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User: Atomic+Fro

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  1. Re:How many? on Aereo To SCOTUS: Shut Us Down and You Shut Down Cloud Storage · · Score: 1

    No, because a lot of the content creators don't care. With the exception of a few high profile "creators" who use royalties alone to bankroll their lavish lifestyles without having to create anything anymore, most would tell you they are happy just knowing someone likes their work. Though there are some creators out there in the public making a stink about it, its mostly the middlemen that are throwing the tantrum.

    To use another car analogy, its more like car dealerships fighting tooth and nail to be the only source of purchasing a car. They install DRM that makes sure if you miss your payment, the car won't start. They make laws that make tampering with such devices illegal.

    When new technologies are created to make purchasing and maintaining a car quicker and easier, they try to squash them. They fight websites that make it easier for individuals to trade or purchase cars. When a new car manufacturer tries to sell directly to their customers instead of using expensive middlemen, old laws are used to keep them out. When 3D printers are cheap enough and robust enough to print auto grade parts, the dealerships will lobby congress to make patents last indefinitely and sue file sharers as patent violators asking over 200k per violation.

    What the content distributors need to do is adapt. Once the content turned into bits that can be copied indefinitely at zero cost, their business model was gone. They should have embraced technology and created itunes before an electronics company, one that was actually barred from entering the music industry because of their name, come in before them and grab the new market. Hell, they are in the packaged goods business, not electronic distribution, so they should embrace that and make the best packaged goods they can. Instead of selling us a digital copy of their artists' creations on a cheap plastic disc in a cheap plastic container for $15 - $20 that are guaranteed to break, sell us something valuable. The Beatles in Mono comes up as a good example, though a bit extreme.

  2. Re:1996 on Navy Database Tracks Civilians' Parking Tickets, Fender-Benders · · Score: 1

    Ya, I am pretty sure they use this information to weed out unsavories during the enlistment process. When my friend enlisted a couple years ago, he got pretty far into the process before the issue of a bankruptcy came up. He had to talk to someone pretty high up, pretty sure it was the commander of the base they were going to ship him to, and the commander had to sign off on it.

  3. Re:Reviewer hates users on Ars Technica Reviews Leaked Windows 8.1 Update · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't really agree with you. In 2000 Apple gave the world a powerful commercial UNIX workstation OS that "just worked," along with a fantastic IDE and development tools for free. There were lots of things in there for power users that may not have been advertised or easily discovered, but they were there and documented somewhere if you knew how to look.

    Now, the workstation OS started going to shit as you described after they moved to intel, supposedly Mavericks fixes that a bit. I don't know, never owned an intel mac (thats also when they started sunsetting hardware almost as quickly as it was released).

    Its iOS thats for the lobotomised retarted proto-lifeforms. And, yes, some of that was getting into OSX proper. But I believe the backlash with Windows 8 showed them that might not be too wise and I've heard they've backed off, again, with Mavericks.

  4. Re:Oh my god on Ars Technica Reviews Leaked Windows 8.1 Update · · Score: 3, Informative

    It didn't seem to me that he was critical of Microsoft as much as he was desktop users. I could barely get through the article due to rage, but this is how I parsed it:

    "Look at all these redundant features Microsoft felt they had to add to appease stupid desktop users who haven't learned anything from Vista's UI 7 years ago. These users need to go away, they are forcing Microsoft to clutter up my Metro!

    Look, a power button! A power button for Ballmer's sake! Who the hell needs that? If you are a laptop user, close your damn lid and let it sleep. If you are a desktop user, push the button on the front of your pee cee. That's been standard since ATX came out in 1995. GET A CLUE PEOPLE!

    What? You say you want to reboot? If Windows needs to reboot it will do it for you. You don't need to waste time doing that on your own.

    Well, crap. Metro apps have title bars now. Well, I guess that's not too bad. But, you know, you could have just dragged down with your mouse you lazy desktop users. Ugg, now that ugly task bar is covering up the ui in the bottom portion of the screen. I don't remember you desktop users wanting that. Leave my metro alone!

    OOOOOH PRETTY! SkyDrive is now called OneDrive, and I can access it in Metro, the OneUI to rule them all.

    Well, I don't know who wanted this. Its just redundant crap taking up space on my metro. Desktop users avoid metro anyway, so they obviously don't want it. Stop wasting time on desktop users, Microsoft.

  5. Re: Nice to have the choice on Ubuntu 14.04 Brings Back Menus In Application Windows · · Score: 1

    Because it was designed for netbooks. Though, I think it takes up way too much space on a netbook.

  6. Re: Nice to have the choice on Ubuntu 14.04 Brings Back Menus In Application Windows · · Score: 1

    Because it was originally designed for netbooks.

  7. Re:milk thistle cure is not new on The Death Cap Mushroom Is Spreading Across the US · · Score: 1

    Its not his fault. He, like a lot of Americans, has been trained to believe that homeopathy = "home remedy," not a discredited alternate theory of medicine.

  8. Re:Here you go spaz retard on How To Take Control of a Car's Electronics, Cheap · · Score: -1, Troll

    Slashcode is open source, ya? Can't we just "fork" the site?

  9. Re:Everybody Knows on Translating President Obama's NSA Reform Promises Into Plain English · · Score: 1

    Dear God, thats the worst thing he could do. I trust the NSA more with the data than spreading it around to corporations for "safe keeping." The problem is the data exists / has been collected in the first place. If anything, his suggestion is an insult.

  10. Re:All or nothing on US Justice Blocks Implementation of ACA Contraceptive Mandate · · Score: 1

    And the payments would be progressive (more paid by the rich, less or nothing paid by the poor).

    Well, thats all well and good, however, in the US the rich don't pay taxes. So more paid by whats left of the middle class, the poor go to prison.

  11. Re:We're all the same... on Genome of Neandertals Reveals Inbreeding · · Score: 1

    Jack Horner did a great TED Talk about this very issue as it applies to paleontology.

  12. Re:Applications and apps are the same thing on SteamOS Will Be Available For Download On December 13 · · Score: 2

    Here is a video of Steve Jobs saying "app" from 1992: Link!. Don't have to wait long, at 0:16 mark.

  13. Re:term on Hotfile Settles With MPAA, Drops Countersuit Against Warner Bros · · Score: 1

    In what way is a copyright or a patent anti-private?

    The way copyright is intended to work, after copyright expires the work falls into the public domain. Hence, anti-private.
    The way patents are intended to work, the cost of patent protection is that the way your invention works is public record. Again, anti-private.

    I am not arguing that this is a bad thing, but I do believe his claim is correct.

    However, as long as copyright never expires and you can fudge your patent application with false or incomplete disclosure you can argue the other way.

  14. Re:Education con game on Questions Raised By Education Dept's Road Show On College Value · · Score: 2

    Spot on. The only thing a ratings system would accomplish would be handing out salaries to a handful of cronies tasked with compiling a worthless metric. Unless you are born into privilege (money, athletic, or scholarly ability) and you are going to college, its going to be the local state university. Hopefully one that caters do your chosen discipline without extreme financial burden.

    Gut Homeland Security (by extension TSA), cut military spending, stop spending money on the militarization of local police. Stop taxing labor so working families can afford to send their kids to college.

    Invest in education, don't subsidize tuition. Distribute more money to universities through grants. Invest more into agencies like NASA that can outsource some of their work to universities. Create an environment where universities can be flush with cash so that tuition becomes known as a barbaric tool used in the past by the elite.

  15. Several times per day. I work in a pharmacy.

  16. Re:Spread out the demand on Tech Titans Oracle, Red Hat and Google To Help Fix Healthcare.gov · · Score: 1

    Few people can afford a $500K medical bill yet society has chosen not to let people die even if they can't afford medical treatment. What's your solution for treating expensive illnesses for the uninsured? Let the seriously ill continue to be covered by hospitals and government? Or just let them die (or euthanize them if they can afford to pay for the euthanasia).

    The problem is that the medical bill was $500k. The cause of the problem is insurance and government. A working solution will never include insurance or government.
    There used to be a things called charities and community. There was also a time when doctors were allowed to charge varying rates according to what people could afford.

    Did your grandparents speak of the horrors of medical costs in their youth? Their parents not being able to afford a procedure that could have saved one of their siblings, so they died? The stigma of needing to declare bankruptcy because the hospital bill for when Grandma went it to give birth to Dad was over $20,000?

  17. Re:Welcome to the rest of the world on Battlefield 4 DRM Locking Out Part of North America Until EU Release · · Score: 1

    I know it from how the princess says it: http://youtu.be/-wntX-a3jSY>"The more you tighten your grip, Tark, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

  18. Re:I donâ(TM)t suppose... on Feds Confiscate Investigative Reporter's Confidential Files During Raid · · Score: 1

    But if you think the US is a police state, then you don't know what a police state is.

    I used to agree with you, but lets think about this for a minute. The warrant was given for them to seize weapons and ammunition, not all her notes and electronic devices used for her profession. Remember, folks, just as she as a constitutional right to perform her profession as a journalist, ( 1st Amendment) she as the constitutional right to bear Arms (2nd Amendment).

    So how the hell did the feds get a warrant that allowed them to violate the first two amendments to the Bill of Rights? Her husband was arrested for resisting arrest in 1986!! Then, who was it that showed up to present the warrant and perform the search? The Coast Guard, who falls under the authority of Homeland Security. That means not only did HS violate the 1st and 2nd amendments, the warrant's existence itself was a violation of the 4th!

  19. Re:So, I ask: who's making good printers these day on Ask Slashdot: Best SOHO Printer Choices? · · Score: 1

    Epson makes a great inkjet, but that ink dries out FAST. Before I bought a laser, I loved them because they worked with any operating system and the ink cartridges were cheaper because they were just that, ink cartridges. They didn't have the print head built in like many other inkjets. However, their ink dries up FAST. It would only take a month of non-use and the ink cartridge would be worthless. After a couple-three replacements, the ink lines would be clogged with dried ink. Going through school, I would have to buy a new printer twice a year before I finally invested in a laser.

  20. Re:Scary on DOJ: Defendant Has No Standing To Oppose Use of Phone Records · · Score: 1

    Yes, and just because one has insurance means one as the means to pay their hospital bill.

  21. Re:Real-time processing required on Medical Costs Bankrupt Patients; It's the Computer's Fault · · Score: 1

    No, you have it wrong too. I work in pharmacy and can tell you that if pharmacy benefits are very much done in real time. Lets say you brought in a prescription for amoxicillin to me, but your doctor faxed the same prescription to my competitor across the street. If they submitted the claim a nano second before I did, I would get a reject saying it was too soon and they weren't going to pay a dime. I would tell you your insurance company won't pay for it because you just got it (I would have no idea where, just that you didn't fill it with me), and you would make a scene.

    The issue that your link talks about is that medical coverage (Doctor's visits / Hospital / ER), durable medical equipment (walkers / prosthetics / nebulizers), and pharmacy benefits (drugs) have traditionally been separate plans and each are billed on different systems. They have never nor ever intended to talk to each other. And using the terminology the authority uses, each could very easily and often do use a different benefits manager. By different benefits manager, I don't mean Joan, Todd, and Tedd in three different offices in the same company. I mean three completely different companies each who do things very differently from each other and have no means to communicate with each other.

    In other words, your medical benefits and your pharmacy benefits have always been two separate plans. The way the billing infrastructure was designed and built never intended for the two to intertwine. (This is what she was talking about with the two bank accounts). Billing is such a legal and technical mess, your insurance really doesn't want to deal with it, so they outsourced it to two different companies, one specializing in medical billing, and the other in pharmacy billing since each has very different laws, regulations, and entities to do business with. All three parties use different systems built up and customized over the decades, and now Congress requires them all to speak to each other in real time with real legal ramifications for the people rendering the actual services you are using.

    The kicker is the insurance lobby wrote most of the law, so they knew this was in there, and they knew the technical ramifications of it. Like others have said, they want Obamacare dead. They made sure there wouldn't be single payor as they would no longer exist. And they can't exist with the law in its current form. She is threatening that its going to take a day plus to process prescriptions and people are going to die waiting to get their time sensitive medications and come election time heads are going to roll. They are already raising premiums, and raising what you have to pay at the pharmacy counter. All parties involved with the writing of obamacare have no intention of it surviving or any part of it implemented including the President, Congress, and the insurance companies. Its healthcare theater.

  22. Re:I'll gladly do it on US Air Force Reporting Pilot Shortage · · Score: 1

    Wow, good for you. I'm very glad that worked out for you. What did you end up flying?

  23. I'll gladly do it on US Air Force Reporting Pilot Shortage · · Score: 2

    I'll gladly do it... they'll have to overlook the fact I am in my early 30's and don't have 20/20 vision. If they did, I'd sign up immediately.

  24. You can pry XP from my cold, dead hands on XP's End Will Do More For PC Sales Than Win 8, Says HP Exec · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For the business users still running XP, I don't see them flocking to buy new Windows 8 hardware. They are still on XP because either the software they run won't run on anything else, or they are small businesses that don't have an IT budget. As long as the hardware and software works, they aren't going to go out and buy new systems.

  25. Re:"sophisticated weapon design" on China Criticizes US For Making Weapon Plans Steal-able, Alleges Attacks From US · · Score: 1