Slashdot Mirror


User: jabber01

jabber01's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
525
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 525

  1. Oh boo-hoo on CCTV Network Tracks Getaway Car · · Score: 1

    Poor criminals, suspected criminals, and people in general - deprived of their privacy in public spaces. How utterly Orwellian...

    To wit, folks, the license plate on the car belongs to the government. They're not tracking YOU, they're tracking their property. ;) I kid, I kid...

    Any crook truly determined to elude the police would just peel the layers of contact paper off of their car, each time they were spotted.

  2. Grand Theft Auto: Fair Verona? on Literature Teeters on the Edge of a 'Gr8 Fall' · · Score: 1

    It would never get past the censors. It glorifies premarital sex, gang violence, and teen suicide.

  3. Re:what? on Using Cell Phones to Track Traffic · · Score: 1

    So, when I break down on the highway, in the middle of the night, with no one else around, and call AAA, the traffic monitor will inform the public that the turnpike is gridlocked? Brilliant!

    And if I break down at rush hour where by some strange feat of fate, no one in the quickly passing cars is on their phone, it will again register as gridlock. Dubbly brilliant!

    And unless my phone has built-in GPS, all that can be monitored is the hand-offs between towers, which complicates thing just a bit.

    And of course NOBODY lives within the cell-tower's footprint of the highway, and they never use their cell phones at home, or while driving on frontage and neighborhood roads.

    They'd be better off installing radar guns on signs and overpasses, and reading traffic speed and volume that way.

  4. "Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?" on SBC CEO: Pay up if you want to use our pipes · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Simple. If Google sees YOUR ISP's customers try to use their services (Search, Earth, Maps, Froogle, anything), it can inform them of how greedy you are, and of what alternatives they have in the area. Besides, Google's been going around buying up dark fibre for some time now, so hold on to that last shred of relevance while it lasts.

    I, for one, have long ago given up on land-line phone service. The only thing it's cost me, besides a phone bill, is the ability to initially configure a Tivo.

  5. Re:Jack's game scenario on Jack Thompson Rescinds Offer · · Score: 1

    I don't know about the playability of such a game, but it's got Summer Blockbuster written all over it!

    Can we get The Rock to star, and Peter Jackson to direct?

  6. Insurance is bad, mm'kay? on Holding Developers Liable For Bugs · · Score: 1

    So says the guy from the country with the best medical care system in the world.

    You get what you pay for, you Capitalist Pig! ;)

  7. Re:Poor state of what? on Why Students Are Leaving Engineering · · Score: 1

    There's also a bit of complaining about the poor state of advanced education, which has some validity as well. While there is always room for improvement, there is a reason why a full two-thirds of all science and engineering graduate students in the US are NOT FROM the US.

  8. In other news... on Running out of Hurricane Names · · Score: 4, Funny

    Chinese zoologists report a surge in native butterfly populations unseen since 1933.

  9. Oh, it's easy! on The Next 50 Years of Computer Security · · Score: 2, Funny

    Extrapolating recent trends, Pokemon will be President of the United Corporations of America. The United Middle East will be America's closest friend. Together, we will have obliterated the EU. No one will care about poverty and disease in Africa.

    Computers will be so small, they'll be ingestable, with music players and cell phones being implanted in teeth. But DRM will be so pervasive that the RIAA will be allowed to inspect your mouth with toothpicks. The weakest link in computer security will still be the human being.

  10. Re:It's remarkable how wrong this is on Researchers Say Human Brain is Still Evolving · · Score: 1

    Stupid people are still breeding, yes, but consider that, from an evolutionary perspective, the range of human intelligence isn't sufficient to be a deciding factor in choosing a mate.

    Also bear in mind that we're talking about a pretty broad environment here - the average human is what we're looking at, not Einstein or the inverse. Statistically speaking, more intelligence is still preferable to less intelligence, so an upward swing is perfectly reasonable.

    To think evolution has halted at the present human form is hubris indeed. It presumes evolution intended for us to be the product of the process - this is almost as dangerous as buying into Intelligent Design.

  11. Easy answer! on Infrastructure for One Million Email Accounts? · · Score: 1

    I have a BUNCH of Gmail invites. Ya wan'em?

  12. More like Walking Electro-Magnet! on New Twist on Power Walking · · Score: 1

    Come on... You were ALL thinking it.

  13. I am shocked and outraged! on Microsoft Infected by Virus · · Score: 1

    Shocked and outraged, I say, that no one, NO ONE, has made the obligatory quip about the Microsoft gateway having a hole big enough to drive a truck through.

    What sort of geeks and dorks are you people?!

    Not even "In Soviet Redmond, the virus infect YOU!"?

    Man, this place has really gone down hill. Not only in stories but in witty comments. narf!

  14. Re:No, that's not how it works - here's why... on V For Vendetta Delayed until March 2006 · · Score: 1

    Now, you may not know it, but Guy Fawkes was one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament, on November 5th, 1605.

    So, what you're saying is that the significance of an 11/5 release will be entirely lost on all the non-British.

  15. Re:If it ain't broke... on More New Details on NASA's CEV Launcher Studies · · Score: 1

    What's so great about a "spaceplane"? I fail to grok the true value, besides the sci-fi "wow factor", of a winged thing going into space.

    Wings make sense in the atmosphere, and if we're going into space, we'd like to deal with the atmosphere as little as possible, in either direction. Right?

    Second, why bother with sending people and cargo in the same vehicle? We can do the heavy lifting without endangering lives.

    We can build, in orbit, a vehicle for capturing and servicing satellites. Has the shuttle ever been used to bring anything back down to Earth? I honestly don't know, but I seriously doubt it. Bringing something back, fixing it, and launching it again can not be cheaper than just building another one. And without the overhead of the shuttle, that ratio only improves.

    Sure, heavy transport from orbit is something we should be researching, but it should not be the next immediate step. We've places to go, planets to see, and so on. We need to lift things into orbit cheap and fast, and the shuttle ain't doing it. Rockets will. And by the time bringing hardware or products back down to the surface, we'll likely have more than one surface to go to. Then it will be a priority, but now? Rockets.

    Rockets that carry up small, reusable lift-bodies that can be manuvered in space and controlled on landing, to be sure, but still hoisted up on a cheap and mostly disposable rocket.

  16. Why share bandwidth? on The Commercial Future of Torrrents · · Score: 1

    Why, for the discounted rate/right of use to the content I choose to host, of course. I should get something - other than a bill or a lawsuit - for being part of their distribution network.

  17. Re:Sugarcane on Ethanol More Trouble Than It's Worth? · · Score: 2, Funny

    First they said eggs were bad for you, now they say they're good for you.

    Then they said alcohol was bad for you, now they say a little is actually healthy.

    Then they said that you shouldn't put sugar in your gas tank. And now...

  18. How does this protect content? on Longhorn to Require Monitor-Based DRM · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a racket between the content providers and playback device manufacturers.

    I mean... Under this scheme, all I have to do to be a successful pirate is have enough money to afford "compatible" hardware. Running a private, subscription torrent system should cover those costs in little time.

  19. Re:Not an HDTV cutoff. on Jan 2009 Deadline for HDTV Cutoff · · Score: 1

    They're not "editors" per se, more like "gate-keepers". But yes, of late all they seem to do is hold that gate open for the crap.

  20. Well, duh! on AMD Alleges Intel Compilers Create Slower AMD Code · · Score: 1

    So, Intel engineers put in more time, and had more knowledge and experience, on how to optimize code for Intel processors than for "Intel compatible" ones? Shocking! What is this world coming to?

  21. I object! on Is Programming Art? · · Score: 1

    The line between Art and Science is very blurred. Science can be and Art and Art a Science. Programming can be either, or both, or neither. Given this, please, disclose your assumptions and pose the question again.

  22. Didn't you see Dogma? on Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet Probe · · Score: 1

    God is contractually bound by the word of the Church.

  23. Huh? on Linus On The Future Of Microsoft · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Yes, Linus is an expert on running a successful and profitable business.

    Transwhata?

    Don't get me wrong, or call this "flamebait" as it's not. Linux is a great thing, but the reasons it's as successful as it is have nothing to do with marketing, sales, creating perceptions, or anything else. It's simply a cheaper, ergo the corporate darling status, and some damned talented people are amused enough by it to lend their talents to the effort. These reasons in no way make Torvalds an authority - he simply has an opinion and happens to be a famous geek.

    I'd sooner hear Steve Jobs' more sophisticated thoughts on the subject - yet Apple's barely holding a candle to MS. Maybe Andy Grove could take a moment to ponder this?

  24. Re:GIS info is sensitive? Give me a break! on Court Rules GIS Data Can't Be Kept Secret · · Score: 1

    If you don't like the Patriot Act, sue to have it reviewed for Constitutionality. Use the power of the "activist judges" - that's what they're there for.

  25. Re:retarded moderators on Second Life Virtual Property Boom · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Oh, the irony of you complaining about the virtual worth of your lame comment, on a website where nobody actually knows you. That's down-right artistic!