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User: TigerPlish

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  1. Finally, news for nerds... on MuckRock Identifies The Oldest US Government Computer Still in Use (muckrock.com) · · Score: 1

    ...and it got few comments.

    There's just no pleasing this crowd.

    FWIW, I had trouble with 8" drives, not the diskettes themselves. The 5.25" and 3.5" stuff never failed on me, not once.

  2. . so what exactly is the benefit?

    1. Watching the movie on or around release date
    2. Watching it on a screen which takes up 37.5* (give or take) of your field of view, with a (hopefully) competent sound systems.

    Not everyone has item #2 in their house.. To those that do, kudos. You probably put on a better show than most has-been 'plexes.

    I suggest you find a better theater. I had to shop around a bit, but found a nice multiplex with clean floors, competent picture and sound, and no teens kicking your seat and no little phones lighting up the place. It was built by Muvico but sold to Cinemark, who has done a commendable job in keeping it up.

  3. This is the last straw! on Yahoo Secretly Scanned Customer Emails For US Intelligence (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    From now on, sensitive writings from me will be on paper and encoded with Enigma with a codebook unique to me and the recipient.

    I bet they forgot how to work Enigma out, since it seems they've spent the last 20 years slurping our email.

    I'm only half joking.

  4. AT&T has high-speed? on AT&T To End Targeted Ads Program, Give All Users Lowest Available Price · · Score: 1

    Really? My fastest AT&T DSL in the good days when I was a 1/4 mile to a DSLAM was a whopping 6Mbps.

    Then I moved - six years ago - to bumfuck western edge of southeast Florida, and the best AT&T could do was 1.5.. on a good day.

    I tossed AT&T out for everything except mobile and put internet on my existing tv comcast ripoff. At least it's fast..

    I had no idea AT&T had such a low-handed program.

    Thieves.. all of them.. I'm atheist but there's a saying back home.. "They'll steal the nails from the cross." Back then it was mostly colorful metaphor. Not all businesses were crooks. Now it seems they are.

  5. I thought Aetna was on the brink..

    Oh well. As to apple toys, if I want them I'll buy them. I actually have a few. No strings attached from insurers.

    As to an insurer wanting all this info on my bodily functions... fuck off. You want it, you'll get it during a normal doctor's visit, which is just a very few times a year.

    I despair for the future. If people don't vociferously deny Aetna this information, then the slope will be greased and look something like this: \

  6. If enough gullibles drill out their iphone 7s, maybe Apple will consider putting the goddamned thing back in next time around.

  7. Re:Good lord, this is still a thing? on The Ham Radio Parity Act Unanimously Passed By US House (arrl.org) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pot-bellied retirees reliving their childhood pretending to matter in the modern world...

    Ham radio spans the globe, not just the US.

    And when the shit seriously hits the fan, the grid goes down in some 3rd-world country, it's the ham radio guys that move the news in and out. They can even tcp over it.

    When the Zombie Apocalypse comes - in whatever form it may be - it'll be *our* hams moving info.

  8. Re:Something I saw 1st hand there... apk on Air Force Grounds $400 Billion F-35s Because of 'Peeling and Crumbling' Insulation (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 1

    "Do your best work: Our young men & women's lives ride on it".

    This affected me personally since my brother is an officer in the military (about to retire though). I don't want him to die, let alone due to shoddy workmanship!

    He then said "Look kid, get used to one thing - the ONLY reason we got this contract was because we're the lowest bidder & build crap - that's how the REAL WORLD really works - so do NOT believe that sign!"

    * I was NEVER the same after that & it was in 1996 - very VERY early in my career professionally in computers.

    I bet you that sign actually mean something back in the 40's, 50's, 60's and maybe the first half of the 70's. Before the Dark Times. Before the Age of MBA and Accountants making decisions.

  9. Re:People, this is how the system works. on Sugar Industry Bought Off Scientists, Skewed Dietary Guidelines For Decades (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    Big Sugar destroyed Puerto Rico, it just took about 80 years for people to notice. They don't teach this in school, kiddies. I had to hear this from the few genuine Jibaros that still lived in the town where my best friend lived.

    What the US sugar industry did to Puerto Rico

    Impressionistic version of the people who really made Domino into what it is today. El Jibaro Boriqua. Mountain people, very humble, exeedingly hard-working, and I bet none of today's "urban jibaros" have ever swung a machete for 14 hours chopping sugarcane for Domino. They wear the hat and the scarf, I call it a disgrace. They didn't earn it.

    Because I heard the old Jibaros around town talk about this, I buy Dixie sugar, not Domino and have been doing so for as long as I have been buying my own groceries. And more and more I wonder if I should start hitting the local farmer's market instead of the big supermarkets.

  10. Re:People, this is how the system works. on Sugar Industry Bought Off Scientists, Skewed Dietary Guidelines For Decades (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    I've got really bad long-distance vision, so I'm not quite sure if you're flying the sarcasm flag.. but just in case you aren't..

    Yes. Free market in action. And the The People doesn't have the kind of cash it takes to really play in that market.

    We have no quick and sure way to influence the actions of those who govern us. We can't throw sackfuls of cash at them. Elections are too infrequent and the the lag on this big ship is terrible.

  11. Re:People, this is how the system works. on Sugar Industry Bought Off Scientists, Skewed Dietary Guidelines For Decades (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    Why ask why?

    Barney was your babysitter, right? Tsk tsk, shoulda watched Animaniacs instead.

  12. People, this is how the system works. on Sugar Industry Bought Off Scientists, Skewed Dietary Guidelines For Decades (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is how the system works. Now it's up to us to break it.

    [company] or [industry] will liberally shower money on schools, politicians and scientists so they can spread the word of how wonderful their [thing] is.

    Break it. Break the goddamned system.

    Demand to know where the money for "studies" come from. Then act accordingly.

    Demand campaign reform that actually has fangs to bite with.

    Does it incense me that Big Sugar has been doing this? Nah. I'm not surprised in the least. This is exactly how America operates. Oh and don't get me started on the corn people, with their HFCS in our drinks and ethanol poisoning our gasoline!

    What I am incensed about is the absolute reluctance to question things. The People simply accept what is told to them in schools, churches and media. Ask. Fucking. Why. Every time.

    Or, you know, keep doing the same idiotic thing we've been doing for the past 200+ years. It works sooooooo well.. for the rich.

  13. I am not a professor of anytighing -- but --

    "The acquisition of Samsung's printer business allows us to deliver print innovation and create entirely new business opportunities with far better efficiency, security, and economics for customers," said HP president and CEO Dion Weisler in a statement.

    What that means is "We ran out of ideas and suckers - er, I mean - customers - and had to buy our next generation of printers from someone else to turn a quick buck. Y'know, because we fired all our competent engineers eons ago to make a quick buck which we then squandered away."

    "security" was thrown in because it's a current buzzword.

  14. Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys on Amazon Will Open 100 Retail Stores (businessinsider.com) · · Score: 1

    Yes, it's fun playing Russian roulette with counterfeit products on Amazon!

    Select Amazon as the seller, not a 3rd party. Chances of getting a fake with Amazon as a seller is much less than a 3rd party.

    Not willing to put in the effort to do that? Then you deserve your Soppy Walkingman.

  15. I celebrated by watching The Man Trap on Today Marks The 50th Anniversary of 'Star Trek' (ew.com) · · Score: 1

    ...followed by this thought: "Has it really been 50 years? Have I become this old?"

    It has, and I have.

    I first saw Star Trek TOS in black and white, in Caracas, dubbed into Spanish. This must've been around 1973 or 74. Later on I got to see most of TOS in color and in English. Read a lot of the novels, watched all the films, saw all of Next Generation.. and then I lost interest.

    What Trek taught me? IDIC, which I have to remind myself of -- I am prone to dislike diversity, then I remember IDIC. That little show taught me logic is not an inflexible thing, there must be wiggle room for the human element. At times I have been known to try to completely shut down all emotion and try a twisted version of logic. That didn't end well for me.

    Above all, Trek, to me, is a bit like Beethoven's music: No matter how rough the beginning and middle acts are, the last act ends with hope, or a least a bad joke or lame pun. Some times, hope is all one has left.

    That little show which lasted only three seasons because the network didn't know how to measure its popularity in a relevant way sure Lived Long and Prospered...

  16. Here's hoping my 5S lasts three more years. I refuse to buy any phone without a 3.5mm jack.

    Are these bluetooth airPods abomination going survive a 4 hour call? The phone does, but I doubt tiny little powered buds will.

    Good thing they still make the SE (the four-inch phone). Everything else in their catalog is just bleh to me.

    Way to fuck it up, Apple!

  17. He gave a simple solution to a showstopper on Legendary 747 Designer Joe Sutter Dies Age 95 (stuff.co.nz) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    During the 747 development, it was found that the wings would oscillate up and down and with a twisting motion, a condition which if allowed to continue and amplify would destroy the airplane.

    Some engineers wanted to redo the whole wing.

    Sutter's solution was to permanently twist the wing from root to wingtip. It worked, and took much less cash and time than a redesign. Google for "Sutter Twist"

    When the 747-8 was designed with the 787-inspired wing, the same problem showed up again. This time, it was cured in the software.

    Funny, I saw a documentary on the building of the original 747 just a few days before he died. I knew he was the project manager but didn't know he cured the wing issue with such a simple fix.

  18. High-latency on SETI's 'Strong Signal' Came From Earth (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    That's the NSA pinging their way-off-shore backup facility..

  19. Ferrari was one of the worst number offenders on Welcome To Alphanumeric Car Hell (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    In the first 20 years, it went like this:

    125
    250
    330
    365

    What that meant was displacement of each cylinder in CC. So a 250 was in reality a 3 liter engine. Then they had MM, TR, GTO tacked on after the number. The names and numbers didn't even appear on the cars. It's just what people called them.

    Then in the 70's things got weird. a 512BB is a five liter flat 12.
    A 512 TR is a 512BB hit repeatedly with an Ugly Stick.

    A 308 is a 3 liter V8. A 288? 2.8 liter turbo v8. (they got that motor from Lancia when Lancia pulled out of F1)

    F40? THeir 40th anniversary car, with the 288 engine, F50? That'd be thier 50th anniversary car, V12. Enzo? It was the F60. La Ferrari? That's the 70th anniversary car.

    Now? Who knows! F12 means what? Front twelve? A 458 means what? Does FF start for Fast as Fuck? (it's a 4 wheel drive shooting brake).

    Those Italians, no consistency! ;o)

    Which one would I pick? 365 GTB/4. Daytonna with four cams. Or an F12, it's spiritual successor.

  20. Bitch at your congresscritter on T-Mobile is Making Its 'Unlimited' Data Plan Even More Confusing (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    Write an angry letter / email / facebook / tweeet and vent your outrage at your congresscritter. Tell them T-Mobile is a sneaky sneak being a sneak!

    Oh snap, they're bought and paid for! They won't listen. They don't give a rat's ass.

    Jump ship. Maybe if enough people dump T-Mobile, they'll get the message.

    Oh snap, you're just a grain of sand in a big beach!

  21. Don't call me, I'll call you when I need to replace what I have now, as it works just fine.

    Total non-event for me.

  22. Re: iOS sucks! on Apple Fixes Three Zero Days Used In Targeted Attack (onthewire.io) · · Score: 1

    Thank god I use android where such bug fixes will never make it to my phone.

    Ha!

    I don't have modpoints right now and even if I had some I couldn't use 'em if I wanted to, since I've already replied..

    Your post is either +1 Funny or +1 Insightful! It went *whoosh* right over everyone's heads, its seems!

  23. Re:How many can get updates from carriers!? on Apple Fixes Three Zero Days Used In Targeted Attack (onthewire.io) · · Score: 1

    You can use a iPhone with no carrier. I do all the time. You just use wifi enabled calling and sms. It's a lot cheaper, much less of a headache, and quite convienent for some people who nearly always have access wifi.

    Certainly. That's how I use it at home, at friend's houses, and the like. Well, except for the wi-fi calling and SMS.

    That's still transmitting, just through a different carrier -- if we're on wi-fi we're using whatever carrier (ISP) our host has. Comcrap for me, AT&T Uworse for my buddy.

    I rarely call... I usually imessage.. not even SMS. The one guy I call on a regular basis doesn't even have a cellphone. Luddite! ;o) It's either phone, or email with him. He literally has no cellphone. The only person I know that doesn't.

    We do swap Enigma messages, as a hobby, though. I wonder what NSA makes of that. Boring stuff, usually Kancolle garbage. I wonder if NSA has figured out what "poi" is.....

  24. Re:How many can get updates from carriers!? on Apple Fixes Three Zero Days Used In Targeted Attack (onthewire.io) · · Score: 5, Informative

    Few. Any. Time. Soon. Give. It. Up.

    That's not how iOS works. The carriers just carry. Apple provides the update -- to the user's device. The carrier has no say in it at all.

    Or, are you implying that the carriers will refuse to carry the update? That would be selective blocking / filtering, and once that story breaks, well, it'll be pitchforks and torches against those carriers.

    And, to cover any misunderstandings, if the phone has no carrier, it cannot transmit, either.

    So... what was your point, again?

  25. Re:Guilty by omission? on 'Social Media ID, Please?' Proposed US Law Greeted With Anger (computerworld.com) · · Score: 1

    Well here's how Webster defines it: "forms of electronic communication (such as Web sites) through which people create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, etc."

    Well, hell, by that yardstick, the BBS I ran in the 90's was Social media! I even had fight-o-net!

    It was called Phosphor Dots BBS. Two nodes on a 386 running DesqView. RemoteAccess and FrontDoor and a huge batch file to run it all.. I miss running it. I miss the *real* social aspect of it -- pizza night. And the local BBS sysop meetings.

    Today's social media could learn from the BBS era, I think. Something has been lost.