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User: Andy+Prough

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Comments · 683

  1. Re:Bullshit on At Oxford, a Battery That's Lasted 175 Years -- So Far · · Score: 1

    From the other FA - they've muffled the sound: "It is seen but not heard as the ringing is muffled, in the ground floor display cabinet near the main entrance of the Clarendon Laboratory." So, not BS.

  2. Re:A telephone being dialed. on Ask Slashdot: Sounds We Don't Hear Any More? · · Score: 2

    Rotary telephone dialing I meant.

  3. A telephone being dialed. on Ask Slashdot: Sounds We Don't Hear Any More? · · Score: 1

    A beeper/pager going off. A pay phone ringing on a sidewalk.

  4. Don't watch the movie 'Snowpiercer' then... on How Close Are We To Engineering the Climate? · · Score: 1

    ...unless the taste of human flesh and cockroaches appeals to you, that is.

  5. Dementors... on Hubble Takes Amazing New Images of Andromeda, Pillars of Creation · · Score: 1

    ...space is full of those freaking bastards.

  6. Re:Water=life on Water Plume Detected At Dwarf Planet Ceres · · Score: 1

    Now we know where the Cylons are hiding.

  7. Re:Sirens? on British Spies To Be Allowed To Break Speed Limit · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Your honor, the deceased motorist was clearly a terrorist."
    Judge - "Well, alright then. Dismissed! Anyone for a spot of tea?"

  8. Gautama Buddha said... on Stormy Alien Atmospheres May Spark Seeds of Life · · Score: 1

    "There is no God or Brahma, Who is the Creator of this world, Empty Phenomena roll on all, Subject to causality". The universe, and life, are cyclic - there is no point of origin. This universe will decay and be destroyed, and its energy and matter will give rise to another. This life will fail, and its energy will give rise to another. Samsara - the endless cycle of rebirth.

  9. Should've asked Bezos and Amazon. on White House Reportedly Dismissing Key Healthcare.gov Contractor · · Score: 1

    Healthcare via personal drone to your front door. At least they know how to create an online market.

  10. This data helps Repo guys steal the car back on Ford Exec: 'We Know Everyone Who Breaks the Law' Thanks To Our GPS In Your Car · · Score: 2, Informative

    One reason car companies collect this data is to steal the car back from you (repossess it) in the event of non-payment. The GPS tracking is often turned over to the Repo operators when they need to go steal your car back.

  11. I use Yahoo sports pages a lot on Yahoo! Sports Redesign Sparks Controversy, Disdain From Users · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is one of the worst design decisions I've seen in a long time. The whole key to a sports page is you've got to quickly digest a wide range of information. The old page design worked perfectly at giving you over 100 scores for up to 4 different sports at the same time, all the headlines, and the highlights of the blogs. This kind of busy, goofy blinding crap is what have killed AOL's and MSN's portals (in my opinion). Either one of them could have grabbed tens of millions of users from Google News, but they just aren't capable of delivering content without trying to overwhelm the user's eyeballs.

  12. Netflix saved me... on Why Internet Television Isn't Quite Ready To Save Us From Cable TV · · Score: 1

    ...years ago. I tossed cable when Netflix was still sending DVDs in the mail (they probably still offer that - I'm not sure). There's no way in hell I'm paying a dime for the crap that's on the cable lineup.

    "I've got 1,300 channels of shit on the TV to choose from..." (Pink Floyd, Nobody Home, from The Wall, 1979 -- revised to add double 00's)

  13. Re:American hi-tech has a significant ethics probl on Inside the Decision To Shut Down Silent Mail · · Score: 2
    @Nerdfest -

    You make it sound like they have a choice (other than leaving the country or shutting down).

    I don't know. I have a suspicion that some companies are quite happy to lend a helping hand to the surveillance dragnet. Certainly the Guardian articles pointed to at least one company that was apparently quite willing to cooperate. I'm sure there's either increased revenues or increased chance of securing large government contracts as an incentive for them to comply. Probably the opportunity for big contracts is the bigger piece of the pie.

  14. Re:American hi-tech has a significant ethics probl on Inside the Decision To Shut Down Silent Mail · · Score: 4, Insightful
    @hairy -

    The American public tweets their favorite sexual positions and post pics of themselves stoned on FB

    Some people do that stuff. And some people run large corporations and associations that guard their data and communications quite closely. America is not a homogenous group of pot-heads and sex-crazed teenagers.

    Some people are criminal defense attorneys and healthcare law attorneys and civil rights attorneys that are busy suing the government to defend the rights of citizens. You think they want their private emails reviewed by big brother?

  15. Re:American hi-tech has a significant ethics probl on Inside the Decision To Shut Down Silent Mail · · Score: 2
    @Nerdfest -

    Why spread FUD?

    Is it FUD if it is "certain" and "beyond doubt" that private companies are taking money from government agencies to help them scoop up your private communications?

  16. Re:American hi-tech has a significant ethics probl on Inside the Decision To Shut Down Silent Mail · · Score: 1

    Some consumers are large companies. They might think differently than what you have stated.

  17. American hi-tech has a significant ethics problem on Inside the Decision To Shut Down Silent Mail · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Too bad that all the other service providers don't look at it the same way as Zimmerman. They apparently see the NSA money as a profit center. Their customer's data is simply something to be monetized in any way possible. All those crap "privacy policy" documents they've mailed to us over the years aren't worth the paper they are printed on. Don't be surprised to see Google, Facebook, Amazon et al, plus all the cloud providers, start showing lowered revenue in the next few financial quarters. As always, consumers will vote with their wallets.

  18. @Omega Hacker - "Now, if we were talking about something that cost $10 trillion or so, then I might consider it functionally out of reach, as that probably surpasses the net worth of the top several thousand."

    When you consider that the elite banker class controls the printing of money, nothing would be out of reach for them if they wanted it. For instance, they propped up the bankrupt US economy for the past 5 years - a project that has cost much more than $10 trillion in "quantitative easing" money (of which amount, STRANGELY, untold billions of those dollars have found their way back into elite banker accounts, while the working class has actually gotten poorer).

  19. Re:The specs... on First Laptop With Full-Sized Solar Panels Will Run On Ubuntu · · Score: 1

    @afxgrin - "I don't like their website design, I find it annoying to navigate. :P"

    I agree - navigation of the page is horrendous, like a too-busy MySpace page.

    However, if they can make these for less than $300, it would make a great outdoor hobby toy. Like back in my youth, when we would spend hours fascinated by our first hand-cranked international weather radio.

  20. Re:wait on Zimbabweans Hit By Cyber Attacks During Election · · Score: 1

    @AC 05:12AM -- "zimbabweans have computers?!"

    Yes, but most access the internet via internet cafes or mobile devices. The number of Zimbabwean internet users has tripled from 1.5 million to 4.5 million (around 37% of the population) in just the past two years. This number should jump substantially over the next year, as 3G/4G service has grown rapidly - reaching 91% of the population in the past year. A 2010 United Nations survey found the Zimbabwe literacy rate was the highest of all African countries.

  21. Re:They brought back Clippy on MS Office For Android: Pretty, But Woefully Incomplete · · Score: 1

    @AC 12:27AM -- "Clippy, is that you?"

    1995 called - they want their stale jokes back.

  22. Re:Typical Microsoft approach on MS Office For Android: Pretty, But Woefully Incomplete · · Score: 1

    @ackthpt -- "Microsoft never had to claw their way to the top, they just bundled, bought up and drove other competition to ruin by immoral business practices."

    MS has long had some of the most effective sales teams of any software company in the world. To claim otherwise, or to say that ALL their success was based on "luck" or "immoral business practices" is a serious stretch of the imagination.

  23. Re:Typical Microsoft approach on MS Office For Android: Pretty, But Woefully Incomplete · · Score: 1

    @93 Escort Wagon -> "So this is what you end up with - a crappy office experience"

    You are leaping too far ahead with your analysis. This is a beta product - clearly not an "end" point. MS has typically done a fair job of improving the user experience over time with their software, and I would expect for them to iron out the bugs in the Office on Android experience.

  24. Terrorist plot #57... on Google Pressure Cookers and Backpacks: Get a Visit From the Feds · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...FOILED by PRISM. Nice work boys.

  25. Re: Try again on Epic Online Space Battle · · Score: 1

    You are way off base. I did it in Hermione Granger's voice. Try it - you'll see. And you have to stretch the word "actually" out a bit to do it correctly.