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User: Eminence

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  1. Idiocy on PC Prices Reach $300 Milestone · · Score: 4, Insightful
    But while they are priced like consumer electronics, the machines still aren't even remotely as easy to use, and the trend lines there aren't particularly encouraging.

    Idiocy. Some things are complex and require more knowledge to use effectively than others not because they are poorly designed but because they are much more powerful and versatile. How many functions a typical representative of "consumer electronic" serves? Even a TV needs just on/off, channel up, channel down, volume up & down to operate (the rest is hardly used). Is anything more complex in the consumer electronic field?

    What we have to do to shove this plain old truth down the underdeveloped journalistic cerebrums?

  2. Re:Why a spacesuit? on Using an Old Space-Suit as a Satellite · · Score: 4, Funny
    The spacesuit is already onboard the ISS and has been declared as surplus.

    Yeah, so instead of coming up with an innovative way of delivering mass to orbit we achieve that through accounting. It's declared as surplus, written off, and then it appears it got there *for free* - Ta-Da!

  3. Dark Side?!?! on Jamie Zawinski Switches to Mac OS X · · Score: 1

    Since when Apple and OS X is Dark Side? Did I miss something or is anything that Intel touches automatically Dark Side? Wait, Linux runs on Intel, so it can't be it. What is it then? That you have to pay money for the OS? Is /. RMS's outlet now?

  4. Re:In reality on Is Apple & Community Evangelizing Into Uncoolness? · · Score: 1
    I agree hating it just because its intel is wrong.

    Agreed. And: Is there any situation at all in which hating is right?

  5. Missed the point on Is Apple & Community Evangelizing Into Uncoolness? · · Score: 1
    He missed the point that now Apple's selling point and stronghold is OS X, not a hardware architecture and certainly not a processor.

    TFA is just a rant against buying a PPC Mac now but in favor of waiting for Intel Macs to be released next year. Fine. I will wait, but it's just because I don't have money right now. If I win a lottery jackpot tomorrow I'll buy a current G4 PB. I know it would serve me well up to three years, after which I expect to switch to a new machine. Not because it's Apple. Just because in IT three years is a lot of time.

    Vendors dropping support for PPC versions afterwards don't concern me. Game vendors don't concern me at all - I don't game. The OS would surely be updated for those three years, after all it is possible to use it now a 3yr old PB G3. Same about main apps.

  6. Re:All you yanks can come crash at my place... on Patriot Act to be Expanded · · Score: 1
    I hate to say it but Howard and Co are pretty much as morally corrupt as the Labor Government that sat on its hands while Indonesia invaded East Timor.

    Yeah, but his point about women, sun and beaches stands. :)

  7. Re:White hat ? on Patriot Act to be Expanded · · Score: 1
    Maybe even Darth Vader's helmet ?-)

    Rather Emperor's mantle.

  8. Yes, it makes sense on Writing Down Passwords? · · Score: 1
    We are so much into digital age by now that writing something on paper with a pencil makes it much more secure than any computer files, because to read it you have to get physical access to it. And for preventing this or detecting it took place there are numbers of excellent methods evolved over centuries.

    If you write your passwords skillfully (for example, coded in even a simple way, scribbled amongst some other notes in your telephone directory or small paper notebook) chances anyone would get to them without you knowing about it are close to none. Especially so if you are a normal citizen and have no reasons to expect any government intelligence agency has developed a specific interest in you.

    All those Big-Brotherish surveillance techniques work miracles, but only against electronic media. They are totally useless against a note scribbled on a piece of old fashioned paper.

  9. Re:"Most secure computers" - I doubt it on World's Biggest Hacker Held · · Score: 1

    You've never worked for an intelligence agency, have you? It shows.

  10. Don't underestimate the Force on The Science of Star Wars · · Score: 1

    The only scientific thing in Star Wars is the Force. Really.

  11. Will harm Linux? on Dvorak Says Apple Move to Intel Will Harm Linux · · Score: 1

    Come on, this guy is a genius, they should consider him for Nobel prize this year.

  12. Good, good... on Extending Pop Music Copyrights · · Score: 1

    Good, the more insane copyright laws get the better. It's easier to overthrow laws that become so stupid everyone is able to see their uselessnes.

  13. SWOT on Apple Switching to Intel · · Score: 1
    S - chance for better performance, lower prices. Chance for a new generation of more powerful Apple notebooks.
    W - now we have only one manufacturer of processors for mainstream computers. This may weaken Apple's bargaining position in the long run.
    O - huge chance for Apple to really take on Microsoft's dominance and widen its market base.
    T - I wonder how long before Microsoft discontinues Office for OS X.

    Overall, it just shows the power of Unix. A well designed operating system can be easily ported to a new hardware architecture in such a way that what most apps would require would be just a recompile.

  14. Re:2nd Amendment on Vigilante Hackers use Old West Tactics for Justice · · Score: 1

    I don't know why parent was moded funny. This ain't funny, this is insightful. State clearly can't cope with the real bad guys of the Internet - scammers, spammers, phishers - being too preoccupied with hunting down kids sharing music. It is all natural then that some would take justice into their own hands. Nature abhors a vacuum.

  15. Re:Ideas on Another Star Wars Prequel? · · Score: 1
    ROTS didn't say as much but Palpatine's expression suggested this was so. And is the whole immortality thing the same as the Jedi life-after-death that Yoda, Anakin and Obi-Wan display at the end of ROTJ?

    Clearly not. Sidious master's powers were based on manipulating midi-clorians, that is influencing material, organic particles that have some relationship with the Force. Jedi's life after death is more like nirvana - it's becoming one with the Force. It's spiritual in nature, not dealing with material particles or cells.

    We also don't know if this Sith abilities are not a lie, part of Sidious's scheme to temp Anakin to the Dark Side.

  16. Re:Ideas on Another Star Wars Prequel? · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Maybe a Sith Lord can have multiple apprentices. But if one of them finally succeeds in killing the master, what would happen to the others?

    Well, this was made very clear - neither Sith nor Jedi masters don't have more than one apprentice at a time. The difference being, of course, that Jedi masters let go of their apprentices and there is no rivalry amongst them.

    It's important to notice that Anakin's fast advancement within the Jedi Order was possible only because of the turmoil created by the Clone Wars. He skipped some tests. He probably fought more than meditated. He, so to speak, sneaked past the system designed to screen against any padawan becoming too powerful without developing enough compassion and understanding. It wasn't all that hard, because it was a system built on trust, not paranoid suspicion.

    And he managed to keep his relationship with Padme a secret from the rest of Jedi. His betrayal of the Jedi in a sense begun with that.

  17. Re:Ideas on Another Star Wars Prequel? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Vader seems to be subordinate of Tarkin

    According to the backstory, Tarkin was challenging Palpatine for Emperor at one point, so this could be correct.

    This makes no sense, since Vader knows best that a guy not familiar with the ways of the Force can't even get near being a threat for the Emperor.

    What's more puzzling is why Palpatine keeps Vader on the payroll at all, when he allows the Death Star to be destroyed, lets Luke escape in ESB and is clearly treacherous ("join me, and we will rule the galaxy as father and son"). I'd have relegated him to droid-polishing duties after Ep IV.

    This is quite clear and can be easily explained within the known canonical storyline.

    Being treacherous against your master is a behavior for a Sith apprentice, after all the only way to get promoted to a Sith Lord is by slaying your master. Any good Sith apprentice is expected to plot to kill his master at some point. So, this is part of the game and who would know it better than Sidious, who has been there?

    But this is not as simple as that, of course. Some of the things Vader/Anakin says that are apparently against the Sidious/Palpatine are just a deception aimed at a particular person - as it was shown in EP III.

    Anyway, in this situation Sidious can't get rid of Vader. He needs an apprentice. He has his own plot to get Luke as the new one, but to achieve this he needs Luke to slay Vader. For him it's a win-win situation - one of them would remain to serve him. He can't predict, of course, that Vader would turn into Anakin again and kill him.

    BTW apparently, the advancement in the Sith is only by slaying - first you have to kill a Sith apprentice to become one. Then you have to kill your Sith master to become one yourself. Nice clan, indeed.

  18. Ideas on Another Star Wars Prequel? · · Score: 1

    Many people have many ideas set in the Star Wars universe. The problem might be various copyrights and such - but even if these would not be an obstacle someone would have to act as a keeper of the storyline to differentiate the canon from the rest.

    This particular idea is not in line with what is known now. Sith, as far as it was revealed in the episodes already made, has no organizational structure and apparently consists always of one master and one apprentice. Where would many Sith lords come from?

    Of course, it is not the first time Lucas changes his mind about his universe. Seeing episode IV after the III shows clearly that back then Lucas had no idea whatsoever of his characters past. Ben Kenobi doesn't recognize rather unique droids he encountered already in the past, Vader seems to be subordinate of Tarkin, numerous C3PO's in various colors walk around etc. etc.

    I think a much more interesting idea would be to create counter-SW series. Consider for a moment that Jedi are evil and Sith is good AND all those movies are propaganda inspired by a Jedi runaway. There were no mass murders. There were no shady dealings. Vader is not crippled, he just wears this outfit in combat situations. Sidious is not deformed or evil, he's just a good administrator. Etc. Don't you think turning it upside down and creating a story along this lines, debunking so to speak "Jedi myths" could produce a thrilling - and refreshing - story?

  19. Yes yes yes!!!! on Blank Keyboard · · Score: 1
    At last! I have been waiting for exactly this for years!!! I always liked black equipment but I was never able to find a black keyboard without the markings on the keys. I even thought of writing to Think Geek to propose them such a product. But finally someone did it, I'm ordering one as soon as my paycheck from the last project arrives.

    Now, if only Apple produced a black PowerBook with black, blank keyboard...

  20. What is quickly? on Wormholes Unstable (BBC) · · Score: 1
    Wormholes with smooth or classical spacetimes appear to be unstable and fall apart quickly. Too bad for budding time travelers and space explorers!

    It depends on what quickly means here.

  21. Re:In other news... on Star Wars Premier: The Line People · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "Revenge of the Sith" rang in a whopping $50 million on its opening Thursday, a single-day record boosted by eagerly anticipated midnight showings, and its total receipts since then beat the four-day $134.3 million opening of 2003's "The Matrix Reloaded." The George Lucas film has also grossed $144.7 million overseas for a total of $303 million worldwide.

    So, the title should have been "The Revenge of the Movie Industry" or "The Cash Sucking Machine Strikes Back"?

  22. Pilot program... on RFID Bracelets to Track Inmates in L.A. County · · Score: 1

    OK, so this is the pilot program for the prisons. How about viewing prisons as the pilot program for the rest of society? Let's say - cities at first.

  23. Re:Purpose of Prisons? on RFID Bracelets to Track Inmates in L.A. County · · Score: 1
    We have two reasons for sending people to prison in the first place:
    (1) To punish them.
    (2) To reform them.

    You miss the most important reason which is to separate them from the society thus ensuring that they won't harm its members. While a murderer is in prison he won't kill normal citizens.

  24. Come on... on ISS Oxygen Generator Fails for Good · · Score: 1

    Everybody is laughing but this not funny, it's not even pathetic... Something is really wrong here. What happened to our suposedly great civilization that we can't even make one oxygen generator that won't break up - and no one thought of installing a second one up there! I don't know what to think, but looks like this whole space exploration is just a joke. Now, better to spend cash on another part of Star Wars rather than on a try to reach the stars for real. Is so much easier...

  25. Why this is news?!?!!?! on Apple's First Flops · · Score: 1

    I don't get it, it was more than 15 years ago, who cares about their flops then???