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User: TheGreatMcCluck

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  1. You know what else kills DVD sales? on Netflix is 'Killing' DVD Sales, Research Finds (torrentfreak.com) · · Score: 1

    For those of us who like things "the old fashioned way", we have few brick and mortar stores left that carry DVDs, and many of those have killed their selection.

    Local Best Buys, once several rows and giant displays in size, have all been shrinking these. In more than one such store, it's now one half-row, and mostly only near brand new stuff. We have to go further and further to find a decent store with some selection.

    What's funny about all this is, MANY people I talk to complain, "There's no place to go to get DVDs anymore". Yet the stores seem to have decided for us that there's no market for them...

  2. Where the hell are you getting 8% growth right now?

    Seriously... sign me up!

    Secure/guaranteed investments right now seem to be getting closer and closer to 0%, and market volatility makes things like mutual funds a crap shoot. 8% year over year... I dare to dream.

  3. complete fucking insanity is why IoT needs to be stopped. Here's a fucking crazy thought: don't connect complex medical equipment that is involved in keeping people alive during medical procedures to the internet at all. Ever. Under any circumstances. Use AV to pre-screen shit before you install it. While I'm on the table in a hospital in Canada, cut wide open, I am pretty damn sure no one in Finland needs to know what's up with the machine monitoring my heart. And I know my doctor doesn't need to be looking for kitten videos. Jesus Fuck when will these people get a damn clue?! THIS SHIT is why I don't want a self-driving car; it's not because I don't like the idea, it's because I don't trust an auto maker to get it right. They might be flawless for some time, and then... then some fucking moron is going to push an on-air update while I'm up in the mountains with no guardrail and off I go. Let's leave the internet to the stuff that can't kill us, PLEASE.

  4. Re:Justice on CIA Lied Over Brutal Interrogations · · Score: 1

    If your sales representative is lying and cheating and getting caught doing it maybe it's time to let him go instead of claiming you can't control him?

    And how does that work in the context of the so-called democracies we have now? Here in Canada, politics is a shell game. We vote a party out when it collapses under the weight of scandal (how most of our parties lose an election...), and inevitably, most of the party's members end up in some new or other party that gets in 4 to 8 years later. We sure showed them. In the meantime, the new party (same as the old) has fucked us six ways from Sunday. Follow the dollar bill...

    In your sales representative analogy, it's like the salesman works at the cable company. If you're real lucky, you have a second one to choose from, but that's about it. Oh and, the two companies are only in theoretical competition. They basically set their prices at the same "screw you consumer" rate to ensure everyone makes a buck. But go ahead, fire that guy. Go see the rep at the other company. Nevermind that you'll get the same crappy service, same crappy rates, same crappy treatment, because hey, you have a CHOICE.

    The US doesn't have it any better. Two thoroughly entrenched parties and a bunch of fringe independents. Bush sucked. Obama sucks. And you can bet your ass Romney would have sucked too if he'd won the last election. (have you ever seen a candidate so bad? his own party was ashamed to put him forward...)

  5. and on that note... on Microsoft's New Windows Monetization Methods Could Mean 'Subscriptions' · · Score: 1

    I'm finally making the switch to Linux.

    Thanks for the push, fuckos!

  6. Re:Corn Subsidies on How the World's Agricultural Boom Has Changed CO2 Cycles · · Score: 1

    Unobtainium... Ugh... you just ruined that movie for me all over again.

  7. How to hurt them? on Court Shuts Down Alleged $120M Tech Support Scam · · Score: 1

    I wonder if everyone who knows these calls are a scam were to do the following, if it would kill their throughput enough to stop them: "Hold on a minute... my computer is off. It's a little slow to boot. I'm going to put you down for a minute, just hold on, I'll be right back." Then just put the phone down on a table and walk away.

    Of course, once enough people were using this exact scam on the scammers, they'd know that anyone giving them this routine was to be hung up on. I'm certainly not willing to invest any time stringing them along to keep them busy.

    It's a shame. I'd love to get one over on these jack asses. I get two or three calls "from Microsoft" a year now. I did get a chuckle out of the last one, where the guy told my wife he was calling from Microsoft, she replied only, "No you're not", and they hung up without evening anything else.

  8. Re:Another terrible article courtesy of samzenpus on Seattle Passes Laws To Keep Residents From Wasting Food · · Score: 1

    Feeling a little envious. Here in BC, the patients running the asylum decided that we have to take all our glass to recycling centers ourselves now. No more pickup. So naturally, our landfills should be getting a generous supply of glass in the mix now.

  9. It's on philosophies, methods and concepts. on Is a Super-Sized iPad the Future of Education? · · Score: 1

    That might be what it should be on, but I suspect the future of education is about making children into good little consumers. So let's get those iPads into their hands as soon as possible! The earlier the better! Sure, sure, they're more toys than tools, but what good is a school system if we can't monetize it? (and for the record, I'm sick of the word "monetize" too... I'm just trying to sound like the assholes of our time...)

  10. Re:Is Snowden any less than a patriot? on NSA Wants To Reveal Its Secrets To Prevent Snowden From Revealing Them First · · Score: 1

    He's no patriot. He should have revealed the problems and faced the justice system.

    That's some beautiful, high-minded idealism right there. I'm sure that kind of idealism would be a great comfort at the end of every day one spends in his life sentence in any federal pound me in the ass penitentiary. There is no "justice system" for people who do what Snowden did. There IS a prison system for people like him, and there's a system to ensure that's where he ends up.

  11. Re:Same Brush Syndrome on Former NSA Chief Warns Hackers Will Attack US If Snowden Is Captured · · Score: 1

    Ha! And this after they came up with this little gem: socialism = communism = faschism = hitlerism = naziism = OMG they have Universal Healthcare in Canada Stephen Harper is the next Hitler!

    Seriously though, something should be done about Harper.

  12. Re:Eisenhower's warning all too true on Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash · · Score: 1

    And sadly, the folks who WERE listening heard that part about how a "knowledgeable citizenry can compel" something proper to happen, and they promptly got to work on that "problem".

  13. Re:And of course ... on Amazon Patents 'Maintaining Scarcity' of Goods · · Score: 1

    The next time I see a guy sleeping on the street in a dirty sleeping bag in the dead of winter, I'll stop in and let him know if he doesn't like his situation, he should really just vote with his wallet. And then, I'll say, "Chin up, friend, you're better off than other poor people elsewhere. In fact, you might not know it, but your sleeping bag and that buggy of trash over there? They're an abundance of things you wouldn't have in another country.". At which I'm sure he'll smile, and realize life isn't so bad, and we'll all be happier for the public service I've done with my act of inexpensive (FREE!) kindness...

  14. Re:Apple already won the jean-patent war... on Patents On Genes: Round Two · · Score: 1

    err... slide-to-UNLOCK

  15. Apple already won the jean-patent war... on Patents On Genes: Round Two · · Score: 1

    slide-to-lock is just a software zipper... my pants had zippers years ago, but Apple still won their slide-to-lock battle... Why all the debate? This one is over...

  16. South Park said it best... on Video Game Free Speech Ruling Aftermath · · Score: 2

    "Why does the court treat violent images and sexual images so differently?" I think South Park summed it up rather well... "Remember what the MPAA says; Horrific, Deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don't say any naughty words! That's what this war is all about! " Granted, they're talking about naughty words, but the message is the same: Showing someone having their brains splattered against a wall is perfectly acceptable. Hearing him curse just before he dies is bad. Showing a woman's boobies is bad, but it's OK to show her get beaten to death. It has always seemed the oddest thing to me. We can show acts that are considered heinous and are completely illegal, but we can't show acts that are perfectly legal and a healthy part of our basic nature. I guess I just wasn't raised right...

  17. Yeah they would on Microsoft Brands WebGL a 'Harmful' Technology · · Score: 1

    Learning from past mistakes is not their area of expertise. If it was, I wouldn't have to install a critical security update every other day... I'm not suggesting they're wrong, because I don't know WebGL, but I would say that their motives are suspect. MS says anything they perceive as a threat to their market share is bad... until they just can't convince people of it. If WebGL becomes popular enough, they'll jump on board without a word about how "dangerous" it is. And then we'll have a critical security update every day...

  18. This is SIC on FTC Okays Social Media Background Check Company · · Score: 1

    I think it's very telling that the acronym for Social Intelligence Corporation is SIC. Sure, they're short one "K", but this company is coming up short in just about every other way that matters too, so I guess we can forgive them that. You have to appreciate comments like this (from TFA): "If the company makes you feel creeped out, think about the fact that most employers are already doing this. In surveys, most employers admit that they check out applicants’ Facebook pages, blogs, and Google footprint." I'm so relieved now. Plenty of people are doing it. I no longer have any reason to dislike what SIC is doing. There were thousands of people out rioting in Vancouver last night (over a frickin' hockey game!), I guess riots are OK too. The important thing to remember here folks, is this: If plenty of people are doing it, it's perfectly acceptable. I think I'm going to see if I can convince a large number of people to not pay their taxes next year...

  19. Re:Do you need to look any further for proof? on FCC Commissioner Leaves To Become Lobbyist · · Score: 1

    That IS how the system works.

    No. That is how the system is currently OPERATING. It clearly ISN'T working. In theory, gov't is the only thing between corporations and total power. In reality, they got total power while everyone was too busy watching Fox News and lining up around the block to get the next shiny toy (I just gots to have my iPad2) to notice. I'm oversimplifying and missing about a billion points here, but the fact remains: What happened in the article really happened, and that is a function of a system that is not working.

  20. Re:Changing TV channels on The Insidious Creep of Latency Hell · · Score: 1

    Somewhere in between I had a TV that came on instantly.

    And there it is; Here is someone who has recognized that technology's glory age has come and gone. Sorry for those of you who blinked, but you missed it.

  21. He was a bad boy... on TSA Investigates Pilot Who Exposed Security Flaws · · Score: 1

    He made a fatal mistake. Doesn't he know that people shouldn't know there is no security whilst the TSA is sticking its hands up their daughters skirts in the name of security? Big Brother is come, but we don't see his face... we're too busy looking up in the sky for terrorists and looking at all the pretty pictures on our HD TVs.

  22. He's right; This is the purest nonsense on British Airways Chief Slams US Security Requests · · Score: 1

    This reminds me of a trip I took in January of this year, shortly after a thwarted terrorist attack in the US. Leaving Canada, we could carry NOTHING on board. Once inside the US, while switching planes, we mentioned this to some American travelers, and it was a total mystery to them; they got to bring their usual carry-on complement! There were no obviously heightened security measure in place. Oh and, "funny" enough, the potential attack was launched from within the US, and had no ties to Canada whatsoever. Pure nonsense.

  23. A list for success on ATMs That Dispense Gold Bars Coming To America · · Score: 1

    Create widespread fear and doubt, CHECK. Create economic depression, CHECK. Make people believe that gold doesn't lose value no matter how bad things get, and that things are about to get REALLY BAD, CHECK. Set up gold dispensing machines to collect "worthless money", thereby making a killing, IN PROGRESS