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User: b4upoo

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Comments · 1,708

  1. Re:You need more on Secret UK Plan To Appoint "Pirate Finder General" · · Score: 1

    Corruption and bribery may be a lot rarer than you think. Human ignorance is always abundant. Those in power tend to be older and have little understanding of open source and like all people they always deeply fear change. These older law makers usually struggle just to have enough energy to get out of bed and put their clothing on. Making really good decisions is something that is random with them despite good intentions.
    Trying to summon up enough energy to really consider the lack of merits in copyright law is just beyond these folks.

  2. Re:100 Million? on 100 Million-Core Supercomputers Coming By 2018 · · Score: 1

    But can it play chess?

  3. Re:*First post.. on Public School Teachers Selling Lesson Plans Online · · Score: 1

    Just how could one hope to know where a teacher developed a lesson plan? Did they develop it during the summer months when they are not paid? How about nights and weekends? How about claiming that it was developed some time back when they worked in a private school but on their own time?
                      All this kind of issue can do is raise taxes for the public by creating endless trials.
                      This same problem exists with pornography laws. The public is the one getting screwed in every trial over free speech vs. porn. Regardless of who prevails at trial every trial takes tax dollars to produce.
                      Sometimes society is almost retarded in its thinking. Picture a cop arresting a punk with six ounces of crack in his pocket. The cop beams with pride as he is like a good dog who has fetched a bone. The prosecutor and the judge feel proud as they send the goof up the river for twenty years. The jail guard feels superior keeping the goof behind bars. Cost of cop $60,000 per year. Cost of trial $30,000. Salary of judge and prosecutor $200.000 per year. Cost of transporting convict $1000. Cost of prison for one convict $30,000 per year for twenty years = $300,000.
                      But the insane part us that society feels like it is a big win when they toss the goof in the squad car. It would be a win if they shot the guy in the head on the spot. Short of that we loose every time.

  4. Re:Nothing to see here, move on on Copyright Time Bomb Set To Go Off · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sadly the term publisher masks a host of leeches that feed upon the artists and the public. In essence if you get a contract you can subcontract everything and simply sit back and get a free lunch.
                          Going back in time a bit the publishers had to hire a scribe as an employee to prepare the original and then print it and issue it themselves. Those days are long gone. Today even the big name artists often gain nothing at all from record production but make their entire living from in person appearances and the sale of T shirts and other gimmicks.

  5. Re:Freedom of Speech on German Killers Sue Wikipedia To Remove Their Names · · Score: 1

    But how about the right of people in the US to maintain free speech? Companies providing content suffer law suits from all kinds of foreign governments. That restricts our right to know or to learn. That should not be allowed to happen. We have no reason at all to be concerned about French feelings about trading in Nazi relics.

  6. The price of meat on The Mass Production of Living Tissue · · Score: 1

    Can this be the start of the price of hamburger going way down? Meat without need for the cow, the chicken, or the turkey could be a boon to the entire world. It could also give us a use for all the abandoned factory space in America. Now if they can grow nice leather I could use some new upholstery.

  7. Jurisiction Over and Over Again on German Killers Sue Wikipedia To Remove Their Names · · Score: 1

    American law has always displayed cowardice in declaring where jurisdiction exists. Sometimes it is which agency is in control. Sometimes it is in whether city,county,state or federal laws should be in play. And now with all kinds of treaties and formal arrangements with other nations it is almost overwhelming in nature.
                        A year or so back it was France suing Ebay over the sale of Nazi relics. Now we have Germany fussing about revealing the names of murderers.
                        And you don't even want to start about porn laws and what one may have on computer in different states within the US.
                        It's about time for the public to get involved. No nation should have the slightest control over anything published in America and no town, city or state should ever be allowed to declare any publication illegal if it is legal anywhere in the industrialized world.

  8. Keep It Simple on Vatican Debates Possibility of Alien Life · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Catholics need not confront alien life issues at all. The idea that God's truth had to be delivered to the population of this world in such a way that they could understand and make use of it is sufficient. Can any of us imagine a Holy book being delivered two thousand years ago that babbled about relativity, the Higg"s Boson or multi dimensional universes?
                  We can trust that the message has been delivered to others in a format that they can both understand and make use of.

  9. Re:Penalties on Microsoft Patents Sudo's Behavior · · Score: 1

    Not only with Microsoft, but with other large corporations as well , we need to seriously increase the size of fines to the point that these firms dread them. For example a fine of one billion dollars sounds like big money to almost all of us but when a company can make twenty billion and be fined only one billion for the act that created that twenty billion the size of the fine is an encouragement and a signal that the company should keep on violating laws and other peoples' rights. It is like a fine to me of $100 for breaking into your home. The catch being that I found five thousand bucks in your home. The criminal justice system is running the same way. Shoot a young man and ruin his life, put him in a wheelchair, and get only ten or twenty years in jail. That is not justice.

  10. Jurisdiction is a Nightmare on EC Formally Objects To Oracle's Purchase of Sun · · Score: 1

    The US is being dragged into an unholy mess by treaties and agreements with foreign nations. Ever so steadily anything done in the US seems to also fall under foreign laws. And the US is partly to blame. After all insisting on controlling activities by groups such as Pirate Bay allows foreign nations the right to exert control over American actions.
                        These issues will never resolve.

  11. Re:Transmission was heard... on US Navy Was Ordered To Listen For Martian Broadcast · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Short wave operators have used moon bounce to reflect signals back to Earth. I suspect that the military might have had an interest in trying to use Mars as a reflector for radio messages. The idea being that it would take a very sensitive and specific antenna to recover a reflected message from such a distance. I don't know if it can be done but I'll bet they were trying to do it.

  12. Dump That Data! on Justice Dept. Asked For Broad Swath of IndyMedia's Visitor Records · · Score: 1

    Unless their is some legal compulsion to do so why not just destroy all traces of data that flows to a site every day or two? Just why is there any need to hang on to all of that information?

  13. Re:Hackers Diet FTW. on Why Doesn't Exercise Lead To Weight Loss? · · Score: 1

    The people being studied ate the same both during and after the tests. Apparently exercise in obese people triggers some sort of defense against loss of weight. Obese people seem to store fat more efficiently
      to begin with. The net result is that for many obese people to be slim they must actually be on a continuous starvation diet. That is why they usually remain heavy.

  14. Works 100% on Some Early Adopters Stung By Ubuntu's Karmic Koala · · Score: 1

    I installed the Karmic Koala version of Ultimate Edition Ubuntu and it works just fine and without any problems at all.
                    I can say that it boots so fast that I have one hard drive that can not reach speed fast enough to keep up and I sometimes have to do a reboot on the first boot of the day. Both the boot speed and the shut down speed are flat out superior.
                    If one wishes to run Ubuntu then Ultimate Edition is a fabulous choice.

  15. Re:From the last Slashdot article and FYI: on Revisiting DIY HERF Guns · · Score: 1

    The catch is that there are many, very unreasonable citizens. A person may feel that a car is tail gating them but in fact that may simply be their own illusion. The very reason that we have law and courts is to keep individuals from using their own judgment. If we feel offended we take it to lawyers and courts and let them sort out the reality of the complaint,
                  Right now we are seeing a pendulum swinging between extremes. For example my state went from almost disallowing all self defense to the other side of the spectrum. I have non obvious disabilities and taking a punch would likely cause great harm. As it now stands if a drunk balls up a fist and steps towards me with an angry or aggressive posture I can dispatch him with a bullet without fear of legal penalties. And it is important that it stay that way so that seniors and others are able to avoid great harm. The other side of the coin is that it would be awfully easy to bait someone into clenching a fist and stepping forward and commiting a staged murder without fear of consequences.

  16. Re:And this is on slashdot why? on New Motorcycle World Speed Record, 367.382 mph · · Score: 1

    This kind of speed on a motorcycle involves deep understanding of motorcycles as well as high speed behaviors. There are lots of ways in which anyone can get high powered engines sufficient for that kind of speed. But making it all come together into a machine that doesn't fall apart or become impossible to control requires serious mechanical and design talent.
                  In the 1950 era any street bike that reached 100 mph put its rider at great risk. I can recall bikes at 105 mph that felt like sitting on a razor blade in a hurricane. It was just grit your teeth and hope to stay alive. Now street bikes can often hit 200 mph with some elements of safety.

  17. Re:Everything we eat is GM. Everything. on Judge Rejects Approval of Engineered Sugar Beets · · Score: 1

    The law is like a persistent cancer that tries to keep its grip. Once the notions of patent get applied then the courts are in an odd position when a farmer accidentally gets patented genetic material in his crops from the wind. If the courts were to interpret the issue of money being due only when a person deliberately makes use of a genetic product some of this issue would vanish. Even more aggressive would be the posture that if a company pollutes your crops with its genetic product then they are liable for damages.

  18. Re:Just another building block ... on EU Funding "Orwellian" Artificial Intelligence Snooping System · · Score: 1

    Violence may very well be on the increase as technology eliminates more and more jobs. Add to that the flooding of coastal areas that will create all kinds of economic havoc as well as too much pressure from rising world populations and we may be in for a hell trip.

  19. Re:If he's a hacker... on US Wants UK Hacker To Pay To Fix Holes He Exposed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seems to me that we ought to thank him for exposing the vulnerability and pay him for his discovery as well as any useful work he does to further increase security.

  20. Any Hope? on Vegetative Patients Can Still Learn · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does this imply that high school kids might learn?

  21. Re:Only a good thing if on DoJ Recommends NY Court Reject Google Book Deal · · Score: 1

    Actually you are dead wrong. If you are dead broke and receiving SSI disability and Medicare you will get that transplant. But if you have a bit of money and are not on SSI you would not be able to afford the anti rejection meds which cost about 3K per month and you will not receive the surgery, Insurance usually will not cover these medications.
              This gets even darker. If you go to a hospital with an emergency condition and no insurance you will be treated. However, if you have insurance and it does not cover needed surgeries or procedures you will die.
              Real bad example is a seriously ill diabetic who always received immediate care for his emergencies but was discharged without insulin or supplies and would have an emergency within twelve hours every time. It cost 70K every time the guy keeled over.
            Worse yet, Holy Cross Hospital in Ft. Lauderdale taking a dieing AIDS patient on a stretcher and dumping him on the sidewalk as dieing is not an emergency.

  22. Re:Kid won't know what to do when an adult on Children's Watch Allows Parents To Track Their Kid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There are towns in the US in which every aid need be applied to protect kids. Some places are simply way too dangerous.
                  This might also be useful for law enforcement as well as personal protection in that people can prove that they were not in a certain place at a certain time. For example many men have a problem with former wives who imagine that the old ex is stalking them. Having solid proof that your former mate is a dingbat could offer serious legal protections.

  23. Re:I beg to differ on MIT Project "Gaydar" Shakes Privacy Assumptions · · Score: 1

    Nothing is simple. You may one day find that a person that you despise was actually your most reliable friend. Conversely people sometimes find out that their friends are the most toxic of all potential associates.
              It's sort of like two chiefs at the head of a company. One is considered the employees' friend and wants to be liberal in salary advances. The other is a skin flint who wants to keep labor costs at a third world level. The el cheapo jerk may preserve your job. The nice boss may leave you in the lurch.

  24. Arrow on RIAA's Elementary School Copyright Curriculum · · Score: 1

    Maybe the Charley Manson family should have a well defined policy regarding the RIAA. Perhaps the SLA folks should help the RIAA obtain justice right in their own homes. Maybe the KKK could shut the RIAA up. The point being it's time not to be nice!

  25. Re:Brain... locking... up... on Microsoft Files Suits Against "Malvertisers" · · Score: 1

    Microsoft doesn't need any help at all in looking bad.