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User: codeButcher

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Comments · 951

  1. Re:Isn't that on What Happens When Betelgeuse Explodes? · · Score: 1

    After all, space is big, extremely big. You wouldn't believe just how big it is...

    That's why it's called space - because there is such a lot of it.

    (The rest of the movie where that quote came from was quite forgettable. I don't even recall it's name.)

  2. Anecdotal, admittedly, but.... on Crystal Pattern Matching Recovers Obliterated Serial Numbers From Metal · · Score: 2

    ... how to recover serial numbers obliterated from metal surfaces such as firearms and automobiles ... In the NIST experiments... researchers hammered the letter 'X' into a polished stainless steel plate.

    Just had a look at the few automobiles and firearms I own. None are made out of polished stainless steel plate.

    Also, while my oldtimers are stamped, I recall seeing a few items of more recent manufacture that had the s/n milled into the substrate.

  3. Physics 101 on The Science of a Bottomless Pit · · Score: 2

    Isn't that part of every physics student's first/second week as a freshman any more? Frictionless and full-of-vacuum tunnels and everything?

  4. Re:Browser Makers Should Get The Message on Ask Slashdot: Most Useful Browser Extensions? · · Score: 1
    Apart from finishing the current article and starting new one(s) only then, continuing to read the current article also allows a slow link to finish the non-instantaneous (sometimes painful) process of loading.

    I've you'd used Firefox, you would have a little checkbox that allowed you to choose between the two options sans plugins.

  5. Re:why? on Researchers Block HIV Infection In Monkeys With Artificial Protein · · Score: 2

    Yeah, or they could test on politicians. Lab staff does not tend to get so attached to them, but otherwise not much difference.

  6. Re:perforce on Ask Slashdot: Version Control For Non-Developers? · · Score: 1

    perforce - Easy to install, free for 20-users or less, rock solid, and clients for many OSes. Most importantly, it supports single-user checkouts, which is vital for things like Word documents that won't merge.

    Used at a workplace, many years ago, for non-source code (binary file format)-versioning needs (e.g. documentation, when that was still written as part of the process, which goes to show how long ago that was). Anyhow, we didn't particularly like it, and soon started talking about "Perverse"....

    I'm PRETTY SURE it has improved since those days...

  7. Re:Not surprised on Mood-Altering Wearable Thync Releases First Brain Test Data · · Score: 1

    ... and you're officially a drone at that point.....

    Great, I always wanted to be able to fly.

  8. Clarification please... on EFF: Hundreds of S. Carolina Prisoners Sent To Solitary For Social Media Use · · Score: 1

    more than 400 hundred disciplinary cases for "social networking"

    So, that means more than 40 000 cases, for us non-USAsians? That's just insane.

  9. Right to be forgotten? on Facebook Adds Legacy Contact Feature In Case You Die Before It Does · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now memorialized accounts will have the word "Remembering" hovering above a person's name.

    What about my (presumed) right to be forgotten?

  10. Re:Absolutely pointless on Facebook Adds Legacy Contact Feature In Case You Die Before It Does · · Score: 2

    There is no rule that a Facebook page must be owned by a living person. Perhaps Mark Zuckerberg disagrees, because you can't data mine or sell ads to a dead person.

    Yeah, but the advertisers don't know that you are dead. Do you think the line for screwing over should be drawn between those that pay and those that don't?

  11. Re:Peanuts on Your Java Code Is Mostly Fluff, New Research Finds · · Score: 1

    No. This is what happens with a language with an extremely verbose API and extreme boiler-plate requirements. The best Java developer in the universe isn't going to be able to get around this.

    Well, arguably Project Lombok is a small but good start.

  12. Re:I'd be more impressed... on Converting Sunlight Into Liquid Fuel With a Bionic Leaf · · Score: 1

    I'd be more impressed if they could change cucumbers into sunlight.

    I've been working on it at the Academy for years. I'm close to a break trough, but I need more funding and a bit more time.

    Some people have the sun shine out of their arses. You should co-op them and feed them only cucumbers.

  13. Basements on Free-As-In-Beer Electricity In Greece? · · Score: 2

    Not to be a pedant, but since Greece to my knowledge doesn't experience ground freezing temperatures, houses there probably do not require (expensive!) ground excavations and basements that take the house's foundation to below the frost line. I have no doubt that in such warm climes a cellar is a very good idea due to the temperature-buffering effect of all that thermal mass around it (useful i.a. for aging cheese and wine and storing other foodstuffs), but to build one would presumably not necessarily be within the financial means of the poor.

    Also, once those people start receiving rent from such (or any other) operation, they might no longer be "poor".

    Even the place where I live, which must have one of the world's most intellectually-challenged (and by the way also very socialist-oriented, but I repeat myself) governments, basic amenities (water, electricity, etc.) are only provided without charge to the poor for the first X number of units, where X is really very basic survival usage, any usage above that is charged at the usual prices. Not saying that is what the Greeks plan to do, but they would be really stupid to offer "uncapped/limitless".

  14. Re:How to fuck this guy over on The Man Squatting On Millions of Dollars Worth of Domain Names · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I know reading the article is not fashionable, but it says:

    "You can no longer buy a domain name from Millin. Instead, he will work with your company (or your idea for a company) to build out a product, then he'll lease or lend you one of his domain names in exchange for partial ownership." (emphasis mine)

  15. Re:Too bad about WWII on Does Showing a Horrific Video Serve a Legitimate Journalistic Purpose? · · Score: 1

    "I guess those 12 million people killed..."

    Wasn't it 6 million last year?

    Well spotted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...

  16. So let me get this straigh on Using Machine Learning To Find a Better Job · · Score: 1

    In other words, they've replaced the keyword-matching recruitment agent with a script? Way to go!

    OK, I'm off to read the article now. Or at least the summary.

  17. Re: Science... Yah! on Science's Biggest Failure: Everything About Diet and Fitness · · Score: 2

    I've been cooking omelets on the electric cook top for a number of years. I've never been very good at it, because of the egg always burning to the (stainless steel) pan. I've even tried using coconut butter, because of the higher temperature it breaks down at. No luck.

    Recently I had to break out the camping LP gas cylinder because of a prolonged power outage. Same pan, same fat, same time - so much better results, perfect omelets. No egg getting burnt to the metal, I could have wiped the pan with a paper towel and it would have been clean. Seems gas provides a much more even and constant heat and finer control of it, and reaches cooking temp much faster.

    As for cleaning time - I really do appreciate my Bosch dishwasher that I picked up secondhand from a repairman for around $150.

  18. Re:Deflate-gate? on NFL Asks Columbia University For Help With Deflate-Gate · · Score: 2

    Where do I go to complain about people sticking "-gate" onto the end of every scandal?

    Get the media to do some items on Gategate?

  19. Re:I am impressed on Former NATO Nuclear Bunker Now an 'Airless' Unmanned Data Center · · Score: 1

    I had to look up this European Air Force. Turns out they've existed longer than I thought! From http://www.europeanaf.net/:

    The European Air Force has now reached its teens!

    OK, next assignment: find the Austrian Navy.

  20. Re:why does anybody feel safe purchasing from them on Alibaba Face Off With Chinese Regulator Over Fake Products · · Score: 1

    Yet, you need to learn the story of Alibaba and the 40 thieves.

    Alibaba was a woodcutter and not a thief.

    Before you get too high and mighty, you might want to remember that Ali Baba stole from those 40 thieves which is what eventually got his brother killed (because of his own greed) and almost got Ali Baba killed as well. So the OP calling Ali Baba a thief is 100% accurate.

    So, a destroyer of Arabia's once-lush forests, and trafficker in innocent slave girls. (Also: muslim, which excuses all the previous.)

    Why yes, the previous was supposed to be in jest, thanks for asking.

  21. Re:not the point on Why Screen Lockers On X11 Cannot Be Secure · · Score: 2

    but in reality will actually just be recording your user name as password so the intruder can use this. They'll get the password, and come back at a time when they have more time to do their dirty work.

    That's why I always first try to unlock with "password123" when I get back from the bathroom break I could no longer postpone.

  22. Re:Prototyping security? on Researchers Moot "Teleportation" Via Destructive 3D Printing · · Score: 1

    My thought was, "what could possibly go wrong?" and then the idea formed, "the recieving maching broke half way through the process."

    Luckily, the object is stored in the transporter buffer, and with a little sci-fi magic we can reconstruct the object and save the day minutes before the episode ends.

    So what are we gonna do with all the Capt Kirk torsos lying around?

  23. Wait a second on Apple Agrees To Chinese Security Audits of Its Products · · Score: 2

    I thought Apple products were assembled in China? (By chinese spies masquerading as low-wage workers, etc. etc. etc.)

    Also, Lenovo.

  24. Re:poor summary on Uber Suspends Australian Transport Inspector Accounts To Block Stings · · Score: 1

    They could also wait a week to issue the fines

    I don't see how this could work. They need to confirm the driver's identity to issue the fine which they're not going to be able to do without confronting the driver at the time of the ride. Just knowing the vehicle's registration isn't enough.

    So don't you ask to see the Uber driver's license each time you catch a ride with one? Just asking. Not needed a taxi/uber ride in recent years, but it would seem sensible to identify the stranger you will be traveling with.

  25. Re:Mimeograph on Ask Slashdot: Sounds We Don't Hear Any More? · · Score: 1

    Dot matrix printer. Like Donald Duck eating corn off the cob.