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User: Are+You+Kidding

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  1. Standard Microsoft strategy. When they are not dominating a market sector, they Embrace, Extend and Extinguish. Last week it was Ubuntu runs on Windows; this week it's "we can run on your iphone." But, one has to wonder if this works for them anymore, given the quality of the competition and the continuing decline in the quality of their products.

  2. please tell us why you tolerate this corrupt behavior by your legislators? $45 million isn't pocket change. Are you really going to ignore this the next time your representatives run for re-election?

  3. Re:I for one welcome ... on Scientific Breakthrough Increases Plant Yields By One Third (wsu.edu) · · Score: 1

    This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Agriculture-- i.e. our tax dollars. So why do I have to pay EvilElsevier to read the paper I paid for?

  4. From sources ... on FBI Director Says Unlocking Method Won't Work On Newer iPhones (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    it has been revealed that the method used will only work on a narrow slice of other phones for which the terrorists write the pass code on a slip of paper they hide at the bottom of their underwear drawer.

  5. Crocodile Tears on Top FBI Attorney Worried About WhatsApp Encryption (usnews.com) · · Score: 2

    Is he also concerned with widespread ownership of assault weapons? Is he doing anything about those who lose their lives in car accidents, drown in their bath tub, or for that matter are killed by FBI agents who improperly assess the situation. "If the public does nothing, (stuff) like that will continue to roll out," "It has public safety costs. Folks have to understand that, and figure out how they are going to deal with that. Do they want the public to bear those costs? Do they want the victims (of these circumstances) to bear those costs?" Mr. FBI should focus on serious threats, and encryption is not one of them.

  6. Always the well compensated flunky, on FCC Votes To Fight Cable's Reign Over Set-top Boxes (engadget.com) · · Score: 1

    Michael Powell, former FCC Chair and now head of the Cable & Telecommunications Association, writes in a letter to the NY Times today that "Big Tech" doesn't need help from Big Government -- it can negotiate for rights like everyone else. Let me know when your cable company lets you hook up a 3rd party cable box you bought on ebay for $35.

  7. Does anyone remember Amadou Dialo? on In Iowa, a Phone App Could Serve As Driver's License · · Score: 1

    Amadou Dialo put his hand in his pocket to retrieve his pager and was shot 41 times. A phone these days, is not much larger than an pager was in 1999, and attempting to anticipate a police officer's request for a license could very well make you dead.

  8. yeah ... Are You Kidding? on Is Public Debate of Trade Agreements Against the Public Interest? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So no public debate based on no disclosure is better than ill-informed debate based on full disclosure? He might as well have said that as a form of government, dictatorship is superior to democracy.

  9. Inadequate on A Fictional Compression Metric Moves Into the Real World · · Score: 2

    Not only does it fail to account for loss or distortion, but also fails to consider the time to decompress. If a compression algorithm with a high Weissman score is applied to a video, it is useless if it cannot be decompressed fast enough to show the video at an appropriate frame rate.

  10. Re:so one billionaire on Rupert Murdoch's Quest To Buy Time Warner: Not Done Yet · · Score: 1

    Can these guys really imagine this deal will be approved by the FCC and Justice Departments? This merger is so destructive of the public interest, it could spend a decade in court in some subsequent administration, even if the present administration allows it.

  11. Doesn't everybody know that by now? on Researchers Claim Wind Turbine Energy Payback In Less Than a Year · · Score: 2

    The advocates of wind energy make no claim that the wind generators will run 24/7. Nevertheless, calculating payback as if they do provides a convenient comparison to other power sources. In practice, a combination of wind, solar and natural gas can economically provide power and greatly reduce the generation of greenhouse gasses and should cost less as usage of the technology grows. In fact, similar technology works for hybrid cars and for Florida Power & Light's hybrid gas / solar electric plant (http://www.fpl.com/environment/solar/projects.shtml). Obviously this is still an experimental arrangement, but it works for cars, so why not commercial electric power?

  12. Most Slasdot readers know about laches... on Owner of Nortel Patents Sues Cisco For 'Immense' Patent Infringement · · Score: 2

    yet most of us would be hard pressed to remember a case in which it was successfully asserted. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_%28equity%29) Are we to believe that it took Spherix five years to check whether the world's largest manufacturer of network products was violating their patents? Assuming that Cisco is in fact infringing those Nortel patents, justice in this case would be served if they got an award based no more than six months worth of Cisco's sales of the products cited by Spherix.

  13. So now we now the NSA's plans for growth... on How the NSA Plans To Infect 'Millions' of Computers With Malware · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is my Kaspersky Antivirus going to find and remove their viruses? Or even better, perhaps some enterprising hacker will write a tool that that sends its own malware back through the NSA bot net and trashes their servers. When I was a youngster "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us" was amusing. Now it it taken as a guiding principle by our intelligence services. It's sad.

  14. Re:Deep down.. on Ask Slashdot: Why Isn't There More Public Outrage About NSA Revelations? · · Score: 2

    Just read a newspaper sometime... we are not suffering from "surveillance fatigue." The correct term would be "Outrage Fatigue."

  15. Re:Rather early to call the site a failure, isn't on Cost of Healthcare.gov: $634 Million — So Far · · Score: 1

    It is all too easy to join the mob, shout invectives at the speaker and drown out reasoned debate. This post has it exactly right. We don't know yet whether the 36 state system simply underestimated the traffic, has some sloppy coding - which will be corrected quickly, or has fatally flawed architecture that cannot be easily corrected. Did they use Top Down Design, Bottom Up Design, or perhaps, as seems more likely, the designers are advocates for the Agile Software Manifesto. By January, we will know a great deal more about what they did, what went right and what went wrong. The are important lessons here for anyone who writes software, and it is too early to make valid conclusions until the details are made public.

  16. Re:In the the land of he free on Don't Fly During Ramadan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You got the wrong Arthur Dent quote - should have been this: “It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..." "You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?" "No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people." "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy." "I did," said Ford. "It is." "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?" "It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."

  17. Space Aliens on Area 51 No Longer (Officially) a Secret · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So where is the part about the captured Space Aliens and their ship?

  18. This may be Elon Musk's dream, but... on Colorado Company Says It Plans To Test Hyperloop Transport System · · Score: 4, Informative

    credit for the invention belongs to Dr. Joseph V. Foa who was awarded US Patent 3213802 for a "train in a tube" in 1965. This was the basis for a number of years of research into the concept at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the 1960s.

  19. No way is Verizon the Biggest Corporate Threat. on Verizon Says Hactivists Now Biggest Corporate Net Threat · · Score: 1

    (Did I misread the headline?) Monsanto, Unocal, Dow Chemical, and Goldman Sachs are a far greater threat to human existence. When it comes to Evil, Verizon is merely an annoyance.

  20. If we would just allow free market on In Small WV Town, Monsanto Faces Class-Action Suit Over Agent Orange Chemical · · Score: 3, Interesting

    to function without interference, we would not have such problems. Right? Maybe Ron Paul, or one of his disciples will explain how that works in a case like this.

  21. This is art imitating life! on LotR Rewritten From a Mordor Perspective · · Score: 0

    If you want this kind of fiction on a daily basis, just watch Fox "News"

  22. Re:Anyone else find that site a litte skeevy? on Stuxnet Worm Claimed To Be Devastating In Iran · · Score: 2, Informative

    The observation is well taken. Prior to the Iraq war, Debka had a series of stories from "inside sources" who said that Sadam had constructed vast underground bunkers in the desert in which he had hidden his weapons of mass destruction. It is hard to tell whether a story on Debka is intelligence or propaganda.

  23. If you happen to be a government scientist on Canadian Government Muzzling Scientists · · Score: 1

    and you expect to be censored, make sure there are plenty of draft copies floating around your agency, and send one to Wikileaks for review.

  24. Makes perfect sense on Intel Buys McAfee · · Score: 3, Funny

    As most slashdotters already know, nothing slows your computer down more effectively than Mcafee AV--even if you have the latest and fastest Intel CPU. Optimizing Mcaffe's code would probably add more real horsepower to Intel's processors and be less expensive than designing a new generation of chips.

  25. Rupert Murdoch believes limits are for others on Rupert Murdoch Claims To Own the 'Sky' In 'Skype' · · Score: 1

    How does this bozo think owning "British Sky Broadcasting" gives him a trademark for sky? If he gets away with this he will next go after British Airways and British Petroleum, followed by British Broadcasting Corporation and American Broadcasting Corporation.