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User: maxume

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Comments · 15,806

  1. Re:Hidden agenda on Thumbprints Used To Check Books Out of School Library · · Score: 1

    I think people with that many concerns about government would better spend their time agitating to make sure it does not become powerful, rather than trying to control their fingerprints (I sure don't find gloves to be particularly comfortable).

  2. Re:Hidden agenda on Thumbprints Used To Check Books Out of School Library · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The librarians got lazy.

    I really don't see what difference you see between a name and a thumbprint, they are both essentially public information that is roughly tied to a certain person. I suppose there is some raving-loony scenario where a nefarious criminal manages to pull a thumbprint out of the database and plant it at a crime scene with other corroborating evidence during a time period where the owner of the thumbprint does not have a decent alibi, but I don't find myself breaking into a sweat over it.

  3. Re:Not sensitive on Thumbprints Used To Check Books Out of School Library · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Do you think there is a high risk of students lifting fingerprints in order to steal books?

  4. Re:Not sensitive on Thumbprints Used To Check Books Out of School Library · · Score: 1

    What are your concerns? The system stores a hash of the fingerprint, as long as it is not completely brain dead there will be no way to use the information in the system to construct a fingerprint, and any library they use is likely already keeping a record of the books they check out.

  5. Re:Hidden agenda on Thumbprints Used To Check Books Out of School Library · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Thumbprints are personally identifiable. That does not make them private.

    Or are you wearing latex gloves right now?

    Or is it that you think the library should be prevented from keeping a record of the students that they have loaned books out to?

  6. Not sensitive on Thumbprints Used To Check Books Out of School Library · · Score: 1

    Thumbprints shouldn't be treated as sensitive personal information, they are too hard to control.

  7. Re:Google already does this - sort of on My Location the Next Google Privacy Controversy? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You've said that half a dozen times or so.

    There really is a fundamental difference between traditional surveillance and cheap, mass technological data collection (At a minimum, cost!). It makes sense to acknowledge that difference in our laws, rather that just spitting on people when they don't understand how pervasive the monitoring is, or what the full implications of their actions may be.

  8. Re:Yay, Slashdot is reducing itself to sensational on My Location the Next Google Privacy Controversy? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think many of the people screaming loudest about the street view data collection never understood that Google was intentionally and unapologetically logging the SSIDs.

  9. Re:Independent studies warranted on Study Claims Cellphones Implicated In Bee Loss · · Score: 2, Informative

    It is probably worth pointing out that lots of grains self pollinate, so the threat is more to food variety than it is to food supply.

  10. Re:Apple-haters in 3,2,1,... on Foxconn Workers Getting Raise With Apple Subsidies · · Score: 3, Funny

    I blame Apple for the coming increase in suicide rates at competing factories.

  11. Re:caterpillar on Clickjacking Worm Exploits Facebook "Like" Feature · · Score: 2, Informative

    If it helps, those are often called inchworms.

  12. Re:Neville Chamberlain on Pakistan Lifts Ban After Facebook Deletes Offending Page · · Score: 1

    The problem is that there really are plenty of moderate, reasonable people that self identify as Muslim.

    I suppose you might be able to make an argument that they can't be reasonable and identify themselves as Muslim, but I think it would be pretty thin.

    Of course, those are not really the people running Islamic countries.

  13. Re:pathetic on Pakistan Lifts Ban After Facebook Deletes Offending Page · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I didn't become more fundamentalist, I've never made the choice to associate myself with Facebook, so I should hardly start pretending that they speak for me.

    We certainly learned something about some of our neighbors.

  14. Re:By Processor on Latest Top 500 Supercomputer List Released · · Score: 1

    It's quite likely that they can offer a hefty discount and still make a profit on the transaction.

  15. Re:248 mile range? Big deal. on UK Students Build Electric Car With 248-Mile Range · · Score: 1

    They aren't going to be facing extreme cold in Alaska in July:

    http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/USAK0197

  16. Re:Liability caps on BP Knew of Deepwater Horizon Problems 11 Months Ago · · Score: 1

    If you are driving 500 miles or more in a day, your time is probably costing you more than 20% in excess fuel prices (and that much excess seems sort of unlikely to me).

    I certainly pay attention to the various fuel prices I see, but I don't go out of my way to save $2.50 if I forget to buy cheap when it is convenient.

  17. Re:Suppose they can't stop the oil on BP Says "Top Kill" Operation Has Failed · · Score: 1

    Yes, 10 billion gallons could make a film that covered the ocean. But if it is all making a film, then it isn't washing up on beaches and killing the krill. And much of it would degrade and boil off (like, more than 1/2 of it, given that we are talking about this well taking more than 10 years to leak that much).

    I'm not trying to downplay the damage that is being done to the gulf, I'm dismissing histrionics about this potentially killing all the whales.

  18. Re:Not prepared on BP Says "Top Kill" Operation Has Failed · · Score: 1

    The regulation makes more sense in the Canadian situation, where the drilling season only lasts for a few months, and they might have to wait several months before even starting to respond to a blow out.

    It doesn't sound like our viewpoints are all that far apart, my response to the other poster was phrased the way it was because they had also made a rather absolute statement.

  19. Re:Suppose they can't stop the oil on BP Says "Top Kill" Operation Has Failed · · Score: 1

    Indeed.

  20. Re:Time for the SuperEbola? on New Ebola Drug 100% Effective In Monkeys · · Score: 1

    HIV adapts to antivirals.

    Fortunately it is not especially transmissible and most people that are undergoing treatment are at least somewhat responsible about not exposing others.

  21. Re:Suppose they can't stop the oil on BP Says "Top Kill" Operation Has Failed · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, it is an oversimplification. But the oceans are huge. 10 billion gallons spread over the 335 million square kilometers of ocean surface would have an average depth of 0.00012 millimeters (yes, that's right, 0.12 microns).

    Of course, that is still an oversimplification, because it will not spread evenly over the entire surface of the ocean (but much of it will degrade, boil off or mix into deeper water). But it does at least start to put the numbers into some sort of context.

    And that's the nothing goes right for many years scenario, the more likely scenario is that they limit the spilled oil to several hundred million gallons. Which is still a huge freaking disaster, especially in the gulf, but anyone worrying about the future of sea life in general is being irrational.

  22. Re:There is one known method known to work on BP Says "Top Kill" Operation Has Failed · · Score: 1

    And how much risk is there that it will make things worse?

  23. Re:Not prepared on BP Says "Top Kill" Operation Has Failed · · Score: 1

    Well, do you think such a regulatory change would actually cause gas prices to double in 4 years?

  24. Re:Suppose they can't stop the oil on BP Says "Top Kill" Operation Has Failed · · Score: 1

    Why? I'm not enthusiastically hoping that 10 billion gallons of oil spew into the oceans, I'm pointing out that it probably won't kill sea life as we know it.

    Also, can I put chemical dispersants into the tub?

  25. Re:Falacy on BP Says "Top Kill" Operation Has Failed · · Score: 1

    It's implied in my first post, but I'll make it explicit: That's where the strong survive by eating the flesh of the weak, right?

    It isn't particularly obvious to me that we can make enough calories without putting a lot of energy into agriculture.