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User: BigSlowTarget

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Comments · 307

  1. Next up on Tor Project Experiments With Funding Fast Exit Nodes · · Score: 1

    Tor: now featuring exit nodes that wrap advertising around your browsing.

  2. Re:How about no? on Feds: We Need Priority Access To Cloud Resources · · Score: 1

    All this talk about 'cyberwar' and what do they suggest? The cyber-warfare equivalent of putting air defenses in a hospital near the front. Even with proper SLAs, you paint a giant target on everyone around you.

    What can we expect? Probably demanding that the hospital be armored and sealed up which will drive up costs for everyone without accomplishing what they intend.

  3. Re:It's not your speech on Verizon Claims Net Neutrality Violates Their Free Speech Rights · · Score: 1

    The lawsuits would be glorious to behold. Everyone sue Verizon for anything online.

  4. Dallas Makerspace on A Maker Space Favorite: Using a Laser Cutter (Video) · · Score: 1

    Dallas Makerspace has a laser cutter on site. It is almost certainly the most popular tool (outside of the internet connection which is terrible and will be until they put up the tower). Pretty easy to use too though using it does require a class.

  5. Re:Yeah, yeah, we've heard the propaganda on Pirate Bay Founder Fined For 'Continued Involvement' · · Score: 1

    >Individual interests *must* take a back seat to the good of society. Period

    Nope. It is not even good for society for individual interests to always take a back seat to the good of the society and it is certainly not always in the best interests of the individuals.

    You could say it is best for society to have a balance between societal and individual interests but this means re-framing the question inevitably involves how much is fair for whom.

  6. Re:Is it really that bad? on Are We Failing To Prepare Children For Leadership In the US? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Realistically its a side effect of the work culture and the family moving from stay at home mom to dual income. Latchkey kids became common and parents slowly realized that their jobs didn't allow them to pay the same level of attention to their kids that their parents paid to them. They were ashamed and felt a need to prove that they do care about their kids, even if they don't have time to spend with them. That leads to overprotectiveness as a proof method and the precious little snowflake situation. Add that kid success is also used as a societal status claim for the parents, that our politicians have figured out that fear is a vote getter and so push the danger of crime, that we have an overabundance of lawyers and that we have a serious dislike of someone being treated better if they haven't been seen to earn/deserve it and this is the result you naturally get.

  7. AOL Returns on Verizon Wireless Goes Ahead With 'Bucket' Data Plans · · Score: 1

    So time for wireless cellphone dial up then? It sounds like this is AOL's big chance to return to profitability.

  8. Re:Looks quite ugly on Buttons That Morph Out of Your Touchscreen · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Probably monitoring the pressure of the fluid in the buttons rather than the surface of the touchscreen while the buttons are up.

  9. Re:Do it in-house on Comptroller Accuses HP of Overcharging NYC $163m On 911 System · · Score: 2

    This assumes competent management hiring competent employees through a fair skills based hiring process and wisely managing the project over multiple administrations and the long term to achieve success.

    If you've worked in government or big business that one sentence should be enough to make your risk management tendrils wrap around your neck and attempt to strangle you.

  10. And on Supreme Court Rules Julian Assange May Be Extradited · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'd just like to be the first to say welcome to the U.S. Mr. Assange. How was your brief visit to Sweden?

  11. Re:PC gaming? on Digging Into the Electrical Cost of PC Gaming · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sure you can still play. You just feed in quarters at double or triple the rate of the rest of us.

  12. This makes complete sense. on US CIO/CTO: Idea of Hiring COBOL Coders Laughable · · Score: 1

    This is how you create and recruit brogrammers. They want frat boys to do their systems.

  13. Re:Good guys? on Flashback Click Fraud Campaign Was a Bust · · Score: 1

    Yep, I'd bet on no refunds to the people who actually got clickfrauded.

  14. Re:Not possible, Ace. on America's Next Bomber: Unmanned, Unlimited Range, Aimed At China · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The USSR 'paid' for its military production by sacrificing investment in it's people, education and consumer goods in order to maintain expenditures in it's military. Where the resources are allocated matters. It also did so using a very inefficient (though theoretically nonprofit) model. The corrupt officials didn't need profits to move most of the remaining production into their pockets. When Perestroika kicked in and let people see what they were missing things started to fall apart and when they didn't quickly and oppressively use the military it came totally apart.

    The US has also allocated resources to its military which don't improve people, education, consumer production or create consumer goods. These might be necessary expenditures but the fact is that the government spends on behalf of each family about $6k for defense. The wars have run another $10k. If part of that could have gone elsewhere without imperiling safety other benefits would have been received.

  15. Here's your legal advice Mr. McAfee on Antivirus Pioneer John McAfee Arrested In Belize · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Get the hell out of there as soon as you can. If the corruption is that bad you won't be getting a fair trial.

  16. Re:I'm not rich... Experimental is the way to go.. on Electric Airplane Ready For Production · · Score: 1

    I'm sure someone has done an experimental electric kit too.

  17. Re:Solar on Electric Airplane Ready For Production · · Score: 1

    You can fly indefinitely. See: gliders. Some of them already have electric motors too.

  18. Re:Lets just hope on German Court Rules That Clients Responsible For Phishing Losses · · Score: 2

    Bank transfers money to a Greek bank.

    First bank calls Greek bank, says money was stolen and asks for money back

    The Greek bank can now either take the money out of the account, send cops after the thief or acknowledge that they have no idea who really has accounts with them and that they shouldn't be allowed access to the secured banking transfer network. They don't want to do the last one because solving it costs them money and it's hard.

  19. Re:Now they've done it on Quantum Experiment Shows Effect Before Cause · · Score: 2

    Fredrick Brown via Gutenberg: The first time machine, gentlemen," Professor Johnson proudly informed his two colleagues. "True, it is a small-scale experimental model. It will operate only on objects weighing less than three pounds, five ounces and for distances into the past and future of twelve minutes or less. But it works."

    The small-scale model looked like a small scale—a postage scale—except for two dials in the part under the platform.

    Professor Johnson held up a small metal cube. "Our experimental object," he said, "is a brass cube weighing one pound, two point three ounces. First, I shall send it five minutes into the future."

    He leaned forward and set one of the dials on the time machine. "Look at your watches," he said.

    They looked at their watches. Professor Johnson placed the cube gently on the machine's platform. It vanished.

    Five minutes later, to the second, it reappeared.

    Professor Johnson picked it up. "Now five minutes into the past." He set the other dial. Holding the cube in his hand he looked at his watch. "It is six minutes before three o'clock. I shall now activate the mechanism—by placing the cube on the platform—at exactly three o'clock. Therefore, the cube should, at five minutes before three, vanish from my hand and appear on the platform, five minutes before I place it there."

    "How can you place it there, then?" asked one of his colleagues.

    "It will, as my hand approaches, vanish from the platform and appear in my hand to be placed there. Three o'clock. Notice, please."

    The cube vanished from his hand.

    It appeared on the platform of the time machine.

    "See? Five minutes before I shall place it there, it is there!"

    His other colleague frowned at the cube. "But," he said, "what if, now that it has already appeared five minutes before you place it there, you should change your mind about doing so and not place it there at three o'clock? Wouldn't there be a paradox of some sort involved?"

    "An interesting idea," Professor Johnson said. "I had not thought of it, and it will be interesting to try. Very well, I shall not ..."

    There was no paradox at all. The cube remained.

    But the entire rest of the Universe, professors and all, vanished.

  20. Re:Why just OUR government? on The Crisis of Government-Funded Science · · Score: 1

    I think the history of US sole funding projects and so having sole control over them might make us less willing to chip in with others because we would lose that total control. It might make no sense given limitations in governmental science funding but for politicians big science is about the pursuit of glory, economic advantage or political leverage not about the pursuit of knowledge. They also don't seem to share well or work together much these days.

  21. Dallas Regionals on Robots Go Wild at the USFIRST.org Robotics Competition (Video) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I did the game announcing for the Dallas Regionals this year. The game is a combination of autonomous and teleoperated. The bots that won took advantage of higher point score values during the autonomous period and/or did strategic moves like gathering up ammunition during that period and it made a difference even though it was only 15 seconds long. Some ball targeting was really impressive. It was also the first time since Battlebots that I've seen 1000+ people cheering robots.

  22. On the plus side on Experts Warn Of Possible North Korean Nuclear Test · · Score: 1

    At least they don't have rocket scientists any more. I doubt any of them survived the rocket explosion by more than an hour.

  23. I built my last machine into luggage so I could move it around. I wanted a real (and cheap, and upgradable) video card and processor. Very easy, took an afternoon at most. A wireless keyboard, mouse and just an HDMI cable to an external monitor kept it all pretty clean.

  24. The technology could probably be used as a stepping stone for developing ways to beat it plus have lots of offshoot possibilities. It's not like they're going to agree not to backward engineer it in a Eula.

  25. Re:Punish unjust copyright claims on At Universal's Request, YouTube Yanks News Podcast Over Music Snippet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Civil: Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Incorporated - Diebold sued for false DMCA and paid $125k.

    Even if it were more possible, do you really think anyone would criminally prosecute a large company for just a false DMCA? Prosecutors gain nothing from that and just waste their resources for a minor offense against a company's major legal team. The end result would just end up being angering potential donors to political campaigns except when those donors encouraged prosecution of small copyright holders too poor to afford good lawyers.