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User: the+eric+conspiracy

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  1. Re:how cares about meteorites? on Residents Report Bright Streak Over Bay Area Friday Evening · · Score: 1

    If you go WEST from the Urals you will get closer to France.

    You are right though that it might take a couple of more shots to bracket France properly.

  2. Re:how cares about meteorites? on Residents Report Bright Streak Over Bay Area Friday Evening · · Score: 0

    Oh cool they are going to take out France!!

  3. Re:how cares about meteorites? on Residents Report Bright Streak Over Bay Area Friday Evening · · Score: 1

    You forgot that they would broadcast your name and location long with the video to a secret Google/NSA/MPAA server.

  4. Re:Lie Detector Test on French Police Unsure Which Twin To Charge In Sexual Assaults · · Score: 2

    Stress detectors unfortunately are prone to false positive results. If you run 1000 interviews you may have only one who lies and gets away with it but you may 'detect' 50 liars who are telling the truth.

  5. Average students on Ask Slashdot: Is the Bar Being Lowered At Universities? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Average students attending universities with admissions standards that accept them will predictably attain - hold on now - average performance.

    50 years ago average students didn't go to universities to get bachelor's degrees. Now they do.

    So how is it a surprise that the standards are lower?

  6. Re:Perhaps someone can help me out here on Australian Federal Court Rules For Patent Over Breast Cancer Gene · · Score: 1

    The gene is naturally occurring, sure. The isolated, amplified gene described in these patents - not so much.

    Lots of things that are claimed in patents are the result of manipulation of naturally occurring materials. In fact anything physical, made by man is basically a manipulation of naturally occurring materials.

  7. Re:He is out of order on Australian Federal Court Rules For Patent Over Breast Cancer Gene · · Score: 1

    If isolated genes actually did occur naturally this would be a discovery.

    Since they don't, the argument is they are an invention.

    It's more than just that though. Patents require that the invention be useful. In this case the gene in isolated form is useful because it can be used as a test for the likelihood of getting cancer.

    So it's not a patent of a gene in vivo just because it's been sequenced.

    It's a patent of an isolated gene that is useful in a lab test.

    Now a lot of people have problems with this for various reasons, but it doesn't add to the discussion to whine about the genes in your body being patentable.

    They aren't.

  8. Re:patent infringers! on Australian Federal Court Rules For Patent Over Breast Cancer Gene · · Score: 1

    Good job. You have successfully misunderstood a story that was in itself a misunderstanding.

  9. Re:Idiots gives suspended taxes on Congress Takes Up Online Sales Tax · · Score: 1

    And some other area that didn't bid as highly didn't benefit.

    Tax subsidies are a stupid political game. The only winners are the companies.

  10. 30" on Ask Slashdot: What Is Your Favorite Monitor For Programming? · · Score: 2

    My favorite is a 30" 2560x1600. The vertical pixel count is very nice. The Koreans can deliver these at a reasonable price. If you have money you can get them for about 1K in a nice IPS flavor.

    I don't like the 27" 2560's because the dot pitch is marginal for my below average eyesight.

    And I have yet to find a 1920 x 1200 27".

    Right now I am using a cheap pair of 27" 1920 x 1080, but I am definitely going to at least one 30" 2560x1600 in the next couple of months.

  11. Re:What about the ACTUAL corn? on Monsanto Takes Home $23m From Small Farmers According To Report · · Score: 1

    Sorry to break this to you but the majority of Amish farmers use hybrid seeds for at least some of their crops,

    http://accad.osu.edu/~midori/Game/intro_farm.html

    In fact one of the earliest hybrid seed companies (Yoders) was Amish.

  12. Good move on RIM Co-Founder Drops His Stock · · Score: 1

    RIM stock had a nice run-up late last year.

    That plus the fact that this company is on the downslope makes it pretty obvious that he made a wise financial decision.

  13. Re:Between this and the X-box on Retail Copies of Office 2013 Are Tied To a Single Computer Forever · · Score: 1

    Well I still have a copy of 2011 Home and Office lying around that has been installed once.

    I figure by the time I use the last install of this MS will have realized the error of their ways and be back to some sort of multi-install license.

  14. Re:The goal was to hide, not solve, the problem. on Oil Dispersants Used During Gulf Spill Degrade Slowly In Cold Water · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is some logic to the use of these materials.

    After all most of the life in aquatic environments is on or near the surface. The most important ecologies are the salt marshes and the top 200 meters or so of the ocean (epipelalogic zone) which is sunlit. It is where all the action is. 90% of life is found in this top layer. It is where the most complex and presumably vulnerable life forms are found.

    So submerging the oil potentially reduces the harm that a spill may cause.

  15. Re:What about the ACTUAL corn? on Monsanto Takes Home $23m From Small Farmers According To Report · · Score: 1

    > Since fucking when is a farmer saving seeds not SOP?

    Since the invention of hybridization about 100 years ago.

  16. Re:Monsanto takes .. on Monsanto Takes Home $23m From Small Farmers According To Report · · Score: 1

    > there have been instances of Monsanto claiming that farmers who simply have their seeds in their field, even through natural spreading, owe them a fee

    Really? Every case like this I've dug into involved some action by the farmer to collect and select seed.

    So I'd be interested if you have a concrete example.

  17. Re:What about the ACTUAL corn? on Monsanto Takes Home $23m From Small Farmers According To Report · · Score: 1

    Yes, this will be an interesting case. Patent exhaustion usually makes this sort of thing outside patent coverage.

  18. Re:Ooo 'e wants a progress bar! on Ask Slashdot: Why Is It So Hard To Make An Accurate Progress Bar? · · Score: 1

    Interface and human interaction experts don't have any clue either. Lot's of education, sure but it's too generalized. Most computer software has a specific target audience that has quirks.

    The only way to know for sure is get the product out and collect feedback.

  19. Re:Public schooling is a bad idea. on Missouri Legislation Redefines Science, Pushes Intelligent Design · · Score: 1

    The problem is social. The test results coming out of the suburbs are as good as anything anywhere on the planet.

    The results coming out of the center cities might as well be coming out of the worst holes on the planet.

  20. Re:what dimension is this again? on Missouri Legislation Redefines Science, Pushes Intelligent Design · · Score: 1

    Better go take a close look at the 14th Amendment there sonny.

  21. Re:Treason on Missouri Legislation Redefines Science, Pushes Intelligent Design · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Treason:

    Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

    The Enemies always have been and always will be ignorance and stupidity.

    Open and shut case I'd say.

  22. Re:Following this logic... on Missouri Legislation Redefines Science, Pushes Intelligent Design · · Score: 1

    Don't forget the geoheliocentric system either. You still get the Sun going around the Earth AND you can explain more observations.

    Tycho Brahe had it right!

  23. Re:I kind of did that with usenet on Is It Possible To Erase Yourself From the Internet? · · Score: 1

    I have a similar experience - I used to admin some echomail stuff on Fidonet in a similar timeframe. This was transferred via a gateway into Usenet for a while.

    Now though it's starting be hard to find traces of it. So maybe after 30 years or so you will disappear.

  24. Re:Programmer ethics? on Raytheon's Riot Program Mines Social Network Data For Intelligence Agencies · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, you have two data points. The existence of all sorts of software designed to take advantage of information easily available on the internet, and a 'feeling' that programmers possess some special moral character. The answer to this conflict is obvious.

    The idea that programmers have some special moral character is nonsense.

  25. Re:RHEL is for servers not desktops on RHEL 6 No Longer Supported By Google Chrome · · Score: 1

    Ubuntu LTE.