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User: Archangel+Michael

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Comments · 11,672

  1. Re:Americans on Alleged 'Bigfoot' DNA Samples Sequenced, Turn Out To Be Horses, Dogs, and Bears · · Score: 0, Troll

    AGW is Psuedo Science.. Every major prediction in the last 20 years has been completely falsified, yet plenty of people cling to it like a bible or a gun or something.

    We should be many Degrees warmer and the Ice Sheets should be gone already, and flooding of Florida should nearly be complete. Don't forget about the Polar Bears Drowning ....

    I look and see Piltdown Man all over again. "scientific consensus" means nothing, and isn't science.

  2. Re:Good? on Mayors of Atlanta & New Orleans: Uber Will Knock-Out Taxi Industry · · Score: 1

    I would dare say that Insurance isn't like anything in the "free" market at all. Most of the "chronically unhealthy" people I know, are that way because they have unhealthy habits. Eat too much, too much fat, too much soda. They don't exercise enough. They get into an unhealthy pattern that is hard to break because it requires a hard change in lifestyle. They are twice (or more) the weight they ought to be, and will remain there expecting others to take care of them when they are sick.

    IF insurance worked the way it should, it should be used only when catastrophic illness or injury occurs. But that upsets the sensibilities of the liberal crowd that thinks "responsibility" is "punishment" ... as in ... "Why do you want to punish people for being fat?" I don't want to punish people for being fat, I want them to want to get healthy and have a better life.

  3. Re:Platter wins? on Samsung Release First SSD With 3D NAND · · Score: 1

    No. In most of the graphs, all the SSDs are faster. Shorter being faster.

  4. Re:Good? on Mayors of Atlanta & New Orleans: Uber Will Knock-Out Taxi Industry · · Score: 1

    By all means, avoid the "new hyped solutions" until they are proven. That way, you'll always be on the trailing edge and seem hapless.

    Or, you can evaluate "new hyped solutions" and see if they measure up to the hype, and if that hype is something that works for you. I once made the mistake of saying "I don't get it" with a new technology, because I was thinking too small. I will never make that mistake again. Interesting thing about that particular tech, is you cannot even get one any longer, as it has been replaced probably twice or three times over.

  5. Re:Good? on Mayors of Atlanta & New Orleans: Uber Will Knock-Out Taxi Industry · · Score: 1

    "That's the problem with free market solutions. A lot of them require a subsidy from government in order to provide government mandated services."

    FTFY.

    Free market doesn't exist in most places any longer. Government regulation creates artificial barriers and expenses in order to "facilitate" helping disadvantaged. But the costs are never measured. It might be cheaper to have select few people outfitted properly, and pay them very well, than it is to have everyone outfitted the same way, for a relatively small percentage of people who use Wheelchairs.

    My solution is to figure out how many of these people actually need the service, figure out how often, and charge all the Cab companies a "surcharge" to opt out. Pay someone from that surcharge opt out fund enough to get the upgrades and service these people. Guess what, you'll have free market results, that probably work better than if you did it the "government mandated way".

    My guess is that everyone would end up getting the right kind of vehicle and servicing people of all types, but it wouldn't be "mandated".

    Change isn't good or bad. Reasons for change are good and bad, and you can even have the wrong change for the right reasons (Obama is not GWB) but I digress

  6. Re:Good? on Mayors of Atlanta & New Orleans: Uber Will Knock-Out Taxi Industry · · Score: 1

    "Hapless Families" will adjust. They will figure it out. And those that don't will be few, and far between. However, I'm sure that people like you will no doubt take up the cause, in an effort to assuage your guilt over using these services.

    Besides, I don't understand why a full size Tesla doesn't pick them up, and drive them to the airport, with all their luggage. Or the occasional "huge" family getting picked up in a Van or Limo that seats 10-14 people.

    Unless, of course, you're speaking for yourself being "hapless", since it is clear you can't figure out even the simple solutions to the imaginary problems you see with technology.

  7. Re:Good? on Mayors of Atlanta & New Orleans: Uber Will Knock-Out Taxi Industry · · Score: 1

    I'm sure they will. But so will anyone with capital to buy fleets of automated cars. This is going to change the transportation industry (not just cabs)

  8. Re:Good? on Mayors of Atlanta & New Orleans: Uber Will Knock-Out Taxi Industry · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Further, UBER is just a first shot across the bow. The next one will be automated "city cars" built by Google, that will pickup and drop off people at work and take them shopping and whatnot. The end of the taxi is coming.

  9. Re:Good? on Mayors of Atlanta & New Orleans: Uber Will Knock-Out Taxi Industry · · Score: 4, Informative

    Any industry that can be replaced by technology, should be.

    Hopefully we start evaluating laws that exist solely to prevent competition (Taxi cab franchise badges).

  10. Re:Don't worry! on Facebook's Emotion Experiment: Too Far, Or Social Network Norm? · · Score: 1

    This premise would be an awesome augmented reality Game like Ingress.

  11. Re:Bitcoin's day has come. on California Legalizes Bitcoin · · Score: 2

    "washing" is a term used to make illicit currency legitimate. In this case, washing BitCoin means sending an amount of BitCoin to a Middle Man, who then exchanges it for a random amount of Coins (minus a transaction charge) with uncertain history. In an overly simplistic scenario Person A gets BitCoins with serial numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for a transaction. He takes all those coins (plus a fee) to a "washer" who then returns BitCoins with serial Numbers (not real) of 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. He now has the same number of coins, but doesn't have coins that are linked to his previous transactions, thus making them less traceable.

    The real trick is to have sufficiently large amount of BitCoins to draw from in the "washing machine", so that it is very hard to link users together from these kinds of exchanges.

  12. Re:Google should talk with Tesla on Google, Detroit Split On Autonomous Cars · · Score: 2

    It is not arrogance if you can do it. Ford was arrogant in the same way that he was successful, he had every right to be. Buggy Whip Makers were arrogant, the people looking for government protections for their failing industries are arrogant. They think they have a RIGHT to entrenched markets when new technology appears.

    But rather than learning from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

    My guess, Tesla will work with Google, as will companies like Elio. And taxi drivers will be pissed and demand protection ....

  13. Re:Bitcoin's day has come. on California Legalizes Bitcoin · · Score: 1

    Bitcoin is traceable, but there are plenty of coin washing services out there. There are also transaction exchanges where coins are washed as they are exchanged for goods and services. Bitcoin can be "less traceable" if you also take simple steps to avoid wallet re-use.

    If you combine any number of these techniques, your individual transactions while traceable, cannot be traced back to you, which is the goal. And they are working on extensions to the protocol to help make a few of these more "automatic" than before.

  14. Re:Bitcoin's day has come. on California Legalizes Bitcoin · · Score: 1

    I use ChromeOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Windows for my desktop. The things I use are available on most, if not all, of those platforms. Very few of the tools I use are not available on anything other than Windows, but those have more to do with managing Windows platform than actual "work".

  15. Re:His choices... on The Internet's Own Boy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Information doesn't want anything. People want to be free.

    Aaron made a series of bad choices, and we shouldn't be glamorizing them and turning him into a hero.

  16. Re:Lah de dah! on Human Language Is Biased Towards Happiness, Say Computational Linguists · · Score: 1

    The Cake is a Lie!

  17. Dear European that has never been to America, let me explain to you how fucking BIG our country is, compared to your entire Continent.

    http://i.imgur.com/Eldeh.jpg

    Your Puny countries are easy to build trains for. Ours is as big as most of Europe, and the entire Mediterranean sea (which have no trains, only boats). Extrapolating your small countries problems to a geography the size of the USA doesn't work. Yes, Geography matters.

    Or let me put it this way, get on a train in Belgium and go to Israel. Go on, I dare ya. Oh wait, you can't!

    So, in conclusion, your ideas about how to scale trains, is so fucking adorable.

  18. Re:Reminds me of one engineer's maxim on A Physicist Says He Can Tornado-Proof the Midwest With 1,000-Foot Walls · · Score: 1

    I heard it slightly differently, "In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice, they are not"

  19. Re:Your taxes at work on A Physicist Says He Can Tornado-Proof the Midwest With 1,000-Foot Walls · · Score: 1

    Are you saying doing NOTHING is equal to doing SOMETHING?

    People like you don't understand, that the fence is supposed to make it much harder (not impossible) to cross the border. As it is now, there is no restriction along most of the border, and it shows in the invasion that is currently happening under Obama's De Facto Amnesty program of "If you can get here, we won't kick you out".

    And all the poor Americans wanting a "living wage" are the same people supporting the wage suppression caused by illegal immigrants.

    Oh gee golly, illegal immigrants have nothing to do with wage suppression and minimum wages ... nooooooo /sarcasm

  20. Re:Second category on Ask Slashdot: What Would It Take For You To Buy a Smartwatch? · · Score: 0

    On cheap watches, the cost of replacing the battery is equal to the value of the cheap watch. So much so, that it is getting really hard to find batteries for watches in stock (at least the last time I looked). I don't buy watches as they are simply for tools trying to impress people with "money".

    "Look at my Rolex, such a fine time piece" , Uh no thanks, my less expensive cell phone keeps perfect time, changes time zones automatically for me and does more that your stupid Rolex, which is just a fancy clock bracelet.

  21. Re:Because I'm lazy on Why Software Builds Fail · · Score: 1

    Before I start, I am not a coder. Never really wanted to be one, but I do understand the principles.

    If "int* ptr;" returns any value that is inconsistent it is a problem IMHO. This command should return the exact same value every time, even if it is (empty or zero or whatever).

    But then again, there is probably a valid reason why it is inconsistent, and that is why I hate programming. :-P

  22. Re:Irony on Interviews: Ask Lawrence Lessig About His Mayday PAC · · Score: 1

    You're a coward? Glad you can admit it. ;)

  23. Re:Irony on Interviews: Ask Lawrence Lessig About His Mayday PAC · · Score: 1

    Unless you vote for the "winner" you're throwing your vote away, as all other votes do not count for anything, after the election. And since I would rather vote for someone destined to lose, the the lessor or greater of two evils (depending on who wins), I will continue to "waste" my vote. I cannot in good conscience vote for the two parties that are ruining our country. You may vote differently, but I'd rather you vote for who you wanted, rather than who you dislike the least.

    Or as I taught my kids, "Its not that bad .... "Is still bad".

    I'd rather vote for Cthulhu and get pure evil, than vote for the lessor of two.

  24. Re:Irony on Interviews: Ask Lawrence Lessig About His Mayday PAC · · Score: 1

    I'd rather be an idiot than a coward. Some things education can fix, cowardice isn't one of them.

  25. Re:Should the US government censor political blogs on Interviews: Ask Lawrence Lessig About His Mayday PAC · · Score: 1

    I was speaking to the people who think the first amendment goes too far. not "you" you. Sorry about the confusion.

    The people I hear complaining about Koch brothers are all liberals, and the ones wanting to restrict money in politics, while saying Unions and Soros can spend all they want. Some people want it both ways.