Slashdot Mirror


User: TrollstonButterbeans

TrollstonButterbeans's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
675
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 675

  1. Re:Ideally on Worldwide Aaron Swartz Day Memorial Hackathons This Weekend · · Score: 1

    And thank you for the interesting conversation.

  2. He put himself in the situation on Worldwide Aaron Swartz Day Memorial Hackathons This Weekend · · Score: 1

    He put himself in the situation. And he got caught. It wasn't the first time he did it either. Prosecutors are always big-time jerks --- it is part of the job description.

    If anything, the problem is hackers are usually caught up in a very juvenile culture where they decide right and wrong are decided by their social circle and social approval.

    Self-pity in adults is the first sign of evil. And the opposite of being an adult. Adults make their own choices.

    Self-pity is the concept that you don't create your own circumstances and a rejection of responsibility. He had the world on a silver-platter even if he did a little jail time.

    Faced with the choice of growing into an adult and acknowledging there is a world outside his social circle that does not approve of his behavior, he did the childish thing and rejected this and committed suicide.

    Nothing noble about this. Not one bit.

  3. Re:Ideally on Worldwide Aaron Swartz Day Memorial Hackathons This Weekend · · Score: 1

    This.

    He could have spent 6 months in jail in a low security prison.

    He wasn't Robin Hood, just immature. Instead of spending 6 months in a low-security prison, he killed himself.

    Fair or not fair, he didn't accept the consequences of his actions.

    All-in-all, a pretty poor reason to commit suicide.

    And this guy was fortunate enough to go to HARVARD. This guy got to live a dream and had wealthy parents.

  4. Re:Buy The Damn Car on Dealer-Installed GPS Tracker Leads To Kidnapper's Arrest in Maryland · · Score: 2

    Car loans are secured loans. Even people with bad credit can get a car loan through a bank. Banks love car loans to people with bad credit because they can charge 25.9% interest.

    One scummy company can't put you beyond the ability to get a car loan.

    To be in "Buy here, Pay here" territory, you have to have an absolutely abysmal credit score in the 400s by seriously not honoring your debts with many places over a decent period of time.

    Someone just doesn't magically get a 400-499 credit score. And one company screwing you over can't do it.

  5. Buy The Damn Car on Dealer-Installed GPS Tracker Leads To Kidnapper's Arrest in Maryland · · Score: 2

    If you want the rights of ownership, buy the freaking car or have a non-"dog-shit" credit score and be able to get a loan from a bank.

    This guy DID NOT own the car.

    He was making payments on it with a "Buy Here, Pay Here" lender --- these people finance high risk loans no one else will do and have restrictive terms as a result.

    There was so offense against anyone's rights here.

    He had horrific credit so had to do "Buy Here, Pay Here" --- which is better than "having to hoof it".

    If you want full property rights, you need to actually purchase the property.

  6. Good luck with that! on Big Data Knows When You Are About To Quit Your Job · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A: Top performers usually leave because they are top performers.

    Know the sun will rise does not give one a means to prevent it. Nor death or taxes or progress. It has never been hard to predict top performers leaving.

    B: Sabah says, "we're surprised how accurately we can predict someone will leave a job." Never, ever buy prediction software from a place that is surprised with the result. Quality prediction is the result of hard work and statistical analysis, results should almost NEVER come as a surprise to anyone working in the field statistics or data-modelling. This is one field where "surprise" is a sign of incompetence.

  7. Who are the numbnuts modding this ignoramus up? on Amazon's Luxembourg Tax Deals · · Score: 0

    All large companies do this. From Google to Proctor & Gamble to Microsoft. Microsoft takes much of their revenue in Reno, Nevada to avoid taxes in Washingon.

    Tax havens exist from the Cayman Islands and beyond --- Ireland until recently.

    Any jackass modding the above ignoramous up is doing so on being completely gullible and is a complete shit-fer-brains.

    Amazon would be incompetent to not attempt to avoid taxes.

    And the above ignoramous no doubt works for a company whose companies strive to avoid taxes --- you cannot compete in the economy by offering more expensive products than the competition --- not in a global market.

  8. Re:I thought the DMCA is American Law on Terrorists Used False DMCA Claims To Get Personal Data of Anti-Islamic Youtuber · · Score: 1

    Interesting. Thanks for info.

  9. I thought the DMCA is American Law on Terrorists Used False DMCA Claims To Get Personal Data of Anti-Islamic Youtuber · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How does American Law apply to Europeans and people in Germany --- or do US companies carry the American flag with them when they provide services in Europe and such?

  10. Re:Don't buy American. on The Fight Over the EFF's Secure Messaging Scoreboard · · Score: 1

    I was going to mention Linus Torvalds living here. Damn. Opportunities reduced by increment of 1.

  11. Re:If they're going literal.... on Undersized Grouper Case Lands In Supreme Court · · Score: 1

    Sound logic ++ The observation the "strict constructionists" made it worth reading. The law should be interpreted literally. Additionally, the prosecutors didn't ask for 20 years --- just one year.

  12. Very Fascinating on Computer Scientists Say Meme Research Doesn't Threaten Free Speech · · Score: 2

    I think understanding what goes viral would be very valuable.

    What is the objection to this? Since clearly there is some objection to the study ...

    I read the article and do not understand what the objection is.

  13. So Wrong on The Great IT Hiring He-Said / She-Said · · Score: 1

    Job candidates get paid exactly what they are worth. (Possibly more.)

    The job candidate decides whether or not he/she will accept the position at the terms presented.

    Employment-at-will means you can leave at any time.

  14. Re:Disney patents a customer free search engine. on Disney Patents a Piracy Free Search Engine · · Score: 1

    I wasn't consciously thinking about media megacorp ownership of tv outlets, radio stations and newspapers. Great point!

  15. Re:Disney patents a customer free search engine. on Disney Patents a Piracy Free Search Engine · · Score: 1

    You got it, but large media companies would censor YouTube videos too.

    You would do a search for a Disney product, film or character and it would come back with maybe 15 results grand total.

    Because they wouldn't show YouTube results or fan pages because those could be copyright violations.

    Most megacorps --- if they had their way --- would actually destroy their own product and attack their own consumers and fans.

  16. Link to #1 on The Most Highly Cited Scientific Papers of All Time · · Score: 5, Informative

    1) PDF version http://devbio.wustl.edu/InfoSo...
    2) Commentary, 2004: http://www.jbc.org/content/280...
    3) Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

    "The Lowry protein assay is a biochemical assay for determining the total level of protein in a solution. The total protein concentration is exhibited by a color change of the sample solution in proportion to protein concentration, which can then be measured using colorimetric techniques. It is named for the biochemist Oliver H. Lowry who developed the reagent in the 1940s. His 1951 paper describing the technique is the most-highly cited paper ever in the scientific literature, cited over 200,000 times."

    The method combines the reactions of copper ions with the peptide bonds under alkaline conditions (the Biuret test) with the oxidation of aromatic protein residues. The Lowry method is best used with protein concentrations of 0.01–1.0 mg/mL and is based on the reaction of Cu+, produced by the oxidation of peptide bonds, with Folin–Ciocalteu reagent (a mixture of phosphotungstic acid and phosphomolybdic acid in the Folin–Ciocalteu reaction). The reaction mechanism is not well understood, but involves reduction of the Folin–Ciocalteu reagent and oxidation of aromatic residues (mainly tryptophan, also tyrosine). Experiments have shown that cysteine is also reactive to the reagent. Therefore, cysteine residues in protein probably also contribute to the absorbance seen in the Lowry Assay. [3] The concentration of the reduced Folin reagent is measured by absorbance at 750 nm.[4] As a result, the total concentration of protein in the sample can be deduced from the concentration of Trp and Tyr residues that reduce the Folin–Ciocalteu reagent.

    The method was first proposed by Lowry in 1951. The Bicinchoninic acid assay and the Hartree–Lowry assay are subsequent modifications of the original Lowry procedure.

  17. Just another sexploitation news item on Solving the Mystery of Declining Female CS Enrollment · · Score: 1

    Which is what this boils down to.

    There aren't any mysteries here at all.

  18. Just check "Do Not Track" checkbox in browser on Verizon Injects Unique IDs Into HTTP Traffic · · Score: 1

    Then problem goes away!

  19. Re:WHY IS THE INTERNET FOCUSED ON THIS SHIT on Passwords: Too Much and Not Enough · · Score: 2

    And the funny thing is, super-complicated password are an anti-security measure.

    Because if the password is hard to remember, chances are the user has it written on a piece of paper or a note somewhere..

    Normal passwords don't tend to suffer from this problem.

    If the super-complex password requires causes the user to write it down or store it on their phone or such, it is hurting security --- not helping it.

  20. Re:What a wonderful article on How Sony, Intel, and Unix Made Apple's Mac a PC Competitor · · Score: 1

    Good points. It is has been so long I didn't recall it wasn't Boot Camp pre-Intel and it was slow.

  21. What a wonderful article on How Sony, Intel, and Unix Made Apple's Mac a PC Competitor · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I can't imagine a more vapid and informationless article with no context of history.

    That bar graph of a spike starting in 2007 would more likely be related to the release of the iPhone.

    Developing for the iPhone required a Mac. That was Apple's "killer app" for the Mac. Anyone wanting to get in to iPhone development had to have a Mac and it started mainstreaming the Mac.

    Without the development of the iPhone it is hard to see an particular strong reason for Mac marketshare to start growing (sure you have the characteristic that it is very hard to get malware on a Mac, but that alone doesn't make up for the lack of apps or games, which was more far severe back in 2007 and not quite as bad today. The selection of software on a Mac is okish today, but in 2007 it was downright terrible.)

    Pre-Intel (2007 +/-), the Mac did have Bootcamp (the ability to load and boot Windows on the machine) and software development was about the same before Intel and after, it isn't like casual developers are writing in assembly language --- the compiler (usually) takes care of all the fine details and endianess really only enters the equation when reading files with specific byte ordering of values.

  22. Not really ... on Will the Google Car Turn Out To Be the Apple Newton of Automobiles? · · Score: 1

    Most industries depend on just-in-time processes to minimize inventory.

    Timing is critical and tens of millions of dollars can be stake easily if it doesn't work like a clock.

    There isn't going to be the tolerance for stranded trucks with flat tires that can't be repaired without a human, or late trucks stuck in traffic.

    And changing lanes in a truck in a traffic jam? Haha, yeah. And making turns in a truck in a tight intersection? Sure. And trucks are tall, there are bridges and all kinds of height obstacles out there requiring special routes.

    Road construction? A minor inconvenience for a car can be a major dilemma for a truck --- things like roads with no shoulders, etc.

    And single truck wreck would carry large costs, and would insurance companies covering the transportation companies put up with it?

  23. Re:Complete waste on The Future of Stamps · · Score: 1

    I think the idea is that people don't carry printers with them.

    Anything requiring a printer is a bit broke by design in the modern age.

  24. Re:Lenovo phones on Rumor: Lenovo In Talks To Buy BlackBerry · · Score: 1

    Really? The RIM lawsuit was over and done with 8+ years ago.

    Blackberry doesn't exist today because they were about "enterprise solutions" and catered to big business and government.

    Once the iPhone was released, no one wanted clunky 1990s style phones and Blackberry didn't have a plan. And when Blackberry finally had a plan, it was a stupid plan to make their OS instead of using Android.

    Blackberry now gets to join Nokia in the club of phone companies no longer around because they didn't use Android.

  25. Re:Not secure on Tiny Wireless Device Offers Tor Anonymity · · Score: 1, Funny

    The casual user will set this up and then log into Facebook and check their gmail. Totally secure!!! Absolutely anonymous!

    Oh, and don't forget the cross-domain 'Flash cookies'!