Slashdot Mirror


User: dave1791

dave1791's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
378
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 378

  1. Re:And..."I suppose it was only a matter of time." on Ecuador To Grant Assange Political Asylum · · Score: 1

    People who refuse to do anything about a greater evil, lest they accept a smaller evil, piss me off. Suppose that the greater evil would win by one vote if you stayed home. Your choice in this case is to vote for the lesser evil, which is still evil, or not vote; which in this case is the same as voting for the greater evil. If Gore had been president in 2001, we’d not have had Dick Fucking Cheney using 9/11 to push the US into the Iraq war. Would we have had rendition? Torture? Since Cheney actively supported these things and was their biggest cheerleader, it made a BIG difference between having a smaller or bigger evil and in this case, we got the bigger evil.

    Those people who voted for Nader in 2000, because “voting for the smaller evil is still evil” have the blood of the Iraq war on their hands!

  2. Re:It's like this. on Does Grammar Matter Anymore? · · Score: 1

    i can write just fine in my utilkilt with no undies

  3. Re:still using Office 2000... no point in newer... on Microsoft Office 2013 Not Compatible With Windows XP, Vista · · Score: 1

    So I guess valuing the (usually) smaller size of the archived xml marks me as clueless then.

    Actually, from my perspective, there have been significant improvements in every version of Office. Then again, I'm also someone who writes a lot of VBA macros and the occasional c# .net plugin.

  4. Re:Obvious on Conservatives' Trust In Science Has Fallen Dramatically Since Mid-1970s · · Score: 1

    There is also a Green Party in the US. Interestingly, the Greens are classified as a "left libertarian" party and its platforms do overlap with the larger, but still insignificant, American Libertarian party.

  5. Re:As an nexus owner... on Apple Loses German Court Bid To Ban Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N, Nexus Phone · · Score: 2

    There should be a moratorium on gesture patents. Right now, we're in a state where we can't say that any new developments would be non-obvious to an expert. You could make a list of a million gesture controls over a couple of beers.

  6. Re:Any surprises here? on Apple Loses German Court Bid To Ban Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N, Nexus Phone · · Score: 1

    Goodness gracious! I'll grant the hardware similarities, but that link is comparing an old feature phone's OS UI with a not-heavily skinned Android phone. Those icons and that layout are stock Gingerbread. Aside from that and the use of gestures, the usage paradigms for iOS and Android (at least as of 4.0) are quite different and "how things flow" is also quite different.

    Samsung's best defense here is probably a quick rollout of a 4.0 update.

  7. Re:The only advantage iPhone users have over Andro on Apple Loses German Court Bid To Ban Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N, Nexus Phone · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wait! iOS 5 has usable notifications? You could have fooled me!

  8. Re:Free market? on The Un-Internet and War On General Purpose Computers · · Score: 1

    If I had mod points today, you'd get'em. This is the same thing that goes through my mind whenever I read someone lamenting that too many people are ignorant of some aspect of computing; e.g. security.

    Oh and its not just Americans, but "people" in general.

  9. Re:Shocked. on Do You Really Need a Smart Phone? · · Score: 1

    Mod the parent up.

    My smartphone“ (an iPhone in my case, but to be honest, something running WebOS, Android or Windows Phone would also work) is a lousy phone. My cheap Nokia work phone is far better. In fact, every cell phone I’ve ever owned has been a better phone. I don’t really care because I average 1 minute a day talktime and most of that is with my wife and kids; logistical syncing stuff. I was late to the smartphone bandwagon because I lived like the OP for many years; using an old clamshell with a dirt cheap voice only plan.

    Holy cow! I’ll never go back!

    I’m increasingly finding that my phone is replacing my laptop. Many tasks that I used to crack open the laptop for, I can do perfectly fine on the phone and for serious work, I’ve always preferred desktops for real work anyway. So basically, it’s a substitute laptop that fits in my pocket, has internet access wherever I go and a GPS built in. And that GPS has a standardized API, so many of the applications on my little pocket laptop are location enabled; from the useful (such as finding the highest rated restaurant within walking distance, or checking on traffic info) to the useless, but fun (such as finding out about that airliner flying overhead; which airline it is and where it is going).

    I could even put an ssh terminal on it if I had need of one.

    And I pay about €20 a month for it. Are service plans really so expensive in the US?

  10. The funny thing is on Augmented Reality's Disruptive Potential · · Score: 1

    Yes, being able to display a google earth layer over the camera on my phone would be cool. In theory. The problem with AR is that it combines cheap in-phone GPS results with low quality solid state compass data. I’ve got an app called “go sky watch”. It’s really cool in that it can show me where constellation, individual stars, elliptic line and the current locations of the sun and moon are. Too bad that more likely than not, it thinks my phone is pointed to a different part of the sky than it actually is. Wikitude suffers the same problem and is most useful in overhead map mode, where it is reduced to being a not as good as google maps, google maps clone.

    For the foreseeable future, AR is just going to be a gimmick that” will become the next big thing sometime soon”.

  11. Re:Killing the conversation on Should We Have a Right To Be Forgotten Online? · · Score: 1

    *TSA reach brouhaha?

    "TSA search..." Perhaps I do need a right to be forgotten to hide my un-proofread comments. :)

  12. Re:Killing the conversation on Should We Have a Right To Be Forgotten Online? · · Score: 1

    Why does the GP owe it?

    If I choose to post on this public forum with - for example - the pseudonymous ID that I've been using for a decade on slashdot, I've made the choice to associate those words with that persona; publicly. If I don't want to associate my user ID with those words, I check the AC box. If I feel that I may regret it sometime, then either I post as AC, but more likely I regards the statement as something not worthy of having been said in the first place and don't post it. It is not at all clear to me that I have a right to force someone else to have work to erase ill thought out comments on my part.

    This right to be forgotten scares me because of how it can be misused. Remember the TSA reach brouhaha? That agency was deeply embarrassed by people posting videos of TSA agents going the neo-stazi route. TSA agents tried intimidation tactics in many cases to prevent those videos from being posted, or taken in the first place, but legally they were on the wrong side. Now suppose those agents could invoke their right to privacy and use that to force the erasure of the video. How does society benefit?

  13. Re:I'm going to quote an old robot saying on Blogger Fined $60K For Telling the Truth · · Score: 1

    The GP's point is that both sides have to agree on each and every juror. If I was a lawyer doing jury selection, I’d certainly not allow the opposing side to stack it with people likely to be reflexively sympathetic to the their argument.

  14. Re:WANT! on $30 GPS Jammer Can Wreak Havok · · Score: 2

    Cue the next generation LoJack, with a jammer detector, combined with a gyroscope and a good dead reckoning algorithm...

  15. Re:easy and necessary fix. on UK Schools Consider Searching Pupils' Smartphones · · Score: 1

    I can see from your writing that you don't listen to your teachers. I'm not a grammar nazi, but that hurts my eyes. Oh and it's spelled "technophobes", not "technophobs".

    Try the cell phone off during school. You might learn something.

  16. Re:"Kids are not adults." on UK Schools Consider Searching Pupils' Smartphones · · Score: 1

    You cannot force a child to work commercially for you for free. You cannot compel a child to testify against themselves. The police may not search children without a warrant.

    And in my home country, you can't force anyone to testify against themselves, police need warrants to conduct searches (even though most sheeple don't realize this and grand permission to be cooperative) and you can't be compelled to do commercial work for free.

  17. Re:WANT! on $30 GPS Jammer Can Wreak Havok · · Score: 2

    What does jamming GPSes have to do with mobile phone conversations? A GPS being use by someone else is not going to bother you, so jamming it really is just being a dick.

  18. Re:Make it clear to your DA on Leave a Message, Go To Jail · · Score: 1

    Which would require an active citizenry. We can't expect a working government to just happen.

  19. Re:The point of this on CIA Shows Off (Formerly) Super-Secret Spy Goodies · · Score: 1

    The point of this isn't to be more open. The point is to make people think about what the CIA can do with today's technology if they could do that with the technology of yesteryear. Making the enemy overestimate your power is an important principle in deterrence.

    Yea... I don't think that's true. You want the enemy to underestimate you're ability to spy on them so that you can, you know, spy on them.

    Unless you want them to think that you can train sharks and vultures as agents.

  20. Re:lol on Secret Plan To Kill Wikileaks With FUD Leaked · · Score: 2

    >All that'll change here will be some American libertarians who're stupid enough to belief Fox news even
    >half the time will now lump Fox news criticism of wikileaks

    You realize that Noam Chomsky calls himself a libertarian socialist, right?

    You might want to take a look at the Nolan Chart sometime. You might find that the definition of libertarian (as evidenced by the platform of the libertarian party in the US) is a bit different than you (and all of those FOX viewers who currently style themselves as libertarians) think it is.

  21. Re:Dosen't this give the people more choice ? on New Hampshire Bill Could Lead To Adoption of Approval Voting · · Score: 1

    Well, a party will always have a core of support that will vote for them and only for them.

    Some voters may actually be ok with either of the major party candidates; neither completely agreeing with either, not completely disagreeing with either. Many voters who might be inclined to support the Libertarian or Green party, but don't due to fear that doing so will strengthen the major party that they like less, can freely do so.

    I hope this experiment is implemented and works well. Democracy 3.0.

  22. Re:Moderate and libertarian candidates .... so the on New Hampshire Bill Could Lead To Adoption of Approval Voting · · Score: 1

    So which axis of the nolan chart do we drop to get your left/right?

  23. Re:What grounds? on Assange Could Face Execution Or Guantanamo Bay · · Score: 1

    Nobody cared enough about wikileaks when it was publishing leaks about Kenyan corruption to donate. Now that the US is Assange's main adversary, wikileaks is bringing in the cash.

    I think I have an idea for a startup....

  24. Re:What grounds? on Assange Could Face Execution Or Guantanamo Bay · · Score: 1

    At the moment, only Assange, Birgitta Jonsdottir and manning likely know for sure if it was solicited or not; which is likely the reason behind the Twitter subpoena. They (the US Justice department) probably want to know whether Assange was in contact with Manning while he was still downloading or not.

    Birgitta Jonsdottir thought she was funny when she took Assange to a cocktail party at the US embassy in Iceland. If she showed so little discretion there, then she might very well have been dumb enough to communicate with Manning and Assange in a substantial manner on Twitter; leaving behind evidence if it indeed was an espionage case. At least that would be my logic if I was a DOJ investigator.

  25. Re:What grounds? on Assange Could Face Execution Or Guantanamo Bay · · Score: 1

    Just because Joe Biden said something, does not make it US Government policy.

    1 - US Politicians say stupid things. Enough of them are absolute morons whose main attribute is being able to say something trite that goes over well with enough of their voters.
    2 - UK Politicians say stupid things... blah blah. I've been reading UK papers long enough to know this.
    3 - I've been living in Germany long enough to see enough German politicians do the same.

    What do they all have in common? Second tier politicos scoring points with a specific domestic constituency by saying absurd things that that particular group likes to hear.