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User: Phroggy

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Comments · 6,452

  1. Re:LoC a regulatory agency? on White House Urges Reversal of Ban On Cell-Phone Unlocking · · Score: 1

    The Librarian of Congress isn't a real librarian.

  2. Re:Dissenters were all progressives on Supreme Court Disallows FISA Challenges · · Score: 2

    Read that comment again:

    Hopefully the President will still get the chance to appoint more progressives to the Supreme Court to protect us from his policies.

    Emphasis added.

  3. Re:It's called the key on Driver Trapped In Speeding Car At 125 Mph · · Score: 1

    My kingdom for a mod point... Thanks for making this joke so I didn't have to.

  4. Answer on Blogging Platform Posterous To Shut Down April 30 · · Score: 1

    Do you have a Posterous account?

    No. In fact I'd never heard of it until now.

  5. Re:Not always a good idea for developer tools on Ask Slashdot: Do Most Programmers Understand the English Language? · · Score: 1

    because different translators can use different (sometimes vastly different!) translations for the same original concept.

    This, I think, is the root of the problem. If the guy who translated a gardening book used one word for "crop" and the guy who translated a photography book used a different word for "crop", then you lose the link between the concepts, and it's not clear that the guy localizing Gimp should be using one of those instead of making up his own.

  6. Re:Not always a good idea for developer tools on Ask Slashdot: Do Most Programmers Understand the English Language? · · Score: 1

    For example, in Gimp, you have (quoting from memory) "Frame according to template" and "Cut exactly". What's that? "Crop to selection" and "Autocrop". And Gimp is nowhere close to monstrosities like anything by Microsoft or most localized games.

    A lot of technical terms in computing are really technical terms used in other fields that we've borrowed. I suspect that a lot of translators aren't familiar with those other fields, so they don't know what the corresponding words are in their own language. What word would a Polish photographer use if they were talking about cropping a photo, and is it the same word that a Polish gardener would use if they were cropping a hedge?

  7. Re:The theory of gravity is under review :) on Texas School Board Searching For Alternatives To Evolutionary Theory · · Score: 1

    Well most of the god-tards have moved on from disputing that things evolve. Rather their new shit is intelligent design, which says that god works behind the scenes, controlling how things evolve and change. So they aren't disputing the fact that change happens, they are disputing the theory as to why.

    However their counter is not a theory, since there is no way to test it, and hence has no place in science class. Even if it is right, it is not science as it is not something one can test. Any time you mention god, by definition outside of the universe and untestable, you aren't talking science.

    Within the Creation movement, nobody with any idea what they were talking about has ever disputed that evolution does occur. They do not believe that all life evolved from a single common ancestor, but they do believe that all life evolved from whatever Noah was able to fit on the Ark some 4,000 years ago.

    You are absolutely correct that Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory, and has no place in a science class. ID is a philosophy that says "this couldn't have happened without supernatural intervention," but it offers no testable alternative. By definition, anything supernatural falls outside the realm of empirical science, which deals only with the natural world. There is no way to test God, because God can simply choose not to participate in your test.

    However, before there was ID there was Creation Science, which begins with the premise that the Bible is an accurate (though incomplete) historical account of how the universe and everything in it came to be. If you start from that hypothesis, there's all sorts of testing that can be done. You can propose a theory to explain some aspect of the world around you which is consistent with the Bible, test to see if your theory holds water, and change your theory when the evidence proves it false. In some cases you can even make predictions based on your theory, and find out later if your predictions came true. And the great thing is, it doesn't matter if the Bible is actually true or not - even if your hypothesis was based on a fantasy, the results are still based on observation.

    So, does that belong in a science class? I think it's at least worth a mention.

  8. Re:More food for thought for the mentally starved on Machine Gun Fire From Military Helicopters Flying Over Downtown Miami · · Score: 1

    Yes. This. This is what we should worry about. Going from "those [Godless commie baby-killers]/[uneducated religious warmongers] are trying to destroy America and we need to take it back" to "we need to take it back by force" isn't that much of a stretch.

    The solution, of course, is learning how to agree to disagree, but that doesn't sell ads.

  9. Re:I really hate gun control morons like these on New York Pistol Permit Owner List Leaked · · Score: 1

    What if we had a list of all gay people, or all people who buy porn because "we want our readers to know where its ok for the children to play" I dont think that would fly

    No, but there are lists of registered sex offenders, where "sex offender" can include a drunk college student who got caught urinating on a bush.

  10. Re:Chicago, Detroit and New York on 3D Printable Ammo Clip Skirts New Proposed Gun Laws · · Score: 1

    Three cities with the toughest gun laws in the country, and among the highest rates of gun violence. Analyze that.

    Correlation is not causation. Perhaps they have enacted tough gun laws because they have the highest rates of gun violence?

  11. Re:How is this gasping news on Facebook Lands Drunk Driving Teen In Jail · · Score: 1

    They never said she was talking on the phone while driving. Could have been a phone call made while leaving a party or restaurant, saying "I'm on my way home and will be there soon" before getting into the car.

  12. Re:gradual transition; average people on USMA: Going the Extra Kilometer For Metrication · · Score: 1

    Here's the problem: we like whole numbers like "2 miles until the next exit" or "3 km until the next exit", but there's only one sign and it's farther away than 3km.

  13. Re:Don't feel sorry for the parents on Child Gets Nintendo 3DS Full of Porn For Christmas · · Score: 1

    Unless they're five. I purchased two DSis *new* this year for my kids, 4.5 and 2.5, and you can bet your ass I pulled them out of the box and tested them and set them up before wrapping them. If you're buying something used from GameStop--or hell, anywhere--you need to make sure it works, otherwise you have some 'splainin to do, like, "why doesn't my new DS work, daddy?"

    Don't get me wrong, pulling them out of the box and trying it out yourself is a perfectly reasonable thing to do when giving a gift to a 5-year-old. I merely sought to explain that it should also be reasonable not to. If something goes wrong, it's an opportunity to teach your kid how to handle that situation. Whether you deem it an appropriate time to teach your child that particular lesson is of course none of my business.

  14. Re:Don't feel sorry for the parents on Child Gets Nintendo 3DS Full of Porn For Christmas · · Score: 1

    When it's used, someone has already done all of that. The unboxing is the special part.

    Even if the item is used and the box it came in is not the original from the manufacturer, I would still tend to leave it in whatever box it's in to allow the person I'm giving it to to open.

    Once it's been done, it behooves you to examine the unit to make sure that there's nothing wrong with it, because gamestop sure as shit doesn't care. They don't test most of what they buy adequately before sending it out.

    You know that, and I know that. These parents didn't know that. Any other reputable business would have made sure the item they were selling was in an appropriate condition before selling it.

    Who hasn't got a bad used controller from them, for example?

    Me. I've never gotten a bad used controller from GameStop. Why? Because I don't shop there. I've never bought a used controller there, so I haven't had this personal experience. I'd bet these parents haven't either.

    Why would you expect that? Firmware updates anyone? You should expect it to behave however it behaves when you turn it on, because it's used and it can be tampered with.

    Some electronic devices have an initial setup process. I would expect that when buying a used one from a store, it has been reset to factory defaults so that if there is a setup process, I'll be prompted to go through it the first time I turn it on. Since I don't have a 3DS, I have no idea if it has something like this or not.

    If I bought one from an individual, I would not necessarily expect that they had returned it to factory default settings before selling it to me. I would expect that when buying from a store.

    If they don't understand the issues involved in buying a used console, they should buy a new one.

    And what exactly are "the issues involved in buying a used console"? What would you suggest responsible parents should do to educate themselves about these issues before making a purchasing decision?

    Or perhaps they should learn something about the things they are giving their kids before they give it to them and even if they find it uninteresting, like a handheld video game. That's called responsible parenting, and while I understand it is largely a recurring fad, it's still a good idea(tm).

    They probably did learn something about the 3DS before purchasing it, but what they learned didn't include anything about it being pre-loaded with porn.

  15. Re:Don't feel sorry for the parents on Child Gets Nintendo 3DS Full of Porn For Christmas · · Score: 1

    Typically when giving someone a gift, you don't try it out first before giving it to them; you allow the recipient the opportunity to experience whatever initial setup may be required (even if you have to help them with it). This 3DS was used, but there's a reasonable expectation that it was sold in a "like new" condition; the hardware may be worn, but I would expect the software to behave exactly like turning on a brand new unit for the first time.

    I don't blame the parents here (although they did choose silly names for their kids). And I don't really blame the individual employee who allowed this to happen. The root of the problem is GameStop's corporate culture.

  16. Re:walled gardens don't work on 'Connected' TVs Mostly Used Just Like the Unconnected Kind · · Score: 1

    Have you looked at the AppleTV?

  17. Re:The amusing part on Cox Comm. Injects Code Into Web Traffic To Announce Email Outage · · Score: 1

    Outlook Express replaced Internet Mail and News, and was nearly the same.

    Windows Live Mail replaced Windows Mail, and was mostly the same, but dropped support for Usenet newsgroups.

    Mail is now the included client in Windows 8, and has dropped support for POP3, but added ActiveSync.

  18. Re:This is probably common on FBI Dad's Misadventures With Spyware Exposed School Principal's Child Porn · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hear 90% of all statistics are made up.

    Only about 70% of the time.

    "Don't believe everything you read on the Internet." - Abraham Lincoln

  19. Re:Fraud? on FBI Dad's Misadventures With Spyware Exposed School Principal's Child Porn · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Shouldn't the shop that supposedly "re-imaged" it busted for fraud? One also might wonder why an FBI agent is using internal FBI resources to "scrub" a non FBI machine that isn't part of an investigation. Finally, these morons don't know about DBAN???

    I've been a Slashdotter for 15 years and I had never heard of DBAN until reading your comment and Googling it. Your other two points are pretty solid, though. What the hell happened?

  20. Re: Order Turkey Sandwich on White at Subways on Ask Slashdot: Geekiest Way To Cook a Turkey? · · Score: 1

    I tried to watch all of ST:Voyager. Tried and failed, you ask? Tried and died.

    It gets much less bad after the first 4 seasons.

  21. Re:niggers on Geomapping Racism With Twitter · · Score: 1

    I remember when "crap" suddenly became acceptable to use in polite company. It was about 1998.

  22. Re:If there was a Bad at Math Map... on Secession Petitions Flood White House Website · · Score: 1

    We need a conservative party in this country, and I'm not sure the GOP is going to be it.

    We need a liberal party in this country too, and the Democrats don't seem to be interested.

  23. Re:UPDATE on John McAfee Accused of Murder, Wanted By Belize Police · · Score: 1

    Well done sir.

  24. Re:Good for him on All of Nate Silver's State-Level Polling Predictions Proved True · · Score: 1

    yep - the job creators had fundamental disagreements with Matthew 6 & 19

    Not to mention 23...

  25. Re:Excellent on Barack Obama Retains US Presidency · · Score: 1

    Do you happen to have a link for this quote? I would love to share the source with a number of my ultra-religious relatives on Facebook. (None of them think he's a secret Muslim, to my knowledge, but I'd still be interested to see their reaction to this.)

    http://support.nationalcathedral.org/wnc/interview/