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User: randolph

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  1. A bad joke and a licensing note on Why Apple and Google Made Their Own Programming Languages · · Score: 1

    Swift == (Objective-C)++

    One perhaps significant fact: the Go compiler is licensed under a BSD license, Swift has started as proprietary, but may be going over to something open this year.

  2. Re:Typical Business Insider Conspiracy Theory. on Why Apple and Google Made Their Own Programming Languages · · Score: 1

    Dart is in fact mentioned, but it's way down in the article.

  3. So buy another small camera? on New Law Will Require Camera Phones To "Click" · · Score: 1

    So people can't just buy small cameras which aren't phones? WtF?

  4. ISP excuse, thinks I on User Charged With Taking ISP Tech Hostage · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's a remarkably good excuse for the ISP not doing their job; the customer is forbidden to contact them. I think it's probably system-abuse on the part of the ISP.

  5. I suppose he was violent all along on Spam King and Family Dead In Murder-Suicide · · Score: 1

    I guess he never got caught before. Wow.

  6. See Teresa Nielsen Hayden on moderation on How To Deal With Internet Bullies? · · Score: 1

    here. There aren't perfect answers, unfortunately, but there are some pretty good ones.

  7. Did he kidnap his wife in the process? on Spam King Escapes From Federal Prison · · Score: 1

    That would be a very serious crime, if it can be proven.

  8. Perhaps the matches are related on FBI Fights Testing For False DNA Matches · · Score: 0

    Skin color is a quite superficial (literally) phenotypical characteristic. In any case, the only way to clear this up is with the research that, apparently, the FBI is trying to block.

  9. Actually, you can on Kodak Unveils 50MP CCD Image Sensor · · Score: 1

    All you need is a requirement for a really large print or, alternatively, a reason to shoot in low-light conditions. Most consumer digital camera manufacturers set a goal of matching 35mm film (they've actually exceeded it by now). But the joke of this is that 35mm film is just barely large enough to make good 8x10 prints, provided you've carefully composed your image. Me, I can't afford a camera that uses this sensor, so I'll keep on using my medium-format film camera. At least the parts are cheaper.

  10. Re:MOD PARENT DOWN! on Why OLPC Struggles Against Educators, Big Business · · Score: 1

    How can people, especially on slashdot (where this has been thrashed out countless times before), keep remaining so willfully ignorant of the goals of this project? Oh, because they want it to fail. I wonder why.
  11. Peer-reviewed work on Scientists Surprised to Find Earth's Biosphere Booming · · Score: 1

    It would be nice to have a peer-reviewed paper cited, rather than a climate-change denialist (and another site, probably also denialist). So here's a link to Running's publication page. The relevant NASA presentations appear to be here. Have fun, folks.

  12. Say what? on Microsoft and OLPC Agree To Put XP On the XO Laptop · · Score: 1

    $3/$7 machine is quite a bit to truly poor countries. That's disgusting. What exactly did MS offer? Or was it just schmooze-fu?

  13. The chose the standard language on Adobe Photoshop CS4 Will Be 64-Bit For Windows Only · · Score: 1

    Apple Objective-C is a proprietary language. Developers who've been working for 20 years in C++ are not going to take a year off from productive work to learn a new language, especially since this is just Steve Jobs ego at work.

  14. What a huge dead-end for Apple! on Adobe Photoshop CS4 Will Be 64-Bit For Windows Only · · Score: 1

    I don't have time to learn another proprietary language. Neither does Adobe. What a mess!

  15. There is both more and less than meets the eye on Scientists Create Room Temperature Superconductor · · Score: 5, Informative

    The more is that the researchers have shown that silane turns into a metal at very high pressures; while researchers have not managed to create metallic hydrogen, they have managed this. The less is that it's only a 17-degree Kelvin superconductor--not an extraordinary temperature--and the pressures involved are on the order of half a million atmospheres.

    The original article was published in Science on 14 March 2008; Vol. 319. no. 5869, pp. 1506 - 1509; DOI: 10.1126/science.1153282. Your local library can probably get you a copy; if you are at a university you may be able to access the online version.

  16. Re:personal identity number on DHS Official Suggests REAL ID Mission Creep · · Score: 1

    Oh and by the way, Real ID requires Social Security and the state ID agencies to reconcile their records.

  17. Accounts of problems & notes on privacy in the on DHS Official Suggests REAL ID Mission Creep · · Score: 1

    Accounts of problems.

    Also, the USA doesn't have the privacy laws that all of Europe has; once we have a national ID, we become visible to just about every nosy commercial data broker and any reasonably efficient criminal.

  18. Growing plants inefficient solar tech on Scientists Recycle CO2 with Sunlight to Make Fuel · · Score: 1

    It is easier...but doesn't help transportation very much. And growing plants is a very inefficient way to gather solar energy for transportation.

  19. Re:right to privacy? no such thing on Rick Rubin Discloses Sony Rootkit Called Home · · Score: 1

    I believe it's called the Fourth Amendment. More generally, the Supreme Court has found that without a right to privacy, various parts of the Bill of Rights are without force and that, therefore, the Bill of Rights implies a guarantee of privacy; the famous penumbra of specific guarantees of the Bill of Rights, much hated by authoritarians. See GRISWOLD v. CONNECTICUT, 381 U.S. 479 (1965).

  20. Comcast is a cable-tv company on Comcast Cuts Off Users Who Exceed Secret Limit · · Score: 1

    ...is anyone surprised that they treat their customers poorly?

  21. Plan 9's Venti on DSS/HIPPA/SOX Unalterable Audit Logs? · · Score: 1

    I think Plan 9's Venti probably does what you want. There is a version which runs on Linux; see Plan 9 From Userspace for details.

  22. And remember... on Punchscan Wins Open Source Voting Competition · · Score: 1

    ...if your vote didn't matter, the weasels wouldn't try so hard to mess with the count. Votes matter--never doubt it.

  23. If you own the wires... on Internet Phone Start-up Goes Belly-Up · · Score: 1

    ...you can charge everyone else rent to use them, so all the VOIP providers have a problem. But that doesn't even come into play here; thanks to the wonders of deregulation we are right back in the Bad Old Days of unregulated monopoly; the telcos simply don't carry--or distort--traffic they don't like.

  24. Re:Starving on Robots To Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers · · Score: 1

    So do we send the worker home to starve, then? Seems pretty inhuman to me. There's two problems, really; we have a legal problem, and Mexico has a refugee problem (which subsidized US ag exports contribute to). We're going to have Mexican refugees until the economics are resolved (or unless we resolve on policies that kill many, which I hope we do not)

  25. Starving on Robots To Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers · · Score: 1

    Most of them say, "I'm glad I didn't starve back home."