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User: PseudoCoder

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  1. Former hater took the bait... on No One Is Buying Smartwatches Anymore (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    I was a hater who mercilessly poked fun at other smartwatch wearers. Then I found a Samsung Gear S2 refurbished for $99 and that got me to bite. Biggest benefit for me is now I don't have to pull my massive Note 4 out of my pocket as often and can even put it away for most of the daily tasks. When I travel I rely mostly on my watch to get the notifications and decide whether I want to handle them on the phone or can even handle them right then on the watch and that's well worth $100 to me. Seems Samsung got the Tizen thing right in not trying to get the watch to do too much and fail. It's the right size (doesn't look like I'm wearing a frying pan on my wrist), it doesn't look like a "gadget" that's overly distracting, and it gets 2.5 days of battery with my usage. When I considered the value proposition of a smartwatch previously, at $250+ the benefits didn't make sense. But the combination of my use case and the price I was able to get on the "right" device (for me), makes it a win for me. If that was the case more broadly, they would become more widespread.

  2. Who needs employees when you have diversity? on Intel Confirms Major Layoff: 12,000 Worldwide, 11 Percent of Workforce (ieee.org) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    $300 Million because Diversity(TM) http://fortune.com/2015/01/12/...

  3. Dialing the Bush policies to 11 is not "doing what he can" and it's definitely not "Change" (TM). A Trillion went into those "shovel ready" jobs that turned into union handouts (which in turn become Democrat campaign funds), laptops for everybody that nobody needed (my wife's employer county govt, for example), turtle tunnels, ad nauseum. An excuse to spend monopoly money that didn't exist until they hit the "print" button, and we spend our real dollars to pay the interest on it. Solid work there.

  4. Yes because doubling the debt to $19 Trillion (with a T) isn't "real stimulus", right? You could give everyone in the US $720 if we weren't spending $223 billion dollars in interest on the debt, EVERY YEAR.

  5. What is the future of advertising? on What Is the Future of the Television? (ben-evans.com) · · Score: 1

    Answer that, then go from there. The TV world got turned upside down with the advent of digital cable. When TV networks started getting real feedback of who's actually watching and how long, instead of the WAG Nielsen ratings, that caused a panic among the TV and advertising industries. That's about the time reality TV and their lower production costs started really taking over, because you couldn't count on the same amount of advertising sponsorship to fund the higher production cost series.

    I don't really watch TV anymore and the medium might as well go away as far as I'm concerned. They've cancelled all the good series I watched for more than 10 years, and replaced them with garbage. The Netflix model seems to be working OK for now and I have pursuits that make entertainment trivial to me; the idea of spending hours paying attention to merely entertain my brain and deliver an IV of advertisement is ghastly when I consider what I want life to be about.

  6. National Symphony Orchestra playing Zelda FTW! on Video Game Music Is Saving the Symphony Orchestra (wsj.com) · · Score: 1

    https://youtu.be/Nq_aXq7DT7k I loved this show. Not that I go to see an orchestra often, but seeing people cheering during a performance was quite a thing. Those geeks got excited there!

  7. Re:Unfortunately on Two US Marines Foil Terrorist Attack On Train In France · · Score: 1

    It is a real problem. If there is enough pressure delta the ruptures of the metal skin (if the round manages to penetrate all the way through) would introduce cracks that would continue to propagate under pressure until the whole hull opens up. Kinda like with Aloha Airlines 243.

  8. I'm ready for Hillary... on Clinton Surrendering Email Server/Data To Feds After Top Secret Mail Found · · Score: 1

    to go to prison.

  9. Re:Let's start by repealing the 17th Amendment... on Mayday PAC's Benjamin Singer Explains How You can Help Reform American Politics (Video) · · Score: 1

    It's harder to influence an entire legislature, as opposed to just one person. Plus it's easier to keep tabs on the state legislators in your own state than a senator that flies away to DC and has a 14 year old intern answering the phones for them reading off pre-scripted answers to your questions. It's at least tougher to let the lobbyists completely run away with your senator.

  10. Let's start by repealing the 17th Amendment... on Mayday PAC's Benjamin Singer Explains How You can Help Reform American Politics (Video) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If we put Senators back under the control of state legislatures, they'll be less influenced by outside money because the state legislatures can yank the leash when these "law makers" stop representing their constituents appropriately. This would make the Citizens United decision less relevant, at least on the Senate side.

    The House reps are another story, because they're still under direct elections by the same public that keeps voting these "luminaries" back into power every time. Like senators, as soon as they finish lying to their constituents to their faces, they turn around and land in DC where they get hypnotized by lobbyists, committee chairmanships, etc. Then they're smooth sailing with their own agenda until it's time to come back home and lie to our faces again.

  11. One highly-publicized case is all it took on Reason: How To Break the Internet (in a Bad Way) · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It seems everyone pointed at the Comcast/Netflix deal as the lynchpin of why FCC's "net neutrality" needed to be passed. What were the actual results of that debacle? A private company paid a bunch of money to another private company and users got better video streaming performance.

    And by the way, it's highly skewed, back-room-negotiated regulations (like the ones used to pass NN) that keep smaller players from being able to compete against Comcast-type goliaths in local markets.

    Congratulations on handing the well-meaning folks at the Federal government control of the internet, which was doing just fine. Now here's your prize:

    http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-broadband-fees-20150409-story.html#page=1

  12. Why not be cautious? on Steve Wozniak Now Afraid of AI Too, Just Like Elon Musk · · Score: 1

    These guys are obviously not anti-technology bigots, but they know there's something to being prudent and keeping the big picture in perspective. The purpose of technology is to aid mankind, not replace it, fix it, or supplant it. Seems like some of the people who are at the edge of technology and are aware of its potential to exceed its mandate are urging us as a society to slow down and not sacrifice our humanity at the altar of "progress" because we're in awe of the possibilities of what the technology can do.

    Caution is not overrated. There are such things as unintended consequences. In fact they're everywhere and we just refuse to see them because we like our shiny new toys. I'd even say that for every benefit of anything, there are several unintended consequences.

  13. Let's not forget the Denon that started this... on $10K Ethernet Cable Claims Audio Fidelity, If You're Stupid Enough To Buy It · · Score: 1

    http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Discontinued-Manufacturer/product-reviews/B000I1X6PM

    Great cable, but too fast.

    Transmission of music data at rates faster than the speed of light seemed convenient, until I realized I was hearing the music before I actually wanted to play it. Apparently Denon forgot how accustomed most of us are to unidirectional time and the general laws of physics. I tried to get used to this effect but hearing songs play before I even realized I was in the mood for them just really screwed up my preconceptions of choice and free will. I'm still having a major existential hangover.

  14. Re:Capitalism! on Major Retailers Accused of Selling Fraudulent Herbal Supplements · · Score: 1

    You missed my point. Voluntary misuse of something does not constitute inherent flaw. Capitalism doesn't solve things. It lets people solve things and choose those solutions. I wouldn't buy a car without seat belts. I feel like I'm flopping around in the seat without one. Browse the websites and see that for all cars safety is now a marketing point, because it speaks to the buyer and it sells.

  15. Re:Capitalism! on Major Retailers Accused of Selling Fraudulent Herbal Supplements · · Score: 1

    That's what you get when your supplier is the lowest bidder, and zero checks and balances are in place, all in the name of profit. Meanwhile, some MBA that set up the deal is relaxing on his Yacht. This is capitalism at work.

    No, this is douchebaggery at work. They use capitalism to make their schemes happen, but capitalism also allows good things to happen too. Cars get you to and fro every day, and also get people killed at the rate of 35,303 per year for 2011 (source CDC death tables).

  16. Re:Beware the Do vs Teach dilemma on What Happens When the "Sharing Economy" Meets Higher Education · · Score: 2

    Wow. You get to miss the point of my post AND show yourself a smart-ass all in one post. Such efficiency!

    When I went to college the internet was but a fetus compared to what it is now. And regardless, my classmates were not tasked and paid to teach me something; the guy up front with the diplomas on his wall and the chalk in his hand was. To give a pass to the person who has an assigned responsibility and fails, only to put that responsibility on your buds isn't as clever as you make it sound.

  17. Beware the Do vs Teach dilemma on What Happens When the "Sharing Economy" Meets Higher Education · · Score: 4, Insightful

    More than half of my engineering curriculum was taught by prolific researchers who couldn't teach worth a damn. I was a tutor through most of college and found myself "reteaching" a lot of the stuff they would teach to others who came looking for help. Not because I was bright, see I struggled to understand the same topics, but I was able to break the topics down in a way that made more sense. Tying "building block" concepts progressively, until the process showed the complete picture, at which point I could teach them to myself for my own understanding, and then to others. That's when I realized good teachers require the whole package of skills; proficiency in their subject and a mind to educate by facilitating the process of connecting concepts.

    Sounds like a good place for a free market to open up. What teaching is worth should lean heavily on a feedback/review framework like Amazon's such that people don't end up paying for a class that sucks, by every student's experience, because the professor can't communicate concepts, or communicate at all. Like the time I spent almost weeks trying to figure out what the foreigner in my Space Systems course meant by "papamaaa". By the way, that's "performance".

  18. Re: You probably have one, though... on The iPad Is 5 Years Old This Week, But You Still Don't Need One · · Score: 0

    Yup. Took a stroll down down there myself. Someday I'll post a photo I took of some clown holding a protest sign getting his shoes shined, another clown wearing the commie fist on her shirt, and another with a sign asking for donations for tobacco because he'd run out of smokes. A true circus of ignorance that is a fertile ground for useful idiots.

  19. From their own mouths... on The iPad Is 5 Years Old This Week, But You Still Don't Need One · · Score: 1

    Congratulations on being a useful idiot.

    From the Occupy DC planning meeting of August 2012:

    http://youtu.be/z-hc8BjlukI

    Here's another one from their own organization meetings with a former NYT "reporter" saying how they don't want to "out themselves" by explicitly stating their goals of overthrowing capitalism.

    http://youtu.be/Ogg5wZXyXVQ

    http://youtu.be/em4btiNve4Q

  20. You probably have one, though... on The iPad Is 5 Years Old This Week, But You Still Don't Need One · · Score: 1, Troll

    Even if you still don't need one. That's why Apple gets to be the company with one of the highest net worths ever and posts the biggest corporate profits ever. I'm glad to have done my part. My wife's iPad sits next to her MacBook by the bed.

    Stand by for Occupy Wall Street to protest obscene profits at Apple's headquarters, in three, two; uh nevermind.

  21. They could save on energy costs on IRS Warns of Downtime Risk As Congress Makes Cuts · · Score: 1

    Instead of systematically targeting conservative groups by sitting on their paperwork, they should burn it for fuel.

  22. Returning to their roots & getting with the ti on Radio Shack Reported To Be Ready for Bankruptcy Filing · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They could have "gone back to their roots" by dumping all the common electronics that you can get anywhere and addressing the do-it-yourselfers by hopping on the robotics/Arduino bandwagons. Turn the retail floorspace that used to be occupied by crap TV's with a robot combat ring or workshop, focus on hands-on projects again, have in-store Arduino workshops and local demos of user projects and robotics competitions. Connect with the local high/middle-school to supply robotics/coding extra-curriculars, sponsor robotics workshops and have those kids drag their parents into the store after class to build their own projects. I don't even participate in most of that stuff, but I could see those would have been great paths to pursue a new market share.

    They would still need to close many locations and better compete with the mail order business, but they would have created a different customer segment that would be more enthusiastic than the "I need another charger for my phone" crowd rather than reduce their own business to carrion for the vultures. This was a missed opportunity.

  23. Re:Better way on Extra Leap Second To Be Added To Clocks On June 30 · · Score: 1

    Of course, there's a better way. Just ignore the small error until it adds up to an hour, and then skip a DST transition.

    That will lead to more and bigger instances of being affected by the error. The error is always there to a degree, no? But you are only affected by the error when you read the clock and produce a "bad calculation" based on that reading.

    Not sure what the answer would be software-wise, but maybe more use of elapsed time routines (vs absolute time) that would account for the corrected clock.

  24. Re:But an unborn baby is not a person. Riiiiiight. on Argentine Court Rules Orangutan Is a "Non-Human Person" · · Score: 1

    Assuming that you're referring to actual babies that have been born...

    It seems you too are missing the point, just like the aptly named Anonymous Coward above. Why was this actual baby born, or why should it not be? The criteria used to answer this question is at the heart of the matter, and you're standing on legal definitions.

    "Congratulations, new human! We've decided not to run you through the blender! Since you've made it this far, here are your inalienable rights!"

  25. Re:But an unborn baby is not a person. Riiiiiight. on Argentine Court Rules Orangutan Is a "Non-Human Person" · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Law? How shortsighted! No; it's about what we value, and how we make choices about life and death, and what makes us human.

    That woman opened up her body to her mate and that little person ended up there through no fault of its own. Mommy and daddy decided to ignore basic human physiology and now it is, in fact, the end of the story for that kid that ends up like it went through a blender. Your hand is a part of your body; ever tried to put your hand in a blender?