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User: Chris+Mattern

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Comments · 7,102

  1. Re:Editing? on Sophisticated Spy Tool 'The Mask' Rages Undetected For 7 Years · · Score: 3, Informative

    Rumor has it that Alexander Graham Bell wanted everyone to answer the telephone by saying "Ahoy hoy."

    Which is not as ridiculous as it sounds. "Hello" was not a common greeting before it became standardized as the way to answer a phone.

  2. Y'see, I'm confused... on Verizon Discontinues Home Automation Service After 2 Years · · Score: 1

    If you're paying Verizon to do it, how is it DIY?

  3. Re:Can we just mine the dark side? on NASA Now Accepting Applications From Companies That Want To Mine the Moon · · Score: 1

    Well, first off, there is no "Dark side" of the moon.

    Matter of fact, it's all dark.

  4. Re:Tritium ? on NASA Now Accepting Applications From Companies That Want To Mine the Moon · · Score: 1

    But there ain't no whales, so you'll just have to tell tall tales and sing a whaling tune.

  5. Re:Space 1999, Sorta on NASA Now Accepting Applications From Companies That Want To Mine the Moon · · Score: 1

    The "other equation" is just for the case where the minor body mass can be completely ignored (e.g. an artificial satellite).

    And in such cases, the first equation can still be used and will give the correct answer, it's just that it's easier to use the second one when the lighter body is completely negligible.

  6. Re:Space 1999, Sorta on NASA Now Accepting Applications From Companies That Want To Mine the Moon · · Score: 1

    The moon orbits the earth, not the other way around.

    As in any orbital system, they orbit each other. The greater the mass imbalance, the less the lighter body matters, but that is still true. The equations aren't in and of themselves going draw a distinction between the two.

  7. Re:Stunning. on Snowden Used Software Scraper, Say NSA Officials · · Score: 3, Funny

    Apparently the "wheelbarrow full of 1.44" floppies" was actually what their security was set up to prevent.

    And the joke was on them--he was actually stealing wheelbarrows!

  8. Re:Common sense? In MY judiciary? on Judge Says You Can Warn Others About Speed Traps · · Score: 1

    That could be, too. My point is that the fact that the cops don't want you to know where the traps are can't be used to argue one way or the other, because they'd want that if they wanted to cut down speeding or if they just wanted to get money, either way.

  9. Re:Classic Slashdot on Fire Destroys Iron Mountain Data Warehouse, Argentina's Bank Records Lost · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'll probably be gone.

  10. Re:Common sense? In MY judiciary? on Judge Says You Can Warn Others About Speed Traps · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seems as though the police should actually want people to know about the speed traps. I mean, the ultimate goal for the police is to have everyone follow the law. If people know about an upcoming speed trap, then they'll slow down to the speed limit.

    Sorry, that argument doesn't work. Supposedly the idea isn't just to make you drive the speed limit at the speed trap, it's to make you drive the speed limit *everywhere* because you don't know where the speed traps are.

  11. Re:Common sense? In MY judiciary? on Judge Says You Can Warn Others About Speed Traps · · Score: 4, Funny

    Drivers must ensure that they do not dazzle other road users.

    You mean I can't use my amazing dance moves?

  12. Re:I blame textbook monopolies. on Wozniak Gets Personal On Innovation · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unless you're very careful to give teachers a strong voice in management decisions --- through, e.g., strong, local, democratic unions --- "fire bad teachers" will become "fire teachers who take on difficult students/subjects, and think outside the test."

    The problem is, if you *do* give strong teacher unions all the power, "fire bad teachers" becomes "never fire teachers at all, under any circumstances."

  13. Re:I blame textbook monopolies. on Wozniak Gets Personal On Innovation · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh come on, kids have been watching TV, listening music and reading books for many generations.

    Kids have been watching TV for about two or three generations. They've been listening passively to music for perhaps four or five (before recording, people who wanted to hear music mostly performed it themselves--having visiting performers was a special occasion). Reading is a much less passive activity than the the other two, requiring the reader to interpret the written text.

  14. Re:Not much longer? on Adobe Flash Remote Code Execution Flaw Exploited In the Wild · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why do we necessarily need flash right now?

    Because he'll save every one of us!

  15. Re:Not much longer? on Adobe Flash Remote Code Execution Flaw Exploited In the Wild · · Score: 5, Funny

    A lot of Youtube content is not available in HTML5 yet. Plus, all the famous Zynga games use Flash.

    Yet more arguments against having Flash, then.

  16. Re: Excuse me... Excuse me?!!! on Many Lasers Become One In Lockheed Martin's 30 kW Laser Weapon · · Score: 4, Informative

    They dissipate due to defocusing and interaction with the atmosphere. It's not a problem.

  17. Re:Excuse me... Excuse me?!!! on Many Lasers Become One In Lockheed Martin's 30 kW Laser Weapon · · Score: 1

    An errant 30kw beam of coherent light would be dangerous even in far away places.

    No, it wouldn't. A laser beam *defocuses* over long distances and becomes harmless. In an atmosphere it'll also suffer severe energy loss to the atoms it travels through.

  18. Re:Stupid. on Can Wolfram Alpha Tell Which Team Will Win the Super Bowl? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, but bookmakers don't set their odds based on an analysis of the event. They set their odds based on the bets they receive. That's *why* they are guaranteed their cut regardless of who wins.

  19. Re:Some Of Us Already Know What Happened! on Russia's Dyatlov Pass Incident May Have Been Explained By Modern Science · · Score: 1

    Because Lord knows fictional movies are where I go to get all *my* facts.

    I see it got lousy reviews, too.

  20. Where else? on In an Age of Cyber War, Where Are the Cyber Weapons? · · Score: 2

    In the hands of the Cybermen, of course.

  21. Re:Is no one else concerned? on World's First Magma-Based Geothermal Energy System · · Score: 2

    Actually, the first thing I thought of was this.

  22. Re:sounds like poor engineering? on World's First Magma-Based Geothermal Energy System · · Score: 1

    I read the TFA (both of them) myself, and didn't find any more details about the closing over the "failure of a single valve" than was in the summary. I will point out to the OP, that there may have very well been adequate redundancy and that the single valve failure mandated the shut down of the project not because it disabled it but because it removed the redundancy and they wouldn't operate without it.

  23. Re:“Our primary goal is not to collect a fin on California Regulator Seeks To Shut Down 'Learn To Code' Bootcamps · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "We don't want money. They need to bow down and acknowledge us as Lord."

  24. Re:California on California Regulator Seeks To Shut Down 'Learn To Code' Bootcamps · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, if you are promising jobs that you can't actually guarantee, you don't need regulation, you need to be prosecuted for fraud. That simple.

  25. Re:So can I sue my college? on It's Not Memory Loss - Older Minds May Just Be Fuller of Information · · Score: 1

    They're not talking about dementia. The kind of "senior moments" they're talking about may seem similar, but it's a different thing. There are studies that show that if you keep learning, it helps *stave off* dementia. Slow, but sure.