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User: NecroPuppy

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  1. Internet Taxation on Ask Congressman Boucher About Internet Regulations · · Score: 3

    What is your opinion on taxing products purchased via the internet? Should they be given the same 'protections' and standing as mail-order purchases?

  2. Re:Oh christ. Not again..... on B.C. Officially Proposes Video Game Regulations · · Score: 2

    If I were you I would be implementing age checking mechanisms now, no matter what.

    What mechanisms do you suggest? Lots of things have been tried and rejected because they didn't work.

    Drop down boxes where you enter your age? Kids lie . Anyone who doesn't believe this hasn't had kids long (or was never a kid themselves).

    Questions only someone the appropriate age could answer? A google search will usually solve that while someone puts up the online answer page.

    Credit card verification, as I understand some countries have a minimum credit age limit? Any kid that wants on one of these systems will get the card number, and as long as no charge appears on the statement, the parent will never know.


    Server side age verifications don't work.

  3. Re:Hydrogen powered? on Hydrogen Powered Cars · · Score: 1

    Actually, given the amount of hydrogen these cars would have, the explosion wouldn't be that big.

    And, to be technical, current cars are combustion powered. That's why their called internal combustion engines.

  4. Re:I don't blame you on Scientologists Force Comment Off Slashdot · · Score: 2

    Stupid scientology.

    Angry little clams.

    Snap! Snap! Snap!

  5. Re:Yawn. on Fox Lawyers Try To Shut Down The "Why Files" · · Score: 1

    Almost all of Fox's shows have anti-Fox jokes at one point or another. The Simpsons has just had more because it's supposed to be a comedy.

    Homer: And you made us stop watching Fox because of those chemical plants they own in Libya.

  6. Re:this is clearly a hoax... on Silicon LED · · Score: 1

    There's no such place as Surrey in America.

    Actually, there is... At least three of them, actually. Surrey, ND; Surrey, IN; and Surrey, IL.

    MapQuest

    Though, I doubt any of them have Universities.

  7. Re:In the end... on Courts Gives Napster 72-Hour Deadline · · Score: 2

    And what's stopping someone from writing a program that encrypts, renames, and decrypts mp3s; distributing this program with a UCITA enforced EULA that prevents it's use by the RIAA, the government (any government), their associated minions; and placing these 'new' files over Napster?

    The RIAA would be doublly enjoined from 'finding out' because they couldn't use the program to decrypt the new mp3s under UCITA, and they couldn't break the encryption under DMCA.

  8. Re:Umm... on Courts Gives Napster 72-Hour Deadline · · Score: 1

    just 72 hours to block any copyright songs.

    Wouldn't this only cover the DeCSS song? It's the only one I can think of that deals, however indirectly, with copyright.

    :)

  9. Re:But will it be as successful as vhs macrovision on The Bride Of Macrovision · · Score: 1

    Many DVD players do not have passthroughs.

    Err.... Ok. Then how does one handle cable in? (Again, showing my ignorance.) At home, my setup is:

    Cable in -> Cable box -> VCR -> Game system(s) -> TV

    Where would I plug a DVD into that?

  10. Re:But will it be as successful as vhs macrovision on The Bride Of Macrovision · · Score: 1

    Hook up the output of your DVD player to your VHS VCR. Hook up the output of your VHS VCR to your TV. Play a DVD and notice how Macrovision degrades the video signal on your TV even though you're not making a copy. The combination of DVD and VHS Macrovision results in a lot of angry DVD owners.

    Ok, I'll admit some ignorance here, as I don't own a DVD player, but couldn't you hook them up in a different order?

    VCR -> DVD -> TV

    Is the signal screwed up that way too?

  11. Soloist... on Jedi == Religion In NZ · · Score: 1

    religion n 1: a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny;

    I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.

  12. Re:My favorite thing about WinCE on HP Ditching WindowsCE for Linux on Jornada? · · Score: 1
    And Windows XP, where XP is supposed to stand for 'Expert'.

    And, as we all know, Expert is broken up into two parts:
    1. 'X' - The unknown quantity, and 'Spurt' - A drip under pressure.

  13. Re:A question for lawyers on Sauce for the Gander: Aimster Uses DMCA to Its Advantage · · Score: 2

    Evidence obtained illegally is inadmissable in a court of law whether or not it was obtained by the police.

    Right. It's called 'Fruit of the Poisonous Tree', or more properly, The Exclusionary Rule. But, IIRC, that's only for use in a criminal trial.

    Also, it's not a statutory rule; rather it is judge-made, even though there are a series of Supreme Court decisions affirming it.

    Info link on the Exclusionary rule, it's standing, and it's exceptions.

  14. Confusing... on Sauce for the Gander: Aimster Uses DMCA to Its Advantage · · Score: 4

    As noble Slashdotters, we're supposed to hate AOL, and love Napster, so what are we supposed to do in this case?

    Tho, I do have to agree... Lovely hack... :)

  15. Re:I use a Voodoo 3 on More on the GeForce 3 · · Score: 1

    Another problem with video cards is that the performance is becoming optimal anyway. There are 768000 pixels on a screen (a 1024x768 screen that is). At 50fps this is approximatelt 37million pixels per second. So it is intuitively obvious to all that a video card with a performance in excess of 37million polygons per second will not provide any better performance under those conditions. Why pay extra for something you can't see?

    Especially since all the uber-gamers will turn off as many options as they can to get extra fps, in the hopes that they can frag the other guy first.

  16. Re:Actually, a simpler proof on Napster Helps RIAA Again; RIAA Still Ungrateful (Updated) · · Score: 2

    You know, what I wonder is this: if Napster is, as you claim, helping the RIAA make money, why are they fighting Napster tooth and nail? Money talks, and if indeed Napster was pushing CD sales up, like so many Napster defenders claim, then the RIAA would be shutting up.

    And no, just saying they're dumb doesn't settle the case.


    The music mafia (RIAA) cannot allow Napster to continue because people might realize exactly how cheap it is to produce music. They wish to maintain their stranglehold on the industry by controlling all methods of distrabution.

    They can't admit that Napster is helping them, because they don't control Napster.

  17. Re:Numbers to spin on Napster Helps RIAA Again; RIAA Still Ungrateful (Updated) · · Score: 1

    Well, given that it takes less than 10 cents to actually press a CD, I think that their profit is pretty high...

  18. Re:Ah... so they're Pro-BSD on Microsoft Clarifies Jim Allchin's Statements · · Score: 2

    their entire TCP/IP stack is based on BSD code

    Amazing M$'s TCP is such shit, then. It just goes to show how much better Amigas were; I know AmiTCP was built from the BSD code, and I know it worked a lot better than M$'s. Hell, I use NetBSD now, and I know I get at least 25% faster throughput.


    Just because they may have based one thing off of something else, doesn't mean they couldn't have screwed it up somehow....

    One of my old roommates has a 22 x 34 cartoon of 'A Typical Day at Microsoft' - one of the panels is a Gateian manager saying "It still looks too much like the source we 'acquired'. Change it around some, and put in a couple of random crash conditions. That'll confuse people."

  19. Re:Who approved the project? on Science Fair Exhibits: Fair Game For Censorship · · Score: 1

    Psychological experiments on humans were allowed? Especially "tricky" ones where the adults should have been notified, ethically, of the possibility?

    Yep. All the 'psych' projects had to be of the questionaire/statistical analysis type. Nothing with actually giving of drugs, applying voltage, or 'invasive' procedures like lobotomies.

    But 'trick' questions could be used. Heck, I remember one girl whose science project dealt with frustration - she had about 250 questions she would ask, and she was checking to see how long it would take for the subject to get 'fed up'.

    Though the science projects were, for the most part, chemistry, biology, or physics. The schools I went to didn't really consider psychology a science.

  20. Re:Scary on Cleaning Up In High Level Radiation with Microbes · · Score: 1

    This bacterium is going to mutate at an extraordinary rate if we encourage it to eat radioactive material.

    *sigh* Another person who didn't read the article.

    The microbe is extremely resistant to radiation. It says so in the article, right under the What Makes "Superbug" so Tough? heading.

  21. Re:Great, then what? on Cleaning Up In High Level Radiation with Microbes · · Score: 5
    So they have this nifty beastie that eats radioactive material.

    No, they've got a neat little microbe that eats lactate, as mentioned in the article. What the microbe does is:
    enzymatically reduce radionuclides and metal contaminants in the absence of air.

    What waste products are left behind?

    The radioactive particles are concentrated into a less mobile form which is more easily collected for disposal.

    What does it eat once it runs out of radioactive goo?

    It doesn't 'eat' the radioactive particles. The lacate it eats is applied to the contaminated area. Then the microbe is released into the area. As the microbe eats the lactate, the radioactive particles (plutonium, uranium, etc) are concentrated into "relatively insoluble and immobile forms".
  22. Re:A Bug's Life on Cleaning Up In High Level Radiation with Microbes · · Score: 3

    So what they basically created is a microscopic cockroach to clean up the mess after a possible war.

    Did you even read the article? They are talking about using this microbe to clean up nuclear facilities where leaks have occured. There isn't even a single mention of war in the entire article.

  23. Re:Who approved the project? on Science Fair Exhibits: Fair Game For Censorship · · Score: 1

    In all my science fairs I was never allowed to just go off, do something, and have nobody look at it until it made it to the science fair floor.

    The only ones my schools ever required prior approval for were the ones involving animals, dangerous chemicals, or high voltage.

    I only ever had to get that once, for the experiment with hydrochloric and nitric acids.

  24. Re:[Offtopic but..] Not an accurate experiment any on Science Fair Exhibits: Fair Game For Censorship · · Score: 1

    The adults are going to know something's up when a little girl comes up to them with two barbie dolls and asks them which one they prefer, this may be the reason for the 50-50 split.

    Ahhh, but how does the adult in question know how to answer? Do they answer truthfully, or politically correct?

    Even the method they chose their answer by is subject to statistical analysis.

  25. Re:Questionable science in questionable environeme on Science Fair Exhibits: Fair Game For Censorship · · Score: 1

    From what I understand, the girl performed her barbie test on all of 15 adults and 30 children. This hardly seems statistically enough to infer what she inferred so I wouldn't call it a complete science project.

    I would...

    Actually, it was 30 adults and 30 children.

    Now, Stat 509 was a long time ago, but, as I recall, there were two sets of statistical analysis equations; one set for a sample size smaller than 40, and another set for a sample size greater than 40. (Both broke down for exactly 40.)

    Since her sample size was not 40, it is possible for the results to be statistically valid.

    Although, being 8, I doubt she applied either of these set of formula. :)