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User: twd

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  1. Re:You'd almost certainly have to start with on Scientist Calls Mars a Terraforming Target · · Score: 1

    I don't know, and TFA doesn't go into much detail. Still, while the atmospheric leakage may be significant in geological/areological time scales, it may not be significant in human terms, especially if human activity can replace it sufficiently to reach equilibrium.

    Someone mentioned crashing comets into the moon (there are two, actually), but why not crash them directly into mars, adding water and heat in the process?

  2. Re:Article is flamebait on Democrats Appoint RIAA Shill For Convention · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hitler would have said that, if he had had a blog.

  3. Re:censorship fixes everything on Videogame Decency Act in Congress · · Score: 1

    Um, actually, I think your sarcasm tag detector was firing somewhat slowly. But at least it did fire.

  4. You owe us nothing, pay up now! on What Inept Billing Software Have You Encountered? · · Score: 1

    A couple of years ago, Verizon Wireless cut off my service, because I was past due on a balance of $0. I called, waited on hold, and got service re-established, only to have it cut off again the next day for the same reason.

    It took two more days of escalating phone calls and waiting on hold to finally get it straightened out. I would have switched providers at that point if I could have gotten reception in my town on any other.

  5. Re:Mad Soccer fans? on IT Meets the World Cup · · Score: 1

    Mad as in crazy. Mad meaning angry is an American colloquialism.

  6. Re:Reporter is a traitor. on Crashing the Wiretapper's Ball · · Score: 2, Insightful

    AS a registered Democrat, I'll just point out that the Republicans don't have a lock on this sort of nonsense. The Democrats fell all over themselves helping to pass the so-called Patriot Act.

  7. I can't wait on Scientists Probe the Use of the Tongue · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I can't wait to see the comments on this one.

  8. Project Gutenberg and a PDA on eBooks - What's Holding You Back? · · Score: 1

    I still primarily read petroleum products on dead trees. But, eBooks are a very convenient secondary source of reading material to me.

    I download free, as in expired copyright, books from sources such as Project Gutenberg to my PDA (Palm Tungsten E right now). Then, when I'm stuck waiting somewhere, I pull out the PDA and read. It fits in my pocket much more conveniently than most books.

    Doing that for the last three or four years, along with listening to audio books while driving or walking the dog, has increased my cultural literacy dramatically during that time.

  9. Hobbit on Jackson Comments On Gaming, Kong Sequel · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just get busy making the Hobbit, please.

  10. Re:Madwifi on State of WLAN Support on Linux? · · Score: 1

    Me too. DWL-G650 PC-Card with Gentoo Linux on an IBM A22m. Works like a charm.

  11. Re:Sounds like sleep deprivation on Computers, Long Hours and Vision Problems? · · Score: 1

    "... a girlfriend"

    Wait, I thought you were advising him to get some sleep.

  12. Re:Interpreted Versus Compiled on Java Is So 90s · · Score: 1

    Why is this insightful? It's not the difference between a compiler and an interpreter that makes a language hard or easy to use.

    After over a decade of C and C++ programming, for me, Java was far from "a bitch to learn." It was very easy, and its libraries provided a lot. The syntax is hardly byzantine compared to C/C++. What's easy to learn depends on what you already know.

    I've also extensively used Perl, and have likes and dislikes about it as well.

    Certainly, scripting languages like Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby are useful, and can be very simple for non-programmers to learn. But I've had to support some of the spaghetti-coded scripting abortions written by self-taught experts. Ultimately, bad programmers can make a mess of any language.

    But sometimes the massive application is what's called for, and there is not simpler and easier system that can be written. For those systems, Java is not the only possible answer, but it's a very valid one.

  13. Re:you're all forgetting one thing on Traditional Radio Endangered By New Tech · · Score: 1

    Free as in beer, yes. Free as in speech, well, the sanitized and homogenized speech of a very few players, like Clear stinkin' Channel.

    Our last truly local radio station sold out last year; now it's next to impossible to find out what's going on locally from the radio.

    I've given up, and mostly listen to audio books in the car.

  14. IT professional on Hooked On The Web · · Score: 1

    Does having a job requiring the use of the Internet and Web for hours a day qualify me as addicted?

  15. Not all cars are SUVs on The Math Behind the Hybrid Hype · · Score: 1

    You've created a bit of a strawman in the three tons of scrap to move each human. Admittedly, even moving 1.5 tons is problematic, but at least it's both easier and more typical of most of the world outside the suburban US. Also consider that each 1.5 to 3 ton vehicle is capable of carrying two or more humans, and the numbers get better.

  16. Re:The real truth. on Cow Tipping is a Myth · · Score: 1

    Um, cows are female, so it wouldn't be bretheren. Sisteren, I suppose...

  17. Re:First Person To Mars... OWNS IT. on Company to Settle and Mine Mars · · Score: 1

    Right on; maybe not the whole planet, but certainly a large tract. This is a large part of the history of Canada, with an enormous exclusive land grant to the Hudson's Bay Company driving the settlement of Prince Rupert's Land.

    The huge risk of the enterprise was offset by equivalently huge potential rewards.

  18. Of geese and ganders on HP Calls For Sun and IBM to Remove OS Licenses · · Score: 1

    I wonder, is HP going to be consistent, and do the same thing for HP-UX that they are asking Sun to do for Solaris?

  19. Maybe it should be questioned on When Should You Buy Your Kid A Laptop? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "These days, it's almost unquestioned that college-bound students will tote laptops back to school."

    I have bought my college students desktops. While the idea of using a laptop to take notes in class, or to work on a term paper out on the front lawn, is an appealing daydream, it isn't reality. And laptops have a bad habit of disappearing, while desktop boat anchors are considerably less likely to sprout legs and walk away.

    I know of many parents who did the same, though I know of just as many who have bought their kids laptops, with associated anti-theft devices, and have paid twice as much for a system with a cramped keyboard and restricted expandibility that will spend most of its time in the dorm anyway.

    Given that, I'm not sure why I would buy a laptop instead of a desktop for a middle-school child. In fact, I didn't. They shared a family PC until high school, at which point I got them Linux-based desktops.

  20. Re:Compared to a shuffle? on World's Smallest MP3 Player · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Funny thing, for those of us working in "secure" facilities where the security idiots^H^H^H^H^H^Hstaff think that USB is the mark of the beast, being able to leave the USB connection at home can be a big advantage.

  21. Re:voila on Build Your Own Solar Powered Hotspot · · Score: 1

    It said voil, not viola. What's a voil?

  22. Re:Bank of America is procative on Over Half a Million Bank Accounts Breached · · Score: 1

    Does "procative" mean running the cat command before it's needed?

  23. Re:Change majors or double major on Hardware or Software Major? · · Score: 1

    Yes. Make yourself stand out from the run-of-the mill CS or EE majors. But most importantly, pursue what interests you, or you'll end up hating life.

  24. Yale and marketing on Hardware or Software Major? · · Score: 1

    Ironically, the reason Yale doesn't offer those majors is because of marketing. They are justifying the outrageous tuition costs by niche marketing.

  25. Re:It Just Barely Works. on Microsoft's New Mantra - It Just Works · · Score: 1

    From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

    just (adverb)
    1 a : EXACTLY, PRECISELY (just right) b : very recently (the bell just rang)
    2 a : by a very small margin : BARELY (just too late)

    1a is what Microsoft hopes people will think this means. 2a is what it really means.