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Comments · 17

  1. Re:Misinformation? on Mutant Registration vs. Vaccine Registration · · Score: 1

    Actually, it's two jabs, but the point remains valid.

    Also, never having chickenpox means you won't develop shingles later in life.

    I never got chickenpox as a child. My doctor at the time even had me tested, thinking I had gotten it so mildly that nobody noticed. My brother was in the same boat. We both got vaccinated as adults (I was in my early/mid 20's at the time). I thought about the whole shingles thing, but decided the risk of getting chicken pox as an adult was high enough that I wanted the protection. It was my sister-in-law's pregnancy that led to me getting vaccinated since I figured the child could be an additional vector for me (and I was frequently travelling overseas at the time, so that added to the risk). I don't regret it. They also have a shingles vaccine these days, so I'll probably make sure to get that at some point.

  2. Re:But that's not all Snowden did... on Why Snowden Did Right · · Score: 2

    Let's not forget that what most people dislike (or hate) about the U.S. government is something outside the intentions it was founded upon. It wasn't supposed to become a rich man's club running at the behest of other rich people.

    I'll agree with that. I still don't think "abolish the government" is the answer, though. Right now the American people are getting exactly the government they "want". They complain (and rightly so), but they also keep voting for the same people who are following the will of their corporate overlords, and without the corporate overlords money, they won't be able to run the ads to convince people (who get 99% of their news from commercials) to vote for them. I'm not sure how we orchestrate such a change, and nobody has been able to do it so far (though that would be an interesting discussion to have).

  3. Re:But that's not all Snowden did... on Why Snowden Did Right · · Score: 1

    Because the only people who claim that have "harming the US" as a goal.

    I don't think anyone should have harming the American people , as a goal, at all. The complete abolition of the American government , on the other hand, is a goal which I think is overwhelmingly in the interests of humanity as an entire species, and in seeking such, the American people themselves should be leading the charge.

    So how do you imagine we "abolish the US government" without harming the people? It's easy to point out the "bad", "evil", (and the favorite of the anarchist/libertarian sort) "facist" things the US governemnt does while ignoring the massive good it has done. Of course, if looking through a very narrow lens helps suport your cause, I guess you're free to do that, and somehow get positive mod points for it. Guess you brought friends, eh? Just remember, the evil government is what is allowing you to post negatively about it. Try the same in any of many more oppressive countries out there.

  4. save money on Botched Executions Put Lethal Injections Under New Scrutiny · · Score: 0

    Or we could save a ton of money AND save the trouble of finding the right drug cocktail by eliminating the death penalty. It's not like it's a deterrent to crime.

  5. Re:limited field of view on ANTVR - China's Answer To Oculus Rift Is Raising Funds · · Score: 2

    I'm fairly certain he's making a somewhat racist joke regarding eye shape.

  6. less choice? on Major ISPs Threaten To Throttle Innovation and Slow Network Upgrades · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How could consumers possibly face "less choice" than they do now?! I moved about three months ago and my ONLY choice for wired internet (and cable, for that matter) is Comcast. For two and a half of those months, I had no service and was fighting with Comcast. It sure would have been nice if there WERE another choice. It's also not like I'm living in the middle of nowhere - this is in the DC Metro! This is not a rare thing, at all. Where I moved from I at least had two choices (AT&T and a local Cable / internet company), but that's still not much choice.

    Regulation can only help at this point, because it will give consumers a leg to stand on when dealing with these people. I suggest anyone who thinks we DON'T need regulation should try dealing with Comcast customer support for a month, then get back to me.

  7. Re:Life or death on A Look at Smart Gun Technology · · Score: 1

    Oh yes, because violent crime is something I worry about on a daily basis. I know zero people in my family that have been victims of violent crime. ZERO. I have not been the victim of violent crime, and I have spent many a day and night in Detroit (concerts, bar visits, driving through, etc) which is a city known for it's crime (though I feel like it's overblown quite a bit unless you're counting gun nuts who shoot strangers for being on their front porch).

    People who feel the need to carry a gun at all times to "protect themselves" need a few lessons in risk management and statistics. I'm certain if you live in the U.S., you don't have any sort of tiger-attack insurance, nor do you take medication to keep you from getting malaria, because those are simply not things you need to protect yourself from. The chances of either of those things happening in the US are so small as to be something you don't need to worry about. The same goes for violent crime. Pick your friends well, don't hang out in high-crime areas waving around wads of cash, and don't go into ethnic neighborhoods different from yours and scream racial slurs and I think you'll be fine.

  8. Re:All My Jobs Required a BS at Minimum on Bachelor's Degree: An Unnecessary Path To a Tech Job · · Score: 1

    Exactly.

    I don't have a degree ("some college" only), and I've done well as a Linux admin. I've worked for large tech companies, automotive suppliers, market research firms, a state university, and I'm now back to a private firm that focuses on I.T. security. The only times no degree has ever been an "issue" has been when applying for a job at an Ivy League school (who wanted a degree for the senior position but would still hire a non-degreed person for a non-senior position - I passed), and for a large trading company that I think I'm glad I don't work for. I recently changed jobs and I was given a solid salary for the metro area I moved to, and they gave me relocation money (and this isn't even some crazy vally tech firm).

    At a previous job, the I.T. Director had no degree and did a good job. There are plenty of people without degrees in higher-level positions than helpdesk or tier one support.

  9. Their poor offspring on How Many People Does It Take To Colonize Another Star System? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While you would clearly be getting volunteers for the start of this task, there is an ethical dillema as far as future generations. Just because parents / grandparents / great-grandparents were totally OK living their entire lives in what would be a fairly finite space, it doesn't mean some members of a future generation wouldn't consider it torture. I guess it might be hard for me to see things from their eyes since they would be born into it, but I'm thinking that after I got to learn some history and see some videos / pictures of Earth, I'd be pretty unhappy stuck on a spaceship forever. I wonder how many would refuse to breed and do the same to their offspring (which would screw up the "diversity", or decide to turn back, or just go stark-raving-mad and murder someone or everyone (destroy the ship), and then your genetic diversity is REALLY screwed.

  10. Re:Or Gatorade on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Stay Fit At Work? · · Score: 1

    There are still needless calories in Gatorade. Less than your typical non-diet soda, but far more than water. It can be a rough switch at first so some of those extremely low calorie water flavor items (be them powder or liquid) can be a good alternative to plain water.

  11. Re:Organic insulin. on Sweet Times For Cows As Gummy Worms Replace Corn Feed · · Score: 3, Funny

    I insist we only use organic insulin for all of the newly diabetic cows! It's sustainable... or something.

    I'm sure Wilford Brimley will be along at any minute to help out our diabeetus-stricken cows.

  12. new name, please! on Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Beta Released · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's hard enough for me accept the name "Ubuntu", let alone their release names. I wonder if they could have a contest to actually make the version names somehow worse. I'm sure I would get a lot of street cred with the other IT guys when I tell them I run "Feisty Fawn". I'll have to make sure to wear my neckerchief...

  13. Re:Okay, you asked for it...a female perspective! on Training - A Company or a Worker's Responsibility? · · Score: 1

    No flames, just a calm observation...

    Ok, I can agree that if she is the primary breadwinner (and even if she ISN'T), the guy needs to help out around the house. I've seen it before. A girl I worked with was the SOLE breadwinner. Her husband sat at home all day, playing computer games all night, and sleeping all day. She always made excuses for him as to why he didn't work. She even got a robotic lawnmower with her own HARD EARNED MONEY because "He's allergic to grass". I think a dust mask would have been cheaper. Of course, it was a lot her fault for even allowing it to happen. I think he ended up cheating on her with a girl he met online, AFTER she got pregnant.

    That being said, I'm a little bothered by the "telling him where the butter is leads to you doing everything for him and giving your life up" thing. Have you even been looking for something (keys, pen, etc.) that ended up being RIGHT in front of you the whole time? Sometimes asking "where's the butter?" is just asking for the location of the butter.

    I think Nora Ephron needs to be a little less aggressive, but I'm sure she'd have PAGES to say about that, too...

  14. I call B.S. on some of what he says on Hacker Gary McKinnon Interviewed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At one point in the interview, this guy talks about some of the things he saw, in regards to UFO activity. He claims he was able to view a "large image" over "graphical remote control", but he didn't have any proof because it was "too large to download". Uhm, if it's being displayed on your screen, that's taking the same amount of time to download I would guess; even if he was seeing a scaled image, he could still do a screenshot, right? I think he's both a bit crazy and/or a liar...

    I will agree that $900,000 of damage seems a bit of out line, however.

  15. interoperability with windows/ active directory on Kerberos: The Definitive Guide · · Score: 1, Informative

    I think another good way to look (if you're interested in good interoperability) is openLDAP. I know there are a lot of tie-ins to Kerberos, but I believe it's a better direction to go, when you look at features, and supporting naming services, printers, etc.

    I've been pretty happy with the O'Reilly "LDAP" book, which has been terribly helpful. To be honest, it's still been a bit of a pain. I blame Sun more than anything else; should be a lot easier if you were implementing on Linux. I have used a lot of google also, but nobody seems to have the true complete guide to getting things working on Solaris, even if they claim to. :-)

    Regardless of all of this, maybe the LDAP book and this one could work well together.

    YMMV.

  16. Re:Evolve, Sir. on Ex-Britannica Editor Reviews Wikipedia · · Score: 1

    I think being able to edit the article is less important than being accurate to begin with, which I think is pretty important to an encyclopedia. If Joe Blow was doing a report on Alexander Hamilton and used only Wikipedia for his information, his report may have ended up incorrect, or at least missing the information about his birthdate. That may not have happen if he had used an old school "content controlled" encyclopedia. Mind you, I know there are errors in printed encyclopedias, but I'm sure that currently, there is a greater degree of entropy in Wikipedia. At least if there is an error in Encyclopedia Britannica, there is a certain accountability, and I could say to a professor "Look, that's what it says in the book". With an online source, the professor may just consider me an idiot for not using a "certified" source.

    That's not to say Wikipedia is bad, hopefully much of this will be worked out in time, but I personally would be afraid to use it for any formal works, due to the accountability issues.

  17. Re:Wow this hits close to home... on FBI Raids Homes and Seizes Bandwidth Pirates' PCs · · Score: 1

    You submitted this story? Sure, I submit the story, and it gets instantly rejected (thanks, slashdot). Then after I tell you about my submission, you post it, and it becomes a major story. No justice in this world... :-)