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User: Politas

Politas's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 189

  1. Re:Slackware on Ask Slashdot: What's The Easiest Linux Distro For A Newbie? · · Score: 1

    Fuck me, Livejournal? That takes me back!

  2. Re:Slackware on Ask Slashdot: What's The Easiest Linux Distro For A Newbie? · · Score: 1

    Ahem!

  3. Re:You had me at.. on Firefox Javascript Engine Becomes Single Threaded · · Score: 1

    A tab is not a window.

  4. Evidence is great on Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child · · Score: 1

    That's a great hypothesis, but actual studies and measurements of bacteria in people's crotch areas doesn't support it, unfortunately. Your hands generally have far more bacteria than your crotch.

  5. Re:Zenoss on What Would You Want In a Large-Scale Monitoring System? · · Score: 1

    How do you compare to ref="http://www.nsai.net/products/incharge-asm.shtml">Smarts InCharge's automatic root cause and impact analysis?

  6. Re:mp3 is nice, but... on New "MP3 100% Compatible" Logo For DRM-Free Music · · Score: 1

    But why? Has anyone ever been sued or legally threatened for utilizing an unlicensed MP3 decoder algorithm in a program?

    If not, then, as I said, Ogg Vorbis is a solution to a non-existent problem.

    If the MP3 patent holders have been exercising their patent rights, then you might have an argument. People avoiding the issue doesn't really do it, unless they had good reason to do so.

  7. But everyone will still call him Gerold on Teenager Breaks Record With Long Name · · Score: 1

    What a twit. I give him six months, a year tops, before he gets completely embarrassed by the whole thing and changes his name back.

  8. Re:mp3 is nice, but... on New "MP3 100% Compatible" Logo For DRM-Free Music · · Score: 1

    Car stereos, DVD players, etc, etc. Ogg's a solution to a non-existent problem.

  9. Re:"accepted theory" on New Study Shows Solar System Is Uncommon · · Score: 1

    This is exactly what I wanted to say. It's not an "accepted theory", it's an untested assumption.

  10. Re:Set it and forget it on How Much Virtual Memory is Enough? · · Score: 1

    2GB of memory and limited HD space is quite common on a laptop. I've got 2GB RAM on my laptop and a 60GB HD, which is split between Windows and Linux.

  11. Like it's really an either-or proposition. on Don't Count Sony Out Yet · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I know of many gamers who own a high-spec PC, a PS2, an Xbox, etc, etc.

    The PS3 is sure to make plenty of cash, and a lot of it will come from people who already own an Xbox360 and a Wii. Hardcore gamers don't care about money.

  12. Re:Anonymous snapshot? on Australia Conducting Electronic Census · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There was a study done recently that compared quality of life and certain indicators of "progressive societies" to percentage of atheists. Such a study can only use the statistics as published by the ABS to garner information about how many atheists are in Australia. Religious figures use statistics as support for their drive to make secular law similar to religious law.

    The ABS cannot make assumptions about what people "actually mean". If you put down "Jedi" or "Pastafarian", then your form will be coded as "other", so you'll add to the estimates for odd cults.

    The Census is a serious piece of scientific investigation. The data from it gets used in thousands of different ways. It's not a tool of governmental control, but a way to help our government to be representative. If you give incorrect information, you are, to an admittedly small degree, reducing the government's awareness and reason for caring about people in your situation.

  13. Re:Anonymous snapshot? on Australia Conducting Electronic Census · · Score: 2, Informative

    Those questions are on a section of the form which is discarded before data entry. The names and addresses are only used in the data collection stage. It does not become part of the census dataset.

    And yes, I used to work for the Australian Bureau of Statistics, so I know what I'm talking about.

    It is completely impossible for anyone working at the Bureau of Stats to find out how much money any individual earned four years ago. (Well, apart from some statistical outliers.) The part of the form with the names is torn off and shredded before data entry. If you are concerned about privacy of your personal information, worry about the ATO, Centrelink, FaCS, etc, but forget the ABS.

    Please don't put in phony religions. If you're an atheist, say so. The Census is important.

  14. Re:So What? on Australians to Get Compulsory Photo ID Smartcard · · Score: 1

    And the proposed national ID card is also voluntary. If you do not wish to use any of the services it is provided for, you don't need to get one. Nothing in the proposal mandates anyone carrying the card with them.

    Currently, almost everyone in Australia has a Medicare card, which has very little identifying information on it (just a number, and a list of family members) It hardly counts at all as far as identification is concerned. This card is really an expansion on the same id, combining several other similarly voluntary cards into a single voluntary card.

  15. Re:Trackball on Are Vertical Mice The Next Ergonomic Trend? · · Score: 1

    Different strokes...

    Personally, I can't stand trackballs. I can never get the pointer to stay still as I move my thumb off the ball. I find touchpads almost as bad.

    I'm still hoping for a system that tracks my eye movement. That's the holy grail of GUI pointing devices as far as I'm concerned.

  16. Re:This happens all the time on Ask The Mythbusters · · Score: 1

    Bugger trucks, how many cars have a towing capacity less than 500lbs? My 1.3 litre Suzuki can tow around 500 kg, and that's about the smallest towing capacity I've ever seen.

  17. Re:Wherre I set on Google Text Ads and ads in gene on Why Do You Block Ads? · · Score: 1

    I stopped watching broadcast/cable TV only three or four years ago, but apart from that (and different magazine subscriptions), I could have written that post word for word.

    Actually, my ability to filter out moving TV images is starting to build up again due to TV playing at work. (Which I detest)

  18. Re:It's *not* rocket science, guys... on Alternative Browsers Impede Investigations · · Score: 1

    Are you saying it's the entire partition or nothing? Well... That sucks.

  19. Re:Here we go again... on Equal Time For Creationism · · Score: 1

    Ok, well, I'll counter your point by saying that if you define "agnostic" in such a way that there are no people who don't fit the term, then the term becomes completely useless.

    How about we use it to describe people who agree with you on the difficulty of proving the existence of supernatural beings?

  20. Re:The self-assembling pocket watch problem on Equal Time For Creationism · · Score: 1

    Well, exactly. This is why analogies are not a valid logic argument.

    Analogies may help to explain a situation, but you cannot use them to make a statement.

  21. Re:The self-assembling pocket watch problem on Equal Time For Creationism · · Score: 1

    What an awful analogy.

    Evolution is not a random process.

    A better analogy would be to take a huge batch of identical collections of pieces, jiggle them all until two parts in on of the collections join up, then make a new batch identical to collection with the connected pieces. Throwing out a random selection of collections, then repeat for all collections.

    Follow those instructions, and ending up with a working watch becomes far more plausible, and there's a good chance of ending up with several different designs of watch.

  22. Re:Falsifying Intelligent Design on Equal Time For Creationism · · Score: 1

    Then why do they insist on positioning ID as a counter to Evolution? Evolution _is_ natural selection and the hard science of genetics.

    ID is really a counter to materialist philosophy, and should thus be taught (if at all) as comparative religion/philosophy, not science.

  23. Re:Here we go again... on Equal Time For Creationism · · Score: 1

    Actually, there are a hell of a lot of people who aren't agnostic. People who think there is a definite answer to the question of a divine being. There are, for instance, people who think that the Bible "proves" the existence of god.

    The fact that they are wrong doesn't make them agnostics.

  24. Re:Treatment of symptoms on FDA OKs Brain Pacemaker for Depression · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, heart pacemakers are certainly treating symptoms rather than curing the disease. Does that make them worthless?

    There is a point where treating the symptoms is valid. If you remove all the symptoms, then you don't really _need_ to cure the cause, do you?

  25. Re:Mod down, bs on Intel Developer Macs Outperform G5s · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It doesn't matter whether it's generic hardware that Apple uses, or special proprietry hardware. The important point is that it is a fixed (or at least limited) platform. Apple know exactly which chipset/processor/gpu combinations they need to support, so they can configure the OS to use exactly the features available and avoid the problems. or from another perspective, they choose their hardware to avoid those bottlenecks that are most likely to be noticeable.