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User: maroberts

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  1. This would be bad on Remastered Star Trek: the Next Generation Blu-ray a Huge Leap Forward · · Score: 1

    "Sadly, Paramount hasn't ... asked Marina Sirtis to re-dub a few of her lines to sound a bit less like an overwrought heroine from Victorian erotica"

    Hmmm, I'll be back to my keyboard once I've checked out this space age Victorian erotica you speak of...

  2. Not interested unless... on Play Angry Birds With a USB Slingshot · · Score: 1

    ..it makes it easier to get 3 stars on level 3-15.

  3. Is it legal? on Police Find Apple Branded Stoves In China · · Score: 2

    Whilst Apple and iPhone are no doubt trademarks in the computing and phone business, if they have not registered their intention to enter the gas stove market then surely it is legitimate as trademarks are limited to the product area you're involved in.

  4. I shall think of you on Study Suggests Climate Change-Induced Drought Caused the Mayan Collapse · · Score: 1

    ...whilst us English are stupid enough to be paying £1.45 (about $2.40) a litre.

  5. Get on with some work on Ask Slashdot: Dealing With University Firewalls? · · Score: 1

    If you were complaining about web sites related to your studies, you'd have some justification. The University network is there for studies and work, not for pissing around on.

    [At this point maybe I should confess that I spent all my mainframe time allocation at Uni playing the original MUD... :-P ]

  6. Re:Iceland??? on Nordic Nations Pitch For US Data Centers · · Score: 2

    Yes, but I was more concerned about the "energy output" of volcanoes such as this lot.

    "Over the past 500 years, Iceland's volcanoes have erupted a third of the total global lava output"

    Hot rocks and servers don't mix.

  7. Re:Iceland??? on Nordic Nations Pitch For US Data Centers · · Score: 1

    I would suspect that since the servers should all be accessible remotely you'd only require a few building maintenance and tech support guys there, so wages would not be the big issue.

  8. Re:Pigeons on Remote-Controlled Planes Used For Wildlife Conservation · · Score: 0

    Oooh, then we'd have to introduce extra cats, wolves and bears to have a complete food chain....

    Going out in the back garden would be a real adventure ....

  9. Iceland??? on Nordic Nations Pitch For US Data Centers · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd be more worried about server crashes due to hot magma than cooling!

  10. Rigourous Scientific Review not rigourous on Submitting "Nuking the Fridge" To Scientific Peer Review · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, the rigorous scientific review ignores what I call the 'Chuck Norris Theory of Relativity', which states that for certain heroes there is an area relative to the location of the hero where the laws of the universe bend to their will instead of being the fixed laws that Einstein and others trotted out.

    In essence, every hero has a personal form of "gravity well" where normal theories concerning the mechanics of the universe do not strictly apply or are muted in effect. This theory is named after Chuck Norris, because he is the extreme example where the entire universe is affected by his will. Of course, except for Chuck Norris, this effect is not absolute; heroes can be harmed and even die in extreme cases, and it is even possible that the strength of the hero field fades with the number of books/movies/ tv episodes that he/she appears in.

  11. Re:The hate on Gates Foundation Makes Progress On Reinvented Toilets · · Score: 1

    Multiple issues with this:
    1) motivation: his wife is doing this to improve his image. So, he is simply following what other industrial criminals did. So, no, I am not that impressed.
    2) a number of his attempts are insane. For starters, he wants to wipe out a species of mosquitoes. Yet, it is finally becoming apparent in science that virus give us our leaps in evolution. As such, mosquitoes transmit these virus.; wanting to stop hurricanes in the atlantic due to economic issues. All the while he ignores that the hurricanes serves as a pump to bring up nutrients from much lower in the oceans to the surface.
    3) for all his spending of money, it has been tied back to MS.
    4) he is a huge drain on the western economy and IP. even now he is looking to take american nuke tech and transfer to china.
    5) the man misses doing any real things: building up space infrastructure; building up maglev or other high-speed rail in America.
    Sorry, but not impressed by him.

    I'm not Bills biggest fan, but I am impressed by his projects. With respect to
    1) Even Scrooge was only converted late in life
    2) mosquitoes are the worlds biggest people killer. Obviously some approaches to solving the problem have issues. Malaria has been around for ages and all it seems to have given some people is sickle cells
    3) his money has to come from somewhere
    4) Bill was not really the patent troll that Microsoft seems to becoming. I don't think that Microsoft was really active in the patents field whilst he was in charge.
    5) is more Paul Allens field, so maybe he's ensuring that between the two of them they give wide coverage. All the high tech projects do not really benefit the worlds poor, and can be funded in other ways, so why should he do it.

  12. Re:I don't want to attack Bill Gates. on Gates Foundation Makes Progress On Reinvented Toilets · · Score: 1

    You mean, other than Windows Me?

    ..plus Vista

  13. Re:Hot and steamy? on Astronomers Confirm a Hot and Steamy Exoplanet · · Score: 1

    Yes, but they have a lot of frustration in the intervening 7 years

  14. Re:Hot and steamy? on Astronomers Confirm a Hot and Steamy Exoplanet · · Score: 1

    So it is a Hot and Steamy X O Planet.

    Kirk got all the action; his XO never got any because he was much too logical.

  15. Re:Really? on The Pirate Bay On Track To Be Banned In the UK? · · Score: 1

    Yes, but against this are some European court decisions which have clearly indicated that websites have no duty to monitor whether their users post infringing content. If the process of indexing is automated, then I would suggest there is no "deliberately" involved.

  16. Flying near highway on Hunters Shoot Down Drone of Animal Rights Group · · Score: 1

    Was their drone breaking any regulations by flying close to the highway.

    Whilst obviously you may have to cross roads, even if you are using a road as a navigation aid, I'm fairly certain that you fly parellel to it and not over it, with a distance of about 250' recommended.

  17. I wonder if pigeons will evolve on Hunters Shoot Down Drone of Animal Rights Group · · Score: 2

    ...so they always fly over highways and thus cannot be shot at....

  18. I'm uncertain how Piratebay infringes copyright on The Pirate Bay On Track To Be Banned In the UK? · · Score: 1

    Maybe someone can educate me as to what Piratebay does that Google doesn't.

    Whilst PirateBay obviously deliberately encourages a view that it is an organisation that skirts close to the law, as far as I am aware it does nothing that any other search engine doesn't. i.e. it simply returns a list of locations where the searched for content can be found.

  19. a) have a manager to designate which projects are the most important.
    b) queue the projects to give a more realistic idea of when they will be actually completed
    c) if the result is that some projects are going to be unacceptably late, you have a case for more staff, subject of course to the restriction that 9 people cannot make a baby in one month,

  20. Re:I call rule 34 on section 34 on Canada's Online Surveillance Bill: Section 34 "Opens Door To Big Brother" · · Score: 2

    There must be Big Brother porn somewhere...

    featuring Hitler, no doubt

  21. Re:Mod manipulation by GreatBunzinni, aka Rui Maci on Canada's Online Surveillance Bill: Section 34 "Opens Door To Big Brother" · · Score: 1

    Thanks for cutting and posting this turd yet again, I have just posted a similar large log to you in return to show my feelings on the worth of your public information broadcast

  22. I like the Llano on AMD: What Went Wrong? · · Score: 1

    ...and I'm surprised it isn't used more often. I've used it to upgrade my PCs and I'm fairly certain an equivalent Intel solution would've cost me about £100 ($150) more. The Llanos seem to deliver upper i5 levels of performance with reasonably capable graphics before adding an independant graphics card, so maybe someone can explain to me why they aren't shifting more of them??

  23. Re:In essence on Former Goldman Programmer's Conviction Overturned · · Score: 1

    I'm sure you have, but Non-Disclosure agreements and Non-Compete clauses have to be strictly limited in scope and cannot prevent you performing the general trade that you are expert in.

  24. Re:Shouldn't be legal to use in the first place. on Former Goldman Programmer's Conviction Overturned · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you want to finance your retirement or your childs education, you don't need to sell shares every 5 seconds, so liquidity means little in this regard. It would not be the end of the world having to wait a week or two for money for such purposes.

  25. Re:In essence on Former Goldman Programmer's Conviction Overturned · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you produce a product as part of work for hire and then steal that code and sell it on to a third party, it's still a form of theft.

    It was however, perfectly legitimate for him to walk out with the knowledge of how stuff worked in his head and sell his expertise; I'm surprised he didn't do so. Once you know how something is done, you have solved the hard part and can spout a new set of code out of your head with little difficulty. Often producing a product the second time means you can do things better and faster anyway.

    There's a lot of blurring between personal and work computers nowadays, which does mean you may have a copy of stuff you have developed on your home PC, and that can make things awkward. But if you do mean to sell something you've worked on to another party, you'd damn well better make sure that right is in your contract.