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  1. Imagination on "Hello Barbie" Listens To Children Via Cloud · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They want to have a conversation with Barbie

    It's official, folks. Childhood imagination is now officially dead.

  2. Re:First world problems. on Apple Outrages Users By Automatically Installing U2's Album On Their Devices · · Score: 1

    Probably more than 99% of the world population doesn't like a bag of crap. So the chance of pleasing someone by leaving one in their front porch is about less than 1%.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

    Manure is also commercially composted and bagged and sold retail as a soil amendment

    I think your numbers on the demand for bags of crap are slightly off.

  3. Would the real satoshi please stand up on Bitcoin Inventor Satoshi Nakamoto Outed By Newsweek · · Score: 1

    I was hoping that it was this guy.

  4. recycling programs on Researchers Try To "Close the Nutrient Cycle" Through Better Waste Recycling · · Score: 1

    How long until municipalities have a mandatory yellow box?

  5. Re:YES PLEASE! on New, Canon-Faithful Star Trek Series Is In Pre-Production · · Score: 1

    First Contact made up for Generations and gave headroom for Insurrection and Nemesis, but all they did was run the series into the ground. They did such a poor job, I think there really was no other choice but to restart the series. "Star Trek" should have started with a lengthy apology.

    It wasn't horrible. Which is more than the other three achieved.

  6. Re:YES PLEASE! on New, Canon-Faithful Star Trek Series Is In Pre-Production · · Score: 1

    Because, clearly, the loyal fan base really wanted a thinly-veiled remake of WoK to make up for the four TNG films.

  7. Re:Can't possibly be true on Linux 3.11 Officially Named "Linux For Workgroups" · · Score: 5, Informative

    Considering it's open source, it's not terribly difficult to verify the veracity of the article.

    https://www.kernel.org/diff/diffview.cgi?file=%2Fpub%2Flinux%2Fkernel%2Fv3.x%2Ftesting%2Fpatch-3.11-rc1.xz;z=367

  8. Complex structures... on 3-D Structures Built Out of Liquid Metal At Room Temperature · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can it form complex machines? guns and explosives that have chemicals and moving parts -- or is it limited to forming solid metal shapes like knives and stabbing weapons?

  9. Re:Decent comparison on Subversion 1.8 Released But Will You Still Use Git? · · Score: 1

    The statement is also demonstrably untrue.

    You can create a shallow clone of a git repository. There are some limitations, but if you're just interested in the latest and greatest, and are fine with some non-obvious restrictions, you are not obligated to download the entire repository.

  10. A great disturbance... on Green Lantern Writer To Pen Blade Runner Sequel · · Score: 1, Funny

    I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

  11. Re:huh on Brain Zapping Improves Math Ability · · Score: 1

    4 out of 3 people struggle with math;-)

    9 out of 10 statisticians cannot count to 10.

  12. Re:hey jerkface on Dropcam CEO's Beef With Brogramming and Free Dinners · · Score: 1

    But you're the one reading into it.

    At face value, the statement clearly implies that young, married, males with children are somehow more valuable. His argument talks about going home to rest, not how skilled they are.

    Disclosure: I'm a straight, single, over 30 (old) male without children (or the desire to procreate).

  13. hey jerkface on Dropcam CEO's Beef With Brogramming and Free Dinners · · Score: 0

    don't fill your engineering department with young, single, childless males (aka brogrammers).

    Leave the bigotry at home, please. this isn't the 1920s and not all of us subscribe to certain puritan notions of "family".

    I would otherwise agree with the idea that "going home" to rest is better than "resting at work" (because as long as you are accessible by work, you are not fully resting and free from it).

  14. Re:Open Source License on Most Projects On GitHub Aren't Open Source Licensed · · Score: 5, Funny

    I much prefer Godwin's law. After all, Hitler supported the GPL.

  15. the dissenting opinion on Windows 8.1 May Restore Boot-To-Desktop, Start Button · · Score: 1

    I actually like the start screen:

    Good:
    - pressing [START] brings it up, I can start typing, and it filters like the start menu of old
    - when filtering, the categories always appear in the same place
    - meta options are big and appear in the same place (makes a difference at 2560x1440 with standard DPI)
    - It doesn't overlap or clutter the desktop -- I press [START] and see a new screen with bigger options that are easier to navigate
    - to me, the general windows desktop theme (flat, pastel, simple) is a huge improvement (reminds me of 3.x a little in that regard)

    Bad
    - It's not intuitive or obvious, I guess, that the [START] search functionality exists at all
    - It's not obvious how to do meta actions (open with, for example)
    - at first blush, if you make it to the desktop, it's not obvious how you get back to the start screen
    - the hidden menus are obnoxious if you're trying to remember where they are hidden
    - the "docked" apps or whatever, where the fullscreen app can take a portion of the screen, are worthless
    - the hand icon, used to "discard/close" apps, is kind of weird on the desktop (I can discard my desktop? lol).

    I dunno. Overall I am indifferent. I actually applaud Microsoft for giving something a go, I just hope that they keep working on it to make it more intuitive and less "post-pc"-ish (which is pretty insulting when I'm running it on a PC). I don't really use the tiles, and I'm on the desktop 99% of the time... so. Yeah. From a ui perspective alone, I don't really find it that abrasive.

  16. The condition of software... on NetWare 3.12 Server Taken Down After 16 Years of Continuous Duty · · Score: 1

    Software outliving it's hardware... sigh.

    There's something innately human about that which strikes me as... odd.

  17. I bet he'd say... on Apple Faces Lawsuit For Retina MacBook Pro 'Ghosting' Issue · · Score: 5, Funny

    "You're not looking at it right."

          - steve

  18. So what? on Tax Peculiarities Mean Facebook Paid No Net Taxes For 2012 · · Score: 1

    The real problem is corporate executives with the clout to pay themselves next to nothing in cash and everything in stock and capital assets, taxed only when they choose to liquidate at their leisure. The fact that many corporations work around taxation and can, in this case, get a refund for having put their revenue back into the economy during the year, is not such an immortal sin as to consternate the general public.

    I'm more concerned with big government stripping people of their right to free choice than I am with companies doing what their shareholders would demand of them.

  19. cultural learnings for great justice on Pakistan Lifts YouTube Ban For 3 Minutes, Finds More Blasphemy · · Score: 1

    So, today we learned that it takes the Internet 3 minutes to offend.

    My friends, I am ashamed. Three minutes? We must try harder!

  20. Re:Arsehole on Linus Chews Up Kernel Maintainer For Introducing Userspace Bug · · Score: 1

    That's an extreme, though, kicking someone off because they made a mistake.

    It's clear (to me) that Linus cares enough to engage and teach by expressing what he cares about and why?

    Is he rough? Sure.

    But ultimately who cares? This is between Linus, Mauro, and the core maintainers. Everything else is sterile conjecture.

    But I stand by what I said as "empirically true." Linus was nice to someone once and they committed suicide over it. That's empirical evidence that "being nice" doesn't always help. That's horrible.

    It's better to be straight with people so that problems get resolved NOW rather than become lingering issues down the road. Sometimes this means writing an e-mail that says: shut the fuck up.

  21. Re:Arsehole on Linus Chews Up Kernel Maintainer For Introducing Userspace Bug · · Score: 1

    (by "that" I meant what you wrote, not what Linus wrote, btw).

    Curse words are funny. Emotion is a strange concept to me, but I get when people are angry and go into my "there, there, dear" mode.

  22. Re:Arsehole on Linus Chews Up Kernel Maintainer For Introducing Userspace Bug · · Score: 2

    If my employer ever sent me something like that, I'd quit on the spot.

    I don't like being coddled, I like being handled even less. Tell me what you really think and drop the fucking corporate baby speak.

    I'm an adult. I drink and sometimes curse and make mistakes, but I also do great things. My skin is thick enough to understand the difference between being upset over technical choices and personal attacks.

  23. Re:Arsehole on Linus Chews Up Kernel Maintainer For Introducing Userspace Bug · · Score: 1

    IMO, the worst punishment is someone cutting off communication and ignoring anything you say or do.

    Anything else is just the colourful blend of frustration, emotion, and artful expression that is pervasive in our industry.

    The kitchen is hot, and "professional" means we keep talking.

  24. Re:Arsehole on Linus Chews Up Kernel Maintainer For Introducing Userspace Bug · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's more insidious than that.

    If Linus coddles people, they get a false sense of approval. His brash, direct, and overtly emotional tone is intentional. It's to let the other party know exactly how he feels without accidentally leading them into a false sense of "oh, keep working on it and I'll approve it."

    Watch that video where he flips off Nvidia.

    He describes how being nice to people is the wrong approach, and makes things worse when the other side gets the wrong view, is rejected after months of effort in the wrong direction, and then Linus gets the blame for their suicide.

    If he was paying them, he could fire them. He doesn't have that luxury, so he has to be clear and direct.

    Don't like it? too bad. That's Linus, and he makes no excuses for how he behaves.

  25. Re:Let them on Brazilian Newspapers Leave Google News En Masse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yep. Google doesn't show the entire article, they show enough content to drive viewers to the article. It's up to the individual sites to retain those visitors, not Google.

    Newspapers should be paying Google for the service of indexing and driving customers to them.