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User: BugMaster+ChuckyD

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Comments · 194

  1. One Word: on Orson Scott Card Reviews Everything · · Score: 1

    FOX.

  2. Re:As an Oregon resident... on Oregon Is Growing A Mystery Bulge · · Score: 1

    This is simply false.

    A state of Emergency was declared by the Lousiana gov. on August 26th, days before the storm hit. On the 28th she asked Bush to declare a Federal State of Emergency in the area, specifically authorizing the Federal Govt to become directly involved. Once the President has declared a state of emergency the Department of Homeland Security is supposed to take the lead in directing the Federal, State & Local response.

    In asking the President to declare a State of Emergency the Lousiana Governor specifically invoked the Stafford Act which "comes into play when a state, usually through its governor, requests a presidential declaration of a state of emergency following a natural disaster. Once a state of emergency is declared, active-duty soldiers can be employed to respond to the crisis under the direction of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)"

  3. Re:Meanwhile in America... on Patriot Act to be Expanded · · Score: 1

    The mark of a free society is that you can get lawyers, go to court and fight things like this.

    Meanwhile, in America, if the Judge rules in a fashion not approved by the Right Wing so-called "Conservatives" they start screaming about "Activist Judges" who are "legislating from the bench".

    The seperation of powers with three co-equal branches of government setup to act as checks and balances against each other was set up for a very good reason, and is one more essential part of UD freedom that is under attack from the far right.

    The US right wing is a far bigger threat to freedom than terrorism IMO.

  4. TV Licence on British Goverment to Reshape BBC Governance · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'd be happy to pay the TV licence to keep the BBC the way it is, and I'm an American!

  5. Bread and Cricuses on US Government May Not Approve Sale of IBM PC Unit · · Score: 1

    its just the circuses (sports, reality shows, celebrity gossip etc.) giving people bread would be "socialism".

  6. I hate Bush on Hackers Take Aim at Republicans · · Score: 2, Insightful

    and the GOP (at least what the modern GOP has become... theocrats, neocons and corporate apologists) but this sort of disruption is just wrong on so many levels. Now its true that most of what Bush has to say is nothing more than lies, fear-mongering and propaganda... OK EVERYTHING he says falls into one of those categories, but even a fraud like like Bush has a right to say it. We should counter his lies, fear-mongering and propaganda with web sites of our own telling the "other" side of the story, not acting like the GOP thugs who intimidate anyone who critizes their Great Leader.

    If we think we are better than this bunch of crooks & liars we ought to behave as if we are better then them, as true (small d) democrats, not just another set of absolutest goons.

    ON a more practicle side this sort of thing (and any disruption of the RNC in NYC) is in danger of being counter productive. There are precious few undecided voters this election, and although it appears that Kerry is doing better than Bush amongst those voters, it won't take much to turn them off.

    So I urge everyone who understands just how important it is to get rid of Bush and the neocon crazies in his administration not to try to disrupt the GOP's web sites or convention, but to channel the energy into a positive message.

  7. 7 buffers at once on Sony PC/DVR Incorporates 7 Tuners & 1TB HD · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One of the great things about tiVo is how it buffers the show you're watching so you can pause rewind and skip commercials. When you change channels the buffer is gone and you can't rewind the new channel etc.

    With this device you could (presumably) set it up to buffer your favorite channels as well as the one you're watching. You could watch one show and then jump over to CNN (or whatever) and rewind to watch the start of the news broadcast, then jump over to ESPN and watch the baseball game etc.

  8. Missing the point on Enderle's Ferrari Laptop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The laptop (as silly as it is) is not about the cars that Ferrari sells to the public, it is about their race cars! (And their Formula One cars are arguably the best out there) Most slashdotters being American proabbly don't realise that Ferrari is one of the biggest sports franchises on the planet. Manchester United is likely the only bigger name in worldwide sports than Ferrari.

    F1 is second only to the World Cup and the Olympics in global TV audience. So the tie in is not snob appeal for the expensive road cars (BTW Ferrari only started making and selling cars to the general public to pay for their racing) This is more like having a New York Yankees or Chicago Bulls branded lap top than having a Nissan branded laptop.

    Still a silly idea IMO, but its a different silly idea than the one everyone is poking fun at!

  9. Waltham on Ten Technologies That Refuse to Die · · Score: 1

    I also have a nice Waltham pocket watch (hunter style case) The movement was made in 1901 and it keeps good time (looses aprox. 1 minute per week)

  10. Re:analog watches on Ten Technologies That Refuse to Die · · Score: 1

    I have an American Waltham pocket watch. It is mechanical (I have to wind it every morning.) It keeps fairly good time (looses about a minute in a week) and its over 100 years old. No batteries, no plastic, no mp3 playback, it just tells the time.

  11. RAT on Spirit and Opportunity Now Operational · · Score: 2, Informative

    The tool that does the grinding (Rock Abrasion Tool aka the RAT) also has a brush mechanism so they can brush dust fromt he surface of the rock before taking measuremnet of the rock. They'd like to take readings from the rock surface as that might give information about how the rock has weathered which might in turn give clues to past environments. Dust particles could obscure the readings from the actual rock surface hence the brush.

    After they take the surface reading they can use the RAT to grind off the surface to look at the interior of the rock.

  12. Orbits on NASA to Reconsider Hubble Decision · · Score: 2, Informative

    IANARS either but here goes: If you could attach a booster to Hubble you could put it into a higher orbit. If you boost in the direction of the orbit you will get a higher apogee (highest point in an eliptical orbit) You will always return to the point where you fired your engines, so a second burn is needed at apogee to make the orbit less elipitical, and this raises the perigee (lowest point in the orbit). Firing the booster in the direction of orbit will never lower the perigee.

    IIRC they were considering sending a robotic booster to de-orbit the Hubble. To do that they would boost in the opposite direction to the orbit which would lower the perigee.

  13. Re:Bush won on Touch Screen Voting Trouble in Florida · · Score: 1

    The press recount looked at various counting scenarios. Ironically if they did what Bush wanted, Gore would have ended up with more votes, and if they had done what Gore wanted Bush would have ended up with more votes.

    However if they had done the RIGHT thing and made an honest attempt to get the most accurate vote count possible for the entire state, GORE would have won. More valid votes were cast for Gore than for Bush in Florida, its as simple as that.

    Speaking as midwestern bumpkin, the candidates don't campaign in states with low numbers of electoral votes anyway. I see no reason why a person in North Dakota should have more influence on the outcome of an election than someone in New York. And I see no reason why the votes of millions of Republicans in California should be ignored any more than the votes of Democrats in Texas.

    One person one vote applies to every other elected official and almost always the winner of the popular vote wins the Electoral College but I see no reason to keep the EC if it is possible for it to sometimes give the Presidency to the candidate who came in second.

  14. Gore Won on Touch Screen Voting Trouble in Florida · · Score: 1

    Gore also won if they had done a full count (i.e. looked at all of the ballots that were rejected by the machines and not counted (under or over votes) in ALL of the counties in Florida. This is not a 'recount" as the votes were not counted in the first place. It would be the only fair thing to do as it would have been a good faith effort to try and determine as accuratley as possible who won.

    To their everlasting shame NEITHER campaign was interested in this option. NEITHER cared what the actual vote count was they BOTH wanted to manipulated the system in their favor.

    IMO the only way to vote is with paper ballots and you put an X by the candidates name. Most western democracies use this method, and rarely have these sorts of problems.

  15. Re:Sorry to tell you this but... on Bush To Announce Manned Trip To Moon, Mars · · Score: 1

    Actually his a total fucking liar. he lies about EVERYTHING (including this).

  16. Re:well on Paul Allen Confirmed as SpaceShipOne's Sponsor · · Score: 1

    He's already coughed up 10s of millions for this project. Even sub-orbital space flight is not cheap. This project not withstanding we are a long way from provate space exploration, the development is just too costly for there to be any chance of profit.

  17. Re:The geeks that clapped during the movie/review: on Interview with Peter Jackson on LoTR Bloopers · · Score: 1

    Smeagol was NOT a Hobbit. They describe him as being "not unlike a Hobbit" in the movie, but a Hobbit of the Shire he was not.

  18. Networks on Gore Vidal Savages Electronic Voting · · Score: 2, Interesting

    you mean the ones owned by giant corporations? Like general Electric for instance? G.E. being a major defence contractor is sure to hire a bunch of pacifist lefties for their news operation because that would help their bottom line, right? I mean just look at the hard in dpeth questioning Bush got during the run up to the invasion of Iraq. The liberal media was out there all the time questioning whether Iraq had WMDs and whether they had ties to terrorists etc. Not.

  19. Re:Huh? on Gore Vidal Savages Electronic Voting · · Score: 1

    Its certainly true that some corporations donate to both parties to ensure access no matter who wins, but the republican Presidential candidate always outspends the Democrat by 2 or three times because the GOP gets far more corporate money than do the Democrats. After all it is the Republicans who want to cut taxes for the rich, remove regulations on business and reduce protections for workers health & saftey.

  20. I for one welcome on Microsoft Fires Mac Fan For Blog Photo · · Score: 1

    ...oh never mind.

  21. Re:but France was right on Dilbert Readers Rat Out Some Weasels · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Are you serious? Its "The Media's" fault for emphasising the WMD issue. Sorry but it was the Bush Administration who emphasised WMDs time and time again. As it turns out they didn't know what they were talking about.

    Now its true that "The Media" just took what ever Bush said at face value and never questioned any of his claims, but this tired old media bashing just won't protect Bush from responisbility for this gargantuan fuck up.

  22. Not only that on Farewell To The Concorde · · Score: 1

    Not only was the Sonic Cruiser not a supersonic design, the project has already been shelved.

  23. Re:Bad Comparison on CIO Magazine On Offshore IT · · Score: 1

    Of course there are good programmers in India just as there are plenty of bad ones in the USA.

    The difference is cultural. I workd in a lab at school and the Professor had several Indian grad students working for him, they were smart guys, but the Prof was always pissed off by their attitude: they were too subserviant to him, he wanted them to tell him was full of shit when he was wrong 9and this guy was almost 100% full of shit).

    He'd often tell these guys to call him on something of they thought he was wrong. They'd always smile and agree, but not one of the EVER disagreed with him.

    Thats why you'll get bck code made exactly to spec, even if the spec. doesn't think of everything or misses something that might mean an alternate approach would be better.

  24. Re:Conservation of Angular Momentum on The Return of Apollo? · · Score: 1

    Hos it under tension? The center of mass of the tether must be in geostationary orbit, it can't be past that point or the tether wouldn't be stationary. (not to mention that if it were under tension it mean that the tensile strngth of the material needed would gotr from bearly plausible to down-right unobtainium)

    No, you just can't "steal" angular momentum from the Earth, the tether is not rigid. That extra energy has to be added to the system as the payload rises.

  25. Conservation of Angular Momentum on The Return of Apollo? · · Score: 1

    There is also the little problem of conservation of angular momentum. It is not as simple as merely lifting the payload to the height of the mooring satellite as that end point is actually in orbit around the Earth.

    The energy of the system has to be conserved so as you lift the payload you essentialy start to de-orbit the end point of the the tether. So the end point has to be boosted back into the original orbit, using a similar amount of fuel that would be needed to boost the payload from the Earth's surface on a rocket. So a space elevator would not be 1000 times more efficent than a conventional launch, in fact if it could be constructed it would not be much more efficeint than a chemical rocket.