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User: CCarrot

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  1. Re:To be fair on Lego Bible Too Racy For Sam's Club · · Score: 1

    Maybe because atheists find meaning in their own. lives and live fully knowing this is all there is and it's best to make use of what we're given.

    What meaning is that? and who gave it to you?

    In the immortal words of the master bard: "Thou art God."

    Generate meaning from within, don't allow others to impose it arbitrarily from without. Just because this is all there is, doesn't make it meaningless, but each and every person has to define that meaning for themselves. Some do opt for culturally-acceptable shortcuts like religion, which is fine as long as you fully examine the the tenets you allow in and find them compatible with your own internal logic. And as long as you can accept that others can and will winkle their own set of meanings out of the same data set, or reject the data set altogether and seek out other data.

  2. Great for permanent data storage, I guess... on MIT Researchers Make Advance Toward Photonic Circuits · · Score: 2

    This could be great for long term, non volatile data storage, I suppose, but unless they develop an efficient method of changing the state (i.e., which direction is opaque), I can't see this being much use for processing in general.

    On the plus side, maybe we'll finally get to see those data cubes/crystals that popular SF books are always referring to...:-)

  3. 'pattern-free'...aka 'noise' on Mathematically Pattern-Free Music · · Score: 1

    So...this guy is trying to recreate white noise, then? I'm pretty sure there's an app for that...

  4. Re:Except that... on Putting Emails In Folders Is a Waste of Time, Says IBM Study · · Score: 1

    Says the person that must have never used IBM's mail solution....

    If you're using IBM's Lotus Notes, unless you specify the "All Documents" view, Lotus only searches in your currently selected folder.

    ...ignoring all subfolders...extra fun times!

    After all, why would you ever want to search through all your East Division projects for an email, without having to also search through your entire mail history? Wouldn't you rather search each individual East Division project folder one by one, or search in and then sift through the crappy, bloated results from every email and calendar item you've ever received/sent/set up? Golly, who wouldn't?!?! I love having the chance to see how many of my emails and calendar items over the years have the exact phrase "John Smith" in them (but not 'john smith' or 'JohnSmith', heavens no): it's like getting to know old friends all over again!
    < /sarcasm >

    Also, until relatively recently, there was absolutely no fricking way to be able to find out which folder(s) you may have saved any particular mail in, other than browsing by hand through all your folders and subfolders. So if you dropped it in the wrong folder by 'accident' (i.e., because Bloatus Goats decided to suddenly pop open that folder three folders higher in the list because you hesitated a millisecond in it's general vicinity...1.5 seconds ago...), well, good luck finding it again unless you use 'All Documents' to sift through every mail and schedule item on your system...

    bah. I could rant all day about this POS. Trouble is, I don't have time to rant about Notes because I'm too busy fighting with it...it's a vicious, vicious circle.

  5. Re:Out Of Service tones on Congress May Permit Robot Calls To Cell Phones · · Score: 1

    Everyone I know hates that tone. When most people hear the first part of the tone they hurriedly hang up and delete that number from their contacts. I think a lot of legitimate callers would assume you changed numbers and remove it from their contact list.

    Err...so? If they are legitimate, they will either have another method of contacting you, whereby you can assure them that your number is still live, or they will know about it ahead of time because you told them when you gave them your phone number...

    The only people I could see this method potentially hurting are job seekers, where callbacks could, as you say, hang up and delete the number (or most likely never add it in the first place). Most legitimate callbacks, however, will at least try email first before giving up on a good prospect (i.e., you) entirely...and who doesn't put their email address on their resume?

    It's simple, relatively non-invasive, and makes the robots fight amongst themselves on your behalf...what more could you want?*

    * Okay, okay, ideally I'd like to have some sort of switch, one that I can push if I don't recognize the number, (or even after I pick up) and it redirects the incoming caller to my own personal 1-900 line so they are paying me for the privilege of harassing me...I'd run to get it every time the phone rang, and just love extra long phone surveys, and would press buttons for that robo-dialler as long as they want me to! *Sigh*, one can dream...

  6. Re:Makes sense actually on The Cable Industry's a La Carte Bait and Switch · · Score: 1

    Ahh, that must be it! I didn't notice there were no units stated, so I was thinking monthly...that's a bit better!

    $83 a month is still pretty steep, though...

  7. Re:Makes sense actually on The Cable Industry's a La Carte Bait and Switch · · Score: 1

    I already explained this.

    Sort of. You are describing how the new method will be an improvement over the old method. GGP is describing how the old method doesn't meet his needs by globbing the two channels he actually wants in with a bunch of other channels in a 'tier'-based structure, and he's hoping the new structure will meet his needs.

    Think of it like this: music store that has a membership fee, which gets you some cool local and indie band music for 'free' with your membership, either because they have to carry them, or get the content for free from the bands. Then they only offer other, more popular music in 'packages', (e.g., 'top pop' package, which includes bieber, lady gaga, rihanna, maroon 5, kelly clarkson and michael bubbles). If you're only interested in one or two of those artists, why would you ever buy the 'package', unless that's the only way they are offered? The music store might pay for some of them, and get paid to carry others, but why should that matter to you? You just want what you want, with the largest possible signal to noise ratio.

    This is basically what cable companies do now, and after RTFA, it sounds like that's pretty much what they will still be doing, only with less offered per package and more packages. It *might* improve granularity somewhat, it really depends on package pricing and what they decide to bundle together, same as it always has. One can only hope that if they do slice out the most popular channels and place them in a semi-premium 'a la carte' subscription mode, they will also drop the pricing on the mangled remains left behind...but probably not. I do wonder how they're going to get people to buy their 'other channel' bundles, though, if they strip out the top performers and sell them separately...

    The best thing about this whole deal might be that you won't have to subsidize the Golf channel to watch TSN...*crosses fingers*

  8. Re:Makes sense actually on The Cable Industry's a La Carte Bait and Switch · · Score: 1

    Personally, I am never going back to to pay $1000 for cable again, as this was 90% crap anyway. Internet PPV is the future.

    8S

    I am sincerely hoping you accidentally added an extra zero, there. Otherwise...ouch. Just ouch.

  9. Re:not mentioned on Brain Imaging Reveals the Movies In Our Mind · · Score: 1

    Finally the RIAA can charge for every repeat of that song that's stuck in your head.

    Damn. I would be soooooo screwed if that happened. Ever since I recently discovered Hungry Like the Wolf (yes, I know I am about 3 decades too late on this one, but even though the 80s were my prime years, this one somehow managed to escape my notice back then), the song has been playing in my brain several times a day for a couple hours straight.

    I would owe the RIAA a gajillion dollars or so, give or take a few.

    Thank you so much...
     
    ...I'm on a hunt I'm after you... Aaagh! Shut up!

  10. I can see the slogans flying now... on Discovery Brings Us One Step Closer To "Milking" Pigeons · · Score: 1

    "Pigeon...the other white milk!"

    After all, they're going to have to work pretty damn hard to get anybody to buy this crap, er, I mean crop.

  11. Re:how is this legal? on Borders Bust Means B&N May Get Your Shopping History · · Score: 1

    This. UPS availability and service just blows for people who have jobs outside the home and can't loll around all day waiting for a package.

    Not for me. They just pried open my locked front screen door and hid the package there. And when the replacement arrived, after I reported that the first one had never arrived, they simply hid the second one right next to the first.

    Their only mistake was that two packages didn't quite fit, so the locked screen door was slightly ajar and I noticed it when I got home that night. If they had been better at hiding things, I might never have noticed.

    Ha ha, epic UPS fail. I hope the company charged the cost of the second widget to UPS...

    Come to think of it, years ago I do seem to remember coming home to a large-ish $400 item left on our semi-covered back porch in the middle of winter, whereas a $15 book delivery required chasing them around for three days to retrieve it...along with the lovely threats to send it back to the vendor if I didn't retrieve it within a week...

    Bite me, UPS. Just bite me.

  12. Re:Aren't there laws on Borders Bust Means B&N May Get Your Shopping History · · Score: 1

    Aren't there laws or court rulings in the USA regarding people's library and video rental history privacy? Hopefully those extend to book and magazine-buying as well...

    What videos and magazines are you buying/renting? :)

  13. Re:how is this legal? on Borders Bust Means B&N May Get Your Shopping History · · Score: 1

    UPS from India beat FedEx from New Jersey, and was better wrapped.

    Yeah, but with UPS they try to deliver it, you get home, find the card, go to the web site and tell them you'll collect it, but it's too late for them to take if off the truck so you can't collect it the next day, then the next day you go to their office wihch is only open two hours a day and queue up for half an hour and they tell you they forgot to take it off the truck so you'll have to come back again the next day.

    I've often had UPS parcels take longer to cover the two miles from their depot to our house than they took to travel half way around the world to the depot. With Fedex I just stop by on the way to work the next day and collect it from them, because they're actually open at sensible times.

    This. UPS availability and service just blows for people who have jobs outside the home and can't loll around all day waiting for a package. It's why my first name for all UPS-delivered items (when I know the vendor is planning on using UPS, that is) is "HOLD-FOR-PICKUP", along with another note in the special delivery instructions (if the option is even available on the ordering page). Or, if all else fails, I specify my workplace as the delivery address, but I don't like to do that very often even if the mailroom doesn't mind it for small packages...

  14. Re:More importantly on Senators Slam Firm For Online Background Check · · Score: 1

    Would you want to work for a company that discriminate against your political views, sexual preferences or similar completely irrelevant things?

    Hiding and faking things won't work in the long run and if you get caught later, the consequences are worse. Not only will you most likely get fired (either due to the screening matters itself or to the fact that your lied and hid it), but if your next employer screens you in relation to your previous employer they'll also know both your 'quirks' and that your tried to hide it by lying etc. - not too smart.

    I'm sorry, are job interviewers allowed to ask about political views or sexual preference during a job interview where you come from?

    As far as I'm concerned, a person's 'quirks' are none of an employers' business, unless those quirks affect the person's job performance. It is not 'lying' to use an alias online (like, oh, I don't know, 'xenobyte' for example), it is simply preserving your privacy in a post-Google cyberworld. The people you intend to share this information with will know who you are online, others (stalkers, employers, old ex-girlfriends, etc.) won't, simple as that. That way you can share your pride in your lifetime Beanie Baby Fan Club membership, without having to worry that someone will hold it against you IRL. :o)

  15. Re:Why are they using potable water? on Scientists Plan "Artificial Volcano" Climate Experiment · · Score: 1

    Would you believe that in some parts of the world, there are literally whole rivers of fresh water that are allowed to run unfettered right into the ocean. Crazy, I know, but it's true!!

    Yeah, and sapping their flow by adding the equivalent of a medium-sized city's water usage overnight will have absolutely no effect on the environment or agriculture or freshwater / marine ecology at all! Cool, thanks for pointing that out!

    BTW, why aren't y'all busy building hydro'lectric dams across all this free-running water, to supply the whole world with 'free' energy, then? Wouldn't that do more to cool the planet through reducing CO2 emissions than mile-high sprinklers ever could? ...oh, wait. It does no good to produce all that power in one place, we need it in places where they don't have wild flowing rivers, too, and the transportation costs/losses are simply not practical. Same thing goes for this theoretical 'global misting' program, I suppose. Darn, there goes that theory...unless we want to unevenly cool the planet and set up some really interesting weather patterns, that is...

  16. Re:Why are they using potable water? on Scientists Plan "Artificial Volcano" Climate Experiment · · Score: 1

    Potable water is way too precious a resource to be feasible for such an 'experimental' (read: crack-pot) idea:

    FTFA:

    No.

    Just like food there is an excess of it on earth compared to the number of people. The reason some people are without water and food is just because of logistics.
    In the area where I live it is a lot easier and cheaper to use potable water. (More or less walking distance from a large fresh water lake with about 153 billion cubic meters of fresh water. The 10 million cubic meters is a drop in the ocean compared to that.)

    Transporting that amount of salt water here would not only be very expensive, the salt would also cause a lot of problems.

    Excellent! Hope you like Seattle-type weather, then! Sounds like there's a whole lot of artificially-generated rain and cloud cover headed your way, if this thing pans out!

  17. Re:Good for insurance on Medical Billing Codes For Injury Via Turtle Among Thousands Created by New Law · · Score: 1

    The 25 or so other countries who use these codes already have not yet imploded.

    Yeah, but lots of those countries have much bigger turtles...

  18. Re:some games do convey a cognitive benefit on Bejeweled Yields Cognitive Benefit In Older Adults · · Score: 1

    If you want to play games to improve you cognitive abilities, play ones designed by neuroscientists.

    For example, Posit Science has evidence that their games increase cognition. They are used in clinical settings to mitigate dementia, to combat schizophrenia, and to help recovery from traumatice brain injury.

    One the fun meter, they're about a 3. On the "now where did I leave my car keys" meter, they're more like an 8.

    As opposed to WOW:
    fun meter: 11
    "now where did I leave my car keys" meter: what keys? I have a car? what day is this again? Ooh, new quest!!

  19. Re:Why are they using potable water? on Scientists Plan "Artificial Volcano" Climate Experiment · · Score: 1

    This is a small scale test, they are not pumping 10 M m3 at this point, that is the final geoengineering scale.

    Please read all TFA or just do the normal thing and ignore and speculate. Halfway in between is just silly.

    Yess...but my actual point was that if they (likely) won't be able to use fresh water at the geoengineering scale, why on earth are they using it for testing? Shouldn't they be testing with the final resource that they would expect to be using, especially if dissolved salts are *believed* to be more effective? If this does prove out and they do move ahead using fresh water...well, they will have to generate a massive amount of fresh water first, which likely won't be achieved using energy from renewable resources...

    Please read all of a comment before replying ;)

  20. Re:Why are they using potable water? on Scientists Plan "Artificial Volcano" Climate Experiment · · Score: 1

    On the bright side if they build the desalination plants and manage to run them off solar power, the technology could be used to give more people access to drinking water.

    Or, as would be more likely, they'll only build half the desalination capacity they need, and 'appropriate' the rest from existing plants to save money...although, to be fair, I suppose this scheme may also double as a fresh water transportation medium, since one would expect rain downwind of the balloons...if they set it up correctly and prevailing winds are more or less constant, that is.

  21. Why are they using potable water? on Scientists Plan "Artificial Volcano" Climate Experiment · · Score: 1

    Potable water is way too precious a resource to be feasible for such an 'experimental' (read: crack-pot) idea:

    FTFA:

    ''We're going to try to pump tap water to a height of one kilometre through a pipe as a test of the technology.'' ...
    Pouring 10 million tonnes of material into the stratosphere each using 10 to 20 giant balloons could achieve a 2C global drop in temperature, the scientists believe.

    also:

    Experts believe particles of clay, salts or metallic oxides suspended in liquid would prove more effective than the sulphates produced by real volcanoes.

    So, why aren't they starting with salt water, again? If their experiment achieves everything they ever hoped for, they're still going to have to do it all over again with sea water anyways...and see if the resulting salt-water rains affect anything (gee, you think it would?) Or they're going to have to start building some big-ass desalination plants...and I just bet they won't be solar-powered, either....

    (FWIW, '10 million tonnes' of water = 10 million cubic meters = 10 billion litres of fresh water...)

  22. Re:This just in... on UK Government Wants Google To Police Copyright · · Score: 1

    "If Remington knowingly supplied continuing shipments of razor blades" /me blinks eyes at misunderstanding.

    Heh, I must admit, my first thought on reading the GGP post was "what do electric shavers have to do with drugs? Is this some new underground thing I haven't heard about?"

    Perhaps GGP should have used Smith & Wesson instead... ;)

  23. Surprised by the lack of comments... on UK Government Wants Google To Police Copyright · · Score: 1

    ...I mean c'mon! The title has 'Google', 'copyright' and 'police' right in it!

    Oh wait...I suppose people are off making fun of hillbillies, arguing about the merits of climate change research or mooning over Windows 8.

    Never mind.

  24. Re:I've Tried This Logic with Resulting Low Impact on Of Diamond Planets, Climate Change, and the Scientific Method · · Score: 1

    And if you're not a nuclear engineer, nuclear plant manager, or member of the NRC, then your opinion is based on nothing that remotely looks like scientific thought. In other words, it's pretty much the same as a Global Warming Denier, in that you know little or nothing about the subject, but are ready to assert that the experts are idiots. .. Additional ranting removed...

    Got a little close there, didn't he? No, you don't need to be a [climate scientist], [climate researcher] or a member of the [ICSC] (or [IPCC] for that matter) to have a reasonable and considered opinion on [anthropogenic global warming]. Consider this: Many of the people in the aforesaid categories have gone on record saying that [legislated restrictions of CO2 emissions] is safe, reliable and economically viable. There have been several high profile [research projects and economic studies] where this has been called into question and a large body of literature from people who are [climate scientists], (former) [climate researchers] and (former) members of the [ICSC] who have had significant, credible concerns about [AGW research methodology]. And similarly credentialed persons have worried about oil, solar and pretty much everything else that moves, beeps or squeaks.

    The argument that you have to have a PhD in any given field to discuss it rationally is nonsense. No, I can't detail my concerns about [the credibility or viability of AGW research] as well as I can detail my concerns about Monsanto's stupid attempts at genetic engineering as I know a lot more about the latter that the former, but I have enough of a technical background to follow the arguments about [AGW] fairly closely on an engineering level.
    More importantly, the big issues about [AGW] isn't really the technology per se, it is how the technology is integrated into the sphere of human economic, political and military thought and practice that bring up the bigger issues.

    So take a chill pill or at least switch to Decaf for the rest of the day. In terms of Climate Change the human race is in the unenviable position of asking a fairly new scientific discipline to tell the entire world Exactly What To Do - and to get it right, or else. If you have any experience in any scientific, political or social field, you understand that it's not going to happen that way. Not even close.

    Hmmm...you see what I did there?

    Your own arguments apply equally in both cases. Feel free to assess the 'dangers' of nuclear power for yourself, but also feel free to not disparage others' similar analysis and opinions regarding global warming. Sometimes even laymen can be smart enough to reason for themselves...

  25. Re:Standing waves and worse on DoT Grants $15M To Test Car-To-Car Communication · · Score: 1

    We all know the phenomena of standing waves in traffic. They have been observed to last for a long time (10's of minutes) from just one brake slam under certain heavy traffic flow conditions. ... More questionable yet is when this automatically triggers autonomous braking.

    I guess you'd just better hope 'n pray that the driver behind you opted for the 'communication safety pack' add-on, too...and the driver behind him...and the driver behind him...

    Manufacturers need to carefully study the differential equations of human interaction with traffic flow and perhaps develop a self tuning system to avoid big problems like this and the big lawsuits that will result from them.

    I agree. Ambulance chasers will be positively drooling over this system...