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User: WinPimp2K

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  1. Re:Who cares about the stock price? on Kodak Sues Apple & RIM Over Preview In Cameras · · Score: 1

    "snapshot" of the stock price.

    I suspect that is pretty much part of the "bible" for writing a business article like that - if you mention a company doing something, then you have to mention the stock price so the business weenies reading it can nod sagely as they see how htis bit of business news has impacted the value of the company.

    But how many patents can you get for "previewing" a picture anyways? And what does "previewing mean? - is it emulating a viewfinder, or is it deciding whether or not to "keep" the picture after you take it?

    Viewfinders have been around long enough that any patents that might have been issued would have lapsed by now. Even "electronic" viewfinders based on CCD devices. Camcorders had a "viewfinder" that was a small display that was active regardless of whether or not you were recording to tape. And if "previewing" means deciding to keep the shot, well that is simply moving the contents of memory from one location to another - in this case from dynamic to static RAM. I'm pretty sure the MOV instruction has been around longer than digital photography. (or a "write" command if you want to get picky)

  2. Tinfoil hat time! on Man Uses Drake Equation To Explain Girlfriend Woes · · Score: 1

    No No No! (work with me here)

    Y'all missed the really important part.

    1> He determined that his chances of finding a girlfriend were 100 times less likely(*) than finding an alien civilization.
    2> He found a girlfriend
    3> He also found 100 alien civilizations and the govenrment is concealing this information.
    4> He is keeping silent because his "girlfirend" is actually a really hot alien babe. She does not appear in photgraphs so it is a matter of conjecture as to her exact species. My source speculates that she is either an Orion slave girl, an Azerothian succbi, or a rare pygmy Na'vi.

    (*) I know he claimed the inverse of this, but given the massive fudge factors involved in any solution of the Drake Equation, and realize that a piddly four oprders of magnitude is nothing to worry about. ALso remember points 3 and 4 above.

  3. Re:As a hardcore MMO fan... on City of Heroes Sr. Designer Talks Architect System · · Score: 1

    "Inevitably, though, the server ends up overflowing with high level characters"

    And the way the Warhammer Online folks handled this issue was indeed brilliant. Watching a lvl 30+ ganker heading into a lvl 10 PvP area and being turned into a lvl 1 chicken was great in and of itself. The further touch of his intended victim one-shotting said ganker and getting full rewards for the win - priceless. Pity the game did not otherwise keep my interest.

  4. Well some Republicans... on 8% of Your DNA Comes From a Virus · · Score: 0, Troll

    "Moderate" Republicans like Olympia Snow are obviously 8% rhinovirus.
    "Tax and spend" Democrats have a generous helping of H1N1 (aka swine flu).

    This might be a fun game - determining the viral component of various politicians and celebrities.
    Anyone want to play? I don't know enough virii to suggest good matches.

  5. Harlan Ellison... on Nexus One Name Irks Philip K. Dick's Estate · · Score: 1

    "Mr. Sue Happy" knows better than to try and steal credit for any IP from Gene Roddenberry. Starfleet's legal kung fu is far too powerful for a former television critic (LA Free Press) to tangle with.

    Everyone knows that modern cell phone design was based on the Star Trek communicators from the original series. Motorola explicitly acknowledged this when they introduced their Star-Tac phone (the first "flip - open" cell phone) in the late 80s-early 90s.

    If you did not know this, you know what to do with your geek card.

  6. ix-nay on the ron-eye astity-chay elt-bay on Minnesota Introduces World's First Carbon Tariff · · Score: 1

    Iron rusts - stainless steel be a far better material.

  7. Re:245mph max speed? Not so impressive on China Debuts the World's Fastest Train · · Score: 2, Funny

    But the real questions is:

    how fast will it run Ruby (on rails)?

  8. Amazon will not collect sales taxes in US on NY Times, LA Times Want Amazon To Collect More State Taxes · · Score: 1

    They will be collecting "usage taxes" which are generally defined as equivalent to sales taxes in the amount owed to the taxing authority.

    But for those of you hung up on things that are exempt from sales taxes, this is where it will get murky. So Amazon sells you something that has a combined tax rate of 10% (just for example and it actually gets split between 4 different authorities in your state). Amazon will charge you that tax, collect it and pass it on to your state. They will do this regardless of the actual tax status of the item due to tax holidays, eccentric local tax exemptions and even special tax exempt status for various non-profits or items for resale.

    Now if you feel that you have paid a usage tax that you should not have because you or the items you purchase meets one of these tax exemption requirements, it will fall upom you to claim a usage tax refund from your state - just as it currently falls upon you to accurately pay the usage tax on all your online purchases that the seller has not already collected from you.

  9. Haradheere? on Somali Pirates Open Up a "Stock Exchange" · · Score: 1

    I suspect that the name of this town might be changed on the maps to "Bombheere", as soon as the pirates sufficiently annoy any of the nations with a military presence in the area.

     

  10. Re:Means nothing. on EU ACTA Doc Shows Plans For Global DMCA, 3 Strikes · · Score: 1

    Silly fool:

    1> once you and all your lan party buddies lose your internet connections how will you co-ordinate a large lan party?

    2> this will be used to quash opposition as folks espousing unpopular opinions will hit their three strikes whenever any bureaucrat takes notice of them.

    3> Going to just sign up with another ISP after you strike out? Think again as it won't take long for a legal blacklist of "repeat offenders" to show up and be maintained in order to assure that the ISPs maintain their "safe harbor" status.

    Now I'd like to think that this will be an unsustainable process in the long run, but it is Monday and the week ain't getting off to a good start.

  11. Re:AGW = ? on Where the Global Warming Data Is · · Score: 1

    I rather liked "Piltdown Man-made global warming" myself.

    It describes the situation so much better after all. Just replace "evolution" with "climate change". We have vast amounts of evidence that climate is not static, great public excitement over the issue, and some researchers seduced by fame and power into producing the niche results that will further enhance their own prestige - and to hell with Science itself.

     

  12. Re:And In Unrelated News... on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 1

    Who the fuck says I am a Christian?

    Did I say that?

    I associate irrationality with retardation. I did point to two of the most populous states to back up my claim. I added a third state - Michigan becasue it has a variety of special circumstances which I would normally let a rational brain discover.

    Unfortunately, I think you fail at the whole rational thought thing - because you see it requires that you believe in it.

    Why don't you try letting go of some of that hate and stop telling other people what they belive or don't believe and figure out what you believe in? I will leave you with this one observation - You seem to have a really bad case of "No true Scotsman" running through your head - might want to look into that.

  13. Re:And In Unrelated News... on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 1

    Your point would lead to some interesting discussions with a Jesuit, and with any good Talmudic(sp?) scholar.

    But I certainly do not claim all Christians are rational. Certainly not all men (or women) are. I suspect that rational womyn are about as common as hen's teeth - which is to say perhaps somewhat more common than the traditional literary unicorn.

    I would expect a good argument could be made that there are roughly 4 times more rational Christians than rational atheists. Here is my reasoning:
    Of the 6+ billion people on Earth, there are roughly:

    2100 million Christians
      550 million non-religious (a grab bag - call them all atheists)

    Among all groups of people you will find a certain number who are fairly tolerant of others, subscribe to a "live and let live" philosophy and are amenable to reasoned arguments on most topics. You will find (for example) experimental physicists who have religious beliefs and do not find them in conflict with theories on the creation of the Universe.

    Among all groups of people you will also find a certain number who are extreme and dogmatic in their beliefs - call them nutjobs, fundies, what-have you. That holds true for atheists as well - I submit the level of vitriol expended by the folks whose heads are "assploding" from the mere use of the phrase "rational Christian". Especially since I never used that phrase in my original post - but it was inferred by some posters and they reacted strongly.

  14. Re:Standards? on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 1

    It appears my point was not clear.
    I do not argue that the DC school system is execrable because of Congressional oversight.
    I argue that because of the power Congress already has with regards to DC, that any "improvements" they wish to inflict on the rest of the nation should actually be put to the test in the DC system first. That the DC system is currently ranked dead last is actually a bonus - it in theory can only improve. If Congress does do something and the DC schools get better or worse as a result, we have at least one data point to help determine if this policy might be good for the entire nation.

    Now I did further suggest that if Congress were to mandate changes in the DC system such that it were to be ranked around the midway point, then there would be a strong argument that those policies would benefit about half the states. But even getting teh DC schools ranked in the top 40 would suggest improvemnts for the bottom ten states.

  15. Re:Standards? on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 1

    Dumbass. You think DC schools are some kind of example of what we're talking about. That's fucking stupid

    You are replying to my original thread and I am the one who started with the DC schools. Who is this "we" you are talking about and who has the intellectually challenged posterior? Further, I have some standards and would never take carnal advantage of the "differently brained"

    Silly insults aside, why do you consider the DC schools not to be an example of a school system that could be improved? I pointed out that the District of Columbia is specifically and legally Congress's "bitch". Congress can legeslate whatever they want with regard to the DC schools. .Let them legeslate that DC will be:

    Teaching evolution. Teaching math. Teaching reading. Social studies. What subject pisses you off?

    Hmm none of those would piss me off. But teaching proper techniques for oral sex as a graded class might be going a bit far - especially if my tax dollars are paying for it.

    That's going to be taught and taught well.

    Taught well? via legeslative fiat? Excuse me while I laugh and then cry. Or do you mean it will be taught well or we can go back on my plan "B" - the public floggings and summary executions to cull the herd of piss poor (bottom 10% say)teachers, union reps,and admins? Once Congress has demonstrated that their ideas on how to fix educational deficiencies can actually work in the real world (yes, I said "the real world" and referred to "DC" - you may now laugh) - then we can have some confidence that we might do some good with their ideas.

  16. Not to go all Godwin... on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 1

    ..on your heinie here, but Hitler actually outlawed home schooling. I think we can safely conclude that the Nazis were pretty big on centralized control of their school system.

    Other than flirting with Godwin (purely in the interests of historical accuracy mind you), I am in agreement that No Child Gets Ahead was a massive mistake. So was Head Start - which seemed to give great results, but by the fifth grade or so, there was no discernable diffeence in academic performance between kids in Head Start and those who were not.

    It will be interesting to see just how much of our population must be competently educated to maintain our civilization. I suspect we are dangerously close to the tipping point - if we have not passed it already. The question I am asking myself is would it be better to start stockpiling guns and gold, or looking into emmigration and learning Hindi or Mandarin?
     

  17. Re:Standards? on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 1

    So what should be the metric? Congress "believes" in whatever will get them re-elected. Show me proof of something that works - and save the belief for separated-from-the-state church

    You have something of a strawman argument here.

    When experiments were done with water flouridation, the control community saw the results coming out of the experimental community and demanded their water be flouridated as well. Note that in this case, the "belief" that there was something better was being backed up with hard data. I submit that if Congress were to actually come up with an education policy that demonstrated significant improvement in the DC system, then other school systems adminstrators (and teachers unions) would find themselves having to explain just why they were not doing things the "DC way". It is entirely possible that they may have good and valid explanations for not doing things the "DC way", but they would still have to explain why their school system could not improve...

  18. Re:Standards? on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The countries that are kicking our asses...

    Well, they have found a method that works for them. We have not and so I see no reason to permit the Feds to dictate - they have had 50+ years (since Sputnik) and the results have not been encouraging.

    The part I don't understand is how you get from "less Federal interference" to "let the free market run everything".

    The US consists of 50 states, one District plus some other divisions (Protectorates and Territories I think - blame my poor education for not remembering). I think that gives us 50 plus different laboratories to see what will work as our current system is demonstrably not working. I submit the "ass kicking" you cite as proof that the current system is broken.

  19. Re:Standards? on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 1

    I can indeed take one district when it is a district under direct Congressional control and say to Congress. Before you tell the rest of the country how to have better schools, prove it by making the scholls in DC better. If the way to improve the DC school system involves public flggings and/or summary execution of bad teachers and teacher's union reps - well then we will know something that works and could maybe be tried in other school systems.

    Yes, that is over the top, (and yes I agree bad teachers are *part* of the problem). My point remains. "Don't tell us, SHOW us".

  20. Re:Standards? on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You make interesting assumptions. They are incorrect.

    I don't have a problem with the Interstate highway system either.

    More internet - you darn betcha - but I also think it should be metered so you pay for what you use. The rates charged should be such that the comm industry will have an incentive to improve it and increase speeds.

    Less Education - Umm no. less Federal interfernce in education as the only school system the Federal gowvenmrnt is directly responsible for is ranked dead last in the country. If the Feds could demonstrate an ability to do better than half the country, then they would have an example worth looking at - for the half of the country they do better than.

    Military hardware - Well the US is currently riding on the tiger there - the alternative may well be riding inside the tiger.

    Less health care - less health care for whom? How much money do you donate to charity hospitals? Is it OK for me to hold a gun to your head to make you "donate" more? If it is not OK for me to do that, why should it be OK if it is the federal govenrment holding the gun?

  21. Re:And In Unrelated News... on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 1

    Especially in the deep South and other areas infested with crap-assed-christanity

    I am certain that far more rational results will obtain in California, New York, and Michigan (though for slightly different reasons in Michigan).

    No rational person is going to want to handicap their children by brainwashing them with an irrational belief system. I hold that there are far more irrational liberals in the three states I mention than there are "crap-assed" christians in the entire South. Your statement that Christianity is some sort of "infestation" is a strong datum for assigning you to the "irrational" category.

    You either belive in rational thought or you don't.

  22. Re:And In Unrelated News... on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 1

    The educated lot needs to get some safeguards in place or 5 generations down the road, our children will be mindless sheeple.

    Damn you great-great-great-grandpa! Why didn't you get some safeguards in place?

  23. Standards? on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 3, Insightful
    What standards would those be? And if it is something the Feds can do, let them prove it in the one school sytem Congress can take direct responsibility for. After all, if the DC school system is truly excellent, then there should be no problem applying those policies and funding decisions to other school systems. What, the DC school system is not among the finest in the nation?

    The Quality Counts report, a publication from Editorial Projects in Education, which publishes the trade magazine Education Week, rated the 50 states and the District in six areas of education performance and policy.

    The District was ranked 51st in the report

    Maybe we should return control of local school systems back to local school boards. And let Congress and the DOE control only the DC school system. When the DC school system is ranked among the top 25 then perhaps we might want to pay attention to the example set by Washington. Pay attention to the example - not do as they say. Under local control, some schools would undoubtably do better, some might do worse, but DC is dead last right now - so even your religious nutjob nightmare districts are still likely to do a better job than the nations capital.

  24. Re:Tax on Response To California's Large-Screen TV Regulation · · Score: 1

    "A republic - if you can keep it" (Ben Franklin)

    My point is, we are not keeping it. (a republic)

    Instead we are going for a democracy:

    "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard" (H L Mencken)

  25. California would be "let go" first on Response To California's Large-Screen TV Regulation · · Score: 1

    But not as an independent country. It could possibly be demoted back to the status of "Territory". That could mean a loss of representation in both houses of Cngress and in the Electoral College.

    For the scessionist types, you might want to consider how much of that vaunted industrial machine (high tech and entertainment) would actually be likely to stay as opposed to wanting to move to a country where it would be more appreciated and not subject to rolling brownouts and the unfinded pension demands of rapacious public employee unions. And for those that stay, you might want to consider how much it is going to cost them to export to the US, Canada, and Mexico since the Nation of California will not be part of NAFTA.