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User: PapaBoojum

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Comments · 78

  1. Re:William Gibson on Some of the Greatest Science Fiction Novels Are Fix-Ups · · Score: 5, Informative

    Fix ups are short stories that are later weaved together - often after significant alteration from their original form - to construct a larger overarching narrative. They are not simply collections of short stories. Burning Chrome is simply a collection of short stories, some of which happen to take place in the same Sprawl 'universe'. However there is no overall narrative threading through all of the stories in Burning Chrome.

  2. Re:Survey says... on Studying the Slow Decay of a Laptop Battery For an Entire Year · · Score: 0

    The chart seems to bear this out. Once he started taking more rapid samples in his 'casual' test, the degradation slope seems to steepen a bit.

  3. The market would address this on Is Intel Planning To Kill Enthusiast PCs? · · Score: 2

    If Intel were silly enough to try this, 1 day after Intel put out such processors, vendors would be selling em soldered onto an appropriate socket pinout adapter.

  4. Bummer, I first read the headline... on World's First Quadruple Limb Transplant Fails · · Score: 1

    ...as "World's First Quadruple Limb Transplant FLAILS", which would have been a positive sign.

  5. Re:Perspective on The iPhone Is a Nightmare For Carriers · · Score: 1

    It IS possible... it just might take some perseverance. I work for a German company. We have had many German engineers visiting that ended up buying an unlocked iPhone (and iPad). Last time was just after the latest model came out. All the purchases were direct from the an Apple retail store. Several times it took some wheedling b/c sometimes the 'geniuses' claimed this wasn't possible until they talked to someone higher up.

  6. Well of course.... on A Pointed Critique of Thunderbird 3's Performance Compared to v.2 · · Score: 1

    Thunderbird 2 was a big fat cargo carrier. Thunderbird 3 was a big sleek rocket. Off course it will be faster. Unless the guy operating the marionette strings falls asleep or something.

  7. Re:If you really want the Japanese to get into spa on Hayabusa Returns Particles From Asteroid · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The whale in space experiment was already tried and was a failure. Just ask the bowl of petunias.

  8. Obligatory on Delta Rocket Crashes In Mongolia · · Score: 1

    Space Junk (updated)

    she was walking all alone
    down the street in the alley
    her name was Sally
    she never saw it
    when she was hit by space junk
        in New York, Miami Beach
        heavy metal fell in Cuba
        Mongolia, Saudi Arabia
        on christmas eve said NORAD
        a Soviet Sputnik hit Africa
        India, Venezuela
        (in Texas, Kansas)
        it's falling fast Peru too
        it keeps coming
    and now i'm mad about space junk
    i'm all burned out about space junk
    oooh walk & talk about space junk
    it smashed my baby's head
    and now my Sally's dead

  9. Re:Mixed feelings on $338M Patent Ruling Against Microsoft Overturned · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Having served on two juries in my lifetime (one civil, one criminal) I can attest that in both cases the idiot ratio was definitely > 50%. At least in the criminal trial, what the jury could do was strictly limited by the judges instructions. In the civil case, most of the jurors wanted to vote based on factors that had NOTHING to do with the case we heard. It was a medical malpractice suit and most jurors let their personal experiences with various doctors (good or bad) dictate how they were going to vote, pretty much ignoring the evidence binders and testimony.

    Of course one could easily argue I was one of the idiots since I couldn't B.S. my way out of jury duty....

  10. Re:damn! on AMD's DX11 Radeons Can Drive Six 30 Displays · · Score: 1

    It is F.U.D., where F.U.D. := Fzzking Unbelievable Display

  11. Re:Beware of namechanges on RadioShack To Rebrand As "The Shack"? · · Score: 1

    I get the same feeling when I wonder what happened to Super Sugar Crips

    They were wiped out in a gang war with the Raisin Bloods.

  12. Re:Ahem... it's SF on Sci Fi Channel Becoming Less Geek-Centric "SyFy" · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now I'm curious what a parasmut novel is.

    "He raised his custom matte-black GigaGlock 950 and sighted through the custom Kalishnakova scope. His finger, protected from the moon's harsh atmosphere by his Shinto-Nagakasi Deluxe Combat gloves, tensed on the Bloraskavich trigger. The Kalishnakova was so precise, he could watch his target, sitting atop the Goliathian 4500 heavy tank seven klicks away, light a filtered Tska-Choi cigarette using a MegaBic with custom Tetra-Flint."

  13. Another useful site succumbs to greed? on Restauranteurs Say Yelp Uses Extortion To Ply Ad Sales · · Score: 5, Informative

    A friend who manages a restaurant in Watertown MA asked me what Yelp was... She was contacted by someone claiming to be from Yelp with the same pitch.

    I knew of Yelp, and used to trust the reviews. But I had already lost respect for them when they obviously sold my e-mail addy, despite claims of confidentiality and my opting out of their mailings.

  14. Re:1000 years? IOW this is yet another wild-ass gu on New Paper Offers Additional Reasoning for Fermi's Paradox · · Score: 1

    "Assuming" means an assumption is being made. And an assumption is a proposition that is taken for granted, as if it were known to be true. Don't demean it (blah, blah, blah, etc.)

    Gee, thanks sensei.

    So I'm not allowed to ask where they came up with the number 1000? If I ask such a question, I am somehow 'demeaning a classic tool in science'? I should just take it on faith that its a well founded assumption because you directed me to a Wikipedia page that has nothing to do with the original article?

    Get over yourself.

  15. 1000 years? IOW this is yet another wild-ass guess on New Paper Offers Additional Reasoning for Fermi's Paradox · · Score: 1

    Assuming the average communicating civilization has a lifetime of 1,000 years

    From what orifice was this number pulled?

    They have a sample size of 1 civilization with an unknown end-date of communication capability. Where does 1000 years come from?

  16. Re:Interesting on Indian Woman Convicted of Murder By Brain Scan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Honor killings as you have read recently about in the media, did not happen in the same country

    Are you claiming that 'honor killings' do not occur in India?

    http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040113/asp/nation/story_2780541.asp

    http://www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org/archives/04_0112_in_wrights.htm

    Just like any other technology, now that its available, society has to make sense of how best to use it.

    Yes, and that is by throwing it in the heap with all the other pseudo-science and outright quackery.

  17. Re:Windows XP Activation made me a Linux user on What Modern Games Are DRM-Free? · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm a single childless guy...

    This is Slashdot. Mod parent Redundant.

  18. Re:Google Chrome on Google Updates Chrome's Terms of Service · · Score: 1

    To me looks like the old pre-PC game "Simon", only with three buttons instead of four.

    Yeah I'm an old fart...

  19. Not inspired by the _Miami_ Dolphins hopefully.... on Dolphin Inspired Mini-sub · · Score: 1

    ...otherwise it would sink to the bottom and stay there.

  20. Does this explain 'Voyager acceleration' mystery? on Nuclear Decay May Vary With Earth-Sun Distance · · Score: 1

    This variance in isotope decay may very well explain the 'voyager acceleration' mystery. Base discrepancies between the on-board clocks and Terran clocks could cause it to falsely appear that the voyagers were accelerating.

  21. Re:the banned page on Slashdot's Disagree Mail · · Score: 1

    WTF. I deleted that first sentence before hitting 'Submit'. Please ignore that first sentence. 'Course the psychics in this thread would ~know~ I intended that...

  22. Re:the banned page on Slashdot's Disagree Mail · · Score: 1

    Always credulously accepting all concepts as possible is neither immature nor detrimental to understanding your surroundings. I argue the opposite: attributing that which you do not understand or can not personally explain to supernatural phenomenon is what is immature. There is ample evidence that most so-called 'psychics' are charlatans and frauds. If you believe otherwise, I suggest your understanding of your surroundings is not as logical as you think.

  23. Re:It stands for on Hands-on Look At USB 3.0, Spec Details Revealed · · Score: 4, Informative

    Bidirectional != parallel

  24. Oscillation Mitigation? Pah! on NASA Installing Shocks On Ares · · Score: 1

    They should just slap on a couple of those top secret Oscillation Overthrusters. Then their stupid Ares rocket could travel all the way to Planet 10 in the 8th dimension!

  25. Re:Out on a limb on Net Shoppers Bullied Into "Verified By Visa" Program · · Score: 1

    People not even willing to make one small change in their habits make me sick.

    That's ok. Self-aggrandizing holier-than-thou tools make me sick.