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User: Jesus+H+Rolle

Jesus+H+Rolle's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 265

  1. Re: Gonna Learn the Hard Way on Wikileaks Co-founder Julian Assange Arrested in London (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    He would actually have to be convicted of something in order to be pardoned.

    And what was Nixon convicted of?

  2. Re: Third-world country on Are America's Big Telecom Companies Suppressing Fiber? (salon.com) · · Score: 1

    The Second Amendment applies to people here illegally? Sounds like it needs a rewrite.

  3. Re: Why, so, serious(ly)? on Stop Saying, 'We Take Your Privacy and Security Seriously' (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 1

    Interestingly enough, a credit to your bank account can take up to an order of magnitude more time to post than an instantaneous purchase.

    An order of magnitude more than instantaneous? Please explain.

  4. Holy fucking whoosh!

  5. Let's see ... an old rich dude dies today of liver failure, or an impoverished "prisoner" guilty of somehow offending TPTB dies today.

    Misread as TPB. anakata's coming for you!

  6. Re:Don't say 'an AI' on Ask Slashdot: Could An AI Conceivably Create Futureproof Product Designs? · · Score: 1

    From the U of Helsinki: Because AI is a discipline, you shouldn't say "an AI", just like we don't say "a biology". This point should also be quite clear when you try saying something like "we need more artificial intelligences." That just sounds wrong, doesn't it? (It does to us.)

    Why do you quote the University of Helsinki when they're dead wrong? Of course AI is a discipline, and the noun phrase is uncountable when referring to said discipline; however, it also serves as a countable noun meaning "something man-made which has intelligence". When we discuss whether Alexa, Google, etc. are expert systems or artificial intelligences, we're quibbling over definitions, but the grammar itself is fine. Finns should stick to Finnish, and being attractive, and programming AI - hands off my English!

  7. Re: Comcast isn't the worst, not by a long shot on Netflix 'Would Lose 57 Percent of Their Subscribers If They Added Commercials' (netimperative.com) · · Score: 1

    I paid hundreds of dollars for an airline seat, only to have a screen flashing only advertisements in my face. Then if I want to watch something of my own choosing, I have to pay to access the in-flight programming.

    Wait, what? I've flown as much as anyone, but have never seen this. Is there seriously an airline this shitty?

  8. Re:Good idea on Key West Moves To Ban Sunscreens That Could Damage Reefs (miamiherald.com) · · Score: 2

    I don't think anyone WANTS to be part of damaging something beautiful.

    As soon as the government shut down, people drove into Joshua Tree National Park and started cutting down Joshua trees. People would pulverize coral with sledgehammers and then dissolve it in acid if it weren't so inaccessible. A certain portion of humanity is simply shit.

  9. Re: China, no question on Canada Grants Bail For Arrested Huawei CFO Who Faces US Extradition (cnbc.com) · · Score: 1

    Business jets are fast, but they cannot outrun F-16s.

    So they'll shoot her down with missiles? Seriously?

  10. Re:Thoroughly studied. Very specific species 0.1% on Mosquitoes Genetically Modified To Crash Species That Spreads Malaria (npr.org) · · Score: 1

    A key there is something like chemical pesticides wouldn't typically target just the species. Hence the search for a very targetted approach.

    What we need is a way to target only mosquitoes that carry malaria. Surely we can crispr up a malaria-HIV hybrid virus that gives them skeeter-aids. Maybe throw in some polio for good measure.

  11. Re:Whats the point? on Germany Launches World's First Autonomous Tram (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    I can see the point of autonomous taxis, but in larger public transport (buses, trams, trains) the cost of the drivers wages is not that significant.

    Napkin math disagrees. A typical downtown streetcar probably averages 20 kph including stops. A quick google search says the typical streetcar driver makes about $20/hour. That's $1/km in wages to run one car. Google also says a bus burns 25l/100km. At $1/liter, that's $0.25/km in fuel costs to run one diesel bus (and so presumably diesel streetcar), and electric will be cheaper to run.

    If the cost of wages disappears, formerly unprofitable hours and routes become viable. Less viable routes could even be served by small, lightweight streetcars - maybe even light enough that a pedestrian could survive a low-speed collision (especially given the quick braking response possible in a driverless system).

    I'm actually not the biggest fan of streetcars, but if we're going to do them, driverless will be a higher-value system given the same infrastructure investment.

  12. Re:Mostly buggy whips like sliderules today on This is the Story of the 1970s Great Calculator Race (twitter.com) · · Score: 2

    They left out the other significant development in cheap calculators, the built-in solar power which meant no batteries at all.

    You must have missed it. From tfa, solar power was the next innovation for the calculator: Teal introduced the Photon in 1977, no batteries required or supplied!

    This is followed by an image of an advertisement for the Photon. Surprising is an error in the ad copy:

    [Because of our awesome QC process,] the defect rate is an unprecedented low of less than one out of every 200 pieces (or .05%)!

    One might expect a calculator company to avoid arithmetic errors.

  13. Re:Must we read it on Twitter? on This is the Story of the 1970s Great Calculator Race (twitter.com) · · Score: 1

    At least give a warning like for PDFs. I'm on mobile and every link wants to open the Twitter app.

    On mobile, I long-press every link on /. to see the URL first. It's the only way to be safe.

  14. Re:And they only cost 20 times as much on Europe To Ban Halogen Lightbulbs (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    Not really. I picked up a pack of 3 for $5, led bulbs, from the dollar store 2 years ago. Those bulbs are still going strong.

    That cashier ripped you off.

  15. Will someone please think of the ents? on Should the US Air Force Bomb Forest Fires? (popularmechanics.com) · · Score: 5, Funny

    How long before the first ent wedding gets accidently bombed?

  16. Re:Do they really believe what they are saying on Senate Rejects New Money For Election Security (apnews.com) · · Score: 1

    Yes, but the US is a republic.

    WTF does that even mean? Of course the US is a republic. It's also a democracy. These are hardly polar opposites. A republic is run by and for the people, not the monarch/church/military. Democracy's a natural fit. What you probably meant was "Yes, but the US is an indirect democracy."

  17. Japanese regnal years are not used for any significant calculations. Behind the scenes it's YYYY, with regnal years used only for display. This is an aesthetic issue only, and hardly unforeseen.

    Obviosly this could be seen coming, but how to do you program for it?

    Update your datetime libraries, I guess. That's where this should be programmed for. You shouldn't be figuring out regnal years in your own code. Any system that cannot be updated will simply be doomed to display the wrong regnal year forever, though it'll be perfectly clear what year is being referred to.

    The next emperor is a high probability, but perhaps not a certainty.

    And regardless of who the next emperor is, their reign is going to have a different name, and we still don't know what it is.

  18. Would it kill anyone were their 2020 ticket to say 32-5-12? There's no ambiguity, even though it's technically wrong. Hey, it's Showa 93 right now! But seriously, a train machine printing an unambiguous but technically wrong date on a ticket is hardly a problem.

  19. Fake news! on Big Tech Warns of 'Japan's Millennium Bug' Ahead of Akihito's Abdication (theguardian.com) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Japanese regnal years are not used for any significant calculations. Behind the scenes it's YYYY, with regnal years used only for display. This is an aesthetic issue only, and hardly unforeseen.

  20. The last US Civil War was not about slavery it was about states rights. At the time the decision to declare slavery illegal at the federal level was just one example of the federal government trying to dictate laws that the states believed was a matter to decided at the state by state level.

    The US Civil War was over the right of States to secede, and the States that seceded made it very clear that the "State's Right" over which they seceded was the right of a State to permit slavery.

  21. What's really racist is the idea that minorities are just incapable of getting an ID.

    I support voter ID, but a California driver license costs $35. A California ID card (drinker's license) is $30. At the very bottom of the socioeconomic ladder are those for whom this is too much of an expense. Demanding payment in exchange for the privilege of voting is an illegal poll tax. Either change the Constitution or offer free IDs.

  22. Re: Win10 1803 is ready for prime time? Nope on ComputerWorld Says Newest Windows 10 'Isn't Ready for Prime Time' (computerworld.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In `98 they sent me a free copy of Windows Server 2000, and it was very stable platform for my coffee for years.

    Windows 2000 was the first and last version worth installing. Microsoft almost got it right. Shame there was no 64 bit release.

  23. Re: microphone is already on on Facebook Patent Imagines Triggering Your Phone's Mic When a Hidden Signal Plays on TV (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    Good point. Guess I'd forgotten about the radio switch on my old laptop.

  24. Re: microphone is already on on Facebook Patent Imagines Triggering Your Phone's Mic When a Hidden Signal Plays on TV (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    What I want are HARDWARE switches for: microphone, cameras, and radios on my devices. Funny how many devices USED to have such things in the past.

    What devices used to have hardware switches for the microphone, radio, and camera?

  25. Re: Excessively Punitive on Prosecution of UK News Photographer Collapses After Recording Disproves Police Testimony (wordpress.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When cops lie under oath, you must acquit. Even for murder and child porn, sadly. There can be no justice without truth.