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User: mmcxii

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Comments · 218

  1. Re:This solves ? on 'Smart Gun' Firm Wants You To Fund Its Prototype · · Score: 2

    Is asking for a popular democracy to resort to fact-based reasoning too much of a stretch?

    If people use fact-based reasoning even for a few decisions a day entire markets would collapse, there would be social upheaval and politicians would have to run for their lives.

  2. In the grand scheme of things on Iron In Egyptian Relics Came From Space · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Everthing on Earth came from space.

    The idea that a civilization would use a rock that fell from space to make some trinkets doesn't seem too earth shaking to me.

  3. Questions for the fans on Writer Jack Vance Dead At 96 · · Score: 1

    I've never heard of the guy and was looking a bit into his stuff on Amazon. How "humorous" are his writings?

  4. Re:what's the point of itunes in search results? on Google's View On the Whac-a-Mole of Blocking Pirate Sites · · Score: 1

    Amazon does it just fine.

  5. Please stop this. on Star Wars Episode 4 To Be Dubbed In Navajo · · Score: 1

    Haven't the Native Americans been punished enough by the white man's foolery as it is?

  6. Re:Almost certainly fake, and a scam on Ask Slashdot: How To Determine If a Video Has Been Faked? · · Score: 1

    It didn't do anything for David Crosby or Jerry Garcia.

  7. Re:Think of the aliens on Violent Galactic Clash May Solve Cosmic Mystery · · Score: 2

    I wouldn't worry about another great bombardment from the asteroid belt. It has a total mass less than 1/10th of 1% of that of the Earth and Ceres makes up a quarter or so of that. We might get dinged a bit but I find it unlikely that something is going to change the orbit of Ceres and send it into the orbital path of the Earth but at the same time not having enough gravitational effect to pull Earth from its own orbit. Much less something being able to strip us of our moon but leaving us unaffected.

    Not to say it couldn't happen but it seems so remote that I wouldn't put any money on it.

  8. Re:Think of the aliens on Violent Galactic Clash May Solve Cosmic Mystery · · Score: 2

    True but it may not have to be a direct collision. I wonder how close a one solar mass star would have to get to Earth to pull us out of orbit enough to effectively turn Earth into a lifeless planet.

    Does anyone have simulation software that could be used to handle these kinds of questions? Windows/Linux/OSX, it doesn't matter.

  9. Re:Did they break any laws? on Web of Tax Shelters Saved Apple Billions, Inquiry Finds · · Score: 1

    I'll get back to you when you can stay on topic for more than 3 sentences.

  10. Re:Did they break any laws? on Web of Tax Shelters Saved Apple Billions, Inquiry Finds · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm sure they spent loads of money to lobby to make our current system of laws beneficial to them. They used their huge pocketbook to game the system to make their pocketbook massive!

    Just remember, you can't buy what isn't for sale. If companies are able to buy their way into writing legislation that means that there is a deeper problem in play here and attacking each company over each incident is like not seeing the forest for the trees.

    No one will get anywhere by attacking Apple (or Google or MS or IBM or GM or Boeing or Lockheed). If there is a deep rooted problem of this nature in the system then the system needs reformed. Going after those who offend loopholes in that system isn't very advanced. It's not much different than a dog chasing his own tail.

  11. Re:The girl you should've asked to prom... on Paul Otellini: Intel Lost the iPhone Battle, But It Could Win the Mobile War · · Score: 2

    Yeah, we've all heard guys tell stories like this. It takes me about 20 seconds before I mentally paint an "L" on their forehead.

    Ok. So you've never let something get away from you that turned out to be huge? I'm sadly one of those guys with a big "L" on his forehead. I have a good friend who did a website early on in the history of the web and he made an absolute killing for a guy just turning his hobby into a business. Part of his success really wasn't the site itself but also who he partnered with and that added value to what he already created. He left this venture after about 15 years and while I think he'll go on to other things I'd like to think he's well enough off that he won't have to. I could have been part of that but at the time I thought it was something that may have made beer money but I didn't expect much. At the time it was also a hobby site more than anything else. Oh well, such is life.

    It wasn't "the mother of all demos" but it was a close second.

    What was first?

  12. Re:Millions... on Paul Otellini: Intel Lost the iPhone Battle, But It Could Win the Mobile War · · Score: 1

    Maybe part of the Hollywood sign. If not, then check in the Alamo... in the basement.

  13. Re:Never going to happen on New Flying Car Design Unveiled · · Score: 1

    If you haven't noticed, there is a small but serious trend to remove the "idiot" from behind the wheel. I'm sure this won't be on the lots of your local dealer in 2020 or anything but make no mistake, human error is an element the industry is working to minimize to the point of removing the human.

  14. Re:Playing the race card again on Florida Teen Expelled and Arrested For Science Experiment · · Score: 2

    What exactly is the non-racist explanation for that lack of proportionality?

    Oh, you mean like firearms that count for less than 1% of all firearms deaths being the targets of an aggressive firearm ban? Or a 100% natural drug with a great track record on safe use in the long and short term being prohibited while another drug that is a thousand times more lethal is sold to anyone who can flash an ID to prove that they're over 21? Or being able to watch the real life death of another human on TV while scenes of nudity are strictly forbidden?

    You're seriously looking for logic in our social norms on "proportionality"?

    It's hard to take all the facts from this not being a first party participant and while I wouldn't be surprised to find that race played a role I also would be even less surprised that this has to do with bomb making. Oddly the peanut gallery around here likes to scream and moan when we talk about the lack of real chemistry sets today but now that this same metric is brought into the class room with the potential or a race element it's just racism and nothing else?

    This is the exact type of knee-jerk reaction that is keeping us from solving real social problems.

  15. Re:Google glasses on Google Glass Is the Future — and the Future Has Awful Battery Life · · Score: 1

    you will be the battery, coppertop

    The battery life is definitely going to suck in that case.

  16. Re:Google glasses on Google Glass Is the Future — and the Future Has Awful Battery Life · · Score: 1

    Imagine how piss poor the battery life is going to be on those. Sheesh.

  17. Re:I agree on BlackBerry CEO: Tablet Market Is Dying · · Score: 1

    Fast-forward to now, and laptops have caught up. SSDs killed the boot advantage, and new form factors made possible by the same techniques that worked in the tablets have closed the size gap. If I can get an 11" laptop that does "real computer" stuff, boots instantly, and runs quietly and comfortably in my lap... I don't really have a use-case for the tablet anymore.

    Or we could just be a bit more forward thinking and see that somewhere on the horizon* someone's just going to slap a keyboard and wireless mouse to a tablet and make it a bit easier for people who prefer that way of doing things. In this way the machine can be made into what's needed at the time without having to own two machines that do the same thing just in a different form factor.

    * You know, like HP had on the TC1100 over a decade ago...

  18. Re:I agree on BlackBerry CEO: Tablet Market Is Dying · · Score: 1

    The question here is the lifespan of the tablet industry. I'm replying to someone who's claiming that the "major issue" with tablets is that they suck at content creation. This has nothing to do with desktop computers in any fashion.

  19. Re:I agree on BlackBerry CEO: Tablet Market Is Dying · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The major issue is that tablets are great content consumption devices for watching video or reading but piss poor content creation devices.

    This is like comparing the number of people who own music versus the number of people who play music. "Content creation" hasn't been on the radar of most people since pre-recorded media has been made available at a good price point. I remember being about 12 or 13 years old with a Commodore 64. Of the 6 other kids I knew at the time who owned computers about 5 of us could code simple games and such. That's roughly 85%. How many kids can code today? The difference is that for a 12 year old pre-recorded media was too expensive and my parents weren't shelling out 20 dollars for the latest SSI title every other week.

  20. Re:Well ... duh ... yes! on Richard Branson Plans Orbital Spaceships For Virgin Galactic · · Score: 1

    When this kicks off it'll be of such limited seating that even at a couple million a trip there will be people willing to pay out even if for no other reason than bragging rights. I wonder how many people tried to get on with the Russians at 20 million a pop before the plug was pulled.

    Virgin isn't going to need to worry about the customers' cash flow until they get something in orbit that makes cruise ships look small. It'll be decades.

  21. Re:Far cheaper options on German Ministry of Education Throws Away PCs For 190,000 € Due To Infection · · Score: 2

    You may laugh but for as much as most AAs can't tell you a mainframe from a stick of RAM they certainly do know their way around the software that they've been using for over a decade. So as much as some of us like to pat ourselves on the back for being nerds and geeks, these people can make your head spin when it comes down to using your basic office suite apps. This isn't to say that they couldn't be retrained for another office suite but there would be training involved and their productivity would suffer from it for a while.

  22. Re:Oh, Oh... on Earth's Core Far Hotter Than Thought · · Score: 1

    Not wrong. This only matters if the planet is made of the right materials at that mass. Our planet, with such a mass increase, would do little in the way of fusion and wouldn't go supernova at any point in time.

  23. Re:Worked for 4 years. on Helium Depleted, Herschel Space Telescope Mission Ends · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Another problem with the system you mention is that heat doesn't radiate away efficiently in space. While such a system may be possible I'm sure that the up-time of the scope would suffer greatly from it.

    Do we have any thermal dynamic geeks here with something a bit more insightful?

  24. Re:Oh, Oh... on Earth's Core Far Hotter Than Thought · · Score: 1

    Supernova has more to do with mass than anything else. But the fact that we're not a star means that it's not going to happen even if we had the mass.

  25. Didn't I read this about a year ago too? on CISPA Seems Dead In the US Senate · · Score: 0

    EOM