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User: Jardine

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Comments · 787

  1. Re:A machine... on Microsoft's Cortana Doesn't Put Up With Sexual Harassment (hothardware.com) · · Score: 4, Funny

    We should ban violent videogames while we're at it. Look at all the mass shootings they have caused.

    Can't tell if Jack Thompson or Anita Sarkeesian.

  2. Re:Who are these people? on EFF: the Final Leaked TPP Text Is All That We Feared (eff.org) · · Score: 1

    Heck, if we were really open to coalition governments, maybe we would still have the Reform party.

    We do. They just re-branded and absorbed the remains of the PC Party.

  3. Re:Balancing Act on Will Autonomous Cars Be the Insurance Industry's Napster Moment? · · Score: 2

    I'm guessing you're in Saskatchewan. I put my details into the calculator they have (which only asks for the vehicle make, model, year, and my safety rating) and it was over $200 cheaper than my insurance and plate registration in Ontario. Even with a 0 safety rating, it was about $50 cheaper. I also remember checking the rate in Saskatchewan back when I was a younger driver. It was close to $3000 cheaper then.

  4. Re:Morale of the Story on How a Kickstarter Project Can Massively Exceed Its Funding Goals and Still Fail · · Score: 1

    Because some of the employees were well known and who had proven track records with well loved games. It was a very early kickstarter so there were a lot of unknowns with the project and how it would work. I suspect there are a lot of backers who think it was a success because it helped revive interest in the genre and help other game companies learn from the mistakes.

    If it was just Broken Age, I could see people giving them another shot, but when you combine that with the broken promises of Spacebase DF-9, I can't fathom trusting them to fulfill a Kickstarter or an Early Access game. With Spacebase DF-9 they took $400k in investor money from The Indie Fund, Humble Bundle, and a few others and made it back in two weeks. When sales slowed, they stopped development with a lot of promised features not finished. Sounds like a hell of a good deal for the investors, not so much for people who bought the game, trusting that an established developer would actually finish it.

  5. Re:Morale of the Story on How a Kickstarter Project Can Massively Exceed Its Funding Goals and Still Fail · · Score: 1

    funding a game from a known and reliable developer like Broken Age from Double Fine

    Why would you trust Double Fine? Broken Age is the perfect example of a Kickstarter that was over-funded and still burned through its money. They split the game into two parts and sold the first part to fund development of the second part. Add that to the bullshit that happened with Spacebase DF-9 and you'd have to be nuts to trust Tim Schafer with anything.

  6. Re:How is it misleading? on Canadian Government Steps In To Stop Misleading Infringement Notices · · Score: 1

    I doubt Canada would extradite a Canadian citizen to the US. The response would probably be something like "are you fucking kidding me?".

    Not for copyright infringement at least. They extradited Marc Emery for selling cannabis seeds through mail order to Americans though.

  7. Re:Quick, now's our chance! on Bell Canada To Stop Internet Throttling · · Score: 1

    All of Bell's customers are now on usage based billing.

    Not all. Some of us are still grandfathered in on unlimited plans.

  8. Re:Telus... on ISP's War On BitTorrent Hits World of Warcraft · · Score: 1

    Thankfully Bell has apparently dropped its push to go for metered billing...

    Nope, they've just changed the name of it to Aggregated Volume Pricing (AVP). From Michael Geist's blog: "Bell obviously saw the writing on the wall and has come back with a plan that allows independent ISPs to purchase 1 TB of data for $200 with an overage charge of 29.5 cents per GB."

    That's data that the ISP already pays for. Bell wants to double-dip.

  9. Re:schizophrenic on Watch IBM's Watson On Jeopardy Tonight · · Score: 1

    If I were playing I would counter this by answering slightly before the end of the question.

    You can't. The buzzer system will lock you out for a few seconds if you try. You can only buzz in once Alex finishes reading and a tech hits the button to allow buzzing in.

  10. Re:What's not to like? on Hacking Neighbor Pleads Guilty On Death Threats and Porn · · Score: 2

    If BitTorrent never works then it is obvious that it is blocked. If you slow it down to something ridiculously measly, such as a few kb/s, and eventually disconnect at random intervals, it is much more annoying for the neighbor and hence funnier that way.

    My ISP provides that service already. Thanks Bell Canada!

  11. Re:As compared to what? on China Rejects US Piracy Claims As "Groundless" · · Score: 1

    Canada DOES have relevant laws about piracy - they collect approximately 1% per blank cassette, CD, or DVD sold, put that money in a central fund, and use that fund to provide financial backing for artists. That's Canadian law. That's the solution they chose and exercised for the last ~30 years.

    Not sure where you got the 1% number (it's much higher than 1%) and it only applies to blank media for music. According to the CPCC, the current levy is $0.29/CDR. That's $14.50 of the cost of a 50-pack. That's almost half the cost of the cheapest 50-pack at Futureshop.ca or 85% of the cost of the cheapest 50-pack at ncix.com.

  12. Re:There's an easier way on Become Your Own Heir After Being Frozen · · Score: 1

    Depending on inflation. Has there yet been a bank or currency which has lasted that long?

    Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena was founded in 1472. So halfway there.

  13. Re:Net Neutrality vs QoS on Canadian ISPs Speak Out Against Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    Um...I would disagree. Net Neutrality should (and, I believe, is generally accepted to) mean that my provider cannot screw with my traffic because it suits their interests to do so. What happens if they decide to throttle voip traffic due to 'network congestion', but the start of such throttling just happens to coincide with the launch of their own voip service? It has to be an open pipe, period.

    Rogers introduced monthly caps and started throttling just after they introduced their Rogers Home Phone product. It's VOIP, but only uses Rogers' own network. Somehow I don't think this is a conincidence.

  14. Re:Old news on Quebec ISP To Terminate Subscribers Over Copyright · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's not questionable at all. Despite what CIRA has been lying about, it's perfectly legal to download music and movies in Canada.

    Uploading is NOT legal.

    Now paging the /. legal team: Your Law and Order training is required below my post.

    The private copying rules only apply to music, not movies.

  15. Re:Do they really want that responsibility? on Quebec ISP To Terminate Subscribers Over Copyright · · Score: 1

    So Canada doesn't require that any DMCA complaints be filed under penalty of perjury, or any other mechanism to require them to be valid?

    I'm very sorry for Canadians that they are vulnerable to harassment through this method. I suggest they consult with their government representatives on it.

    They should also include the right to file a counter-notice, if it's not there already.

    Frankly, I see that problem as one with the government, not one with your ISPs. Of course, my experience with most ISPs is that they ignore your average notice, and make an effort to avoid actually doing anything.

    Canada does not have a notice-and-takedown system on the law books. Even the recent attempts to introduce a law like the DMCA in Canada did not include a notice-and-takedown system. There was a notice-and-notice system included in at least one of the proposed bills. Notice-and-notice would basically mean that the ISP forwards the email to the alleged offender.

    There is no requirement for an ISP in Canada to immediately take down alleged infringing material. They may investigate on their own if they wish.

  16. Re:Making Available on Half the Charges Against Pirate Bay Dropped · · Score: 1

    BitTorrent is a legal application used by many file-shares to swap content because of the fast and efficient manner it distributes files.
    No copyright content is hosted on The Pirate Bay's web servers; instead the site hosts "torrent" links to TV, film and music files held on its users computers.

    I keep seeing this phrase used and it strikes me as grammatically wrong. Shouldn't it be "copyrighted content"? Content can be copyrighted, but content can't be copyright.

  17. Re:How much MORE is this costing us? on Senate Passes Another Bill To Delay Digital TV Transition · · Score: 1

    With stations shifting around and a few new ones appearing, viewers will need to use the scan-channel or add channel functions to get the new/moved signals. So even those that think they're already set up have a little work left to do to see everything that their equipment can get.

    Oh noes! That's terrible. Almost as if the power had gone off for long enough for their TV to lose its memory. I hope no one gets muscle strain from hitting those buttons on the remote.

  18. Re:Delaying the inevitable on US House Kills Proposed Delay For Digital TV Transition · · Score: 1

    Yeah, the networks really should have bombarded everyone with constant notices that the switch was coming. Oh, wait...

    Anyone who hasn't got the message pounded through their thick skull by now isn't going to be helped by a delay. I live in Canada and I've had quite a few people ask me if they have to do anything for the switch. Canada's planned switching date is not until August 2011 but we see enough American ads that they think it might apply to them.

  19. Re:Degradation on Content Filtering Pulled From Free Broadband Proposal · · Score: 1

    Yes. We may also hold a referendum on whether "the public" wants free food and beer vending machines in each corner.

    If we had the technology to do it for a relatively small amount of money? Hell yes. We have water fountains that are free for anyone to drink from.

  20. Re:So... on RIM Accuses Motorola of Blocking Job Offers · · Score: 1

    She went away, and back comes the HR guy himself. He was nice enough, but he tried to convince me that I had to sign it, "Why is it a problem? Everyone else here signed it." I told him that if my continued employment was dependent upon that "agreement", that I would happily clean out my desk right then and there. He went away, and that was the last I heard of it. I was serious, however, and if they'd pushed the matter I'd have walked out right then and there. As it happens, I work in an "at-will" State: sometimes that sucks, but sometimes it works in your favor.

    How did at-will work in your favour? It's not like you have to give notice to quit.

  21. Re:I remember our planning in DND on Canadian Nuke Bunker To Be Converted Into Data Fortress · · Score: 2, Funny

    a lot of Empire Loyalists left that area to come to Canada after the Civil war. Some of my ancestors included.

    Were they hiding in the time between the Revolutionary war and the Civil war?

  22. Re:Yes. on Should You Get Paid While Your Computer Boots? · · Score: 1

    Yep, I worked in a scumbag fast food operation that would tell their high-school kids to clock out and take a break for 30 minutes because it was getting slow, this to save the price of a large soda in labor expense. You can scream to whatever labor watchdog you want, but the easy thing to do is just walk away and find a real job.

    I ran into the same thing when I worked in a fast food place. Printing out a copy of the relevant part of the Ontario Employment Standards Act and giving it to one of the managers stopped that shit though.

  23. Re:La Source on Circuit City Files For Bankruptcy · · Score: 1

    You're talking about the Canadian stores, right? I won't miss them if they close. I either get stuff at the local independent computer shop, or Future Shop/London Drugs. The only thing I will miss, though, is they are the only place that still carries DIY stuff like resistors and solder and whatnot.

    Does it confuse anyone else that there are no London Drugs stores in London?

  24. Re:The Sun is not a bulb on Alternatives to Daylight Saving Time? · · Score: 1

    Not to stereotype Slashdot readers or anything, but I notice nobody sees any difference between sunlight and electric light. If you go outdoors during the day, you may be surprised to find daylight has many ambient properties not provided by your basement's fluorescent bulb (warmth, happy feelings, etc).

    It's not my fault your world orbits a ball of fire.

    Your star burns! I require frozen treats.

  25. Re:Flaimbait? on Canada Election Result Bad News For DMCA Opponents · · Score: 1

    What is an MP?
    MP = Military Police?

    Member of Parliament. Pretty similar to a member of the US House of Representatives.