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User: PinchDuck

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Comments · 315

  1. Evolution research from Kansas? on New Research Suggests Evolution Might Favor 'Survival of the Laziest' (phys.org) · · Score: 1

    From the state that brought you the strong push to teach Intelligent Design. Yeah, I know it's an unfair statement to the U of K researches, but it's the first thing that crossed my mind when I read this.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/08/AR2005110801211.html

  2. Re:Better Place on Research Promises Drastically Increased LiOn Capacity · · Score: 1

    Somewhen around 1900...
    You want to convert the country to running that silly carriage thing with a loud stinky engine? You want to ship the fuel from wells all the way from Texas to New York, when we've got fields growing hay right outside the city? Furthermore, where are you going to put all those things? Horses fit conveniently in stalls, and you can put several stalls alongside each other and across from each other in a long hallway. Can you do that with your carriage toy? I don't think so.
    Furthermore, what happens when you go to another city? You'll need those fuel dispensing places all over the place to prevent your gizmo from running out of fuel.
    Take a look at the whole problem...

    OK, so I'm screwing around, but if we've already built several national infrastructures (highway system, power grid, cable TV, gasoline infrastructure, cell phone network, natural gas, etc...) why do people suddenly think it can't be done again? Of course it won't get done over night. None if it ever is. But the country woke up one morning and discovered that everyone was driving cars. Provide a cheaper way to use energy and the profit is built in. You use the proceeds from the profit to build out your infrastructure. You know, like has been done many, many times in the past century.

  3. Knock it off, Bill. on Bill Gates Advocates Tax On Financial Transactions · · Score: 1

    How about the government finds a better way to be a steward of our resources rather than finding more ways to vampire our retirement planning?

  4. Re:Re-boot and call me in the morning on Windows OS Coming To the Mainframe · · Score: 1

    IPL :)

  5. This was promised two decades ago... on Windows OS Coming To the Mainframe · · Score: 1

    NT was going to be ported to everything. MIPS, DEC Alpha (No love for you VAX people), and the IBM Mainframe.
    It made it onto the Alpha, I think. Sort of. Now Windows is brought in to the mainframe, but not as a conqueror displacing System/360. It is brought in wearing chains, in a cage, by System/360's grandson.

  6. As long as they're good years, why not? on What Happens When the Average Lifespan is 150 Years? · · Score: 1

    Of course the retirement age would have to rise.

  7. Re:Thanks, Space Shuttle on SpaceX Reveals Plans For Full Launch System Re-usability · · Score: 1

    For starters, taxes paid aren't allocated to whatever wishing well you think they should go into. Federal taxes go into the general fund, so it's not like NASA's going to be getting a check from SpaceX. Secondly, it's not like SpaceX isn't doing a ton of R&D and taking a lot of risks. Thirdly, I hope that SpaceX has a talented accounting team that allows them to maximize their return on investment, including taking all applicable tax deductions. If you don't like companies taking tax deductions, blame the politicians that create them, not the companies that take them.

  8. Re:What other products on Healthcare Law Appealed To Supreme Court · · Score: 1

    It's a classic case of bipartisan stupidity. The Democrats pass a law giving the government essentially unlimited power a) to bankrupt you and b) to push an agenda. So when the Republicans next take power, everyone will be required to buy a firearm for home defense. The requirement that everyone should buy and read a bible will fail, however.
    When the Democrats take power after that, RU-486 will be required.
    When the Republicans take power after that, everyone will be required to take a class in Constitutional Law taught only by Tea Party certified instructors.
    Democrats will then seize on the service (as opposed to a good) expansion the Republicans created and require everyone to purchase (or fund) an abortion.
    At that point, everyone grabs their Republican-mandated firearms and we descend into direct civil war.

  9. Even the chocolate balls... on Borders Bust Means B&N May Get Your Shopping History · · Score: 1

    sold at the counter? They know how much I love them now?
    I promised I'd never let Barnes and Noble know how much I love those chocolate balls. That was between me and Borders!

      I feel so violated.

  10. Soure code Source code Source code... on Google Preps Devs For One-Size-Fits-All Android · · Score: 1

    I want to up date my G-Tablet with ice cream sandwich. I'll also need some display drivers. I'm looking at you, NVidia.

    (disclaimer: I'm a lazy parasite who has great toys because I benefit from the fruits of the labor of others. I don't actually need the source code and drivers, the awesome devs who breath new life into the G-Tablet on a monthly basis are the ones who will need them. Thank you all so much for your amazing efforts).

  11. You go right ahead. on Ask Slashdot: Could We Deal With the End of Time Zones? · · Score: 1

    Lead by example.

  12. ...to be the new CEO of Apple? on Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot · · Score: 1

    There are no coincidences...

  13. Thanks for a great job on Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot · · Score: 1

    I really enjoy Slashdot, and have for years. Thanks for creating a wonderful site, and all the best in your future endeavors.

  14. ...again. on PlayStation Home Transforming Into Social Platform · · Score: 1

    Every year Sony comes up with some lame bullshit plan to make "Home" your social hub. How does that meeting go? Some new guy says "Wait,

  15. Don't buy their stuff. on Ubisoft Scales Back Driver DRM · · Score: 1

    Dead simple solution. End of story. Their DRM will no longer affect you. And if enough people boycott them, the problem will go away entirely. Either Ubisoft will back down, or they'll go out of business. Even if that doesn't happen, you'll still be free of their crap.

  16. When I ride in a park... on What's the Carbon Footprint of Bicycling? · · Score: 1

    I throw my bike on the back of my SUV to drive to the park. To which vehicle do I assign the Carbon Demerits?

  17. Will they load the PCs into the atom smasher? on CERN To Tap Unused Desktop Power To Help Find Higgs Boson · · Score: 1

    That would be pretty awesome to see. Hopefully they'll use one of those Compaq computers from the late 80's. They had a steel chassis and were heavy as hell. Throw one in with an Osborne Luggable. If you accelerate those bad boys to the speed of light & smash 'em together, any spare Higgs Bosons stuck inside will be sure to come flying out.

  18. You're holding it wrong... on OS X Lion Ships With Faulty NVidia Drivers · · Score: 4, Funny

    Apple will release a video of Steve Jobs showing you how to hold the computer properly.

  19. Re:Does Anyone Care? on Xamarin's First Mono Release - Proof of Life! · · Score: 2

    Wow, that is a pretty harsh response. I don't really have a dog in that race, since I'm mostly a web app developer anyway. I use whatever my client has picked as their preferred stack in the background. Classic ASP, ASP.net, java, php, or pure C# talking to Extjs. Whatever. In any case, the only real posts I've seen about MS walking away from .net have all been on boards with a bias towards MS. To say that the Linux/Java people are behind it is kind of silly. They may be repeating it and amplifying it on places like Slashdot, but they didn't originate the posts. Personally I hope that MS sticks with C# and .net, it is a nice, robust ecosystem. If MS is 100% behind .net, then somehow a mis-perception is starting to erupt and they need to get on top of it.

  20. Long memory... on Was .NET All a Mistake? · · Score: 1

    There are two distinct points in the history of .net
    1) Take Over Everything
    2) Ouch, that hurt, stick to making decent tools

    2)When .net was first proposed, it scared the hell out of me. It was an MS powerplay for _everything_. .net + Passport was meant to be the single authentication service to rule them all. It was obvious that if MS had put that in place, then one day the authentication service for any non-sanctioned MS platform was simply stop working. Basically, Microsoft tried to embrace & extend the authentication infrastructure of the internet (such as it was in '01) and, by extension, anything that wanted to connect via TCP/IP. It never really caught on, though, so MS licked their wounds and continued with...
    2) VisualStudio.net, Windows Server.net, SQL Server.net got renamed to their original monikers overnight. Passport was dead and MS faced a huge task: Write or cobble together support libraries for the clr to match the maturity of the Java ecosystem. After a lot of hard work, they managed to do it. I saw C# go from "how do I connect to LDAP? Apparently I write my own code..." to a mature, stable system that is pleasant to work with. This is the part that Microsoft is apparently killing with a pocket veto. The development tools have gone from "Blah Blah Blah for .net" to "Um, yeah, .net, um, we support that, too..."

    I'm not sure that letting .net die that way is a good idea. All of a sudden, MS opens themselves up to competing tools and toolchains, a problem they haven't had since they put a stake through Delphi's heart. Maybe it's inevitable if they want to avoid being a bubble of non-conformity in a sea of standards. That would mean that they learned the lesson of the UNIX wars, which ironically they won with the Windows desktop. Still, I think that the death of the local .exe is greatly exaggerated.

    It will be really interesting to see how this plays out.

  21. Back in '91 on Girls Go Geek Again · · Score: 1

    My CIS major was almost 50% women.

  22. Gold prices have never been higher... on X-rays For Stargazing Turn Into Cancer Treatment · · Score: 0

    Cash in your tumors now! Tired of those old cancers lingering in your body, trying to kill you and wreck your life? Just zap those tumors with our finely-tuned X-rays, and send the biopsy to us for instant cash. Contact our website, and we'll send you a free postage-paid bio-hazard bag. What could be easier? With the price of gold skyrocketing every day, you'll take up smoking just to get in on this great offer!

  23. We'll release new instruments... on Activision Trying To 'Reinvent' Guitar Hero · · Score: 1

    And you'll have to re-buy the songs all over again! How does that sound, kids?

  24. A single source of funding = a single place to cut on Can Long Term Research Survive the Coming Age of Austerity? · · Score: 1

    Short answer: No. Nope, it can't. We need to get the budget balanced and the debt down to a reasonable amount. There will be many brutal discussions about what gets funded and what doesn't. Long term research just doesn't have the lobbying clout of Defense or Big Oil. They're going to get hammered. Note that I'm not endorsing cuts to long term research, just predicting that in the shady politics where an actual default is contemplated as a craven political move, we have no hope of actually doing anything useful with what little money there is left to spend.

  25. Who says the U.S. can't afford a space program? on China Launching First Space Station Module In September · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All the stuff we buy from China proves we have more than enough money to finance one. Theirs.