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User: mrbester

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Comments · 1,722

  1. Public opinion not relevant on Mozilla Calls CISPA an "Alarming" Threat to Privacy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    " We hope the Senate takes the time to fully and openly consider these issues with stakeholder input before moving forward with this legislation."

    Unsurprisingly the main stakeholder, the one who would be most affected by this legislation is never consulted.

  2. Re:Paranoid Wankers on British Government Prepares For Solar Storms · · Score: 2

    It was speed cameras that got torched.

    The problem with using a EMP device to take out CCTV is that it also takes out all the Sky boxes and widescreen TVs tuned to the football making it unlikely that disgruntled citizens would ever consider using one...

  3. Re:Xi_b^* ? on New Particle Discovered At CERN · · Score: 2

    I'll have to change my online banking password now...

  4. Re:Fine for "honest" programmers, but... on Will Write Code, Won't Sign NDA · · Score: 2, Informative

    You _do_ know that "nonce" is slang for a paedophile, don't you?

  5. Re:Right Idea, Wrong Argument on Canada Post Files Copyright Lawsuit Over Crowd-sourced Postal Code Database · · Score: 1

    This did indeed happen in UK.

  6. Re:Common law countries are split about this on Canada Post Files Copyright Lawsuit Over Crowd-sourced Postal Code Database · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is a good reason for that: both Canada and Australia are Commonwealth countries, i.e. they used to be part of the British Empire. Britain's telephone system was owned by the General Post Office (a Government Agency - deliberate capitalisation) who issued numbers. These were Crown Copyright (same as Ordnance Survey maps still are) and you had to pay to use the base data. The same applies to this day for post codes in the UK. Thus the system of telephone numbers and postal addresses being defined and maintained by government agencies and protected by copyright naturally was used in the colonies.

  7. Re:Dawin strikes again! on Mandatory Brake-Override Proposed For All Cars · · Score: 1

    Something as potentially dangerous as a car should always have a hardware mechanism to shut it off. Anything less is negligent.

  8. Re:Just turn off the car? on Mandatory Brake-Override Proposed For All Cars · · Score: 1

    Shouldn't the fact that the car is accelerating without you doing anything be noticed before you get to speeds approaching 100mph? I drive like I stole it quite often but I always know *instantly* at any speed if it isn't doing what I told it to do...

  9. Re:Honeywell has a repeat history of this. on Nest Labs Calls Honeywell Lawsuit 'Worse Than Patent Troll' · · Score: 0

    "irrespective". Not only is "irregardless" not a word in the English language it also contains a double negative making the sentence even more nonsensical than it already was.

  10. Re:“Just One” = “the one who is on Iran Plans To Unplug the Internet, Launch Its Own 'Clean' Alternative · · Score: 1

    "Holy law, Highlander! Remember what Mohammed taught you!"

  11. Unlimited back ups on Innocent Or Not, the NSA Is Watching You · · Score: 5, Funny

    At least I don't have to back up my data anymore. Restoring it might be a problem...

  12. Re:Yar! on Dutch Pirateparty Refuses Order To Take Down Proxy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "I refer you to the response given in Arkell vs. Pressdram." Also means "no".

  13. Re:Simple misreading really on British Government To Grant Warrantless Trawl of Communications Data · · Score: 1

    TB started, GB continued, DC condemned while secretly planning to further the "good works"

  14. Re:Quest for a Cure, and other idiocy on CDC Reports 1 In 88 Children Now Affected With Autism In the US · · Score: 1

    I'm hoping that one of the "issues" you had wasn't "doesn't play much with the other kids" as that is the usual bullshit trotted out without any examination of the other kids to attempt to discover _why_. As your IQ was tested high this could easily be that the so-called "normal" kids played games you thought were dumb and didn't enjoy so didn't participate. Or their conversation subjects didn't interest you. Or they were dickheads and you didn't like them. Don't be so eager to assume you're not "normal" (and no one is anyway) just because you didn't fit in with your peers when you were a child.

  15. Re:100% on CDC Reports 1 In 88 Children Now Affected With Autism In the US · · Score: 1

    "barely noticeable in everyday conversation to an untrained observer" By that reasoning everybody is autistic, making BradleyUffner's oblique point. An "observation" that someone is autistic that requires "training" to spot when a lay person wouldn't even consider it a possibility is an example of over diagnosing. That someone may simply be deliberately insensitive because they're an asshole.

  16. Re:This software needs to be released/leaked on Cops Can Crack an iPhone In Under Two Minutes · · Score: 1

    How about Google and Apple team up to sue? I'm sure they wouldn't be happy about some hacker group making money from undisclosed vulnerabilities so why would this company be any different?

  17. Re:Pah! Antisocial network on Senators Ask Feds To Probe Facebook Log-in Requests · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "If you are a so called IT person who is applying for something better than flipping burgers, then why are you not keeping up with modern day technology? Why should we hire a fossil, when any middle school kid can understand the concept of a social network, which you have demonstrated that you have failed to do so?" My retort to such insulting questions: "If you knew anything about IT you'd be asking questions related to my experience and suitability for the position. You know nothing about me, yet have made a snap judgment about me based on my answer to a question you don't even understand and basically called me incompetent. I have decided that you are not a suitable company for me to work for and my feedback to the recruiter who put us together will not be favorable. Interview terminated." (exit stage left)

  18. Re:There is some value in theater on Congress Wants Your TSA Stories · · Score: 2

    Welcome to Brighton when the Labour Party holds their annual conference. Armed police walking around a large part of what is probably the most liberal and laid back city in UK doesn't make any tourist or resident feel safer.

  19. Re:It's because it's a WORLD market on Domestic Drilling Doesn't Decrease Gasoline Prices · · Score: 2

    I'd bet you'd get a lot more than $100 a barrel if you sold it to a Jovian moon as the transportation costs are literally astronomical.

  20. Re:Pinning ... Going Steady ... Dating ... SO ... on Physicists Discover Evolutionary Laws of Language · · Score: 2

    "Dog-pile" is pretty recent too. Viz magazine made up a new swear word "fitbin" to put on the front cover simply to point out to WHSmiths (who also used to put Private Eye on the top shelf because they thought it was an adult entertainment magazine simply because of the name) that their in-house censorship of titles was pathetic and Daily Mail-y in the extreme.

  21. Re:"Universal laws"? on Physicists Discover Evolutionary Laws of Language · · Score: 1

    That's just a reworking of Zeno's paradox.

  22. Re:Why exaggerate? on Mammoth "Metal Moles" Tunnel Deep Beneath London · · Score: 1

    If you like Cholmondeley (Chumly), you'll love Featherstonehaugh (Fanshaw)...

  23. Re:Oh So That's Why NASA Has Little Funding on Huge Triangle-shaped Spot Over the Sun · · Score: 4, Funny

    Indeed.

  24. Re:We're to put in for decommissioning... on USS Enterprise Takes Its Final Voyage · · Score: 1

    If you were human...

  25. Re:Monty Python on Boiling Down the Meaning of Life · · Score: 1

    The ultimate question is "what do you get if you multiply nine by five?" The answer is 42 because of a cock-up.