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User: Chris+Mattern

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Comments · 7,102

  1. Re:My car has a fail-safe device... on Jaguar Recalls 18,000 Cars Over Major Software Fault · · Score: 1

    If you just want to get somewhere, get a train

    When the train goes where I want to go and it fits my schedule, I generally do. Unfortunately, it generally doesn't meet those conditions.

    or a taxi.

    The problems with taxis are that a) I have to wait 15-20 minutes for one to be dispatched and b) they're damned expensive. If weren't for those two facts, I'd probably take them everywhere. As it is, I drive.

  2. Re:My car has a fail-safe device... on Jaguar Recalls 18,000 Cars Over Major Software Fault · · Score: 1

    Having an automatic transmission does not make problems caused by other driverss, weather conditions, road surface imperfections, cyclists, pedestrians, truck drivers, motorcyclists, traffic lights, road markings, speed limit or other road traffic signs or the state of your own tyres, brakes and suspension all magically go away.

    No, it doesn't, but it does make for one less problem I have to deal with.

  3. Re:Why does it require so much attention? on Robot Walks Like a Human, Requires No Power · · Score: 1

    I thought that myself when I started watching the video. If you keep watching, there's a shot of it walking perfectly fine all alone, and it's stated that it's walked unaided for something like 32 hours straight. It wasn't smart of them to start with that shot, though. If you're not patient enough to watch it through, you really get the impression that it can't walk without someone catching it every few seconds.

  4. Re:My car has a fail-safe device... on Jaguar Recalls 18,000 Cars Over Major Software Fault · · Score: 1

    ... to disconnect the engine from the drive wheels.

    Ooh, I have one of those! It's called "Neutral"!

  5. Re:My car has a fail-safe device... on Jaguar Recalls 18,000 Cars Over Major Software Fault · · Score: 1

    In reality automatics are for people who can't be bothered to get involved in the interesting part of 'driving'.

    I don't want driving to be "interesting". I want it to get me where I need to go.

  6. Re:Seriously? on Jaguar Recalls 18,000 Cars Over Major Software Fault · · Score: 1

    I meant a reset for the computer(s). Leaving the basic engine, brakes, power steering, etc, under manual control.

    What "manual control"? The computer controls it all, except for basic brake and steering functions (and it does control the power assists on those, too). Unless your car is twenty years old, the engine *will not run* without the computer control!

  7. Re:Software solutions on Jaguar Recalls 18,000 Cars Over Major Software Fault · · Score: 1

    In fact, discreet circuits are theoretically harder to test

    Probably because they won't tell you any of their secrets.

  8. Re:What could possibly go wrong on Public Supports Geo-Engineering · · Score: 1

    And "you people" would rather take the sky away from everyone

    I have it on good authority that you can't take the sky from me.

  9. Re:People are sceptical on Public Supports Geo-Engineering · · Score: 1

    Nope, it's just 1.7C cooler.

    It needs to be about 20% cooler!

  10. Re:"strong support among the public" on Public Supports Geo-Engineering · · Score: 1

    "Strong support among the public?" means absolutely nothing when 92% and 55% of the population incorrectly defined the terms geo-engineering and climate engineering respectively.

    Just because the public doesn't know what they're asking for doesn't mean the politicians won't give it to them if they yell loud enough.

  11. Re:Could the article be more wrong? on Jaguar Recalls 18,000 Cars Over Major Software Fault · · Score: 1

    If you turn the key off, you won't lock the steering. The lock only comes on when you pull the key right out.

    Not on any car I've ever driven. In every car I've seen, the key has four or five positions, "Lock", "Off (sometimes)", "Accessories", "On" and "Start". The key can only be removed when it's in the "Lock" position, but turning it to that position *will* lock your steering, even if don't remove the key.

  12. Re:Out of Their Minds on John McCarthy, Discoverer of Lisp, Has Passed Away · · Score: 1

    if-then-else is just a symbolic expression of the test-and-branch pattern in Assembly.

    Er, no. Test-and-branch can be used to build if-then-else structures, but anybody who has had to wade through a giant furball of unstructured assembler can tell you, they aren't the same.

  13. Re:Apples and Oranges on Bill Gates On What Business Can Teach Schools · · Score: 1

    What about all those states, primarily in the South, that have toothless unions or no unions at all?

    They may not have unions in private industry. They still have teachers' unions. And they aren't toothless.

  14. Re:Opposite Sex on Why Computer Voices Are Mostly Female · · Score: 4, Informative

    Surely most people prefer to listen to the opposite sex,

    Actually, no. Research has shown better response to female voices by both men and women.

  15. Re:Politics out of science or science out of polit on When Political Mapping Leaks Into Science Research · · Score: 1

    Yes, and when the politicians say that the ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference is 5/4 to 4 (and they did)

    No, they didn't.

  16. Re:So what? on When Political Mapping Leaks Into Science Research · · Score: 1

    The Chinese have demonstrated many times that they do not care about the people's opinion whether they are their own people or the international community.

    On the contrary, they've demonstrated many times that they care deeply about the opinions of their own people and the international community, by the violence of their reaction when those bodies express opinions of which they don't approve.

  17. Re:So what? on When Political Mapping Leaks Into Science Research · · Score: 1

    Just because they draw a line there doesn't make the territory theirs. Why do so many intelligent people care about such a pity thing?

    Because drawing the line is the first part of the process of making the territory theirs. And the more people they can get to accept that line, the closer they get to making the territory theirs. After all, what *is* "making the territory theirs"? It's getting everybody to accept the line that they drew.

  18. Re:Politics out of science or science out of polit on When Political Mapping Leaks Into Science Research · · Score: 1

    Science is the boss and should tell politics what to do, not the other way around.

    100% of wrong. Science does not make value judgments and therefore cannot determine our goals. That is, and must be, the domain of politics. Science can then inform politics of the best way to get to those goals, but science is staff, not command.

  19. Re:Good. on Reuters Reports Death of Gaddafi In Libyan City of Sirte · · Score: 1

    Now why didn't we kill the motherfucker with a single missile at the beginning of this whole thing rather than let thousands die in the fighting for what was already a forlorn conclusion?

    Because the super psychic who could've told us exactly where he was had the week off.

  20. Re:Celebratory gunfire... on Reuters Reports Death of Gaddafi In Libyan City of Sirte · · Score: 1

    Its just like dropping a bullet from a hot air balloon.

    And why is that not dangerous?

  21. Re:No Market? Go custom. on Ask Slashdot: Which OS For an Embedded Display Unit? · · Score: 1

    Wait, wait, wait, I don't understand all this "sex" business. Can you give me a car analogy?

  22. Re:Should be interesting to watch on Final Fantasy XIV Subscriptions Returning, PS3 Version In 2012 · · Score: 1

    They've actually been improving the PS2 software emulation over time. A lot of games run perfectly even on non-PS2-hardware PS3's.

    Um, no. On modern PS3s, you can't run PS2 games. Period. End of sentence. PS3s went from having almost all the PS2 hardware, to having some of the PS2 hardware with rest covered by software emulation, to having no PS2 hardware and completely unable to run PS2 games.

  23. Re:Should be interesting to watch on Final Fantasy XIV Subscriptions Returning, PS3 Version In 2012 · · Score: 1

    Unluckily their MMORPG competition on the PS3 includes their own FFXI, and at leat one MMORPG with a a very loyal small but hardcore fanbase, EQOA.

    Only if your PS3 does PS2 emulation, and they don't make those any more.

  24. Re:Amazon is just another publisher. on Amazon Bypassing Publishers By Signing Authors Directly · · Score: 1

    It's still a fictional creation of her own. It's just that parts of the background were researched instead of created. She could write another Civil War book to be published somewhere else, but she couldn't write another Civil War book featuring these characters or the fictional elements of the background and publish it somewhere else.

  25. How about... on Renaming the Very Large Array · · Score: 1

    the "My God It's Huge Array"?