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User: david+duncan+scott

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Comments · 1,129

  1. Re:Spell Checker & Presentation on Resume Tips For Jobs · · Score: 2

    Not to mention the inability to then properly split infinitives. :)

  2. Re:Why not... on Pyramid Rover Finds A Third Closed Door · · Score: 2

    Because nobody wants to chance going down in history as, "the guy who blew up the Great Pyramid"?

  3. Re:Oh yeah... on Firefly Premieres Tonight · · Score: 2

    OK. Hey, how about them Orioles?

  4. Re:Oh yeah... on Firefly Premieres Tonight · · Score: 2
    You know, those soft donut-shaped seat cushions are said to provide a great deal of relief.

    Who said Winchester was stupid? He (well, really I think Henry, but why complicate the thing?) was an excellent engineer, but Kalashnikov had the advantage of being able to see Winchester's work as well as Browning's, Garand's, Mauser's, and every other gun designer of the intervening 40 years. It's no slur against Winchester to say that four decades later a better rifle was designed.

    Even if Kalashnikov did "stand on the shoulders of giants", he still saw further from up there. No shame in that.

  5. Re:Good old Pakistan on Firefly Premieres Tonight · · Score: 2
    I have read Turtledove, and yes, it's a good book, but 1863 wasn't 1893. I think smokeless powder was available in the late 1800's, and in fact I believe it was used in the ammo chambered by the 30-30, in spite of the name (in other words, I don't think it actually had 30 grains of black powder in the cartridge, although that was the conventional designation.)

    Yeah, sez here that cordite was invented in 1889.

  6. Re:Didn't Think of Them? on Firefly Premieres Tonight · · Score: 2
    Didn't think of them because Winchester designed the Model '93 in (wait for it!) 1893, based on his earlier work going back to the Henry repeater. The only automatic weapon he'd ever seen was the Gatling gun, which clearly wasn't the model for a shoulder-fired weapon.

    Sure, AK-47's aren't assembled from chunks of iron ore, but neither are Winchesters (that brass is on the outside -- it's steel inside), and by 1947 Kalashnikov knew some things that Winchester didn't.

    And, as an aside, I'm not at all sure the Winchester particularly meant the carbine to be a military weapon. He had heavier rifles for that, and in fact I don't think even the Cavalry bought very many 30-30's, preferring guns with greater stopping power.

  7. Re:Good old Pakistan on Firefly Premieres Tonight · · Score: 2

    Which is evidence (granted, that article wasn't the most on point) that manufacturing AK-47's doesn't really require 20th century technology. Winchester probably could have made AK's if he'd thought of them, because men with 19th century technology are manufacturing them now. In fact, since the AK design deliberately took into account sloppy workmanship while the WInchester design assumed expert craftmanship, my guess is that the later gun is easier to make. It's certainly easier to maintain.

  8. Re:Isn't it ironic... on The Rolling Stones' Business Model · · Score: 2

    Great minds think alike. I started to look up BB, and then got distracted trying to decide if Little Richard still tours (looks like not.)

  9. Re:Isn't it ironic... on The Rolling Stones' Business Model · · Score: 2
    What the hell, Dave Brubeck still tours, and he's 80-something. Granted, his performances are a lot less athletic, but all the staying-in-hotels-and-sleeping-on-airplanes crap is the same (maybe worse, since Brubeck doesn't have the entourage to smooth the way.)

    Touring can be a lot less wearing then they used to make it. After all, tearing up hotel rooms is optional, like riding motorcycles through the lobby and pitching TV's out the window. If you cut back the really wearing activity to the actual performance (and if you take the nannies on tour with you, I'd say that's a safe bet,) then it becomes a much less daunting task.

  10. Re:Industry, Easier on Firefly Premieres Tonight · · Score: 2

    I'm not a gunsmith either, and I agree that one railroads when it's time to railroad, but take a look at this article about Pakistani gunsmiths. These guys are blowing charcoal with a manual bellows and making AK's.

  11. Re:Old stuff on Firefly Premieres Tonight · · Score: 2
    I've replied in more detail above this comment, so please forgive me if I try not repeat myself too much and seem rather terse:

    I'm OK with their using guns, and indeed a Winchester is lot easier to make than a ray gun (I suppose -- since we haven't actually made any ray guns, I'll just have to assume that they'd be complex.) The point is that a Winchester '93 is not a lot easier to make than a Kalishnikov (might even be harder -- I think AK's are in large part stamped out), and the AK-47 is demonstrably a better weapon, which is why the Soviet army and many others since chose it over the Winchester. The Winchester in particular was clearly chosen because it helped evoke a Western look in the production, and while that is stylish it's no more plausible than a mechanical horse would have been.

  12. Re:Why not? on Firefly Premieres Tonight · · Score: 2
    I don't have a problem with guns. As you say, a chemically-powered slug thrower is a nifty mid-tech way to kill things.

    My problem is that it's a Model 93 Winchester. There's a reason that the Air Cavalry don't run around with those any more -- there are better designs available, guns that can handle more powerful ammo, guns that are more durable, guns that take more of a beating with less maintenance. The guys in Pakistan who make weapons by hand make AK-47's, not Winchester '93's.

    If they had re-invented cars, wouldn't it surprize you if they opted for the 1903 curved-dash Oldsmobile instead of, say, the Jeep, which would give them significantly better functionality?

    As for swords, well, they do have the advantage that you never need to reload, and maintenance is pretty minimal. I can see where they might be the most efficient solution to a given problem.

  13. Re:Neat Trick... on Firefly Premieres Tonight · · Score: 2

    Yup, and the Winchester 30-30 in the sheriff's hand falls well on the wrong side of "plausible". A zillion years in the future and they've reinvented the Model 93?

  14. Re:There is no perfect OCR software on Accurate OCR? · · Score: 2

    And just imagine what it's like for people who want to scan in financial records and such, where a "0" instead of a "O" doesn't jump right out at you or get caught by s spell-checker.

  15. Re:Nothing really matters.... on Fighting Music Piracy with Glue · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Looking through my collection (such as it is), I'm always struck by how many first albums there are. My theory is that the first album is the result of several years of work in front of small, vocal audiences and with friends who don't mind telling you what sucks.

    The second album, on the other hand, is done under pressure and under contract, and usually written a lot faster.

  16. Re:Credit Card on 60,000 Credit Cards Numbers Stolen Online · · Score: 2
    Were they getting false positives or false negatives?

    I don't mind showing several cards, if it comes to that, so long as my card isn't used by somebody twice my age and of a different race and the other gender.

  17. Re:visioneers?! on Linux Worm Creating "Attack Network" · · Score: 2

    Yeah, but if you join the Visioneers there's a cool decoder ring and a shoulder patch!

  18. Re:this was tried on Egyptian Pyramid Mysteries to Be Explored Live · · Score: 2

    Yes, whereas the European usage of mummies for medicinal and alchemical purposes was much more enlightened.

  19. Re:Credit Card on 60,000 Credit Cards Numbers Stolen Online · · Score: 2
    I sympathize with her -- I used to work at Sears, and I may have been the only clerk who always checked signatures and/or ID.

    And just so people know -- no, "My mom told me to go shopping" doesn't cut it, not even if I were dumb enough to call the number you give me for "verification".

    And for Christ's sake, sign the card. Don't worry about giving the thief a signature sample, because he doesn't need a sample if you leave the strip blank -- he'll just sign it himself. Some cards, in fact, must be signed to be valid, and in some cases the signature must match the name on the front (so Daddy's card with Junior's signature isn't valid.)

    Just tell her that she's protecting the customer because sh's a decent and responsible human, even if the customer is too fuckwitted to understand. I used to phrase it as, "protecting the cardholder", which was deliberately vague as to whether or not it was the cardholder standing in front of me.

  20. Warning Sign on Beware of Fake Monkey Automatons · · Score: 2

    I want a sign for the front fence: "Beware of Fake Monkey Automatons". The house up the street only has pit bulls.

  21. Re:Vegetarians live longer? on Alton Brown Answers, At Last · · Score: 4, Funny

    Although Africans die young from a lot of things, getting shot is among the most notable, and I don't think diet is much protection against that (unless you eat a lot of Kevlar.)

  22. Re:Obesity on Alton Brown Answers, At Last · · Score: 2

    To be fair, he did say "the South of Europe", which kind of rules out Germany. Italy certainly qualifies of course, and I don't think Greece is populated entirely by runway models either.

  23. Re:Volcano question - found the right link! on Alton Brown Answers, At Last · · Score: 2

    He didn't say that you couldn't cook with lava, he just questioned the time involved, which is, in fact, remarkable.

  24. Re:Uhmm, YIKES! on Cloak of Invisibility Coming Soon? · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    now someone has the potential for wiping that out if they ever got a hold of my CD-Rs?

    They've had that all along. A hammer would do a pretty good job, sandpaper's effective, microwave ovens are a colorful approach, blowtorches work, trash compactors would do it, they could take them out to sea and drop them in the Marians Trench...nobody ever said CD's were indestructible.
  25. Re:Problem with fuel cells on So Where Are The Fuel Cells? · · Score: 2
    I suppose I let my sarcasm run away with me. Have you been stricken with leukemia due to TMI? Has anybody?

    Chernobyl was a legitimate disaster in anybody's book. TMI was a fuck-up, but it's been sensationalized ever since. I was merely perpetuating the tradition of making a B movie out of it.

    How many Pennsylvania coal miners die eah year for the the safe conventional power we all enjoy?