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User: Chris+Mattern

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Comments · 7,102

  1. Re:Yet the US media downplay the body count on Egyptian Security Forces Storm Pro-Morsi Camps Leaving Nearly 100 Dead · · Score: 2

    Washington Post is reporting 42 dead confirmed at an aid station for Morsi supporters, 60 dead estimated by the Egyptian government, and over 2000 esimated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Where are you seeing 15-20?

  2. Re:Did they try this? on Four Month Mars Food Study Wraps Up · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, in France they call it [i]pain perdu[/i] "lost bread", possibly because it's a good use for bread that's gone stale.

  3. Re:Looks like it's time on Easily-Captured Asteroids Identified · · Score: 1

    Bootstrap. A minimal set of tools sent into orbit to build a bigger set of tools. Two or three iterations can have large scale foundries up and running, while building some other interesting things along the way.

  4. Re:How does this help anyone? on Class-action Suit Filed Against Microsoft Over Surface Write Off · · Score: 2

    ...by showing them that they can't just do any shit they want?

    You're missing his point. Stockholder suing the company they hold stock in get paid *with their own money*. "We're so angry that we're gonna make you write a us a check drawn from our own bank account!" Yeah, that'll show 'em.

  5. Re:Catastrophically awful idea on Bill Gates Seeking Patent To Make Shakespeare Less Boring · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To be fair, Shakespeare's plays aren't *meant* to be read. They're meant to be performed. So seeing a performance of the play is actually quite appropriate.

  6. Re:Get a purse on Ask Slashdot: Is There a Good Device Holster? · · Score: 1

    Be European... get a bag. Not a purse, a bag.

    Surely you mean a carry-all.

  7. Re:Practical on The First 'Practical' Jetpack May Be On Sale In Two Years · · Score: 2

    I think this guy has a skewed idea of practical.

    It's all relative. This is at least conceivably practical for specialized, high-value uses. When you compare to earlier jet packs, which had similar cost and weight but lasted only three or four minutes, it's quite practical.

  8. Re:Arguably lied? on Obama's Privacy Reform Panel Will Report To ... the NSA · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IMHO, he gave us the truth, but not the whole truth.

    Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.): "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?"

    James Clapper: "No, sir"

    Wyden: "It does not?"

    Clapper: "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertantly perhaps collect, but not wittingly."

    That is not the truth, but not the whole truth. That is a flat-out lie, told under oath before a Senatorial committee.

  9. Queer definition of "hijacking" on IAB Urges People To Stop "Mozilla From Hijacking the Internet" · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apparently what they mean by "Mozilla is hijacking the Internet" is "Mozilla is preventing *us* from hijacking the Internet".

  10. Re:Fast-paced chess on steroids on Playing StarCraft Could Boost Your Cognitive Flexibility · · Score: 1

    A build order will only help you out in the first minute of a game,

    False. Almost any proper build order will cover at least the first two or three minutes of the game. More involved build orders, like the Terran Flash build will take you into the mid-game. And the start provided by your build order determines the course of the whole game.

    whereas observation and scouting to identify what your oponent is doing is King.

    When to build and send out your scout is, of course, part of any decent build order.

    Starcraft (especially broodwar is all about counter attacks and overpowering or utilising your units skills to your advantage)

    It's a big part of it, certainly. But a poor build order, a poorly executed build order, or a build order mismatched to what your opponent does will kill you before you ever get a chance to show off those lovely skills.

  11. Re:Fast-paced chess on steroids on Playing StarCraft Could Boost Your Cognitive Flexibility · · Score: 1

    SC is so much more loose and more open-world than Chess that it doesn't lend itself to memorization of moves like Chess and its rigid structure do.

    Do the words "Build order" ring any bells for you? They are as rigidly defined and memorized as any chess opening.

  12. I always leave my Wi-Fi off on Londoners Tracked By Advertising Firm's Trash Cans · · Score: 1

    Drains the battery anyways. Turn it on when I want and need it, turn it off again when I'm done.

  13. I think he's confused on Obama on Surveillance: "We Can and Must Be More Transparent" · · Score: 1

    There's a difference between "transparent" and "invisible", Barack. We want the first. You appear to want the second.

  14. So then, this is the way you secure your systems on NSA Firing 90% of Its Sysadmins · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You fire all the people who are responsible for the security of your systems. Wait, what?

  15. Nick Fury was unavailable for comment on NVIDIA Open Sources SHIELD's Operating System · · Score: 5, Funny

    Also, there is currently no word if HYDRA's OS will also be open sourced.

  16. Re:Small and vengeful and afraid on Snowden Gave 15,000 Documents to Glenn Greenwald; Obama Cancels Russia Summit · · Score: 1

    If they want to argue that it wasn't, they can easily do that in a courtroom.

    Unless, of course, it's classified and it's not legal to even *mention* it in a courtroom.

    The government doesn't agree with you, and in any event, has a responsibility to enforce the law.

    So, the government has a responsibility to enforce *every* law, no matter what that law might be? You might want to consider the consequences of that position carefully before staking it out. Numerous historical examples spring to mind.

  17. Re:Screw You Obama on Snowden Gave 15,000 Documents to Glenn Greenwald; Obama Cancels Russia Summit · · Score: 1

    "Land of the Home, Free of the Brave"

  18. Re:Typical Microsoft approach on MS Office For Android: Pretty, But Woefully Incomplete · · Score: 1

    From my memory of pre-dismal coinage there are 16 farthings in tuppence

    Eight. A farthing is a quarter-penny and tuppence is, well, two pence.

  19. Because some would argue that the term "censorship" only applies to suppression by the government.

    And as this is a case of the *British government* telling these people, "no, you can't talk about this," how is this not censorship?

  20. Re:Carrier? on Japan Unveils Largest Warship Since WW2 · · Score: 1

    Anybody know how this thing can be classified as a destroyer?

    Because the Japanese Navy said, "It's a destroyer." The dividing line between destroyer/cruiser/battleship isn't all that sharp, you know. The US Navy's Ticonderoga-class cruisers were originally designated destroyers, for example. It also might be noted, that Ticonderogas are about one-third the displacement as the Izumo.

  21. Re:Article 9 on Japan Unveils Largest Warship Since WW2 · · Score: 1

    Frankly, nobody's taken Article 9 very seriously for about forty years now. It gets taken out on occasion when people want to object to sending Japanese units to participate in some international force, but otherwise it gets pretty much ignored.

  22. Re:Japanese Military on Japan Unveils Largest Warship Since WW2 · · Score: 1

    Actually, I don't think any current treaties between the U.S. and Japan limit Japanese offensive capability. It's the Japanese constitution which does.

    True, and that mistake needed to be corrected. But guess who wrote the Japanese constitution? Hint: Not the Japanese.

  23. Re:Known Xerox Issue..... in documentation on Xerox Photocopiers Randomly Alter Numbers, Says German Researcher · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now the question becomes: what moron made this setting the default? Maybe a setting that can undetectably corrupt your data can be provided if appropriate warnings are given, but it sure as hell should never be the default. I would've thought that was obvious.

  24. Re: $250M on Jeff Bezos Buys the Washington Post · · Score: 2

    The Washington Post isn't available on Kindle, but it is available on the iPad

    I expect that will change. Quickly.

  25. Re:I remember on Jeff Bezos Buys the Washington Post · · Score: 1

    Jeff may have some "revolutionary" idea for monetizing a newspaper online

    He's stated that he doesn't have any preset plans for the Post. Of course, he might have an idea and just be hiding it; there's several plausible reason why he might do that.