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User: DerekLyons

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  1. Re:when did singles sites become... on Sheriff Sues Craiglist For Prostitution Ads · · Score: 1

    when did singles sites become the target of prostitution crack-downs? just because craigslist has a "personals" section means that it is solely for prostitution?

    Have you ever actually been to a Craigslist site? The 'personals' are for singles, the 'services/erotic' is for prostitutes - two separate sections.
     
     

    does this mean that _everyone_ on there is soliciting or seeking prostitution?

    In the 'services/erotic' section - pretty much.
     
     

    there is clearly a double standard toward craigslist and every other way to meet new members of the opposite (or same) gender.

    No, that's not clear at all - given that Craigslist has a dedicated section specifically for escorts and prostitution.
     
     

    these pathetic knee-jerk "omg protect teh chrilden!1!!" is making me sick, it's everywhere

    The knee jerk reaction here is from someone who has plainly a) never actually visited Craigslist, and b) didn't bother to read TFA.

  2. Re:Where's the basketball? on Dinosaurs Could Hold Basketballs, But Not Dribble · · Score: 1

    Yet here, where people are asking for high detail, you still forgo linking it.

  3. Re:what about hard drives? on A History of Storage, From Punch Cards To Blu-ray · · Score: 0

    They are missed because they aren't the topic of the article - which is offline storage.

  4. Re:MaximumPC helps IBM disseminate misinformation on A History of Storage, From Punch Cards To Blu-ray · · Score: 1

    Wrongo, buddy.

    Right back at you - the passage you quoted didn't claim they shipped the first tape drives, but the first tape drives with vacuum columns. Vacuum columns the UNISERVO didn't have. UNISERVO used pulleys and springs to buffer tape motion, a system that vanished in favor of IBM's vacuum system.

  5. Re:that won't work on iRobot Develops Hamster-Guided Robotic Vacuum · · Score: 1

    This is a new house - the rooms are very square and the floors very level. Getting from where we normally set her ball down to the computer room requires going through the living room, making a 180 turn through the kitchen into the foyer (stopping to see if the pantry door is open, if it she goes in there), turning ninety degrees in the foyer, traversing the length of the foyer, turning ninety again into the back hall, then making a 180 again (checking to see if we've left the bathroom open, if it is she goes in there) into the computer room.
     
    She doesn't follow the same path every time and actively avoids obstacles.

  6. Re:that won't work on iRobot Develops Hamster-Guided Robotic Vacuum · · Score: 1

    1200sqft on the ground floor, six rooms - and she invariably ends up in the same corner of the computer room.

  7. Verges on pet abuse on iRobot Develops Hamster-Guided Robotic Vacuum · · Score: 1

    The ball (shown in the video) is too small for that ham - see how much she has to arch her back? Also, you really don't want to leave a ham in her ball for more than ten minutes or so at a pop to avoid overheating and dehydration.
     
    Lastly, that poor ham and all that noise! My wifes ham dives for cover anytime we start anything that makes a loud and/or high pitched noise. I'd never put Her Imperial Fuzziness through all that.

  8. Re:that won't work on iRobot Develops Hamster-Guided Robotic Vacuum · · Score: 1

    Paths? Do hamsters even follow paths with a ball?

    My wife's hamster certainly seems to. Every time we put her in her ball, she ends up in a limited number of places.

  9. Re:If it's public it isn't snooping. on Should Job Seekers Tell Employers To Quit Snooping? · · Score: 1

    Most places, so long as he is on a public street and not blocking traffic or otherwise creating a hazard, the cops will generally decline to get involved as the employer is neither harassing or stalking (both of which generally require/involve overt actions, not passive watching). Punching him in the face lands you in jail for assault.
     
    If you don't want somebody watching you from the street, close your curtains. It isn't snooping if it's public.

  10. If it's public it isn't snooping. on Should Job Seekers Tell Employers To Quit Snooping? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The subject line says it all - if it's public, it isn't snooping.

  11. Re:Sandblast First on Small Robots Could Build Landing Site For Moon Base · · Score: 1

    Actually reading the message shows that depth of erosion [by the LM descent stage engine] was 10 cm - it say absolutely nothing about the total depth of the dust. Given that water ice deposits have been found at depths of around one meter, well... draw your own conclusions and learn to fucking read.

  12. Re:Sandblast First on Small Robots Could Build Landing Site For Moon Base · · Score: 1

    Many small vs. one large makes good sense in case of failure(s). Either way, why not blast the dust away as the preparation stage?

    Because the dust is deep... several meters IIRC.

  13. Re:Bad plan, darlings. on MD Appellate Ct. Sets "New Standard" For Anonymous Posting · · Score: 1

    Here's the problems. First, there's this idea that people who excercise their fifth amendment rights are guilty.

    When you confuse the First and Fifth amendments - your case is weakened greatly, and the quality of your thought and logic is called into question.
     
     

    This is a problem for people found not guilty because public mentality is that even an accusation means you did something wrong.

    People are found not guilty because a judge or jury finds them so - the court of public opinion is meaningless in this respect.
     
    All that being said - the prevailing legal belief for years has been that "the right of free speech does not extend to the right to cry 'fire' in a crowded theater". I.E., one may say virtually anything but one may not escape the consequences by merely invoking the First Amendment.

  14. Tired of this nonsense on Facebook Nearly Added Twitter To Friends List · · Score: 1

    From TFS:
     

    Despite the rather miserable economy, Facebook is still looking to buy out other firms

    Y'know, I'm getting tired of this... Yeah, the economy is bad - but life goes on people. You won't survive the bad economy, let alone grow when times turn good again, if you just circle the wagons and try to ride it out.

  15. Re:fiduciary responsibility? on Yahoo Spent $79 Million To Fend Off Microsoft · · Score: 2, Informative

    If I was one of their shareholders I might have gotten pretty annoyed that they dismissed the MSFT offer out of hand the way they did.

    Why? Yahoo! is number two in a lot of it's business areas, but it's a solid number two and continues to perform solidly if modestly. The deal with Microsoft brought nothing to the table for Yahoo! subscribers but a short term injection of cash and a long term marriage to a company with uncertain future prospects.
     
    As a Yahoo! shareholder I'm glad they fended off Microsoft.
     
     

    What's the future of Yahoo! without a merger? They have a platform in the works that can pose a serious challenge to Google and secure marketshare against them or Microsoft? Didn't think so.....

    Yahoo! already has a larger marketshare than either in many areas - it's portal is stable and widely used. There's more to Yahoo! than search - and it's Google who is consistently, if poorly, attempting to catch up.

  16. Pork, pork, pork on Obama Stimulus Pours Millions Into Cyber Security · · Score: 1, Insightful

    As with yesterday's story we now begin to see the reality of the 'stimulus bill' - endless pork, pandering to special interests, and earmarks.

  17. Re:Smart move on Why Doctors Hate Science · · Score: 1

    If you want to go see a doctor every year, pay for it. If you get run over by a truck, that's what insurance is for.

    Unfortunately, that is the current practice with health care, and we know what that leads to... Emergency rooms with 4 hour wait times....

    No, what causes emergency rooms with four hour wait times is idiots who are in the emergency room rather than a doctors office.

  18. Re:What security depends on a helicopters blueprin on Obama Helicopter Security Breached By File Sharing · · Score: 1

    Keeping the blueprints secret means keeping the capabilities (range, speed, altitude) secret as well as keeping the nature of any active or passive defenses secret.

    The capabilities of the aircraft which * One (Marine One, Air Force One, etc.) are based upon are pretty well known by anyone with an interest in them.

    They might be, they might not be. Which is why you set up your security measures as if they aren't known, you set up your operational procedures as if they are known - thus giving yourself a reserve.
     
     

    Range, speed & altitude capabilities aren't changed significantly for these modified versions, aside from adding midair refueling to the 747-200 (which is widely distributed information).

    Right.

  19. Re:What security depends on a helicopters blueprin on Obama Helicopter Security Breached By File Sharing · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No security measure is 100% reliable - not using a security tool because it isn't completely reliable is stupid.

  20. Re:Why? on A New Way To Produce Hydrogen · · Score: 1

    Seriously, why? I am assuming that you do not commute more than 100 km each day, and are not off-roading. So why do you need 500 km?

    I know this may come as a surprise to you - but people do more with their vehicles than commute.

  21. Re:What security depends on a helicopters blueprin on Obama Helicopter Security Breached By File Sharing · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What sort of security depends on the secrecy of a helicopter's blueprints? Honestly.

     
    Pretty much any kind of security. Keeping the blueprints secret means keeping the capabilities (range, speed, altitude) secret as well as keeping the nature of any active or passive defenses secret.
     
    Now I know the Slashdot hivemind will respond with their usual rote mantra - "but security through obscurity is bad"... But on this, they are completely wrong. (Mostly because their notions of security consist of repeating what they've read by various talking heads.) Security through obscurity, as one layer of an overall security plan, is extremely valuable because the black hats cannot prepare in advance to meet a countermeasure which they are unaware of.

  22. Re:distributed versus all on one module on NASA Contest To Name ISS Module · · Score: 1

    A hit big enough to wipe out the life support - is a hit big enough that if it were anywhere else in the station, they'd be dead anyhow.

  23. Re:Not the whole story on Use Your iPhone To Get Out of a Ticket · · Score: 1

    Well the solution is obvious - don't access the app while driving . Duh.

  24. Re:IMDB was up on Jurassic Web · · Score: 1

    I one the other hand used both - Google to search the web, Yahoo! both for its directory and for all the stuff you rejected (weather reports, stock reports, etc., etc.). Even more interesting, Google ended up following Yahoo!'s lead. They have built both a directory and a home page portal.

  25. Re:Very insightful post on Cold-War Era Naval Vessels Up For Grabs · · Score: 1

    Fire is in fact a much bigger hazard on boats than sinking.

    Thanks, not many non sailors realize that we fear fire above all else. At sea, there isn't anywhere to run.
     

    Unfortunately, too many people think they are smarter than the people in navies, whereas the truth is that navies tend to attract some extremely bright and forward thinking people.

    It's not that they think they are smarter than the people in navies I think. It's that they don't realize just how different a navy is from an army or air force. Like the guy I replied to who was thinking in terms of how the USAF destroys defensive systems to get at the actual targets - he doesn't realize that in naval warfare, the defensive system and the actual target are one and the same. The USAF approach doesn't make sense in that context.