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User: amicusNYCL

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Comments · 6,246

  1. Re:Flamebait summary much? on Nobel Laureate Wiped From Pakistan's Textbooks As Heretic · · Score: 1

    In other words, Religious or Secular, we are fucked either way. Nothing to do with the religion of peace.

    I don't know if I would go that far. You guys have a section when you apply for a passport that you have to sign an agreement that Ahmadis are not Muslims, that sounds like a pretty far reach in the name of religion. That's a pretty odd requirement for getting a passport. Secular people definitely don't get a free pass, but laws in the name of or designed to appease Muslims aren't doing anyone any favors. Even if a secular person put the law into effect like you say, it wouldn't be necessary to do that if he wasn't trying to get support from Muslims. If majority Muslims wouldn't support a secular candidate who didn't do something like that then that's definitely a problem with religion.

  2. Re:what is malware? on Author Kills DarkComet Spyware After Syria Uses It · · Score: 1

    It boils down to how you approach the question, what is malware?

    However you want to define it, part of the definition is getting the software installed without the user knowing what, if anything, they're installing.

  3. Re:Interesting. on Author Kills DarkComet Spyware After Syria Uses It · · Score: 1

    As far as I can tell, this looks like proof-of-concept/research malware designed to be used for testing purposes, but that's the best I can gather.

    From what I can tell, this is a backdoor installer used by attackers that the author claims is actually something along the lines of proof-of-concept/research malware designed to be used for testing purposes, so as to avoid legal liability.

  4. Re:Flamebait summary much? on Nobel Laureate Wiped From Pakistan's Textbooks As Heretic · · Score: 1

    Khan is a Muslim.

    Yes, and so was Dr. Abdus Salam.

    Not according to Pakistani law from 1974, which says that since Ahmadis believe that their founder was a prophet, and therefore that Mohammed was not the last prophet, then they are not Muslims and cannot refer to themselves as Muslim, cannot refer to their religious buildings as mosques, and cannot answer the Muslim call to prayer. The penalties include death. This is a national law in Pakistan, and the reason why they modified the inscription "First Muslim Nobel Laureate" on the guy's tombstone to remove the word "Muslim" (not sure how they left the inscription though, removing just that word would be incorrect).

    Anyway, welcome to Pakistan and the religion of peace.

  5. Re:Ah don't worry...ALL! on Nobel Laureate Wiped From Pakistan's Textbooks As Heretic · · Score: 1

    To add to that, I'll point out that while it is true that not all Muslims follow the Taliban, it is also true that all of the Taliban are Muslims. It is not true that all atheists are baby-killers, and it's also not true that all baby-killers are atheists. The Taliban is a subset of Muslims, but atheists and baby-killers are not subsets or supersets of each other.

  6. Re:Might not have happened on 50th Anniversary of the Starfish Prime Nuclear Weapon Test Today · · Score: 1

    Yes. And, thankfully, the Americans and Soviets "missed" that effect. The Japanese weren't so fortunate.

  7. Re:Might not have happened on 50th Anniversary of the Starfish Prime Nuclear Weapon Test Today · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Makes you wonder if there are any other major effects we and the Soviets missed.

    Horribly, fiery, radioactive death, for one.

  8. Re:who gives a fuck on Firefox Notably Improved In Tom's Hardware's Latest Browser Showdown · · Score: 1

    The third or fourth result is to a Mozilla page that directs people looking for an MSI to the first result. Mozilla doesn't distribute an MSI, but that doesn't mean there's not an MSI available.

  9. Re:who gives a fuck on Firefox Notably Improved In Tom's Hardware's Latest Browser Showdown · · Score: 1
  10. Re:Standard Scientology practice on Church of Scientology Enlisting Followers In Censorship · · Score: 1

    Those 2 orders probably cost as much as everything else combined. It was a little bit of a strange thing for a new hire to do.

  11. Re:Why is 'church' in quotes? on Church of Scientology Enlisting Followers In Censorship · · Score: 1

    The same reason we refer to the vagina when we actually mean vulva.

    This is why we have "pussy".

  12. Re:Standard Scientology practice on Church of Scientology Enlisting Followers In Censorship · · Score: 2

    Can't say I've met any

    I used to work with a member. I guess he was a nice enough guy, a little bit awkward though. The boss took the entire company out to a seafood restaurant for the company's anniversary celebration. He ordered a ton of appetizers and things like that and let people know they could order other things if they wanted them. So the scientologist orders 2 lobster dinners. We still tell that story to newbies (he doesn't work here any more...)

  13. Re:Why is 'church' in quotes? on Church of Scientology Enlisting Followers In Censorship · · Score: 1

    I want to know why people keep claiming that these two got a divorce.

    "Apparently, the recent very public divorce of...."

    No divorce has been granted.

  14. Re:Wrong on Nukes Are "The Only Peacekeeping Weapons the World Has Ever Known," Says Waltz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's exactly what he said, wars have been relegated to "peripheral states", not major states. Proxy wars between major states inside a third-party country is not the same thing as a direct war between the two major states.

  15. Re:Cheap is good! on Telefonica Shows Prototype Firefox OS Phone · · Score: 4, Funny

    NOBODY expects the Firefox OS! Our chief weapon is usability...usability and a lower cost...a lower cost and usability... Our two weapons are a lower cost and usability...and Angry Birds. Our *three* weapons are a lower cost, usability, and Angry Birds...and Netflix. Our *four*...no...*Amongst* our weapons...amongst our weaponry... are such elements as a lower cost, usability.... I'll come in again.

  16. Re:it's a self installing remote administration to on Japanese 13-Year-Old Arrested For Virus Creation · · Score: 1

    it's a self installing remote administration tool, not a virus.

    Is that what we're calling viruses these days? The terminology is so hard to keep up with.

  17. Re:Sony on Japanese 13-Year-Old Arrested For Virus Creation · · Score: 4, Funny

    Shall we punish them retroactively then?

    Retroactively, proactively, radioactively, whatever it takes.

  18. Re:Sony on Japanese 13-Year-Old Arrested For Virus Creation · · Score: 1

    Holy shit, let it go.

    Never!

  19. Re:Apple approval process on First iOS Malware Discovered In Apple's App Store · · Score: 1

    865,000 apps approved for the App Store, and yes, one got through

    that you know of

  20. Re:No doubt... on First iOS Malware Discovered In Apple's App Store · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Some will say that the Apple App Store is "no longer secure." This is ridiculous.

    Right, it would be more accurate to say that it never really was "secure", it was just heavily audited. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that malicious apps will manage to sneak through the audits from time to time.

  21. Re:Fire One on San Diego's Fireworks Show Over In 15 Seconds · · Score: 2

    Fire One is notorious for fixing a problem with one customer, updating the firrmware but not telling the rest of their customer base that there is an update.

    Glad I'm not the only one that does that. Our emails to customers typically go along the lines of "this update contains several changes and bug fixes, some of which you might notice."

  22. Re:It's Belkin all over again on Cisco's Cloud Vision: Mandatory, and Killed At Their Discretion · · Score: 1

    I was thinking the same thing. That single incident was enough to get me to never purchase a Belkin product. I don't even buy one of their surge protectors if I have an alternative. It looks like Cisco is going on the list too, which is actually sort of shocking. Cisco and Linksys have both been on the tops of their game, it's a pity to lose the expertise they bring to the table because they decided they wanted complete control. I guess that's a strength of the free market though, another company will see a niche market for easy, reliable DIY routers and fill that void (if they aren't already there).

  23. Re:Breathless summary by the clueless on Texas GOP Educational Platform Opposes Teaching Critical Thinking Skills · · Score: 1

    Watch the youtube video of a little girl whose jaw was blown-off my U.S. bomb shrapnel, and tell me how that is a "good thing". I'm not seeing it.

    Wait, what? When did this become a debate about whether or not it is a "good thing" to use US bombs to blow off little girls jaws, and why am I on the side in favor of this? I am simply asserting that wars in Syria, Yemen, and Libya are not the exclusive work of United States Liberals. I'm pretty sure Arabs had a part in that also. I'm also pretty sure that the entire reason we are currently in the Middle East is not exclusively the work of United States Liberals. All of these assertions have nothing to do with whether or not using a US bomb to blow off a little girl's jaw is a "good thing", so I'm really confused why you asked me to try and debate you on that point. Unless you're just one of those people who uses logical fallacies in their "debates".

    As for Obamacare: They could have

    Yeah yeah, coulda woulda shoulda. They could have done a lot of other things, and there would still be a bunch of people butthurt about it. Go ahead though, go ahead and draft a proposal that every single person likes, that no one has a problem with, and that helps society as a whole, in particular the extremely poor and lower-middle classes who need the most help. You go ahead and write up a law that helps poor people which rich people have no problems with.

    They also did not need to outlaw my catastrophic insurance.

    What exactly is your insurance, and which section of the law specifically outlaws it?

  24. Re:Breathless summary by the clueless on Texas GOP Educational Platform Opposes Teaching Critical Thinking Skills · · Score: 1

    You see there are parts of Texas where wind farming might actually be profitable someday. So of course the greens went right to work finding a mascot to rally around to stop any such notion. Cue the Dune Sagebrush Lizard.

    I think it's pretty fair to look at your environmental impact and determine if you're going to really screw anything up before you launch major projects. It turns out that this particular lizard has the second-smallest range in the US, and is very sensitive to its habitat (it only lives in a combination of shinnery oak shrubs + sand dunes). If you remove the oak, then the lizard goes too. Setting up wind turbines or oil fields is fine, just don't remove the oak, don't screw up the lizard's habitat. There are plenty of places where wind power is feasible (and I've seen a ton of existing turbines all along I-10 through West Texas), there's no reason you need to destroy the only habitat this little guy lives in. This isn't a conservative vs. liberal thing, this is a "don't be a dick" thing.

    Also, it's a little ironic that the "conservative" wants to destroy the wildlife habitat.

  25. Re:Breathless summary by the clueless on Texas GOP Educational Platform Opposes Teaching Critical Thinking Skills · · Score: 1

    It was sarcastic... the school in question is Arizona State University, which apparently now has over 72,000 students and is the largest public university in the US by enrollment. I didn't know that. I do know that, since I left (like the year after), they funded a ton of new buildings for computer science and engineering programs. I wish I had those resources when I was there.