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User: mar1boro

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Comments · 83

  1. Re:Let's see on Ancient Nubians Drank Antibiotic-Laced Beer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This means that you must consume lots of the drugs to be effective. This actually confirms that the Nubians knew more about the process then one might think.

    No. No it doesn't. No causality has been established. As of this moment, high levels of Tetracyclene mean one thing only: large quantities of Tetracyclene entered their bodies. That's it.

  2. Re:Why not deterrence? on Is Cheap Video Surveillance Possible? · · Score: 1

    If you want to beat me up for displaying poor reading comprehension skills today - I had it coming.

    The rest...not so much, and you got it wrong anyway. I was only trying to seem twice as witty as
    I really am. If I were twice as old, I would probably be worm food

  3. Re:Why not deterrence? on Is Cheap Video Surveillance Possible? · · Score: 1

    Your right. I clearly didn't read that one closely enough or read it too quickly. I skipped over the "just" bit.

  4. Why not deterrence? on Is Cheap Video Surveillance Possible? · · Score: 1, Troll

    "To me, the object isn't just deterrence â" if someone tries to break into my house or my car (parked on the street in front of my house), I'd like to provide a high-quality image of the perpetrator to the police."

    Uh what? In a situation such as you have described, the primary objective of such cameras is to provide a deterrent - unless of course if what you are really after is clandestine high quality imagery of another nature. Your stated situation does not match your stated goal.

  5. Re:Give me a rational reason why this is a problem on Intel in Antitrust Trouble in Japan · · Score: 1, Informative

    "Obviously if a company is buying more of a competitor's products then they're buying less of yours, so your own are more expensive to them because they are buying in lower quantities. that is simple grade school economics."

    Volume discounts are fine. The problem occurs not when you say "Buy more than 5,000 of my widgets and you get a discount. Buy less and you don't." The problem is when you say "If the number of my widgets in your shop drops below %80 of your total I will cancel the discount." Attempting to coerce your vender to not carry your competitors' widgets is anti-competative.

  6. Re:Oversight on British Goverment to Reshape BBC Governance · · Score: 1

    I can't but agree with you, when you point out had the BBC been proven correct this would not be happening. The BBC may or may not have been completely off in their reporting. My opinion on the matter isn't really relevant.

    My concern is this; The conservatives have been praying for a chance to kick the snot out of the BBC for a very long time. This situation looks very much more like a bid to control a critical press than an opportunity to reform management at the BBC.

  7. Re:Oversight on British Goverment to Reshape BBC Governance · · Score: 1

    I don't know about "these discussions," but this discussion is most certainly about freedom of the press. Whether true or not it was the Hutton Report that started all of this. The BBC implicated Tony Blair's government in some shady dealings, and these actions are the big payback. They are bringing the BBC to heel.

  8. Re:What's a computer? on National PC Recycling Plan Proposed, Again · · Score: 3, Informative

    It would be easy to avoid such arbitrary levies, and to avoid governmental programs altogether. We just need more community driven projects like Portland's Free Geek.

    The $10 levy is just like every other well-intentioned-sounding tax. It will end up being a money grab, the funds from which will never be used for the program's stated purpose.

  9. Re:Whoever posted this doesn't understand the EU.. on Software Patents Circumvent European Parliament · · Score: 1

    The point is this; the EU has not had a revolution _yet_. Give it time.

  10. Re:False Alarm on 2004 Election Weirdness Continues · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You are right. The outcome of the election will never be changed. It will never be allowed to. We can't allow this to continue though. The electoral process in this country should be as close to flawless as possible.

    It is time to take the manufacture of voting devices and the auditing process out of the hands of partisans. And to all of you out there saying, "Boo hoo, Kerry lost. Get over it." How is it that Democracy in America is being hijacked, and you don't seem to give a shit? I'd wager you are the true anti-Americans. You do a lot of name calling, but when the shit hits the fan you show your true natures. Sunshine Patriots. Educate yourselves, and stand up for the Constitution you so loudly claim to believe in. Stop being little automatons.

  11. Re:Lots and lots of... on What's in Your Billfold? · · Score: 1

    social security card
    That is such a bad idea.

  12. Re:Tolerance? BWAHAHA!!!! on The Underground History of American Education · · Score: 1
    First Amendment
    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
    You
    So you're saying that those who believe in Christianity (or perhaps Judaism, Muslim faith, Buddhism, etc.?) should be told to "get with the program" and have their freedom of religion stripped from them?
    Actually what those people should do is decide if they are going to be Americans or not. If yes, then they should strive to ensure that the American government stays the hell out of the religion business, and the churches stay out of the business of governance. We need leaders committed to the Constitution. What we do not need is a few more centuries of people killing eachother off because their Holy Men got a memo from their imaginary friend.
  13. Re:It's a start... on Copyright Office Suggests Changes To Induce Act · · Score: 1

    Why should he pander to the lowest common denominator? Should newspapers continue to lower their target reading comprehension levels? Should schools continue to give passing grades to sub-par performances, in order to acquire grant money?

    Hell no. If someone doesn't know what the term "induce" means in this context, they should be expected to do a little research. If they can't grok this concept, and aren't curious enough to educate themselves, then you should be educating them instead of trying to dumb down your message.

    It is time to stop pandering to the lowest common denominator. It only makes things worse.

  14. Re:Claiming "terror" to justify other things... on DHS Says Cellular Outage Reporting is Terrorist Blueprint · · Score: 1

    I have read the damned thing, and the laws which it ammended. I've also read the CALEA Petition for Expedited Rulemaking, the DMCA, and the PDEA of 2004. Here is a link to get you started ALA. If you think a divided Judiciary, at war not only with itself but with Congress and the Executive, is capable of being a competent custodian of our civil liberties - you are wrong. Sorry. That's just the way it is. When the facts are so clearly indicative of an attack on the Constitution I find no reason to be mindful of the feelings of apologists.

  15. Re:Battle for Wesnoth on What's Your Favorite Open Source Game? · · Score: 1

    Definitely in agreement here. Each release, moving toward 1.0, has been better.

    There are a ton of other open source strategy games, but I think Wesnoth is so far the best implemented. The only other genre with a healthy number of entries is the roguelike games. For gameplay, they can't really be beat.

  16. Re:Due to lack of funding... on ICANN Budget Questioned · · Score: 1
    While I'm never part of the tinfoil hat crowd, it does make me concerned when the most free form of media becomes more and more in control of one country.
    Part of the problem is that we have become used to any countries at all
    controlling the infrastructure. CENTR is no more trustworthy than
    ICANN or the ITU. The world's governments have recognized that the "internet"
    is an actual space, and they are acting in the way that governments always do
    - by asserting control.

    Frontier is, by definition, ungoverned. Governments, like nature, abhor vacuums.
  17. Re:dear me on How To Get Googled, By Hook Or By Crook · · Score: 1

    As I understood the aim of the experiment - the goal is not to compete with unrelated search terms. The aim is to see if you can cause your page to float higher than other pages using the same unique search term. For this, everyone involved could have performed the same experiment using "ducrsjj wsxtyhv," for instance.

  18. Re:dear me on How To Get Googled, By Hook Or By Crook · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can think of a couple of downsides.
    1) They used a _real_ word for the contest. Ultramarine may not be common,
    but this will eventually fubar legitimate searches. A random string would
    have been a better measure.
    2) This is a contest being run by an Ad-Company so that they can glean the
    best techniques for getting their ads in the first 3 pages on a Google
    search. Nothing more.

  19. Re:Quality on Free MIT Engineering Text For Download · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Time spent writing a text, if it is good, increases the writer's reputation.
    A well regarded and published professor is money in the bank for a university.
    A professor who "pens" a text that becomes one of _the_ texts in his field
    can elevate his university's stature tremendously. Imagine if we cut out the
    middleman. A university handles the electronic pulishing duties.
    In your case the text becomes "The cperciva Text." It can be updated
    indefinitely. Continuous peer review. Continuous contributions
    from that university's professors forever.

    I'm not going to propose the details for an entire compensation system.
    It is way too early in the morning for that. I think though, that the lessening
    of text costs would only be one of many benefits. Dynamic texts could change many things.

  20. Re:Submarine patents? on 31 Lawsuits Filed Over Alleged JPEG Patent · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Definitely. I wasn't arguing their case, just trying to point out that
    this is not out of the blue. Wired ran a story about them holding
    negotiations back in June '02.

  21. Re:Submarine patents? on 31 Lawsuits Filed Over Alleged JPEG Patent · · Score: 3, Informative

    They have been pursuing licensing agreements since at least 2002.

  22. Re:aww, that's an easy choice! on Bachelor Contest Winner Chooses PS2, Not Girl · · Score: 1

    The best piece of advice I've seen, on Slashdot, in years.

  23. Re:Snow Crash on Salon Interviews Neal Stephenson · · Score: 1

    I agree. The Diamond Age is one of the best told sf stories I've ever read. Very smooth.
    Zodiac and Snowcrash are almost character studies for Cryptonomicon.
    I really like The Barroque cycle, so far. I imagine it would take a few reads to actually tease
    apart all the threads. I'll have time, someday.

  24. Re:Reap what you Sow on Academics Take On Government Net Censorship · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "...give me 1 REASON , WHY Should I care in the least about censorship in China ?
    There are 1.3 billion people on mainland China. By 2050 there will be 1.7 billion. source
    China is poised to become the most economically powerful nation in the history
    of the world. You had best care very deeply about goings on in China.

    I can only assume this display, "The Chinese people PUT their Goverment in Power PERIOD..."
    is an innocent expression of ignorance, and not a troll. If every single
    person alive in China during the revolution were still living, they would only
    comprise about %25 percent of the population. Seeing as the revoltion ended
    in 1949, this is not very likely. But let's, for the sake
    of argument, say they are all living. That leaves one billion living human
    beings who were born and raised under the rule of a totalitarian regime.

    Were you alive when The Peoples' Army crushed the protesters in Tiananmen Square?
    Try this one, this one, this one, or this one .

    You asked "...WHY THE FUCK SHOULD I CARE ?" You should care because if you are
    ever in a position where you feel it is your duty to oppose a dictator,
    you better pray you get more help than they did.
  25. Re:Home enforcement? on Florida Ponders Communication Tax on LANs · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My paranoia is asserting iteself, again.
    I'm pretty sure they know exactly what they
    are doing. Identifying any specific device
    for taxation (ie. automobiles) makes it much
    easier to keep track of.