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User: BigSlowTarget

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Comments · 307

  1. Re:It IS somewhat shocking. on DoJ Admits Aaron Swartz's Prosecution Was Political · · Score: 4, Informative

    They didn't. They said an arguably political paper "played a role in the prosecution" . They don't consider the paper political or they don't consider it the whole motivation. It's a short paper, probably worth reading so you can make up your own mind how wrong they were.

    http://archive.org/stream/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto/Goamjuly2008_djvu.txt

  2. Re:"Unauthorized Access" is a Felony. on Ask Slashdot: Dealing With an Advanced Wi-Fi Leech? · · Score: 1

    >Law is a great thing until you realize you're on the wrong side of the line, at the wrong moment in time

    Ever download something copywritten, participate in a fantasy football league or shower naked in Florida....criminal? If so it sounds like you were carrying a gun during the commission of a crime so the penalties are strengthened (ok not with the showering perhaps).

    Law has progressed to the point where if you piss off a DA he can find something to charge you with. You are always on the wrong side when they want you to be.

  3. Plantiffs thought process on California's Surreal Retroactive Tax On Tech Startup Investors · · Score: 1

    Hey let's push the state into exempting out of state companies so we can get the exemption too. Oh crap, we just screwed it up for everyone and wasted millions in legal fees for a ruling that will get us nothing. Who could have ever guessed California would take the money grab option?

  4. Re:Robot to own? on A Humanoid Robot Named "Baxter" Could Revive US Manufacturing · · Score: 1

    Welcome to life as a small business. I hope you're good at finding work for your robot.

  5. Re:The "Cloud" on Meet "Ophelia," Dell's Plan To Reinvent Itself · · Score: 1

    V2.0, no doubt destined for Kickstarter momentarily courtesy of some local hacker, would probably have onboard storage for your data to deal with just such a concern.

  6. Re:It will just create... on Smart Guns To Stop Mass Killings · · Score: 1

    No point, a market couldn't possibly compete with the illegal firmware you'll be able to download off of Pirate Bay.

  7. Uh oh - Blackmail on Loss of a Single Laptop Leads to $50k Fine Against Idaho Hospice · · Score: 1

    If the information in any laptop (or desktop) could be worth tens of thousands in fines we might just see an increase in health care thefts and blackmail. Cheaper to pay to get the laptop back than to pay the fine if the data goes public.

  8. So F2Ps then? on Connecticut Group Wants Your Violent Videogames — To Destroy Them · · Score: 1

    Will they be happy if I send them 300 copies of Planetside2? There's a lot of shooting in that one.

  9. Re:HP doesn't read the contract ? on HP Cuts Workforce By 5%, Looks To Probe GM Hires · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't you?

  10. Re:Schlock Mercenary on Ask Slashdot: What Was Your Favorite Web Comic of 2012? · · Score: 2

    It's really amazing to take a look at the first strips then walk through as the artist has improved in technique and detail. There's an easy jump to the first strip. Compare that to the latest one. The difference is profound.

  11. A list of people that own guns? on New York Paper Uses Public Records To Publish Gun-Owner Map · · Score: 1

    In Texas we call this list the phone book. Not published much any more.

  12. Re:China on China Set To Surpass US In R&D Spending In 10 Years · · Score: 2

    China has had 4+ times the population of the US for a very long time. The real reason they haven't been ahead of the US in production for many decades is that the productivity of the people was squandered by political forces within the country. It was corruption at the highest level, trading the productive potential for political stability.

    We have corruption too. Bad politicians who do sweetheart deals with contributors, crappy patent or copyright laws, lawsuits over unreasonable things with unreasonable settlements and banking malfeasance are all examples of our elements of corruption and there are many more. I think it's relative corruption that will decide if one population is a dozen times as effective as another. That means it will decide who's economy runs things in the 21st century.

  13. Re:TSA, terrorism, gun control, and mass shootings on Taking Sense Away: Confessions of a Former TSA Screener · · Score: 5, Insightful

    [citation required] DC has gun laws but a high homicide rate. North Dakota has few laws but a low one. I know Mexico has strict laws that simply don't work.

    The reasonable question I would ask is "What is the complete impact of stricter gun laws on crime." You then need to decide what mix of gun deaths, crime, cost, laws and civil liberties you want to go with. Just saying gun death rate reduction is the only acceptable goal is not a reasonable way to consider the whole question.

  14. Re:I Hate The Google Knowledge Graph on Google's Second Brain: How the Knowledge Graph Changes Search · · Score: 1

    The problem is that the processing filled system appeals to the masses. Niche search - in this case defined as searches by people who know how to exactly specify what they mean with great precision - will never be as common as poorly specified searches that benefit from correction and prediction, even if it's done badly. Turning off such features would be wonderful but the demand for them to do so is probably pretty limited.

  15. Re:Math on All of Nate Silver's State-Level Polling Predictions Proved True · · Score: 1

    So the fourth column would be a combination of the fourth estate and the fifth column or in other words a government like organization that pretends to monitor the others and be on your side while actually setting you up to be sheared like a sheep. Great.

  16. Re:2000 Honda Insight, Metros/Swifts, Honda CRX HF on How We'll Get To 54.5 Mpg By 2025 · · Score: 1

    But we aren't giving up airbags, antilock brakes and other safety and emissions control stuff to get to 54.5mpg. The Federal mileage standards were also changed a few years back meaning the 38mpg Metro (for example) would only get 33mpg under the current system.

    The issue isn't for hypermilers to draft, coast and weasel their way into beating the number it's for vehicles to attain the mileage under standard conditions of the test. It means in practice many cars will have to be hybrid, electric variant or something new.

  17. Touch everything on Pictures From an Exhibition: World Makerfaire 2012 NYC · · Score: 1

    Is this not the show that has multimillion volt Tesla coils, madly whirring CNC machines and printers dispensing molten plastic? It would seem to me that either Don't Touch signs are merited in some places or the thing has fallen prey to the something like the nerfification of science kits of recent times.

  18. Double idiots on Secret Service Investigating Romney Tax Hack Claim · · Score: 1

    100,000 BTC is a big portion of the market available. I bet if they bought it all the price would skyrocket.

  19. Re:Seizure without cause on US DOJ Drops Charges Against Two Seized Websites · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What remediation will happen? None. The government has sovereign immunity except under special cases. This would not qualify as you would have to prove they not only did not have a case but could never have reasonably thought they could ever have had a case. That isn't going to happen.

  20. Re:The chocolate game on Large Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme Collapses With a Loss of $5.6 Million · · Score: 1

    Brilliant - I think this should be part of classroom instruction. It's the only way to get through to people sometimes.

  21. Wrong strategy on What Developers Can Learn From Anonymous · · Score: 1

    Except of course that for an attack only one attempt ever need work properly to get the information desired. For a development project the whole thing better work and somebody should even be able to maintain it after whoever slapped the thing together has moved on to ruining something else.

  22. Sure on Should Developers Be Sued For Security Holes? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What we need is more and richer lawyers and frightened software developers with malpractice costs bigger than doctors. Perhaps we can eventually make sure all code is only developed by giant corporations made up primarily of legal defense teams dedicated to patent exploitation and liability control with tiny development arms tagged on the end.

  23. Wake up CEO on Are 12-16 Hour Workdays Productive? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Perhaps this guy should take a look at how his employees view his company: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Opsware-Reviews-E11055.htm

    Doesn't look like those 1:1 meetings are really paying off in "that the people who spend 12 to 16 hours/day here, which is most of their waking life, have a good life."

  24. Re:What is the point roxy on Police Don't Need a Warrant To Track Your Disposable Cellphone · · Score: 1

    Don't bother. Kickstarter will pull it before you can even boast about it. Do you think they are going to let that gravy train mess with the law one bit?

  25. Re:Not really surprising. on Ubisoft Uplay DRM Found To Include a Rootkit · · Score: 3, Informative

    I finally got HoMM VI despite DRM reservations on extreme sale and I have to say it wasn't worth it even for 90% off. They stripped all the strategy from the game and left it an empty advertising husk. Don't bother.