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User: Hamfist

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  1. Then eat different species on The World is Losing Fish to Eat as Oceans Warm, Study Finds (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    Right away I noticed this report talking about a decline in certain species yet generalized it to a risk for seafood dependent diets so I figured I should look to see which species are winning in the new environment.

    According to this Science magazine article, the changing temperatures and increasing acidity of oceans is a boon for Octopus, squid, and cuttlefish.
    https://www.sciencemag.org/new...

    While I believe wee may see increased prices and decreased consumption of certain species, I am certain other to-be-determined species will thrive in the changed environments as well, and that like Octopus, squid, and cuttlefish, we will find them both delicious and nutritious.

  2. Re:Is this Gold's "Deep Hot Biosphere" theory? on Scientists Identify Vast Underground Ecosystem Containing Billions of Micro-organisms (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    You beat me to the post!

    So while some of the oilfields may be decomposed dinosaurs, it's looking much more likely that Gold was right and hydrocarbons are the output of actual organisms. Wild stuff.

  3. Re:Channeling Cro Threadstrong on 'I'll Make Their Life Miserable': Tech CEO Bullies Low-income Vendors By His Home (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    If War is what you want, war is what you shall get, FRUIT VENDOR!

    Your ogre doesn't scare me, FRUIT VENDOR! My Army is on it's way!

    Your days are numbered FRUIT VENDOR! I know about your ogre army!

  4. Not comparable on Nest Reminds Customers That Ownership Isn't What It Used To Be (eff.org) · · Score: 1

    How you can compare the hardware or software of a video game, used for entertainment, to things like light switches and other parts of a functioning home is beyond me. I've been holding back from making purchases in this particular growth area of technology and the attitude of the market leader tells me I should continue to do so. This is a total crock.

  5. Re:Why such crap? on Crashing iPad App Grounds Dozens of American Airline Flights · · Score: 1

    Here's the wikipedia reference if you want to understand more about what is actually going on. The answers to your questions are pretty easy to find.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

    It's fairly clear the critical flight operations are not allowed to be carried out on those devices. Once reading that article, does it change your perspective? This seems like 'something didn't work right, people were inconvenienced' and 'American should do a better job of QA and change management'

  6. Change the name now instead of later on OpenPandora Design Files Released · · Score: 1

    Hopefully the developers of this change the name to something different. If it gets bigger they will forced to change the name and probably get a nice fat legal bill to go with it.

  7. Re: that settles it on English High Court Bans Publication of 0-Day Threat To Auto Immobilizers · · Score: 1

    And I'm not even sure about that one...

  8. Perceived Performance on Former Sun Mobile JIT Engineers Take On Mobile JavaScript/HTML Performance · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I dislike the separation of 'Perceived' vs 'Actual' performance. If I perceive it to be slow, it's slow. This reminds of of the Firefox devs that spent years saying how if an add-on makes their browser a memory hog and a slowpoke, it's not their problem because their performance is fine.

    Devs.. If it's slow, it's slow. Call it perceived, call it actual, call it the Pope for all I care. It's a Slow Pope.

  9. How is the list controlled? on UK Considering Automatic Web Filtering For Adult Content · · Score: 1

    An opt-in system may make sense, but when it comes to material some find objectionable the opt-in list itself becomes and issue. Who controls the publication of the list? Will employers or political enemies use the list to smear or block people? Opt-in lists provide a chilling effect.

    When one goes to buy a porn mag in a bricks and mortar store, one can pay by cash and remain anonymous as the store may check identification but is not required to make record of it. Not so with an opt-in system.

    I for one do not like an opt-in for censored material system.

  10. One More on Facebook Now Using Natural Language Processing · · Score: 1

    Reason to not use Facebook. Where is the assumption that I want to be grouped in with some off the cuff remark made by friend 1871. Who is that guy and why is he on my Facebook anyway? I should do some defriending soon.

  11. How About... on McCain Asks For Committee On Wikileaks, Anonymous · · Score: 1

    Stop doing so many things that will be embarrassing if exposed to the light of day.

  12. Wikileaks says he's wrong on Google Asks 'Who Cares Where Your Data Is?' · · Score: 1

    Wikileaks did some things that may or may not have been illegal in the United States. Wikileaks ability to do business and collect funds was taken down as it was 'in the cloud' and the provider was more worried about their own behind. The network connections were still up as the FCC and other regulators would go medieval on a provider who did this without just cause. This isn't the case for contracted services. An service that is 'unpopular' to a large entity can easily fall victim to this. For example in a large vs small company thing. Imagine Apple taking down thinksecret because they pressure thinksecret's provider threatening to eliminate any exisiting business with said provider. Same thing. It's why I have recommended to the ownership of our company that we do not outsource to the cloud. Instead I have recommended that we implement cloud-like technologies within our own network where it is still powerful.

       

  13. Re:Same happened to Sirius, but they negotiated on Copyright License Fees Drive Pandora Out of Canada · · Score: 1

    Record companies aren't at the table here, or are you implying the copyright board is in the pocket of the record companies and just a 'vendor'?

    The copyright board of Canada serves more functions than mere disbursement back to record companies. A significant portion of the percentage paid by new licensees (broadcasters) is for Canadian Content Development.

    http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/cancon/r_support.htm

    Companies such as Pandora and Sirius have ways around Canadian content regulations, therefore their expected cut of Canadian Content Development is significantly higher.

    An artist that is semi-successful in Canada makes less than a McDonalds employee due to the small number of Canadians to whom to sell their music. A similar level of moderate success for an artist in the USA means you get to see them on 'Cribs'.

    Canada's copyright board is not a 'vendor'. Canada's copyright board exists to keep Canadians making music, to put money back to the rights holders ('vendor') and to protect the existing players through essentially a punitive tariff. I would agree that parts 2 and 3 are not so great, which supports your earlier post. Ultimately the copyright fees are a cost of doing business and have shown to be negotiable.

    I certainly would not call that a 'non-starter'.

    Go back to the shareholders and tell them 'Sorry, we walked away from a deal that would add several million annually to revenue because we'd only get to keep half' The cost to Pandora to sell here is minimal, so does it really matter? They are throwing away revenue as every Canadian that I know that understands how Pandora works would probably sign up.

    Pandora needs to get off the horse and get down to business.

  14. Same happened to Sirius, but they negotiated on Copyright License Fees Drive Pandora Out of Canada · · Score: 1

    A Similar problem existed for Sirius satellite radio. Sirius negotiated lower rates and people buy the product even though Sirius to this day pays large amounts of licensing fees and Canadian Content development fees. It is my understanding that Sirius pays more for Canadian Content development than all of terrestrial radio. This does not stop them from having success and seeing decent growth in their subscriber base. I would assume that the rate is high as the copyright board astutely assumes that Pandora's success will mean Sirius' loss, and they are out to protect that flow of revenue into the development of Canadian Artists.

    Pandora is being either lazy, chicken, or greedier than the politician.. 'Oh no, big fat bureaucrat wants lots more money than our 2-bit business plan expected, run away'. They should go back to the table with some market research that shows their expected revenues and makes a fair case for how much they should actually pay. Comparisons to terrestrial radio will get you nowhere. Finding a pricing model that works within that franework is what is needed. They won't require a significant hardware investment to reach Canadians. So what if their profit margin won't be as large as hoped; It will still be a good profit margin if they negotiate to a lower rate.

    Yes, one could go into arguments about the validity of Candian Content Development, blah blah blah. Bottom line is that the copyright board exists to extract higher fees from new entrants into the markets. Get over it and get on with business.

  15. Jake and Elwood did it better on Stanford Robot Car Capable of Slide Parking · · Score: 1

    The Blues Brothers had the forward version of that, only more precise. One of the neatest car stunts I've ever seen.

    Not only that, but some guys on Youtube decided to recreate the scene. Insanely funny.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gw3mo6Pqwg

  16. Happened here with a different solution on Outlook Inertia the Main Factor Holding Business From Google Apps · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We migrated to in-house Zimbra from a simple sendmail server (500 accounts), which has worked exceptionally well. We had quite a bit of pushback from die-hard Outlook people. We adopted a policy that all new hires would get Zimbra and a business case would have to be presented to get Outlook for that user. We also dont support any of the sharing features via Outlook, and all new training material is for Zimbra and not Outlook. We also chose a few high profile individuals and helped them become more efficient with Zimbra to help spead the word. We still have about 50% of the user base on Outlook, POPing off of Zimbra. We expect this number to dwindle as our users decide to start leveraging sharing.

    A mixed mode can be supported, and its probably the only way to move away from a deeply entrenched tech like Outlook. Baby steps are required.

  17. Tag should not be suddenoutbreakofcommonsense on Canadian DMCA Bill Withdrawn · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    but suddenoutbreakofhouseofcommons

  18. Re:New Travel Destination on Japan to Start Fingerprinting Foreign Travelers · · Score: 1

    Do you live in a country that requires your fingerprints as part of its 'official records'? If that is the case, then I can understand your view but will disagree with it rather strongly.

    In much of the world, fingerprints only become part a permanent part of 'official records' if you are charged with and convicted of a crime. Even fingerprints from arrests are to be removed from 'official records' after a period of time. In your example, anyone coming from Canada that has never been arrested will have NEVER been fingerprinted in their entire life. The reasoning behind this is simple: The assertion that fingerprints are part of 'official records' indicates that the individual is the property of the state, when in much of the developed world it is supposed to be the state that is the property of its citizens.

    Countries that fingerprint all of their citizens tend to have legal codes and governmental systems built around the former; I have lived under both types of systems, and my own personal preference is the latter.

  19. Re:Probably a requirement on Valve Locking Out Gamers Who Buy Orange Box Internationally · · Score: 1

    mod parent up. Not all ACs deserve to languish at the bottom

  20. Re:Have they fixed the startup time? on Sun Debuts JavaFX As Alternative To AJAX · · Score: 1

    I think you missed the point. The word the parent used was 'free'. Not 'Open Source'. Java/ECMA Script + Free Browser + Free Webserver + Free Backend = Free End to End solution. The parent made the distinction. Open Source Free. Adobe could take Flash away tomorrow if they wish (like MS has taken away Windows 2000).

  21. Re:PC games *ARE* dying on PC Games On the Rebound · · Score: 1

    A quick browsing of online stores seems to indicate that the highest selling games and franchises (Warcraft, The Sims, Civilization) are available for Mac. I think one could reasonably say that only Hard Core PC gamers can still use that as a reason to not use a Mac. Now if only more were available for Linux then I'd be really happy.

  22. Re:Apple TV and Divx on AppleTV Hits the Streets · · Score: 5, Informative

    mp4 is not a proprietary Apple format, but an ISO standard that anyone can support. VLC Media player supports it. Also, ffmpeg has h264. When it comes to which has better hardware support, mp4 wins. When it comes to software support, mp4 wins. MPEG4 is an open standard. There are patents involved, but no royalties. Matroska was created to avoid patents, whereas mp4 has many patents in it. Matroska surely violates someones patents, but we just don't know whose yet. MPEG 4 has all the patent issues sorted out.

    I actually just finished transcoding all of my video to mp4 as i prefer its subtitle support over the cheesy avi hacks. DivX was created during the non standard days of MPEG4, as the spec was not finalized. That spec is now finalised, and the standard codec is h264 in an mp4 container. These videos play in Windows, Linux or any other OS which has an h264 codec. They can be imported into iTunes as best as i know. My iTunes question of the day is actually which subtitle formats they use, as I don't know the answer to that.

  23. Try Apache Derby AKA JavaDB on Adobe Releases Cross-Operating System Runtime · · Score: 1

    Client side functionality and data storage. Just synch and go. Stays in the sandbox. Leverages existing open technologies. Is available from more than one vendor. No BSA. Maybe a bit more challenging than this Adobe product, but a lot safer.

  24. Re:Cue the music on US Group Wants Canada Blacklisted Over Piracy · · Score: 2, Informative

    Even though we were mostly British at the time, I think that any threts from our neighbours are more likely to result in history repeating itself.

    Interesting that the War of 1812 was initiated by the US outraged at an affront to their liberties, yet this is about the US impressing it's dominance.. A bit of a reversal in 200 years I think.

  25. Re:Buck Stops At The Top on Cartoon Network CEO Resigns Over Aqua Teen Scare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    /me pusts on an asbestos suit and grabs a flamethrower

    Time to burn some Karma......

    I am sorry, but if you dumbfucks in the USA think that giving up all of the freedoms you held dear because 2,000 people died when thousands die yearly from more foolish causes in your country, then your brilliant marketers and others that actually show intelligence, will be jailed as enemies of the state or have their lives ruined in some other way. Any individual that ever thinks independently is going to end up jailed in your 'post 9/11' world. The only thing that truly died on 9/11 was your freedom.

    Post 9/11.... What's different? More state control? Less Freedom for Amercians in their own countries? The terrorist attacks of 9/11 were what Ronald Reagan dreamed of, yet Georgie let it happen. The great country of 'America' is dead and lost to the fascists. (yes, I'll say it). Autocratic Conservatives controlled by Corporations. Short Form.. Fascists. I used to look up to you in the US, now I pity you.

    I'm sorry for the swearing and all this, but damn this is absolutely ridiculous. An incredible marketing campaign gets several million dollars worth of fines and the guy at the top fired??? Hello!!!

    Post 9/11 world. If I hear that phrase again I'm gonna puke. Post 9/11 world .

    If any American on this forum actually thinks that a situation like this should just be chalked up to a 'Post 9/11 world', read your fucking constitution, feel half of the outrage that I'm feeling right now, and do something other than put new programs in your Tivos. Your 'Post 9/11 world' is as much a fiction as the Simpsons. /me puts away the flamethrower and takes a deep breath

    Peace out to those that are outraged about this. Not from an ATHF point of view, but a what is wrong with the US point of view. This is not a slag to the parent, which is actually a thoughtful post, but a absolutely gut-wrenching reaction to 'Post 9-11 world'. The World did not change on 9-11, you did.