to the net.appliances with a modified >appliance-of-choice and a laptop? Suddenly your oven's on while you're away being a Salaryman and the little ninjas leave their homework on deadly types of blowfish on the oven, and poof, someone's house goes up. Or an apartment complex.

    But maybe I'm just pessimistic.

  25. Re:Hmm. on ArsTechnica Explains O(1) Scheduler · · Score: 1

    HEY AMIR! Hahahaha. -- Jake.

    Nice article. Props and what. W00t. And where the hell have you been mofo'? And how's Jimmah doing?

    Back to smokin' and drinkin'.