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User: GodfatherofSoul

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  1. Re:Certain Disappointment on Star Wars: Episode VII Cast Officially Announced · · Score: 2

    Same here. The movie storyline was fairly compactly wrapped up. More movies feels like a money grab. I was interested in the prequels and seeing the Republic in its former glory, but more SW movies feels like a comic movie sequel where they wheel out another villain.

  2. Why are all Mars stories pitched as "omg aliens?" on NASA Mars Rover Begins Examining Strange Slab Nicknamed "Windjana" · · Score: 1

    The summary and original article do everything but say "this might have been created by aliens!" until you read the fine print. Stick to Kartrashian headlines if you think science is that boring.

  3. There *is* a place for smart watches on Japanese and Swiss Watchmakers Scoff At Smartwatches · · Score: 1

    I'd love to be able to see limited information like notifications on my watch (when my cell is in my pocket). Nothing more annoying than having to fish out your cell when you're in the middle of something only to find it was just a spam sent to your work email. That could be done simply with inexpensive hardware upgrades and a cheap display.

    No need to get crazy with watches. But, watches are also jewelry, so if you can't pull it off without maintaining the aesthetic it won't work for consumers.

  4. Re:Tablet Skeptic Here... on iPad Fever Is Officially Cooling · · Score: 1

    So was I...until I got one. I found that tablets supplant maybe 90-95% (depending on your usage patterns) of what people consider the justifications for a laptop and does it *better*. Unless you truly need a mobile high-end computing environment (say, you're a student or admining a network), you'll probably find a plain old desktop and a really nice tablet are a good platform pairing.

    For me, network admin at home (rarely needed), storing action camera video on the road, and the possibility of doing LAN parties (haven't in ages) are the only reasons that justify my laptop (and mine is too bulky for anything but LAN parties. I've even thought about selling mine and going with a cheap desktop and ultra-portable laptop.

  5. I'd buy a new iPad... on iPad Fever Is Officially Cooling · · Score: -1

    ...if they got rid of those ridiculous capacitive screens. My only criticism of my device was having to take notes in class with essentially a crayon.

  6. Re:Plastic "art" on Previously Unknown Warhol Works Recovered From '80s Amiga Disks · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The plate of discarded BBQ chicken parts I ate last night has more art in it that Warhol. Guy was an awful gimmick who somehow got himself to be taken seriously. I like art even some of the modern genres and I did check out his museum in Pittsburgh. Literally, there's a canvas where he pissed on wet paint. There's also a huge room of polaroids/photos of gay guys having sex. That's it, no composition no framing no nothing. I try to give every artist a chance, but how he got his name associated with great artists and American culture is incomprehensible.

  7. Opens the door to BS stops on Supreme Court OKs Stop and Search Based On Anonymous 911 Tips · · Score: 1

    Law enforcement (being allowed to lie) already uses the "we've had noise complaints" or "there was a X crime in the area" bullshit to harass people they have a "hunch" are up to no good. I got a (WWB) Walking While Black once at college before I knew what was up. Like a naive kid I started asking the cop about what happened and gradually realized he just made up the story as an excuse to run my ID.

    Abuses are bad enough as it is. You can guarantee cops will use the anonymous tip to launch a search, then let the union and DA worry about the consequences on the rare chance a citizen gets "uppity".

  8. Re:If its "multi-racial" affirmative action in nam on Supreme Court Upholds Michigan's Ban On Affirmative Action In College Admissions · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You think that because you don't have a clue, hence your "it really seems" comment. Go look at the groups specifically targeted for AA by your college. This list at my alma mater included kids from economically advantaged communities and backgrounds in rural towns (which in Kansas means probably 99% chance of being White). AA also applies to women.

  9. Re:Something I don't get about affirmative action on Supreme Court Upholds Michigan's Ban On Affirmative Action In College Admissions · · Score: 3, Interesting

    AA isn't about letting Forrest Gump into Yale. It's about people who *have* potential but haven't had the means to exercise it. Schools want the athlete with the 3.5 GPA not the sheltered bookwork with a 4.0. For example, you might have worked 40 hours a week to pay your way through college and thus your grades may have suffered. Now, for the sake of argument say a kid who didn't have to work, didn't participate in activities, probably had all his bills and car paid for by his parents, etc. shows up with a slightly higher GPA. Universities want that guy who's a hard worker *and* doing more with less. Remember, they want people who are going to go out into the workforce and produce both alumni revenue and reputation, not disappear into quiet government lab.

    Another example, in my high school we had a girl who was just about a straight A student and took technical classes. In her senior year, a girl from another school enrolled who went to a school with AP classes (that we didn't have) in English and literature and didn't take any technical classes. Now, on paper one had a 4.0 GPA and the other had a 4.5 [sic] GPA. Who do you think a university wants?

    It's silly to think that the enrollment process is so

  10. Wasn't allocation always the problem? on ARIN Is Down To the Last /8 of IPv4 Addresses · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Years back, my boss got a whole class C for a company with ~5 employees and network footprint nothing more than one website. Maybe they can get some of the corporations with class As to give some back? (yeah yeah I know)

  11. Re:I am confused on this issue on Administration Ordered To Divulge Legal Basis For Killing Americans With Drones · · Score: 1

    Your answers are based on a normal civilian prosecution. I'm not saying I disagree with you, but can you imagine watching someone on drone footage assembling a dirty nuke in a camp in Afghanistan; someone who intel tells you wants to use it against the US. Is your answer, "OK we'll wait for them to enter the US *then* nab 'em." Should you lose them, the repercussions for "allowing" an attack to happen would be enormous. PERSONALLY, I am willing to accept that kind of risk. The vast majority of Americans are not.

    The problem isn't the option of prosecution in normal civilian courts. It's being able to act proactively. Years ago, my answer to the problem was "well just make sure Congress has oversight." It's become apparent, that Congress doesn't want any of the responsibility, so they just sign off on whatever the President asks for.

  12. Re:I am confused on this issue on Administration Ordered To Divulge Legal Basis For Killing Americans With Drones · · Score: 2

    Most of the commenters are ignoring the ambiguity of anti-terrorist operations when American citizens might be involved. Say, it's 1999 and Osama Bin Laden is spotted in an Al Qaeda camp sitting at his workbench building IEDs. Most Americans would scream for a drone strike.

    Now, what if Joe Smith from Arkansas is sitting right next to OBL building IEDs? Now, lose OBL and it's just Joe the Terrorist from Arkansas in an Al Qaeda camp? How does the law apply? Most Americans seem perfectly fine with the idea of hitting terrorist organizations in whatever country supports them.

    I have no clue what the answer is because I can see all kinds of loopholes where permissive laws could be abused.

  13. Re:No answer will be given on Administration Ordered To Divulge Legal Basis For Killing Americans With Drones · · Score: 1

    There wouldn't be an impeachment if the Tea Party controlled both houses of Congress. One of the first things the Obama administration did was get Congress to sign off on everything they were doing including the illegal surveillance.

  14. Re:Or foregoing kids altogether on Women Increasingly Freezing Their Eggs To Pursue Their Careers · · Score: 2

    I respect your decision not to have kids, but I don't know if overcrowding is the counterargument. Overpopulation is more a problem in 3rd world countries where people still have big families as a traditional counter to high mortality rates.

  15. One thing about English majors on Google: Better To Be a 'B' CS Grad Than an 'A+' English Grad · · Score: 1

    From what I've heard they have to do a TON of reading. So, if you're acing your classes odds are you have very good time management skills as well as the ability to read quickly and produce comprehensive writings just as fast.

  16. Re:I just can't get excited about SpaceX on SpaceX Successfully Delivers Supplies To ISS · · Score: 1

    Lobbing shit into space with a huge failure rate is easy. Now, try doing it where the failure rate is acceptable enough to put an astronaut on your rocket.

  17. Re:I just can't get excited about SpaceX on SpaceX Successfully Delivers Supplies To ISS · · Score: 1

    Dude, he was being sarcastic

  18. I just can't get excited about SpaceX on SpaceX Successfully Delivers Supplies To ISS · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The US civilian space program has regressed to 1970s levels. The greatest nation on earth needs a Russian rocket to get astronauts in space. Some private company with a shitload of government backing does what we used to be able to do 40 years ago on our own, and now people are acting like it's the Second Coming. I suspect that our oligarchy has decided that it's better to wait for Corporate America to figure out how to do with we already knew in the first place.

  19. Yahoo like a mobius strip of fail on Investors Value Yahoo's Core Business At Less Than $0 · · Score: 2

    Every time I think they've hit rock bottom, they circle around one more time. First, mail was so overwhelmed by spam I started my Gmail account. When they finally got that fixed they jacked up the UI. Then they turned around and adopted some of those terrible UI metaphors Gmail introduced. I used to play Yahoo Hearts, but the game hasn't been significantly updated in at least 10 years and problems like trolls and stallers persist. Of course, search has been inferior for a decade. I had started using Yahoo news for the comments section and they even managed to jack THAT up so now their stories are like a wasteland for interacting with other readers.

    Yahoo Answers was one of the last places I would hang out religiously, but then they obliterated the UI which made me swore it off. When I thought about coming back, they sealed the deal and made a change where only the asker can reward an answer (note most people from my experience don't have the courtesy to thank you or even credit you for the correct answer).

    You know that fable of the dumb kid in class they figured out was actually a genius because they figured out his scores were so low it had to be intentional? I wonder if this is some Wall Street shell game to tank the company. I just can't believe Yahoo could guess wrong this many times on accident.

  20. Re:News flash: Marissa Mayer is useless. on Investors Value Yahoo's Core Business At Less Than $0 · · Score: 0

    She's pretty hot. Far from useless.

  21. Re:How big OS? on SSD-HDD Price Gap Won't Go Away Anytime Soon · · Score: 1

    Im on Windows 7 and I do a 1/2 assed job keeping files off the C drive. I've had my machine for 1 1/2 years and my C drive is about 60-70% full. I bet I could wipe out 50GB of that if I needed to. I wouldn't go any lower than 256GB on an OS-only drive otherwise you'll be constantly butting up against that limit and probably running too close to capacity for comfort.

  22. Re:Heh on Kepler-186f: Most 'Earth-Like' Alien World Discovered · · Score: 1

    Earth-like IMO means being in the habitable zone w/ liquid water, about Earth-sized, rock world, preferably with molten core and magnetic field. Life is optional.

    Europa and Encelaedas [sic] might by "earthlike" by your definition.

  23. Re:RAID? on SSD-HDD Price Gap Won't Go Away Anytime Soon · · Score: 1

    For one, the OS boots faster. I want core apps and libraries to load faster into memory. When you're loading other kinds of apps, that's usually more of an "atomic" operation, so there's a larger window of anticipated time to transition from core OS to some app. That's not to say I don't install that one or two apps I used all the time on the SSD, but space is at a premium (I only have 256 GB on mine).

    If I had the money, I'd have one big SSD (500-1K GB) where I could install any conceivable app I'd ever use and reserve the HDD RAID for persistent storage (config files for apps, profiles, documents folders, media files, etc.). One REALLY annoying caveat. Windows will not let you change the location of the Users directory (don't believe what you're told; the Users folder is hard coded in places so moving it is unreliable). Many apps will default to dumping files on your C drive. It's a labor intensive strategy because you have to ensure that all apps are configured to dump their files to your RAID and not under' My Documents'.

  24. Re:There are other techs waiting in doorway... on SSD-HDD Price Gap Won't Go Away Anytime Soon · · Score: 1

    "10 years away" == "not in the foreseeable future". If we had all the technology that should be here after a "10 years away" deadline from some lab, our world would look like a Star Trek episode. I mean more than just the flip phones.

  25. Re:RAID? on SSD-HDD Price Gap Won't Go Away Anytime Soon · · Score: 1

    What is the point of slicing SSDs? Seems like the law of diminishing returns takes effect. I'd mirror and take the small relative performance hit. I did some research on this when I set up my computer a year ago and it didn't seem worht it for the cost.

    I ended up going with an SSD for the OS and 2 mirrored HDDs for reliable storage.