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User: Chris+Mattern

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Comments · 7,102

  1. Re:Nothing is "free" on Harvard: Journals Too Expensive, Switch To Open Access · · Score: 1

    Realistically, journal access is really a fringe benefit to you (not unlike free coffee in a breakroom)

    Er, no, it's not. Journals are, for research university faculty, a tool they must have to do their job. Cutting journal access isn't removing free coffee from the breakroom, it's removing the PC you use to do your job.

  2. Re:Just ask the government for more money. on Harvard: Journals Too Expensive, Switch To Open Access · · Score: 2

    After all education is (I was told yesterday) the primary goal of a university, regardless of the cost.

    And that is, of course, a lie. When the cost becomes high enough, it becomes a factor. When the cost rises to the point where it physically cannot be met, it will not be paid. There are no exceptions to this rule.

  3. Re:Amazing on Harvard: Journals Too Expensive, Switch To Open Access · · Score: 2

    Isn't it possible to publish in multiple journals?

    Not the same paper. The journal will get quite ticked off with you if you try to do that.

  4. Re:Something missing.....;-) on Asteroid the 'Size of a Minivan' Exploded Over California · · Score: 1

    Where does a station wagon fit in there?

    In the 1970s, which was the last time anybody bought one.

  5. You provdided a link to define EDA on Startup Claims C-code To SoC In 8-16 Weeks · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's good. You didn't define or even expand SoC, GDSII, or TSMC. That's bad. I'm guessing SoC is "System on Chip" but I have no idea what the other two are.

  6. Re:It's even dumber than that. on Billionaires and Polymaths Expected To Unveil a Plan To Mine Asteroids · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What are they going to find on a rock in space that is not already available on THIS rock in space?

    Raw materials that aren't at the bottom of a gravity well.

  7. Re:Harper has destroyed our government.. on Canadian Bureacracy Can't Answer Simple Question: What's This Study With NASA? · · Score: 4, Funny

    At least according to American propaganda it is!

  8. Re:Just withdraw from Germany. on YouTube Ordered To Remove Videos, Filter Future Uploads By German Court · · Score: 1

    Not if the audio is replaced by a track that says, "Due to a court ruling petitioned by Gema, we have been forced to remove all audio tracks from videos shown in Germany." And repeats that over and over.

  9. Re:Expert opinion on Hypersonic Test Aircraft Peeled Apart After 3 Minutes of Sustained Mach 20 Speed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because it can teach you how to build a plane that goes that fast and *doesn't* burn itself to pieces. This is the closest we've ever gotten to that.

  10. Re:Penguin Guano? on Emperor Penguins Counted From Space · · Score: 2

    Guano is generally construed as being the excrement of seabirds (under which penguins are classified), bats, and seals. So, no, "penguin guano" is not redundant, as it distinguishes it from the guano of non-penguin seabirds, bats or seals.

  11. Re:Former ______ head says we fucked up on Former TSA Administrator Speaks · · Score: 1

    He's not the boss. Congress is the boss, and Congress is more interested in what sounds good (or bad) in a election commercial than in what does or doesn't work.

  12. Re:How did they get a patent... on Activision Blizzard Sued For Patent Infringement Over WoW, CoD · · Score: 1

    16.5 years ago, when there wasn't so much prior art.

    But still enough that the court should kick them out so hard they'll be wearing the bootmark for years: Neverwinter Nights came out in 1991. Several other MMORPGs based on proprietary online services came out before the original application as well.

  13. My favorite application of Jervon's paradox on Why Your IT Spending Is About To Hit the Wall · · Score: 1

    ...however, has always been gasoline. The evidence shows that legislating higher gas mileage for cars has *increased* gasoline usage. The law of unintended consequences at its finest.

  14. Because, Lord knows... on Facebook Says It Has 'No Intention' To Abuse CISPA · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...you can trust Facebook when it comes to privacy!

  15. Re:Was he really naive enough to expect otherwise? on Whistleblower In Limbo After Reporting H-1B Visa Fraud At Infosys · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apparently the Romans *and* Lex Luthor. Good thing he had Superman on his side. Must've been one helluva team-up.

  16. Re:it's own antiparticle? on Scientists Find Long-Sought Majorana Particle · · Score: 3, Informative

    Spin. Anti-neutrons spin the opposite way. ("Spin" here being a particle physics term--it's not the same thing as spinning in the macro world).

  17. Re:Hey guys, STFU and build a rocket, would you? on Ex-NASA Employees Accuse Agency of 'Extreme Position' On Climate Change · · Score: 2

    Well, we know *a* part of the Muslim world that does: Pakistan. The Iranians are working as hard as they can at it, but they're apparently still a couple of years away.

  18. Re:Count still too low? on Statistical Analysis Raises Civil War Death Count By 20% · · Score: 1

    Not to mention towns raised & civilians killed.

    "Raised"?

    "Yep, we'll kill all the townfolk just as soon as we get this row of houses put up!"

  19. Re:Firing in US on Interview With TSA Screener Reveals 'Fatal Flaws' · · Score: 1

    I never hear about this here in Europe. It's in fact very difficult to fire a person here if he is a good worker.

    And the employer doesn't get to define what "good worker" means. Could the fact that once you hire someone in Europe, you're stuck with him for life have anything to do with the great reluctance to hire in Europe, and its over ten percent unemployment rate--and over twenty percent for the young?

  20. Re:"We don't know the antivirus group inside Apple on Apple Snubs Security Firm That Spotted Mac Botnet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They did that. They sent email there. They got ignored. What they have for Microsoft, what they *don't* have for Apple, is direct phone numbers/email addresses for the right personnel.

  21. Re:Everyone ignores Commodore on Jack Tramiel, Founder of Commodore Business Machines, Dies At Age 83 · · Score: 1

    And the NeXT was *such* a resounding success.

    What Jobs learned was to never do *that* again...

  22. Re:The crux of the matter on Major Textbook Publishers Sue Open-Education Textbook Start-Up · · Score: 1

    Their claim is not that the picture itself is being infringed (and if it was, it would be for wikipedia to pursue the claim, but of course wikipedia permits that) but that the mere idea that a bear running illustrates the first law of thermodynamics is copyrightable and that's what is being infringed upon.

    And that's where it falls down, as the fact that ideas are not copyrightable, but only the representations of those ideas, is one of the basic principles of copyright law.

  23. Re:The crux of the matter on Major Textbook Publishers Sue Open-Education Textbook Start-Up · · Score: 1

    The publishers are trying to claim they can copyright an idea. Unless the judge is bought and paid for twice over, that'll get thrown out of the court so hard it'll bounce twice.

  24. Re:hmm on Canadian Telcos Lobby Against Pick-and-Pay TV · · Score: 1

    "There has grown in the minds of certain groups in this country the idea that just because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with guaranteeing such a profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is supported by neither statute or common law. Neither corporations or individuals have the right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."

    Gotta love Heinlein.

  25. Re:So what? on Canadian Telcos Lobby Against Pick-and-Pay TV · · Score: 1

    Discovery, Syfy, etc would...refocus more on catering the lowest common denominator.

    That's gotta be the funniest thing I've seen on Slashdot all month.