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User: theghost

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  1. Re:It is a well known fact huh? on American Grant Writing: Race Matters · · Score: 1

    I think you misread that. They are using SAT scores as a hypothetical example for the situation they are discussing, not categorically stating it as a statistical fact.

  2. Re:It is a well known fact huh? on American Grant Writing: Race Matters · · Score: 1

    Interestingly, this page says there's not a significant difference in test scores

    I'm having trouble finding where it says that. Can you quote it here?

  3. Re:Politically correct bias, maybe? on American Grant Writing: Race Matters · · Score: 1

    Many minorities pursue careers in sports and music because their other opportunities for social and economic advancement are more limited. It's not genetics. It's culture. Specifically, it's a culture recovering from long-term, widespread racism.

  4. Re:It doesn't prove it's not merit based on American Grant Writing: Race Matters · · Score: 1

    That doesn't make you a racist, but it does demonstrate that you have racist tendencies.

    There is more going on here than this article addresses and way more going on than you address, but the difference is that you make a lot of broad assumptions based on prejudice and the article doesn't. The article just looks at numbers and shows that something statistically significant is going on. You cite (or rather, you conspicuously don't cite, but ask us have faith in your authority) egregious examples, but we all know that anecdotal evidence is not reliable. I could also offer egregious examples of white people being treated more leniently than minorities, but without real statistical analysis, we don't know if either of these examples represents a significant trend.

    The article is convincing in that they thoroughly document their process and statistics. The article does not explain why the numbers came out that way, though it does suggest further avenues for research that could help determine that. You dismiss the article not because of any methodological or mathematical flaws, but because it doesn't fit your worldview. The article is based on statistical analysis and your worldview is, by definition, biased and incomplete.

    You don't appear to be actively or maliciously racist, but merely blind to your own prejudice.

  5. Re:redux on EVE Online Ponzi Scheme Nets $50k Worth of In-Game Currency · · Score: 1

    There's about as much role-playing going on here as there is in a typical shooter. This is competitive economics, not role-playing.

    And for the record, i'm not complaining about it. I'm saying essentially the same thing you are. This sort of thing is what the game is about. To borrow terminology from other MMOs, PvP happened on a PvP server.

  6. Re:Bias against other professionals, too. on American Grant Writing: Race Matters · · Score: 2

    If you want to prove something you already know, you're science-ing wrong, or rather you're not doing science at all.

  7. redux on EVE Online Ponzi Scheme Nets $50k Worth of In-Game Currency · · Score: 2

    I read the same stories over and over again about EVE it really shouldn't be considered news anymore. It's Monday: babies were born, people died, people got scammed in EVE - business as usual.

    The people who are serious about that game are there precisely to play with exactly those sorts of behavior. I feel a little sorry for new players who don't know that yet, but even the most basic research about the game would clue you in. What other games would call griefing and fraud are the real game of EVE - all that crap about spaceships is just to keep the marks distracted while the sharks nibble away at them.

  8. This one time... on Lodsys Responds To In-App Purchasing Patent Controversy · · Score: 2

    This one time i was at a baseball game and i bought a beer without leaving my seat. Did Lodsys get their cut off that?

  9. Re:Get another ISP! on Mediacom Using DPI To Hijack Searches, 404 Errors · · Score: 1

    Isn't it trademark that covers the whole wishy-washy "look and feel" thing, or is that patents? I often get my Imaginary Property laws mixed up.

  10. Re:Get another ISP! on Mediacom Using DPI To Hijack Searches, 404 Errors · · Score: 1

    Arguing with someone's sig is a fundamentally silly thing to do, but i'll indulge you. Our nature gives us the capacity for culture. Our culture is a product of environment and history. If nature produced culture then we'd have world peace, one language, and we would have committed suicide out of boredom long ago. The quote itself has to do with our culture's obsession with fame and money and the truly shitty things we do to each other in pursuit of those - abuse of intellectual property laws, trademarks, and copyright being tangential examples of that.

    That whole segue into pedophilia thing was pretty non-sequitur, so did you know that birds are probably descended from dinosaurs?

  11. Re:Get another ISP! on Mediacom Using DPI To Hijack Searches, 404 Errors · · Score: 1

    To be clear, we agree that it's bad form, probably even fraudulent in some way - i just don't think copyright is the right tool for the job. You writing a page and a search engine generating a list of results on the fly are two fundamentally different things. Even so, if you have an ad service serving ads to your page or even if you didn't create the ads yourself, then i'm pretty sure you can't claim any sort of copyright protection on them. Even the creator of the ad can't claim copyright protection if the ad just gets stripped out and disappears.

  12. Re:Get another ISP! on Mediacom Using DPI To Hijack Searches, 404 Errors · · Score: 1

    Take the WoW vs. Glider case from a little while back. There was no distribution there either, but Blizzard was able to take the Glider makers to court and win via DMCA and whatever other Frankenstein case they cobbled together. Right or wrong, it's another crack for the weasels to slip through. Best to avoid that area entirely and pick another battlefield.

  13. Re:Get another ISP! on Mediacom Using DPI To Hijack Searches, 404 Errors · · Score: 1

    I don't think the work can be established because it changes from minute to minute. Copyright is about protecting specific expressions of ideas. Trademark or just plain old fraud statutes are much more likely to address this.

  14. Re:Get another ISP! on Mediacom Using DPI To Hijack Searches, 404 Errors · · Score: 1

    AdBlock isn't for commercial gain, but it could be argued to cause financial harm.

    Copyright law is just such a huge clusterfuck and so ripe for abuse that it's better just to avoid it completely until sane, comprehensive copyright reform happens...so...probably never. Trust me - it is not friendly to the little guy. As soon as you figure out a way to use it to your advantage, the *IAAs will find 10 ways to fuck you with that same method.

  15. Re:Consumer fraud plain and simple on Mediacom Using DPI To Hijack Searches, 404 Errors · · Score: 1

    Piss in one hand and hold the other out for that refund and see which one fills up first.

    Whine all you want about "should" and "deserve" but without real pressure and real action, nothing is going to happen. AGs don't care about DPI because average Joes and Janes don't care about it. Average Joes and Janes doesn't care about whose ads he sees when he googles for porn, lolcats, or hot dish recipes so long as they gets their results. AGs care about making it look like they are fighting crime (which is different from actually fighting crime) and ISPs are their friends because any time they want to make a headline by busting someone on kiddie porn, the ISPs bend over backwards to help them. (That and the huge campaign contributions they give.)

  16. Re:Get another ISP! on Mediacom Using DPI To Hijack Searches, 404 Errors · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure you really want them to open up that can of worms. Can a procedurally generated page be protected by copyright? It's not a static work and who exactly is the author? Trademark certainly seems to be the cleaner way to go here. Also, what would this line of attack have to say about things like AdBlock?

  17. Duh. on 50% of Tweets Consumed Come From .05% of Users · · Score: 1

    Anyone who hasn't figured out by now that twitter is really only good for advertising and ego-tripping attention whores probably is an ego-tripping attention whore.

  18. Hijacking the topic... on GeForce GTX 590 and Radeon HD 6990 Face Off · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'd like to hijack the topic a little bit in order to ask a question because i don't have the time to bust out the google-fu and dig in for some serious research right now.

    The last time i really looked into the matter was 5-ish years ago, and the conclusion i came to was that radeons had slightly better hardware, but nvidia's drivers were so far superior that this theoretical lead was completely obliterated. Is this still true? (No die-hard brand shilling here please - i'd like to hear from people who at least think they can be impartial.)

  19. And people wonder... on Texas Bill Outlaws Discrimination Against Creationists In Academia · · Score: 1

    And people wonder why America is losing its edge. Gee, why can't Americans compete in science and technology these days? Religious interference in American politics and education is going to be our downfall - socially, economically, and spiritually.

  20. Re:I thought it was... on New Internal Cavity X-ray Technology for Airports · · Score: 1

    The badge has an RFID, and I can use it to badge into DIA, CIA, NSA, etc. TSA can't figure out how to install a standard RFID scanner?

    Honestly...no. These people are one rung above mall cops.

  21. Re:I thought it was... on New Internal Cavity X-ray Technology for Airports · · Score: 2

    They can't even find guns with scanners and full-body gropers and you expect them to be able to know the difference between a real document and a forgery?

  22. The revolving door on Former Senator Chris Dodd Set To Head MPAA · · Score: 1

    Government official accepts campaign money from corporate interests - legally sound, ethically questionable.
    Government official backs legislation favorable to corporate interests - legally sound, ethically icky.
    Government official leaves government, goes to work for corporate interests for 7+ figure salary - legally sound, ethically repugnant.
    Ex-government official offers campaign donations to new government official on behalf of corporate interests - the cycle is complete.

  23. Re:It was OK on How Watchmen Killed 'R'-rated Fantasy Movies · · Score: 1

    ...we've already seen that an attack on New York City doesn't unite the whole world (See: 9/11)...

    Aside from some extremist outliers, 9/11 DID unite the world. The colossal arrogance that was demonstrated and outright that were told in the aftermath of that attack just divided things up again, perhaps even worse than before.

  24. The fail in TFA... on Why WikiLeaks Is Unlike the Pentagon Papers · · Score: 2

    The fail in the article is the part where he tries to hold Assange personally responsible for a reactionary backlash against the press that may or may not happen. Wikileaks is responsible for the direct damage their revelations bring about, which, so far, is not much. They cannot be held responsible for the damage our nation does to itself in response to Wikileaks. If our leaders decreases the freedom of the press and we let them do it that cannot be laid at the feet of Wikileaks in general nor Julian Assange in particular.

  25. Re:Why do they need to do traffic shaping? on Is Net Neutrality Really Needed? · · Score: 4, Informative

    US ISPs are doing their jobs properly, it's just that they define "doing their job properly" as maximizing profits. They don't actually need to serve the customer because there's almost no real competition.