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User: jrumney

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Comments · 6,163

  1. Re:Not exactly on Man Arrested For Photo of Burning Poppy On Facebook · · Score: 1

    Exactly which Republican ideas do you consider as right wing and bonkers as those of Hitler.

    The fear that your country is being taken over by "people who want stuff".

  2. Re:Already rare on Climate Change Could Drive Coffee To Extinction By 2080 · · Score: 1

    The article seems a bit wrong. It specifically talks about the Arabica species, and only mentions Robusta in passing as a lesser-used bean

    How wrong of them to leave out poor Liberica yet again?

  3. Re:Math on All of Nate Silver's State-Level Polling Predictions Proved True · · Score: 1

    2.4% is a SMALL difference.

    No, the amount of the popular vote that Bush won over Gore in 2000 was a small difference. So small in fact, it was negative. 2.4% is actually one of the wider margins in recent decades.

  4. Re:well... on Barack Obama Retains US Presidency · · Score: 1

    Not really. Two sources of data I use

    See, there's your problem right there. What are you doing using sources of data, when the TV talk shows have been full of highly paid analysts telling you their conflicting opinions to give the viewers a sense of excitement about the election?

  5. Re:Apple also said... on Apple Suit Against Motorola Over FRAND Licensing Rates Dismissed · · Score: 4, Funny

    Some might argue that the most important feature of the phone from the perspective of the marker is how well it sells.

    The most important feature of a phone from the perspective of a marker is how absorbent the surfaces are. Gorilla glass - the marker is just going to rub off. Plastic is generally better but you still need to avoid touching it for a while to let it dry. Paper would be better, but not a practical material to make smart phones out of.

  6. Re:if it was REALLY a stealth fighter... on China's Stealth Fighter Flight Test Successful · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How would anyone know it's been tested?

    That's the beauty of it. Israel could claim Iran had invented a stealth nuclear bomb tomorrow, and noone would be able to talk them out of invading.

  7. Re:zero sum game on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 1

    Poor people are more likely to spend any extra money you give them immediately and locally, the rich will just ship it offshore to avoid paying tax on it and store it up for future generations of Paris Hiltons.

  8. Re:Apple was not "caught" doing anything on To Mollify Google on Moto Patents, Apple Proposes $1/Device Fee · · Score: 1

    These are different patents in a different pool. The MPEG LA has caps on maximum amount payable per year - after a point, per device licenses become free. Also Microsoft are a contributor to the pool, so they may get a discounted rate. If Motorola believes that their patents are not covered by the pool, then with high enough volume, it is entirely reasonable that they might be asking for more than what Microsoft are paying for the pool patents.

  9. Re:Bad faith on To Mollify Google on Moto Patents, Apple Proposes $1/Device Fee · · Score: 1

    They value their own patents on swiping certain ways on a touch screen at $30 per device. So definitely a court is going to see this as bad faith negotiation.

  10. Re:Bic on Ask Slashdot: The Search For the Ultimate Engineer's Pen · · Score: 2

    Bic Clics are the most widespread pen in New Zealand. I used them almost exclusively at school and as a left-hander, can tell you they have terrible problems with

    3. The ink is slow to dry or the tip grows blobs of ink, causing smudges everywhere.

    My current favorite is Pilot's gel pens, which are available with 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7mm tips. I find their gel pens to have the smoothness of roller-balls, without the slow ink drying and subsequent smudging that goes with them. I prefer the 0.5mm myself, the 0.3 seems a bit too sensitive to writing angle. There are many different models, I've seen at least 4 mentioned in other comments here, but I think the main difference is packaging. Currently I'm using a B2P 05, which is a retractable model made from recycled plastic bottles. I've tried other brands of gel pen, but have always come back to Pilot, due to either the ink disappearing too fast or problems writing on paper where my hand has been resting.

  11. Testbed for new technology on Glow-In-The-Dark Smart Highways Coming To the Netherlands In 2013 · · Score: 1

    So someone invents an alien shape-shifting (OK I exaggerate, color-shifting) technology, and the first use we think of is to put it in babyfood?

  12. Re:Still no microSD? on Google Announces New Nexus Smartphone and Tablets · · Score: 1

    The "class" heirarchy is centered around the digital camera use case. It is based almost entirely on sequential write speed. To get higher sequential write speeds, manufacturers often trade off read speed and random write speed, so lower classes often perform better in a smartphone, where the use cases involve more random reads and writes.

  13. Re:Disgousting behaviour on Pakastani Politician Detained By US Customs Over Opposition To Drone Strikes · · Score: 1

    According to a 2011 poll by Pew Research, a think tank that monitors this kind of thing, when asked about whether terror attacks on civilians were justified...

    I'd be interested to see the results for the control group of non-Muslims. Or do Pew Research not do that kind of thing?

  14. Re:not with a bang, but a little heard whimper. on Chinese Rare Earths Producer Suspends Output · · Score: 1

    A full scale production facility takes about a decade to build and about 1 Billion dollars.

    It's also something that even developing countries are starting to resist having built in their backyard, given the amount of toxic and radioactive waste they produce, and the unwillingness of the companies involved to pay for proper processing of that waste.

  15. Re:Canada has the same issu:e on Australians Urged To Spoof IP Addresses For Better Prices · · Score: 1

    Books in Canada are marked with two prices; one for a sale in Canada and one for a sale in the US.

    Probably a side effect of the obsolete distribution model of the publishing industry, where all Commonwealth countries distribution networks start at the London office of the publisher. These days the physical distribution might start in Hong Kong, with a single copy for the US and Canada markets, but the middle men taking their cut of the profit are still the same, with no relation to the physical movement of the books.

  16. Re:Good riddance to geo-blocking on Australians Urged To Spoof IP Addresses For Better Prices · · Score: 1

    Amazon refuses to sell e-books to Denmark from UK.

    Shouldn't that be Amazon refuses to sell e-books to Denmark from Luxembourg , which is where they choose to pay the tax on those e-books.

  17. Re:So in summary on FSFE Interview With 'Terms of Service: Didn't Read' Founder · · Score: 1

    iTunes is one of the worst, and they update it at least monthly without giving any summary of the changes - as if anyone has the time to read through 50 pages (I thought it was 70 last time I saw an update) of legal gobbldegook once a month to see what objectionable clauses they've snuck in there this time around. Paypal used to be the same, but at least they give a summary of what changed now, and they seem to have slowed down to updates every 3 months now.

  18. Re:Yea!... I mean No. on Boeing's CHAMP Missile Uses Radio Waves To Remotely Disable PCs · · Score: 1

    If it hits the wrong target, no civilian casualties

    Except the ones with pacemakers and other medical electronic devices.

  19. Re:Why change the interface at all on Are Windows XP/7 Users Smarter Than a 3-Year-Old? · · Score: 1

    Sorry but that statement needs a LOT of qualifications. That 3 year old is organizing his photographs in folder and setting up his backup schedule, or is he clicking on the colored boxes...

    Or is he sitting there mesmerized by the colored boxes, and giggling with delight when they change, not actually touching the input devices at all? Or perhaps he prefers Windows 8 because he doesn't yet have the dexterity to click on icons accurately, but those big colored boxes are a decent sized target for him to start his favorite games?

  20. Re:3 year olds don't do that much. on Are Windows XP/7 Users Smarter Than a 3-Year-Old? · · Score: 1

    You are using too many applications at the same time.

    Not if he's paying for the enterprise license.

  21. Re:He was really saying... on Captive Beluga Was Able To Mimic Speech · · Score: 1

    "I can haz caviarrrrr?"

  22. Re:Easy? on Amazon Overcharging Publishers For Tax · · Score: 1

    Books are zero rated, but ebooks are subject to standard rate of VAT in UK.

    The supply of text by electronic transmission (including e-books), via the internet, or similar means is also standard-rated. Such supplies are of services, not of goods, and different VAT rules will apply to them (such as those on the place of supply of services – see Notice 741A Place of supply of services.

  23. Re:It's been a cyclic fad. on iPad Mini Could Retail For $250, Delete iPad 2 · · Score: 1

    But drawing and writing on a tablet is certainly much more comfortable than on a desktop or a laptop.

    I've yet to see a drawing or writing instrument for capacitive touch screens that is significantly better than the finger painting experience you get out of the box.

  24. Re:Did the signal degrade, or the noise increase? on Ask Slashdot: Why Does Wireless Gear Degrade Over Time? · · Score: 2

    If your equipment is fixed, you can run ethernet. If it is not fixed, then directional antennas are not the solution.

  25. Re:Did the signal degrade, or the noise increase? on Ask Slashdot: Why Does Wireless Gear Degrade Over Time? · · Score: 1

    1 5 9 13 should work well, as there is no overlap on 802.11g or n with those channels. Only 802.11b needs the extra channel spacing to avoid overlap.