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User: Rick+Genter

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Comments · 302

  1. Gadgets enable those without common sense on Do Gadgets Degrade Our Common Sense? · · Score: 1

    I don't think people are losing common sense. I think that new technology enables people who never had common sense to try to accomplish things that they wouldn't have even tried before.

  2. Re:My bet on 'Motherlode' of Data Seized At Bin Laden Compound · · Score: 1

    His real name was Obi Wan Laden.

  3. Re:good on Stargate Universe Cancelled · · Score: 1

    The "Wormhole drive" was introduced in series finale of SGA and allowed Atlantis to travel from Pegasus to the Milky Way in seconds - normal hyperspace travel took three weeks.

    And yeah, NO SF show has ever addressed the "how do you find a starship in a galaxy" problem (Star Wars, Star Trek, SG, BSG, whatever).

  4. Re:good on Stargate Universe Cancelled · · Score: 1

    That's because Groening and Cohen and math/science geeks...

  5. Re:good on Stargate Universe Cancelled · · Score: 2

    traveling into the future is, from a narrative standpoint, fucking boring.

    Actually, Futurama handled this really well. Just go forward until you loop through the next Big Bang cycle. Then stop moving forward when the new universe it up to the point in its history where the old universe was and where you want to change things. Oops! Missed Hitler; quick, fast forward to the next cycle!

  6. Re:good on Stargate Universe Cancelled · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not to be a total geek, but:

    In SGA, the "Pegasus Galaxy" is supposedly about 3 million light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy.
    In SGU, the Destiny is supposedly 7 *billion* light-years from Earth, or ~2300x as far.

    So the Wormhole Drive would have to run for hours instead of seconds....and as we all know, the dipolarized unobtanium that powers it goes supercritical if used for more than 30 seconds and destroys the universe, so SGU *obviously* couldn't have used that... ;-)

  7. This is an iOS 4 problem, not an iPhone 4 problem on Proximity Sensor Presents Latest iPhone 4 Issue · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have an iPhone 3G. I updated my iPhone to iOS 4. Now I have the same proximity sensor issue; I was on a conference call the other day and kept hearing a beep before I realized that my face was pressing the "3" on the keypad. I had to hold the phone like Steve does in order to make it stop ;-).

  8. Great headline on A Look Back At Bombing the Van Allen Belts · · Score: 1

    My favorite part of the NPR article was the sub-headline: "Discover It, Then Blow It Up".

    Kinda sums it all, doesn't it?

  9. Re:Oops! on Jupiter Is Missing a Belt · · Score: 1

    It's just a glitch in the Matrix.

  10. Re:And I thought... on Halo 2 Online Preservation Effort Ends · · Score: 1

    You can still compile and run FORTRAN programs--in fact, if you run Linux, you might have a FORTRAN compiler installed and not know it (I'm in Windows, so I can't see if I do right now).

    Hmm.....let's see:


    [rgenter@at41 rgenter]$ f77 --version
    GNU Fortran (GCC 3.2 20020903 (Red Hat Linux 8.0 3.2-7)) 3.2 20020903 (Red Hat Linux 8.0 3.2-7)
    Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

    GNU Fortran comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
    You may redistribute copies of GNU Fortran
    under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
    For more information about these matters, see the file named COPYING
    or type the command `info -f g77 Copying'.
    [rgenter@at41 rgenter]$

    Yup. FORTRAN, check. :-)

  11. Re:It's Xfinitytastic! - and how to rebrand well on Comcast Shoots For New Image, Rebranding As Xfinity · · Score: 1

    It's Xfinitesimal! Oh, wait...

  12. Re:Probably not on A Hyper-Velocity Impact In the Asteroid Belt? · · Score: 1, Informative

    Those who moderated the parent "Insightful" should be meta-moderated as either "Clueless" or "Humorless".

  13. Another Dilbert-esque policy on Music While Programming? · · Score: 1

    This policy sounds like something from a Dilbert cartoon. The boss must be particularly pointy-haired in this case.

  14. I just have one thing to say about this: on How Dangerous Could a Hacked Robot Possibly Be? · · Score: 1

    Bite my shiny metal ass.

    No, really, you're alright, I like you.

  15. Re:$6k? on Microsoft Interns Still Feel the Love · · Score: 1

    Did you *read* the summary? It was $4,600 to $6,000 per month.

  16. Re:Sensationalism in slashdot and other tech news on $18M Contract For Transparency Website Released — But Blacked Out · · Score: 1

    I usually universally ignore Anonymous Cowards, but every once in a while one catches my eye who actually has something useful and insightful to say.

    I read through the redacted form of the proposal and I agree with you that they are protecting private individual information. In addition, it seems like they might have redacted anything that mentioned the name of a specific vendor or product - perhaps to avoid any appearance of favoritism.

    As far as redacting the system capacity, my guess is that was done at the request of some "security" department who feels that security by obscurity is a valid policy. Obviously it's not, but that would be consistent with the way pretty much the entire government operates.

    Overall, though, my opinion is that there wasn't any malicious intent in the redactions, but rather an intent to adhere to various policies that were put into place in an attempt to make government appear open, fair and safe, and instead end up making it look nefarious.

  17. Re:Steve Jobs' wet dream ... on Microsoft Hardware Demos Pressure-Sensitive Keyboard · · Score: 1

    Too late: they've already got the MacBook Wheel.

  18. Re:i can see the future already on Original Futurama Cast Seals Deal With Fox · · Score: 1

    Have you seen the recent Futurama DVDs? As in the opening scene of Bender's Big Score?

  19. Re:Meh, Alien was your basic horror movie on Ridley Scott Directing Alien Prequel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You seem to forget that Alien predated Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and most of the other "classic horror" movies:

    Alien (1979)
    Friday the 13th (1980)
    A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

    Only Halloween (1978) predates Alien, and by a short enough period that I think it's safe to say that Alien was well underway before Halloween hit the theater.

  20. Fuck, yeah! on Swearing Provides Pain Relief, Say Scientists · · Score: 1

    'nuff said, cocksuckers.

    (Can you tell I've been re-watching Deadwood lately? ;-)

  21. Re:Well... on Middle-School Strip Search Ruled Unconstitutional · · Score: 1

    CNN had her picture - she's 19 now and in college. (You didn't think the strip search was last week, did you?)

  22. Re:its not a problem for me on Nielsen Recommends Not Masking Passwords · · Score: 1

    I wish I had mod points right now...

  23. Re:Why is there no discount online backup? on How Do You Sync & Manage Your Home Directories? · · Score: 1

    I have Comcast. My download supposedly peaks at 16 Mbps, though I usually average about 11. Supposedly Comcast is going to 50 Mbps soon. FiOS is already 50 - or maybe it's 60 now.

    Comcast having a "cut off" is FUD - definitely not true. I exceed 250GB/month almost every month.

    However, if you don't have the time or the bandwidth, for a nominal fee you can get mozy to send you DVDs of your data.

  24. Re:Why is there no discount online backup? on How Do You Sync & Manage Your Home Directories? · · Score: 1

    http://mozy.com/

    I use mozy to back up my systems. I have just under 600GB saved at mozy. They use blowfish encryption and you can use your own key so only you have access to your data (the encryption is performed locally before being transmitted over the wire). I back up both a Mac and a PC to mozy. I don't know if they have a Linux client.

    For unlimited storage they charge ~50 USD/year/system being backed up. I find it well worth it for my peace of mind (it's a great off-site backup solution).

  25. Re:Protectionism on Google Suggest Disabled In China Due To Porn · · Score: 1

    When you have a market of 1.5 billion potential consumers, a monopoly works just fine; you don't need competition to thrive.