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User: Chris+Mattern

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Comments · 7,102

  1. Re:What could go wrong? on NASA Trying To Reinvent Their Approach · · Score: 1

    If it takes large organizations longer to do things, then why don't we just fire 90% of them and get everything done faster?

  2. Re:It's official... on Attorney General Says Wiretap Lawsuit Must Be Thrown Out · · Score: 1

    No, you don't need a driver's license to vote, but getting a driver's license can get you automatically registered to vote under the so-called "motor voter" laws. You can still register with out having a driver's license, of course.

  3. Re:Rabid issue people - anit gay and abortion on Attorney General Says Wiretap Lawsuit Must Be Thrown Out · · Score: 1

    There's a Republican in upstate New York who's probably going to lose because she's not "conservative" enough.

    Actually, she's probably going to lose because withdrew from the race--and then endorsed the Democrat. With candidates like these, who needs opponents?

  4. Re:From www.BarackObama.com on Attorney General Says Wiretap Lawsuit Must Be Thrown Out · · Score: 1

    Actually both the Greens and Libertarians had ~500 members up for election in state and local offices.

    And none of them even came close to getting elected. Go team.

  5. Re:Nothing can go wrong here! on Toyota Develops New Flower Species To Reduce Pollution · · Score: 2, Funny

    What do the goats eat once they've finished the kudzu?

    Well, that's when we bring in the mountain gorillas.

  6. Re:good description on Journalists Looking For Government Money · · Score: 1

    There's more to reporting than stenography.
    Would it help if I called them "journalists"?

    Not really

    Have you ever tuned into your local news channel and heard a slogan
    along the lines of "[City]'s news team" or "5 on your side"?
    Is that just reporting? Or are they representing the people?

    Actually, it's just advertising. I believe it about as much as I
    believe it when Exxon tells me how deeply and truly they care about me.

  7. Re:good description on Journalists Looking For Government Money · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Or do you really think 3 or 4 people can represent 300 million Americans?

    They are *reporters*. They don't "represent" anybody.

  8. So, then, to sum up: on Why Computers Suck At Math · · Score: 1

    A designer used a horribly inappropriate data representation, which led to fatal bugs in the program, and this is proof that computers are bad at math. Uh-huh.

  9. Re:Hmm... on ICANN Approves Non-Latin ccTLDs · · Score: 1

    You're assuming that this isn't a trial run before ICANN expands IDN to gTLDs.

    IDK, but IMHO it could be a real FUBAR if they do it ASAP. YMMV.

  10. Re:Thanks for finding me a tech website to ignore on Thermonuclear Reactor To Use Coconut Shells · · Score: 4, Informative

    Because adsorption and absorption aren't the same thing. They said what they meant; suggesting that they use the wrong word is not good advice.

  11. Re:Any alternatives? on Decline In US Newspaper Readership Accelerates · · Score: 1

    Why can't the internet have Salaried journalists?

    Where's the money going to come from? Remember, whatever you put up on your site can be recirculated beyond your control by any reader with a click of a mouse.

  12. Re:Evolve or die..... on Decline In US Newspaper Readership Accelerates · · Score: 1

    Actually, the number of days you get credit doesn't mean much to the newspaper. Your subscription money is a only a small fraction of their income, and doesn't even begin to cover the cost of publishing the paper. It's the *advertisers* that make them their money, and as long as you're listed as a subscriber, you count towards their circulation figures that determine their ad rates, no matter how many days you get your subscription fee refunded. Now, if you cancel your subscription, THAT will hurt them. You should send a complaint to the circulation department and tell them that your lousy delivery service is making you consider cancelling. If that doesn't make them sit up and take notice, nothing will.

  13. I don't want to have to lug around a win 7 laptop on The Software Router As MiFi Killer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just to have internet access for my DSi or PSP. Mi-Fi gives me world internet access for anything that speaks Wi-Fi and fits very comfortably indeed in any pocket. Battery lasts longer than most laptops, too.

  14. Re:Lesson learned? on Trojan Kill Switches In Military Technology · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Well, they can't. There's not a chip fab anywhere in Syria. Hell, there aren't even any in the US, anymore.

  15. Re:Don't Defrag on Reliability of PC Flash SSDs? · · Score: 1

    Because SSD memory elements have a limited number of times they can be written/erased to before they fail. Defrag programs generate lots and lots and LOTS of writes. And they're pointless on an SSD because fragmentation doesn't matter as you're not using a mechanical process to retrieve the data that would benefit from the data being all together.

  16. Re:Bad. Real Bad. on Lost Northwest Pilots Were Trying Out New Software · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No, that's not what the OP meant by "prioritize." Quoting the original post:

    I cringe when I see this, because I've done this - taught Captians while flying about PBS. So have many other F/O's. You just prioritize it where it belongs

    So the OP admits he's done this himself, but it's okay because he "prioritized" it correctly.

  17. Re:Luck not shot down on Lost Northwest Pilots Were Trying Out New Software · · Score: 1

    Jet airliners fly considerably faster than Cessna 150s. In fact, an airliner's stall speed isn't much slower than the stall speed of an F-16. both being around 100 to 120 knots (which is about the top speed of a 150).

  18. Re:Bad. Real Bad. on Lost Northwest Pilots Were Trying Out New Software · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Anon has a point. While the OP's problem wasn't so much that they got caught as that they stopped paying attention to their duties to do it (which is, admittedly, what caused them to get caught), the fact remains that *regardless* of how of an aircrew "prioritizes" it, it is strictly against procedures to be doing this, and a termination offense.

  19. Re:PST format a dad design idea from the start on Microsoft Opening Outlook's PST Format · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Agreed that nobody else will want to use this awful, awful format. However, opening it is very important, as it now makes easy to get your mail *out* of that format. There's a lot people's mail locked up in a lot of PST files with no easy way to get them out.

  20. Re:If I can't sell if used on Ebay... on Game Retailers Facing Digital Distribution Transition · · Score: 1

    Actually, the Thief trilogy still costs about $30--but not a bad deal for all that really good gameplay.

  21. Re:I wouldn't peer with HE either.... on Peering Disputes Migrate To IPv6 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Ah, so you're slandering them for competitive reasons, then.

  22. So then... on Sparc Sends SparkFun Electronics C&D Letter · · Score: 1

    Will they be suing Sun Microsystems, or will Sun be suing them?

  23. Making disaster recovery part of your capacity? on How To Stretch Your Security Dollar · · Score: 1

    Problem with that is, when you need to use your disaster recovery to recover from a disaster, it won't have enough capacity--because you've sized yourself that your load needs your "regular" servers *and* your "disaster recovery" servers, and when you have just your "disaster recovery" servers, it'll all freeze up under a load it can't handle.

  24. Re:Where have you been? on When Libertarians Attack Free Software · · Score: 1

    As both a (mild) libertarian and a supporter of Free Software, I found this to be spot on. My respect for the Cato Institute just went up a few notches.

  25. Re:Yard Sales on The Science of Irrational Decisions · · Score: 1

    Which is why car salesmen almost always open negotiations with some variation of "name me a price."